No, no, no, k.d.
I'm not talking about those Picayunes, the most raggedyassed cigarettes ever offered to the nic-addicted, best described by my friend Doug as "half Camel/half cat shit."
No, I'm talking about my local rag which, as I'm sure you have all heard by now, is going the way of many of its Newhouse brethren and becoming the "Sometimes-Picayune." It's owners have decided the best way to celebrate the paper's 175-year-old legacy is to cut publication to three days a week and "enhance" its web content ("enhancement" consisting largely of letting most of its Pulitzer-winning writers and designers go).
Because of Newhouse's decisions, GF and I have decided, with much sadness, to pay our last delivery bill and become former subscribers to what will soon be our city's former daily.
But y'all know me. Highly unlikely I'm going to split without at least waving.
Hence, the appearance today of what will probably be my last LTE in the fishwrap.
It is a brief response to our failed governor's remarks on Sunday's Meet the Press, in which he attempted to justify the completion of his decades-long destruction of the state's public health care system by refusing to implement the (damn near free) provisions of the ACA that could most help our state.
The guv:
"One is do we set up these exchanges. And, secondly, do we expand Medicaid. And, no, in Louisiana, we're not doing either one of those things. I don't think it makes sense to do those. I think it makes more sense to do everything we can to elect Mitt Romney to repeal Obamacare."
And my reply:
Re: "Jindal takes stage in GOP initiative against health law," Page A2, July 2.
The governor claims that it doesn't "make sense" for Louisiana to expand health coverage for hundreds of thousands of us at almost no cost to the state. What "makes sense" to the governor is to forego any possible benefit to our state from the federal government so that the candidate of his party can be elected president.
I would like to congratulate Gov. Jindal on his success as a spokesperson for his party. To gain the national recognition he has attained has taken a great deal of sacrifice.
On our parts.
Louie Ludwig
New Orleans
I have reprinted the LTE in toto, as it is my own work and I have no desire to give Newhouse any extra web traffic to justify their greedy, destructive policies.
The governor, I fear, provides himself with whatever justification he needs for his.
Thanks, Times-Pic, for all the years of fun and fighting. I'll miss both. But I'll be good and god damned if I'll fill the pockets of corporate raiders like Newhouse any more, let alone provide 'em with free content.
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