tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386970532011-12-13T21:55:59.953-06:00This blog is my new blog, named after a newspaper column I used to write in various papers I've worked for over the years. I'll be posting on local, state and national politics, music, culture, technology and other topics that I care about.Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-4832243533265541072011-06-01T00:07:00.003-05:002011-06-01T00:26:04.234-05:00

(This post is part of the 30-day Self-Reliance writing project organized through Seth Godin's Domino publishing project.)Americans live under a constitutional republic which provides a great number of rights and responsibilities to its citizens. Everyone is hot for their rights, but for a number of decades now too many of us have neglected our responsibilities.We have enjoyed (in fact, insisted

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-19397461230212526822010-02-27T15:49:00.001-06:002010-02-27T15:52:05.484-06:00

On Friday afternoon, I hand-delivered a letter to all nine members of the LCG Council to the Council office. Subsequent to that, I emailed each councilman a copy of that letter.The core argument is this: The Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce has no special standing on the issue of Charter Repeal. Their concerns about the potential impact are legitimate, but those concerns are best discussed

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-76591087333593211702009-07-15T17:49:00.004-05:002009-07-15T17:53:16.136-05:00

Donnie Picou and Bas Clas performing his original composition, "My Louisiane," at the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette, Louisiana, on the night of November 1, 2008. Performers are: Donnie Picou — lead vocals, rhythm guitar; Steve Picou — lead guitar, back-up vocals; Geoff Thistlethwaite — bass guitar; Ted Cobena — drums; Mike Picou — back-up vocals.

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-63118350201584944882009-05-25T23:21:00.003-05:002009-05-25T23:27:01.330-05:00

Here's a new video I shot and edited for the title cut on Bob Robira's new CD, "Too Far Gone."It will be available via CD Baby in early June.You can hear the tunes on Bob's Myspace page by clicking here.

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-54123414355829933552009-03-16T22:52:00.004-05:002009-03-16T22:56:15.384-05:00

When Bas Clas played at Downtown Alive and The Blue Moon Saloon on Holloween and All Saints Day, respectively, I recorded the sessions with the idea of doing a DVD.That is still in the works, as work on the final audio mix continues.Here, though, is a cut of original tune by Donnie Picou — "Allons Danser" — for your listening and viewing enjoyment. If you click through to the YouTube home of this

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-14917345427599983842008-05-30T18:00:00.001-05:002008-05-30T18:00:01.582-05:00

These guys should take their own advice!

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-82612407011699048802007-12-12T17:25:00.001-06:002007-12-12T17:37:21.967-06:00

Not since William Tecumseh Sherman has one person raised so much havoc in Atlanta as former Falcon quarterback Michael Vick has over the past year.The latest came yesterday when head coach Bobby Petrino quit the team with three games left in the season to return to coaching at the college ranks.On Monday, Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for running a dog fighting operation and lying to

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-11963792922448812812007-12-12T17:18:00.000-06:002007-12-12T17:23:22.515-06:00

Ike Turner — musician, songwriter, producer, inventor of the bitch slap — died today in San Diego at age 76.

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-79487044535601020592007-11-19T23:25:00.000-06:002007-11-19T23:27:10.250-06:00

This post originally appeared at Lafayette Pro Fiber: http://www.lafayetteprofiber.com/Blog/Blog.htmlAs we head to the end of this year, the pace of progress on the LUS fiber project is increasing. The electronics vendor has been selected; property for the head-end has been purchased; a building for that is not far off.Some of the specifics of the network offerings have become public, the most

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-17478513427679131602007-08-07T22:01:00.000-05:002007-08-09T12:21:50.842-05:00

It appears that City/Parish President Joey Durel will be handed a second term without a contested election. Using his first term as a guide, even his supporters are going to regret this.Durel's first term has been characterized by cronyism, war on first responders, a failure to provide community leadership, and isolating Lafayette in the Legislature by repeatedly selling out the long-term

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-28496684834994882072007-07-23T01:05:00.000-05:002007-07-23T01:46:08.193-05:00

"Creative Class" author and economist Richard Florida is doing a reverse snow bird and heading north to the University of Toronto's up-and-coming Rotman School of Management.The Washington Post story on Florida's decision to leave George Mason University in Virgninia provides this information:Florida, who joined GMU in 2004, has theorized that smart, innovative thinkers -- such as engineers,

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-27640875293861359252007-07-18T10:33:00.000-05:002007-07-18T13:32:39.764-05:00

Lafayette and Acadiana joined with MoveOn.org members at about 130 sites on Tuesday evening to calling on Republicans in the U.S. Senate to end their obstruction to changes in U.S. policy in Iraq. The event was held in front of the John Shaw Federal Courthouse in downtown Lafayette. It drew about 20 participants including Republicans, veterans, members of Pax Christi, and, of course, members of

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-11082438285987418472007-07-14T15:59:00.000-05:002007-07-14T19:25:14.986-05:00

Governor Kathleen Blanco signed yet another act of the Louisiana Legislature that reaffirms the second class status of women under Louisiana law.You can read about the current law here.As you may recall, last year the Legislature passed and Blanco signed a law that apes a South Dakota law that bans abortions — even when the life of the mother is at stake — without exceptions for rape and incest

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-87668687873306591982007-07-06T11:44:00.000-05:002007-07-06T12:02:38.052-05:00

For about as long as I can remember I've been friends with one or more of the Picous, beginning with Skip Picou whom I met at age 5.His cousins, Donnie and Steve, have played music all of their lives. For the past 30 years or so, they've been the core of the band Bas Clas (that's French for "low class").Although the band hasn't played much over the past decade, they managed to meet in

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-39411826005017237152007-06-14T00:25:00.000-05:002007-06-14T01:50:57.444-05:00

The past two months have literally brought music to my ears in the form of re-issues of music from the Traveling Wilburys and from Elvis Costello & The Attractions. What treats!!!The Traveling Wilburys – George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn and Bob Dylan (along with drummer Jim Keltner) recorded a couple of albums in the mid to late 1980s. The fact that they worked under assumed

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-80425012477357692742007-06-12T02:02:00.000-05:002007-06-14T01:35:44.735-05:00

Senate Republicans, including Louisiana's David Vitter, blocked an attempt by 53 other senators to vote that they had lost confidence that the disgraced, incompetent, law-breaking rule of the U.S. Department of Justice by political hack Alberto Gonzales.I called the offices of Senator Vitter and Senator Landrieu today to express my support for the no confidence measure.The call to Landrieu's

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-80840162476123193502007-06-06T23:18:00.000-05:002007-06-06T23:28:14.885-05:00

A couple of months ago, I found AOL's webcast of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at their site. More importantly (to me, anyway) I also found archives of earlier inductions — including Elvis Costello and the Attractions.Included in the list of archived footage was a clip of Costello and the Attractions playing Nick Lowe's "What's so Funny About Peace Love and Understanding."

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-49099489923808347672007-05-28T23:25:00.000-05:002007-05-29T01:01:15.539-05:00

The Baton Rouge Advocate reported on Monday that 100 Marine Reservists from the Baton Rouge area shipped out for four months of training before heading to a September arrival in Iraq.Had anyone in Louisiana's congressional delegation other than Congressman William Jefferson voted against the latest blank check for the Bush administration's war on and occupation of Iraq, those soldiers might not

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-42531180608539895682007-05-26T13:48:00.000-05:002007-05-26T14:33:34.127-05:00

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Governor Haley "Smug" Barbour's speech at the Delta Regional Authority's Third Annual Meeting in which he extolled the virtues of Gulf Coast residents in his state, in contrast to what he saw as demeaning neediness on the part of Louisiana residents (particularly in New Orleans) in the wake of hurricane Katrina.Well, Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis, editors of the Gulf

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-45295814970203049892007-05-25T23:31:00.000-05:002007-05-25T23:33:31.616-05:00

The new blank check that Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate gave to the Bush administration this week to continue the occupation of Iraq contains money and write-offs for storm-affected areas of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Members of Louisiana's congressional delegation would have us believe that this is some great victory for the state.It is not.It is blood money.It is the craven attempt

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-44342082354149440762007-04-21T00:13:00.000-05:002007-04-21T01:18:15.775-05:00

I went to Tunica, MS, this week for the Third Annual Meeting of the Delta Regional Authority. I had attended a meeting of theirs (held in conjunction with the Southern Technology Council) in January '06 in Jackson, MS. At that meeting, sewerage backed into the hotel, the Health Department shut down the kitchen between breakfast and lunch and Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi addressed the

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-19697794001122555332007-04-17T08:03:00.000-05:002007-04-17T08:09:36.558-05:00

Well, isn't that convenient?Fox stations across Louisiana have suddenly decided to get into the 'news' business just as Louisiana gets set to enter its statewide election cycle.It's particularly interesting here in Lafayette where the Fox affiliate has been mired in bankruptcy proceedings but somehow managed to add the cost of a news bureau to its balance sheet.The parent of these efforts — Fox

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-42621192005635296342007-04-17T08:00:00.000-05:002007-04-17T08:03:13.811-05:00

Saturday, I took my daughter and a friend of her's to Baton Rouge to "X-Fest" — a six-band concert promoted by a Baton Rouge radio station (104.5/104.9 "The X") at the River Center (formerly The Centroplex).The bands we saw were: Sayosin, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Pappa Roach, Jet, AFI (A Fire Inside), and The Killers.The sound system was tuned for The Killers, but the only band among the opening

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38697053.post-1169443057970023362007-01-21T22:52:00.000-06:002007-01-21T23:31:35.346-06:00

Apparently, being a so-called 'conservative Republican' in Louisiana means standing up for the divine right of kings. OK, at the very least hereditary (read that 'dynastic') claims to political power.We this courtesy of Friday's blatant attempt to manipulate the election process and calendar by long-time Republican state Representative Emile 'Peppi' Bruneau. Peppi, it seems, has grown weary of

Mike Stagghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11487046644375429855noreply@blogger.com0