Indiana Politico

Guest Blogging

2006-08-08T17:32:00.000-04:00

I am guest blogging at Reverent and Free while Craig is out of town. I'm sending you to my post over there today, because I am too lazy to post twice.

Enjoy!

Gas Sales Tax - What You Would Save

2006-08-03T17:59:00.000-04:00

Without asserting any opinion about whether or not sales tax should be suspended for gasoline, I thought it might be helpful to let everyone know how much they would save if it were.

The following are my calculations of the savings PER MONTH given the type of car you drive, the price of gas, and your average commute. (In the examples, "downtown" refers to downtown Indy). Gas prices are currently about $3/gallon in Indianapolis, so that row is highlighted in yellow.

You will have to click on the picture to read it. Unless you are Superman or have a powerful magnifying glass handy.

A person with a mid-size car that drives 15 miles per day will save $3.86 per month. Don't spend it all in one place!

Women's Equality: How Far We Have Come since 1955

2006-08-03T12:09:00.000-04:00

I received the article below (taken from Housekeeping Monthly, 1955) as facetious "recommendation" yesterday. That joke aside, it is a stunning look at the status of women only a half-century ago, when our mothers/grandmothers were raising us/our parents.

The picture is probably too small for most to read. So here is the transcription:

The Good Wife's Guide (1955)

-Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return. This is a way of Letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favourite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.

-Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

-Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.

-Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives.

-Gather up schoolbooks, toys, paper, etc. and then run a dustcloth over the tables.

-Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

-Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part. Minimise all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.

-Be happy to see him.

-Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.

-Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

-Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.

-Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.

-Don’t greet him with complaints or problems.

-Don’t complain if he’s late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

-Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.

-Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

-Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

-A good wife always knows her place.

Good News for Women

2006-07-31T16:10:00.000-04:00

The FDA announced that it will reconsider approving Plan B (the morning-after pill) for over-the-counter consumption by women ages 18 and older.

Finally, a moderate decision by someone in the Bush administration. I am pleasantly surprised.

I give it about 39 hours before Dobson, et al, start ranting about the murders of 16-hour-old zygotes.

Why Famous Bigots Should Lay Off the Booze

2006-07-31T15:42:00.000-04:00

For any of you who believed the drivel about Mel Gibson *not* infiltrating the story of "The Passion" with his own anti-Semitic biases...

Gibson was arrested early Friday morning driving nearly double the speed limit with a blood-alcohol content of .12%. Thanks to the power of the internet, you can see the hand-written police report here.

According to the report, Gibson “blurted out a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks about ‘f**king Jews.’ Gibson yelled out, ‘the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.’ Gibson then asked ‘Are you a Jew.’”

Gibson also addressed a female officer as "sweet t*ts".

Classy.

After the story came out (and the cover-up failed), Gibson made the following public statement / apology:

After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed. I drove a car when I should not have, and was stopped by the L.A. County sheriff's. The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person.

I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said and I apologize to anyone who I have offended.

Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry.

I have battled the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health.

The Anti-Defamation League appropriately noted that the statement contained no specific apology or explanation for the anti-Semitic comments. They offered the following public statement / admonishment:

Mel Gibson's apology is unremorseful and insufficient. It's not a proper apology because it does not go to the essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism. His tirade finally reveals his true self and shows that his protestations during the debate over his film "The Passion of the Christ," that he is such a tolerant, loving person, were a sham. It may well be that the bigotry has been passed from the father to the son. It is unfortunate that it took an excess of booze and an encounter with a traffic cop to reveal what was really in his heart and mind. We would hope that Hollywood now would realize the bigot in their midst and that they will distance themselves from this anti-Semite.

[Note: the comment about father-son passing of bigotry refers to Gibson’s father’s statement that the Holocaust was not real, from which Gibson refused to distance himself.]

So it turns out that the anti-Semitic undertones from Passion of the Christ actually did come from Gibson’s own prejudices. Shocking.

Gibson sounds like the perfect person to produce a movie set against the Holocaust. I’m sure that the portrayal of a Jewish family being sheltered by Christians during WWII would be completely accurate with no undertones whatsoever.

Just like The Passion showed both sides of the story and What Women Want was not a sexist piece of crap that portrayed women as shallow, over-critical, self-centered nymphos.

Right.

Varvel's View of the Future Canal District

2006-07-27T16:47:00.000-04:00

I just noticed this today. It is Varvel's illustrated summary of reader suggestions for improving the canal district. Check it out here.

While some of the suggestions are clearly ridiculous (re-routing the canal to Monument Circle), the majority are pretty good ideas.

I always enjoy it when Varvel strays from his ultra-Christian irrational-conservative topics. Now if only he would blog about something other than banning abortion...

Spector, et al v. Bush, et al.

2006-07-25T08:44:00.000-04:00

Sen. Arlan Spector (R-Pennsylvania)wants to sue the President and is preparing a bill that would bring suit against him in federal court. Here are the basics. (Imagine the opening music to the Judge Judy show)...

The Complaint: That the President attached at least 750 signing statements to legislation passed by Congress; these signing statements are unconstitutional.

The Evidence: The signing statements are public record.

The Legal Argument: The signing statements are unconstitutional because the President sidesteps his constitutional duty to respond to legislation by signing it, vetoing it, or doing nothing. Further, Congress cannot override a signing statement as it can a veto, so it damages the separation of powers that the framers intended. (An ABA task force released these conclusions yesterday).

The Defense (or the Spin, at least): “A great many of those signing statements may have little statements about questions about constitutionality. It never says, 'We’re not going to enact the law.'” --Tony Snow

(Note: No mention of the few that are not included in the "great many.")

Sen. Spector still has to get the bill passed in order for suit to be filed. In the meantime, expect the President to start recycling rhetoric on frivolous lawsuits.

Top Priority: Intact HymensSecond Priority: Life

2006-07-21T13:45:00.000-04:00

Torpor Indy has a great post arguing that the Bush administration is hazardous to your health. It is a great compilation of some of the “values-based” health decisions the administration has recently made to the dismay of nearly all medical professionals and regular people.

One of his exhibits is that Bush has advocated against vaccinating girls against HPV (which affects 75% of the population) because it might encourage young girls to have (gasp) premarital sex.

Okay. Where to begin?

If you are vaccinated against malaria as a child, does that make you more likely to visit a 3rd-world country? If you receive a tetanus shot, do you suddenly develop a liking for stepping on rusty nails? With all the pressures and confusion and misinformation about sex that teen girls face, I don’t think that receiving a shot when they are 12 years old will be a leading factor in their sexual decision-making.

But, you know, it’s important that we send the right message. That we don’t care about the 4,000 women who die from cervical cancer per year. The most important thing is virginity virginity virginity. So you may die of cancer, but at least your daughter will have a hymen at your funeral. Because she didn’t get an HPV vaccination. Right.

Bill Gates recently gave $15.3 million to help develop an AIDS vaccination. In the fortunate event that one is successfully developed, does this values war prevent it from reaching the market? Or place severe restrictions on it? Do we worry that taking the vaccine will make people more likely to have promiscuous sex? Or to become (gasp) homosexual? Do we write conditions into our international AIDS relief policies preventing use of the vaccine (as we have done for use of condoms in Africa)?

If “values” stops us from distributing the cure to a horrible epidemic disease that kills 3.1 million people per year, it will be the greatest tragedy of our time. What you are witnessing right now, with the HPV debate, is the prologue to that very story.

The Difference Between Consensus and Reality

2006-07-20T17:15:00.000-04:00

Politicians debate. And they decide things. And they enact change.

In the realm of policy and lawmaking, if politicians are able to come to a majority consensus, the law/policy is passed and becomes reality. Consensus = Reality. And that describes a functioning democracy.

However, it becomes problematic when politicians try to extend the concept of Consensus = Reality beyond the policy realm.

Particularly when they venture into the realm of science.

If a majority of politicians decide that their constituents are homeless and need more public housing, then the housing gets built. But if a majority of politicians decide that their constituents dislike rain and therefore it will not rain today, that does not prevent rain (particularly when meteorologists forecast rain). It only ensures that the politicians will be without an umbrella.

Which leads us to the climate change “debate”. Congress is taking the scientific reality of climate change and attempting to build a consensus that climate change is not real.

The "Wegman report" released this week (which was commissioned by chair of the Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce) criticized a 1999 paper by Michael Mann about climate change and the “hockey stick” theory of global warming. The House Committee held a hearing about the Wegman report yesterday.

Not surprisingly, the Committee found the report it commissioned to be “valid and compelling.” Even though the report was commissioned to “draw attention to the discrepancies in [the Mann research], and not to do paleoclimatic temperature reconstruction,” the Committee came to a consensus that “Mann’s assessments that the decade of the 1990s was the hottest decade of the millennium and that 1998 was the hottest year of the millennium cannot be supported by his analysis.”

Wow, what kind of criticism must have been presented to Congress for them to the consensus that global warming is hooey? The kind of criticism that makes any scientist or academic want to pull his or her liberal-elitist hair out:

“In our further exploration of the social network of authorships in temperature reconstruction, we found that at least 43 authors have direct ties to Dr. Mann by virtue of coauthored papers with him. Our findings from this analysis suggest that authors in the area of paleoclimate studies are closely connected and thus ‘independent studies’ may not be as independent as they might appear on the surface…

In this case we judge that there was too much reliance on peer review, which was not necessarily independent.”

This criticism is laughable. Yes, the same people write papers and do peer review within a given discipline. This stems from the fact that a person must be trained in a certain discipline in order to write papers and do peer review. In a budding science like climate change, there simply aren’t that many scientists who are adequately trained, so there is destined to be some overlap.

Further, peer review is a relatively excruciating process in which a person presents results to the most qualified experts they can find in order to have their results questioned and criticized, and then tries to defend the results. If they can be defended, the defense is written into the paper. If not, it's back to the drawing board. After repeating this process again and again, most of the errors, flaws and shortcomings are weeded out. To suggest that NOT doing peer review leads to a less biased, more reliable end result is absurd.

But, regardless, the Committee reached the consensus they reached, based on a report they themselves commissioned which was not subject to peer review or rebuttal by Mr. Mann. And they decided that climate change is a myth.

But that does not take away the reality of global warming and its effects. It only ensures that as the fallout from global warming rains down on us, Congress has decided to leave the umbrella at home.

Why Iraq Should Take Our Constitution

2006-07-19T16:20:00.000-04:00

It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years and we're not using it anymore.

-Jumbo Joke

The Sliding Scale of Appropriate Disproportion

2006-07-14T12:04:00.000-04:00

A number of world leaders have condemned Israel’s attack on Lebanon, citing the “disproportionate use of force” by Israeli forces in response to the killing and capturing of its troops.

I am not an expert in Middle Eastern affairs and I know only the basic history of the conflict. Accordingly, I hesitate to provide any opinion or analysis of the current state of the escalation.

I can, however, evaluate the claim that Israel’s response was “disproportionate” in relation to the U.S. response to an attack by Islamic radicals.

Israel and Islamic Radicals

The Provocation:
3 killed, 2 captured in Hezbollah attack

The Response:
61 casualties

Proportion of response:
1:20 (counting 2 dead as provovation)
1:12 (counting 2 dead and 3 captured as provocation)

United States and Islamic Radicals

The Provocation:
2752 killed in 9/11 attacks

The Response – Phase 1:
3,485 (estimated) Afghan civilians
8,587 Afghan troops killed
459 Coalition troops

Total – Afghanistan: 12,531

The Response – Phase 2:
40,000 (estimated) Iraqi civilians
5,600 (estimated) Iraqi troops
Plus about 30 journalists/aid workers
2,772 Coalition troops killed

Total - Iraq: 51,154

TOTAL RESPONSE: 63,685 casualties.

Proportion of response:
1:23 (including Coalition casualties in response)
1:22 (not including Coalition casualties).

The U.S. use of force was more “disproportionate” than Israel’s. Yet rather than condemning the acts of violence, the international community (with few exceptions) actually assisted in the acts of violence.

I do not know what the "appropriate proportion" of response is. I merely point out that the "appropriate proportion" is currently variable, depending on which country it is that wishes to defend herself.

Take that for what it's worth.

Good News Friday: Gary Varvel

2006-07-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

The good news is that he drew something that was actually funny.

Good News Friday : Jobs

2006-07-14T09:40:00.000-04:00

A number of announcements about business investment, development, relocation and expansion came out this week. Here is the good news for Indiana:

ethanol plant in Benton, 36 jobs (plus more ethanol!)

new Tell City Barge Plant, 200 jobs.

Oxford Automotive in Corydon, adding 125 jobs

expansion of L.H. Industries in Fort Wayne, 40 jobs by 2010

new Nestle plant in Anderson, 300 jobs.

Honda’s groundwork set to employ 4,000 (double prior estimate), 2,000 jobs.

Lagrange’s Atwood motor plant closing, -270 jobs.

For a grand total of +2,431 jobs this week.

Nominations, Please

2006-07-12T15:33:00.000-04:00

As "Anonymous" said on my comments page, "Whatever the party, it's time for fresh air in the Statehouse." Anonymous is right. We need some new leadership in our state caucuses. Starting with the House.

Please submit your picks for Speaker/Minority Leader.

The only rule is this: The new leaders must be less homophobic and less anti-semitic than Bosma, and more bipartisan than Bauer. Which pretty much only excludes Jeff Thompson and Adolf Hitler.

I Didn't Think of It, Therefore I Hate It

2006-07-10T16:09:00.000-04:00

Pat Bauer now opposes not only Republican ideas, but Senate Democrats' ideas as well.

To be fair, he doesn't oppose all plans, only those for ethics reform through bi-partisan control of salary and districting decision.

Bauer opposes bi-partisan decision-making. You heard it here first.

Who Chose 'Choose Life'?

2006-07-10T14:27:00.000-04:00

The BMV authorized a 'Choose Life' specialty license plate. The BMV faced serious opposition as people claimed that the BMV was playing politics.

The BMV's response? That State Law provides that the BMV may approve a specialty plate with the submission of a petition containing 500 signatures. The pro-life group presented the petition, so they got their plate. One would assume that any other group (including a pro-choice group) could do the same.

Unfortunately, the BMV was hoping nobody would notice that the provision is a "may" provision, not a "shall" provision. That means that the BMV may approve plates with adequate petitions at their own discretion, but that it is in no way compelled by law to approve them.

And according to a report in today's Star, they don't always approve them. In fact, the BMV only approved 32% of the plate proposals with 500 signatures-worth of support.

Which means we are back to the BMV playing politics.

Maybe Mitch can explain what why certain plates are chosen:

"'I don't necessarily have a good reason,' Daniels said when asked how the administration chooses between one qualified group and another for the plates." (Indy Star)

Maybe not.

He did elaborate that one consideration is "how broad the support seems to be and how broad the demand seems to be."

AKA, Politics and Money.

Of course, one would think that the 500 signatures on the petition represent equal "support and demand." Perhaps if the administration wishes to approve certain plates based on popular support, it should have the statute changed so that the petition may contain as many signatures as can be collected, and that 8 petitions with the largest number of signatures shall be approved, while all others shall be instructed to take a hike.

That is the only way to objectively determine which plates have the most "support and demand" and therefore deserve approval.

Otherwise...um, yeah. Sounds like playing politics to me.

Hoosier Parties on Hoosier Issues

2006-07-05T15:48:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Mitch Harper and John Good, I now have copies of the Indiana Republican and Democrat Platforms. Not that they were published. Apparently the only way to find out what the parties stand for is to send spies into their conventions.

So what do they stand for? Well, a lot, frankly. More than I wish to cover here.

So in an act of clear journalistic bias and intellectual egocentrism, I will only discuss the parties’ positions on the issues I find important. The parties' positions are verbatim from the party platforms.

[My notes will appear in italics]

General:

Dems: Indiana--Not for Sale.
GOP: The Party of Purpose.

1. Preventative Health Care for the Uninsured

Dems: The Indiana Democratic Party supports a plan that will give small businesses and individuals the opportunity to secure much needed health care coverage. This plan would create a new group insurance pool in which individuals and businesses could purchase health coverage through the state at a reduced rate.

GOP: We endorse market-based solutions that increase consumer choice, decrease costs, and removes barriers between Hoosiers and the miracles of modern medicine…We also recognize that improving personal health requires personal responsibility…Indiana Republicans urge Hoosier to participate [in INshape Indiana].

[Jezebella’s Note: There are two typos in the GOP text…Can you find them?]

2. Sexual Rights

Dems: (On Sex Ed) We advocate prevention and education programs that teach Hoosiers age-appropriate sex education that will stress the benefits of abstinence as well as provide the medically accurate facts needed to protect themselves and others.

(On Gay Rights) Indiana Democrats strongly oppose the restriction of opportunities to Hoosiers based on their gender, ethnicity…..sexual orientation, gender identity or economic background.

[Jezebella’s Note: It is unclear whether the term “opportunities” includes the opportunity to marry, to hold certain jobs, to have visitation rights, etc. “Opportunities” could mean anything…so check the voting records on this one.]

GOP: Silent. At least as far as increasing rights goes.

[Jezebella’s Note: The GOP platform omits sexual orientation and gender identity from the list of protected minorities who can participate in “government, in the Republican Party, and in the pursuit of economic success.” It also states that “childbirth is preferred, encouraged, and supported over abortion” and that they “support the millennia old concept of marriage as a union between a woman and a man.” Of course, none of that should surprise you. If it does, you do not regularly read this blog.]

3. Developing Indiana’s Ethanol Industry.

Dems: Silent.

GOP: (Excerpts) We advocate the maximum use of sources of energy that are available in Indiana, and renewable to reduce our reliance on foreign sources of oil.

We commend [ourselves] for attracting the largest U.S. biodiesel plant near Claypool, IN…for passing legislation to provide incentives for the production and use of Indiana grain-based fuels, to promote the utilization for alternative fuels, and to establish a retail tax credit [for] E85 sold by merchants…

We support the Governor’s goal for Indiana to reach a combined production level of one billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel annually.

4. Education Funding

Dems: We believe that fully funding education today is the only way we can ensure our children’s success tomorrow. Providing schools with the resources and tools they need to prepare students for the future is imperative, and we never have and never will abandon our education system.

[Jezebella’s Note: This actually is the most specific statement about K-12 education funding. And I have no idea what it means].

GOP: [We support] school finance laws that provide flexibility to local school districts and allow districts, based on local circumstances, to focus maximum resources on education programs, including shared purchases and services.

[Jezebella’s Note: The Republicans have 12 distinct points about K-12 education, including early literacy programs, highly qualified teachers, higher graduation rates, etc. The above point is the only provision which includes a way to pay for it.]

5. Jobs

Dems: (Excerpts) “Closing deals” with prospective Hoosier employers does not mean a thing if Indiana does not see results in job creation…Any news of new jobs coming to Indiana is great news…We welcome any company to our state that wants to put more Hoosiers to work…We support increased assistance for job training, workforce development and job creation programs in targeted economic sectors…We support trade agreements that are fair and include labor and environmental protections.

GOP: We support efforts to create a pro-growth environment in Indiana that is attractive to new businesses and maximum job opportunities…[We support Governor’s Daniels’] plan, called “Accelerating Growth”, with 37 specific initiatives to attract new employers, stimulate innovation, and improve our talent base.

6. Compromise and Bipartisanship

Dems: We believe in bipartisanship and working with those across the aisle to do what’s right for all Hoosiers.

[Jezebella’s Note: I’ll believe that when I see it!]

GOP: Silent.

Platform, Anyone?

2006-06-29T13:38:00.000-04:00

In the course of researching my Hoosier Top 6, I realized that neither Indiana Party website lists a platform. At least, not one that can be found in 5 minutes of searching. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that was one of the main purposes of a party headquarters. Apparently in this state they exist solely to filter money.

Let's play Where's Waldo's Platform...the first person to find even a single initiative on one of these websites wins. Go!

Indiana Democrats
Indiana Republicans

Jezebella's "Top 6 in '06" (Hoosier Edition)

2006-06-29T13:08:00.000-04:00

This is an update to my earlier post detailing my suggested list of priorities for the national scene. Here is my Hoosier Edition – suggested priorities for state government:

1. Preventative Health Care for the Uninsured Mitch Daniels has pushed heavily to improve the health of Hoosiers through healthy dieting, exercise and better lifestyle choices. But he missed the boat on one issue: Preventative health care and the uninsured. This is straight from President Bush and the U.S. Government:

“Active prevention is critical to achieving a better and longer life and should play a central role in controlling the costs of health care.” - George Bush, 2006 State of the Union

“Even after controlling for other factors, individuals who lacked insurance for longer periods had lower rates of preventive care use” - Agency for Health Research and Quality

797,000 Hoosiers have been without any health insurance for over a year. 604,000 have been uninsured at some point in the last two years. Which means that these Hoosiers are not receiving proper preventative care. I admit that it is fiscally unfeasible for the state to provide comprehensive health care to 1.4 million people. But offering preventative health care for the uninsured would improve the health of Hoosiers while not exploding the state’s budget.

Indiana is a state that touts its family values and strong morals. To leave a significant portion of the population without access to basic health care is not only costly, but morally corrupt.

2. Sexual Rights. Yes, I said it. Homosexuals have a right to be together, to be married, and to raise a family. Single women have a right to birth control, whether or not a doctor or pharmacist agrees with her sexual behavior. Teenagers have a right to accurate information about contraception and STD prevention. Etcetera.

All that has been done so far by liberals on this issue is to block the conservative proposals that seek to take away these rights. In the meantime, the entire dialogue takes place on conservative’s home field. Liberals need to stop blocking and start fighting for actual rights. Let the conservatives and bigots block our proposals and try to prove to us that we are wrong.

Propose a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between two or more humans of any gender. Let them block it.

Propose a bill that requires a pharmacist seeking a license to pledge that they will not withhold medication of any kind from a patient with a valid prescription. Let them block it.

Propose a law like that in Illinois which requires insurance companies to cover oral contraception. Let them block it.

Propose legislation to require extensive, comprehensive sex ed in public high school curriculum. Add an amendment that schools must make condoms available for free in the nurse’s office. Add another amendment that health class must teach the Kinsey scale (1-7, with 1 being completely straight and 7 being fabulously gay). Let them block it.

You get the picture.

3. Developing Indiana’s Ethanol Industry. Indiana can become an energy leader—the Saudi Arabia of alternative fuels. The state should support a budding industry so that when the country shifts toward ethanol, we are the most prepared to meet the need. Old: There’s more than corn in Indiana. New: There’s lots of corn in Indiana, and it can fuel your new Honda!

4. Education Funding: Build Knowledge, not Swimming Pools. With soaring dropout rates and ever-dwindling public funding, Indiana schools have been authorized to supplement their income with property tax levies. But most of these levies authorize schools to use the money for capital projects, school playgrounds, and bus replacement, among others. Of the property taxes collected by schools in 2004, only half of it went to education, while the other half went to physical projects and debt payments.

But the General Assembly is partly to blame—they authorize the collection of taxes, they set the maximum rates, and they decide what the money can be used for. So to place more focus on teaching rather than building, they could raise the maximum rate for the general levy (for education expenses) and lower the maximum rate for capital projects. Or they could impose a restriction that only 25% of the property taxes collected can be for non-education-related projects.

The General Assembly holds the keys to improving Indiana’s education system. They just need to take them out of their pockets and use them!

5. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. What the Governor is doing works. He directly appeals to companies and “sells” Indiana to them as the best spot to locate. If he has the best sales pitch, the company locates here and the state gets jobs. Now, imagine if we had more salespeople. More salespeople=more sales=more jobs.

Maybe not every lawmaker can fly to Japan and court Honda, but every lawmaker can court somebody! It could be a side requirement of the job of Senator or Representative, much like how it is a side requirement of their legislative assistant to campaign on Saturdays without pay.

6. Cooperation and Compromise. I’ve written on this one before. When the parties work together and each bring their constituents’ interests to the table, everyone comes out ahead, particularly 99.9% of Hoosiers who care more about the policies that affect them than they care about Pat Bauer keeping his job.

Cut and Run for Re-election

2006-06-26T13:57:00.000-04:00

Friday

"Withdrawal is not an option. Surrender is not a solution,"
- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

"We must give them that support and not send a signal that we're going to pull possibly the rug out from under them,"
- Sen. John Warner, R-Va.

"The United States, with our Iraqi partners, has the responsibility to see this through,"
- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"The only thing that can defeat the United States when it comes to the global war on terror is America itself, if we lose the courage of our convictions, if we simply give up,"
- Senator John Cornyn, R-Tx

Today

“The White House confirmed on Monday that the top U.S. military commander in Iraq has drafted a plan for U.S. troop cuts there, but said the plan was just one option.”
- Reuters

When is this ‘cutting and running’ scheduled to take place? September, 2006. Two months before the midterm elections.

Yet the Bush administration insists that troop levels are based on conditions on the ground.

It is unfortunate for the troops that the elections—excuse me, “improved ground conditions”—are not happening this month.

Cartoon Break

2006-06-23T09:53:00.000-04:00

Jezebella's "Top 6 in '06" (bullet-point and slogan edition)

2006-06-22T12:29:00.000-04:00

[Note: Original Post with Elaboration Below]

1. Energy Independence through Renewable Resources.
Slogan: Put Made-in-America on our gas pumps.

2. Fiscal Discipline
Slogan: Repeal the unborn-baby tax.

3. De-Militarization of the War on Terror
Slogan: Fight terrorists, not nations.
Slogan 2: Guns do not end Terror. Courage ends Terror.

4. Outside-the-Box Worker Protection.
Slogan: A good economy is an economy that is good for everyone.

5. Social Equality.
Slogan: Stop writing bigotry into the law.

6. Ridding Washington of the “Culture of Corruption.”
Slogan: Rid Washington of the Conservative Culture of Corruption.

Jezebella's "Top 6 in '06"

2006-06-22T11:30:00.000-04:00

According to a Time magazine article, Howard Dean and the Democratic Party intend to collaborate and put forth a “Top 6 in ‘06” list of Democratic Priorities. If they can agree on one.

So I decided to come up with my list of priorities for the country. These are things that are important to me as a citizen, a policy wonk, and a regular midwest girl. And since I endorse candidates based upon their platform above all else, this list is the ruler with which I will measure candidates up, both in 2006 and in 2008. [Don’t be surprised if you see a numerical rating system set in place soon.]

I would like feedback, though, to see how my list matches up with that of other liberals. I have a hunch we are not as disjointed as it may seem. And if Howard Dean and his cohorts cannot build a consensus from above, maybe we can build one at the grassroots level.

Not that Howard Dean reads Indiana Politico. But anyway, here it is.

1. Energy Independence through Renewable Energy Sources. If we can achieve that, it has positive impact on the following:

(a) Gas prices – explanation obvious
(b) National security, Middle East turmoil, Terrorism – Whether or not we went into Iraq specifically for oil, it remains true that we have virtually no national interest there if our economy does not depend on those relationships. And if we leave the Middle East alone, that leave Al-Qaeda with no grievance and no reason to attack us.
(c) Global warming – Which is known to be primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Slowing or stopping global warming will please environmentalists. But since global warming is also partly to blame for the increase in storm activity, all those people who live in Hurricane States like Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas will be pleased too. (Note: Hurricane States are Red States that could easily turn Blue on this issue).
(d) Corporate profits (gasp!) – It’s true. Lower energy cost makes business run more efficiently by means of lower input costs. This increases profits, which increases dividends to stockholders and the balance in your pension fund. Unless you are the CEO of Exxon.

So energy independence will satisfy (a) the pocketbook voters, (b) the “security moms” and the soldiers who want to come home, (c) environmentalists and red-state hurricane victims, and (d) business owners, stockholders, and regular Americans who want to retire someday.

Whoever runs on the platform of energy independence will get the majority of America’s vote. Period. We have the knowledge and the technology to do this – we just need the leadership.

2. Fiscal Discipline (Pay-As-You-Go). There was a time when politicians made trade-offs between spending for constituents and taxing constituents. Now they make no such trade-off; they simply choose between taxing constituents and taxing unborn babies. But deficits do matter…they matter to our children and grandchildren who will have to pay the debt plus interest. But they also affect our economic AND military position in the world since we are indebted, literally, to other countries. Read this for a full explanation.

Besides, the average American can understand that it is nice to have surplus (in family budget terms, a savings account) in case of emergency. If your car breaks down, don’t you feel better paying for repairs with cash rather than putting it on your 20% interest credit card? Case in Point: The surplus in Clinton’s 2000 budget was $230 billion. The amount Bush wanted to spend on Katrina relief was $200 billion. With fiscal discipline, we could have rebuilt New Orleans without another loan from the Bank of China.

3. An Iraq Exit Strategy and General De-Militarization of the War on Terror. The Iraq exit strategy must be reasonable, it must be approved by military leaders on the ground, and it must give Iraqis fair warning that we will be leaving so they can make sure their political and military houses are in order. And it should be as expedient as possible while still meeting these requirements. In the overall War on Terror, we must adopt an approach that recognizes that there is no military solution to terrorism, and much less so to the emotion of “terror.” We need a peace treaty with the nations that we have been at war with. And from that point on, we fight and win the War on Terror by protecting our transportation system, our nuclear facilities, and our office buildings from terrorist activity.

4. Outside-the-Box Worker Protection. And by this I mean the following: Continue outsourcing (double-gasp!!). Outsourcing and trade are economically efficient. They do increase total GDP, i.e. the size of the pie. But they also change distribution of wealth, i.e. how the pie is sliced. We should ensure that if international trade augments the size of the pie, that it also augments the size of the pieces for ALL people, not just CEO’s and stockholders. At least half of the increase in profits due to international trade should be filtered into jobs programs, free education, or some other “hand-up” for the unskilled, now-jobless worker. Here’s the catchphrase: “A good economy is an economy that is good for everyone.”

5. Social Equality. That means equal rights and opportunities for all minorities. It means an end to racism, homophobia, sexism, and religious discrimination, i.e. the “religious-majority-rules” mindset. While these attitudes cannot be entirely eradicated, they can be eliminated inasmuch as they are reflected in legislation and policy initiatives. Couple this with collaboration rather than divisiveness, and we might actually be able to have some civil discourse.

6. Ridding Washington of the “Culture of Corruption.” Howard Dean can (and will) elaborate on this one better than I can. Yeeeeaaahh!!

The Next Person to Say "Cut and Run" gets Cut and Runover by My Car

2006-06-21T15:35:00.000-04:00

As more public pressure mounts for an Iraq exit plan, and as Democrats more boldly call for withdrawal dates, the Republicans respond the same way they do to everything.

With rhetoric. Repetitive oversimplifications. Catchphrases.

Which leads me to "cut and run." A catchphrase assigned to any call for an exit strategy. Any exit strategy. At any time. It is meant to give the impression that if we leave, we are abandoning the Iraqis or the mission or the oil (oops, I mean the "democracy"). It is meant to convey that anyone who suggests ending the Iraq War at any time is suggesting that we lose.

And the Republican parrots are out in droves, spewing this catchphrase all over the papers and the television. So much so that Dana Milbanks wrote an entire piece on the phrase and its use in the past two days. So much so that the banner at the bottom of Hardball last night read "Cut and Run or Stay the Course?". [I'll ignore for the moment the obvious prejudice of that banner.]

If Americans could only think beyond the hype, they might think something like this:

On a basic level:

The Republicans say, "if we leave, the terrorists win." But don't troops leave a country when the war is over? If we win the war (which they say we have), and we withdraw troops, does this still cause the terrorists to win? Does that mean we did not win? And if leaving means surrender, how are we not occupiers?

Or on a more complex level:

The Republicans say, "as the Iraqis stand up, we stand down." On the political front, the Iraqis "standing up" means forming a sovereign, elected government. Which they have.

That leaves the military front. The Iraqis are "standing up" at a rate of 4,700 new troops per month, so U.S. soldiers should "stand down" at a rate of 4,700 troops per month. There are 155,000 troops on the ground, so at a rate of 4,700 per month, the last troops should leave within 33 months (just under 3 years from now).

That sounds like a timetable to me, which is clearly "cutting and running".

So either the administration's plan is also "cut and run," or it is "as Iraqis stand up, we will stand up too, with bigger guns." Or, as Harry Reid put it, "I guess their position is 'we're there forever.'"

But Americans do not generally think past the rhetoric. So instead of analyzing information and forming lucid arguments (like the liberal elite that they are), Democrats should spend all their time working to get Hardball's banner to say

"Give Iraq back to Iraqis or Stay Forever?"

Bigger Problems than Mr. Belding

2006-06-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

Only in the carefree, prosperous 90's could a sitcom like Saved by the Bell thrive. The show exhibited an almost eerie optimism and simplicity. The sports teams always won, nerds could hang out with cheerleaders at the burger joint, and the class clown could use his ridiculously oversized cell phone to get himself out of detention and play consequence-free pranks on teachers and nerds.

The story of Zack, Kelly and the gang is a perfect allegory for America in the 90's. Unfortunately, their fate after the end of the show (and the decade) is an equally fitting allegory for America after the Republicans took control of the country.

Even the brainiest among us were hurt by the trickle-down policies of America's wealthy elite and their puppet government. I wonder if Zack has a scheme to get us out of trouble this time.

Bush on the Environment

2006-06-15T10:44:00.000-04:00

Bush has authorized the world's largest marine reserve on a group of Hawaiian islands.

Rumor has it that Bush, who is not known as a strong environmentalist, only agreed to the plan because he thought it was a homeland security issue. "The Air Force has a reserve, and the Army has a reserve, and those reserve troops have fought well in the War on Terror. It is only fitting that the Marines should have a reserve of their own. And it should be the largest reserve in the world, which will ensure America's military domination."

Environmentalists are concerned about the fate of endangered species when the President moves the reserve to Texas for border control.

Malice and Folly

2006-06-15T08:51:00.000-04:00

The Pentagon just released news that 2,500 Americans have died in the war in Iraq. The final death toll from September 11th was 2,819. So basically, unless we pull out very soon, the Iraq death toll will top the 9/11 death toll, making the folly of the Bush administration more deadly to Americans than the malice of Bin Laden.

A New Perspective on Gays and Straight Marriage

2006-06-13T16:46:00.000-04:00

It is not often that I read anything on Expresso that isn't Bible-touting xenophobic homophobic drivel...but today I read the following novel argument about gays and lesbians threatening marriage:

"Before, gays married straights and led a double life. That was the real threat to marriage and many of those marriages failed."

That is to say, better for your marriage to have two out-and-married gay people being intimate next door to you than to have one closet gay person -- your spouse -- being intimate in your bed while you are at work.

Drinking on the Canal - No Need for a Brown Paper Bag

2006-06-13T15:01:00.000-04:00

Atlantic City has the famous Boardwalk. Chicago has Navy Pier. Los Angeles has the Santa Monica Promenade. Now Indy will have its own waterfront tourist district, taking it one step closer to being a true world-class city.

The City-County Council of Indianapolis voted last night to create a Riverfront Devleopment Project along the downtown canal. This means that new restaurants could obtain off-quota (read: cheap) liquor licenses which would likely jump-start development of the area.

I could not be more thrilled. The canal is a beautiful area nestled in the heart of downtown. But currently, there is little to do there besides walk or take a gondola ride. Both are dependent on good weather, and the latter is pretty costly for one hour of entertainment. The canal district has the feel of a nature park--enjoy an afternoon stroll, but please kindly leave at sunset.

Restaurants, bars and shops along the canal would create a welcoming atmosphere for a different type of clientele - people who shop, eat, drink, and listen to music. You know, regular people.

Imagine walking along the canal in the late afternoon, stopping every now and then in a store to check out some art or a cute little sundress in a store window. Or, if you have testicles, ducking into a fine cigar shop and grabbing one to enjoy in the open air. Then as the sun sets, enjoying a nice dinner on a patio overlooking the water, which is painted with the colors of the sunset. Then, as darkness fades, sipping a glass of merlot at an open-air bar with candlelight from the tables reflecting off the mirrored water.

It could almost pass for Europe. Europe with fried pork tenderloins and freedom fries.

We just need some brave enterpreneurs to have the courage to open a restaurant in one of Indy's most beautiful areas. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Mitch Daniels and his Photo Ops

2006-06-09T15:09:00.000-04:00

Mitch Daniels today led a group of bikers on a short ride to promote motorcycle safety.

This makes him one step closer to either dressing up as or shaking hands with each of the Village People.

We covered the biker, or "leatherhead". But previously he crossed off the soldier;

the flannel-denim guy;

the policeman;

and the cowboy;

Native American Day is September 4th. Expect to see Daniels dressed up as Sitting Bull at a celebratory gala.

The Price of Supporting the Repubican Party

2006-04-19T22:30:00.000-04:00

Vice President Cheney is coming to Indy for a Republican fundraiser. You can choose to pay money to see him, or choose not to. To help you decide, I have comprised a list of trade-offs you must make to see Mr. Cheney in person:

--Attend the luncheon ($250) *or* spend one night with your sweetie in a romantic suite with a private pool, waterfall, fireplace, steamroom, and jacuzzi ($270).

--Attend the luncheon and get your picture taken with the VP ($1,000) *or* purchase a 26-inch Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD HDTV. Plus if you buy now, you can get a free massage chair ($999 for the tv and chair).

--Attend the luncheon and the Round-Table with the VP ($10,000) *or* buy a 2001 Audi.

*or* take yourself and 24 of your closest friends on a Caribbean Cruise.

*or* put a downpayment on this condo above the posh Indianapolis Athletic Club.

The choice is yours.

Note: I did not receive any advertising money from the above-mentioned products or companies. But then again, nobody offered any.

Troubling Tactics and Tacky Toupees

2006-04-14T17:59:00.000-04:00

Midterm elections are approaching and the Indiana House is up for grabs. What are Democrats odds for regaining the majority? Very, very bad, so long as Pat Bauer remains the party’s leader.

Allow me to elaborate.

Speaker Bosma has been using the Bush-Cheney-TurdBlossom tactic of “going to the base.” He fought for prayer in the Statehouse (despite the ruling that it is unconstitutional). He pushed to criminalize abortion. He harped about the “sanctity of marriage” and tried to get intelligent design into public school curriculum.

But his plan was flawed; in Indiana, the base of conservative Christians was anything but dormant. He mobilized a group of people who were already mobilized in this state. His antics garnered him favor only with those who already go to the polls and faithfully pull the Republican lever. In the meantime, he marginalized a much more politically valuable group: the Moderate Hoosiers.

Moderate Hoosiers do not want their laws to be based upon a religious document written 2,000 years ago on another continent. Moderate Hoosiers want to make their own decisions about family planning and marriage. Moderate Hoosiers want science to be taught in science class. Moderate Hoosiers, above all, want the legislature to fix things that affect them--crumbling roads, loss of jobs, a 33% high school drop-out rate, and rising property taxes.

These Moderate Hoosiers are up for grabs in the next election. They just need someone to knock on their door, smile, and entice them.

There will be a knock on the door, to be sure. But when the door opens, on the other side will not be a caring, charming Democrat with arms outstretched, ready to entice. It will be House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer. And let me tell you: There is nothing enticing about B. Patrick Bauer.

For those of you who have not seen Pat Bauer on television or in person, allow me to paint a picture. Picture a man of below-average height and above-average weight, who is more circular than he is linear. When he speaks, his voice comes out flat, dull, reminiscent of Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off… “anyone……..anyone?” And to top it off, literally, lays a piece of carpet (or maybe the hide of a dead squirrel) on top of his head, not even pretending to be attached to his scalp. Democrats, this is your spokesman.

I say this not to be petty, but because an attractive politician is a likeable politician, and a likeable politician is a winning politician. Fortunately, looks are not everything, at least to most voters.

But the façade of Pat Bauer is indicative of the substance.

In the past three years, Republicans—who controlled the Senate and now control the House and the Governorship—have come up with a number of ideas. Some of them are good and some are bad. Some are very conservative and pro-business (elimination of the inventory tax) and some are very liberal and pro-Hoosier in nature (child welfare reform, property tax relief for homeowners). Pat Bauer has opposed each of these ideas uniformly. If it is proposed by a Republican, Pat Bauer does not like it. Even if it would lower your property tax bill or remove a child from an abusive household.

As such, Bauer has lost all credibility. If Bauer shoots down every idea, good or bad, it seems obvious that he has either no ability to discern good policy from bad, or no desire to do so. And who wants somebody like that making important decisions?

Apparently, not Hoosiers. In a recent informal poll, he was voted #1 of the "100 people who are messing up Indiana." His votes nearly doubled the #2 selection, Speaker Bosma. According to the article, the criticism came equally from the left and the right, and it sounded something like this: Pat Bauer is “a do nothing politician at his best and an obstructionist politician at his worst.”

Within his own party, Bauer has ensured his own survival by devouring the party’s young. Anyone in his administration who dares to question him or defy his orders is quickly removed. Which leaves the party full of mindless yes-men and disenchants those who might lead the party into the next era. Those left behind will drive the party into the ground even faster than Bauer has because the only people allowed to remain are those without plans, ideas, or courage.

Pat Bauer has done one thing to benefit his party: He twisted the Major Moves debate sufficiently to turn voters (and Pacers fans) against Governor Daniels. But his tactics were dirty and dishonest. He frequently referred to the plan as a sale of state property, rather than a lease. He pointed to gross revenues of the tollroad as the amount of money the state loses, when anyone who took Accounting 101 knows that the relevant number is profits, which are negative for the tollroad (meaning the state saves money by leasing). He ranted about privatization, encouraged xenophobia by comparing it to the Dubai Ports deals, and spent four months trying to murder the plan and turn people against Mitch Daniels. He succeeded only in the latter.

What could Bauer have done? Knowing that Major Moves would pass either way, he could have taken an admittedly imperfect plan and offered his input to improve it. Perhaps fought to alleviate the burden on those in Northwest Indiana. Perhaps tried to shorten the lease term, or appropriate the money over 75 years rather than allowing Daniels to spend it all in his tenure. But those actions would have required compromise. It would have required him to sacrifice the one bit of political capital he was able to scrounge up this session. And it would have required him to care about Hoosiers above his own political future.

I write this as a proud and established liberal and a policy wonk. I support liberal principles, at least as far as social issues are concerned. But I can no longer support B. Patrick Bauer because his leadership is killing liberalism in this state.

Democrats, please replace Pat Bauer as Minority Leader. By supporting him, we are subsidizing our own demise.

Return from Exodus

2006-04-13T13:16:00.000-04:00

I realized today that it has been exactly one month since my last post. I guess I started feeling a bit like this guy:

Nevertheless, I am going to start posting again. Look for a big post in the next 24 hours.

Cartoon Break

2006-03-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

Since We're On The Topic...

2006-03-07T09:33:00.000-05:00

"Life After Roe" by William Saleton of Slate Magazine is a must-read.

He discusses (much more eloquently than I have been able to) the need for the pro-choice faction to change its focus from defending the status quo to promoting birth control, sex-education, and early termination (i.e. morning-after pill) in order to prevent abortions. He explains how science has exposed the moral qualms of 2nd-trimester abortions while at the same time preventing the need for them.

Below are excerpts of the article...but I highly encourage reading the entire thing.

Politically, legally and technologically the 33-year-old court decision is increasingly obsolete as a framework for managing decisions about reproduction...

Roe established a right to abortion through the end of the second trimester. The latter part of that time frame has always been the most controversial. Improvements in neonatal care have made fetuses viable--capable of surviving delivery--earlier than was possible in 1973. We even do surgery on fetuses now, which makes aborting them seem that much more perverse. These developments may explain, in part, why two-thirds of Americans think abortion should be illegal in the second trimester. But if medical technology has helped to expose this moral problem, it can also help us solve it...

Second-trimester abortions are becoming not just harder to stomach, but easier to avoid. In 1993, only 7 percent of abortion providers could end a pregnancy at four weeks or earlier; by 2001, 37 percent could do it. And by 2002, two-thirds of clinics belonging to the National Abortion Federation were offering pills that abort pregnancies in the first seven weeks...Better yet, technology is helping many women avoid unwanted pregnancies altogether. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "emergency contraception"--high-dose birth control pills taken after sex to block ovulation, fertilization or implantation--was almost unheard of a decade ago. By 2002, however, about 10 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 24 had used such pills...

The weak link in contraception is the human being who's too excited, impatient or forgetful to take it or use it carefully. But technology can also help circumvent that weak link...The maker of Implanon, for instance, says that this implant takes barely a minute to insert, begins working within 24 hours, prevents pregnancy for up to three years and can be removed in less than three minutes with a 90 percent probability that a woman will resume ovulating the next month. In clinical trials, says the company, "no pregnancies occurred during use over approximately 73,000 monthly cycles," largely because the "user cannot forget to take the product"...

The road out of Roe won't be easy. Conservatives are already fighting early abortion pills, morning-after pills, sex education and birth control. But that's a different fight from the one we've been stuck in since 1973. It's a more winnable fight, and a more righteous one.

This truly encapsulates my viewpoint on abortion. I am pro-choice because I believe women should never be mothers until they are ready, willing and able. And I oppose banning abortion because at this time, some women are without tools and knowledge to perfectly prevent pregnancy.

In a perfect world, both men and women would have free and easy access to birth control and would understand the importance of using it. Birth control would be fail-safe, not susceptible to 'operator errors'. Then abortions would be reduced to less than 1% - which is the failure rate for most contraception. Women would not be prematurely forced into motherhood and abortion would be almost entirely obsolete.

Science has given us the fail-safe technology. The rest we must do ourselves.

The new objective of the pro-choice faction must be to fight for this perfect world. It must fight for easy, private, and low-cost access to such early prevention measures. It must fight for extensive family planning education for both genders which takes a neutral, scientific approach and leaves out moral judgments and gender stereotypes.

And it must do so by building a consensus in the middle ground consisting of both the pro-choice and pro-lifers, while ostracizing the far-right activists who claim abstinence or motherhood are the only options and the far-left activists who fight for a woman's right to terminate a baby that is partially born.

This new objective is the only solution that protects women and viable fetuses at the same time. It is the only solution that can permanently solve the issue and relieve this country of the perpetual turmoil and fury that the abortion debate has caused.

Women's Sexuality Held Hostage

2006-03-06T13:48:00.000-05:00

51% of Indiana residents oppose an abortion ban, even if it makes an exception for the life of the mother, according to a new poll released today in the Star.

47-year-old James Hatfield of Fort Wayne supports the ban, and has this to say: “If you don’t want to have a baby, don’t have sex.”

That’s easy for him to say. Nobody is asking him to abstain from sex in order to improve his quality of life.

Of those who support abortion bans, a vast majority would never be affected by it at all. In the poll, 6% more men than women favored a ban. Senior citizens favored the ban 10% more than those under 55.

Senior citizens do not have unwanted pregnancies. Men do not have unwanted pregnancies. Yet they are the ones who oppose abortion, given that they are exempt from needing it as a last resort.

Modern science has given us so many forms of birth control that women need not make the decision between asexuality and motherhood. They only need to be taught how to use birth control and encouraged to use it consistently.

The hard-line, abstinence-only view of James Hatfield and his cohorts is only good for one thing—using a woman’s natural sexual urges against her to force her prematurely under the yoke of motherhood.

Cartoon Break

2006-03-04T14:36:00.000-05:00

The Teflon President at Work

2006-03-02T12:13:00.000-05:00

There was a conference call about Katrina involving Bush and Gov. Blanco, among others. Congress wanted the transcript. It was "missing." For a long time.

Now it is found.

The transcript demonstrates that Bush asked questions. It generally makes him look better than the other conference calls that have been put out there. The White House emailed it to Newsweek today.

Apparently "missing" is White House-speak for "hidden in Karl Rove's desk drawer."

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

2006-03-02T09:41:00.000-05:00

Forget about inefficient bureaucracies. Forget about disconnect between state and federal officials. Forget about the Dept. of Homeland Security's over-focus on terrorism. Forget that the FEMA chief was a horse judge.

The mismanagement of Katrina can be traced to one man: George W. Bush.

According to recently released tapes, Bush was told that Katrina would be a disastrous storm. He was told that the Superdome was not properly staffed with medical professionals. He was told that the levies might be breached. He was told that more help was needed for the relief effort. And after receiving these warning, what did he do?

He offered state officials assurances. Then he went to a fundraiser.

Of course, when Hurricane Rita approached, George Bush got to work. He deployed troops. He visited the region before and after the storm. He opened up his phone lines to state and local officials. He put the full force of the White House behind the relief effort.

But in that case, Florida and Texas were in danger. Populations of rich, white Republicans were in danger. People who supported George and Jeb were in danger.

Bush was given the same warning for Katrina that he received for Rita. But for Katrina, he chose not to act. He chose instead to tout the passage of the Medicare drug package to pre-screened audiences of supporters.

Kanye West was right.

The problem with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was not that Bush did not know. The problem was that he did not care.

Cartoon Break

2006-02-26T14:22:00.000-05:00

Iraqi War on Mosques

2006-02-23T20:19:00.000-05:00

Indescribable violence has erupted in Iraq, such that it has earned the names 'civil war' and 'War on Mosques'. Violence such that I cannot describe it in plain speech. Artists, when faced with similar speechlessness, paint a picture or compose a symphony. As an economist, numbers are my watercolors. Here is my masterpiece, entitled "Iraq-by the numbers."

--48 hours
--129 dead
--47 workers killed in one checkpoint stop
--168 mosques attacked
--10 imams murdered
--15 more imams abducted

*****

--136,065 'trained and equipped' Iraqi troops, whose peacekeeping weapons are available for war

*****

--15,000 Iraqi insurgents killed
--30,000 Iraqi innocent civilians killed

*****

--135,000 American soldiers in danger
--135,000 American families at home frightened for their loved ones

*****

--3 sects of Muslims in Iraq, who hate America
--3 sects of Muslims in Iraq, who hate each other

*****

--Endless days of violence

*****

--Zero things that I can do about it.

Bosma's Theocratic Indiana

2006-02-20T21:21:00.000-05:00

You must read this barely-publicized story; it is yet another glimpse into the ethnocentrist world of Brian Bosma.

The following is an excerpt from a letter written by one of the Rabbis who attended the JCRC’s Jewish Lobby Day. The itinerary culminated with a meeting between 40 Jewish leaders and Speaker Bosma.

From the Daily Pulse:

Speaker Bosma wondered why we hadn’t discussed the controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in House chambers. He told us his version of what happened and what he believes, and a passionate exchange took place. The end of this exchange left us, the Jewish delegation, in shock. Speaker Bosma, defending the prayer issue, asked, “How many Jews are there in Indiana? About 2%? There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana.” The implication of this statement was that our minority community doesn’t and shouldn’t have any say or any voice. It is about the majority and what the majority wants. The jaws of the delegation dropped to the floor. We were speechless. Everything we believed about this country had just been trampled. Gone was the belief of the constitutional protection of minorities. Gone was not feeling marginalized. Gone was the belief we were not strangers in this country. (emphasis added).

Brian Bosma gives the distinct impression that while the United States protects the interests of religious minorities, the State of Indiana does not. The State of Indiana cares about majority rule. Meanwhile, government officials use the House Chamber to pray to Jesus in an attempt to ensure the persistence of their majority.

The State of Indiana is really flirting with the line between Democracy and Theocracy.

And no good can possibly come from that.

Leading By Example?

2006-02-13T13:36:00.000-05:00

Vice President Cheney shot his friend. Over and over again. Accidentally.

Mr. Cheney, who has voted against gun control as often as possible, is not being a very good advocate for his cause.

When Your Social Security Proposal Stinks So Badly That Nobody Supports It...

2006-02-09T08:53:00.000-05:00

Here is how you get it done despite widespread opposition.

1. Interrupt prime time television and give a speech in which you ask for a bipartisan study of the social security (presumably to come up with a more widely accepted plan) and allude that you are putting the issue on the backburner.

2. One week later, stick it in the budget bill without mentioning to anyone that you are doing so.

3. Undershoot the costs in order to ram the legislation through.

Because when a Republican-led House, Republican-led Senate, and a vast majority of red-state citizens oppose your plan, that should not be taken as a cue to give up or improve the plan. It is simply a sign that the House, Senate and American people do not know what is good for them and need to be bamboozled into a new social security system. And the best way to bamboozle? Stick the plan into a bill that by statute must be passed in one form or another.

This is a technique he learned from Rep. Ted "Bridge to Nowhere" Stevens who inserted the ANWR drilling provision into the defense appropriations bill, thereby holding lawmakers to the tough decision to either vote FOR the drilling or AGAINST the troops. Fortunately, the Senate did not fall for that. Let's hope they do not fall for this either.

For a President who was so proud of his 51% election victory "mandate," he certainly has an interesting take on the will of the American people now. As it turns out, when a majority of Americans hold a similar opinion, it is only relevant if the opinion happens to be that of King George. Otherwise, not so much.

Picture Break

2006-02-08T20:31:00.000-05:00

When Words Are Taken Out of Context

2006-02-01T22:12:00.000-05:00

I am a bit peeved right now. Here is why:

The Indiana Blog Review picked up my piece on numbers and the toll road (directly below this post). IBR published the following language from my post:

"Over the last seven years, the Indiana Toll Road has made an average of $17.9 million per year in profits (revenues minus costs). Multiply that by 75 years. You get $1.3 billion in profits that Indiana will lose if it gives up the toll road."

That certainly gives the impression that I think Major Moves is bad, given the numbers. Which is the opposite of my point. So apparently IBR neglected to read beyond my first paragraph. Bits such as:

"That leaves the state with -$3.1 billion over 75 years if the toll road is not leased..."

"The state would have to increase tolls to 230% their current level in order to simply break even..."

"the toll road’s losses would have to come from other programs (which could include Medicaid, education) or from increases in taxes or decreases in property tax relief..."

"the state can instead rid itself of the problem and collect $3.8 billion along the way (which is a lot more than -$3.1 billion)..."

And of course, the part that was in bold:

The Bottom Line: It is possible to go forward with this plan in such a way that Hoosiers both now and 75 years in the future are better off.

I do not like to bite the hand that feeds me, nor pick fights with the only decent Indiana blog roundup which could potentially generate a lot of hits to Indiana Politico.

But this is absolutely ridiculous. To use that quote from my piece and leave out all content that reflects the actual ideas I meant to convey is either incredibly lazy or incredibly dishonest.

I hope this is an error that is unique to this situation. Perhaps IBR knows me to be liberal but thinks of me as a partisan Democrat rather than the liberal technocrat that I consider myself.

Either way. I am disappointed and peeved, and I hope that my ideas will not be misrepresented in the future.

Crunching the Numbers

2006-01-31T10:34:00.000-05:00

Over the last seven years, the Indiana Toll Road has made an average of $17.9 million per year in profits (revenues minus costs). Multiply that by 75 years. You get $1.3 billion in profits that Indiana will lose if it gives up the toll road.

Now subtract from that $4.4 billion in constructive improvements that the state would have to pay for if Cintra-Macquarie did not. That leaves the state with -$3.1 billion over 75 years if the toll road is not leased. The state would have to increase tolls to 230% their current level in order to simply break even. (And that is assuming that the state could make the improvements as cost-effectively as a private company, which is not likely.)

Keep in mind that currently, the toll road rates are controlled not by accountants, but rather by politicians. Perhaps the necessary 230% increase comes in an election year and politicians choose to keep tolls low. Then the toll road’s losses would have to come from other programs (which could include Medicaid, education) or from increases in taxes or decreases in property tax relief.

So rather than having to make these tough choices, the state can instead rid itself of the problem and collect $3.8 billion along the way (which is a lot more than -$3.1 billion).

If you ask me, it just makes sense.

But given that the toll road is leased, this is how I would improve the plan to appropriate the money:

1. Place exactly half of the contract ($1.9 billion) in interest-bearing assets. This would allow the state to take out and spend $25.3 million per year (present value) for 75 years, which is more than the $17.9 million per year that the state would be able to spend if it did not lease. [This eliminates the glaring flaw of the plan—that it spends 75 years-worth of profits in 3 years.] With half of the money saved and appropriated yearly, the state would be better off than it would be if it kept control of the toll road, and it still has $1.9 billion left to spend.

2. Use the other $1.9 billion for infrastructure improvements and other spending measures contained in the current plan. Decrease the amounts of such spending as necessary.

If you ask me, that makes sense too.

The Bottom Line: It is possible to go forward with this plan in such a way that Hoosiers both now and 75 years in the future are better off.

Cartoon Break

2006-01-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

Power Grab, Stage III

2006-01-25T13:59:00.000-05:00

Republicans are trying to get a stranglehold on the Indiana Courts by means of a hasty amendment to a blank bill.

Check out the Indiana blogosphere reaction, summarized by the Indiana Blog Review.

The Line of Conservatism Republicans Won't Cross

2006-01-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

I sometimes think that there is no end to the Indiana Republican Legislature’s desire to bring us back to the social standards of 1917. Apparently, even Brian Bosma has his breaking point.

Bosma shut down business when Rep. Jeff Thompson (left) introduced a surprise amendment which would have stripped local governments of their power to pass anti-bias ordinances, according to the Indy Star report.

Thompson meant for the amendment to respond to Indianapolis’s recent addition of sexual preference to the list of things upon which you cannot discriminate. But his amendment would have actually nullified all city ordinances that prevent discrimination of any kind, including that based on religion, race and gender.

Thompson was only trying to be a homophobe, but in doing so became a racist, chauvinist homophobe who does not support religious tolerance.

And even the conservative Indiana House Republicans, who want to legalize prayer in public schools and outlaw abortion and sodomy, were not willing to go that far.

Thank goodness.

The War on Negative Connotation

2006-01-25T11:54:00.000-05:00

President Bush addressed the NSA today and insisted that his domestic spying program should be called a “terrorist surveillance program” rather than “domestic spying without a warrant.”

Because “terrorist surveillance program” sounds so much nicer and reminds us, as we question the breech in our civil liberties, that we are constantly in danger of being attacked and that civil liberties don't matter when you're dead.

In a related story, President Bush has asked that the Democratic Party be renamed the “Axis of Dissent” and that “Washington Corruption” be henceforth referred to as “Functional Government.” Here is text from his next speech:

“While I am trying to protect you with my terrorist surveillance program, the Axis of Dissent is hard at work trying to disrupt the business of a functional government”…

“September 11th” … “September 11th” … “September 11th” … “Terrorism” … “Thank you.”

A More Optimistic Ranking

2006-01-25T11:06:00.000-05:00

Indianapolis is ranked the 17th cleanest city in the U.S., based on a study done by Readers’ Digest which ranked the 50 most populous metros based on air, water, toxins, hazardous waste, and sanitation. The top 3 cities were Portland, San Jose and Buffalo. Chicago ranked dead last, followed closely by New York City.

I bet we would move up even further if they would do something about that pollutant-spouting factory located on the near south side. Nothing ruins a great sunrise like a billowing cloud of black smoke hovering over the downtown area.

But that's just me.

Fat and Getting Fatter

2006-01-24T11:07:00.000-05:00

This is old news, but I have been meaning to comment since I heard it.

Indianapolis has been ranked the 13th fattest city in America by the annual Men's Fitness Magazine survey.

Last year, we were ranked 17th, so I added a link to the Fast-Food Calorie Counter at Chowbaby.com. My hope was that people would do research and discover that the Hardee's Six Dollar Burger that was voted "Best Burger in Indianapolis" contains 120% of the fat you should eat in a whole day. Add a medium fry and you have used up 1580 of your 2000 daily calories on one meal. For example.

This year, in honor of our newest ranking, I have added a link to the Indy Greenways website. Since we continue to flock to Hardees and double our appropriate caloric intake, maybe the solution is to work off some of that grease. A 200-pound man will burn 416 calories by walking for one hour. [To calculate calories burned for other weights/times, go here.] Walking is free, easy, and effective, plus you can take in some nature and sunshine while you're at it!

So find a trail near you and start sweating out those Thickburgers. Please. Before our collective weight pushes Indy below sea level.

Update: It looks like the Chowbaby site is not working. I do not know if this is temporary or permanent. In the meantime, there is another calorie-counter here.

Do Not Believe Everything You See on TV

2006-01-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

The cable-company-sponsored advertisements advocating against SB 245 (telecom reform) states that the bill will raise taxes.

A bill will not raise taxes unless it contains language that explicitly raises taxes. [The only way the state can “implicitly” raise taxes is to increase the cost of a mandate that is funded by property taxes, which increase depending on expenditures.] This bill does not explicitly raise taxes and imposes no burdensome local mandates.

But there is more…

The ad also states that the bill would allow companies to provide telecom services only to the rich. Check out this excerpt from the bill:

“a provider [of telecom services] may not deny access to video service to any group of potential residential subscribers based on the income level of the residents in the local area in which the group resides.”

So there you go. Don’t believe everything you see on tv.

5 Reasons Mitch Daniels Is Not So Bad

2006-01-19T00:05:00.000-05:00

Mitch has never been "my man," but his actions as Governor have caused me to warm to him. He is showing more and more each day that while he is a Republican by ticket, he is a Hoosier and a technocrat by nature. And before my Democratic readers disown me, let me explain. These are the top 5 things Daniels has done to impress me:

5. He refused to jump on the Intelligent Design bandwagon even though it is a sure-fire ratings booster in this state.

4. He has spoken out against legalized workplace and housing discrimination against gays and lesbians (and even added sexual preference to the State's anti-discrimination code). Further, he refused to take the lead on the Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage, as his party would have had him do.

3. He supports blanket approval of local consolidation in order to allow local governments to increase efficiency and decrease taxes. His counterpart Brian Bosma prefers to block consolidation and blame tax increases on Democratic mayors.

2. He parted ways with his party last year to propose a 1% income tax for earners over $100,000. Finally, a real fiscal conservative who values a balanced budget more than a tax cut for wealthy Americans. No good liberal could argue with taxing the rich to provide for the poor.

1. He organized trade trips to other continents in an attempt to bring business to Indiana. He adopted a proactive approach to economic development instead of resorting to the failed theory of "if you don't tax it, they will come."

In short, he has refused to be bought by the Crazy Evangelical faction and has focused his efforts instead on policy efforts that have already produced results. As long as he stays on this path and ceases holding Republican fundraisers in RV1, he may be on his road to being "my man" after all.

Brian Bosma, on the other hand, is still on my list.

FIRE MIKE VANDERJAGT

2006-01-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

Peyton Manning pointed out problems with pass protection during the press conference following the tragic loss to Pittsburgh that sent me and half the city into a drunken depression.

And the whole sports world got huffy about it.

But anyone who watched the game would agree that there were problems with pass protection. So if Peyton were making any type of excuse, he was doing so by pointing out an obvious fact.

Meanwhile, Idiot Kicker Mike Vanderjagt--who kicked a last-minute game-tying field goal so wide that it appeared he was trying to kick it into the actual city of Pittsburgh, had this to say about the Colts' loss:

"I guess the Lord forgot about the football team."

No, you jackass. You forgot that the football is supposed to go between those big posts, not beside them.

Please fire him already.

MLK Commentary Worth Listening To

2006-01-18T23:35:00.000-05:00

I heard the most eloquent commentary on NPR today explaining the comments of Senator Clinton and Mayor Nagin on MLK Day. Robert Franklin, a professor of theology at Emory University in Atlanta, put the comments into the context of black religious speech and explained that they were not nearly as divisive and insensitive as some are saying.

I cannot print the transcript, but you can listen to it by following this link.

I highly recommend it.

Cartoon Break - In Honor of the Golden Globes

2006-01-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

Cartoon Break

2006-01-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

Question for Pat Robertson

2006-01-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

Was Vice President Cheney's allergic reaction this morning a punishment by God for giving birth to a lesbian daughter?

Bills Bills Bills III

2006-01-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

Silly Bills

HB 1087: Requires the opening date and closing date of squirrel hunting season to be the same in all counties.

It turns out that Indiana squirrels have been traveling from county to county in accordance with hunting season dates in an effort to avoid being shot for sport. This will level the playing field and take away the squirrel’s unfair advantage.

HB 1152: Prohibits a person from taking an exotic mammal or a mammal that is enclosed by a fence.

The Indiana Legislature…pre-empting the theft of penguins from our zoos.

Bill O’Reilly Bills

HB 1035: Requires a holder of a liquor dealer permit who is the proprietor of a drug store or another retail business to display liquor in a room or partitioned area that is separate from other retail items for sale.

It is not only sinful to drink alcohol. It is also sinful to look at a bottle of alcohol on your way to purchase hemorrhoid cream.

And in the War on Abortion:

HB 1080: Requires that specified written information about adoption alternatives and physical risks concerning the abortion procedure be given to a pregnant woman at least 18 hours before an abortion.

HB 1172: Provides that informed consent to an abortion includes the requirement that a physician inform a pregnant woman that: (1) a fetus may feel pain; (2) an anesthetic or other painkilling medication may be provided during an abortion to a fetus with a probable gestational age of at least 20 weeks; and (3) insurance may or may not cover the service.

SB 129: Endangering an unborn child. Provides that a person who knowingly or intentionally consumes a controlled substance while pregnant commits a Class D felony, and makes the offense a Class C felony if: (1) the controlled substance the person consumes is cocaine, methamphetamine, or a schedule I or II narcotic; or (2) the person has a prior unrelated conviction for consuming a controlled substance while pregnant.

So if you are a man or a non-pregnant woman and you are caught smoking a joint, it is a misdemeanor. If you are a pregnant woman, it is a felony. That’s fair.

And of course, the infamous:

HB 1096 (Woodruff): Provides that human life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm. Makes performing any abortion that is not necessary to prevent a substantial permanent impairment of the life or physical health of the pregnant woman a Class C felony. Makes conforming amendments and a technical correction.

If abortion is illegal and pharmacists do not have to administer birth control, then women will simply have to stop having sex with men. Expect a quick repeal of this law once the legislators realize that this applies to their wives as well.

And in the War on Nontraditional Romantic Unions:

HB 1202: Preference for marriage; instruction by schools. Provides that: (1) marriage is preferred, encouraged, and supported over any other domestic relationship; and (2) public schools may not allow instruction that is contrary to certain policies established by law concerning marriage and abortion.

Also specifies that adultery is the preferred means by which a person maintains multiple sexual partners.

HB 1210: Defines "covenant marriage". Provides that a couple may designate a covenant marriage when applying for a marriage license or after marriage. Requires that a marriage license must indicate whether the marriage is a covenant marriage. Establishes the procedure for declaring a covenant marriage. Requires the state department of health to: (1) maintain records of covenant marriage declarations; and (2) develop an informational pamphlet regarding covenant marriage. Provides limited grounds for legal separation or dissolution of a covenant marriage.

If you are getting married and make a promise not to divorce frivolously, that is wonderful. But do we really need the State of Indiana to hold you to your promise? Wouldn’t it be easier just to not get divorced?

Good Bills

HB 1170: Minimally nutritious food and beverage tax. Imposes an 11.5% tax, in addition to other applicable taxes, on the retail sale of minimally nutritious foods or beverages.

While I think that 11.5% is incredibly steep, I do agree with the idea of “sin taxing” unhealthy foods. You can kill yourself just as fast with excessive sugar as you can with cigarettes or alcohol.

SB 283: Emergency telephone notification system. Authorizes a county or municipality to establish an emergency telephone notification system to warn service users of emergencies.

How else are you supposed to know if a tornado is coming at 3 in the morning while you are sleeping?

HB 1201: Disruption of funeral. Makes disorderly conduct a Class D felony if it occurs within 500 feet of a funeral, burial, memorial service, funeral procession, or viewing.

I had originally intended to label this one silly, but in light of this news, it might be a good idea after all.

Cartoon Break

2006-01-08T11:49:00.000-05:00

Today's Smiting

2006-01-06T00:22:00.000-05:00

Pat Robertson declares that Ariel Sharon's health problems are punishment from God.

Apparently, if you please God in all you do, you can avoid natural disasters and live forever.

This man must be stopped.

Picture Break

2006-01-04T23:18:00.000-05:00

"The Indiana Government Center is Smoke-Free" as evidenced by the ashtray and cigarette butts, seen here at the Indiana Government Center.

Return of the TRIB

2006-01-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't notice, TRIB is back in business. I want to say thanks for the kind mention I got!

Bills Bills Bills II

2006-01-04T22:45:00.000-05:00

Silly Bills

HB 1066: Spotlighting wild animals. Provides that a person who, between October 1 and January 15, shines a spotlight, searchlight, or other artificial light on a wild animal for the purpose of locating a wild animal commits a Class C infraction.

Apparently, during the War on Christmas, Santa sustained injuries when enemy combatants shined lights into the eyes of Dasher and Dancer. So this is actually a National Security issue.

HB 1035: Appropriation for the Lincoln amphitheater. Appropriates $270,000 to the University of Southern Indiana for the Young Abe Lincoln Outdoor Theater for fiscal year 2006-2007.

Can you say PORK?

HB 1021: Hay baling on interstate rights-of-way. Requires the department of transportation to develop a program to contract with farmers to harvest hay along the rights-of-way of interstate highways.

Huh???

HB 1072: Holocaust study. Beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, requires each school corporation to include a study of the Holocaust as a part of its curriculum.

Let me be clear. I think that Holocaust history should be taught to high schoolers. This is only silly given the way the bill is written. It lists the things that must be on the curriculum as such:

1. Language
2. Math
3. Social Studies
4. Science
5. Art
6. Health
7. Holocaust

It seems that #7 might be more appropriate as a sub-subsection of #3. Maybe someone should propose

8. Outline Writing.

Bill O'Reilly Bills

HB 1013: In God We Trust license plate. Creates an In God We Trust license plate, and specifies that it is not a special group recognition license plate.

And since it is not a special group recognition plate, it comes without the normal $15 administrative fee. All the more money to put into the offering plate or into Bosma’s campaign fund.

HB 1055: Changes the requirements for food safety handling.

I won’t bore you with details, but basically this allows religious organizations to hold more than 30 fish fries or potlucks in a calendar year without requiring that the food preparers wash their hands.

Good Bills

HB 1029: College savings plan deduction. Provides that up to $2,000 in contributions to an Indiana college choice 529 investment plan may be deducted from adjusted gross income.

While this does reduce state revenue each year, it only does so by an amount approximately equal to the cost of the HB 1061: Lincoln Amphitheater (between $250K and $300K). So with a little controlled spending, the legislature can give parents an incentive to save for their children’s education, providing Indiana with a more educated population and a more skilled workforce (if we can keep the graduates here).

HB 1047: Financial literacy curriculum. Requires public schools (including charter schools) and accredited nonpublic schools to provide instruction in personal financial responsibility to students in grades 9 through 12.

Lesson #1—CREDIT CARDS: YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY THEM OFF EVENTUALLY

HB 1048: Mercury in vaccines. Prohibits administering a vaccine containing more than a trace amount of mercury to a person who is pregnant or less than eight years of age…Provides that a health care practitioner may be subject to disciplinary sanctions for failing to comply with these requirements.

While the Federal Government is protecting pharmaceutical companies by covering up the connection between child autism and FDA-approved vaccines containing mercury, State Legislators are protecting children. Bravo.

HB 1064 : School levy freeze. Imposes a freeze on the total amount of ad valorem property taxes that may be imposed by a school corporation for all funds beginning in 2007.

I’ll be honest—I haven’t read this yet. But I can say that one of the most prevalent reasons that property taxes keep going up is that local governments keep increasing levies for non-classroom related expenses, including new school buses and new school playgrounds. And gigantic Olympic-sized swimming pools. Freezing levies would freeze a large portion of property taxes and benefit all Hoosiers who are not part of a high school swim/dive team.

That takes care of about the first 100 bills per chamber. Only 1,000 or so more to go!

First Bushism of 2006

2006-01-03T23:39:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe Jon Stewart missed this one...

THE PRESIDENT: I'm conscious not to be trying to substitute myself for God.

-President Bush's Visit With Troops at Brooke Army Medical Center. Jan. 1, 2006

Bills Bills Bills I

2006-01-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

As legislation is introduced in the Indiana General Assembly this year, I will be looking for the noteworthy ones and sorting them into three categories:

1. Silly Bills: Bills that make you laugh, and then cry because you elected the idiot who places that issue on the top of the priority list. [Example: SB 433-20040--creation of an Indiana Poet Laureate.]

2. Bill O'Reilly Bills: Bills that crazy evangelicals and Fox News commentators think must be passed so that God will not smite us. [Example: SJR 7-2004--constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.]

3. Good Bills: Bills that your average technocrat would agree have positive, relevent effects on Indiana's citizens. Of course, you will have to take the word of this technocrat.

So here we go, Round I.

Silly Bills

SB 009: Provides that the State will honor any Indiana resident who is elected President or Vice President by building a statue of the person on the Statehouse lawn.

(In related news, Senator Bayh has begun a rigorous workout regimen).

SB 010: Authority to solemnize marriages. Authorizes the governor, the lieutenant governor, and members of the general assembly to solemnize marriages.

For a $500 contribution to the Republican Party, Mitch Daniels will allow you to tie the knot on RV1.

Bill O’Reilly Bills:

SB 004: Provides that a person may not be required, as a condition of training, employment, pay, promotion, or privileges, to dispense: (1) a medical device or drug that may result in an abortion; or (2) a birth control device or medication.

Because it is the pharmacists who are the victims, not the thousands of women whose contraception is held hostage by someone else's religious beliefs.

SB 006: Lifetime Parole for child molesters

SB 045 [Here's a doozy]: Fetal development curriculum. Requires each school corporation to include instruction regarding human fetal development in the school corporation's high school health education curriculum. Requires the following to be taught in the curriculum:

(1) the result of human sperm and egg convergence;
(2) the resulting development of human conception;
(3) the health consequences of early termination of pregnancy;
(4) photographic images portraying each state of uterine fetal development; and
(5) descriptions of human fetal development.

Well, you have to teach something on sex day...since teachers are no longer allowed to show kids how to put condoms on bananas.

Good Bills

HB 1001: State takeover of child welfare funding.

This is good for the following reasons:
1) it will lower property tax burden an average of 5% below what it would have been from 2005 forward. This is not to say that property tax bills will be lower next year, but they will be lower than they would be without the measure.
2) The responsibility for fundraising (i.e. the taxing) is done by those who make the decisions. Currently, state officials are not accountable to voters for inefficient allocation of funds. County officials simply give the state a blank check that is cashed against their own political capital. And that is a recipe for massive county-state conflicts.
3) Smoothing of funding. This means that normal citizens who happen to live in a county with a small tax base and large child welfare issues are not charged more than normal citizens who do not. It means that Indiana residents pay for Indiana children; no matter where the need is, everyone chips in equally.

SB 082: Allows the use of ISTEP test scores and scores on nationally recognized assessments to be used as one, but not the only, criterion in evaluating the performance of teachers and administrators.

State employees will soon be evaluated based on a large number of factors...the same should be true for teachers. Placing too much focus on ISTEP scores only encourages cheating, test-targeted teaching, and laziness.

More to come as legislation trickles in.

Picture Break

2005-12-22T16:13:00.000-05:00

Probably the funniest picture I have seen all year!

Cartoon Break

2005-12-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

The Carrot and the State Employee

2005-12-20T11:14:00.000-05:00

Governor Daniels is so proud of the work of his state employees this year, he is issued a letter to them conveying the following:

By any estimation, 2005 was a year of great improvement for Indiana state government and, even though we have much left to do to return a bankrupt treasury to the black, the progress deserves recognition. Accordingly, I have ordered a general salary adjustment of 2%, effective the first paycheck in February…

If you ever wonder why government jobs pay less than those in the private sector, here is the reason. The current inflation rate is 3.46% and the 2005 average of monthly inflation rates is 3.389%. A 2% increase in state salaries (as a “reward” for good work) actually translates into a decrease in real wage. So the longer Mr. Doe works for the state, the less he can purchase with his salary. And you can expect him to do the minimum amount of work necessary to keep his job, since the “reward” is issued to all current employees at a flat rate. Work above and beyond the minimum required provides no additional benefit to Mr. Doe.

This year-end reward system is not unique to the Daniels administration. It is simply how things work at the state. And for this reason, state employee salaries fall each year relative to the private sector (and you end up with lawyers and engineers making 60% less at the state than in the private sector).

BUT…Mitch is changing the reward structure effective next year. Another excerpt from the letter:

It is our intention that future salary adjustments be less “general”, instead being based on performance, as determined by the evaluation system now being put in place. Starting next year, there will be no automatic increases; individual raises will depend on performance that at least meets expectations. Outstanding work will be rewarded by greater levels of increases.

This will affect the quality of work produced by state employees more than anything that has been done so far by the Governor. The only effective way to improve employee performance is to give the employees a benefit for hard work. In an effort to give credit where credit is due, I must commend Mitch Daniels for his initiative in changing the reward structure next year. There are some things that government can learn from the private sector, this being the most important.

However, Governor Daniels must be mathematically careful in order for his changes to succeed. A nominal raise in salary is only a benefit if it increases the employee’s purchasing power (i.e. real wage). In order for this reward structure to work, the percentage increase to be given to those that “at least meet expectations” must be greater than or equal to the current inflation rate. Anything less is a punishment (as is the current increase), and we should not be punishing employees that meet expectations.

Provided that the Governor minds his numbers when calculating raises, there will be mutual benefit both to state employees and to the taxpayers that depend on them.

Pay No Attention to the Man Snooping Behind the Curtain

2005-12-20T11:11:00.000-05:00

Toto has pulled back the curtain and revealed the secrets of the Great And Powerful George.

George Bush authorized domestic spying to be done without court approval, and now argues that his actions are legal because he has a “constitutional authority to protect our country.” [I read that section of the Constitution, and it is a pretty far stretch to use that as a justification for spying on people...apparently the President is only a strict constructionist when it comes to gay marriage.]

Not only does the President admit to authorizing the spying, he also insists that he will continue doing so despite public outrage and legal questioning.

But if you ask The Great And Powerful George, the ”shameful act” is the leak of the information to the New York Times in a time of war. It is the same defense we heard with Plamegate…it is not the illegal action itself that is the problem, but rather the breach in secrecy that allowed the illegal action to be questioned or prosecuted.

The Great And Powerful George, instead of becoming bashful and bumbling with apologies (like the real Wizard of Oz), accounts for his misdeeds by pointing a finger at Toto. It is not “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” but rather, “look at that treasonous mutt.”

And that, in my opinion, is the real shameful act.

Something to Think About

2005-12-16T14:38:00.000-05:00

The Deficit Reduction bill which passed the House in November would cut spending by $50 billion over five years. The Tax Cut extension in the House would cause a loss of revenue (the exact same thing as an increase in spending) of $56.1 billion over five years. So Congress is taking money from social programs (which benefit the poor), handing it directly to other citizens (the rick ones, primarily), and is also increasing the deficit by $6.1 billion. Yet they will still claim to have done what is best for America.

And we thought Arthur Anderson used tricky accounting.

Picture Break

2005-12-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

In the category of "A picture is worth a thousand words"...

Bad Jezebella

2005-12-12T23:53:00.000-05:00

I wanted to apologize to my readers for my disparate posting lately. I have been bombarded with busy-ness on all fronts, and Indiana Politico falls below Things I Get Paid To Do and Things That Must Be Done Immediately on my priority list. I expect this situation to persist through December at least. I will post when I can, and when I do I will try to make it extra special.

But I will be back full force in January with new features Silly Bills and Bill O'Reilly Bills (ridiculous socially conservative measures), to be updated frequently as legislation is proposed before the Indiana General Assembly.

Until my next free moment...

Maureen Dowd: You Can Only Be a Feminist if You Are My Age

2005-12-12T22:53:00.000-05:00

I do not have a link for this, but I must mention it nonetheless. Maureen Dowd, who I truly respect, appeared on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday to discuss her new book. She also commented on her life as a feminist. Loosely quoting, she said: 'When I was younger, I used to be a different than most feminists because I liked feminine things like high heels and lipstick. But now, in a day when young women care more about text-messaging their boyfriends than about who is up for the Supreme Court, I find myself going to the other end of the spectrum.' Again, I am loosely quoting because the transcript is not readily available. But it is pretty darn close.

As a woman who probably fits in Ms. Dowd's definition of a 'young woman,' I take great offense to her assertions. If anything, young women today are MORE informed, independent, and intelligent than they were in Ms. Dowd's younger days:

Some statistics to prove my assertion:

In 2000, 22% of female high school students took calculus, up from 10% in 1990. 45% of female students reported taking physics.

In 1999, females were just as likely to have completed every math course their male peers might have taken.

Women represented 55% of students who took Advanced Placement exams in 1999.

The rates of women who plan to attend college and/or enroll in college have increased, and now surpass men.

Women have outnumbered men on college campuses since 1979, and on graduate school campuses since 1984.

More American women than men have received bachelor's degrees every year since 1982. Undergraduate levels rose from 41% to 56% between 1969 and 2000.

Young women are informed about their world as well. 90% of my female 20-something friends could name both of Bush's Supreme Court nominees, at least three of his Cabinet Members, at least two policy measures pending before Congress, and at least four Iraqi cities. Could Ms. Dowd's friends do the same in their 20's?

Just because women today wear lipstick and shave their legs, it does not make them less informed than Maureen Dowd was at 25.

Ms. Dowd also implies that having a romantic relationship (i.e. text-messaging one's boyfriend) and watching the news (i.e. paying attention to Supreme Court nominees) are mutually exclusive. As though any woman with a boyfriend and a cell phone would never be able to concentrate on boring old news.

I mean, like, look at this cute emoticon! There's, like, news and stuff on the internet? I thought it was only for, like, shopping and instant messenger and stuff.

Please.

I have a friend who has a boyfriend, a band, a job, a full semester of classes, and a number of projects around the house, and she is normally the one who informs me about Mitch Daniel's latest moves. She reads Ms. Dowd's column religiously. I have another friend who has a boyfriend in a different city who she travels weekly to see, and she still finds time to keep up with sports and politics AND start up her own business. She reads Ms. Dowd's column religiously. I myself have a boyfriend, a job, a full semester of classes, and a puppy, and I even manage to write about Supreme Court nominees. I read Ms. Dowd's column religiously. [To be fair, I also have a friend who does not know of Sam Alito or Maureen Dowd...but in college she could not name the Vice President of the United States...some people just don't care about politics.]

I have always respected Ms. Dowd and her opinions. But I would strongly suggest that before she further disrespects young women on national tv, that she actually get to know one or two. She might be pleasantly surprised.

Indy's Response to the Statehouse Ban on Sect-Specific Prayer

2005-12-04T23:14:00.000-05:00

Gary Varvel, whose serves as the Star’s resident Idiot Christian, has sparked quite a debate through his Expresso entry in which he claims that sect-specific prayer should be allowed during House of Representatives business because if someone doesn’t like something, they can simply turn the channel.

This is Mikal Belicove’s response:
…”When the Indiana House of Representatives sanctions a prayer of any kind, it IS an implicit sanction of that particular religion verses another. One can not simply 'change the channel' as you suggest (unless of course they were to get up and walk out of the room, which no one should have to do, ever, when sitting in a state's legislative chamber).”

Further, there are a number of staff members of the legislature who are required to be on the floor or monitor each and every House Session. To get up and leave because they preferred not to pray would be equivalent to disobeying boss’s orders. There are also visitors, educational groups, and clubs who come to watch legislation in action. Can a 4th-grader get up and leave his class if he becomes offended? Certainly not. I’m sure nobody would like their Christian children coming home from a field trip at the Statehouse and telling their parents that they were wrong all along, and Bahá’u’lláh is the Messenger of God. And that they know this to be true because the preacher at the Statehouse said so.

The Varvelist portion of society wrote in mostly complaining of persecution of the Christian majority and the attempt of the left to undermine the fact that we are a “Christian Nation.”

Randy Clark says, “The name of Jesus is what this country was founded on!! Why did the people of England want to leave? Because they were tired of being told how to worship.”

Allow me to paraphrase: The country was founded by people who fled England because their government had backed one religion which was different from their own. So the country was founded on the idea that government-mandated religion was bad. Which directly contradicts the statement that the country was founded on the name of Jesus. [If this is true, why was the U.S. not named Jesusland? Or The United States of Christendom?]

By the way, the government-backed religion was Anglicanism, which also worships Jesus and is simply a form of Christianity that was thought by Puritans to be “too Catholic.” If, in fact, the roots of this country are defined solely by the flight of Puritans from England, then the country is as much based on NOT worshipping Jesus as it is on worshipping Jesus. Even though the Puritans believed in the same god as the Anglicans, (listen closely), they still felt it was wrong for their government to force them to worship him.

Finally, in the 13 original colonies that ratified the Constitution, there were various religious sects including Puritans, Quakers, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, Baptists, and (gasp) Anglicans. So even the church that the original immigrants fled had representation in the forming of the Constitution. As did Jews, who certainly would not have argued for a country founded on the name of Jesus.

For all you who believe that the country should be allowed to mandate religion as long as it is *your* religion, consider this: with the constantly changing population in this country, there may be a day when Christianity is no longer the majority religion. By your reasoning, it would be okay for the new majority, say the Baha’is, to pray to your grandchildren or great-grandchildren in a government forum, or to teach their beliefs about the origins of life to your grandchildren in a public school. In that day, when you stir in your grave hearing your descendents reciting words that you consider blasphemous, then get back to me and let me know if you believe that it is okay to impose the religion of the majority on the rest of the country.

Cartoon Break

2005-12-02T14:45:00.000-05:00

In honor of the remaining snow on the ground...

The Way of the Future...Jesus Does not Run Our Legislature

2005-12-01T01:38:00.000-05:00

George Will seems to think that Indiana politics is the way of the future.

In this case, he is right. The ICLU won its lawsuit against House Speaker Brian Bosma in the issue of whether or not each House Session could begin with a specifically Christian prayer.

And that is a very good thing.

When the beginning of session begins with a prayer that thanks Jesus for the work of the legislature and prays in Jesus’ name that the work of the day be acceptable in the Lord’s eyes…that implies nothing but a Christian mandate on the work of the legislature.

Legislators, who are meant to be a secular group, should begin their sessions by reading the bills placed in front of them (which they don't), or by debating the merits of various ideas (which they don't)…not by thanking Jesus for their election. Their gratitude should be to their constituents…not to Jesus.

Our courts were successful in conveying this message: Jesus is not the official sponsor of the Indiana House of Representatives.

This is a wonderful development for our state, despite what you hear from the typical Christian activist who says that Jesus is the key to morality. Morality is much more than the Christian political activist ala James Dobson believes. And any legislator who wishes to govern by his religious beliefs should not require daily prayer to remind him of what his religious beliefs are.

If George Will is correct, and Indiana is the future of politics, then I feel better already about the course of the country in this bitter and all-too-ridiculous “culture war.”

If Indiana succeeds in taking its legislature to a plane of religious tolerance, what state can fail?

Surprise, Surprise...Another Republican Scandal

2005-11-28T14:49:00.000-05:00

Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-California) pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion.

"In a statement, prosecutors said Cunningham admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes paid to him by several conspirators through a variety of methods, including checks totaling over $1 million, cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations."

Among the largest bribes were from federal defense contractor Mitchell Wade, whose business revenues tripled after being awarded defense contracts by the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on which Rep. Cunningham sits.

Picture Break

2005-11-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful that our President is so up-front with the American people, demonstrating his Iraq exit plan through interpretive dance.

Smoky and the Hypochrites

2005-11-21T17:28:00.000-05:00

The Governor announced on Friday that he is banning smoking on Statehouse and Government Center property. Except for the smoking room on the third floor of the Statehouse which is for use by House Members only. And the multiple "smoking" legislator offices on floors 3 and 3.5 of the Statehouse. And the public hallway on the fourth floor, where former Rep. Mark Lytle was spotted smoking two years ago. And anywhere outside, so long as you are important. If you are not important, you are required to leave the premises. It is for your own good, really.

Et Tu, Murtha

2005-11-21T15:03:00.000-05:00

Vice President Cheney has begun his attacks Congressman Murtha, a decorated Marine combat veteran, following the Congressman's suggestion that we move troops out of Iraq as quickly as is practical. (He did not actually suggest immediate withdrawal, although that is how it is being spun.)

Once, just once, I would like to hear the White House offer a valid response to criticism instead of going immediately into Karl-Rovian attack mode.

Very soon, the “Marine Combat Veterans for Truth” will appear and collectively claim that Congressman Murtha received his Purple Hearts from paper-cuts and that, in fact, he sent a stunt double to Vietnam rather than going himself.

The group will be funded by Tom Delay’s PAC and advertising will be paid for with illegal donations from Halliburton and Exxon.

Foot In My Mouth

2005-11-21T15:02:00.000-05:00

Preliminary Tax Amnesty collections total $198 million. And it did not take three months as I so cynically predicted.

I Cannot Pass This Up

2005-11-21T15:01:00.000-05:00

The DOR elaborates on the newly enacted Sales Tax Exemption for RVs, such as those sold by the generous benefactors that donated RV1 to the State of Indiana. Daniels says that “gifts from people who want something from the state are not acceptable.” Yet the gift was offered, accepted, and rewarded by means of this tax break.

Bushism Break

2005-11-16T23:55:00.000-05:00

New Feature!

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."—Washington, D.C., May 25, 2004

Amnesty Data Calculation: The State's Own Albatross

2005-11-15T17:19:00.000-05:00

Tax Amnesty ended today, and everyone wants to know the results. Masson asks for relevant statistics such as the total revenue, the money lost by means of forgiven penalties, and the unpaid amnesty debt that will accrue. Based on my research of tax amnesty in other states and the language in the Indiana Amnesty Act, here is what to expect in the way of post-amnesty statistics (Yes, I am sort of cutting and pasting from the comment I posted on Masson’s Blog earlier):

--I expect it to take up to three months for the DOR to calculate preliminary estimates of the total revenue that amnesty brought in and publish a report with all the statistics. Some states have taken over a year to complete post-amnesty reports, and some never do. With the influx of payments at the end of the amnesty period, it normally takes quite a while after the amnesty deadline to process all of the payments.

--I would not expect there to be any publication of the amount of lost penalties and fees - it is not only very difficult to calculate, but it is casts a negative light on amnesty. The main purpose of a post-amnesty report is to make revenue departments and politicians look like fiscal heroes.

--As far as the uncollected monies from taxpayers who arranged a payment plan, nobody will know those numbers until June 15, 2006, when all payment plan debts must be paid in full. I predict that if the information is made public, it will only be available to those who are savvy enough with the DOR’s data website to piece it together by hand.

I certainly hope that I am proven wrong and that amnesty data is made available quickly and completely. But experiences in other states indicate that after an amnesty, the revenue number is broadcast loudly and publicly while the hidden story of lost fees and decreasing future tax compliance is swept away even faster than John Q.'s tax debt was.

Thou Shalt Not Consolidate

2005-11-15T01:39:00.000-05:00

Mayor Bart Peterson's police consolidation plan failed in a vote tonight. Ironically, the Mayor had garnered recent support by putting the Sheriff in control of the force; the swing voter Sherron Franklin voted against the plan partly because she wanted the Mayor to be in control instead.

And partly because God told her to vote that way. Or so she told WISH-TV news in an interview late tonight when I should have been in bed.

If God really cares about Indianapolis mergers and spoke to Ms. Franklin in order to accomplish his omniscient will in our city, fine. But couldn't he have given her a better reason to vote 'no'? Where in the Bible does it say 'Thou shalt not place power with an elected official; the righteous shall instead entrust appointed officials with control of their uniformed officers"?

Picture Break

2005-11-14T01:12:00.000-05:00

I could not have said it better myself, and I recently tried.

Quick Note on My Title Links

2005-11-14T01:03:00.000-05:00

Some company has hijacked my blog and is linking my post titles to its website. I have no idea how this happened. I do not endorse the company, and I would appreciate any advice you might have to make it stop.

Sex-Obsessed Conservative Talk Show Hosts (other than Bill O'Reilly)

2005-11-13T17:29:00.000-05:00

Joe Scarborough lamented Thursday night that “you turn to MTV anytime, you turn to a lot of these channels that are directed towards the youth of America, and you are going to see sex, sex, sex. I don't watch MTV anymore because I can't see videos on there, because they are always these stupid real-life sex shows.”

But is it really MTV that is obsessed with sex? Or is it Joe Scarborough and his conservative cohorts at MSNBC?

On Thursday night, the word “sex” was uttered 30 times on Rita Cosby Live and Direct and a shocking 60 times on Scarborough Country. Rita Cosby went inside the Bunny Ranch brothel and was right on top of the lesbian NFL cheerleaders (so to speak). Joe Scarborough obsessed over internet child solicitation and pedophilia and topped it off with a feature on, what else, lesbian oral sex in a nightclub bathroom. Rita Cosby watched.

By contrast, the word “sex” was uttered two or less times on MSNBC’s more liberal programs:

Hardball with Chris Matthews: 0
Countdown with Keith Olbermann: 2
The Situation with Tucker Carlson: 1

So who is it that is bombarding our culture with sex? It is not the liberals this time. It is conservative talk show hosts who, in an effort to avoid disparaging Republican officials, show endless footage of a naked pedophile walking around a kitchen.

Because they care about moral values.

[Note: check out the word counts for yourself on the transcripts here.]

Congress Tries Its Hand At Blame-Gaming

2005-11-09T12:08:00.000-05:00

Big Oil made enormous profits in the last quarter, and lawmakers are very upset about it. They are interviewing oil CEOs such as Exxon’s Lee Raymond to root out the cause and investigate claims of price gouging.

It is certainly true that as gas prices rise, money is going straight from the wallets of consumers into the wallets of oil stockholders. But it is not Lee Raymond’s fault. It is Lee Raymond's job to maximize profits. Rather, it is the fault of our Congress which believes in corporate welfare and tax breaks at the expense of the lower and middle classes.

The reason the oil companies are achieving record profits is that legislation enacted by the Republican Congress has cut taxes on manufacturing corporations (which include oil companies) and passed $14 billion in tax breaks for oil companies in the 2005 energy bill. Certainly Lee Raymond will have more money to pay his stockholders if the government foregoes its own cut of Exxon profits in exchange for campaign contributions.

This is a prime example of the shortcomings of the corporate welfare strategy: money given to big business does not “trickle down” to the average worker…it trickles instead to wealthy stockholders and to political campaigns. There is no such thing as corporate altruism.

So what is a congressman to do?

First, get out of bed with Lee Raymond.

Second, restore the tax on oil profits to its 1999 level.

Third, use the new government revenue to fund energy independence initiatives. Or use it to cut income taxes for the middle class to counteract the negative effect of rising gas prices on household budgets. Or use it to purchase body armor for troops who are fighting a war that aligns the government of oil-rich Iraq with that of the U.S.

Do NOT try to appease us with a faux investigation of Lee Raymond when the crimes against the middle class were clearly committed by you.

COLTS!!

2005-11-08T22:35:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, there lived a quarterback who could beat every team in the land. Except for one. It was led by the evil prince Tom who used his handsomeness to cast spells of snow and rain, and was rewarded with many rings for his fingers. Then one fortunate day, the quarterback discovered that the prince had a secret weapon called an "effective defense." The quarterback had only been given a "mediocre defense," which could not fight the power of prince Tom's handsomeness. So the quarterback secretly switched his defense with that of the prince, and lo and behold...

Peyton Manning defeats Brady's Pats 40-21.

And they all lived happily ever after. At least in Indianapolis.

Video Break

2005-11-01T22:49:00.000-05:00

From the men who brought you the best 2004 election humor around...

JibJab presents Big Box Mart, a parody of Wal-Mart.

(This may be old, but it is the first time I have seen it. And I do my best to find everything on the web that disparages Wal-Mart.)

An Opinion on Everything

2005-11-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

On Libby’s Indictment: Meet Scooter, the new administration scapegoat. The thing about obstruction of justice and making false statements is that it is a crime that can protect other criminals from being prosecuted (i.e. Cheney). Scooter had a choice to admit to outing a CIA agent and take others with him, or to lie and cover the asses of his bosses. He clearly chose door #2.

On TurdBlossom: Hopefully Fitzgerald stays persistent in his investigation of “Official A.” “A,” of course, is short for “evildoer Karl Rove.”

On Harriet Miers: Congratulations, crazy evangelicals. You still have control of the President. Or was it the moderate conservatives and democrats who forced her out with criticisms of inexperience? There was one person in the country who firmly backed Harriet Miers (the President, of course), while every other faction opposed her nomination. So her withdrawal proves once and for all that the President is less powerful than all the other people in Washington put together. Which is reassuring.

On Justice Alito: From what I hear, I do not like him. Fortunately, in Alito-World, when I become pregnant and cannot have an abortion without my husband’s consent, there will be an abundance of machine guns available for me to use to make, er, persuasive arguments to my husband or clinic physician. I am hearing the words “filibuster” and “nuclear” already.

On Bird Flu: Bird Flu is something for the President and CDC officials to worry about. It is not something over which Soledad O’Brien should conjecture while I am trying to enjoy my morning coffee. Since the virus can only jump to humans from birds, I should not be worried about it given that I do not share lip gloss with chickens. And the media should respect my right to not be forced into a panic attack before breakfast.

On Rosa Parks: The best way to honor her life is to pursue her ideals, namely civil rights for all. It is hypocrisy to give speeches about her importance and then go back to work passing legislation that undermines civil equality.

On Cronyism: It occurred to me that Dubya is so keen on handing jobs to unqualified cronies because that is how he got all of his jobs! Without cronyism, George Bush would be the second-assistant marketing coordinator for Boring Old Enterprises, Inc. and would be chopping wood to heat his house, not to infuse his base of Nascar dads. You gotta dance with the one that brung ya, and cronyism is Bush’s best gal. So why not perpetuate the upper-class welfare that was so kind to Dubya in the past?

Bonus Cartoon Break

2005-10-26T19:22:00.000-05:00

All Political Scandals Start With a Dick

2005-10-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

The New York Times reports that Vice President Cheney had hands-on involvement with the White House Leak. Here are the essential facts:

The Evidence: Scooter's notes from a meeting with Dick in which Dick disclosed the Valerie Plame information to Scooter.

The Trail: The notes indicate that Dick got the information from George Tenet in a discussion initiated by Dick. So the information went from Tenet to Dick to Scooter to Reporters.

The Background: The CIA leak was part of a smear campaign against those who spoke out against the existence of WMD in Iraq, which is, of course, the porported reason that we as a country are 2,000 troops shorter and $203 billion poorer.

The Implications: The marketing campaign for the Iraq War, from the improper use of intelligence to the smearing of detractors, had the brains of the Vice President behind it.

But that should be no surprise to anyone.

From Watergate to Monicagate to Plamegate...All political scandals start with a Dick.

Memoirs from My Trip to BMV

2005-10-21T17:38:00.000-05:00

I was at the BMV today to renew my drivers' license, and I have a few things to relay:

1- It was about 85 degrees in there.

2- After every transaction, the employee would walk (no, more like mosey) the paperwork across the room to the cashier on behalf of the customer. How much time would be saved if the customer walked it there himself?

3- Every time an employee called a number, at least 20 seconds was wasted calling numbers that were already being helped. They were being called over and over again because whoever was helping them had not clicked up the "serving number blank" sign to the next person. When my name was called, the sign said a number 9 before mine. Then my name was called two times after I had already passed my eye test and changed my address.

4- When I asked the employee that was helping me about the heat, she told me that they keep it that warm so that nobody will complain that it is cold. She also told me that they are required to wear their navy blue sweaters at all times and that they are not allowed to drink water in front of customers.

No wonder they mosey.

Matthews on Indictments

2005-10-21T17:32:00.000-05:00

Here is a piece from Chris Matthews' Hardblogger on the magnitude of the Plame Leak investigation:

The vice president has made the case for war very effectively on programs like 'Meet the Press,' that we had to go to war with Saddam Hussein because he possessed the potential to make nuclear war against the United States - to somehow deliver a nuclear weapon to this country.

For a lot of people, that was the deal maker for the war. They had a lot of problems invading a third-world country, but they said 'Well, if he has a nuclear program over there that is threatening us, we have to act.'

Well, we got over there, and our troops took that country, and there was no WMD, no nuclear, no nothing, so there is a lot of concern about how we could have gotten into a war based on false pretenses.

All of the sudden, Joe Wilson comes up and starts leaking to the New York Times' Nick
Kristoff, 'Wait a minute, they not only don't have any WMD to justify the war, they knew there wasn't going to be any WMD because they knew, based upon my trip over there, that there was no deal to buy uranium by Saddam Hussein in Africa.' That's the big picture here.

What happens (then) is that the president of the United States gets upset, apparently, and wants to know what happened with the WMD, why there isn't any -- the vice president's office had said there are going to be WMD, the CIA was going along with it, even.

So there's a huge problem for the vice president to justify his behavior. Why didn't he pay attention to this trip that had been made to Africa? Why didn't he see that there was no WMD before we went to war, no uranium deal?

That's the heat about this. What did the vice president and his people do, faced with the hot seat that they were sitting on, that they had somehow gotten accused of taking us into war under false pretenses.

That's the environment in which this whole thing may have been hatched. If there was law-breaking, it came out of the vice president and his people's determination to protect themselves against the charge that they led us into a corrupt war, a war based on false pretenses.

That's how hot this thing is.

If there are indictments, they're going to be probably in the vice president's office, they're probably going to come next week and they are going to blow this White House apart.

It's going to be unbelievable.

I think the people watching right now who are voters better start paying attention to this issue. It's not just about whether somebody's name was leaked, it's about whether we went to war under false pretenses or not, whether people knew about that or not, and what they did when they were charged against that kind of offense against the United States.

Pinky and the Leaker

2005-10-18T23:15:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post reports that Vice President Cheney's Office is the new focus of the Plame investigation.

Egad, Dick, what are we going to do today?

The same thing we do every day, Dubya...We are going to take over the world!