Archive for June, 2008

(From Congressman Souder’s website)

U.S. Rep. Mark Souder released the following statement today regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller.

“Today, the highest court in the land affirmed what many of us already knew: our Bill of Rights guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms, and the gun ban imposed by Washington, D.C., is not only ineffective but, more importantly, unconstitutional.

“I was privileged to be the lead House Republican on an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court earlier this year by 250 House Members, 55 Senators, and the Vice President, in his capacity as President of the Senate. For years, I have also been an outspoken critic of D.C.’s gun ban, and I’ve sponsored legislation in the House of Representatives to overturn it.

“I look forward to reading the details of the majority decision penned by Justice Scalia, but I am pleased that the Court’s philosophy is correct. This decision doesn’t just affect D.C.—it secures our Second Amendment right nationwide.”

The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre is announcing today the National Rifle Association is filing lawsuits in US District Courts against the City of Chicago and all of the Chicago suburbs that passed firearms bans, the city of San Francisco, among other cities in the US that passed firearms bans to get their firearms laws overturned on the basis of new case law with today’s Heller decision.

UPDATE: Chicago suburb Wilmette, Illinois has suspended enforcement of its firearms ban as a result of the Heller decision, according the NBC5 in Chicago. Of note is this interesting quote:[click More] (more…)

10:22 AM - The Majority opinion is written by Justice Antonin Scalia as my source said, and on the surface it appears the Washington, DC firearms ban is STRUCK DOWN! The decision is 5-4 in favor of ruling that the 2nd Amendment applies to an INDIVIDUAL’S right to possess firearm

The SCOTUS Blog has the decision in PDF form HERE (h/t Gary Welsh).

[More of the Court's Decision after the leap] (more…)

Congressman Dan Burton has released his plan for energy independence.  It focuses on drilling in ANWR and the Continental Shelf, but also seeks to promote research on alternative forms of energy such as wind, coal to liquid and nuclear.  He also wants to relieve the current rise in food prices by making more land available for biofuel crops.

(Hat Tip - Burton Campaign Blog)

Refining Capacity:

• Increases refining capacity by allowing the president to designate old, unused military bases for refining production.

• Encourage new refinery construction by requiring IRS to take action to allow tax exempt bonds to be used for construction of certain refineries, and make federal lands available for refinery construction.

Drilling:

• Lift the Congressional Moratoria on drilling in along the Outer Continental Shelf potentially providing 17 billion barrels of oil.

• Open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to responsible drilling, potentially producing nearly a million barrels per day for several decades.

Oil Shale:

• Provide an incentive for the extraction and processing of oil shale- It has been estimated that oil shale deposits in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming hold the equivalent of as little as 1.8 trillion barrels of oil and potentially as much as 8 trillion barrels of oil.

(Read the rest of the Congressman’s Plan below the fold) (more…)

Survey USA has a new poll out, and it shows some very interesting results in both the presidential race and the gubernatorial race (presidential crosstabs here).

Incumbent Republican Governor Mitch Daniels leads Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson by 5 points, according to this latest SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WHAS-TV Louisville and WCPO-TV Cincinnati.

Today, it’s Daniels and Lt. Governor Becky Skillman 50%, Long Thompson and running mate Dennie Oxley 45%. Among men, Daniels leads by 8 points; among women, Daniels leads by 3. 15% of Republicans cross over to vote for the Democratic ticket; 22% of Democrats cross over to vote for the Republican ticket. Independents favor Daniels by 3 points.

On its face, that’s a typical result, right?

Another poll, another lead for Mitch. Even JLT’s polling shows Mitch in the lead.

So why are certain Democrat blogs so happy and joyful?

In a word? Schadenfreude; Wagner and Cook never liked JLT anyway.

They’re also delusional (you don’t merely “cling” to a 5 point lead when even your candidate’s polling shows your opponent ahead, along with every other poll; their spin is truly hilarious to behold).

Let’s look for a moment at the polling sample.

(Read more below the fold) (more…)

Just found these two gems. I don’t know which one is Dennie Ray Oxley II’s old job he gave up for his destined ill fated run for Gov Lite, but maybe you or someone you know is qualified to fill Dennie’s shoes.

Beam Longest & Neff Job #1

Beam Longest & Neff Job #2

*Editors Note - This is part two (part one found here) of a guest post by Holly Davis. This time she writes about Frank Lutz talking about what he knows best; politics! Holly Davis is the Executive Director of the Indiana Leadership Forum and is Vice President of Gauge Market Research.*

This morning, the Pacer’s invited a few members of the media to a private briefing with Frank Luntz. Luntz opened with his short lists for Obama and McCain.

For Obama, Luntz sited Sam Nun (D-GA), Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Ed Rendell (D-PA). Nunn he liked for his foreign policy experience. Rendell because he is a relentless campaigner and the 21 Electoral College votes Pennsylvania brings is not too shabby either (Luntz mused that an Obama Rendell ticket campaign would be the KKK’s worst nightmare.) He said as far as speculation about Joe Bidden, Luntz said Delaware (with their 3 electoral votes) “does not exist.” Better they should make Bidden Secretary of State if they want to include him in the administration.

Regarding Evan Bayh, Luntz said that if you are from a red state and you can turn it blue, you add tremendous value to the presidential ticket. Hoosiers, though we lean Republican, have shown we have no problem splitting our tickets.

(Read more, including Mr. Lutz’s take on the Republican choices for VP after the leap.) (more…)

The new and improved JLT for State Fire Baton Twirler ad!

Thanks to Dan Turkette for taking it to the next level.

(Hat Tip - Dan Turkette of Fort Wayne News. Check out his post that goes with it.)

*Editors note - This guest post (part 1 of 2) comes from a good friend of mine, Holly Davis. Holly is the Executive Director of the Indiana Leadership Forum and is Vice President of Gauge Market Research.*

Renowned pollster, Frank Luntz, has been retained by the Pacers to help with image rebuilding. A tall order to be sure, Luntz has held a series of focus groups and his findings are not unlike you would expect: the Pacers need a serious make over. Early findings seem to point to moms as being the first in a series of building blocks for community reconciliation. According to Luntz’s findings, mothers are most concerned with community and family, and can be the gate keepers when deciding what events their children attend. The Pacers need mothers to embrace them in a big way.

After spending all of that money to build the Field House, it is a shame to see the team go downhill so fast. Remember when our city’s leaders told us the new arena was necessary to get big moneyed sponsors room to entertain clients? Now the Pacers boast one of the lowest attendance records in the NBA. Fans have lost interest in the team, and they do not want to spend limited entertainment money going to see a bunch of overpaid athletes duke it out. I would assert that high on the priority list has to be butts in the seats. They need to deep discount tickets to the Fever and Pacers games for a short time. Initially one might object to giving up the potential revenue, but I would counter that it is not like anyone is really buying tickets right now anyway. Their first priority must be getting people back into Conseco to get reacquainted with the team and, ultimately, to remember that, as Hoosiers, they like basketball. It is in the DNA.

(Read more below the fold) (more…)

We want to thank Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman for taking the time to respond to our question.  As with our first installment of “Ask the Gov!”, we asked the LG the first question.  We wondered:

“We have seen you and the Governor travel the state recently following the storms. Tell us about what you’ve witnessed.”

…or not.

He’s proposing yet another commission to study the issue.

Sort of reminds me of all of the commissions and studies (and studies to study the study, and then studies to study the study that studied the study; try saying that three times fast) that have been done for a bridge over the Ohio River east of Louisville.

So much for Baron actually doing anything that would really benefit Hoosiers.

Heck, it’s a partisan sham job, rather than a genuine or sincere bipartisan effort.

Republicans in Congress are completely shut out of the process, and the White House is given one appointment space to Congress’ four (and none of those four include any Republicans; just Democrat committee chairmen).

Indeed, the Democrats reserve to themselves positions as “co-chairmen” of the commission; Baron’s proposal makes no pretense of bipartisanship whatsoever, despite the importance of the issue and the need for both parties to work together to address it.

This is little more than a cheap election year political stunt by Baron to cover his rear and to allow him to back down from his earlier declarations regarding health care.

(Read more after the leap) (more…)