Archive for August 26th, 2008

Okay, before all our loyal conservative and Republican readers read the post title and get their undies in a bunch, I’m writing this post more as a political strategist than as a blogger.

There has a been a lot of scuttlebut as to why, on the first night of the Democrat National Convention, that the headline speakers, Senator Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama, didn’t go for the jugular of the Republicans? Why did they let everybody off? The MSM to the blogosphere expected blood, but instead got…kumbaya?!!? What was with that?

So did the strategy work?

You’re not going to see a poll bump after day one of the convention (notice it didn’t happen after the VP announcement either), but it was a healthy start to the final 70 days of the campaign season in which the vast majority of Americans are only now starting to pay attention.

If you’re a political junkie (and if you read this site, you probably are) then you’ve heard all the rhetoric, could probably give the speeches on behalf of the candidates and argue the merits of each candidates proposals (or lack thereof) till you’re blue in the face.

The simple fact is, we’re in the minority of American voters.

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(Originally posted by Gonz O. Defenestrator at When the Going Get’s Weird, the Tough Turn Pro.  Reprinted with permission)

Greetings again fellow flacks, hacks, and dumpster Divers! This is commentary and I am chagrined to be back in the realm of serious stuff and beg that you don’t throw old, rotten vegetables at me for taking up so much space. Sometimes you just gotta speak out.

Trust me. I’d rather be writing about Obama-blather (his or hers) and the Democrat Party’s slow spiral into insanity. But, I digress…

I recently had to go through the quadrennial “Happy Birthday” pilgrimage to the BMV to get a new drivers license. Let me just say it was no where near the experience I “enjoyed” a scant four years ago. (Friendly, courteous, and fast … In and out … 17 minutes. Certified. I timed it with my citizens Eco-drive Chronograph wristwatch) With all the problems I had had with some of the things in this administration, just the fact that the BMV works is enough to earn my eternal gratitude.

So the administration is trying something new and innovative and all of a sudden the local cage-liner reports that LaPorte County lawsuit seeks to halt welfare privatization. The lawsuit, filed by Messr. Friedman, Esq., is interesting because of this little tidbit from the Tim Evans story which is both instructive and enlightening:

LaPorte attorney Shaw R. Friedman, who is representing the eight Hoosiers who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.”The only thing that Mitch Daniels and Mitch Roob will respect is a court order, and we aim to get that for them.”

Roob called the suit “transparently political,” noting Friedman is a former Democratic Party leader in LaPorte County. FSSA also rents office space from Friedman and his father, Roob said, and they stand to lose money if the agency moves its county office to a new location.

Look, dissent is a healthy thing. Debate is an integral part of our Civil discourse. But using the Courts to get your way when you lose at the ballot box, to stifle innovation, or to derail a part of the administration priorities, is just wrong.

So I am wondering: “Who is Shaw Friedman?”

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Here is your “reality-based” community at work.  Warning - some swearing near the end.

This is what’s going on outside the DNC convention that you may not hear a lot about.

(H/T Jawa Report)

Dr. Kenneth Ackles, a chiropractor by trade, and some how the elected Marion County coroner (chiropractor to coroner…easy transition there) is suing the city because hasn’t been paid in a while. Why hasn’t he been paid? Well, he failed the test on how to be a coroner.

The Indy Star Reports:

The Marion County coroner is suing state and city officials for withholding his pay because he has not passed a state-ordered training course.

In March, the City-County Council voted 20-8 to withhold the salary of Coroner Kenneth Ackles.
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A 2007 state law requires that the council freeze the coroner’s $38,501 annual salary if he did not complete, by Jan. 1, a 40-hour course and test that coroners view as basic knowledge of death investigations. The law was enacted in response to a mix-up in which a Taylor University student who survived a 2006 crash was misidentified as another student who died.

The law allows coroners and deputy coroners an exception if they have a good reason for their failure to pass the test and can show they have made progress.

Officials said Ackles passed seven of 10 portions but had not signed up to retake the last three portions.

Why not just take the last three portions Dr. Ackles? Oh, that’s right. You’re up for re-election, except not, because your own Marion County Democrat Party slated someone else because your office was a running joke of mismanagement and mistakes.  Way to fight for that salary.

Doug Masson has a post (approvingly?) noting a “scathing look” at the military career of John McCain.

Doug says that McCain is supposedly hiding behind his time as a prisoner of war as a result of his houses gaffe. I must have missed that campaign tactic; the response I saw from the McCain campaign to the houses thing was to point to Obama’s shady house deal with Chicago slumlord, convicted felon, and Obama patron Tony Rezko.

Regardless, Doug seems concerned that “if McCain intends on using his history as a P.O.W. as an all-purpose shield; that shield will have to be weakened somehow,” a delightful sentiment for any left-thinking person to have.

The substance of the criticism of McCain’s military career seems very sparse. But then, McCain has made his political reputation about what he did since Vietnam, not what he did while there. And he has done a lot since then (much of it earning the anger of rank-and-file members of his own party). It’s an unavoidable part of his life story and the associated narrative to mention that, yeah, McCain was a fighter pilot and a prisoner of war. Particularly in the case of the latter, such experiences can’t help but shape someone’s character.

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