Archive for October 1st, 2008

Something is going to get out of Washington to deal with the financial crisis, that is if Senate Democrats (and the President) have their way.  The Senate has already crafted legislation that includes the almighty conservative buzz words “tax cuts”.  But what the Senate Bailout plan is attached to and what it includes is not going to win over House conservatives at all.

Consider this; the Senate Wall Street Bailout plan is attached to the Democrats Energy Bill and happens to include some interesting pork projects and other oddities.  Chew on these for a bit:

• Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
• Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility
• Sec. 324. Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
• Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
• Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
• Btw, those arrows?  Yeah, the wooden arrows must: “measure 5?16 of an inch or less in diameter,” and are “not suitable for use with a bow”

Follow all the interesting things that are added to this bill on Twitter at “Found in the Bill“.

I’ve been watching some so-called non-political efforts to attack Gov. Daniel’s agenda through the courts (now that the Democrats have all but abandoned their nominee).

It’s led me to look at some other “groups” in and around Indiana.  Our favorite thus far has been the Indiana Home Care Task Force.  A friend of HA passed on the attached document, passed out by this “task force”, to us (seen at the bottom of the post).  It was being circulated in Kokomo (and most likely in a number of other places) in an attempt to encourage welfare recipients to complain to the Feds about FSSA.

But when you Google the Indiana Home Care Task Force you don’t find a website.  There is no reference to what constitutes a member of this organization.  However, you get a lot of references to John Cardwell, who seems to be using this “task force” to cause problems all over the state.  But clearly the Indianapolis Star and others who have quoted Cardwell have failed to do their homework.  It turns out the “task force” is a one-man shell game only the founders of Enron could have accomplished.  Let’s look at the closest thing we could find to a membership roster as reported in the Kokomo Perspective: Legislative Commission coming to Kokomo:

Within the Task Force, organizations such as United Senior Action, Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans, ACLU, The Generations Project, and Hoosiers First have taken a leading role in addressing the privatization issue.

I took a look at these groups out of interest.

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As I noted on Sunday, the gloves have come off. Mike Sodrel’s surge in recent polling has terrified Baron Hill and his liberal allies in Washington, and has spurred them to return to the same old negative campaigning we saw in 2006.

Mike Sodrel, as I noted before, made a proposal to avoid such unpleasantness, but was rudely rebuffed by Baron Hill. A positive campaign wouldn’t suit Baron it seems; he says that negative ads work.

Following their opening salvo of negative mail containing lies about the Fair Tax, Baron’s allies in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have put forward this ad:

Let’s fact check this, shall we?

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Yesterday, I had a unique opportunity, as a blogger, to participate in a conference call with Secretary of State Todd Rokita while he was in Iraq and Kuwait observing the voting process for our Hoosier men and women fighting in Iraq.  Mostly, I just listened in to hear what he would have to say about how the absentee voting worked for our servicemen.

Three things stuck out to me about this process that Rokita mentioned.  First, that this was the first time any elected state official lower than Governor was allowed to visit our troops in such a fashion.  Second, was that voting turnout is extremely high.  He chalked that up to the improved methods of voting for troops (troops can vote by absentee, email, a secure internet process set up by the Dept. of Defense or fax) as well as the general importance of this election.  He mentioned that he’s hearing as much about presidential election in Iraq as he in the United States.  Third, he also mentioned turnout was high because of the greater importance in the handling of ballots and the importance that the military has put on connecting troops with military personnel in charge of voting.  He mentioned that the ballots are seen as a direct extension of the soldier and that the ballots are treated with the utmost care.  WISHTV.com quoted Rokita as saying:

“They take special care of the ballot as soon as it gets in the mail. They segregate the ballot, preserving the soldier’s privacy. Collect all the ballots, and it’s the first box of mail that goes on each plane, as it leaves Ballad, or other places in the theatre to come back to that soldier’s county clerk’s office,”

It was a very interesting look into the process of how our troops votes are treated and the increasingly painstaking options with which the military is making sure the votes of our troops count, especially in the light of such an important election.  He closed by saying that, as Indiana’s top election official, he doesn’t care what party you belong to as long as you vote.

(Read the press release that announced Rokita’s visit to Iraq below the fold) (more…)

Polls continue to indicate that Jill Long Thompson’s campaign is pretty much finished.

Big labor, however, which bankrolled her efforts to the tune of over a million dollars (and even pledged a blank check that apparently bounced), isn’t done yet.

They’re not finished with Mitch Daniels and his free market program. Not by a long shot. If Mitch is reelected, his policies of involving the private sector to make the (previously heavily-unionized) public sector more efficient will continue. And they’ll likely start to catch on in other states, given success here.

If that happens, these unions can kiss their millions in mandatory payroll deductions, otherwise known as union dues, goodbye.

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