Archive for October 13th, 2008

Bloomington Herald-Times, October 13, 2008

To the editor:

While Mike Sodrel was our representative in Congress, he was busy working for Bloomington. Among his accomplishments:

• Sodrel secured $500,000 in federal matching funds for the expansion of Fullerton Pike.
• Sodrel secured $1.8 million for a Bloomington Transit park and ride program, an investment that especially relevant now given the price of gasoline.
• Sodrel secured $4 million for Bloomington Transit a few months before he secured the money for park and ride.
• Sodrel secured $1.35 million in funding for the IU Cyclotron Facility to develop a Free Electron Laser.
• Sodrel secured “$1.17 million for the chemistry department’s Next Generation Threat Detection program, intended to develop methods for detecting chemical and biological warfare agents.” (H-T, September 28, 2006)

Sodrel was asked about this on AM 1370 last month, when the host made the point that Bloomington is not an especially politically friendly place for him. Sodrel responded that “while you run as a Republican or a Democrat, you serve everyone in the district.”

Mike Sodrel is truly “getting things done for us”. I look forward to sending him back to Washington to continue to work for Bloomington and all of the Ninth District. Thanks Mike!

Straight from the mouths of those who support Barack Obama.  Just listen.

(H/T - Jawa Report)

Over a year before Barack Obama said that sub-prime mortgages started off as a good idea, John McCain, in May of 2006, demanded action on Fannie and Freddie.

Via Human Events:

Sen. John McCain’s 2006 demand for regulatory action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have prevented current financial crisis, as HUMAN EVENTS learned from the letter shown in full text below.

McCain’s letter — signed by nineteen other senators — said that it was “…vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]…operate in a safe and sound manner.[and]..More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event that either…should fail.”

Sen. Obama did not sign the letter, nor did any other Democrat.

(See the full text of the letter after the leap) (more…)

(Last week’s letter to my district)

I am writing this today as I react to the events of the past week.

My office received literally thousands of calls supporting my decision to vote against the $700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout bill. They thought this money was excessive, undemocratic and was anti free market. I agreed and that’s why I voted against the bailout- twice.

But that’s not the worst of it. The bill also included, in the end, over $100 billion dollars more in pork spending. That included money for motorsports track owners, excise tax breaks for rum imported from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and money for Hollywood movie makers.

Let me say this again- $100 Billion more in Pork.

I am thoroughly disgusted. And I’m sure you are too.

As long as I am your Congressman, I will continue to fight for taxpayers over these special interests. I am sorry to say that my efforts to stop this bailout (along with members of both parties) failed this time.

I’ll continue to do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Folks, with three weeks left in election season where do you think a candidate for any office needs to be?  One might say going door-to-door.  One might say, making phone calls.  And if you’re a statewide candidate one might think you would want to be, say….in the state!

Such is not the case for Democrat Dick Wood who wants to be the next Superintendent of Public Instruction. In fact, he’s not even in the country.  He’s on safari in Africa!  Yep, you read that right.  Africa.

From the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette:

The rumors had him wearing a khaki outfit, riding in a jeep in the African bush looking for lions and elephants.

Richard Wood, Democratic candidate for Indiana’s superintendent for public instruction, is in Africa, but campaign manager Kathy Dale would not describe the trip as a safari. Wood is in South Africa for two weeks visiting schools, learning about what is going on in education globally, Dale said.

There was some apprehension about Wood being on another continent less than three weeks before the election, but the trip has been planned for more than a year, Dale said.

Don’t let the school line fool you.  Sources inform me that this had been planned for a year, before he was running for Superintendent and after he announced his retirement. This apparently was his retirement trip, and he had been telling people since last fall he was taking a safari.

So Dick Wood leaves his campaign with three weeks to go. I don’t care how far in advance you planned your “two weeks worth of visiting schools”, your running for office. Something either gets bagged. Your trip or your hopes at a higher office.

Guess we know what Dick Wood’s priorities are.

*Update* - Here is Matt Tully talking to Abdul of Abdul in the Morning about Dick Wood baggin’ cheetah’s in the plains of South Africa…I mean, going on Safari.

 

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Unless you’re a Bright House subscriber awaiting the return of WISH-TV and WNDY-TV to your channel lineup, or lived under a rock like Patrick the Starfish in SpongeBob Squarepants then you’ve endured the spamming of airwaves with ad after ad after ad after ad about a “Tax Cut for the Middle Class”.

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent piece about this “Tax Cut for the Middle Class”. Here’s one piece that I find interesting:

“A “clean car” tax credit of up to $7,000 on the purchase of certain vehicles.”

Clear car tax credit? I take my diesel truck to Mike’s Carwash regularly so it’s clean does that count??

(See my logic below the fold)

(more…)

Here is the latest Jon Elrod commercial.

On a sunny September day, some McCain/Palin supporters decided to march down a street in Manhattan.  Were they greeted with the peace, tolerance and open mindedness that liberals preach?  Not quite.

Now let’s play a counting game.  Can you guess the number of middle fingers you see?

Florida has another voter registration issue. Namely they know that there are at least 30,000 voters registered who should be purged from the rolls because they are convicted felons. Now some (5,600) are still in prison, so they will presumably be unable to vote—though ACORN has been working to get absentee ballots to those in prison who are eligible to vote. But the rest are presumably out in the public and will be able to vote in November even though they are ineligible.

This is according to research done by the Sun Sentinel. According to that article the reason is due to increased workload in the Secretary of State’s office:

Click “more” for quotes and the link to ACORN (surprised?) (more…)

From the Madison Courier:

A woman in the audience said she is a student, has two children, cannot find a job, is on welfare and is moving into government-subsidized housing. “Am I going to have to quit school?” she asked Hill. “What should I do?”

Hill told her, “Take it one day at a time. You’re doing the right thing by continuing your education.”

John Collins, a faculty member at Hanover, told Hill the bill Congress passed “did nothing to actually reform,” and it didn’t tackle reforming credit practices such as require a certain percentage of down payment on a house or overhaul the credit card industry.

“Those things have to happen,” Hill said. “Congress is not supposed to meet until January, but I, quite frankly, think we can’t wait that long. After the election I think we need to go back in November and work on this.”

Yessir. That’s Baron Hill’s advice to Hoosiers, “Take it one day at a time.”

And Congress should work more, he says. The problems facing our nation can’t wait.

That’s why, in July, Baron Hill voted for Congress to take a five-week vacation for the month of August.

The resolution providing for the adjournment of the House passed by the margin of Baron Hill’s vote.

We do face great problems, and action is needed. Action was needed back then, just like now, and Baron voted to take a break.

Now he says that he wants to get to work?

Yeah right.