Archive for the ‘General Politics’ Category

Reading the article on former Congressman Lee Hamilton endorsing Barack Obama, got me thinking. At the height of the abolition movement in America, in a speech accepting the Republican nomination for Senate in Illinois in 1858, Abraham Lincoln uttered one of his many famous quotes, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Since George Bush won in 2000 (electoral votes, not popular votes matter liberals, so get over it) all the political rhetoric I’ve heard is that we are a divided nation. In fact, Lee Hamilton used the phrase when giving his endorsement of Obama.

From the Indy Star:

“I begin by asking myself what kind of leadership the country needs at this juncture and I think, for me at least, the answer is that you want a candidate that will try to bring together a country that is very evenly divided, a country in which partisanship has been very sharp and to try to get a candidate who will create a new sense of national unity and will try to transcend the divisions within the country,” (emphasis mine)

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The dead fish, that is. The ones wrapped in newspaper and left on the doorstep.

From Taking Down Words:

I have decided, after overcoming the general resistance to change that they beat into you in law school, to join Jim Schellinger’s gubernatorial campaign as Communications Director. This means that TDW as you know — and either love or hate — it will exist no more.

My guess is that she’ll be back in about forty days and forty nights, when Schellinger has lost the primary to Jill Long Thompson.
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I love to brag on my friends. I really do. In the past I’ve bragged about Jim Banks and his wife Amanda, and now I have the chance to brag on another Northern Indiana pal in Chris Faulkner and his family.

Via GOP Grunt where Chris is too humble to brag about his wife elsewhere.

South Bend Tribune: BUSINESS PEOPLE: “GRANGER — Angela Faulkner, president of Granger based Faulkner Strategies, has been selected to sit on the board of the newly formed Indiana Women Business Owners PAC. Established in 2007, the IWBO PAC’s goal is to support the economic development of women-owned businesses within the state.

The nonpartisan PAC committee will target and talk with state legislators about several initiatives, including the possible MBE/WBE designation of nonprofit organizations and affordable health care for small businesses.”

Congratulations Angela!

“Today is a great day for Indianapolis!”

-Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard

I briefly saw the Indy Mayor and his wife Winnie today while waiting for the start of Governor Daniels press conference after the official passage of the property tax legislation.  After I waived to them from across the hall, he came over, shook my hand and with a big smile shared with me those words.  He too was pretty elated with today’s victory for tax payers.

Indiana property taxes have taken up so much attention in this legislative session—and rightfully so. Some are happy about the solutions that have been created. Some do not believe that it will help at all. Some wanted nothing done. Some wanted property taxes eliminated. Some blamed localities. Some blamed the state. Some blamed both. Most feel that we pay too much in taxes.

What is hidden in all of this discussion is where taxes are collected and where they are spent. The average taxpayer is painfully aware of sales taxes and property taxes. In April they are somewhat aware of income taxes—particularly if they owe taxes. First time workers get a shock when they cash their first check and discover that some guy named FICA got a bunch of their money. Many more taxes, however, are hidden from view.

If you rent, you pay property taxes in your rent. When you buy gas, each gallon contains significant taxes. The hamburger that you buy contains the cost of business taxes (income, property, FICA, and many more) buried into it. Not to mention that in many localities there are sales AND food or restaurant taxes included. Because of the nature of these invisible taxes, it is unclear which government body is responsible for those taxes.

Let’s trace where your taxes are spent:

Be amazed below the fold.
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From the Indy Star:

PLAINFIELD — Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign visit to Indianapolis on Saturday will include a town hall meeting at the Plainfield High School gymnasium.

Doors to the gym will open at 12:30 p.m. A crowd of about 1,500 to 2,000 can be seated in the gym.

Tickets to the Obama visit were all distributed within half an hour of becoming available on the candidate’s Web site, said Kip Tew, coordinator of Obama’s campaign in Indiana.

Wednesday, the Democrat candidate’s campaign announced that he’ll make his first trip to Indiana this year before the state’s May 6 primary elections.

Details of Obama’s entire trip to Indiana haven’t been released yet.

I am sure that Howey will be there, and the two or three decent pictures he takes while enjoying the Rapture at the event will be reused on his website dozens more times between now and whenever Obama’s campaign goes down in flames.
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Baron always talks a good game.

The subject doesn’t matter; he can spin a yarn like few politicians in southern Indiana and soon have anyone thinking that he agrees with them, when he actually doesn’t and frequently has no intention of doing anything to carry through with what he just said.

The Congressional budget process is a perfect example of this.

Now, Baron talks a good game about the budget.

He likes to point to his budget votes as shining symbols of his centrist nature.

Even a cursory examination of the facts, however, shows this to be nothing but horse hockey.

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Can anybody say, the end of the Short Session in the General Assembly? There are plenty of events on the schedule for Hoosier Access to cover, including a live blog of the closing hours of the General Assembly….that is if Pat Bauer doesn’t keep the Session from going into a Special Session as well as upcoming Hoosier Access Radio interviews with Lt. Governor Becky Skillman and 2nd CD candidate Luke Puckett. By the way, can anybody tell me why “The Hair” decided to not to bring the House into session all week when serious property tax reform needs to be passed? Does he want a special session to take place at tax payer expense? (Update - There’s been a compromise…Thank You!)

Anyway, the spotlight around here (being Indy) has been the 7th CD Special Election. With MC Juggernaut (aka Andre Carson) coming out victorious the battle for the Democrat primary has already begun in full force with David Orentlicher “officially” announcing yesterday, Woody Myers ready to run ads and Carolene Mays fundraising across the district. But this race has eight full weeks to percolate with fun stuff. My guess is, though, it won’t hardly take that long.

Let’s not forget that Indiana is actually going to mean something this year in presidential election. For starters, Barack Obama is gracing us with his empty message of “hope and change” (or maybe that was someone else’s message and he’s just “borrowing” it this year) this weekend. Oh to be a fly on the wall of his meetings with various super delegates. I can only imagine how many time disgraced former Democrat Governor and Hillary backing super-delagate of New York Elliot Spitzer will be brought up.

The thing is, the fun never stops around here, though we may pause to get some work done. Indiana’s most prominent conservative blog promises that! (Thanks TBB for the compliment!)

It’s always too much to ask for The Hair to follow basic blueprints and instructions.

Credit where due; Speaker Pat “The Hair” Bauer has finally put forward a property tax plan that was not devised on the back of a napkin during a party put on by some big-bucks lobbyist.

The problem with this new Democratic plan, of course, is that it is not much less hair-brained than the plan that was napkin-born.

Let’s take a look at the write-up on it from the Courier-Journal:

House Democrats did an about-face yesterday, backing off a complicated plan they approved in January that would have restructured Indiana’s tax system largely as proposed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

They actually voted for Mitch’s plan, before they voted against it.

Instead, House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, told Republicans in a negotiating session that Democrats want a simpler tax change — an increase of 1 percentage point in the sales tax that would fund a new property-tax break for homeowners.

The Democrats’ new plan would shift almost no local costs to the state budget, would put no new spending limits on local governments and would not require referendums for local construction projects — all tenets of Daniels’ plan and part of House Bill 1001 as passed 99-1 by the House early in the session.

There you have it.

No accountability in local spending.

No measures to slow the growth in spending.

And no restrictions at all on the taxation of land used for businesses, rentals, and farms.

Yes, farms.

The Democrats want no caps at all on the property of farmers.

All of this means that, if approved, the Democratic plan would do nothing to stop the growth in spending that was in large measure responsible for this problem.

Worse still, it would place the burden for paying for that growth in spending upon business property, rental property, and farmers.

The governor’s plan capped property taxes at 3% for businesses (including farmers).

The Democrats give them no cap at all.

All this means is that, as the property tax levy grows, it will be businesses, renters, and farmers that will be squeezed the most.

That’s a heck of a plan.

It’s so bad that they almost, almost should go back to the one that was drawn on a napkin.

Because it is stripped of any spending restraint whatsoever, in four or five years, the Democratic plan would see this state in a property tax crisis again.

The whole point of the additional measures in the proposals put forward by the Republicans and the Governor is to ensure that this is not a crisis again in a few years’ time.

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By: Brian Sikma 

On Tuesday, March 11th voters in Indiana’s 7th Congressional District will go to the polls in a special election to replace the late Congresswoman Julia Carson. The candidates set before them are Andre Carson (D), Jon Elrod (R) and Sean Shepard (L). For the past few weeks we’ve seen articles and heard news stories about this or that fact of the life histories of Mr. Carson and Mr. Elrod. The public is well aware of the general political affiliations of these two candidates and hopefully possesses some vague knowledge of where they stand one at least one or two issues.

There are similarities between the two major candidates; similarities that cause me to dislike both of them. However, on one very important issue one candidate in particular has adopted a disturbing stance. Andre Carson, a Muslim, has called for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In this time of great debate about America’s role in the world and specifically our role in defeating Islamic terrorists, it is utterly vital that individuals who, well meaning though they may be, push for a policy that would be a catastrophe for our national security are not sent to Washington to vote on critical pieces of legislation that impact our future.

Yet beyond perhaps a mention or two of this “out of Iraq” stance on the part of Mr. Carson, the mainstream media has failed to carefully touch on a very important underlying issue: Mr. Carson’s Islamic faith. It should not be assumed that Mr. Carson’s Muslim beliefs automatically tie him to those evil thugs who, in the name of their Islamic faith, engage in atrocities and periodically seek to force their brand of faith on anyone, anywhere.

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Do you ever picture State Dem. Chairman Dan Parker hunched over his desk, like Mr. Burns from the Simpson’s, cursing every time a Republican keeps a campaign promise? That’s really all he can do as his third tier candidates for Governor duke it out while Governor Daniels continues to keep his campaign pledges from 2004. Not that I need to remind what they are, but here goes: daylight savings, streamlining state government through privatization, bringing in more business into the state (while other state have them fleeing) and now he’s dealing with our out of whack property tax problem.

And if that’s not a hard enough kick to the posterior, Indy Mayor Greg Ballard continues to work at fulfilling his campaign promises. First, he brought IMPD back under control of the mayor’s office. Next on his list? Increasing the transparency of city government.

From the Indy Star:

Ballard last year ran on a platform in part dedicated to the notion that government dealings should be more transparent, and his reform package is aimed at fulfilling that campaign promise.

Ballard was quoted as saying “Government is not supposed to be a closed loop. Who is getting contracts and who is lobbying should be open to everybody.”

Of course, all Parker can do is try to throw something on the wall to see if it sticks when it comes to attacking the Mayor, which is exactly what he did just after Mayor Ballard assumed control of IMPD.

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