Archive for the ‘Misc Issues’ Category

There’s nothing like taking advantage of surrounding states (Michigan and Illinois) economic downturns. Looks like Democrat governors Jennifer Granholm and Rod Blagojevich (pronounced Bla-goy-vich) have brought their states into some serious financial hard times and Indiana is working to reap the rewards.

Mackinac Center Fiscal Policy Director Michael D. LaFaive today called on Michigan policymakers to make transformational, market-friendly policy changes their top New Year’s Resolution for 2008, warning that to do otherwise would all but guarantee continued loss of jobs and population.

“We were already at or near the bottom of many important economic rankings before the Legislature piled on $1.4 billion in new taxes,” said LaFaive. “Does anyone really believe this hike will make Michigan more attractive to people and business?”

Indiana does not think so. The state has posted billboards along interstates near the border encouraging passers-by to come to Indiana if they’re tired of high taxes, and high business and housing costs. Indiana is also running radio ads in Michigan and Illinois with the same message. They may have a compelling reason to do so. A new study by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore shows that record numbers of Americans moved last year and they tended to move south and west — to states with generally favorable tax and labor climates, among other things.

Read the rest of the article here.

And so it goes with State Democrats. Thomas, of Blue Indiana, on December 9th of this year pointed out the snazzy new site for the State Democrats. To give the party a little credit it does look more organized than normal. But this little tidbit on the staff page looked quite interesting:

A month after his election defeat, Bart Peterson’s campaign chair and finance director are still listed on the “staff” portion of the site, while a Tom Henry campaign ad is still listed on the right hand side.

What? No “Diamond Jim” ads to run?

If they were wanting to bask in the glow of keeping the Ft. Wayne Mayor’s seat, I guess I can understand that. But still listing Bart’s staff does seem a bit old and outdated. That is, unless Bart and the Party still have a little something up their sleeve.

One of the many things that is sad about this situation is that the Pacers, though not great, were putting together a decent season so far especially when we (and let’s be honest about this) didn’t expect much from them this year.  It’s hard to put this kind of situation behind the team especially when there is already so much behind them, but I hope they do.

I had decided to not even pay attention to the Pacers this year, but the way they started off I couldn’t help but be slightly interested.  I really hope this season can be more about basketball than it can be about criminal activity.  Only the Pacers (players and management) can make that happen though.

No offense to those living in The Region, but sometimes I forget that Pete Visclosky is a member of the Indiana Congressional delegation. (I get the feeling the few Repubs there are up there won’t be offended) So when I heard the news this morning that an Indiana Congressman is getting married on New Year’s Day, I had to think about who it might be for second.

From the Indy Star:

Indiana congressman plans Jan. 1 wedding
Associated Press
December 10, 2007

GARY, Ind. — U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky has announced that he and congressional attorney Joanne Royce are engaged and will wed Jan. 1 in a private ceremony.

“I’m happy and shocked to find someone who will marry me,” said Visclosky, D-Ind., who is keeping details of the wedding and engagement private.

Royce works as the investigative counsel for the Energy & Commerce Committee for the House of Representatives. She previously was a senior litigator for the Government Accountability Project, an organization that provides legal assistance to government whistleblowers.

Visclosky, a 12-term congressman, has two children from a previous marriage: John, 20, and Timothy, 17.

This is the first marriage for Royce, a Jacksonville, Fla., native who received her law degree from the University of Florida Holland Law Center and her master of laws degree in international and comparative law from Georgetown University.

Visclosky, who’s represented Indiana’s 1st District since 1985, is a member of the Appropriations Committee, serving as the chairman of its energy and water subcommittee. He is also the chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus.

As the article said this is Pete’s second wedding, he’s in (probably) the safest Congressional seat in Indiana and he’s been a member of Congress long enough to be vested in all the retirement perks. So, for those invited to the wedding, you have to ask yourself, what do you get a Congressman that has everything?

Partisan politics aside, congrats to the Visclosky and Royce families.

(H/T - Loyal HA reader and native of the Region)

In the words of Mike LaFontaine (Fred Willard) from the very funny “A Mighty Wind” (though not as funny as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show or This is Spinal Tap) “Wha Happened” to Paint the 8th Red?  After Ellsworth Watch merged with Paint the 8th back in September the blog, designed to keep tabs on freshman Democrat Congressman Brad Ellsworth, just disappeared.  Now only one of Indiana’s (not so)freshman Reps, Baron Hill, is being closely monitored for his legislative activity.

Should we assume that Brad Ellsworth is now going to get off scott free leaving 8th Congressional candidate Greg Goode without any internet coverage (aside from us or whenever he updates his blog)?  It also leaves the southwest portion of the state without an online voice.

Maybe the southwest section is just going through some blogging growing pains.  I hope that “Paint the 8th” or some variation of it returns to the web soon.

After days of huffing and puffing, and then huffing and puffing some more, and some more huffing still after that, the Indiana Democratic Party managed at last to get someone to bite on their allegations of a contracting scandal involving Cam Savage, the communications director for Mitch Daniels’ reelection campaign.

Unfortunately for them, the Indianapolis Star saw fit to bury the story on page B3, sensing–rightly–that it was much ado about nothing.

Another of Dan Parker’s teapot tempests.

At Advance Indiana, Gary Welsh termed it hitting “a dry hole” and noted the silence of Democrats about the Peterson administration’s much larger questionable contracts (to say nothing of those in the Bayh, O’Bannon, and Kernan administrations).

Frugal Hoosiers, which sometimes seems to be a blog about the people working in the campaign instead of the guy whose campaign they are trying to advance, had a typical response.

As confirmed by documents produced by the state in response to the public relations stunt request by the Democrats, Savage ended the contract before he went to work for the governor.

Indeed, the immediacy of the termination of the contract–they did not even wait the normal thirty days–indicates a clear awareness of the need to not be in a state contract and also be involved with the governor’s campaign, and shows that they ended the relationship to prevent that potential conflict of interest.

That overlap, so clearly demonstrated now to not be the case, was at the heart of the Democratic complaint about Savage and all of the political hopes they had vested in it.

Without any overlap, this is just another state contract.

Heck, it could be said that the Governor’s people liked Savage’s work so much in that brief time that they hired him away from the state to work on the Daniels campaign.

Stretching, I know, but still.

Despite continued bleatings at Taking Down Words, the whole thing ended with a whimper and not a bang, a story devoid of the legs Democrats had been hoping for.

This wasn’t enough for Jen Wagner, the Democrats’ communications director and author of the Democratic Party’s mouthpiece blog.

Frequently during the whole thing, she proclaimed Savage to be a “nice guy” that once gave her a t-shirt at a Daniels campaign event.

I somehow doubt the communications director for the Democratic Party fully appreciated the gift of one of those green “My Man Mitch” shirts.

Maybe the shirt wasn’t available in a maternity size, or maybe Wagner just has a visceral hatred of the color green.

It could be, perhaps, that her shoes are too tight, or maybe her head isn’t screwed on just right, or her heart is two sizes too small.

Anyhow, she certainly expressed her gratitude interestingly.

When the state provided her with unredacted and unmodified documents–per the request of Dan Parker and the Indiana Democratic Party (imagine the furor if the documents had contained sections that were blacked out)–on the termination of Savage’s contract, she scanned them and put them online on the Internet for all to see.

She did not black out Savage’s social security number or his bank account routing number, which were present on the paperwork.

When confronted an hour later, she professed it to be an innocent mistake.

Sort of like it was an innocent mistake when she blared the social security number and personal information of Republican congressional candidate Eric Dickerson over the Internet when he ran against Julia Carson in 2006 (among other personal information and assorted smears she has trafficked in on her blog for years).

Once could be explained as an accident or a mistake. Twice cannot, particularly when her pattern of behavior with regard to other political adversaries is so clearly demonstrated.

Taking Down Words singularly leads the way in engaging in this sort of despicable behavior, dragging political discourse in Indiana to ever lower depths.
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Would you believe me if I told that there were actually Republicans up in the Region? Surprising I know, but they are working to keep people politically in the know up there and I feel as if it’s my job to let you know about them. It might be a very blue portion of Indiana, but it doesn’t necessarily have to stay that way. So hop on over to the Related Links section and check out Region Life and Blue County in a Red State.

*Update* Also check out Hammond Ramblings and More for more Region political news.

So as far as the links section go, the major sections of Indiana seem to be covered, but that doesn’t mean we’re done looking for more solid Republican blogs. We’re always looking to add more quality blogs. If you know of any others we’re missing, contact us and let us know.

Feeling called to serve your city? The web site to apply for positions in the new Greg Ballard administration is up and running. Fitting in with Mayor-Elect Ballard’s military background, I’m sure he’s looking for a few good men and women to serve him and Indianapolis while cutting down on the size of a bloated city government, bureaucracy and red tape. To apply, click Serve Indy.

From the VarvBlog

With the ever increasing importance of the internet, it has become easier and easier to steal someone’s identity. Criminals continually get smarter and smarter in ways to get your credit card number, your social security number or your bank account numbers. We can’t just shred those annoying credit card mailers we get every day begging us to sign up for the latest discounted rate. And due to online identity predators we are starting to employ spam filters on our internet browsers and email filters as well as installing firewalls on all our computers just to make sure sensitive information never gets into the hands of those who would wish us harm. Identity theft has even affected the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg (only one of the richest guys in the world…who could steal his identity?)

But there are ways to stop identity thieves from catching you and Congressman Burton is trying to help. Read this from the Congressman’s latest e-update:

Identity theft has become all too common in our country. In 2006, the FTC ranked identity theft victims by state. Indiana was 24th, with 3,928 Hoosiers falling victim to Identity Theft.

In order to address this problem, I am hosting a FREE community forum to help you learn how to protect yourself. J. Michelle Sybesma, a nationally recognized speaker and founder of www.GetIDSmart.com, will give a presentation and field questions regarding identity theft.

With the holidays coming up, I can’t think of a better time than now for this conference. Information is one of the most valuable assets in today’s society, and Hoosiers need to know how to protect themselves.

The event will be held on Saturday, October 20, 2007 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. at the Conseco Conference Center. Learn more about the conference here or click here for directions.

Ex-IU star calls for coach’s firing

Kent Benson’s feelings on the latest NCAA recruiting violations committed by Indiana University basketball coach Kelvin Sampson boiled down to one question.

What happened to the restrictions imposed against Sampson when he was hired by the university because of violations committed while he coached at Oklahoma, Benson wondered. Sampson’s contract allows IU to fire him for repeated violations.

“Here we get rid of a legend (Bob Knight) who had a perfectly clean record in 30 years of coaching at Indiana University,” a seething Benson said today in a telephone interview. “We put a zero tolerance rule on him and he was gone.
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From Businessweek:

#6. Indianapolis
Contaminated sites:
Approx. 1 for every 49 people (6th)
33,857 total (16th)

Leaking storage tanks: 1,206 (18th)
Corrective action reports: 34 (8th)

Of course, it would be a sure bet that if Indianapolis had a Republican mayor, the Democrats would be howling bloody murder over this report.

As it is, I bet they will say nary a word.

Hat tip: Indy Undercover.