A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

They *will* hate him

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John Cole has a post up. Obama is relatively inoffensive among the right wing for now. But, as soon as he’s put down the ice queen they hate so much, the venom has to go somewhere – and it will be directed at barack HUSSEIN obama.

But anyone who doesn’t think that that’s all going to change instantaneously if Obama is the nominee hasn’t been watching how this faction operates over the last 20 years. Hatred is their fuel. Just look at the bottomless personal animus they managed to generate over an anemic, mundane, inoffensive figure like John Kerry. At their Convention, they waved signs with band-aids mocking his purple hearts while cheering on two combat-avoiders.

SB 71 – School Year

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With SB 71, Sen. Kruse addresses the problem of the ever-earlier school year. It prohibits school from starting before Labor Day and ending later than June 15.

I have no strong opinions on this one. I know that for the past 30 years I’ve heard my elders lament the fact that school starts before Labor Day. For me, normal is something like the last week in August. And, I’ve noticed myself getting to be one of those elders, shaking my head when school starts around August 15. For some reason, the opinions never seem as strongly held about the appropriate ending of school — though, I guess I’ve heard Memorial Day suggested.

SB 65 – Firearms in Public Buildings

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SB 65 introduced by Sen. Nugent limits the ability of state and local governments to restrict possession of firearms in public buildings, including schools and courthouses.

Provides that a person who possesses a valid Indiana license to carry a handgun may not be prohibited from possessing a handgun on land or in buildings and other structures owned or leased by: (1) the state or a political subdivision of the state; or (2) a nonpublic elementary school, nonpublic secondary school, or nonpublic postsecondary educational institution. Provides exceptions for airports and penal facilities.

I guess this is a fighting fire with fire kind of bill. Initially, I thought this was a completely wacky bill. And, on balance, I think I’m still against it. But, it’s not as stupid as it looks. I’m not passionate about the right of disgruntled ex-spouses to tote firearms into divorce and custody proceedings in the courthouse. But, I think the security measures we have to implement to keep guns out of public buildings are expensive and diminish us as citizens. Our ability to prevent the harm that will be caused by nutjobs is limited. To even make a small dent, we have to expend great sums on security forces and machinery. And, we have to consent to routine searches in order to enter our public institutions and participate as citizens.

Still, Sen. Nugent doesn’t come at what I view as the benefits of this bill directly. So, I suspect he has different benefits in mind. This bill probably comes from the perspective that views the solution to Columbine and Virginia Tech as more guns. I don’t really see it this way. I view those tragedies as a lamentable price we pay for living in a free society.

And, as a final note, as a pro-local government guy, I don’t like the State telling local officials what they can and can’t allow into local government buildings.
[tags]guns[/tags]

Iowa

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Iowa Democratic Caucus results are here. Very early on the delegate take breaks down like this:

Senator John Edwards : 33.06%
Senator Barack Obama : 32.20%
Senator Hillary Clinton : 32.14%
Governor Bill Richardson : 1.78%
Senator Joe Biden : 0.70%
Senator Chris Dodd : 0.08%
Uncommitted : 0.04%
Precincts Reporting: 433 of 1781

It’s tight as a tick, as Dan Rather might say.

I have MSNBC on the tube and, as of 8:52 EST, Huckabee has 36%, Romney 23%, and Thompson 14%.

What’s really interesting about this is that it seems to be almost a completely media generated storm. In terms of actual delegates, Iowa is fairly inconsequential. But, with a 24 hour news cycle, the media demands winners and losers. The narratives they create will tend toward being self-fulfilling prophecies. If the Clinton campaign is “devastated” because of a 3rd place finish in Iowa, it’s only because the chattering classes say so; not because she came in 10 delegates fewer than Obama or Edwards.

Update

It looks like Obama is going to come in first in Iowa. Edwards and Clinton are currently neck-and-neck. Obama – 36.42%, Edwards – 30.42%, and Clinton – 30.12% with 1473/1781 precincts reporting. Chris Matthews is already becoming insufferable. “Hillary Clinton has been rejected by 2/3s of the Democrats.” Rachel Maddow quickly pointed out the obvious — in a three way tie all of them are being rejected by 2/3s of the voters.

In the Republican primary, Mike Huckabee won pretty big with 34% versus 25% for Romney and 14% for Fred Thompson. It bears mentioning that Ron Paul outpolled Rudy Giuliani – 10% to 4%. You know, as I think about it, I think Giuliani’s campaign was ended by Joe Biden when he said of Giuliani “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11.”

Update II Obama’s lead continues to inch upward. With 1701 of 1781 precincts reporting, Obama has 37% of the delegates compared to 30% for Edwards and 29% for Clinton. One of the big stories from tonight might be turnout. Apparently something like 212,000 Iowans turned out for Democratic caucuses, up something like 70% from 2004 which was considered a pretty big showing at the time. If my math is right on the Republican side — and it may well be wrong — it looks like about 117,000 showed up for the Republican caucuses. If that is at all reflective of the respective levels of enthusiasm among the parties, November 2008 could make November 2006 look like a fond memory for the GOP.

Update III An interesting statistic relative to Update II:

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)
356,000
Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

More fraudulent than the “Neverending” story

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A story straight out of the Simpsons.

A 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet, then banned him and a relative because of how much they consumed during their visits.

Ricky Labit, a 6-foot-3 disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular at the Manchuria Restaurant, eating there as often as three times a week. But on his most recent visit, he said a waitress gave him and his wife’s cousin, Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.

“She says, ’Y’all fat, and y’all eat too much,”’ Labit said.
. . .
The argument over the bill grew heated, and police were called. The police report states that the disagreement was settled when the restaurant said the bill was a mistake and, to appease Labit, the meal was complimentary.

Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more. Campo said the proprietress tries to reduce waste of quality food.

The corresponding Simpsons episode:

Homer: All you can eat. Ha!
Hutz: Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising
since my suit against the film, “The Never-Ending Story”.

Homer: So, do you think I have a case?
Hutz: I don’t use the word hero very often, but you are the greatest hero
in American history.
. . .

McAllister: “Twas a moonless night, dark as pitch, when out of the
mist came a beast more stomach than man.
Homer: “Hey!”
McAllister: “So I says to me bostens, ‘batten down the missenmast,
Matees.'”
. . .
McAllister: “I’ve a proposition for thee fair and true.”
(later, at the restaurant)
McAllister: “Come see Bottomless Pete, nature’s cruelest mistake.
Come for the freak, stay for the food.”

Speaking of a Street Fighting Man

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I mentioned the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” in reference to Anderson’s mayor’s refusal to step down. Plate o’ shrimp – that street fighting imagery came up again today in Dan Balz’s Washington Post blog entry about John Edwards.

Nice clothes aside, Edwards has turned street-fighter for the final stretch run. His message can be boiled down to a single word — “Fight!” — which he repeats over and over and over and over again: Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.

Edwards has rolled out anecdotes he never used in the past to make it all the more personal. They conjure up images that hardly square with his slight frame and good looks. He was, as he now explains, a brawler as a kid, taking on bullies the way he later took on corporations and insurance companies as a trail lawyer.

“Like many of you, I had to fight to survive,” he told an audience of nearly a thousand people on Saturday night. “I mean really. Literally.”

He describes the southern mill town where he grew up as a tough little place and tells the story of getting into a fight one day with an older boy. “Got my butt kicked,” he says. When he got home, his father offered a stern lesson in life.

“I don’t ever want to hear, son, about you starting a fight,” he says his father told him. “But you listen to me and listen to me clearly. I don’t want to ever hear that you walked away from one. Because if you’re not willing to stand up for yourself and if you’re not willing to fight, no one will stand up for you.”

The enemy he sees is corporate America and corporate greed. His message seeks not to unite America but to finish what he describes as “an epic struggle” against forces that are, literally, killing America — destroying jobs, holding down wages, putting ordinary Americans out of work or denying them medical care.

I really enjoy the advice from Edwards’ dad — don’t ever start a fight, but make sure you finish them. That was the problem in Iraq – we started that one which makes it impossible to finish. If your goal is just to beat the hell out of the guy who picked a fight with you, that’s pretty easy if you’re strong enough. In Iraq, our goals were never very well defined — depose Hussein, get rid of WMDs – fine. Mission Accomplished. And yet, we’re still there. Create democracy in the Middle East — um, no thanks.

Does the greed of a few constitute an assault on the majority of citizens? I don’t know. It’s probably worth at least talking about. Certainly things seem to be getting harder for the middle class over the past few decades. Most families need two incomes to get by, it seems. I don’t think that was always the case.

Oh, but Edwards is rich and has nice hair. Clearly he shouldn’t be talking about these things.

Toll Road

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This past Saturday night, I got to observe first hand one way in which the privatized Toll Road is attempting to save money – fewer employees at toll booths. On I-80/90, headed eastbound at the Ohio gate at about 11:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, I waited approximately 5 minutes to pay. It’s not like I had a free market decision I could make. I was stuck, and I got charged the same no matter how long I waited. Five minutes every year or two is a small indignity for me. But, to some extent, it puts the lie to the idea that the Toll Road is going to turn a profit through some kind of business magic. Instead, the new owners will just provide crappy service to its captive consumers — consumers who used to be citizens.

Security Theater

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You know all those time-wasting stupid human tricks you have to perform in the airport? Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

A team at the Harvard School of Public Health could not find any studies showing whether the time-consuming process of X-raying carry-on luggage prevents hijackings or attacks.

They also found no evidence to suggest that making passengers take off their shoes and confiscating small items prevented any incidents.

TSA’s response:

“Even without clear evidence of the accuracy of testing, the Transportation Security Administration defended its measures by reporting that more than 13 million prohibited items were intercepted in one year,” the researchers added. “Most of these illegal items were lighters.”

That’d be neat if their purpose was to confiscate stuff. Maybe if they prohibited more stuff, they could intercept more stuff. Intercept . . . the fluffy pillows!

Sen. Weatherwax to step down

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Another state legislative seat is opening up. Senator Tom Weatherwax will not be seeking re-election.

State Sen. Thomas K. Weatherwax announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in November, ending a 24-year career in the General Assembly.

The Logansport Republican, elected to the Indiana House in 1984 and the Senate in 1988, said he wanted to spend more time concentrating on his private life and family and less time on public policy and politics.

“I have been blessed with productive careers both in and out of politics,” Weatherwax said. “But for a citizen legislator, a father and grandfather, there comes a time when a person wants to focus on family and pass the baton to another public servant willing to continue the good fight.”

Senate staffers said Weatherwax has served on and chaired more committees than any senator in recorded state history.
Weatherwax, whose District 18 consists of all or parts of Cass, Fulton, Kosciusko, Miami, Pulaski and Wabash counties, said he will continue to seek further property tax reforms, job creating measures and school improvements during the 2008 General Assembly.

I’m having a lot of trouble remembering all of the seats that will be up for grabs come November 2008. It seems like well above average. Perhaps the number of legislators not worried about re-election will give the legislature more freedom this session.

Ex-Anderson mayor refuses to relinquish power

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Ousted Anderson mayor, Kevin Smith, refuses to relinquish power after having lost the most recent mayoral election. He is citing his own challenge to elected mayor, Kris Ockomon’s residency as a basis for serving beyond his elected term.

Look, pal. Unless you have a court order, get the hell out. This is a democracy. It only works when officials relinquish power voluntarily at the end of their terms. If you want to file a court challenge, fine. But unless and until you win an order extending your term, get out. We don’t need to turn into some third world country where leaders make up ad hoc excuses to stay in power.

Suddenly I’ve got the Stones, Street Fighting Man going through my head:

Everywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
cause summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy