On a bulletin board I frequent, there was some discussion about checks and balances between the executive and legislative branch. One commenter noted that, in the end, Nixon handed over the tapes when he was ordered to and his people obeyed Congressional subpoenas. The current Bush administration is or was made up of a number of people who lost the Nixon wars — see, e.g. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. You can bet they have spent a lot of time thinking about why they lost back in the 70s. Nowadays, pointed out the commenter, the Bush administration routinely withholds documents and has been directing some of its people not to obey subpoenas.

It occurred to me how far removed our current batch of legislators are from the Founders. The Founders, who made up a good part of our first several legislatures, were not, themselves, so far removed from Cromwell and the Parliamentary forces that, quite literally, decapitated the executive branch of their day. The legislators today don’t seem to be nearly as insistent about their legislative prerogatives.

Now, I’m not advocating any public beheadings just yet. But, nice civics lessons about checks & balances notwithstanding, the fact remains that every power written into the Constitution requires a person or group of people to act to make it effective. And, no, I don’t think sternly worded letters count.

Thomas over at Blue Indiana is looking forward to election day 2007. I, to the contrary, have not been able to work up any interest in the 2007 election. The big races seem to be Henry v. Kelty in Fort Wayne; Ballard v. Peterson in Indianapolis, and Manigault v. Luecke in South Bend. So far as I can tell, the story lines are a) Kelty’s spectacular implosion; b) Peterson’s apparent failure to completely put Ballard out of contention despite Ballard’s lack of support and money from the Republican party; and c) the closeness of the South Bend race as well as anti-Luecke mailings declaring the death of South Bend.

I have absorbed these story lines without really paying attention or really caring too much about the outcome. I don’t see the outcome of these races having a huge impact on Hoosiers living outside of the particular municipality; though, I suppose if Peterson loses or only wins by a narrow margin, it could be detrimental to any future ambitions he might have.

My dear old dad — also a lawyer — sent me this quote:

Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition; they have only a communal existence; and not only does the meaning of each interpenetrate the other, but all in their aggregate take their purport from the setting in which they are used.

Nat’l Relations Labor Bd. v. Federbush Co., 121 F.2d 954, 957 (2d Cir.1941).

Just thought I’d share.

(H/t Zach Wendling at In The Agora). An article at WSJ.com indicates that energy savings from Daylight Saving Time generally and the recent extensions specifically are unclear at best. The data is very old, for one thing. Americans use energy a lot differently than they did in the 70s. Furthermore, extending DST into times of the year with less available daylight makes it more likely that any savings enjoyed by more light in the afternoon and evening will be offset by less light during morning hours.

Indiana apparently could have provided a potential test area until recently:

To get reliable data about the time change in the U.S., “the best experiment would be to randomly assign different time schedules to different states,” Prof. Wolff said. He points out that his Australia study is the only only one to compare, concurrently, extended daylight time with the alternative in the neighboring states.

That model isn’t realistic, politically, on a national scale in the U.S. But in Indiana, until last year, daylight-saving time took effect in only part of the state. “It would provide an interesting test bed,” says Doug Gotham, director of the state’s utility forecasting group. But he doesn’t know of any such study to date.

It’s a political ad, so take it for what it’s worth, but I sort of enjoyed this John Edwards campaign commercial:

We all have different priorities when we cast a vote, but if your highest priority is the financial well-being of the middle class, I think Edwards is your best bet. On the other hand, if your priorities are increased spending in Iraq or tax cuts (particularly for the wealthy), you’ll probably want to go elsewhere.

Thinking about the very real possibility of a Hillary Clinton primary win and Presidency, it occurs to me that I am really bothered by the prospect of a Bush/Clinton Presidency for 24 – 28 consecutive years. That can’t be a healthy thing for the Republic.

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article in the Louisville Courier Journal on the class action tax lawsuit filed by attorney John Price against the State. The State is basically arguing that taxpayers can’t go stampeding directly to the tax court – they have to exhaust administrative remedies first. In the context of this suit, I’m not sure if it means going through the Dept. of Local Government Finance or perhaps through the local Property Tax Board of Appeals and then the Board of Tax Review. In any case, Price on behalf of the citizens he represents says that going the administrative route would be a waste of time. A cynical lawyer might suggest that this often seems to be the point of requiring administrative exhaustion. But, I don’t know any cynical lawyers.

The lawsuit also challenges the authority of Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Department of Local Government Finance to extend a deadline for local governments to impose income taxes as a way to reduce property taxes next year.

A law passed by the General Assembly in the spring set the deadline as Aug. 1, but Daniels and the agency extended it to the end of the year.

Price said the constitution prohibits Daniels from arbitrarily changing a state law.

Attorneys for the state didn’t argue the merits of that issue yesterday. Instead, Andrew Swain, chief counsel for the Indiana Attorney General’s tax section, said none of the plaintiffs had the right to challenge the state action because the matter is between the state and the counties.

In the back of my mind, I thought maybe there was some kind of safety valve the legislature had given the DLGF that ended up allowing the Governor to extend the deadlines. Apparently not. The Governor is just winging it. I imagine county councilors around the state will be a little hesitant to pass an income tax based on deadlines extended by the Governor without clear authority. (I don’t think they’d be eager to pass a tax increase in the first place – this would just add to the natural reluctance to raise taxes.)

Apparently RiShawn Biddle, blogger and editorial writer for the Indy Star has been fired. I didn’t read the offending entry, but apparently he threw in a racial slur when talking about Marion/Indy City County Council President Monroe Gray. For what it’s worth, both men are black. Seems like a bit of a loss to me. I didn’t frequently agree with RiShawn’s columns, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

Update Until such time as the Star deletes it, here is RiShawn’s offending column. (H/t stAllio!)

Lafayette native, Purdue graduate, and C-span founder, Brian Lamb will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s the nation’s highest civil honor and Lamb deserves it. Unfortunately, I find that the award is tainted in my mind since George Tenet was given the award after horribly screwing up the intelligence leading up to the Iraq War.

C-SPAN, which made its debut on March 19, 1979, delivers public affairs programming to most of the nation’s cable and satellite customers, to Internet users and to radio listeners. Its literary programs – Booknotes and Bookends – help build audiences for serious, nonfiction books.

Lamb’s interest in broadcasting dates as far back as the crystal radio set he built as a child to pick up local signals. During high school and college, he sought jobs at Lafayette radio and television stations, spinning records, selling ads, and eventually hosting his own television program called Dance Date.

Go Red Devils! The Associated Press has an article entitled 10 Indiana schools called ‘dropout factories’. Among them is my alma mater, Richmond High School. (We’re the only one outside of Indy and The Region to make the list — quite an honor).

It’s been 18 years since I graduated from there, so maybe it has gotten a lot worse. But, when I was there, I felt like I had the opportunity to get one of the best educations anywhere. It helped –a lot– that my parents had taught me to value my education, that school work came pretty easily to me, and that my friends and their families viewed education in much the same way. When I went to college, I met a lot of students who had come from some pretty nice private schools, and I never felt like my education was inferior to theirs. I can’t speak for the other schools on the list, and I suppose I can only speak for Richmond High School as it was many years ago, but at the time, good educational resources were available to the students.

On the other hand, it was a big school – I graduated in a class of about 400, and I think there were about 2,200 students spread over four years. I don’t doubt that it’s pretty easy for a student to get lost in the shuffle there. If you and your family aren’t that interested in education, I can certainly see where you could be allowed to disappear from RHS. I know several other commenters to this blog are graduates of Richmond High School, so maybe they’ll have a different perspective.

Anyway, the list:

–Arsenal Technical High School, Indianapolis: 22 percent promoted*, 44 percent graduation rate**.

–Manual High School, Indianapolis: 24 percent promoted, 48 percent graduation rate.

–Arlington High School, Indianapolis: 26 percent promoted, 52 percent graduation rate.

–Northwest High School, Indianapolis: 29 percent promoted, 54 percent graduation rate.

–Broad Ripple High School, Indianapolis: 34 percent promoted, 72 percent graduation rate.

–Richmond High School, Richmond: 53 percent promoted, 54 percent graduation rate.

–Roosevelt High School, Gary: 58 percent promoted, 42 percent graduation rate.

–Perry Meridian High School, Indianapolis: 59 percent promoted, 74 percent graduation rate.

–Wallace High School, Gary: 60 percent promoted, 47 percent graduation rate.

–East Chicago Central High School, East Chicago: 60 percent promoted, 62 percent graduation rate.

*Promotion rate: The percentage promoted shows how many students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. It covers regular and vocational high schools with three years of valid data and 100 or more students.

**Graduation rate: The graduation rate from the Indiana Department of Education includes factors such as transfers or retained students. Department officials say those numbers are a more accurate reflection of how many students stay in school.