A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Administrative Note

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I migrated to a new host for my blog, so a few of my later posts were lost. If you made any comments to those posts, I apologize. Hopefully the move will have fixed some of the glitches I’ve been experiencing lately.

Haggard Hypocrisy

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Probably most of you have by now heard of the hypocrisy of Ted Haggard, a social conservative leader based in Denver and pastor of a Denver megachurch. Allegations have surfaced that he retained the services of a male prostitute with whom he had sex and used methamphetamines. He has admitted “some” of the allegations. Apparently he is copping to having gotten a “massage” from the male prostitute and having purchased methamphetamines, but he didn’t keep or use them.

Foley a few weeks ago, and now this. So, is there a correlation between the volume with which one condemns homosexuality and the likelihood that one is secretly gay? That would explain a few things about our current political climate. Certainly Abu Ghraib makes a lot more sense in terms of deviance inspired by repressed sexuality than it does as an integral part of the national security apparatus.

But lessons will not be learned, the hypocrisy will continue. Consequently, repression will continue to pollute our society:

At the same time, [Albert] Mohler, [president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary] says Haggard was, as a pastor, “absolutely right to preach against same-sex marriage,” an issue on the ballot in Colorado and seven other states in Tuesday’s election. “But the problem was not in his preaching. The problem was in his life.”

I might agree if the preaching were against a behavior with a tangible harm. Say a shoplifting minister who preached against stealing. But with homosexuality, the only harm comes from the guilt felt by those taught to loathe themselves and the hatred felt by those taught to fear something different than what they are. There is nothing intrinsically evil about homosexuality; its negative effects are entirely the results of social constructs. We change the social construction, we limit or eliminate the negative effects. But so long as guys like Mohler and Haggard are preaching that homosexuality is malum in se instead of merely malum prohibitum, we are unlikely to be able to accomplish this.

Election Endgame

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I came across a couple of columns this morning commenting on election endgame strategies with general disapproval. First up, Sheila Suess Kennedy, writing in the Indianapolis Star notes that the Republicans are going back to the homophobia well one more time. Energized by the New Jersey ruling that audaciously held that “denying commited same-sex couples the financial and social benefits given their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate government purpose,” we have Republicans hyperventilating about the mortal peril this represents to not only heterosexual marriages but the very American way of life. Conveniently forgotten are lesser issues about troops dying in Iraq to no real purpose, the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, the profiteering of military contractors, the refusal of Congress to implement the the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, warrantless wiretaps of American citizens, the death of habeas corpus, etc. etc.

Meanwhile, specific to Indianapolis and on the other side of the political fence, Abdul sees gamesmanship in the Indy City County Council’s decision to investigate whether Carl Brizzi, Republican candidate for Marion County Prosecutor, misled the Council about jail overcrowding this summer. The subject of the investigation may be worthy, but the timing is suspicious. A week before the election, the Council gets interested about jail overcrowding. Perhaps they were, like Capt. Renault in Casablanca, “shocked, shocked” to find a jail overcrowding problem in Indianapolis. Abdul righteously demands to be plied with Brazilian strippers, good scotch whiskey, and a box of cigars and chocolate if he is expected to be manipulated in this fashion.

For my part, the only last minute antics that have gotten me even briefly agitated are the folks getting worked up about Kerry’s stumbling attempt at humor and the media that enables them. The only way you could say that John “Oh, did I ever mention I served in Viet Nam” Kerry thinks all soldiers are stupid is if you are horribly, horribly ignorant or a liar. And yet, people expressing that view were given hour after hour of cable news time. Liberal media, indeed.

At the end of the day, I’m mildly annoyed that my vote and Abdul’s vote and Sheila Suess Kennedy’s vote are all counted equally with the votes of those who are poorly informed enough that they can be swayed by last minute theatrics and campaign advertisements. I’m happy enough with a system where I can be outvoted. I only wish that the votes were better informed.

All Your Children Are Belong To Us

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Couldn’t resist the obscure title. Anyway, a reader flagged this issue for me, and I’m kind of creeped out by all the donations going from All Children Matter to Indiana Republicans. But these folks aren’t local, they spread their money around the country. The organization is funded by Dick DeVos out of the DeVos Amway fortune (and, to some extent, apparently the Wal-Mart fortune.) All Children Matter is devoted to privatizing our educational system through use of vouchers and similar schemes or, to use their characterization, offering “school choice.”

First, I’m a little leerie, perhaps unjustifiably so, of the connection between Amway — a business that apparently has characteristics similar to a cult — and educating our children. Second, the amount of money going into Indiana campaigns is remarkable. I previously mentioned $50,000 going to Tom Dermody.

But it looks like ACM is spreading it around liberally. (Oh, and hey, what do you know? They are affiliated with social conservative election law attorney James Bopp, Jr.). In the 12 key house races that Mary Beth Schneider called Hot races:

District 17, Steve Heim $1,000.00 from All Children Matter
District 20 Tom Dermody $53,000.00
District 21 Jackie Walorski $1,000.00
District 30 John Smith $4,500.00 on 10-13-2006
District 31 Tim Harris $1,000.00 on 10-03-2006
District 33 Bill Davis $1,000.00 on 10-10-2006
District 46 Vern Tincher report not online
District 52 Martin Stutzman report not online
District 64 Troy Woodruff $1,750.00 in three payments
District 69 Billy Bright $20,000.00 on 10-25-06……yes 20 grand!
District 70 Christopher Byrd $500.00 on 10-12-2006
District 86 Kathy Densborn $2,000.00 on 10-12-2006

During the period between April 8, 2006 to October 13, 2006, they donated $258,000. Some of the other larger donations: Brian Bosma received $5,000; Bob Behning received $2,500; Our friends at Faulkner strategies — the folks who get so much money from Jackie Walorski — received $26,507; Our other friends — the PAC for the Indiana Chamber of commerce — received $9,400; Jeff Brantley (not familiar with this name) received $17,000 or more; about $50,000 went to advertising through a direct mail outfit called Majority Communications out of Columbus, Ohio; and another media buy went through a D.C. media outfit by the name of Strategic Media Services, Inc at an expense of $20,000.

So, what do you think? Have they bought themselves some school privatization in 2007?

Update All Children Matter appears to be involved in some of the nasty mailers Matt Tully complained about that were sent out on behalf of Katheryn Densborn in her bid to unseat David Orentlicher.

DST & FedEx

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I keep seeing the claim that Federal Express brought 800 jobs to Indiana because Indiana implemented Daylight Saving Time. Anybody have actual facts that prove or disprove this claim? A quick Google search just shows me that State government officials have made the claim and then Republican candidates repeating the claim. I see at least one candidate has made the claim that FedEx added the jobs to Indiana solely because of DST. Some have also tried to tie the Honda plant to DST, on what basis, I don’t know.

My suspicion is that pro-DST candidates will try generally to characterize any new job in Indiana as being related to the adoption of DST. But the FedEx jobs will be the talking point we hear from now until Doomsday.

IN-03: Souder leads Hayhurst by 12%

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A poll by the Fort Wayne News Sentinel shows incumbent Republican Mark Souder leading challenger Tom Hayhurst 52% to 40%. There aren’t any polls to use as comparisons of trends in the race, but it seems to confirm that Hayhurst is running a good campaign but his chances of winning in this heavily Republican district are a long shot. By way of comparison, Souder took 69% of the vote two years ago.

Path of least resistance

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Apropos of not very much, does anyone else ever have those days when you get more done the less you try? I walked to and from the court house to attend an inconsequential hearing and, in the process, got work done on about 5 other cases simply by happening across other attorneys. Oh, and I ran into a law school classmate I haven’t seen in 10 years.

Got more done in 20 minutes than I had during the past 6 hours of the day.

Colts win again

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For the moment, let’s just ignore the Colts’ defensive troubles and the years of having great teams that get stopped just short of going to the Super Bowl. Like Bob Kravitz, let’s just wallow a bit in how good the Colts’ offense was yesterday. Playing Denver, they went up against the stingiest defense in over 70 years and lit them up for 34 points, including 28 points in the second half. At times, it seemed like Denver kind of forgot Reggie Wayne was playing. Note to Broncos – next time you might want to cover him. Rookie running back, Joseph Addai looks like he’s going to be a solid replacement for Edgerrin James. Yesterday, he averaged 5.5 yards per carry and racked up 93 yards. And Manning was, well, Manning. 32/39 for 345 yards, 3 touchdowns, and zero interceptions.

Super Bowl or no, we’re really going to miss these guys when they’re gone.