Category — Indiana

The end is near for Mrs. Clinton. Her Indiana win wasn’t the seismic shift needed to convince super delegates that they should abandon Barack Obama. It’s just a matter of time before her campaign succumbs to a lack of time and money.

Liberals must be ecstatic at Obama’s ascendancy. They have the nation’s most liberal senator one step away from the presidency. Conservatives can only shake their heads as the Republican Party nominates a quasi-liberal. Maybe McCain can battle Obama for the independents, but will conservatives support him? I certainly don’t see or feel much conservative energy or enthusiasm for McCain or the Republican Party. There’s not much about either a conservative can get excited about.

The big “guns” write:

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s mailing attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s record on guns appears to include a striking visual gaffe: The image of the gun pictured on the face of the mailing is reversed, making it a nonexistent left-handed model of the Mauser 66 rifle. [snip]

The Mauser 66, released in 1966 and no longer manufactured, is a high-end hunting rifle that found military use as a sniper rifle. In Clinton’s mailing, it’s pictured with a double-set trigger, a customization that’s popular in Europe but “almost unheard of in the United States,” Forgett said.

“It’s a $2,200 German import — it’s hardly typical of what the average workingman in Indiana uses,” he said.

The left is really “on target.”

I wonder if the excesses of the United Way and the Red Cross executives has any currency here?

Chronicle: Nonprofits Pay Zero Tax on Billions of Unrelated Business Income

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reviewed the Form 990s for 91 nonprofit organizations — including Columbia, Emory, Harvard, Indiana, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Minnesota, Penn, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, USC, and Yale — and found that the organizations reported $412.9 million of income from unrelated business activities, but 46 (51%) reported zero tax liabilities:

[snip]… But the finding may verify longstanding concerns of the IRS that current rules on unrelated-business income tax, known as UBIT, may allow “excess flexibility” for charities…[snip]

[snip]…some lawmakers worried that existing rules are not working to put charities and companies on a level playing field.

Yup, they’re worried about it, doing anything will put a big dent in campaign donations.

Keep moving people, nothing you need to know here!

A 6 year Indiana state identification card costs $13.  But according to Democrats, the NAACP, and ACLU, Indiana’s voter ID law is far too burdensome on the poor.  I don’t know too many people who can’t come up with a little over $2.15 a year.  However, I am willing to bet if you told those “indigent” souls the ID was a scratch ticket, they’d have no problem producing the $13 bucks.

It’s telling that the party who fought so hard to get soldiers’ ballots thrown out in the 2000 Florida Presidential Election is now so concerned about disenfranchisement.  Could it be they disproportionately benefit from voter fraud?  If the ‘60 Presidential Election in Cook County, IL was any indication, the odds are pretty good.

Oink! Oink! Senate Republicans still slobbering over earmarks

WASHINGTON (News) - Democrats might want to keep in mind the old rule in politics that you never stop an opponent while he’s committing suicide. They are about to have the distinct pleasure of watching a slew of Senate Republicans jump off a political cliff. [snip]

Take for example the roll call vote on Sen. Jim DeMint’s amendment to kill a provision in the Senate Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill directing $2 million to three construction projects for a college in Harlem.

The South Carolina Republican’s amendment would have struck the provision first inserted in the legislation by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. All three projects are named for Rangel.

But when it came time to vote on this crude effort by Rangel to use tax dollars to promote himself, it was preserved on a 61-34 vote. Two Democrats — Sen. Evan Bayh, Ind., and Sen. Russ Feingold, Wis. — voted for the DeMint amendment…[snip]

16 GOP Senators voted for the pork: Alexander—Tennessee, Bond—Missouri, Cochran and Lott—Mississippi, Collins—Maine, Craig—Idaho, Domenici–New Mexico, Hagel–Nebraska, Hatch–Utah, Lugar–Indiana, Murkowski and Stevens–Alaska, Shelby–Alabama, Specter–Pennsylvania, Voinovich—Ohio, and Warner–Virginia.

No New England Donk Senator voted no; they spend everything and would print more money if they could get away with it.

Sanders-VT votes for all government spending, at least he is truthful about it. He a communist, prefers the tern Progressive, who wants government running everything. Leahy-VT on the other hand, says he wants a democratic form of government, but votes like Sanders every chance he gets.

Four of the 16 GOP senators are leaving the senate: Craig, Domenici, Hagel and Lugar. Craig’s seat will be filled by a Conservative. Domenici is a toss up. Hagel and Lugar found they would not get past a primary, so ta-ta.

Collins has a fight; MoveOn has targeted her re-election. Any change with Collins seat would be cosmetic. She is as liberal as Leahy is.

Unless there is a big change in the philosophical makeup of who’s running, expect more of the same. If the above gang of RINO’s quit, the GOP picks up a different look and clout.

While you’re here, say hello to Juan. They are voting tomorrow to let him and his extended family have amnesty. Why he may even move in next door and diversify your neighborhood, overnight!

Do you need another reason to vote these crooks out?

Stop their pay, send them home

WASHINGTON - Here’s how the Democrats “drained the swamp” and ended the Republicans’ “culture of corruption” on Capitol Hill: Roll Call recently reported that three top Democrats on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee got more than $100 million in earmarks for clients of the PMA Group, an Arlington-based lobbying shop run by their former chiefs of staff.

The earmark recipients coincidentally (we are supposed to believe) donated $542,350 during the first half of this year to the ethically challenged trio — Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., and Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind. This cozy arrangement is apparently OK under the House’s new ethics rules. [snip]

Bloomberg.com reports that Visclosky sponsored a $2 million defense earmark for the Samueli Institute for Information Biology, founded by California billionaire Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan, who are among the Indiana Democrat’s top donors. But the foundation — which studies “alternative medicine” such as yoga, the medicinal use of magnets, and using homeopathy to fight bioterrorism — is not in Indiana. Its headquarters are on King Street in Alexandria, in Moran’s district. [snip]

This was after Moran pocketed $20,000 in donations from Samueli family members. Guess who lobbies for the Institute? The PMA Group, of course.

Although such arrangements are unconscionable, they are a template for Democrats on the take.

Republicans…are even moaning that they don’t get enough pork to pass around. Rep. Zack Wamp inadvertently let the cat out of the bag, Ellis said, when the Tennessee Republican complained that the Democrats were not honoring the “60/40 split” — an unwritten agreement that the majority party gets 60 percent of all earmark plunder. Wamp’s slip was the first time this dirty little secret, so carefully hidden from voters, has ever been mentioned in public. Regardless of which party gets the bigger percentage, it’s clear now that the Capitol Hill swamp is as fetid under the Democrats as it was before under the GOP.

One must remember that this isn’t “found” money. If your state is getting more in pork than it pays out in taxes, some other state is doing without something they need.

Sending more money to Washington than they need to defend the country and protect the borders perpetuates this wasteful and in some cases criminal condition. Each state is quite capable of caring for itself if it fiscally prudent. If not, each makes their own bed.

Marine From Indiana Charged In Iraqi Soldier’s Death

INDIANAPOLIS — A Marine reservist from Indiana has been charged with murdering an Iraqi army soldier in Fallujah, an attorney said Tuesday.

Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, 21, of Indianapolis, is accused of stabbing Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin to death as the two men stood watch at a security post on Dec. 31, 2006, Holmes’ lawyer said.

The struggle began in the pre-dawn darkness after Hassin allegedly opened his cell phone then lit a cigarette at the post, attorney Steve Cook said.

The men were not supposed to display any illuminated objects because of the threat of sniper fire, and Holmes made repeated attempts to make Hassin extinguish the cigarette, Cook said.

“(Holmes) said ‘No, no,’ but the Iraqi soldier refused to put out the cigarette,” [snip]

Should he die for this fool’s nicotine fix?

Provide a vigorous vertical buttstroke; follow up by tossing his worthless ass out of the position. Then bayonet him in a proper military fashion.

He voted AYE along with a bunch of House RINO’s.

What’s in your wallet?

What’s a paltry one million dollars to a member of Congress?

Well, apparently not enough to know if an organization about to receive that big block of cash actually exists.

Republican Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the fiscal crusader who’s never met an earmark he likes, questioned Democratic Rep. Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana on the House floor Tuesday about whether the Center for Instrumented Critical Infrastructure actually exists - since, hey, it’s getting like a million bucks or something.

Visclosky, who chairs the spending subcommittee responsible for the project, had to admit that, well, he didn’t have a clue. After a lengthy back-and-forth, Flake, complaining that his staff couldn’t find a website for the center, asked Visclosky, “Does the center currently exist?”
“At this time, I do not know,” the Indiana Democrat replied. “But if it does not exist, the monies could not go to it.”

And who could possibly be the sponsor of such an earmark? Yes, you guessed it, the man Republicans love to hate, Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha. (emphasis mine)

Despite the money’s uncertain destination, the House rejected Flake’s measure to strike the funds, 326-98. And the Visclosky bill also sailed through, 312-112.

As I said, what’s one million dollars to a member of Congress?

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 641- see how your critter voted. The article had no links to this roll call vote. Can’t have that, can we.

Spinach, then lettuce worries, followed by Taco Bell and now Olive Garden appear in major headlines reporting outbreaks of illness in the public sector. So far, the only disease not caught on cruise ships is Scurvy.

300-Plus Sick after Olive Garden Meal

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana restaurant was closed indefinitely Friday in connection with reports that more than 300 people became ill and three people were hospitalized after eating there recently, Marion County Health Department spokesman John Althardt told television station WRTV.

The decision to close the Olive Garden in Castleton, Ind., was made jointly by the health department and the restaurant, based on what they believed was in the best interest of the public’s health and to give investigators more time to determine the cause of the illnesses, Althardt said.

A spokesman for the Marion County Health Department said restaurant patrons reported symptoms including nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea.

Norovirus Suspected

Health officials said they still were trying to identify the illness and the cause, but the state health department said that a prime suspect is gastroenteritis, possibly caused by norovirus.

“You’ve heard of the illness on cruise ships? This is the same sort of thing, possibly. The investigation is still ongoing,” the state health department’s Scott Gilliam said Friday.

Gilliam said norovirus spreads from person to person easily.
[snip]

What’s changed? Several things have. We import more of our food from countries where good sanitation is an open pit. China spreads sewage on the hillsides where rain washes in down to fertilize fields. All the Nam Vets know what happens in rice paddies. A journey south of the U.S. border will convince one to become a carnivore during your excursion. Remember they don’t grow your food in the resort hotels. Try Sao Paolo proper on a warm summer evening.

Do you believe the corporate hospitality suite staffing is the same set of employees found at your favorite drive-thru Burger & Burp? I wonder where Swift Meats gets their medallions of veal and spinach salad?

Finally, forget Waldo; where’s Mohammad?

Are you dining out tonight?

The Dems have picked up their 2nd seat in the House with Northup being defeated by Yarmuth. The rest of Kentucky and all of Indiana have not been called yet.

CNN has called it Rhode Island for the Dems. Chafee is no loss for the GOP but it means the Dems only need 3 more seats to take the Senate. I doubt they get it. Tennessee appears to be safe for the GOP but has not been called yet.

Update: Indiana 2 goes democrat. This means they have gotten 3 of the 15 seats they need. On the other hand, two potential GOP pickups in Georgia have not been called yet.

Indiana 08 has been projected to go to the Dems with 38% of the votes in. This was a likely Democratic takeover so not much of a surprise there.

A wave of the chuck’s tail to Overlawyered

In Valparaiso, Indiana, Martha Seroczynski stages weekly protests at the county courthouse against the war in Iraq. The Porter County Board of Commissioners has asked her to show proof of homeowner’s insurance and name the county as an additional insured. It’s a county policy of some years’ standing; “Valparaiso Elks Club member Jeanie Stevens said her organization was required to show proof of insurance for its Flag Day ceremony on June 14 at the square.” Ms. Seroczynski’s insurer, however, has raised objections, and that’s aside from the question of why having insurance should be a prerequisite for the right to protest in the first place. County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger has attempted to resolve the problem by asking Ms. S to sign a waiver promising not to sue the county if injured, but she refuses. “Her right to protest does not relieve us of our responsibility to protect the liability of the other 140,000 citizens of this county,” County Commissioner John Evans has said. (”War protester asked for insurance proof to continue protests”, AP/Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel, Aug. 27; Robyn Monaghan, “Protester furor fuels free speech debate”, Northwest Indiana Times, Sept. 6).

This has the potential to affect parades, sponsored gatherings by clubs or service organizations on public property and concerts in the park as well as protests by individuals. While a political entity may not abridge her speech, just how far must any political entity go to protect someone from themselves and the taxpayers from them.

Remember, most political entities self-insure and may be sued only with their permission.

I’ve ranted in the past about the accuracy of most polls touted by the media. The media never spends the money necessary to obtain the more accurate polls of “likely voters”, they always settle for the less accurate polls of “adults” or “registered voters”. Historically Democrats fare better in generic polls rather than ones limited to likely voters because voters registered as Republicans are more likely to vote on Election day than their Democratic counterparts.

Well now Gallup has analyzed past polling data and come to the same conclusion.

“A review of historical generic ballot data shows that Democrats almost always lead on the generic ballot among registered voters, even in elections in which Republicans eventually win a majority of the overall vote for the House of Representatives,” Mr. Jones wrote.

The reason has to do with a different turnout for various groups of voters: registered voters, regular voters and, the most accurate of all, “likely voters.” Notably, “In midterm elections, fewer than half of eligible voters usually turn out to vote and Republicans are more likely to turn out than Democrats,” Mr. Jones said.

Such generic polling results, which are given broad distribution in newspapers throughout the country, have fed a growing public perception that Democrats are poised to make major gains in the House races this fall and could possibly win control of the House.

But election watchers who monitor the relatively small number of competitive House races that are up for grabs say that major gains will be an uphill climb for Democrats and a takeover is very unlikely.

“In the House, where Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats, only about three dozen are truly in play today. So far, 17 Republicans and 10 Democrats have announced their retirements. Ten of those Republicans serve in safe GOP districts, where Democrats stand little chance of winning,” writes veteran elections analyst Charlie Cook in the National Journal.

While I’ll admit that Republicans aren’t in great shape right now, I think we need to keep the accuracy of these generic polls in mind. The good news is these polls tend to make Democrats over confident.

As Robert Novak points out, the Democrats have a much bigger hill to climb than the media lets on:

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I wish to thank New England Republican for offering me the opportunity to be a group writer for this blog. I look forward to posting about local Maine issues, issues involving New England, and issues on the national scale. My interests are varied - faith, politics, economics, history, movies, books, and, especially, BLOGS! This is my first foray as a blogger.

As I hinted, I currently reside in Maine working as a lab technician while my wife finishes her graduate schooling. I’m 30-35 and I’ve been married almost two years - no children - yet. I am originally from the Midwest - born in Michigan, raised in Indianapolis by a two-parent family of two Doctors - one medical and one in economics (both now retired). I have a brother (a newly-minted medical doctor) and a sister (a reporter for a newspaper in New Hampshire). When I was two - I lost my hearing and learned how to speak and read lips and was able to successfully attend schools to graduate with a college degree from a university in Massachusetts and I absolutely loved the New England culture & being a conservative in the culture. I ended up back home after college and worked a while as a lab technician before going back to graduate school in biochemistry. I met my future wife in graduate school in Indiana and she brought me back to her home state of Maine. I love being back in New England and I love being a conservative here - that’s why I’m excited about being a part of this group blog.

I hope you enjoy my postings and I welcome all comments - especially constructive criticism. I have an idea for an upcoming “posticle” (addressing in part why, in general, Republicans will continue to be more successful than Democrats in future elections) for Monday morning and I hope to make that part of my daily posts.

Feel free to send comments to nersciguy@yahoo.com.

The senate confirmed Condoleeza Rice to Secretary of State by a lopsided 85-13 margin. But don’t worry, we can still trash her anti-American detractors. The dirty (baker’s) dozen is as follows:

The most shocking vote is Evan Bayh of conservative Indiana. This vote gives Bayh a major headache in 2010 if he decides to run for re-election - the GOP can now label him a two-faced liberal just like they did Daschle. Lorie over at Polipundit asks if Bayh is thinking of running in 2008…. Note to Bayh - for every fan you made today on the left, you just made two enemies on the right. Bye, bye Bayh!