Archive for the “Politics” Category

Self explanatory.

December 13, 2011
Indiana House of Representatives
Indiana Senate

Dear Legislator,

I write to express concern over pending mass transit legislation in Indiana. Reports indicate that some are considering a sizable income tax increase to pay for an expansion of public transportation in Central Indiana. Whether or not mass transit is sustainable on the $1.3 billion scale envisioned by the Central Indiana Transit Task Force, you certainly should not be levying harmful tax increases on families and job creators during these tenuous economic times.

Public transit can be of dubious value, especially in areas of the country that do not generate enough demand for a free market alternative. And $1.3 billion in buses and trains is a massive undertaking with costs that will almost certainly exceed projections. But even if it is determined that Central Indiana is ripe for an expansion of mass transit, it should also be determined that that $1.3 billion in spending is a higher priority than an existing $1.3 billion. Cut the lowest priority and use the savings to pay for the new project. Don’t raise taxes.

For those of you who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a tax increase to pay for transit expansion is a violation of that Pledge. I urge you to oppose and vote against this tax increase, which voters simply can’t afford. If you have any questions, please contact ATR state affairs manager Joshua Culling at

jculling@atr.org
Onward,
Grover Norquist

CC: The Honorable Mitch Daniels
The Honorable Greg Ballard

My friend Tim Zank posted this on Facebook earlier.

Tim Zank

I find this positively hilarious and oh so typical. Attorney General Holder, The Obama Administration and Democrats nationwide are fighting, suing, and generally throwing an absolute fit that states are requiring a picture I.D. to vote. They claim it’s voter suppression, racist and un-american. If that’s the case, why do labor unions that vote in lock step with Democrats require a picture I.D. to vote in union elections?

I thought I would expand on it.

You need a picture ID to do the following:

• Buy alcohol
• Drive a car
• Use your credit card if you forgot to sign it
• Open a bank account
• Rent an apartment (most places)
• Get a bank loan
• Open an account with city utilities
• Open a cell phone account with Verizon or any other major carrier
• Get a teacher’s license
• Board a commercial airplane
• Obtain a passport
• Get a library card (most libraries)
• Rent a canoe at Chain-o-Lakes State Park
• Obtain free food at many food pantries
• Return a purchase at a Nike Retail Store
• Visit someone in jail
• Sign up for Medicare
• Obtain a fishing license
• Check-in to a major hotel chain
• Rent a boat or a waverunner from a marina
• Obtain your college transcripts
• Rent a truck from U-Haul
• Bid at an auction

Either that, or maybe they were tired of local bloggers sitting in on their live streaming broadcasts and finding out their next move. They’ve deleted their entire Livestream channel, along with all of the archived videos.

Either way, with temperatures tonight going down to 14°, it would be fun to go downtown to see just how many didn’t evacuate to Mommy’s basement.

Susan Chilberg, Peter Recchio and company are at it again. This is a pity for those within the TEA Party movement in Indiana that have sacrificed their time and efforts.

This time it started with an email Wednesday by Matt Kibbe, President and CEO of FreedomWorks to Anna Kroyman with the White County Tea Party:

Dear Anna,

FreedomWorks, Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate and local tea parties
are joining forces to host a series of grassroots training events around
Indiana the week of December 12th-16th. I wanted to invite you to join
our grassroots team at any of these exciting events, which will be held
near Lafayette, Elkhart and Indianapolis.

[...]
Sincerely,
Matt Kibbe
President and CEO, FreedomWorks

Pretty clear to me. FreedomWorks, HFCS and local TEA Parties. Read the rest of this entry »

Christmas Trees and Crony Capitalism
by RYAN CUMMINS

I’ve been involved in selling fresh Christmas trees for as long as I can remember. Our family vacations often consisted of walking grower’s fields with my dad, tagging the trees that he wanted for the upcoming season.

So my interest was piqued when word got out that a federal bureaucracy, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), working in cahoots with some Christmas tree growers, tried to slap a “tax” on every fresh Christmas tree sold.

In government parlance, this particular scam is called a “market order.” In effect, a business owner or small group of owners captures the force of government for individual gain. Read the rest of this entry »

By Micah Clark

Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated 

Political commentators looking for a clear trend among Hoosier voters may be disappointed this morning. They may be left with fairly minor observations like “voters are looking for new faces.”   Yet, even that claim is to be tempered as many incumbent mayors in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Kokomo and Goshen won re-election. Scores of incumbent city council members also held on yesterday in cities all across the state. Many races that were expected to be close were not. Other races were closer than predicted.  Read the rest of this entry »

By Craig Ladwig

Of all the things you have to worry about in these serious times, you don’t have to worry that the Indiana Legislature, GOP majority or not, will do anything substantive to improve Indiana’s budgetary, fiscal or economic position. With Organization Day around the corner, Nov. 22, and a governing class marking time until the gubnatorial election, that is not cynicism, merely reality. Read the rest of this entry »

By Micah Clark

Oh That Voodoo, That You Do, When You Protect Church Freedoms

Yesterday, I attended the final Joint Summer Study Committee on Child Care Issues in the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee room. I sat next to a friend who mentioned how contentious this committee had been. It didn’t take long for this to play out in this final hearing.

The contention boils down to those who want to give state government more power over church childcare ministries in order to improve some daycare center conditions, versus those who see this as a violation of the true meaning of “a wall of separation” envisioned to keep government out of churches.  Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Ashe Schow at Heritage Action for America has an interesting post today. It highlights the hypocrisy of the democrat’s support for the hippie Occupy Wall Street movement. Here’s a table from her post that shows Wall Street contributions to Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman-Shutlz and Barney Frank.

It’s worth a click, go here to read the entire post.

By Micah Clark

Just How Bad is It?   Pretty Bad

If you feel like you have been crushed financially, you probably have. A new report finds that the US standard of living has declined longer and more steeply in the last three years than during any time since the government began that measurement fifty years ago. The average American now has $1,315 less in disposable income than at the onset of the Great Recession three years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

By Micah Clark

Government Caught Pink Handed Inflating Numbers

As you recall, while campaigning, Senator Barack Obama appeared to be one of the most electrifying, populist, hopeful and promising presidential candidates to seek that office since Ronald Reagan. In reality however, President Obama is the most liberal and ideologically extreme of any person to occupy the White House in our lifetimes. He is seemingly a true believer in this agenda. He appears unwilling to deviate from his worldview in part perhaps because, (even by his own admissions), he spent his whole life surrounded by America-hating radicals seeking to undermine the foundations of our nation and constantly disparaging the values essential to those foundations.  Read the rest of this entry »