A tweet from Indiana State Senator Mike Delph at 10:15 this morning. “Congressman Burton is announcing his retirement on the Statehouse floor at 10:30am, where it all started.”

Burton represents Indiana’s 5th congressional district. There are several vying for the slot, including former congressman and Kendallville native David McIntosh, attorney Jack Lugar, (Senator Dick Lugar’s son),  Susan Brooks, a former U.S. attorney and Fort Wayne native, and former Marion County Coroner John McGoff, who came close to defeating Burton two years ago.

The 5th District presently includes Huntington County, which joins the 3rd District for the next 10 years beginning with the 2012 elections.

The German term above has historic significance, hit the link at the end of this paragraph if you do not know why.

Fort Wayne / South Bend’s Bishop Kevin Rhoades  — and all of the Bishops of the United States – find themselves in a culture war with the Obama administration in 2012.  Sometimes you run to the front, sometimes the front advances upon you. 

Find here a column in the local newspaper reflecting on the recent march for life in the Fort (see picture below) and the test that has now come to the Catholic Church in the United States. 

The column contains quotes from three US Bishops that would have been considered quite radical just a few months ago.  Read ‘em and muster for battle.

Kulturkampf has come to us, with Kathleen Sebelius and Barack Obama driving the tanks in the general’s ranks.  Definition here:  http://www.archangelinstitute.org/americas-political-class-intensifies-the-kulturkampf/

By Jim Sack

My friend, Andi Udris, has resigned from the Alliance. I will miss him.

Andi Udris

To be clear, the abrupt resignation, which he did not signal to me when we breakfasted last week, looks more like walking the plank at the point of cutlass.

Perhaps the people who gave him the choice between jumping or being pushed had a good reason, perhaps, as was reported, it was a clash of personalities. I doubt anyone will bother to tell me. People in these positions use silencers.

Andi, to his credit, worked hard for this area and had big dreams for economic development. He clearly had begun to set down roots and bubbled of how much he liked Fort Wayne.

Somebody, apparently, didn’t care much for Andi, his ideas or his personality. You can see the members listed here on their website. They include the high and the mighty in Fort Wayne, as well as a couple who are moving on in life. They include people who are hired guns who will vanish in their own time from the local scene leaving very little, indeed, behind. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh, I can hear Kevin Knuth now, hunkered down in his bunker with Mike Bynum.

A former Fort Wayne police officer, who must hold the record for disciplinary actions against him, has filed to run against Stutzman.

John Roberson filed this week as a democrat candidate in the primary election for the 3rd congressional seat. Robertson was canned form the FWPD in 1999 after receiving 28 various disciplinary actions. After that, he drove truck for a while, then retired.

Then we have hotel dweller Tommy Schrader, who never saw a gay porn flick he didn’t like. He’s also running as a democrat. You’ll recall he ran as a democrat last year in the at-large city council race, and won, only to be booted by the election board at the demand of Knuth and the democrats due to residency issues.

Hot damn, we have a race, eh?

The paid union protesters had little effect on the outcome of the Indiana House vote on right-to-work. It passed union 54-44. The bill had passed the Senate last Friday 28-22.

Indiana becomes the 23rd state to ban unions from collecting union dues from non-union workers.  Governor Daniels will likely have the bill in his hands, and signed, prior to the Super Bowl.

So much for the OWS and union protests that were planned for the Super Bowl, eh?

Watch this video, it’s priceless.

By Jim Sack

It was a workmanlike meeting at council last night punctuated by joviality and smiles, many smiles. Hardly an eyebrow lifted through the 100-minute session, not even when representatives of the mayor said they would keep politics out of redistricting.

From pre-game to post-meeting analysis members of council found charming things to say about each other, to compliment the clerk and to toss roses to the audience. It is a reflection of the new members on council – Jehl, Paddock and Crawford – all of whom try to find the sunny side of a question. Last year’s cat-fight-of-a-bar-room brawl has unofficially been put to rest and now will become the stuff of humorous comparisons. Read the rest of this entry »

Suck it up Tom Henry. Oh, and here’s some facts for you. Read the rest of this entry »

This was written by my friend, Monica Boyer to the Times Union. No need for commentary, since it pretty much sums up the democrat’s thought process with the RTW issue and how to handle it.

This is in reference to Mr. Bartley’s latest rant on his closed door “town hall” for the Right to Work bill. Since Mr. Bartley loves labels, let me give you a few of mine.

My name is Monica Boyer. I am a Christian, social and fiscal conservative, Tea Party leader, Republican, a mom and a wife of a union member.

I attended Sunday’s meeting because my family will be affected by Right to Work. I have been in politics for the last seven years, and I know how lobbying works. I know how fear tactics can be used (can’t say I’ve never used them myself), I know how talking points are used on both sides.

My family went to this meeting Sunday with no agenda but to find the truth. I’m a pretty opinionated person, but this day, I was truly on the fence, even leaning toward being frustrated with the Republican Party. I have been vocal about this, which hasn’t made any brownie points with my party.

What happened Sunday was nothing more than a hateful Republican bash session. There were no facts offered, just the pre-scripted talking points. No education, no counter points. We were told Republicans are evil. I learned right away that this was not a family friendly meeting, as “F” bombs were flying left and right.

When I removed my children, and came back in, some pastor was quoting Proverbs about how evil men must be destroyed, and those were the Republicans that must be destroyed. They speared our representatives, and talked about them being absent from this meeting. Not one time did Mr. Bartley mention he knew Dave Wolkins was in the hospital having medical tests. Tell me, how is that fair?

The kicker for me was as I introduced myself to the Democratic chairman, Mr. Bartley, and pleasantly told him that I enjoy hearing about the things their party is doing via email. He informed me he did not know how I got on their email database and that he wanted me removed immediately.

Is this how you attract new members to your party, sir, because if so, I now understand why our county has only seven Democrats!

I am not taking a public stand on RTW, and I support my husband in whatever decision he makes on this. I have no problem with a referendum. The union has treated us well, and we thank the Lord every day for our job. But shame on you, Mr. Bartley, for turning this into a party issue, and presuming to know how we feel about this topic.

Thanks to you, my husband, the conservative Republican dad and union worker, is now tagged and marked.

You know what I want? I want a conversation. Guns down, name calling put away, political party put away and all preconceived ideas put away; a conversation between both sides so I, as a Christian, a conservative, a Tea Party leader, a Republican, a mom and a wife of a union member can make up my mind with what is best for my family. It’s time to grow up and have this conversation.

If a TEA party leader can handle it … what is your problem?

Monica Boyer
Warsaw

This post teases to a  recent upload at the redesigned News-Sentinel website.  Find below just the opening paragraph and a few lines that AWB readers should find of interest.  Hit this hot link for the whole enchillada. 

Indiana’s most powerful unelected governmental strongman recently put a plan into action that will reverberate in the halls of Hoosier governance for decades to come. It is a plan that could greatly affect every reader of The News-Sentinel, yet none – or at least next to none – will have any say over how it all “goes down.”

I speak of Chief Justice Randall Shepard’s surprising December announcement that he will resign his dual posts (justice and chief justice) on the Indiana Supreme Court on March 4. This decision puts into play the following palace intrigues: 1. Who will become the next justice of the Indiana Supreme Court? 2. Of the five justices, one brand new and another a mere half year on that bench, who will become the next Indiana Supreme Court chief justice? 3. What is to become of the former Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard, who appears to have a few more good years left in him?

*****

[A] woman is the odds-on favorite to become the next justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, with Moberly being the most likely belle of that ball.

*****

Thus the Judicial Nomination Committee will immediately place a new chief justice over the court, and the odds-on favorite is — (the envelope please) — Justice Steven David! (Pictured) Yes, that Steven David – the one who caused an uproar across the state with the Barnes decision and the Supreme Court’s dogged refusal to rehear that split decision, even though 71 legislators, Attorney General Greg Zoeller, and tens of thousands of Hoosiers strenuously requested a rewording of that broadside against the ages-old castle doctrine.

(As an aside, locals wanting to communicate their concerns about Justice David’s “nowadays” jurisprudence will have that opportunity Friday, Feb. 3 at 1 p.m. when Justice David addresses attorneys and judges gathered at the Grand Wayne Center.)

******

Could it be that Randall Terry Shepard, as a newly reacquired war horse in the mainline GOP’s stable, is being saddled up to give tea party darling Mike Pence a heart-thumping run for his money in the 2012 gubernatorial race?

Or perhaps (if Sen. Richard Lugar has been hoisted on his own petard via filings from his previous presidential run) it is Richard Mourdock who will find himself running against Shepard in the GOP primary?

The whole story links here

By Micah Clark

Rep. Bauer and The Mother of All Hypocrisies

It is not my intent to weigh in on the “right to work” issue, but the high drama is hard to leave out of any discussion of what is happening at your state capitol.

Last night, House Democrats walked out for the third time this session. This action holds up the process and reminds everyone of their five-week trip to a Comfort Inn in Illinois last year. That departure killed numerous bills including a 2011 right to work proposal.

Late last week, House Democrats threw out a new notion that could stall right to work for a while.Rep. Pat Bauer wants right to work to be a referendum issue rather than a legislative one. However,the irony of this proposal is remarkable. Former Speaker of the House, Pat Bauer, single-handedly blocked Marriage Protection referendums for more than six years. If he were Speaker today, he’d still be blocking a people’s vote on marriage protection.  Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

The new council asserted their power early in last night’s meeting with a quick three to six denial of a contract between the administration and a project management company. City Utilities had proposed a two-year contract and a representative gave a long-winded explanation of the project, of the need for a consultant, of the qualifications of that consultant who had worked or the city at one time, and as to why a two-year contract was preferable to a shorter iteration. Both Dr. John Crawford and Tom Didier took mild umbrage at the proposal citing their participation on the Professional Services Committee which is soon to issue new guidelines on how consultants should be hired by the city and by city utilities. The two men led the party-line vote to send the bill back for a rewrite. Simply, they proposed the bill be written for a one year period. Mr. Crawford and Didier, with the support of all the Republicans on council, believed a two-year contract might somehow fail compliance with the new, yet-to-be-minted, guidelines. Read the rest of this entry »