Daniels: Safety Last

From the Richmond Palladium-Item (with props to Thomas): Daniels: Cost of I-69 extension can be cut

A new $3.1 billion price tag for the extension of Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and Evansville can be reduced by ignoring some federal rules, Gov. Mitch Daniels said.

Speaking Monday to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana in Evansville, Daniels said the Indiana Department of Transportation estimate released last week could be trimmed by bypassing some federal highway construction standards.

"Throw away the rule book to the extent the feds will let you do it," Daniels said he told INDOT officials.

Wait... what now? Could you run that last one by me again?

"Throw away the rule book to the extent the feds will let you do it,"

So let me see if I understand this correctly. Daniels figures that cutting costs and not getting alternative funding if the costs can't be cut is more important than safety.

Governor Daniels, do you remember this? Is this what you want? Well, it you're going to ignore safety standards, then it is what you want, regardless of how much you might spin it.

It's time to ditch Mitch.

Mike Pence: "Limbaugh Isn't Racist, No Matter How Many Times He's Shown Himself to Be One"

From Think Progress: Pence: ‘I Don’t Believe Rush Limbaugh Has A Racist Bone In His Body’

PENCE: I don’t believe Rush Limbaugh has a racist bone in his body. If you’re suggesting that his statement had a racist element in it, I commend you to a greater understanding of the positions he’s taken.

Really now, Rep. Pence? So you don't believe there's a racist bone in the body of the man who:

• Said, "minorities never do anything for which they have to apologize",
• Referred to President Obama as a "little black man-child",
• Stated that Obama's nomination was because "nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy",
• Said that Obama's "only chance of winning is that he's black",
• Said, "If Barack Obama were Caucasian, they would have taken this guy out on the basis of pure ignorance long ago",
• Accused Obama of having "disowned his white half ... he's decided he's got to go all in on the black side"
• Said that Obama "look[ed] like Ayman Zawahiri" in the now-infamous photo of him in traditional Somali clothing,
• Repeatedly referred to Obama as "Barack the Magic Negro", complete with song,

That man, Rep. Pence, is not a racist in your eyes? If he isn't, Rep. Pence, then who in the Hell is? Are you that ignorant on matters of race, or are you just blinded to it because he's currently the most vocal conservative voice in the country?

I'm going to say what I say every time a story like this comes up: I did not vote for this man. I would never. That this man is so ignorant of even basic, easily-found facts, especially in this age of the ever-present Internet is frightening; that he is an elected official is galling; that he is essentially guaranteed a continual job because of the people in this area who would vote for him is a tragedy.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Hate, Hate Again

From Bilerico: Indiana's marriage amendment: Now with more anti-gay feeling

Indiana State Representatives Eric Turner (R - Marion) and Dave Cheatham (D - North Vernon) introduced a resolution today to amend them state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. After language concerns buried the previously proposed amendment, the wording right-wingers have chosen this time points out some fascinating tidbits for those who've been following along.

So, what was that about only wanting to stop gay people from marrying, hatemongers? Because that's not what this thing looks like to me. It looks like you're trying to keep the exclusive, preferential, special rights of married people away from everyone else.

INDIANA TURNS BLUE!

MSNBC JUST CALLED INDIANA FOR OBAMA.

Live from the LHP Election Results Center 2

It looks like Mitch "The Sell-Off" Daniels is going to keep his ill-gotten, ill-used office. Piss.

To the cowards who tore down our yard sign.

You can wreck our sign, but we won't let you wreck our country.

Obama '08.

(And we voted earlier, so your immature little stunt was in vain anyway!)

It's Not All That Good

I admit we've talked a lot about the presidential race and how well it's going for us. Problem with that is, it's about the only race that is.

In the governor race, Mitch "The Sell-Off" Daniels is looking to beat Jill Long Thompson soundly. And in the IN-3 House race, Mark "DFHs Can Go Die" Souder is still a touch ahead of Mike Montagano.

I'll feel better about an Obama presidency, but on the local level, I'm still stuck in the northernmost southern state. Still, at least they're having to fight for it.

The Second Coming of Mitch

I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard an ad talking about how, apparently, whoever was in office before Mitch Daniels was ruining the state, and how Mitch descended from the clouds and fixed everything, so we ought to keep him.

Funny, I would have figured that closing BMVs to benefit his friends, selling off our interests to foreign companies for quick payoffs, and shifting the tax burden from the rich to the poor by lowering property taxes while raising the sales tax were all bad things.

Well, then...

So Clinton won. Barely.

I figured she'd win by a lot more - my guess was about 10 percent. Not a "squeeker". Not about 2%.

Maybe this state isn't so far gone, even with the WOWO crowd dragging their knuckles all the way to the polls to tamper with democracy.

Too close to call

As I type this, the margin between Clinton and Obama here in Indiana is just too damn close to really call. The way it's looking, Obama just might win.

Time to hope.

A reminder.

Remember to vote on Tuesday, if you're from hereabouts.

'Scuse Me, but WHAT?

I just about punched a wall after seeing Bob Latta's campaign commercial. Apparently, his opponent is funded by "pro-abortion extremists".

WHAT? What in the hell is a "pro-abortion extremist"? Is that someone who waves pictures of bloody coat hangers outside anti-choice organizations, harasses women who go to "crisis pregnancy centers", and blows up "right-to-life" organization buildings?

The lies these people will tell are positively astounding.

Mike Pence: "Discrimination or Nothing!" Paper: "STFU"

Rep. Mike Pence calls himself “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” This isn't surprising - people with extremist views like to see themselves as being part of their extremism before they're anything else. It also lends an air of "oh-what-a-damn-surprise" to his vote against Head Start. Why would he vote against it? Why, because the money it gives couldn't be given to programs that discriminate.

Thankfully, the Richmond Palladium-Item realizes that Pence is a jackass for his vote, and calls him on it:

But Pence's objections, like those of the White House, are troubling to us because they grant faith-based organizations the right to practice discrimination at the same time they receive federal funds.

Specifically, the White House, Pence and a few other conservatives sought language that would allow religious groups receiving federal money to administer Head Start programs to hire or fire staffers based on religious affiliations.

Now, let us be clear in our belief that religious groups and organizations should be permitted to place religious tests on whomever they choose to hire or fire without interference from government.

So long as they are using their own money.

Therein lies the problem. A higher or at least more public standard needs to be met when tax dollars are at stake, as they are in this case.

Mark Souder: "Anyone Who Disagrees With Me Is A DFH", Groups: "STFU"

From Blue Indiana: Rep. Mark Souder's personal drug war catches some big name flak

I am so glad I didn't vote for this one-issue jackass.

Rep. Mark Souder hates drugs. He also hates the people who use drugs. He also hates the people who don't hate the people who use drugs.

Under current law, students with drug convictions are ineligible for financial aid for at least a year, maybe more, depending on the conviction. A group opposed to this penalty has been lobbying for years to eliminate it and will get a chance this week when the House Education Committee takes up reauthorization of the Higher Education Act on Wednesday.

Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), a strong supporter of the drug penalty, tried earlier this month to preempt the effort to repeal it with a Dear Colleague letter. It warned members of Congress not to heed the word of the "small but determined coalition of drug-legalization groups" that opposes the penalty. "Before you are bombarded by the talking points of such groups, I wanted to make sure everyone has the facts straight," he wrote.

There's just a small problem: The letter that Souder sent out as a warning of the "small but determined" pro-drug hippies got a response from some of those aforementioned groups. And unfortunately for Souder, they aren't small, and they aren't happy.

The group, however, did its own straightening of facts. Sixteen of its members replied with a letter that's going out today asking that Souder "retract" his characterization of them. Among the hippies to fire back: the American Federation of Teachers, American Friends Service Committee, National Association of Social Workers, Union for Reform Judaism, etc.

Once again, I am so glad I didn't vote for this man. Mark Souder is something worse than those one-issue voters - he's a one-issue legislator. Nearly every time he opens his craw, he's wailing about drugs and how everyone who uses drugs is evil and anyone who doesn't want them DFHs locked up for life is a horrible person. Other than the occasional blurb about things that don't really matter for shit around here (and don't affect the people he should be concerned about), that's seemingly his entire platform.

Once again, I say, "Don't blame me, I voted for Hayhurst."

Shine to AFA: "Stuff your hate where it belongs"

From the Journal-Gazette: 3rd-party ad against gays angers Shine

Local Republican Chairman Steve Shine on Friday criticized a third-party radio commercial promoting GOP mayoral candidate Matt Kelty that Shine said presents a message of intolerance.

The ad, sponsored by the American Family Association of Indiana, said Christians have an important decision in the upcoming mayor’s race because Democrat Tom Henry has “repeatedly authored legislation promoting the gay-rights agenda.”

The American Family Association of Indiana is endorsing Kelty.

Shine sent a two-page letter to Kelty outlining his concerns with the ad. In it, he wrote that the advertisement does not create a perception of the open and inclusive Republican Party he is trying to promote.

While he said he has valued the group’s support of candidates in the past, he fears the radio ad – played on a local Christian station – conveys that Republicans shun people who differ from them in certain ways.

“As someone whose roots come from a class of people once persecuted for its religious beliefs, it pains me to hear even a hint of intolerance associated with a candidate of an organization I chair,” said Shine, who is Jewish. “I will not accept intolerance, real or perceived.”

You know, usually I've got a real mad-on for the GOP overall, but I've really got to hand it to Steve Shine - telling a group of anti-gay hatemongers to go stuff it because they're marginalizing would-be voters is a damn good move. You and I both know it's not going to affect my vote - I won't vote for a Republican unless they're the only one on a ticket and I don't live in Ft. Wayne anyhow, but this sets a good precedent. Now if only we could get more folks to tell the haters to go fly a kite, we'd be good.

On Not Knowing Real Oppression

Okay, I admit I've been on a real tear about all the bitching over the smoking ban. What can I say, it's gotten annoying, especially with utter stupidity like this being printed in the paper nearly every day:

Our military is fighting for Iraqis’ freedom. Who is fighting for ours? Does freedom stop at the United States borders?

You've got to be kidding me. You wouldn't know what it's like to have your freedom taken away, you spoiled asshole.

Smokers Should Get the Hint

O plight and oppression! How terribly these smokers have it these days, what with ever-increasing taxes upon each pack and a new smoking ban in Ft. Wayne. Why, to hear their lamentations, one would think they are, beyond all doubt, the most put-upon group ever to walk the face of this Earth. They write into the paper, bemoaning taxes and bans and their utter, utter repression, all the while asserting their "rights" as smokers.
To them, I pose this question: If you're all so incensed about how being a smoker has become ever so difficult, then why not take the hint and quit? You'll save money, your health, and the health of those around you. Better to light a candle than curse the darkness, they say.

In Which I Become Angry About Idiotic Pseudo-Libertarian Garbage (or, Damian Tells Smokers to Shut Up)

Thanks to people who like to buy papers and leave them behind, I find myself reading the Journal-Gazette nearly every day I work. Between huge walls of text about FWCS petition color coordination and pithy defenses of Matt Kelty on the opinion page, they occasionally print yet another whiny letter about the Ft. Wayne smoking ban. Beyond the BS arguments about the ban "reducing business", there's a lot of flap about "smoker's rights", always phrased as either "the gummint's takin' my/business owners' rights, yours'll be next!!1" or "why shouldn't I be allowed to smoke in public?"

To this, I still ask, why is it that smokers have some inherent right to smoke inside a building, but non-smokers like myself don't have a right to not breathe poison? And no, the arguemtn of "well, you should just go somewhere that doesn't allow smoking" is and has always been a load of utter horseshit. Why shouldn't the smokers go outside? Why shouldn't the smokers go somewhere else? Why do their "rights" trump mine?

The answer? They don't. Smokers, you're making a choice to harm yourself, so you can at least have the courtesy to not harm us. Your rights do not trump ours.

In God I Trust, So I Don't Need to Drive Right

Today's J-G Letters page.

For those who feel they need to profess their faith via their “In God We Trust” license plates – more power to you. But remember, God, and everyone else, is watching you. Hopefully you use your turn signal every time it is warranted; you use the passing lane for actually passing; you don’t pass on the right; you come to a full and complete stop at all stop signs – no slow rolling allowed; and you do not ever speed, for you are to “submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake” (1 Peter 2:13). If you can’t abide by these “laws of man” and feel compelled to still have your “special” plate, realize that you may be considered by some to be a hypocrite.

I've noticed that most of the obnoxious drivers in this state (or at least in this area) have the IGWT plates. It's as if they seem to believe themselves above the pithy laws of man, much less the tenets of common courtesy.

I'm really glad I'm not the only one noticing this trend.

EACS: "Okay, so maybe we won't fire you"

From the Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette: EACS reassigns suspended teacher

Embattled Woodlan Junior-Senior High School journalism teacher Amy Sorrell will continue teaching under an agreement reached Thursday with East Allen County Schools.

The agreement places Sorrell on paid administrative leave for the rest of the school year and requires her to serve a five-day unpaid suspension, said her attorney, Patrick Proctor of Eilbacher Fletcher Attorneys.

The settlement also relocates her to Heritage Junior-Senior High School in the fall. Sorrell’s exact position hasn’t been determined, but it will not be teaching journalism, he said.

Well, it's not a perfect solution, and I'm sure that the closed-minded bastards behind this whole thing aren't going to learn jack, but this gives me some level of hope. I guess maybe I don't live in that much of a backwards, hateful, bigot-filled, conservative, Bible-thumping shithole.

EDIT, 2:56 PM, 4/27/2007: The IndyStar article states Sorrell will be banned from teaching journalism for three years. Wow. Way to make yourselves look like total assholes, East Allen County Schools.