Allen County Democratic Party

Liberal Media? Looks like they favor the GOP...

Hat tip to Doug Masson for pointing this out to me.

Stale

The reviews of Bobby Jindal's rebuttal to President Obama's address to Congress keep coming in.  Here is what conservative columnist David Brooks had to say:

David Brooks, a conservative New York Times columnist who has criticized aspects of the stimulus plan, nonetheless called Jindal's arguments "insane" and tone-deaf given the dire economic challenges the country faces.

"To come up in this moment in history with a stale, 'Government is the problem, you can't trust the federal government' is just a disaster for the Republican Party," Brooks said on PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." "It's not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is."

In defense of Bobby Jindal, I heard one GOP strategist say it was like having to follow Led Zeppelin with a harmonica.

 

I never thought I would see the day.....

I never thought I would see the day that I agreed with Craig Ladwig of the Indiana Policy Review.

Today he has a column in the News Sentinel speaking AGAINST government consolidation.

On the contrary, they had thought it through admirably. They may have even read a comprehensive survey of the academic literature showing mixed results for consolidation of local governments or a forensic accounting that debunked not only the promised tax cuts but the savings touted in a typical consolidation campaign.

In any case, Hoosiers want a more accountable government — not necessarily a more centralized one, however efficient it may be.

In Allen County all the township assessors (with the exception of Wayne) were eliminated.  What happened as a result? 

• A 27% pay increase for the assessor and her chief deputy.
• The township assessors were made supervisors, and due to things like longevity pay all are making more now than before.
• The county is incurring a huge expense to re-arrange offices in the CC building.

I also find it perplexing that County Council saw it necessary to give a raise to the Assessor because of her increased workload.  The Assessor now makes about $78k.  The Lake County Assessor (Lake County has about 143,000 more people than Allen does) makes $53,381.

 

President Obama has the support of the American people!

Last night President Barack Obama gave an incredible speech.  A poll completed after the speech shows impressive numbers.  92% of Americans said their reaction to the speech was somewhat to extremely positive.  The poll was done by CNN/Opinion Research:

Also, 85 percent said his speech made them feel more optimistic about the country's path in the next few years.

Asked whether Obama's policies would move the country in the right direction or now, 88 percent answered the right direction, up from 71 percent in a pre-speech poll, and 82 percent said they generally supported the economic plan he outlined.

And 82 percent said they believed Obama's plan would save or create millions of jobs, 80 percent said they believed Obama's plan would improve the economy, 75 percent said it would improve the healthcare system, and 68 percent said it would cut the federal deficit.

I almost feel sorry for Bobby Jindal.  He had Presidential aspirations but reviews of his response to the Obama speech are not good.  Here is what Fox News commentators had to say:

BRIT HUME: “The speech read a lot better than it sounded. This was not Bobby Jindal’s greatest oratorical moment.”

NINA EASTON: “The delivery was not exactly terrific.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “Jindal didn’t have a chance. He follows Obama, who in making speeches, is in a league of his own. He’s in a Reagan-esque league. … [Jindal] tried the best he could.”

JUAN WILLIAMS: “It came off as amateurish, and even the tempo in which he spoke was sing-songy. He was telling stories that seemed very simplistic and almost childish.”

ACDP NEWS RELEASE

A very recent work shift change has enhanced Chairman Bynum's availability to the media.  This schedule change greatly increases the likelihood that he can work within the local media deadlines.  Mike has enjoyed working with local, state and national media during this past year and looks forward to this change. 

For general information and at the request of local bloggers who are not on our fax media distribution list, below is a copy of the recent press release.

Media Release
For immediate release

To:	All Media	From:	Mike Bynum
Date:	2/24/2009	Pages:	1

Important statement regarding
Allen County Democratic Party
Communications

 

 

Allen County Democratic Chairman Mike Bynum announced today that he is taking over the official spokesman duties from Kevin Knuth.   “Kevin helped fill the gap during a transition year,” said Bynum,” but part of the duties of Chair is to be the face of the party.  I look forward to the new challenges that this will present.”

Bynum recently changed shifts at his full time job allowing him to better interface with the media.

His contact numbers are: 260-447-2617 (home) 

Cell phone number was omitted from this web version. Any media reps not in possession of number or release may contact Mike at above phone number to obtain. 

 

Why we need the stimulus

I found this today over at Masson's blog- which he got from Sadly, No!

 Masson had another brilliant post the other day as well:

This recession will eventually end without government intervention. And all wounds will eventually stop bleeding without medical attention.

Pat White does it again....

Pat White played a clip from the Oscar's last night.  The award winner for Best Screenplay (for Milk) made a statement that soon "you will have federal right to be able to marry".

Pat then went on to explain how this will happen.  "THEY" will take a couple from Massachusetts and move them to a state that does not recognize gay marriage.  Then "THEY" will demand equal rights in court.  "THEY" will take it all the way to the Supreme Court. 

My question- who is "THEY"?

Mitch Daniels is trying to kill us....

Okay, the headline is misleading.  I really hate daylight savings time...and it turns out, it could kill me!

Clocks spring ahead and fall back when adjusting in and out of daylight saving time. A study published on Wednesday finds that heart attack rates do the same.

The research, based on heart attacks in Sweden, concluded that the chance of a heart attack goes up during the first three weekdays after the springtime shift to daylight saving time, possibly because of sleep deprivation.

Still, I am a bit ticked at Mitch Daniels for pushing the DST issue.

GOP follows Marx- wants to nationalize banks

I opened ABCnews.com this morning and saw this headline:

"Nationalization Fules Fear on Wall Street- Talk of Government Taking Over Troubled Banks Sends Stocks Diving."

It needs to be noted, this is a GOP idea.  President Obama does not support this plan. 

For Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), mere practicality trumps free-market principle. “We should be focusing on what works,” Graham chirped to the FT. “If nationalization is what works, then we should do it.” Graham claimed that many GOP senators — including former Republican presidential nominee John McCain — want nationalization “on the table.”

The idea of government commandeering banks is nothing new. It appeared in 1848 in The Communist Manifesto.

“The Proletariat will use its political supremacy, to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie,” Karl Marx predicted. This would include “Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

While Marx’s proposal exceeded the ambitions of Greenspan, Graham, and Graham’s GOP pals, it took liberal Democrats to declare bank nationalization out of bounds.

 

Legislative News from Speaker Pat Bauer

Thought you'd be interested in this update from Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Pat Bauer (D-South Bend):

INDIANAPOLIS - A state budget is the one bill that must be passed in a long session of the Indiana General Assembly.

 

            This week, members of the Indiana House approved a budget plan that reflects the reality of the uncertain financial times we live in. 

            We must set priorities for funding state programs and services at a time when we have a failing economy, more than 266,000 Hoosiers looking for work and continuing uncertainty over the impact of the national economic stimulus package on Indiana.

 

            In the House, we have chosen to take a different approach in budgeting. Rather than combining everything into a single bill covering two years, we have broken the budget into three separate bills covering only the first year of the next biennium, which runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

 

             This approach gives us another year to see if the economy recovers, which could mean increased state revenues. If things do not improve, the budget covering the second year of the biennium (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) will have to reflect harder times. We all hope that the national stimulus package plays a role in making sure that our choices are not that difficult, but I believe passing a one-year budget is prudent at this time.