Politics and other nightmares

Of all the reactions to Evan Bayh's retirement bombshell, this one strikes me as the most unlikely prediction:

Some people in Indy are wringing their hands over what to do about three dozen or so of the "homeless" who have built themselves a ramshackle village under a railroad bridge in downtown Indianapolis. "Issue of bridge people defies easy solution," the headline says, and one person attending a "summit" about the problem said "you can't just kick them out" but they should at least "be required to clean up after themselves." Most solutions, the group concluded, are complex.

A strange election season just got a whole lot stranger:

The Washington Post reports: Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.

"After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned," Bayh will say.

I dunno, seems like a pretty good week to me:

Last week of the Indiana General Assembly was summed up by the House minority leader Thursday in a way that was painfully obvious to anyone spending time at the Statehouse.

"We didn't take a single vote on any issue this week," Rep. Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, reminded his colleagues on the House floor.

Oh, yeah:

For some state and local Republicans, there is frustration caused by the perception that the Washington GOP establishment

Last week I did a post on the "mixed bag" of President Obama's commitment to outer space as reflected in his proposed buget and suggested a wait-and-see attitude, given that a lot of the initial reaction from my fellow space enthusiasts was positive. Now, here's columnist Charles Krauthammer with the other side:

Downtown is really struggling. The recession isns't helping. How can we make the central city more appealing to investors, convince them that it's a good place to offer a product or service people want and make a profit in the process?

Say, here's an idea. Let's tell those investors we don't even want them downtown unless they live up to our Downtown Design Standards. Be pretty or else you can just take your filthy old investment money to the suburbs:

Dan Coats is getting pounded by Democrats for not being a "real Hoosier" because he votes and pays taxes in Virginia and has to move back to Indiana to run against Evan Bayh, leasing a house in Indianapolis. "Evan Bayh has an Indiana driver's license; Dan Coats has a Virginia driver's license," says Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker, as if that settles everything.

Barack Obama has his "Read my lips" moment:

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

City Councilman Mitch Harper is inviting local government officials to get together to apply to be one of the communities in Google's planned ultra-fast and open fiber network. From Google's Web site: