Let's hear it for Richard Lugar. He voted for the auto rescue package and the health insurance program for children and the financial bailout for banks. But he finally found his "no" button, apparently understanding the stimulus bill for what it really is:
The stimulus bill considered by the Senate is a sprawling affair, with massive spending for a wide variety of projects, some of which are completely unrelated to the immediate economic challenges before us," Lugar said in a statement.
Persident Obama in Elkhart:
“I can't tell you with a hundred percent certainty that every single item in this plan will work exactly as we hoped,” he said. “But what I can tell you is — I can say with complete confidence that endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will only bring deepening disaster. I can tell you that doing nothing is not an option.”
If you suddenly find yourself in charge of a vast bureaucracy that, unfortunately, governs a shrinking base of supplicants, what are you to do? Well, if you're Tom Vilsack, you redefine your mission:
"This is a department that intersects the lives of Americans two to three times a day. Every single American," he said. "So I absolutely see the constituency of this department as broader than those who produce our food -- it extends to those who consume it."
New York Gov. David Paterson proposes a new theater ticket tax that would increase ticket prices about 8 percent, which causes New York Times editors to worry that such a move "could dim Broadway's lights as tourists start thinking twice about that vacation in Manhattan":
Rocco Landesman, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, summarizes his latest pleas to lawmakers this way: “Please, don't kill your golden goose.”
[. . .]
Gee, do you think?
The Obama administration's economic stimulus plan could end up wasting billions of dollars by attempting to spend money faster than an overburdened government acquisition system can manage and oversee it, according to documents and interviews with contracting specialists.
But that's perfectly OK, says Michael Hirsh of Newsweek:
If you aspire to have absolute power, forget about the presidency. That office is constrained by Congress, by the Supreme Court, by the Constitution and even by something as nebulous as public opinion. No, if you want real, raw power, just be a judge:
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A judge has ordered the St. Joseph County Council to approve $79,000 in pay raises for his eight employees despite a projected $4.3 million county government deficit.
When I want a good, escapist read in the fantasy/horror genre, I tend to go to Dean Koontz before Stephen King. King gets awfully wordy -- he's so successful he can tell his editors "no thanks; hands off" -- and Koontz still knows how to keep a story moving. Besides, he's a wry observer of the human condition and at at times a gloomy moralist. In a Koontz book, you're likely occasionally to stumble across a passage that says what you always knew but couldn't articulate.
If you've been the victim of a violent crime, this isn't exactly the kind of mistake you want to happen:
More than 3,600 crime victims across Indiana mistakenly received messages Thursday telling them that the person who committed the crime against them would be released from the Department of Correction.
Government to top business executives: Want some bailout money? Got some rules.
The Obama administration's announcement yesterday that it would toughen executive compensation restrictions at some firms receiving federal aid signaled a broader strategy to remake how Wall Street's top financiers are paid, officials said.
When I first heard about "sexting," I thought, well, it's just a high-tech version of what we did in high school -- telling off-color jokes, passing around dirty pictures and all of that other racy stuff. But it's really another one of those oh-these-kids-today! extremes:
It primarily involves high school and even middle school students. "Basically what they're doing is distributing pornography," said Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards.
Washington's economic rescue plan won't end the recession, economists suggested Wednesday, but it could ease the pain and help create or save 79,300 jobs in Indiana and fix 176 school buildings.
Haven't my people suffered enough?
Food kits recently distributed as part of a disaster relief effort in Kentucky and Arkansas may contain peanut butter contaminated with salmonella linked to a nationwide outbreak, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday.
[. . .]
In an era when the news business is shrinking rather than growing, this is certainly good, er, news:
Fort Wayne TV viewers will have a fourth choice for local news beginning this spring.
WFFT, Fort Wayne's Fox network affiliate, will debut a weekday local news program in a few months. The 35-minute "Fox Fort Wayne 1st News @ 10" will run Monday through Friday following Fox prime-time programming and include local news, weather and sports coverage.
The federal government that wants us to believe it is competent to handle a $1 trillion "stimulus" bill shows it can't even manage the piddly little digital conversion that it mandated:
The U.S. House voted Wednesday to delay the transition from Feb. 17 to June 12, ending an on-again, off-again battle over the effective date.
For now, I'll stick with my earlier prediction that Indiana won't do anything about a statewide smoking ban this year. There's just too much else going on, especially the difficulty of crafting a two-year budget during a recession.
Came across this from the illustration service our newspaper uses. I have nothing to use it with today, no reason to put it
An Indianapolis woman has a wild ride:
IFD says Feeney was leaving a hair salon when she veered back towards the salon building, shearing the gas meter and striking the building. From that point, Feeney drove through a bush, hit a fence, turned her car and hit four cars on her way out of the parking lot.
As usual, I haven't been watching "American Idol," so I'm not up to speed on this apparent outrage:
For the most part in the past, "Idol" hopefuls who make it to Hollywood are serious singers who really think they have a shot at winning, with the costume-wearing, prop-toting jokers mostly weeded out during the audition weeks or not given screen time on the big stage in Los Angeles.
President Obama wants to win the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims by not using a familiar catch phrase:
When talking about terrorism — words matter, President Barack Obama said Tuesday.
Keep Amy Welborn, former Fort Wayne resident, and well-known blogger on Catholic issues, in your thoughts and prayers today. Her husband, Michael Dubruiel, collapsed and died yesterday morning. He was only 50.
