Politics and other nightmares

Commentary at Forbes.com on the Obama administration's $787 billion mistake:

Current economic indicators suggest that our economic crisis will hit bottom soon and that the U.S. will be poised for economic recovery.

[. . .]

One of the benefits of federalism is that states can act as "laboratories of democracy" and the things that are found to work in one or a few of them can then be adopted by many or all of them. Of course, there is the danger that states might copy each other's bad ideas, too. Kentucky proves the point by following possibly the worst example ever provided by Indiana:

Paul Helmke, former Fort Wayne mayor and currently head of the Brady Campaign, spoke in Akron, Ohio, and Chad D. Baus of the Buckeye Firearms Association, referencing the story in the Beacon-Journal, takes him to task on the usual charge of using misleading facts and statistics. He also says Helkme inadvertently spoke the truth a couple of times.

Some people here still shake their heads at the $3.8 billion toll road lease. But, really, what small potatoes that was:

So far, there is $7 million in Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget proposal for virtual charter schools. Given the state's financial problems, the money probably won't stay there this time around, which is understandable. But some of the rhetoric being used by the opponents of such schools shows why change is difficult:

Most of the stories I've seen about the Supreme Court at least temporarily holding up the Chrysler/Fiat deal treat Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock more than a little dismissively. How dare this little twerp threaten the deal woth billions that could save thousands of jobs just because a few pension funds might end up a few million short? This piece, headlined "Chrysler's Bankrupcty Hiccup," is typical:

Many state politicians have complained in the past about Indiana's relatively poor return on the money Washington takes from Hoosiers. But it turns out the state is not much better in returning money to the places that spend the most on the lottery: Because of the 1996 move to reduce auto excise fees by using state lottery money, the counties with the most assessed value of motor vehicles, which tend to be the better-off ones, get the most money back.

Americans continue to strongly support ending the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for gays in the military, but that's not the really interesting part:

The finding that majorities of weekly churchgoers (60%), conservatives (58%), and Republicans (58%) now favor what essentially equates to repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy implemented under President Clinton in 1993 is noteworthy for several reasons.

Good news -- the Guantanamo problem has been solved; Terre Haute will take all the prisoners:

When the location of Terre Haute's new Wal-Mart Supercenter came under debate three years ago, City Councilman Rich Dunkin received more than 300 phone calls about the issue.

Jack Murrah came to Fort Wayne to explain to local leaders how the foundation he headed helped turn Chattanooga's downtown around. He offered advice that may be a little too late (and which city leaders have heard before anyway and chosen to ignore):