Politics and other nightmares

What nonsense:

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.

[. . .]

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.

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.

I like Victor Davis Hanson's take on certain people's tax problems (written before Daschle bowed out, but it still makes valid points):

After the White Lodging people explained to City Council last night that, sorry, they still haven't been able to get financing for the Harrison Square hotel, this observation was made:

Council President Tom Smith, R-1st, pointed out that the hotel's meeting rooms and meeting space planned for the Embassy Theatre will add to meeting space already available in Grand Wayne Center, the Allen County Public Library, even the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory.

“Do we need to have some kind of a meeting-space summit?” Smith suggested.

Democrats in the Indiana House are just full of ideas lately. Let's divert $800 million from Major Moves for local projects:

Rep. Terri J. Austin, the Anderson Democrat who authored the package, which she admitted is "a work in progress," said the state can use that money to replace funds shifted to local government.

It's the job of government to protect citizens and keep essential services going. It is the role of business to provide the jobs that pay the money from which taxes are taken to provide those services. A tidy and workable arrangement. But people in government aren't happy with their limited duties, so they keep wanting to change the rules. Mayor Charles Henderson of Greenwood, for example, recently held a meeting with "business professionals" to talk about "breathing new life" into downtown:

Add Richard Lugar to the list of those who think our gas taxes are too low: