Politics and other nightmares

The Indianapolis Star looks at the potential conflicts of interest for City-County Council President Monroe Gray, who is also an employee of the Fire Department, making him a member of both the executive and legislative branches:

It's getting awfully lonely out here for the shrinking handful of us who still think government should be limited to those few things it can do well if it holds to its proper role. We rail against Hillary Clinton's plan for universal health care and John Edwards' promise he will end poverty and Barack Obama's apparent desire to cure all ills from Washington, and George Bush goes to the United Nations and gives a speech that makes all the Demorats seem like rightwing pikers:

A Democratic city council candidate in Flordia has had a couple of endorsments withdrawn because he is too pro-choice:

ST. PETERSBURG - Two state legislators have pulled their endorsement of City Council candidate Gershom Faulkner after he told a group of local gay and lesbian political activists that people choose to be gay.

I think I've said before here that national security is such an important issue that it will be the deciding factor for me in the presidential election. It won't be my sole concern, but I'll overlook a lot of positions I disagree with if the candidate gets that one right. Hillary Clinton, as much as I can tell so far, is the only Democrat I would trust with America's interests on the world stage. This, then, is not comforting:

Answer the questions at the "candidate calculator" site, and it will supposedly tell you which presidential candidate most mirrors your own beliefs. I took it, and it said my candidate is Republican businessman John Cox, (with a 77 percent match), who is such a darkhorse candidate that the Republicans won't even let him into their debates. Be honest -- did you even know he was running? Have you ever heard of him?

Fort Wayne smokers, you need to change your tactics. Stop fighting City Council and trying to get exceptions to the smoking ban for bars or restaurants that spent thousands of dollars trying to comply with the earlier version of the ban. You need to: 1. Become a Muslim. 2. Organize all the other smoking Muslims you are able to meet or convert. 3. March on City Hall to demand your rights:

Legal immigrants are already required to know about American principles and history than native-born Americans can bother themselves to learn. Now, they will be even further ahead of us:

This seems like a good idea:

New legislation authored by State Senator Jim Arnold (D-LaPorte) would provide a cooling off period for individuals arrested for domestic violence in Indiana. Members of the LaPorte County Domestic Violence Task Force, a local group that helped develop the legislation, joined Arnold at a press conference today to announce details of the bill.

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President Ahmadinejad sends out invitations to journalists and academics, and 50 respond to have dinner with him. That results in good press, such as this article in Time:

Freedom has been on the march in the world the past few years, but every good journey has a few bumps in the road:

Democracy and good governance are on the retreat in a number of countries around the world, a wide-ranging report says on Tuesday.