When he ran for his first congressional term in 1994, Mark Souder made a big deal about people going to Washington and staying too long. In fact, he made a self-imposed 12-year limit on his service the cornerstone of his campaign. So guess when that 12 years is up? If Souder really meant it back in 1994, he shouldn't even be running for re-election next year.
If you can choose between heroin or crack, is that a real choice? How about heart disease or cancer? There's about that much of a choice for us in Washington these days. If it's tough to still be a Democrat or a Republican and feel halfway good about it (I sincerely hope it is), at least be consoled that this is the worst time to be a fiscal conservative I can ever remember.
People can put just about anything they want to in an obit. Once in a while, you come across a real gem of a line that says volumes about a person and how he lived his life: "Harold wants to wave goodbye to everyone who waved at him on his porch every day on Goshen Ave."
Evan Bayh has now come out against John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court. Well, not against, exactly. From a Bayh office press release:
Regrettably, therefore, I cannot vote to confirm, not because I oppose John Roberts, but because we simply do not know enought about his views on critical issues to make a considered judgment.
No kidding: "The McCain meeting, however, is completely inexplicable." If anybody still has any illusion that media-darling McCain has a snowball's chance in the Republican primaries, this should provide a dose of reality.
Let's have a real war of conservative and liberal ideas on how to combat poverty. We've had plenty of cities that have tried the liberal approach; let New Orleans be the test case for the conservative one. At the very least, we'll learn something, even if it's what not to do.
News-Sentinel staffer Jon Swerens is in Mississippi, helping out at the Biloxi Sun-Herald, also owned by N-S parent company Knight Ridder. Jon has been blogging from Biloxi, with interesting observations and good photographs of a devasting storm's aftermath.
The latest dispatch from the field by libertarian correspondent Mike Sylvester:
Last year I decided to research the annual average cost per student for K-12 education in Indiana. I used two sources for all of my statistics -- Stats Indiana and The National Teachers Association. Below is a summary of the average cost for 2004:
Expenses per student (not counting capital outlays or debt service) = $8,592 per year.
I say give' em the cell phones but keep 'em out of the cars. There's nothing more dangerous on the road than a thoughtless kid in a hot car.
So, Hillary has ended the suspense. By voting against Roberts, she seems to be courting the liberal interests groups instead of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party. Here's Evan Bayh's chance. By voting for Roberts, he would be supporting a fellow Hoosier (sort of) and moving to the right of Clinton; a good place to be if he can get out of the first few primaries.
The perfect thing for part-time Christians who take care of it all in one hour every Sunday: the 100-minute Bible. They just took out the boring parts.
If you want to get the best Hurricane Rita coverage, here's a good collection of Texas news sources and blogs.
Politicians are among those expressing amazement and dismay over the continuing racial divide in post-Katrina attitudes. Wonder how that puzzlement breaks along Democratic and Republican lines? Just asking.
We've always cussed, we always will:
Every language, dialect or patois ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its share of forbidden speech, some variant on comedian George Carlin's famous list of the seven dirty words that are not supposed to be uttered on radio or television.
Those rubes known as Hoosiers have gone and done it again. The Auburn City Council has voted not to enact a public-smoking ban. Fort Wayne, of course, has one. Columbia City does not. Bloomington does. Indianapolis doesn't but will have as soon as the approved one kicks in. You see where this is going. If you drove through Indiana from the Michigan line to the Kentucky line, you'd go in and out of smoking bans.
The great news of Sweetwater Sound moving to a bigger building and adding 120 employees to the 200 it already has was almost overshadowed by the fact that the sheriff's department also wanted the building. I know what County Commissioner Nelson Peters meant, but he'll probably regret saying, "It's very disappointing." So, Nelson, he's going to hear, what would you have called it if they were adding 200 jobs, a tragedy?
You won't believe this -- a writer who doesn't hate Joel Silverman. It's RiShawn Biddle, writing on the Indy Star's Expresso blog.
FEMA dropped the ball, so it was vilified. Fair enough. But if it improves, it gets praise, right? Guess again:
Democratic critics said the preparations for Rita seemed to exceed those for Katrina, and called anew for an independent panel to investigate why.
We need to have as many Indiana counties as posible in the same time zone.
Whatever for?
