The Associated Press has an article entitled Lawmaker’s son sentenced in hit-run death. Andrew Saunders, son of state Representative Tom Saunders, was sentenced to 4 years in jail for his operating while intoxicated hit and run collision with pedestrian Thomas Michael Jackman which caused Jackman’s death. He plead guilty to felony leaving an accident that resulted in death, and misdemeanor operating a vehicle while intoxicated. The felony charges of reckless homicide and causing a death when operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Dennis & Sandy Sasso have a good opinion column in the Indy Star on the subject of legislative prayer entitled Time to move forward. In particular, I enjoyed this passage:

[W]hen we attend a public event sponsored by our city, state or national government, we are not guests. We are family, part of the large gathering of diverse citizens, equal stakeholders, who make up the tapestry of our nation. We expect the words spoken to include all citizens regardless of race, gender or religion. We should not simply be tolerated or even warmly welcomed. We should not be made to feel like visitors. We should feel at home.

The United States, founded on Enlightenment principles and inspired by ideals of the Judeo-Christian heritage, is not a Christian country where other faiths are merely accommodated. It is a country where members of all religions and those of no religion are welcome as full citizens.

I think that should be stressed. The United States Government was constituted as being secular in nature, having no theocratic affiliation. The United States is not a Christian Nation. It is a nation with a lot of Christians. That is why Judge Hamilton was correct in limiting government speech.

I just thought I’d flag this story from WISH-TV’s website for its slightly ridiculous headline: “Politics Expected to Dominate Upcoming General Assembly Session.” That strikes me as a little like writing “Driving Expected to Dominate Upcoming Indy 500”.

Here is a dishonest little rant that illustrates why Christianesque social conservatives annoy me. Certainly not all social conservatives are like this and certainly there are nutjobs on the left who foam at the mouth in a similar fashion. However, from all appearances, this sort of constituency has the ear of those in power who will at least try to placate them if not do their bidding.

The rant is by someone named Andrew Longman who misrepresents the nature of Judge Hamilton’s ruling regulating sectarian prayer given as official business of the Indiana House of Representatives. According to Mr. Longman, Judge Hamilton ordered the General Assembly that citizens do not have the right to publicly confess their group consensus on religious identity. I can only assume the misrepresentation is intentional. Even a cursory glance at the judge’s decision reveals it to be no such thing. Government is subject to limitations under our Constitution. Government speech is one thing subject to those limitations. Government speech can’t promote a particular religion over others. The Government speech of the Indiana House of Representatives was promoting Christianity over other faiths.

The citizens of Indiana are still free to “publicly confess their group consensus.” They just can’t use the government to do it. A sample:

The Judge thinks he is god and he gloats about it. Hamilton observes that in the “unlikely” event that his order is defied, he promises “consequences” against the perpetrators. We must forcefully remove that power from that Judge.

All I have to say is that Mr. Brian Bosma and the people of the great state of Indiana need to openly defy this tin-pot just as openly and brazenly as this Judge is defying God.

. . .

Bosma has stated he is considering obeying the judge while the case is on appeal. He had better not: how in the world can the Speaker of the House, who is guardian of the Indiana State Constitution and also serves a role in defending the American Constitution, agree to go along with an absolute controversion of that writ? It is absolutely, totally, without question that the Judge doesn’t have this power. If the Judge ordered that little old ladies were to be shot on Sundays at noon, would we do right to defy him or accept the order until an appeal could be worked out?

“We must forcefully remove that power from that judge.”

Mr. Longman’s article illustrates why Judge Hamilton’s ruling is essential. For those who subscribe to Mr. Longman’s way of thinking, sectarian prayer in the Indiana House of Representatives is all about demonstrating their dominance of their religion over those who believe differently. Or, as he puts it, “publicly confessing the group consensus.” Forcefully removing Judge Hamilton’s power is his proposed resolution. He states further:

The solution to the national malaise is a reinvigoration of the American Revolution and all the principles that drove it. We are suffering under the tyranny of an unelected order. Ninety percent of Indiana is being told that it may not publicly recognize its religious consensus because a judge has taken upon himself power to regulate the use of the name of Jesus; it is Christian duty to openly defy the order.

So much for rendering unto Caesar. Maybe that’s what the Christianesque have in mind — a merger of God and Caesar so all will be rendered unto GodCaesar — which is to say, the self-anointed spokesmen for GodCaesar.

Mr. Longman’s article appears at a website called Renew America which appears to be affiliated with Alan Keyes. So, I don’t know how fair it is of me to use this as an exemplar of Christianesque thought. But, it did pop up in a Google News search on Brian Bosma, so it’s not a complete backwater.

The Washington Post has an article on the issue of sectarian prayer as the official business of the Indiana House of Representatives entitled Judge Upholds Prayer Limits in Ind. State House (h/t Indiana Law Blog.)

Not a lot of new information in the article, but there were a few new comments:

“We’re just increasingly sensitive to both religious partiality in general and to evangelical Christianity’s attempt to be politically and culturally aggressive,” said George Washington University law professor Ira Lupu. “Both of those things are going on in that Indiana setting.”

“In general, politicians think that the public wants to hear more explicitly religious messages,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a liberal lobbying group. “It is much more appropriate for people who have a shared religious belief system to get together before they walk into the chambers of the city council or the state legislature and do their worship before they go about their official business.”

Mary Beth Schneider and Michele McNeil have an article in today’s Indy Star entitled Fall election to loom over Statehouse. It provides an overview of the upcoming session. The major theme, according to the article, is that House seats are up for grabs in November, and legislators will seek to “get right” with the voters by the end of the short session. Part of that, at least for lawmakers in the western part of the state, is to get some political cover with respect to Daylight Saving Time. More substantively is to try to grapple with local property tax increases triggered by the 2005 state budget. Selling off the Toll Road is another idea up for discussion during the short session.

Then there is the usual back and forth about how Democrats in the minority who oppose the Republican agenda are “obstructionists” and “playing politics.” The Democrats counter:

“Pat Bauer will be doing nothing more to become speaker than Brian Bosma will be doing to remain speaker,” he said of Bosma, the Indianapolis Republican who is now Speaker of the House.

. . .

“For those who only think politically, they will be staring down a very dark cannon if they vote to throw away this opportunity,” Daniels said. “I think it would be suicidal for Democrats to try to make this a lock-step obstruction campaign.”

Democrats won’t be obstructionists, said Bauer, the House Democratic leader. They’ll be the “party of constructive amendments.”

Although Bauer said they’ll offer amendments to bills to make Republicans’ ideas better, the minority party — both Democrats and Republicans — has used this power in the past to make their opponents cast sometimes embarrassing votes on controversial issues that they’d rather not touch in an election year.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Gov. Daniels calls the Democrats “car bombers” again.

Niki Kelly also has an article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette entitled “Long agenda on plate for short session.” That article also makes the point that the 2006 election will color everything that’s done during the session. She engages in a bit of editorializing by stating that Daylight Saving Time is something that would be addressed only if legislators are “really bored.” (Then again, I suppose over there on the eastern frontier, Fort Wayne is pretty much where it wants to be with respect to time zones and DST.)

It has an interesting perspective on the proposal to shift responsibility for child welfare costs from the counties to the state:

House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, has offered House Bill 1001 – an attempt to have the state take over some child welfare levy costs, which would take them off local homeowners’ bills.

But such a plan costs money – about $225 million this biennium – and Daniels and key Senate Republicans have resisted the idea.

After all, while passing the austere budget last year – and giving schools less than desired funding – lawmakers told Hoosiers that was all the state could afford while trying to get back in the black on the ledger sheet.

Rep. Dave Wolkins, R-Winona Lake, also points out that this particular cut would not be shared equally among taxpayers because rural counties generally have low child welfare levies anyway.

“It does absolutely nothing for my county but helps every big-city Democrat around. It blows my mind,” he said.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Whitson writes an article for the Evansville Courier Press entitled “Lawmakers gear up for 2006 session” which is the first of a two part series. Rep. Phil Hoy has an interesting angle on opposing the plan to privatize the Toll Road:

“There are a lot of pitfalls there,” said Rep. Phil Hoy, D-Evansville. He said he’s concerned about the state using eminent domain to take land, then leasing it to a private company to make a profit.

After the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision, there has been a lot of hysteria over the use of eminent domain to benefit private organizations. Politically, I think that’s a good angle for opponents to take even if I don’t think all of the anti-Kelo reaction is warranted.

I do sort of like this idea:

This year, House Speaker Brian Bosma said House Republicans will propose allowing vouchers for children with autism, and they cited an Ohio program that allots $15,000 per student.

My opposition to vouchers is that they will tend to allow private schools to cherry pick the children who are inexpensive to educate and leave the public schools to deal with the kids who cost more to educate. I think, if we’re going to have vouchers, it would be a good idea to make sure the more difficult to educate children are taken care of first and, only if we can make that happen, move on to the general population.

Lesley Stedman Weidenbrenner has an article entitled “General Assembly faces key hurdles: they include taxes, school spending.”