SusanG at DailyKos has an entry entitled, “Too big to fail. Or to pay taxes. Or to be identified.” In part, she cites a Bloomberg news article which reveals:

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

So, are they just looting the joint or is something more respectable going on? “Trust us,” seems to be the answer.

Karl Kurtz, writing for NCSL’s the Thicket, has an interesting article about the party swap that seems to have occurred between the Northeast and the South. The Northeast has come to be solidly controlled by the Democrats while the South has come to be solidly controlled by the Democrats Republicans. Therefore, he notes that, in effect, the “system of 1896” also known as the “Fourth Party System” has been turned on its head. From 1896 through 1932, Republicans controlled the northeast and Democrats controlled the South.

From 1932 through the 1960s, the New Deal Coalition saw Democrats making some inroads in the north following a Great Depression triggered backlash against the Republicans. For me, it seems that the New Deal coalition started eroding in the 60s partially because it was running out of steam, but also as a backlash to the Civil Rights movement. After the Voting Rights Act was implemented, Lyndon Johnson said that the Democrats would lose the South for a generation. Whether because of race relations or other factors, in fact, we have seen the South shift from Democratic to Republican between the 60s and 90s as the Dixiecrats gradually became Republicans. (I wonder if Georgia Democrat Zell Miller’s angry tirade at the 2004 Republican National Convention was the culmination of that process.) Now, the Northeast has come to be controlled almost entirely by Democrats where once it was a Republican stronghold.

Democrats control 17 of the 18 legislative chambers in the Northeast (19 of 20 if you prefer to call Maryland an eastern state) after the 2008 election. The only exception is the Pennsylvania Senate.

Kurtz has another article entitled “Reverse coattails in the South” which shows the effect of this election enhancing Republican dominance in the old Confederacy (my term, not his.)

In some ways, it seems this Regional battle between North and South keeps coming into play again and again and again, with race frequently playing a central role. There are brief respites as other issues grab our collective attention, but the default tension in our politics seems to be Plymouth versus Jamestown over and over.

The Legislative Services Agency has posted county property tax studies for 2007-2008 (pdf). It has summaries for 66 counties. For example, in Tippecanoe County, the average homeowner for 2008 saw their property tax bill decrease 28.8% with 98.2% of homeowners seeing decreases. Without the added
homestead credit paid for by slot machine licenses for horse tracks and increased sales taxes, the average tax bill would have increased by 5.9%, and 75.0% of homeowners would have seen property tax increases.

The increase in property tax levies were largest due to Lafayette School Corporation’s debt service and capital project fund levies.

I went to Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania via Euclid Ohio for a wedding this weekend. I tried to post a bit about I-80 through Pennsylvania a couple of days ago, but WordPress seems to have eaten it. I’m happy the road exists for our little excursion, but there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of reason for it to exist, particularly given the difficulties of building a major road on that rough terrain. There weren’t any major population centers to speak of in the 200+ miles between Youngstown, OH and Danville, PA where we got off the road.

As for Ohio, what is the penalty for driving in the right lane when you’re a slower vehicle? Clearly it’s not the death penalty since a few brave souls do it, but the penalty must be awfully steep given how many slow vehicles hang out in the left or center lanes despite having a vacant right lane beside them.

I am very impressed with my kids — we did the entire 650 mile or so drive home today without a lot in the way of breaks, and they held up beautifully. On the one hand, they have a DVD player that I didn’t have when I was a kid; but on the other hand, they are basically strapped into their seats whereas back in the benighted 70s, my siblings and I roamed the backseat freely without much concern for safety. Cole spent a bunch of time today with his notebook and crayon; mostly drawing super heroes, occasionally asking me how to spell stuff.

And then, it never fails, I got home with about 40 seconds left in the Colts game. So, I had to rush into the house to turn on the game and watch the last couple of plays. Sounds like the defense really stepped up. I love Bob Lamey, but I’m not sure his play calling is the most accurate. I don’t know how many times he’d excitedly blurt out the play as he hoped it had happened only to have to correct himself with what actually happened. Mostly of the “He caught it! No he didn’t” variety. Still, that’s a pretty big deal to go into Pittsburgh with a struggling Colts team and come out with a win. Maybe I should have just swung by Pittsburgh while I was in the area.

Dan McFeely, writing for the Indianapolis Star, is reporting that the Democrats will retain control of the Indiana House. At the moment, it looks like the balance will remain 51 to 49 in favor of the Democrats. There are apparently two that are too close to call officially, but lean to the Republicans. In the Lafayette area, Republican Randy Truitt is clinging to about a 20 vote lead over Democrat John Polles to replace outgoing Democrat, Joe Micon.

A more fluid situation exists around Anderson where Republican challenger Kelly Gaskill holds a 34 vote lead over Democrat Scott Reske. However, “it might be midday before election officials in Anderson are done counting an estimated 12,000 ballots that did not get counted last night due to a voting machine problem.”

This is pretty big news. With such a slim majority in the House and a Republican controlled Senate and Governor’s office, the state Democrats won’t be able to steer the ship, but they should hopefully be able to provide a throttle to some of the more incorrigible state Republicans. Gov. Daniels doesn’t seem to get too excited about the social issues that drive some of his fellow Republicans, but he doesn’t seem generally inclined to get in their way. By the same token, I doubt he is going to break too many Democratic arms on those social issues, particularly if they play nice on the economic issues that seem to interest Gov. Daniels more.

Not for nothing, but I was looking at a map of the Confederate States of America and, it bears a striking resemblance to McCain’s electoral map.

By my count, McCain got about 50 electoral votes from places not associated with the Confederacy.

Correlation does not equal causation, but the Republican Party is currently the party of the South. Arizona likely would have gone for Obama if McCain was not from there. The interests of the Mountain West are not well aligned with the interests of the South. Unless the GOP retools pretty quickly, I would expect Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas as being ripe for Democratic incursion. On the other hand, if the GOP puts the sensibilities of the Mountain West in the forefront of its platforms, I suspect it will bounce back quickly.

The Democrats are looking to make gains in the U.S. Senate. Going into the election, Democrats controlled the chamber 51 to 49 (if you include Joe Lieberman).

The Democrats didn’t lose any seats. They gained seats in
Colorado – Mark Udall over Bob Schaffer
New Hampshire – Jeanne Shaheen over John Sununu
North Carolina – Kay Hagan over Elizabeth Dole
New Mexico – Tom Udall (cousin of Mark) over Steve Pearce
Virginia – Mark Warner

Still up in the air:
Minnesota – Al Franken and Norm Coleman
Alaska – Mark Begich and Ted Stevens
Oregon – Jeff Merkley and Gordon Smith
Georgia – Jim Martin and Saxby Chambliss

Based on nothing in particular, I figure the Democrats will pick up Alaska and Oregon, resulting in a 58 – 42 chamber (counting Joe Lieberman.) Republicans will still be able to filibuster, but only if every last one of them resists the pressure to vote for cloture.

I was going to update my House race spreadsheet to see where we stood in the Indiana House races. Initial reports were that the Democrats were going to retain control, but I hadn’t seen any hard numbers. Brian Howey suggests that it looks good for Republicans to take control of the Indiana House, pending decisions in a couple of cliff hangers.

The Indiana Secretary of State’s website is worthless at the moment — for example, it doesn’t reflect any votes from Tippecanoe County. It looked like Randy Truitt (R) and John Polles (D) were in a close race to replace Joe Micon (D). Last I saw, Polles led by 130 votes, and I’m not sure what’s left to count — maybe 400 provisional ballots. But there was another report mentioning additional votes from Warren County that may have Truitt up by some. Don Lehe (R) looks to have defeated a second challenge by Myron Sutton (D) to keep his job.

Republicans have narrowly kept control of the Attorney General’s office and that of the state superintendent of public instruction with Greg Zoeller and Tony Bennett winning office, respectively. I have been told that Mr. Zoeller is a fine candidate and will likely do a solid job. I think Indiana missed a real opportunity by not electing Richard Wood to the superintendent office, but those are the breaks.

Things are looking pretty good for Obama nationally. Daniels will remain governor. Buyer will keep IN-04. Something odd is going on in Wayne County which hasn’t reported any results. I haven’t seen full numbers for the AG race or the Superintendent for Public Instruction yet. It’s very tight for Obama and McCain on the state level. Feel free to report from where you are.

Secretary of State results here.

Update Seriously, what the hell is going on in Wayne County? 0% reporting. At this rate, Indiana’s electoral votes are going to depend on Richmond. That’s insane.