Sadly, No gives us a visual for a wingnut’s view of Obama:

Peyton Manning is one of the few indispensable Colts. There is hope that he’ll be playing by the first game of the season despite recent surgery. But, in my mind, we have just lost the other indispensable Colt – Jeff Saturday. Mostly overshadowed by higher profile players, Saturday has done nothing but anchor a rock solid offensive line year after year after year. Now, he’s out with ligament damage to his right knee for at least 6 weeks, maybe longer.

Saturday, 33, has started every game — 59 straight including playoffs — since late in the 2004 season. In his absence, rookie Steve Justice likely will start at center.

Normally injuries don’t rattle my optimism, but Manning and Saturday can’t be done without. Hopefully I’m woefully underestimating Steve Justice and Manning will be back in action by the start of the season.

Despite the supposed bankruptcy reform passed a few years ago, bankruptcy filings are climbing back up and Indiana is among the leaders.

Just more than 35,000 individuals and businesses in Indiana filed bankruptcy during the past 12 months, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court data released Wednesday. By comparison, about 27,700 filed for bankruptcy during the same period a year earlier.

Nationally, it was the highest number of new bankruptcy filings in the past 2 1/2 years, with nearly 1 million individuals and businesses filing bankruptcy.
. . .
“It’s mostly really hard-working people we’re seeing filing for bankruptcy,” O’Connor said. “It’s elderly people who can’t afford the medical bills. And it’s the middle-aged who are used to a standard of living and got laid off and then can’t find good work. It’s younger people who maybe lost a job and used their credit card to get by. And then they found a new job, but it doesn’t pay enough for them to get by and pay off their debts.”

Keep in mind that the folks filing bankruptcy, by and large, aren’t deadbeats. The deadbeats don’t even bother filing bankruptcy. They don’t have the money to file and, in any case, they don’t have any income or assets creditors can get at in any case.

Liberal Indiana is back up and running.

Q: How many houses do you own now?

A: I was a P.O.W. 30 years ago.

Yeah, I don’t get it either; but McCain dragged out his P.O.W. shield again last night in response to a question from Jay Leno.

Update It occurs to me that Admiral Stockdale didn’t get a pass from the media for being befuddled and not knowing the answer to simple questions despite spending a lot of time as a P.O.W.

Deanna Martin, writing for the Associated Press, reports that the legislature’s summer study committee on legislative issues will be taking a look at illegal immigration in Indiana.

The summer study committee on immigration issues has scheduled Statehouse meetings Sept. 9 and Sept. 16. The co-chairmen — Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, and Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City — said they may hold other meetings around the state.

They hope that the study committee setting will allow the process to provide a little more light and and a little less heat. Issues they plan to review are how many illegal immigrants are in Indiana right now, where they live, and what they do to earn a living as well as their impact on the state’s economy, law enforcement, and families.

The article notes one argument in favor of illegal immigrants that annoys me when it’s stated incompletely:

[O]pponents of the bill said the impact of illegal immigration isn’t all bad, because the workers fill jobs that others may not want.

The missing piece of that statement is that non-illegals may not want the jobs at the wages being offered. It’s a supply and demand thing. If the supply of labor doesn’t meet the demand for the labor, then the price for the labor ought to rise. However, instead of allowing the price of labor to rise, there is often a policy decision to increase the supply of labor by whatever means necessary.

The Indy Star is reporting that Attorney General, Steve Carter, is suing Countrywide in Steuben County.

Carter alleges that Countrywide provided financial incentives for brokers to sell potentially risky loans, omitted or misleadingly presented loan terms, and misled borrowers about prepayment penalties or the time in which they would apply.

He claimed that the company also inflated or fabricated borrowers’ incomes so they could be approved for bigger loans.

These are the kinds of things that make me a little cautious about the blame-the-borrower mentality I hear sometimes. If people who work in the financial industry every day are lying to borrowers or deliberately short-circuiting safety precautions, then it’s not just the borrower’s fault.

Following Obama’s announcement of Biden as his Vice-Presidential running mate, McCain and his friends and well-wishers wasted no time playing the role of concern trolls wondering why, oh why didn’t Obama pick Hillary Clinton. As if they truly care. They put an ad up and hit the Sunday talk shows trying to get Clinton supporters to act against their best interests by getting them mad so they vote for McCain or stay home.

Obviously, I’m making some assumptions when I figure Clinton supporters are acting against their best interests if they don’t vote for Obama. My principle assumption is that these folks supported Clinton based on her policies rather than for some other reason. Obama’s policies are far, far closer to Clinton’s than are McCain’s. If such a person acts to get McCain elected or, through inaction, aids in his election, then they have moved further away from their policy goals.

Long time secretary of the Senate and Bob Garton loyalist, Mary Mendel apparently resigned. Jim Shella reports:

Her departure coincides with an effort by new Senate Leader David Long to create a more open administration.

Reporters fatigued by Mendel’s attempts to shut down the Senate information flow on occasion literally danced in the halls today.

Guess I should be glad I was an insignificant part of the legislative machinery when I left.