Michael Malik, writing for the Lafayette Journal & Courier, has a write-up cataloging Carroll County’s financial problems. Most is stuff that’s been documented before: having to cut $1.8 million due to an accounting error in 2004; cut 3 Sheriff’s Deputies; down to 2 ambulances for the entire county; and loss of employers Chromcraft Remington and Globe Valve. The recent property tax restructuring bill will force additional cuts:

The city of Delphi will lose nearly $470,400 in 2010 as a result of recent state legislation aimed at providing property tax relief.

The county will lose an estimated $71,000 in 2009 and $174,000 in 2010 because of the state’s property tax restructuring, according to estimates by the Legislative Services Agency.

To make matters worse, the county recently learned it will not be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for more than $130,000 in costs resulting from winter flooding.

The County seems to be pinning its hopes on completion of the Hoosier Heartland Highway, currently a 4 lane highway connecting Logansport to Fort Wayne. The last leg, from Logansport to Lafayette via Delphi. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2010.

One hundred and sixty-seven years ago today, South Carolina became “First in Treason” — the state has not yet seen fit to put that on their license plates. On April 12, 1861, South Carolinian traitors opened fire on the 127 United States soldiers at Fort Sumter. They fired on their own country’s fort for 33 straight hours. More than 1/2 million Americans would die in the resulting attempts to put down the rebellion.

Eugene Robinson has an excellent column on Iraq in today’s Washington Post. He suggests that Bush’s plan for Iraq is simply to run out the clock. Then it’s someone else’s problem. Certainly there seems to be no end game in sight; not even a real vision of what an acceptable “end” might look like. For all of the talk of “victory” we hear from Bush supporters, nobody is really describing “victory” in a way that would let us recognize it if it punched us in the face.

Robinson makes clear that he does not blame Petraeus or Crocker on their evasiveness. They are doing their jobs which, in part, is to follow the marching orders coming from the civilian leadership in the Bush administration. They have been tasked with explaining the inexplicable.

Of course, Bush long ago lost any credibility with Congress and the American people on Iraq. It’s understandable that he hides behind Petraeus’s breastplate of medals and Crocker’s thatch of gray hair, sending these loyal and able public servants to explicate the inexplicable: What realistic goal is the United States trying to achieve in Iraq? And in what parallel universe is this open-ended occupation making our nation safer?

Even the most basic question of any war is undefined: Who is the enemy? It was almost painful listening to Petraeus as he faced reporters yesterday and was asked whether Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army were friend or foe. His tortured answer, translated into English, was yes.

In 2003, when Bush launched this elective war, the enemy was Saddam Hussein’s wack-job regime. The dictator and his minions were quickly defeated, but then U.S. forces faced two new enemies — al-Qaeda in Iraq (which we created by invading the country and destroying its brutal government) and a popular insurgency based in the country’s Sunni minority (ditto).

Having midwifed these monsters, the Decider told us we had to stay in Iraq to slay them. What actually happened, though, was that Sunni tribal leaders, many of whom were participants in the anti-American insurgency, decided they had had enough of the al-Qaeda fighters’ Taliban-like ways — and also saw that they were in danger of being marginalized by the Shiite majority. This so-called Awakening began before Bush’s troop escalation, which was artfully labeled a “surge.” It’s not going out on a limb to predict that the Awakening will last precisely as long as the Awakened believe it is in their interest.

Some al-Qaeda combatants remain, however, and the insurgency is not totally quiescent. Meanwhile, the struggle among armed Shiite factions for power and wealth has intensified. It’s a messy situation, to be sure, but there’s no way to call it a war anymore. Our presence in Iraq is an occupation, pure and simple. As in any occupation, the “enemy” consists of people who don’t want the occupying troops in their country — and also people who do want the occupying troops in their country, as long as they see some political advantage in having those troops there to attack.

That brings us to an ad on YouTube.

Iraq: Six Months At A Time

Is Will Statom really saying that his assault on a reporter was a premeditated effort to draw attention to his disagreement with the timing of a meeting of the Delaware County Election Board? Statom says that the meeting, publicized by the Star Press in advance, hadn’t complied with the notice requirements of the public access laws. Statom is one of the Republican members in the Delaware County voter registration office.

“It (the attack on Werner) wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t promoted it,” Statom said. “When you promote illegal activities, there’s ramifications.”

. . .

“I was wrong in what I did, but at some point there’s got to be an attention-getter,” said Statom, also the secretary of the Delaware County Republican Central Committee.

Any criminal defense attorneys out there who can tell me whether this makes it easier or harder to defend Statom’s case and/or get him a better plea?

Statom went on to punch Barry Welsh, Democratic candidate for Indiana’s 6th Congressional District, in the face. Statom says that was “an accident.” Whoopsie.

Martin Crutsinger, writing for the Associated Press, reports that the mid-year federal budget deficit is at an all time high. Hooray recession! Hooray Iraq War! Hooray Bush Tax Cuts! Hooray “Stimulus” Package!

I knew Gary was making a name for himself, but I didn’t know he had his own damn town.

Nope, I don’t have any defense for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect that still practices polygamy. But, I’ve seen links to two such defenses. (One at Dispatches from the Culture Wars and one at Opening Arguments.) In the former, Ed Brayton at Culture Wars does a pretty good take down of an entry “by Butler Shaffer at Lew Rockwell that discusses “interesting parallels” between this situation and…military bases.” Brayton responds:

Allow me to point out what is, indeed, obvious: if military bases were used for raping (no, the “spiritual marriage” does not transform the rape of a 13 year old girl into anything other than rape) barely pubescent girls, he might have a point. Yes, military bases are well guarded and have on-base housing. And therefore….what? Shaffer doesn’t say, of course, I suspect because he knows his insinuations are utterly moronic.

I’ve mentioned it before, but Jon Krakauer’s book “Under the Banner of Heaven” is an excellent book, primarily focused on the FLDS and the history of the Mormons.

In a couple of places today, I heard about folks protesting the running of the torch for the Olympics as a way of protesting China and its actions. There was also some talk about boycotting the Olympics to protest China’s treatment of Tibet.

As a matter of principle (based upon admittedly limited knowledge of the situation), I suppose I’m against Chinese occupation of Tibet. But, in my mind, this has a very tenuous relationship to the Olympics. China hasn’t changed much from when we started trading heavily with them; and hasn’t changed much from when the Olympic committee decided to hold an Olympics there. It’s not like anyone woke up in the past couple of months and discovered, “OH MY GOD! China commits human rights abuses! Did *you* know about this?” So, trying to punish abuses with a boycott of the opening ceremonies or the games generally doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Oh, and interesting tidbit: The running of the torch from Greece to the host stadium was initially done for a Leni Riefenstahl propaganda film promoting the 1936 Olympic games in Germany. A much less interesting tidbit: when I was 5 and my Grandma and Grandpa were telling me about the torch coming from Greece, I asked them why they didn’t just use Greek matches.

Dateline Muncie. Democratic hopeful, Barry Welsh, took a punch to the head from a Muncie GOP leader by the name of Will Statom. Welsh is seeking the nomination in the hopes of unseating Mike Pence in the fall.

Statom is described by the Muncie Star Press as the “GOP registration deputy and secretary of the local Republican Party.” The altercation apparently started as Statom was whining about media coverage. A Star Press reporter was interviewing a citizen about the flood of new registrations apparently generated by the Obama campaign. As Statom walked passed the reporter, he shoved Werner. Candidate Welsh stepped in to break it up and took a swing at Welsh. Statom was arrested for battery.

Perhaps related is the fact that the Delaware County voter registration office is understaffed because the local GOP has filled only 2 of its 3 slots. This may cause tensions as the office is called upon to process a large volume of new registrations; registrations about which the local GOP might not be thrilled if they were generated through the efforts of the Obama campaign.

The reporter, Nick Werner had written a story about the staffing shortage. Statom had refused comment. The position had been vacant since 2006.

[U]nder the worst circumstances, [Democratic Delaware County Election Board Member Phil] Nichols said, some registration applications may not be processed in time for voting in the May 6 primary.

While Indiana voters are not required to register with a party, the majority of applications came from the Barack Obama campaign and other Democratic sources.

“In that sense, it’s no skin off their nose that these don’t get processed,” Nichols said.

Update The Star Press has an update. Apparently the Star Press reporter wasn’t entirely blameless. After Statom whined sarcastically about Werner’s reporting, Werner said “shut up.” Statom practically had to resort to violence after that kind of verbal provocation.

Why I started focusing on the financial crisis in Carroll County, I don’t know. But, it’s like a car wreck, and I can’t turn away. The Journal & Courier has a new article indicating that the Carroll County judges are indicating a refusal to abide by the County Council’s budget cuts unless the state Supreme Court relieves them of constitutionally mandated cases and services.

County commissioners approved two funding requests by the county council that could bring the 2008 budget below the $5 million state-mandated level. The slashing of $1.8 million was achieved through deep reductions in emergency services and reallocation of funds.

But Superior and Circuit Court judges have issued a letter refusing $90,000 of the cuts unless the council can persuade the state Supreme Court to relieve them of constitutionally mandated cases and services.

“It would become impossible for us to do the job of the court if our staff is reduced,” Superior Court Judge Jeffrey R. Smith said, who added his court staffing has not increased since 1975.

Smith declined to speculate if the council would challenge its stance.

County Courts are in a different position than other areas of county government. Though the Council has the authority and duty to make funding decisions for the courts, judges have the authority to mandate funds from the county. The County Sheriff, for example, can’t issue a legally enforceable mandate if the funding for his department gets slashed below a level necessary to carry out the duties imposed on him by state law.