A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

HB 1056 – Smoking with a child in the vehicle

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HB 1056 would impose a $25 fine for motorists who smoke in a passenger vehicle while it is occupied by a child, 13 years old or younger.

Boy, that would’ve made some of my childhood vacations more pleasant. As the youngest child, my seat was always in the way back of the station wagon. My folks were smokers. I remember the conversations occasionally going like this:
Doug: “Can you open a window, please?”
Parents: “Nope, we have the air conditioner on.”
*Cough* *cough*
Somehow the smoke traveled to the back of the Impala wagon a lot faster than the cool air.

Sen. Kenley

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The Indy Star has a nice little write-up on Sen. Kenley who will probably be the most influential legislature during this session’s property tax debate. I’d know a fair amount about his background but there were some new bits. I knew he’d gone to law school at Harvard but hadn’t known he got his B.A. at Miami University, my alma mater. That doesn’t surprise me as I had run across his son, John, at Miami while I was there and then again at IU-Bloomington when we were both in law school. (Incidentally, John was a credit to his father in that he seemed to be one of the hardest working guys at the school — he was always in the library). I hadn’t known that John was half of a set of Kenley twins.

Presidential Debates

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I watched the Presidential debates last night off-and-on, intermixing it with watching some of the football playoffs. How is the citizenry supposed to inform itself with that kind of competing programming?

Anyway, the format was kind of interesting. For starters, it was a back-to-back debate with the GOP going first and the Democrats going second. So, that put the tone of the two debates in starker contrast. Second, there was kind of a roundtable format with all the candidates sitting around and some back and forth permitted. To me, it looked like the Republicans had their knives out much more than did the Democrats. By and large, it was Mitt Romney on the receiving end of those knives. I think Huckabee had the best zinger of the night. He had said something about Romney’s position and Romney took the occasion to admonish Huckabee not to characterize his position. Quick as a whip, Huckabee interjected “which one?” — highlighting Romney’s, shall we say, flexibility. In terms of substance, it seemed to me that the Republicans (except for Ron Paul) tied the albatross of George W. Bush’s foreign policy ever more firmly around their necks.

On the Democratic side, the candidates were generally more polite to each other. One thing that was evident was their exhaustion. They all did fine when they were actively speaking, but they all seemed to have that glazed look when they were watching one of the other candidates. That’s understandable given the pace of the campaign. As a strategic matter, it looked like Edwards had made it his goal to knock off Clinton and worry about Obama later. Stylistically, he was probably the most passionate of the candidates, really hitting his stride when the topic shifted to domestic economics. As a practical matter, I don’t know how much his debate performance helps or hurts him in terms of his efforts to get out of third place in New Hampshire.

Clinton’s gender puts her in a tough spot when Obama and Edwards gang up on her. Do too little and she looks ineffective and vulnerable. Do too much and, fairly or unfairly, she’s going to get tagged with the “shrill” card. She can’t really go with a strategy of claiming that “those mean guys are ganging up on poor little me,” because a) you don’t really want that in a President; and b) she’s campaigning as (and probably is) a tough person. Her most implausible gambit was the “35 years of change” mantra. To me that’s like claiming that four right turns constitutes a change of course. A couple of times, I felt bad for her because they were talking about how she looked or how likable she was in a way that was pretty well tied to her gender.

Obama didn’t make a particular impression on me. He certainly didn’t hurt himself, but I don’t think debates are necessarily his most effective forum. I think he’s more effective standing at a podium by himself making a speech. I think his best moment was when the moderator asked him something about the Republican debate and Obama confessed that he’d been flipping back and forth between that and the football game. He proved that he actually had been watching when he advised the moderator that the Redskins hadn’t been doing so well.

Bill Richardson was just along for the ride. It’s probably a failing on my part, but whenever he talks, I can’t help but think of Horatio Sanz from Saturday Night Live.

Ron Paul getting shut out

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I find Ron Paul to be an interesting candidate even if I don’t ultimately support him. He’s raising gobs of money and his poll numbers are comparable to a lot of the other Republican candidates. So, it’s inexcusable to me that the upcoming GOP debate sponsored by Faux News will be excluding Rep. Paul. Apparently I’m not the only one. The New Hampshire Republican Party is withdrawing as co-sponsor of the debate.

They *will* hate him

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John Cole has a post up. Obama is relatively inoffensive among the right wing for now. But, as soon as he’s put down the ice queen they hate so much, the venom has to go somewhere – and it will be directed at barack HUSSEIN obama.

But anyone who doesn’t think that that’s all going to change instantaneously if Obama is the nominee hasn’t been watching how this faction operates over the last 20 years. Hatred is their fuel. Just look at the bottomless personal animus they managed to generate over an anemic, mundane, inoffensive figure like John Kerry. At their Convention, they waved signs with band-aids mocking his purple hearts while cheering on two combat-avoiders.

SB 71 – School Year

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With SB 71, Sen. Kruse addresses the problem of the ever-earlier school year. It prohibits school from starting before Labor Day and ending later than June 15.

I have no strong opinions on this one. I know that for the past 30 years I’ve heard my elders lament the fact that school starts before Labor Day. For me, normal is something like the last week in August. And, I’ve noticed myself getting to be one of those elders, shaking my head when school starts around August 15. For some reason, the opinions never seem as strongly held about the appropriate ending of school — though, I guess I’ve heard Memorial Day suggested.

SB 65 – Firearms in Public Buildings

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SB 65 introduced by Sen. Nugent limits the ability of state and local governments to restrict possession of firearms in public buildings, including schools and courthouses.

Provides that a person who possesses a valid Indiana license to carry a handgun may not be prohibited from possessing a handgun on land or in buildings and other structures owned or leased by: (1) the state or a political subdivision of the state; or (2) a nonpublic elementary school, nonpublic secondary school, or nonpublic postsecondary educational institution. Provides exceptions for airports and penal facilities.

I guess this is a fighting fire with fire kind of bill. Initially, I thought this was a completely wacky bill. And, on balance, I think I’m still against it. But, it’s not as stupid as it looks. I’m not passionate about the right of disgruntled ex-spouses to tote firearms into divorce and custody proceedings in the courthouse. But, I think the security measures we have to implement to keep guns out of public buildings are expensive and diminish us as citizens. Our ability to prevent the harm that will be caused by nutjobs is limited. To even make a small dent, we have to expend great sums on security forces and machinery. And, we have to consent to routine searches in order to enter our public institutions and participate as citizens.

Still, Sen. Nugent doesn’t come at what I view as the benefits of this bill directly. So, I suspect he has different benefits in mind. This bill probably comes from the perspective that views the solution to Columbine and Virginia Tech as more guns. I don’t really see it this way. I view those tragedies as a lamentable price we pay for living in a free society.

And, as a final note, as a pro-local government guy, I don’t like the State telling local officials what they can and can’t allow into local government buildings.
[tags]guns[/tags]

Iowa

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Iowa Democratic Caucus results are here. Very early on the delegate take breaks down like this:

Senator John Edwards : 33.06%
Senator Barack Obama : 32.20%
Senator Hillary Clinton : 32.14%
Governor Bill Richardson : 1.78%
Senator Joe Biden : 0.70%
Senator Chris Dodd : 0.08%
Uncommitted : 0.04%
Precincts Reporting: 433 of 1781

It’s tight as a tick, as Dan Rather might say.

I have MSNBC on the tube and, as of 8:52 EST, Huckabee has 36%, Romney 23%, and Thompson 14%.

What’s really interesting about this is that it seems to be almost a completely media generated storm. In terms of actual delegates, Iowa is fairly inconsequential. But, with a 24 hour news cycle, the media demands winners and losers. The narratives they create will tend toward being self-fulfilling prophecies. If the Clinton campaign is “devastated” because of a 3rd place finish in Iowa, it’s only because the chattering classes say so; not because she came in 10 delegates fewer than Obama or Edwards.

Update

It looks like Obama is going to come in first in Iowa. Edwards and Clinton are currently neck-and-neck. Obama – 36.42%, Edwards – 30.42%, and Clinton – 30.12% with 1473/1781 precincts reporting. Chris Matthews is already becoming insufferable. “Hillary Clinton has been rejected by 2/3s of the Democrats.” Rachel Maddow quickly pointed out the obvious — in a three way tie all of them are being rejected by 2/3s of the voters.

In the Republican primary, Mike Huckabee won pretty big with 34% versus 25% for Romney and 14% for Fred Thompson. It bears mentioning that Ron Paul outpolled Rudy Giuliani – 10% to 4%. You know, as I think about it, I think Giuliani’s campaign was ended by Joe Biden when he said of Giuliani “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11.”

Update II Obama’s lead continues to inch upward. With 1701 of 1781 precincts reporting, Obama has 37% of the delegates compared to 30% for Edwards and 29% for Clinton. One of the big stories from tonight might be turnout. Apparently something like 212,000 Iowans turned out for Democratic caucuses, up something like 70% from 2004 which was considered a pretty big showing at the time. If my math is right on the Republican side — and it may well be wrong — it looks like about 117,000 showed up for the Republican caucuses. If that is at all reflective of the respective levels of enthusiasm among the parties, November 2008 could make November 2006 look like a fond memory for the GOP.

Update III An interesting statistic relative to Update II:

Total Voter Turnout (approximate)
356,000
Percentage of total vote
24.5% Obama
20.5% Edwards
19.8% Clinton
11.4% Huckabee (R)

More fraudulent than the “Neverending” story

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A story straight out of the Simpsons.

A 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet, then banned him and a relative because of how much they consumed during their visits.

Ricky Labit, a 6-foot-3 disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular at the Manchuria Restaurant, eating there as often as three times a week. But on his most recent visit, he said a waitress gave him and his wife’s cousin, Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.

“She says, ’Y’all fat, and y’all eat too much,”’ Labit said.
. . .
The argument over the bill grew heated, and police were called. The police report states that the disagreement was settled when the restaurant said the bill was a mistake and, to appease Labit, the meal was complimentary.

Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more. Campo said the proprietress tries to reduce waste of quality food.

The corresponding Simpsons episode:

Homer: All you can eat. Ha!
Hutz: Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising
since my suit against the film, “The Never-Ending Story”.

Homer: So, do you think I have a case?
Hutz: I don’t use the word hero very often, but you are the greatest hero
in American history.
. . .

McAllister: “Twas a moonless night, dark as pitch, when out of the
mist came a beast more stomach than man.
Homer: “Hey!”
McAllister: “So I says to me bostens, ‘batten down the missenmast,
Matees.'”
. . .
McAllister: “I’ve a proposition for thee fair and true.”
(later, at the restaurant)
McAllister: “Come see Bottomless Pete, nature’s cruelest mistake.
Come for the freak, stay for the food.”