Although vacations are notorious for accomplishing absolutely nothing, there were some things that I learned while being “gone” for the last week or so.  Here they are.

1. The people who are still trying to prove Barack Obama is not eligible to be President have way too much time on their hands.
2. You know your future in-laws are cool when they get you alcohol as a Christmas gift.
3. There is very little on television worth watching during the middle of the day.
4. Althought it’s alright to sleep past 8 a.m., it’s even better to stay out past midnight.
5. It totally rocks to wake up everyday and have your breakfast and coffee waiting for you.
6. Pizza with bacon and goat cheese is the best.
7. Every once in a while you need to get together with all your political, media and governmental friends and enjoy each other’s company.  (Off the record, of course.)
8. There is still too much government in Indiana.
9. If you leave town to visit your parents, try not to do it with tornado watches and thunderstorm warnings.
10. You know you have a cool job when you don’t mind going back after being gone for a few days.

Hope you have a great Chirstmas!  See you in a few days!

Only in my home state of Illinois is something like this possible.

A Christian group wanted to put a  nativity scene in the Capitol, so the Secretary of State who oversees the facility, against his better judgement, put one up.

Then the atheists got mad and then they got a display.

Then the Jews were upset and got a menorah put up.

Now the Seinfeldians were mad and got a Festivus pole put up in the Capitol.

I can’t wait for the flying spaghetti monster worshipers show up.

Only in Illinois.

As we get closer to 2009, I recently came across an on-line list of things that are “vanishing” and may not exist in a few years.  I’ve listed some of them.  What do you think should be included?

1. The printed “Yellow Pages”
2. Answering machines
3. Handwritten letters
4. Personal checks
5. Drive-in theatres
6. Honey bees
7. News magazines
8. Analog TV (this is going away in February 2009)
9. Incandescent bulbs
10. Cameras that use film
11. VCRs
12. Home Phone landlines
13. Dial-up Internet Access

So what do you think?  Anything that should be here, that isn’t?

I’m technically on vacation this week.  By “technically”, I mean I have days I have to use or lose.   But since there are still interesting things to write and talk about I figured I’d keep our conversation going on the blog.  Here are my thoughts on a few stories that have surfaced lately.

Government Consolidation

• Just as it is ridiculous to think every township should have a prosecutor and every precinct a sheriff, it is silly to think one person should run everything.  If you actually read Kernan-Shepard, you will see it’s about streamlining government and having more accountability.  What is the crime in a county executive who appoints officials approved by a county board?  This is not a new concept in the civilized world.  In fact this is how it works more times than not.  Indiana has two percent of the nation’s population, but eight percent of the local elected officials.  Honestly people, how is this a good thing?

School Choice

• The debate is heating up over whether there should be a moratorium on charter schools.  Full disclose, I work with the folks at the GEO Foundation on occasion.  Now with that said, if parents are taking their kids out of traditional public schools and putting them in charters, why are charters the problem?  This is like me acting a fool and fiance leaves me for another man and I blame him.  Instead of complaining about charter schools, TPS’ should be looking at taking steps to improve themselves.  And if they really wanted to put their money where there mouths were, they would require all district employees make their children attend their schools.

Legal Eagles

• I was asked the other day to comment on the 21st floors relationship with Barnes & Thornburg as outlined in the paper this past weekend.  Here’s my take.  In every major and minor city I have lived in there are large firms that do work with state and local government.  One tends to lean Democrat, one Republican, one right up the middle.  So the administration doing business with B & T doesn’t surprise me at all.  Now when the firms start directing city policy, there’s a problem and they should be called out on it.  The Ballard folks got burned once this year and learned their lesson, so I don’t worry too much.  What I think the public doesn’t understand is that there is a lot of legal work that needs to be done and city legal can’t do it alone.  And while I think the concern about the influence of major firms overstepping their bounds is a valid one, I honestly think most of the complaining is coming from people who wishes it were them getting the work and not B & T.

Those are today’s thoughts.  I’m going back to bed.  Enjoy your day.

Before heading back to Indy after a weekend of telling jokes and having a lot of fun at the expense of the current Governor of Illinois, I thought I’d post a few items of note for you to munch on until tomorrow…

1. Expect a new report on charter schools to come out soon counteracting the belief that there is no measurable difference in the academic performance of charter schools and traditional public schools.
2. Don’t be surprised if you see some Statehouse Marion County Democrats start publicly supporting Kernan-Shepard and government consolidation.
3. A sneak peak into the Mayor’s re-election campaign fund shows about  $1million raised this past year.
4. Expect another wave of organized protest to show up complaining about the city’s purchase of 85 Toyota hybrid vehicles. Democratic minority leader Joanne Sanders is having about 100 leaflets printed with City-County Councilors’ phone numbers on them. Sanders is organizing about a dozen or so women to make calls to local officials and give them hell about not buying cars made by a company that begged and pleaded for a government bailout.
5. More names are surfacing as possible contenders for Marion County Sheriff in 2010, one of which is Eva Talley Sanders.

Personal Note:

• Oddly enough today is both my mom’s birthday and my future mother-in-law’s. Happy Birthday, ladies.

If you are someone who is not an elected official, doesn’t work for local government or has a family member who works for local government, make your case against consolidation and Kernan-Shepard, which by the way according to a Ball State study would free up more than $600 million in taxpayer funds.

Go ahead,  I dare you!

Of all the times to have to leave town and go be a comedian tomorrow.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels will announce Friday plans to move forward with the Kernan-Shepard Government consolidation plan. I would expect him to use the state’s current economic climate as a backdrop, arguing if Hoosiers have to tighten their belts and do more with less, so should local government.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, two statewide local government groups that have been cool to Kernan-Shepard are trying to get a jump on things.

The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns announced today it will support the overall plan but asked for county clerks to be elected rather than appointed in second class cities, moving municipal election to non-presidential years if there can be cost savings and it supports the voluntary creation of public safety boards in counties.

The Association of Indiana Counties is taking a more measured approach. Saying it either supports or has no opinion on 22 of the 27 recommendations, but has a problem with the elimination of local elected officials saying it could lead to less accountability. The AIC is also offering its own suggestions for improving Kernan-Shepard such including the creation of a county wide property tax levy for poor relief, fire protection and library service, as well as the creation of county wide park and health districts. It also suggests giving locals the chance to vote on whether consolidating three county commissioners into one and giving each county the option of creating vote centers for school board and municipal elections.

I just may delay my trip a few hours and catch all this.

A few days ago my fiance asked me to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things.  I really didn’t feel like doing it, but like a good future husband I did what I was told and shut up about it.

I got in the car and drove down to the grocery store.  As I parked I noticed a few spaces over a shopping cart sitting in a  parking space.  I’ve always found that that to be very annoying because someone was too lazy to put the cart back into the cart corral which was just a a few meters away.

But to make things more interesting a man drove up while talking on his phone, he pulled into the spot and used his car to push the cart into the row and got out and went into the store.   My jaw just dropped to the floor.  I got out of my car and grabbed the cart and put it into the corral.  And here’s the kicker, when I walked in the store, I saw the man still talking on his phone and he had a shopping cart!

I’m still scratching my head on this one.   People are just getting more rude and more selfish, which frankly I wouldn’t mind, but when your rudeness and selfishness start to impact other people, we have a problem.  Just think of the people who were injured at Wal-Mart and a shopping mall last month.

You would think that with this being the Christmas season, people would behave a little better, but I guess that whole “good will towards men” adage it outdated.