I have never been a big Indiana Pacers fan and I would assume not a lot people in this town are now either.  My interest has always been passive at best, but now with the latest news that a murder suspect was arrested after leaving the home of Shawne Williams, it is the last nail in the coffin.  This follows news earlier this week that a sexual assault occurred at the home of Marquis Daniels.

To be fair, neither player is accused of committing a crime, but they are guilty of bad judgment.  I would suspect that both Williams and Daniels have made the mistake that is not uncommon amongst some black athletes.  They have a talent that gets them out of the hood, but they make the mistake of taking the hood with them.  Someone who was getting in trouble at 30th and Post Road will probably still be getting in trouble when you move to Hendricks County, so perhaps it’s best to leave them where they are.

For some reason there is this belief that if you are black and become successful you have some duty or obligation to bring every Tyrone and Teniesha along with you.  That is most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  People who tend to get in trouble when they are poor also tend to get in trouble when they come into contact with wealth, only the trouble is more expensive.  And individuals like Williams and Daniels would probably do well to leave the hood where it belongs.

It’s days like this I thank God the only hood I know is on the back of my Land’s End jacket.

The 2008 session of the Indiana General Assembly has just started.  By amending and passing its version of HB 1001, the Senate has drawn a line in the sand and it can negotiate in earnest with the House of Representatives.   While it’s easy to see the lines over how much tax relief to provide or which antiquated elected officials need to be protected here is what you really need to pay attention to;  both sides are now playing a game of political chicken, but hoping for different outcomes.

Senators want a “philosophical” victory that means they want to adjourn on time, because to stay late would be a loss.  House Democrats want to adjourn on time because if they don’t it becomes a campaign issue that they failed to give Hoosiers tax relief.   What I worry about is in a rush to “get something done” mistakes are made which will take years to fix and at the end of the day, the only people who will be happy about this will be that other branch of government, the lobbyists.

There a lot of little things from around town worth mentioning and keeping an eye on.

Dr. Ken Ackles inability to pass a state-mandated coroner’s exam has gotten the attention of the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council.  The Council wants to know why he didn’t pass the exam which has potentially put a number of cases in the Prosecutor’s office in jeopardy.

Marion County Republicans are disputing a recent poll showing Jon Elrod trailing Andre Carson in the 7th Congressional District.  A poll conducted by Gauge Market Research for Howey Politics Indiana had Elrod losing 54-36.  GOP officials say the gap is closer to seven points rather than the 18 points in the Howey poll.

Although a Marion County Sheriff once said there’s no room for politics in public safety, that message was lost on his chief deputy.  Kerry Forestal and two other high ranking sheriff department officials appear (in full uniform) in political ads for Andre Carson.  Forestal is also hosting a fundraiser on St. Patrick’s Day with Carson and Frank Anderson as the featured guests.  Forestal is trying to make inroads in the Black Community as he runs for Sheriff.  I think it’s ironic he’s using Andre Carson to to raise money as Julia Carson hated Forestal and commented hell would freeze over before she would ever let him become Sheriff.  How times have changed.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has been called for jury duty this week. His pool number was called this afternoon.  He’s scheduled to report tomorrow morning at eight at the city-county building.  There’s no word yet on what case the Governor might hear if he makes it through any challenges.

A new poll of likely Hoosier voters shows good news for Barack Obama, Mitch Daniels and Andre Carson. The survey conducted by Gauge Marketing Research for Howey Politics Indiana shows each candidate with comfortable leads over their respective challengers.

Obama leads Hilary Clinton amongst likely Democratic voters by 40-25 percent with 36 percent of the voters undecided.

Governor Mitch Daniels beats both Democratic challengers Jim Schellinger and Jill Long Thompson. Daniels beats Shellinger 54-31 percent and Thompson 56-33 percent.

Andre Carson beats Republican challenger Jon Elrod 54-36 percent. The two will face each other on March 11 in a special election.

What’s most interesting is that 38 percent of the voters surveyed say they plan to vote for both Obama and Daniels.

The survey was taken of 500 likely voters with 300 of them in the 7th Congressional District in mid-February.

The poll also showed that taxes are the biggest issue on the minds of voters. In addition it showed Daniels with a 52-percent approval rating across the state, but it was 54-percent in the 7th Congressional District.

The statewide poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percent and the 7th Congressional District race had a margin of error of 5.7 percent.

The Indianapolis Star this morning has a long-piece on  7th District Congressional candidate Andre Carson and the fact that he is a Muslim.  There has been a lot of speculation about what kind of Muslim Carson actually is, especially since Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke at the late Julia Carson’s funeral.

As much as some people would like to think, Carson is not a Nation of Islam guy.  You will not see him selling bean pies and Final Call newspapers at 38th & Keystone in a wool suit and wearing a bow tie.  (If you know what a bean pie is this line is even funnier.)  Carson is at best more in the mold of Wallace D. Muhammad, which incorporates a more orthodox less political version of Islam.

I can speak to all this because I was born a Muslim.  My parents converted in the 1960s before I was born and so I inherited it.  I’m not the most practicing follower; I love Scotch, cigars and a good bacon cheeseburger.  But I do understand the difference between the various sects and divisions.

To not vote for Carson because he is a Muslim is the same as not voting for Mitt Romney because he was a Mormon.   The founding fathers were pretty sharp guys with not wanting a religious test for anyone to hold public office.  To solely judge an individual based on their faith is a bad idea.  Religion can gives us an idea about the candidate, but it is just a facet. 

It is their position on issues and the leadership they can provide that should be the true test of whether they are worthy of your vote.

Normally I blog early Sunday morning, but I had some car issues.  The stupid key broke off in the lock in Danville (Indiana not Illinois) so my morning project was getting that taken care of.  The weekend has been pretty quiet, but I have heard a few things worth mentioning in the world of Indiana politics.

I keep hearing a lot of people in both political parties aren’t happy with the way slating has gone down as of late; especially when it comes to judges (which in my opinion should not be elected but appointed) so watch for things to get ugly in that front.

I also hear Marion County Coroner Ken Ackles may find himself coming before the City-County Council’s Administration and Finance committee to explain why he’s been collecting a paycheck, even though he did not pass his latest state certification exam.

Speaking of Council’s, Mayor Greg Ballard and the City-County Council are negotiating an ethics reform package to be introduced at the next Council meeting.  Sources inside the administration say Ballard would like to have strong bi-partisan support on the reform package so he is strongly courting Council Democrats.

That’s it for now.  I’m off to go see “There Will Be Blood.”

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

You know by now that Marion County Coroner Ken Ackles has withdrawn his name from the race for coroner.  For those of you think Ackles is falling on his sword for the good of the party, you need to think again.  If anything, he got pushed on his sword about five or six times just to make sure he was politically dead.

From what I’ve been able to gather over the past few days, Democrats have been “urging” Ackles to get out of the race and they finally forced him out.  The coroner’s office has been nothing but an embarrassment for them since Ackles took over and the latest news is that he failed to pass mandatory state training, but still managed to garner a nice fat paycheck.

My Marion County Democratic friends and I may not agree on much, but it’s good to know they understand that self-preservation is the first law of politics.

Smart move guys.

Acknowledging that Republicans have their work cut out for them this November, GOP Presidential candidate John McCain says he’s confident he can win in November. McCain spoke at Emmis communications to a couple hundred Hoosiers. He told the crowd the surge in Iraq is working as well as the need for young people to get in shape because there won’t be enough to money to take care of them as well as commit to senior citizens.

McCain sounded on familiar themes in his speech such as tax cuts, however he also talked about climate change and ending dependence on foreign oil by embracing new technology here in the United States.

He did not address accusations made in a New York Times story regarding him and a lobbyist eight years ago.

Overall the Senator seemed a little stilted at first, but later loosened up for the crowd. He’s going to have to do a lot more loosening up though if he is going to face a potential contender like Barack Obama in the general election.

Meanwhile, Indiana Republicans and Democrats continue to bicker over whether McCain has enough signatures to be on the ballot. Democrats say he is falling a few signatures short. Republicans say he’s exceeded the state requirements.

From what my sources tell me, Democratic State Representative Bill Crawford and Republican State Senator Mike Young don’t think very highly of each other.  Crawford thinks Young is a closet racist and what Young thinks of Crawford could not be printed on this blog.

However the two have found common ground, their opposition to government consolidation.  The State Senate overwhelmingly today passed Marion County fire consolidation out of the chamber today as part of a House public employees pension bill.  However, Young reportedly told consolidation supporters that he still has a couple tricks up his sleeve. That sleeve is Bill Crawford.

Although the two hate each other, they hate consolidation even more, sources say, so they have become unwilling allies.  Young wants to protect the townships and Crawford wants to protect Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer.  And while there is no direct conspiracy, per se, the two are like Sydney Poitier and Tony Curtis in the movie, The Defiant Ones.  They are chained together and trying to prevent the forces of less government and more accountability from catching up with them.

You can run, but you can’t hide.