Dear America,

I know this weekend we celebrate your birthday, and 235 is a lot to be proud of, a lot people never thought you’d make it this far.   Unfortunately, you’re not the country you used to be. Don’t get me wrong, I still think this is a place where an individual can rise from abject poverty and come up with the next million dollar idea and make a fortune, but America, you have got to start growing up and acting like a mature responsible adult.

You are going to have to stop spending money you don’t have on things you can’t afford and make some tough choices down the road.  If you don’t it is quite possible that you won’t make the quarter of a millennium club.

Let’s take a look at your finances.  If we’re to take the Congressional Budget Office at its word, for 2011 the President wanted to spend $3.83 trillion.   We’re taking in only $2.228 trillion, which means we’ll run a deficit of $1.48 trillion.   Our national debt is expected to go from $11.9 trillion in FY 2009 to $15 trillion in FY 2011.  Do you see a problem here?   Now there is a little good news in that the federal deficit actually drops to $1.27 trillion in FY 2011; however, I don’t really find a lot of comfort in that.   That’s the equivalent of being told I’m only going to be shot 8 times instead of 10.  I think after I get hit with the first bullet it doesn’t matter anymore.

Part of your problem America is you want to do everything for everybody, and you can’t afford to do that anymore.  You can’t afford to subsidize every industry nor can you afford to subsidize everyone’s health care. You can’t afford to subsidize everyone’s retirement nor their education.  We also can’t subsidize every nation’s national security.  You’ve got some tough choices to make and you better start making them soon.

And to help you out, I have a birthday present for you.  My wife and I will agree to pay a little more to help you get out of debt.  We’ll also let you keep what we’ve paid into Social Security and we won’t take Medicare when we get old if you agree to the following.  Make sure everyone whose getting subsidized (welfare, corporate tax breaks) also takes less.  Stop taking money out of our checks for Social Security.   And incentivize saving so the Lovely Mrs. Shabazz and I can save to cover our own retirement and health care and we can take care of our ourselves in our golden years.  Expanding our 401 K options and health savings accounts will do just fine.

America, if you can do that  you’ll find you’re in better shape than you think.  You’re a great country and having dated a lot of other countries, I’m proud to call you home.  However, there won’t be much of you left if you don’t get your act together.  In 1776 you decided to move out of your Dad George’s basement and strike out on your own.  In 2011, it’s time to recapture that spirit.  If anyone can do it, you can.

Happy Birthday, America!   Enjoy your day!  And no cake!  You’ve been picking up a few pounds over the years and we really need to talk about exercising more.  You can have a cigar though, I’ll buy.  I know a great place 90 miles south of Florida.

I just got the names of more candidates who will be running for City-County Council under the Libertarian banner.   Here they are…

• District 3 – Grant Smith
• District 5 – Christopher Hodapp
• District 12 – Shawn Sullivan
• District 22 – Jared Wales
• At-Large – Patrick Culley

I was also informed that Democrats will be running Doug White in District 22.   This means there will be no uncontested races this election and 20 of 29 seats are being contested by all three parties.

Here’s most recent list of the slate of candidates for Mayor and City-County Council as of Thursday.  An asterisk indicates which candidate is the incumbent.   As you can see both the Democrats and Republicans have someone running in virtually every seat and the Libertarians are running more candidates than usual as well.  Regardless of which party you belong to, I think this is good for the voters to have a choice and it shows no one can take anything for granted this election season.

Mayor

• Greg Ballard – R*
• Melina Kennedy – D
• Chris Bowen – L

At-Larges

• Angel Rivera – R*
• Jackie Cissel -R
• Barb Malone – R*
• Michael Kalscheur – R
• Leroy Robinson – D
• Pam Hickman – D
• John Barth – D
• Zach Adamson – D
• Bill Levin – L
• Reid Miller – L
• Sheri Rhinehart – L
• TBA – L

District 1

• Jose Evans – D*
• Susan Blair – R
• Michael Bishop – L

District 2

• Anthony Simons – R
• Angela Mansfield – D*
• Sam Goldstein – L

District 3

• Ryan Vaughn – R*
• Len Farber – D

District 4

• Chrisitne Scales – R*
• Kostas Poulakidas – D
• Ray Van Lannin – L

District 5

• Ginnie Cain – R*
• Jackie Butler – D

District 6

• Janice McHenry – R*
• Brett Voorhies – D
• Kevin Flemming – L

District 7

• Sahara Williams – R
• Maggie Lewis – D*
• Matt Stone – L

District 8

• Stu Rhodes – R
• Monroe Gray – D*

District 9

• Sally Spires – R
• Joe Simpson – D

District 10

• Barbara Holland – R
• Bill “Duke” Oliver – D*
• Joe Palmer – L

District 11

• Mike Healy – R
• Steve Talley – D
• Tom Mulcahy – L

District 12

• Mike McQuillen – R*
• Regina Marsh – D

District 13

• Bob Lutz – R*
• Jared Evans – D
• Jason Seip – L

District 14

• Marilyn Pfisterer – R*
• Maxine King – D

District 15

• AJ Feeny Ruiz – R
• Vop Osili – D
• Zach Capehart – L

District 16

• Bill Bruton – R
• Brian Mahern – D*

District 17

• Gary Whitmore – R
• Mary Moriarty Adams – D*
• Dirk Bentley – L

District 18

• Mike Heady – R
• Vernon Brown – D*

District 19

• Jeff Miller – R
• Dane Mahern – D*

District 20

• Susie Day  – R*
• Frank Mascari – D

District 21

• Ben Hunter – R*
• Todd Woodmansee – D
• Josh Featherstone – L

District 22

• Jason Holiday – R

District 23

• Jeff Cardwell – R*
• Scott Coxey – D
• Kent Rochette – L

District 24

• Jack Sandlin – R*
• Ed Coleman – L

District 25

• Aaron Freeman – R*
• Mario Garza – D
• Kevin Veil – L

And unless, I missed something, the only person guaranteed a victory is Jason Holiday.

Lots of little interesting tidbits of gossip, rumor and political innuendo to throw out there this morning,  so without further adieu…

• Freedom Works continues to sit on the fence when deciding whether to get into the Richard Lugar/Richard Mourdock U.S. Senate Primary, despite what’s said officially, the word is they don’t trust the local tea parties to get the job done and the Lugar organizational juggernaut is running full speed ahead.
• The special prosecutor in the Charlie White voter fraud case says the recent ruling by the Indiana Recount Commission won’t have much impact on the way he plans to proceed with the case. Dan Sigler says he plans to go forward with the indictment and finish the job.  White has been criminally charged with seven felony counts regarding voter and mortgage fraud.
• Indiana’s 5th Congressional District might get another contender.  Former U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks tells me she’s considering challenging incumbent Dan Burton next year.  John McGoff has already entered the race.
• If you live in Hamilton County and volunteered for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign, the Melina Kennedy folks would like to have a word with you.  Apparently Kennedy is having trouble getting volunteers in Marion County and so she’s looking north of 96th Street.  Her campaign has sent out some e-mails (the most recent one this past Saturday) asking HC Democrats for help.  I’m told by folks who received the e-mails that they were surprised to get them because they didn’t think Kennedy would have any trouble rallying the base in her own county. They’re not alone.
• The racial tension is building somewhat in the Marion County Democratic Party.  A lot of African-Americans are upset Chairman Ed Treacy did not hold a special caucus when Joanne Sanders announced she was not running for the Council At-Large seat.   They think the position should have gone to an African-American since there’s only one running countywide (Leroy Robinson).
• Speaking of African-Americans expect a lot more people to step up and take up the issue of violence perpetrated in the community by young black males.  Things are getting to a point in their minds where the young black male is going from an endangered species to an endangering species.
• It’s no big secret the next city budget will be tight.  And some City-County Councilors are going to be looking at the Sheriff’s budget as a way to save money.  The word is that the Sheriff’s budget has grown exponentially over the past few years while his law enforcement responsibilities have not.  This should be interesting to watch.
• Indianapolis Public Schools are sending mixed messages.  The school district which has been losing students and fighting a state takeover has sent out letters to parents who left IPS to bring their kids back to the district.  What’s conflicting about this is that Dr. Eugene White has already said if a parent takes a kid out of IPS after the official state attendance count day, they can’t bring them back.  Which one is it? By the way, the State Board of  Education will have test results back by its August 3 meeting.  By then we should have a pretty good idea which schools are ripe for takeover and which ones will be left alone.
• Today is the last day you can legally text and drive in Indiana, so send ‘em while you got ‘em!

That’s all for now.

Embattled Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White won a victory today at the Indiana Recount Commission.  The body ruled 3-0 (unanimously) that White was eligible to serve as Secretary of State, even though he voted using his ex-wife’s address.

You can read the full write up here by my colleague Eric Bradner of the Evansville Courier & Press.  White still faces several felony charges in Hamilton County Court.

White will be our guest Wednesday morning at 7: 35 a.m.  You can listen by logging onto www.wxnt.com.

Is the the head of the Baptist Ministers Alliance of Indianapolis engaging in some preemptive damage control?  Maybe.  As you know I during a news conference last week I asked Stephen Clay if he had ever been the subject of an investigation by the Department of Child Services.  Instead of giving me a “yes” or “no” answer, Clay said he would not answer my question and walked away.

Well, apparently my question must have hit a nerve because I’m told he alluded to it at his service on Sunday.  Clay reportedly told his congregation at Messiah Missionary Baptist Church that if something should ever happen to him because of the stands he’s taken in the community that his church can still function and there is a contingency plan in place for it to continue.   Needless to say his remarks caught a lot of people off guard and they were left scratching their heads as to what he was referring.

My question is what is  going on that he would have to let his flock know that something may “happen to him”?  Does he have health issues? Has someone made a threat to his personal safety?    Does it have something to do with the fact he won’t answer a simple yes or no question?  By bringing this up and not being straightforward all Clay is doing is causing more questions to be asked and encouraging speculation.  It’s already ready begun in local political circles and was also the scuttlebutt at this past week’s Baptist Convention here in the city.  It’s also making me more determined to find out why he won’t give me a straight answer.

The quest continues.

The Indiana Recount Commission is expected to render a decision tomorrow in the case of embattled Secretary of State Charlie White who is accused of voter fraud.  State Democrats say that since White voted at his ex-wife’s address but was registered somewhere else, he should be declared ineligible to hold his office and the seat should go to Vop Osili.  White’s attorneys called it an honest mistake, but there was no intent to defraud the voters.  After reviewing some case law and testimony, I would not be surprised if the Commission comes back with a decision in White’s favor; not because Republicans have a 2-to-1 majority on the panel, but also because Democrats failed to deliver the knockout punch that would have sent White packing.

Democrat attorney Karen Celestino-Horseman went through a number of documents that had White’s condo address and White’s attorney Jim Bopp went through some other documents that had White’s other address on it.  All that showed was that White got mail at two places.  The question seems to be where does he reside?

If I understood the Democrats’ argument correctly, they were making the case that under state law the residency of an unmarried person, who is without immediate family,  is where they sleep.  White while not married at the time, did have immediate family, his son, who lived in the house where he voted from.  Now White’s attorneys argued that an alternate statute should be used, because the “without immediate family” element of the prior statute was never met.  They said his residency was with his immediate family.  These may seem like splitting hairs, but I honestly think this where the ruling may come down. And then you throw in White’s arguments that he was going through a divorce, moving, remarrying, and running a statewide campaign, life gets more interesting.

And to throw another log on the fire, the case involving Evan Bayh and his residency when he ran for Governor is resurfacing.  Particularly the rule that to hold office, one only need to be a resident of the state, it does not specify where one has to be a resident.

(And no, the irony of me of all people writing about this has not been lost.)  Tomorrow’s decision should be interesting.

I just finished reading competing perspectives on mass transit by Indianapolis Star columnists Matthew Tully and Erkia D. Smith.   The two are “debating” whether mass transit will ever get off the ground here in the area?   Smith thinks it can with the right leadership behind it, Tully offers a more realistic (or pessimistic) view, depending on your perspective.   The debate is not a new one.  The Indy mass transit discussion has been taking place for years.

Having grown up in Chicago, I can appreciate a healthy, comprehensive mass transit system.  I took the city bus in high school.  I used the subway as an adult commuting to work in downtown whenever I would stay with my parents for a few days.  And driving a car to a White Sox game was just not going to happen.  And that’s what I think most advocates for mass transit fail to realize as we debate this issue, most people aren’t passionate about something they’ve never really had to use.

I asked a co-worker the other day if he would ever use mass transit, his response was, “I’m not getting on a bus with a bunch of smelly people!”   That may sound harsh, but that’s the hurdle.  Let’s be honest, what is the perception of most people who take the bus?  Drive by the bus stop on Ohio Street look who is standing there.  Yes, this is a horrible thing to say, but deep down inside, we all know that this is part of the problem.  “I don’t take the bus, but those people do, so let them pay for it.”

So how do we get more people on the bus, rather than just “those” people?  Well, I honestly think the best thing mass transit advocates can do right now is adjust their timetable, skip trying to convince this generation to take the bus or train and start working on the next generation.  Here’s what I mean.  Why doesn’t IndyGo form a partnership with the schools?  Why not in exchange for $20 a month high juniors and seniors get a bus pass to use IndyGo to get to school?   Not only could students use the bus for school, but they could also use the bus to get to work.  We all know transportation is a big inhibitor for young people to find work, now we have eliminated that barrier.  It would take some adjustment in the lines, but I don’t see why it can’t be done.

Think about this.  School districts that are struggling to find money for their bus systems get a way to save money, since they no longer have to transport so many students, IndyGo increases ridership, gets a new source of funding and we get an entire generation of people who now think taking the bus is no big deal because they’ve been doing it all their lives.  And now “those people” who take the bus are now just fellow commuters.

If I were IndyGo and IndyConnect and the Central Indiana Regional Transportation Authority, I would be on the phone Monday morning with every public, private and charter school in the city seeing what we would could work out.  Let’s face it, if someone isn’t taking the bus now, the odds are they aren’t going to be taking it later.  However, if I can get a 16 or 17-year old to start using mass transit, there’s a good chance I’ve got a rider for the rest of their lives.

I know it’s only June,  but Christmas came early for your favorite political blogger and commentator.   Friday’s news regarding abortion, gay marriage and illegal immigration mean Monday’s show is going to be a lot of fun.

Two federal judges issued rulings granting injunctions against portions of Indiana’s plan to defund Planned Parenthood and a recently passed immigration law.  In New York State the Legislature passed a measure making New York the sixth state in the Union to legalize gay marriage.

While I’m sure there are people right now who think these are three signs of the apocalypse, but nothing could be further from the truth.  And upon close inspection of each of these controversial issues, the decisions make perfect sense.

On the Planned Parenthood funding issue, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt said the state must continue it’s funding to PPIN and she halted the requirement that doctors tell a woman a fetus feels pain during an abortion procedure.  She let stand the requirement that doctors tell a woman life begins at conception.  The Indiana Attorney General will likely to appeal the decision.   On the issue of funding, which members of both parties voted for, I never could make the connection between abortion funding and women’s reproductive health services, especially since federal law prohibited funding most abortions.  In additions, hospitals were exempt from the new law, but then again, they had a much better lobby.

On immigration, Judge Sarah Evans Barker blocked two major provision of Indiana’s recently passed law.   One measure would have allowed police to arrest someone if they were here illegally even if they had not committed a crime.  It also would have not allowed ID cards issued by foreign consulates to be used as identification.  My position from day one has been immigration is the sole purview of the federal government, like it or not, and the states roles are very limited.

The third and final issue, is the New York State Senate passed a measure making same-sex marriage legal.   I have never understood the opposition to same-sex marriage.  In my opinion, gay couples have just as much right to be as happy or as miserable as everyone else.

As you can tell, Monday morning’s radio show is going to be interesting, to say the least.  Feel free to call in at 317-228-1430 or 1-866-440-1430.