Have your boss try on the thought of a retiree health plan that kicks in after six years on the job, offers coverage at today's premiums, lasts for life and even covers ex-spouses.
Just don't blame us if the peals of laughter ring in your ears as you slink back to your cubicle. Blame [Indiana] senators who just don't get it.
The bill, proposed for the second year in a row by Gov. Mitch Daniels, seeks to go after the pensions of some government workers -- such as excise police and gaming agents -- who take bribes or otherwise rip off the state...
This proposed law would let the state cancel the taxpayer-funded portion of a pension if the worker "is convicted of a felony arising out of (their) service." The felony must be tied to on-the-job "fraud, deceit or abuse," and must result in "financial loss to the public or an unlawful benefit to an individual."
To summarize: If you use your state job to steal money from taxpayers, don't expect taxpayers to fund your retirement...
The bill, however, does not meet Garton's Rules of Good Government. This year, that rule appears to be this: If an idea has anything to do with good government, there's a good chance Garton will make sure it's good and dead...
Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, who introduced the bill for the governor, ... got the bill through the Senate Pensions Committee last month, only to watch Garton dump it. Kruse made clear the decision to kill the bill was Garton's...
Garton... acted amid talk of amending the bill to include scofflaw lawmakers -- not a popular idea with some lawmakers. The problem was that passing the bill without lawmakers would be a bad public relations move. So Garton did the easy thing. He shelved the bill.
Still, Garton is not the only one at fault. Some Democrats opposed the bill because unions opposed it. Sen. Sam Smith, D-East Chicago, told me he voted against the bill in committee because he was asked to by "somebody back home."
He would not elaborate beyond saying the bill opponent was a woman who could lose her state pension. Hmm, who could lose a pension under the bill? Only felons who stole from the state. Is that a solid source of advice for a state legislator?
Just about every major piece of legislation passing through the Senate has needed Garton’s imprimatur. While Gov. Mitch Daniels and other Republicans have often blamed the three previous Democratic govenors for this weedy mess, it was actually Garton and the previous Senate Finance Chairman, Larry Borst, who determined what was in the budget, which tax got cut, or which Hoosier industry was revitalized...
Garton is powerful. Governors worried about angering him. Legislators quake in their boots...
He’s got two opponents this election cycle. Greg Walker, a Republican accountant from Columbus, is challenging the president in the May primary. Urged on by state and national Right to Life organizations, he will take on Garton’s 81 percent pro-life voting record (he has mixed votes on informed consent and has voted against cloning restrictions).
In the November election, Garton finds Democrat Terry Coriden, who served as city attorney for Columbus from 1996 to 2004...
The recent formula for dislodging Senate dinosaurs has been the primary, as Sens. Brent Waltz and Jeff Drozda pulled off in 2004 and 2002...
Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton can now expect a serious Democratic opponent in this November's election if he survives a primary challenge he faces in May according to the Howey Political Report. Long-time former Columbus city attorney, Terry Coriden, shown above, filed to run as a Democrat in Senate District 41 today.
Garton is already facing primary opposition from Greg Walker, a conservative accountant from Columbus...
Earlier this week Howey reported that Garton told The Republic in Columbus that he was planning to make changes to the legislator health care for life perk, but he made it clear that he did not understand the public's outcry over the benefit. Both Walker and Coriden should have success in exploiting this issue to their advantage.
In the last election differing Republican interests gathered to topple the long-time chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Larry Borst (R-Indianapolis) in the Republican primary with a little-known candidate Brent Waltz. With the announcement at week's end that the longest serving Senate President Pro Tem in Indiana's history, Robert Garton (R-Columbus) will have a primary opponent, it appears those same forces may be coalescing to bring about a similar fate to Garton.
The Howey Political Report tells us that Greg Walker, an accountant from Columbus, filed the necessary papers with the Secretary of State on Friday to challenge Garton in District 41. Garton has never had a serious primary challenge since joining the Senate 36 years ago in 1970, and he has rarely had a serious general election opponent. If Garton isn't running scared yet, he should be.
Garton has never endeared himself to the Christian right. He struck out a moderate position early in his Senate career when he fought for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, parting company with many of his more conservative Republican colleagues...
It is likely that Walker will not only have plenty of grassroots support from the Christian right in getting out the vote for him in the May primary, but he will also likely have money from disparate Republicans. That would probably include the likes of former Indiana State GOP Chairman Rex Early, who was instrumental in helping Brent Waltz raise big bucks to challenge Larry Borst two years ago...
Garton's enemies will have plenty of political fodder with which to chip away at him. The worst albatross he faces is the ridiculously self-serving health-insurance-for-life benefit he and his fellow lawmakers created for themselves several years ago. In the face of the staggering liability and public outrage over the program, Garton has remained steadfast in his opposition to modifying the program...
[I]f we merely tinker with current attitudes about what role the federal government ought to play in our lives, it won’t do much to solve the ethics crisis. True reform is impossible without addressing the immorality of wealth redistribution. Merely electing new leaders and writing more rules to regulate those who petition Congress will achieve nothing...
Could it be that we’re all looking in the wrong places for a solution to recurring, constant, and pervasive corruption in government? ...
Believe me, if everybody benefited equally there would be scant outcry over a little bribery and influence peddling. As our country grows poorer and more indebted, fewer people benefit. The beneficiaries are not the hard-working, honest people who pay the taxes. The groups that master the system of lobbying and special interest legislation are the ones who truly benefit...
The founders detested democracy and avoided the use of the word in all the early documents. Today, most Americans accept without question a policy of sacrificing life, property, and dollars to force “democracy” on a country 6,000 miles away. This tells us how little opposition there is to “democracy.” ...
Our system of democracy has come to mean worshipping the notion that a majority vote for the distribution of government largesse, loot confiscated from the American people through an immoral tax system, is morally and constitutionally acceptable...
Buying influence is much more lucrative than working and producing for a living. The trouble is the process invites moral corruption...
Dealing with lobbying scandals while ignoring the scandal of unconstitutional runaway government will solve nothing. If people truly believe that reform is the solution, through regulating lobbyists and increasing congressional reporting requirements, the real problem will be ignored and never identified. This reform only makes things worse...
The theft that the federal government commits against its citizens, and the power that Congress has assumed illegally, are the real crimes that need to be dealt with. In this regard we truly do need a new direction. Get rid of the evil tax system; the fraudulent monetary system; and the power of government to run our lives, the economy, and the world; and the Abramoff types would be exposed for the mere gnats they are. There would be a lot less of them, since the incentives to buy politicians would be removed...
Even under today’s flawed system of democratic government, which is dedicated to redistributing property by force, a lot could be accomplished if government attracted men and women of good will and character...
Considering the [Iraq] war had nothing to do with our national security, we’re talking big bucks being wasted and lining the pockets of many well-connected American corporations. Waste, fraud, stupidity, and no-bid contracts characterize the process. And it’s all done in the name of patriotism and national security. Dissenters are accused of supporting the enemy. Now this is a rip-off that a little tinkering with House rules and restraints on lobbyists won’t do much to solve...
[W]e now qualify as the greatest international debtor nation in history. Excessive consumption using borrowed money is hardly the way to secure a sound economy...
The biggest rip-off of all – the paper money system that is morally and economically equivalent to counterfeiting – is never questioned. It is the deceptive tool for transferring billions from the unsuspecting poor and middle-class to the special interest rich...
Wealth is transferred from one group to another, and it’s all related to the system that allows politicians and the central banks to create money out of thin air. It’s literally legalized counterfeiting...
The incentive for Americans is to buy consumer goods from other countries whose people are willing to save and invest in their factories and jobs. The only way we can continue this charade is to borrow excess dollars back from the foreign governments who sell us goods, and perpetuate the pretense of wealth that we enjoy...
During this administration the dollar has... depreciated in terms of gold, the time-honored and reliable measurement of a nation’s currency, by an astounding 55%...
Once Rome converted from a republic to an empire, she depreciated her currency to pay the bills. This eventually led to Rome’s downfall. That is exactly what America is facing unless we change our ways...
We have come to accept our role as world policemen and nation builder with little question, despite the bad results and an inability to pay the bills...
The Abramoff-type scandals come and go in Washington... [b]ut our efforts should be directed toward eliminating the greatest of all frauds – printing press money that creates the political conditions breeding the vultures and leeches who feed off the corrupt system...
Counterfeiting money never creates wealth – it only steals wealth from the unsuspecting. The Federal Reserve creation of money is exactly the same. Increasing the dollars in circulation can only diminish the value of each existing dollar. Only production and jobs can make a country wealthy in the long run. Today it’s obvious our country is becoming poorer and more uneasy as our jobs and capital go overseas...
The Abramoff scandal can serve a useful purpose if we put it in context of the entire system that encourages corruption. If it’s seen as an isolated case of individual corruption, and not an expected consequence of big government run amuck, little good will come of it...
Congress was not meant to be a rubber stamp. It’s time for a new direction.
Federal government moves six area counties into Central zone. Our View: That was a good result; now let the issue cool.
I replied:
I have to agree with the Courier-Press on this one, although I'd love to see all of Indiana back in the central time zone again too.
The DOT's ruling actually says "Furthermore, DOT does not have a statewide proposal before it nor has the Indiana legislature endorsed such an approach. It is, therefore, beyond the scope of this proceeding to consider such a significant change to the State’s time zone boundaries."
http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/pdf95/382609_web.pdf
The implication is that if the governor or the legislature had requested that the DOT consider a single time zone for all or most of Indiana, they would have considered it. Not only did the legislators not request such a consideration, they virtually ruled it out by requiring that the ten counties on year-round Chicago time stay on central time and that the five counties (illegally) observing year-round New York time stay on eastern.
http://www.in.gov/apps/lsa/session/billwatch/billinfo?year=2005&request=getBill&docno=127
Hoosiers certainly disagree on which time zone is better, but at least we can all look at the same facts and agree that we are effectively on winter daylight saving time and summer double daylight time in the eastern time zone. A couple of simple examples make this pretty clear.
U.S. Code shows that the design goal of the time zones is to evenly divide the winter sunlight between morning and evening as nearly as possible and to shift about 60 minutes from morning to evening during DST.
On January 26, Indianapolis has about ten hours of daylight. The nominal sunrise and sunset are easily seen to be 7:00 am and 5:00 pm -- five hours before midday and five hours after. On central time, sunrise is 6:58 and sunset is 4:57 -- within a couple of minutes of nominal. On eastern, sunrise is 7:58 and sunset is 5:57 -- 4 hours before midday and 6 hours after -- effectively DST in the middle of winter.
Correspondingly on August 8, Indianapolis gets 14 hours of sunlight. The nominal sunrise and sunset on DST are easily seen to be 6:00 am and 8:00 pm -- 6 hours before midday and 8 hours after. On central DST, sunrise and sunset would be 5:50 am and 7:50 pm -- within ten minutes of nominal DST. On eastern DST, sunrise and sunset are 6:50 am and 8:50 pm -- 5.2 hours before midday and 8.8 hours after -- effectively "double daylight time".
Bill Starr
Columbus, Indiana (Bartholomew County)
Tue, 24 Jan 2006, 11:54pm EST
Ref: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/260.html { U.S. Code on time zones }
***** ORIGINAL ARTICLE *****
Time to Rest
The Issue: Federal government moves six area counties into Central zone. Our View: That was a good result; now let the issue cool.
January 22, 2006
From a strictly regional perspective, the great time-zone debate in Indiana turned out about as well as it could have for the southwest corner of the state.
The only way it could have been better would be for all of the state to go on Central time, but as we learned this past year, that is not going to happen any time soon. What did happen this past week is that the U.S. Department of Transportation agreed to allow Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry and Pike counties to move from the Eastern to the Central time zone, joining Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey, Gibson and Spencer counties.
The common interest among those 11 counties has always been there. People cross county lines daily to work, conduct business, shop and dine, acquire services, go to school, and enjoy entertainment and recreation. But the time-zone differences made it a less than comfortable fit for half of the year. Because of differences with daylight-saving time and the time zones, the two groups of counties would be on the same time half the year and an hour apart half the year. But beginning April 2 of this year, they will all be on the same time, year around. It was a good result for the region.
But it didn't turn out so well in Northwest Indiana, where St. Joseph County, which wanted to move into the Central zone and on the same time as Chicago and the Gary area, was denied its request.
And we will have to see how it turns out for Gov. Mitch Daniels, who started it all with his push to put all of Indiana on daylight-saving time. He won that one, but with the agreement that he ask the federal government to hold hearings on possible time-zone changes. But instead of a process that looked at putting all or a large part of the state in the same time zone, the feds said they would consider requests, county by county. That upset folks who felt that daylight-saving time should not go forward without major time-zone changes.
And now some lawmakers who reluctantly supported Daniels' push for daylight-saving time will be sweating re-election this year. They, and Daniels, would prefer to put the issue behind them.
We share that view, though for a reason other than their political survival. Most of Indiana remains today in the Eastern time zone. Goodness knows why, but a lot of people in our Midwestern state prefer Eastern time.
Yet some lawmakers who are still upset with the time-zone outcome want to see a statewide referendum on whether all of Indiana would be in the Central or the Eastern time zone. Let's not risk it.
It would be great to see all of Indiana in the Central time zone, but not Eastern. Who wants it dark at 8 o'clock in the morning?
CourierPress: Editorials
Why wasn’t it time to move on last year or the year before or the year before that? Because the folks at the Marion Chronicle editorial board hadn’t gotten what they wanted: Eastern Daylight Time. Why is it time to move on now? Because they got what they wanted. So could the rest of us please shut up now?
Congress should thus hold hearings on how close Tehran is to a nuclear weapon and whether this represents an intolerable threat, justifying a preventive war that would mean a Middle East cataclysm and a worldwide depression. Then it should vote to declare war, or to deny Bush the power to go to war.
The "Bush Doctrine" notwithstanding, if Congress has not put the "military option on the table," neither George Bush nor John McCain can put it there. That is the Constitution still, is it not?
