Are you sick of redistricting yet?

If not, I put together a Powerpoint regarding my latest Lake and Porter maps.

I see in the paper that Senate Democrats put out a map of their redistricting plan. I have to find it on the web and check it out.

We're back online

I'm not even sure what happened, the site was deleted for some reason yesterday. But now we're back!

Thanks to a few of our writers letting me know so I could track down the issue this morning.

I'll be back from Spring Break in about 24 hours and ready to take on primary elections that are only a month away. Looking forward to some good local writing about those primaries.

More fun with maps and redistricting

Hey Porter County people, I expanded my map drawing to Porter County.

Maps are here.

As you all know, I'm afraid of Porter County because of all the meth out there. ;) So I know very little about your neck of the woods. Do these maps make sense?

I tried to keep Soliday's seat as similar to today's as possible. I tried to move Mosley's further South, thinking that that would make it more Republican. HD-3 is as similar to today as possible without bringing any of it into Lake County. Heck, without Gary, maybe HD-3 is Republican?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Even feedback from Oscar.

Redistricting for dummies (that means Republicans!)

Redistricting has been a big topic on Blue County lately. But at 50 visitors a day, I don't think I'm reaching the people I need to reach, so I thought I'd crosspost a few things here.

First, the "Buzzcut Map for Redistricting Lake County"



Next, a powerpoint I put together on the subject is here.

Feel free to copy, distribute, and modify these documents in any way you'd like.

Gun Rights Should Be Celebrated; Not Condemned

Below is the link to the article that was written for and published in "The Times". After reading the copyright information for the piece, I realized I probably shouldn't be re-posting the article itself. So give it a click and give it a read!

Gun rights should be celebrated; not condemned

Liberal Propaganda misses the mark. AWOL Dems and entitled Unions versus you and me

What is happening locally concerning the teachers union and other public sector unions versus the people and their representatives?   Just look at the spin the Times puts on this:

Union members, supporters 'Defend the Dream' at Crown Point rally

I cannot post it here, as it has a copyright...but go ahead and read it and think about the spin of the writer.   In what way does the job security of teachers, the high salaries of union high muckety-mucks and the lack of consequences for incompetence on the job "for the children" or a defense of a "dream."  What dream?  The dream of a collectivist state where all pupils are indoctrinated properly and understand that they are merely allowed to live if they are a positive for The State?  

Reading the article, you see that there are many different unions represented, so people drove in and bussed in from all over and even the pro-liberal Times says the "crowd" was 150 people.   My friends, 150 people is just a typical bunch of folks leaving a moderately successful movie showing.   You want to call the demonstration "grassroots" when it is all driven by unions?   Remember the Munster Schools-financed rally "for education" that was organized by the teacher's union?   Recall that the unions and Democrats are using Craig's List to offer people $7.50 an hour to stand around with signs and shout 4-6 hours?   This is a bunch of rich fat cats trying to keep their paychecks that, guess what, come right from you and me!   School choice is good for students, it is good for good teachers and it is even good for mediocre teachers.   Only bad teachers and union officials are hurt by school choice.   If unions bargain against the state, frankly the people  who pay the bills (you and me) are not at the bargaining table.   How is that fair?   Public sector employees do not have a "right" to have a union.  They can choose to have unions.   But what we need to stop is the MONOPOLY over schools in the hands of the unions.   In states all around the country, the declining level of education proficiency and the failure of so many public schools has caused governors and legislators to decide to fix it.   It is broken and it needs fixing!

But the Unions and the AWOL Democrats are crusin' for a bruisin', as Indiana Barrister explains...here is an excerpt:

No More Mr. Nice Speaker


"Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma says his caucus’ patience with absentee Democrats is wearing thin. I frankly don’t blame him. Democrats have been gone since February 21. Their absence has cost the taxpayers of Indiana more than $368,000 in lost productivity. Their list of demands has gone from one to 11 to four to three and if the last exchange of letters between the Speaker and Democratic Leader are to be believed the two sides are now down to two (vouchers and project labor agreements on public projects).

So far, the GOP has only made one major concession, pulling right-to-work legislation off the table. Democrats have conceded everywhere else. Their latest concession seems to be on charter schools and if you take a close look at the Democratic Leader’s letter (I’ve embedded both leaders’ letters in this post), they seem to be agreeing to Republican tinkering with vouchers.

What’s also interesting in all this is that as the GOP works on bills to make it more palatable for its own members; it seems that Democrats are using those changes as reasons to drop their objections. This is a brilliant strategy for a group with no real end game. As Republicans work out their own issues on legislation, slowly take them off the table. And if I were the Republican Speaker, I would not appreciate being played like this and I’d start planning a little retaliation.

I would not bring back right to work legislation, but whatever I could do to politically screw the other guys, I would. And I’d do it by not only going after them, well I would with some redistricting in the six or seven remaining competitive districts, but I’d also make sure to work with friends on the second floor and across the rotunda that there were extra special budget cuts in appropriations that went to the absentee members districts. And that’s just to start. The list of possibilities is endless . I know this because I’ve had plenty of time to think of this stuff as members have been absent..."

The full article here...

Angry White Boy has the scorecard for the AWOL Donkeys.  You will have to go read the post to find the clickable links and the rest of the story, this is an excerpt:

House Democrats on the Lam: By the Numbers


"It has been twenty-four days since Indiana’s House Democrats first packed their bags and headed west to Urbana, Illinois. Now in the fourth week of their self-imposed exile, we thought it was time to take a look at the past month…by the numbers.Key Dates in the Legislature


With the absence of Democrats, the General Assembly is losing valuable time to pass crucial legislative items including a balanced budget and education reforms.
November 2, 2010 House Democrats lose 52 seat majority and fall to 40 seat minority

November 16, 2010 Members take Oath of Office to do their job

January 15, 2011 Legislators got paid first half their annual salary

February 15, 2011 Legislators got paid second half of their annual salary

February 21, 2011 Indiana House Democrats walked off the job

February 22, 2011 Indiana House Democrats began exile in Urbana, IL, hotel

April 29, 2011 General Assembly scheduled to adjourn

June 30, 2011 End of the fiscal year

July 1, 2011 State government will shut down if Democrats don’t return to pass a budget
Key Numbers on the Democrats

Democrats have cost Hoosier taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars during their exile while some Double-Dipping Democrats have skipped out on two taxpayer funded jobs!
1 Democrat standing up to his party and not participating (Rep. Stemler)

1 Democrat caught visiting the Illinois House of Representatives (Rep. Reardon)

1 Democrat comparing exile to a game of tag (Rep. Reske)

1 Democrat who won’t share her Barbie’s (Rep. Klinker)

1 Hot Tub at the Comfort Suites Urbana (Hotel Site)

2 Democrats visiting the Lincoln Library in Springfield and misleading Hoosiers to validate their flight to Urbana (Link)

7 Editorial pages telling Democrats it’s time to come back

(Indianapolis Star, NWI Times, Evansville Courier & Press, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, South Bend Tribune, Lafayette Journal & Courier, Tribune-Star)

11 Double-Dipping Democrats with two taxpayer funded jobs (and absent from both) (Indiana Transparency Portal)

23 Days public has been cut out of House testimony

24 Days Democrats have been AWOL

37 Democrats holed up in Urbana at any given time

$250.00 Daily fine imposed on AWOL Democrats beginning March 7, 2011 (Link)

$2,400.00 Cost per night to house Democrats in Urbana hotel (Link)

$300,000+ Total Cost of Democrats’ exile to Hoosier taxpayers so far (Link)"

The rest of the story....

Are you tired of greedy, entitled people taking you and your tax dollars for granted?   Are you tired of them taking the education of your children for granted?   Can you think of one good reason that school vouchers should not be the law of the land?   Why shouldn't parents have the right to send their children to the school they believe will be best for their child?   If it is the nearest school, so be it.   If it is another public school farther away, so be it.   If it is a charter school or private school that costs more, the parent that is willing to pay extra money for the benefit of the child should have that right.

Really, we do not stand for a government that tells us what programs to watch or what store to shop at or what car to drive or which doctor or hospital you must use...at least not yet.  Why do we tolerate this kind of dictatorial requirement when it comes to our children?   Ask yourself why so many parents homeschool their children?  Do you think parents really want to also be the daily teacher of their children?   Trust me, once you have escaped atomic tables and quadrilateral equations and geometric theorems and gerunds you probably are ready to leave them behind for good.   But many parents must homeschool rather than subject their kids to bad education.

How dare they, the teachers that complain that "school vouchers will take money away from the public schools, the public schools will not be able to survive?"   Guess what, if that is so it is because the public schools are inferior.  Ask yourself, does Barack Obama send his kids to public school, or private school?  Yep, that's right!  Right now the rich can and do afford to send their kids to private schools so they gladly take kickbacks from the unions and support them...it doesn't hurt THEIR kids!   If public schools would fail it would be because the education at the other school is superior.  Duh.

How well built would Dell servers be built if there were no alternatives?   Suppose that the US government forced all business owners and government and educational clients to purchase only Dell?   No competition with IBM or HP or Equus?   Guess what, Dell would cost more and be worth less, because they would have no drive or need to improve or even maintain quality.   They would make them the way they felt like making  them since the needs and satisfaction of the customer would be of no consequence.

This is what we have done with public schools.   Right now in the average public school there are good teachers, mediocre teachers and just plain bad ones.   In the worst inner-city schools few really good teachers will be found, as it is hard to find students motivated to learn and your peer group is mailing it in.
We have taken competition out of the equation in schools and our kids have paid the price...and so has our nation.   We have raised a generation of kids who have had a fast-food education who have been taught to absorb the dumbed-down pablum of the typical education and without being taught to think critically or to inspect and challenge their own belief systems...with the wisdom and knowledge of the equivalent of thousands of great libraries at their fingertips on the internet by which they could continue to learn, they play video games and talk in unintelligible spurts via their various hand-held devices and home computers.   It will not be long until we have a generation that cannot think or spell. 

The union wonks believe that the grave danger to the American Dream is to take away their autocratic power to dumb down our children.  They have to call for more union wonks to picket and hire mercenary sign wavers to swell the crowds and bus in miscreants from other states to bully and threaten and even attack people.   Meanwhile, the public wants charter schools and school vouchers so they can choose the school they believe will be best for their children.  Which side do you think is really for the kids?   The parents, or the union guys?   Indiana-based The Foundation For Education Choice explains that, when the question is asked clearly that parents all around the country are in favor of vouchers!

Read the document, think clearly about what it says.  Check out the wealth of information the organization provides for your perusal.  Then carefully mark all the Democrats that ran away and be sure they do NOT get your vote next time.   That they would run away and abandon their jobs after taking your money in order to ensure substandard education for your children should make you wonder about how we go about impeaching state representatives!

It's after 11 PM, do you know where YOUR legislator is?

Postscript - I should have known ISTA Exposed would have a relevant post:

Demagoguery of charter schools is a disservice to Indiana families


Senate testimony about charter schools full of misinformation



Who would have thought that giving Indiana families more control over their children’s education would be seen as a bad thing?

But that’s how charter school opponents framed yesterday’s discussion about House Bill 1002, legislation that would increase the number of charters schools throughout Indiana.

During testimony given in front of the Senate Education Committee, charter school opponents tried their best to scare Hoosiers about the nontraditional public schools.

Education Action Group believes that the opponents of charter schools, primarily state Democrats, want to kill the bill because it threatens the well-being of their political playmates, the teacher unions.

Since charter schools are typically free of union interference, Indiana Democrats understand that HB 1002 would likely cause a decline in Indiana State Teachers Association’s membership, which would in turn dry up union political contributions to the Democrats’ campaign coffers.

To cover up these tawdry motives, opponents of HB 1002 are resorting to a misinformation campaign against charter schools.

What follows is a brief list of the most common myths surrounding charter schools.

Myth #1: Increasing the number of charter schools will have the effect of lowering academic standards throughout Indiana.

Reality: Before a charter school is allowed to open, school officials must establish academic goals. In order for the school’s charter to be renewed, it must meet those goals. If the school fails to meet its stated academic goals, its charter will not be renewed and it will close.

In comparison, Hoosier residents are very familiar with how difficult it is to close (or change) a lousy traditional public school run by the government. Such schools keep their doors open, even as their students continue to fail.

Myth #2: Charter schools are an “attack” against traditional public schools.

Reality: Charter schools serve as escape hatches for Indiana families that are dissatisfied with the quality of education being offered at the local neighborhood public school.

Charter schools provide Indiana families with more choices so they can determine which education option is best for their children. Quite often they are the best option available for kids stuck in low-performing urban school districts, as new research reveals.

Myth #3: Charter schools unfairly divert precious financial resources away from traditional public schools.

Reality: Charter schools can deliver a quality education to students for significantly less money than a traditional public school requires. A key reason for this is that charter schools are not bogged down with expensive teacher union contracts.

As a result, a quality charter school often provides a better education to students for less money. That sounds like a taxpayer’s dream come true to us.

Indiana families should have the right to choose the best education option for their children. That’s what this debate is really all about.

ISTA and its political surrogates are trying to muddy the waters with all kinds of misinformation about charter schools, but Hoosier taxpayers shouldn’t be fooled. At the end of the day, what’s best for Indiana’s students will trump what’s best for the state’s teacher unions.

See it all at ISTA Exposed!

********

UPDATE:  Go see We Won In Wisconsin!!!  Hoosier Access dot com nails it!

Democrats play race card, live in luxury and ruin the country. Tea Party is the voice of the real people, not the elites!

I think it is high time to call out Democrats for using the race card.   If you do your research, you will know that it was the Democrats that established the "Jim Crow" laws and the Democrats who fought desegregation.  The first black legislators to Congress were Republicans.   The man who signed the Emancipation Proclamation?  Republican Abraham Lincoln.  The end of legal racism in the South was pushed by Republicans and even Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican.

It was the Democrats who formed the "Great Society" which made the ghetto into a welfare zone.   By establishing an entitlement mentality and encouraging women to have babies out of wedlock the poor were encouraged to become de facto serfs.  Now the ghetto is a place of gangs and crime and welfare checks and food stamps and terrible education and housing falling apart from neglect.   The Democrat Machine strongholds like Detroit and Gary and East Chicago are already literally falling apart.  Bigger cities with more resources and smarter Feudal Lords like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are only falling apart in certain areas.  

We know there are places in Chicago that people don't go unless they live there.   Same goes for LA and NY.  Yet somehow all of these ghetto populations, most of whom are people of color, just automatically vote Democrat.   They sometimes do it because the Dems come pick them up and pass then a sawbuck for their vote.   They are told to do it by rich men in fine suits who live in mansions but portray themselves as champions "of the people."   Even some pastors encourage the voting for the very people who have turned the inner city into a herd of cattle trained to automatically vote for D rather than R.  

Having effectively destroyed the family structure of poor people of all colors, and predominately those of colors other than white, it is then the height of hypocrisy for the lefty Democrats to play the race card.   Barack Obama, half white, has a house that is a mansion and has been propped up and carried through schooling and eventually politics and the Senate and the White House by rich politicians and criminals and anarchists and idealogues, never having done much of any work other than "organizing."   We have an Executive Branch that is more communist than capitalist, more intent on building the central control of America than the pain Americans are going through right now.   Jobs are disappearing, inflation is rising, we are refusing to access our own resources, our international reputation as producers and being an international power with a heart?   That is out the window.   I wonder how many evil leaders see our President as a mark?  I wonder how many Democrats see the poor neighborhoods and actually give a rip?   Why would they want to end a situation that guarantees their place of power and jobs for all their relatives and friends?

I leave it to Michelle Malkin to call all the hypocrites out:

Americans are "my people," Eric Holder


By: Michelle Malkin 03/04/11 9:05 PM

Michelle Malkin
.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is black, used the phrase "my people" in congressional testimony this week. It was an unmistakably color-coded and exclusionary reference intended to deflect criticism of the Obama Justice Department's selective enforcement policies. It backfired.

In pandering to skin-deep identity politics and exacerbating race-consciousness, Holder has given the rest of us a golden opportunity to stand up, identify "our people" and show the liberal poseurs what post-racialism really looks like.


Herman Cain is my people. He's my brother-in-arms. I've never met him. But we are family.


We are kin because we are unhyphenated Americans who are comfortable in the black, brown and yellow skin we are in. We are growing in numbers -- on college campuses, in elected office, on the Internet, on public airwaves, everywhere. And that drives liberals mouth-frothing crazy.



Cain is the successful Georgia businessman who has wowed audiences across the country with his passion for free markets, free minds and the American Dream. The former president of Godfather's Pizza and forceful Tea Party speaker happens to be black.



So he must pay the price that all minority conservatives in public life must pay. As I noted last week, a cowardly liberal writer recently derided Cain as a "monkey in the window," a "garbage pail kid" and a "minstrel" who performs for his "masters."


I've heard it for nearly 20 years in public life. Every outspoken minority conservative has.


Val Prieto is my people. A fierce, freedom-loving American blogger of Cuban descent, he rejects race-card games and refuses to be lumped in with Hispanic ethnic grievance-mongers. In response to pro-illegal immigration marchers who infamously desecrated the American flag, Prieto wrote:



"I have never and will never, despite having many issues with the government of the United States throughout the years, burn a flag of the United States of America. I am Cuban by birth, American by the grace of God. And a darned proud, dignified, thankful and respectful American. ... I refuse to be lumped together as a class or a race simply because we speak a similar language. ... I ain't Mexican, I ain't Latino and I ain't Hispanic. I am an American of Cuban descent. And damned proud of it."



Katrina Pierson is my people. She's a feisty young Texas mom and Dallas Tea Party activist who supports limited government principles and rejects left-wing identity politics. She confronted the NAACP last year with a rousing manifesto of political independence and rebutted the left-wing group's attacks on the Tea Party as racist:



The NAACP, she observed, is made up of "Democrats who bow to a Democrat master today as they once did over 200 years ago. Once this is realized by the forgotten society, race in this country will be as irrelevant as those who thrive off of it." Amen, sister.



Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., a retired Army lieutenant colonel who happens to be black, is my people. Unafraid to skewer progressive sacred cows, he speaks boldly against global jihad and its Fifth Column enablers screaming "Islam-o-phobe!"



West has also nailed the Congressional Black Caucus as "a monolithic voice that promotes these liberal social welfare policies and programs that are failing in the black community, that are preaching victimization and dependency; that's not the way that we should go."



According to U.S. News and World Report's Kenneth Walsh, President Obama told guests at a private White House dinner that he believed the Tea Party movement had a "subterranean agenda" of racism against him. But West summed up the movement's transcendent, post-racial agenda forthrightly:


"The Tea Party is a constitutional, conservative grassroots movement -- and that's it. The Tea Party stands for three things: They want to see effective, efficient constitutional government, they stand for national security, and they stand for free market, free enterprise solutions. That's it."


It's government of, by and for the people -- all the people. Not just the ones still shackled by reflexive Democratic Party loyalty. We are beholden not to our skin pigment or ethnic tribes, but to American ideals, tradition, history and faith in the individual.


Examiner Columnist Michelle Malkin, author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies," is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate.


Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/03/americans-are-my-people-eric-holder#ixzz1Ge9PSabB

Valparaiso City Council At Large

Introducing Peter Coulopoulos:

Now for full disclosure, Peter is a friend and our sons run together. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm trying to relive my high school years through the running of my sons, so it's a big deal to me! I've had the chance to get to know Peter and his family, and decided to help out and see if he can join my other great friends on the Valparaiso City Council.


We agreed a while back between the editors here that this site wont officially endorse candidates, but that individual writers can.

I didn't last year, since I am the Chief Bottlewasher and didn't want to mislead anyone.

But this is a new year, and frankly I'd like to see some new blood in Valparaiso politics. I wasn't asked to work with anyone else, so I'm totally at liberty to say I'm glad to be supporting Peter Coulopoulos and his run for Valparaiso City Council.

Peter is a conservative fiscally, I can vouch after hours of talking specific issues

Peter is married, once, and Kelly is very supportive of his desire to give back to his home community with time and energy in service.

Peter is not sold out to any special interest, his own business is located in Gary and he isn't looking to do business with the city.

Peter is not an employee of the city, nor are any of his family members

Peter is raising his family in Valparaiso, sending his kids to Valparaiso schools, and involved in the community.

Peter is Greek Orthodox and his personal faith is an open book, ask and you shall hear.

Tell me what's not to like?

Peter Coulopoulos Facebook page

Free Kick-off Family Event this week ---- NOT A FUNDRAISER, come and bring your family.

Indiana Unemployment Cuts: A Matters of Opinion Critique

I want to start off by saying this: I am sympathetic to those that have been laid off and are living off of unemployment. I have been laid off once or twice in the past few years, and yes, it is not fun. Granted, the first time lasted only a month; the second time only a week. But still, I understand the plight of the unemployed.

With that said, by the time a month had passed (during my first lay off period), I was more than ready to start looking for work. I was at the point where I was pulling the hair out of my head, and I was ready to start putting in applications at McDonald's, Burger King, whatever it took to start earning a paycheck again.

Part of the legislation that is sitting around, waiting to be voted on, is a plan to cut Indiana unemployment benefits by 25%. I understand the reason's for such a cut. Currently, unemployment is paying out significantly more than it is paying in. In order to keep unemployment from drying up like an Egyptian watering hole, Daniels and other Indiana Republicans want to cut unemployment's pay out by 25%, while simultaneously increasing the amount that employers pay into this pool. Smart idea, really. In order to keep the possibility of NOBODY having unemployment from becoming a reality, steps are being taken to remedy the situation before it gets out of hand.

Here is my issue with this.

Unemployment's level of payout is, currently, at that "awkward" level; it pays too much to make taking a minimum wage job, yet pays too little to really pay the bills. However, for those workers that have been paying into this for years and years and are recently being laid off, they are getting the shaft. There are a lot of people that have been milking unemployment for quite some time now; they should, by all means, be downgraded to the -25% level, because lets face it, unemployment isn't supposed to last forever. However, those that are just recently collecting on that are not to be blamed for the short fall. After all, they have been contributing.

So, what to do, you may ask.

I propose a sliding scale. Those that are on or will be on unemployment in the near future should have the benefit of getting back a little of what they have been paying into. Lets throw out the number 4 months. After that amount of time (or some other amount, that number is really just the amount of time it would take me to go bat crap crazy with out working) that number would go to -15% of the original amount, and a few months after that it would drop to the -25% of the original amount that was originally proposed.

This way, the cuts (that are very much needed) are still be imposed, while respecting the fact that those that have been paying for a good long while and have not been a drain on the system are not to blame for the current problems in funding. People would, all around, I think, be more supportive of the cuts, and the deficit would still be taken care of.

Thoughts?

Why are Conservative Republicans so cranky?

A lot of moderates wonder why more ideological conservatives are doom and gloomy. This sort of thing is the reason. Conservative Republicans see luddites and greens in alliance decades before an article like this hits a mainstream newspaper and see how it's going to cause the ruin of western civilization and a voluntary giving up of 1st world status. People die when you do that and innocents dying unnecessarily makes any normal person cranky. Well the newspaper headlines have started to hit finally and the UK is seriously considering giving up 24 hour electricity. No doubt this will also be one of those things that the greens and luddites will also want as a european import in another few years.

So, yes, cranky. We see the accomplishments past generations of this country have risked and paid their lives to achieve being quietly undermined so they can be thrown away and we hate it. It's profoundly disrespectful, counterproductive, and coming.

Another thing about conservative GOPers is that they have a lousy sense of timing. The green/luddite end game could be seen when I was a kid in the 1970s by the very farsighted. They were making predictions of this sort of thing much too early. Conservative Republicans see the trouble but too often think it's closer than it is and want to fix it early with an urgency that is self-defeating. Others don't even see the problem and here are those crazies on the right wanting to get rid of that nice siren song for what, some theoretical problem not even seen?

It's profoundly frustrating to get that reaction from moderates so, again, conservative GOPers get cranky.

Protesting the Superintendent

Monday, the Indiana Superintendent of Public instruction showed up at Munster's Centennial Park clubhouse for a closed door roundtable sponsored by the Northwest Indiana Times. The event was run by Carmen McCollum according to the Times.

Prior to the roundtable notices went out through the unions and the schools to come to (in the words of the Munster notice) a "pro-education rally". The Director's office was told to expect protestors. The Munster notice drew ire on the right because it was both via publicly financed e-mail and via the school's robo-call system, arguably a fairly serious violation of the law (ranging from a cease-and desist judgment all the way to a class C misdemeanor) if the call isn't done according to the restrictions outlined in the law (it wasn't) and not within the school exception. William Pfister, superintendent of Munster's public school system was informed that there was a pro-education rally going on, not a protest, and decided that a neutral, pro-education rally fit within the limits of what could be done with the robo-call system. In an interview, he said that such courtesies are not limited to the union and if anybody came asking to use the system, he would decide on it on a case by case basis if it fit within the school's mission and could be sent out on the robo-call system.

The NWI Times picked Centennial Park in deference of police concerns regarding their original location at the Times building. The roundtable was going to be protested according to a Munster police lieutenant and the fact that there were no sidewalks at the Times building raised concerns about the possibility of cars hitting protestors.

At the protest, the police presence was fairly heavy and quite visible. The DHS paid for police command post (shared between the region's police officers) was present and police from Munster and surrounding towns were directing traffic and doing crowd control. An ambulance was on site.

The event was open and generally not very controlled. Despite it supposedly being a Times event, they were little in evidence at the protest and most did not seem to know that they were supposedly organizing it. A call to the NWI Times organizor has not been returned by post time.

Sign discipline was nonexistent. A few examples, with some explanation from the sign holders in the video:



Little noticed were a small group of mostly quiet watchers, conservatives who had drawn the conclusion that this was a liberal/Democrat political event advertised with tax money. Finding no organized counter-protest to join, the talk was about general political subjects and how the local Republicans really should have done something. It really wasn't time to explain that they had.

The LC-INRLC was there, quietly, in partnership with the local Munster GOP. LC-INRLC's agreed role was to be there to gather evidence (some of which is showing up in this post) and quietly show the flag without giving anybody an excuse to claim that the GOP was politicizing the event. Whether there's going to be any official GOP action in the end is by no means decided at this point. For the local GOP, the upcoming November election is the focus (as it should be for a town group). For the LC-INRLC the related goals of building the GOP brand and gaining membership is its goal.

Nobody shouted, fought, or generated any loud controversy. Munster police report that there were no security incidents. It would be safe to say that most of the participants never even knew that the other side were there at all, though County Clerk Mike Brown and I exchanged cordial nods when we spotted each other. He was quietly attending as no doubt other officials were.

I, myself, was honestly identifying as a new media reporter for NWI Politics and my other group blog Chicago Boyz. Generally people were quite open about what they were advocating. I tried to remain a neutral videographer and mostly succeeded though some of my politics no doubt came through when I was talking to the lady with the "Democracy NOT Dictatorship" sign. The fellow talking about how he was just a concerned Highland citizen (whose sign was made out of the same yardstick material as several other signs) seemed to be playing the same game.

Update: I got a call back from Carmen McCollum and found out that she was only organizing the round table inside, an event that had originally been for February but was delayed until now by snowmageddon. According to her, the police had gotten dozens of calls from various people about a large protest outside the event. The heavy police presence is apparently not being picked up by the Times and once again we are in the situation where we don't know who was responsible for the protest outside.