What's the best vision for Portage Indiana

With only a couple weeks left before Portage Indiana residents choose their new Mayor, the current Mayor Olga Velazquez is working feverishly to blunt criticism that she used taxpayer dollars to try and market a project to her residents as a good idea.    Times Article

The Mayor has no love lost for me personally so perhaps even writing this article will seem just a counter attack on all the unsavory things she's said about Valparaiso and Mayor Costas and my own associates over the years.  This article though is not intended to counter attack but to give my thoughts on why the residents of Portage deserve something different, a vision for something better.

1. The downtown project has made little if any progress in the last three years.  That's a fact.   It was a promise that Mayor Olga offered, a project that she inherited from Doug Olson, and one that has really fallen quite flat.
2. This building that Portage is building has no firm leases, and is therefore a speculative venture in hopes of prying one tenant away from a taxpaying landlord in Ameriplex and getting the state to fund a lease for education.  
3. As the Police, Fire, and Streets Departments have all endorsed James Snyder for Mayor against the sitting Mayor.  Why?  It causes one to ponder the administration if they don't have the support of their own employees. 
4. Although attacking Valparaiso has become a hobby in Portage, with I'm sure many residents ticked that anyone else in Porter County would even have an opinion.  Let's be frank, Portage could use a dose of entrepreneurial fervor and innovation.  Portage could use a vibrant and active downtown.  Portage could use a good working relationship between the schools, police, and city.   

An easy call for me of course as I'm friends with James Snyder and find his energy and enthusiasm for Portage exciting.   I hope he wins, that's no secret.  But I also hope that the residents of Portage feel the entire county's support for a newly invigorated and dynamic largest City in the County.  This would be good for all of us.  

I don't envision the Times or the Post digging any further into campaign finance violations, shaking down city contractors for contributions, or unsavory bidding processes for construction projects.   The days of that kind of journalism here in the region seem far in the past.   Now the residents of Portage will have to do some digging on their own and ask:  Do we want this same Portage 4 years from now?  

What's Not Beingg Said About the TEA Party

First, it should be noted that the image chosen caught my eye because as winter grows nearer my taste buds are calling out for a Sam Adam's Winter Lager. Perhaps the best beer on the planet.

Anyways, I felt the need to write (or vent? or rant?) about how the TEA Party has sort of become the synonym for conservative and how the positives and negatives of this are already being felt.

The TEA Party thing was mostly started as a way for the "silent majority" to get together and protest fiscal issues; some dealing with taxation, some with spending, some with monetary manipulation, etc. Or, at least, that was my main understanding, and when I spoke at several of these that was primarily what I kept to. Sure, there were segments where I might have rambled into another issue here or there, but primarily, I kept it fiscal matters and didn't deviate into other ideological spectrums because, well, not everybody who is a fiscal conservative is going to be socially conservative, or a defense hawk, or etc., etc. I was excited that there was a movement like this to veer the party into a fiscally disciplined direction, and the rhetoric that is coming from our presidential candidates are definitely reflecting those sentiments.

I remember talking to a couple of different buddies about whether or not some kind of strong leadership should be established with this, in order to make sure that it stayed on track; at the time, the consensus was that it was more exciting to see it be run as it was, just a group of like-minded people who spoke out against irresponsible fiscal behavior. Hind sight being 20/20, I think some kind of solid leadership should have been established. The main problem is that TEA Party is becoming a replacement for "conservative" (not in real life, but rather in the words or columnists, politicians, and news anchors). And that isn't good, since there is so many different facets of the TEA Party.

The TEA Party in Pennsylvania is different from the one in Maine, which is different from the one in California, and so on and so on. Heck, the TEA party in Lake County here in Indiana had different rhetoric and direction than the one that was operating in Porter County, which had a very libertarian tone to it. That was the problem. Some TEA Parties focus only on fiscal issues, while others talk about defense, and others talk about social issues, and others talked about immigration. At the TEA Party Presidential debate, the question was asked whether or not somebody who did not have health insurance and was in an accident should die, and a couple of people in the crowd cheered...this did not look good for the TEA Party. Yes, I understand that this only makes up the couple of percent that fall into the fringe; but that couple of percent makes people who don't know any better think that all conservative minded people fall into that category. At some TEA party's there were people with shirts and signs with President Bush on it with "Miss me yet?" written as well, others had pictures of Bush and Obama side by side like they were the same person. There are Facebook groups that demand that the neoconservatives stop taking over the TEA Party, there are others that demand that Obama get tougher on defense.

Given the lack of congruency with this movement, it's sort of troubling when people ask me, "So, are you part of the TEA Party?"

Because I don't know what to say! I usually respond yes, just to make it simple, though Porter County has no active group and I had left the one that had been there before because I didn't dig the whole "anti-vaccination" vibe that was happening. No hard feeling, just not my gig. Plus, I'm a conservative; so while fiscal issues do come first with me, and there are a whole host of other ones I'm willing and able to find middle ground on, social issues, along with defense and immigration, just to name a couple, do matter to me. BUT, with fiscal issues not being the only focus for the TEA Party, does that mean I'm, like, the perfect embodiment of the TEA Party? I don't know, it's sort of like arguing about whether or not one can travel through time (theoretically, a wormhole could be formed...but there is no amount of fuel that can travel faster than the speed of light...and what would happen if I killed my Grandpa? Ahhhh it's so confusing!!!).

Over all, this isn't necessarily a criticism of the TEA Party in general, since each organizer has (and should have) their right to run their ship as they want. But, it still is a bit of a misrepresentation when media starts throwing around the groups name, making is synonymous with conservatism. Though, in that respect, the recent "Flea Party" (the Wall Street Protesters) being compared to the TEA party makes sense. The wall street protesters have no idea what they are protesting, they have everyone from hardcore Communists to college drop outs to hippies and hipsters to Steelworkers. Many aspects of the media have compared this "movement" to the TEA party, and it sort of irked me at first, until I started to look at what was underneath: no organization, no clear cut message. Granted, I haven't read any news stories saying that this was what they meant, and I probably won't because it probably isn't, but it works none the less.

A Country Boy Can Survive...

Monday Night Football may never be the same...

Hank Jr.'s "Are You Ready For Some Football?!" intro to Monday night's NFL game is...well...legendary. For as long as I can remember Junior has introduced the Monday Night Football game, but tonight that has stopped. ESPN decided that, because Hank Jr. made remarks of a political nature on Fox's "Fox and Friends", that his intro would no longer run.

Now, ESPN has a rule: No announcer will go on television to talk about politics, one way or another. And that's a fine rule, nobody wants to watch their football game and have to deal with that person jamming his or her's politics down their throat. But, Hank isn't an announcer; he's just a musician who does the intro to MNF...does that really count?

Apparently it does. I sit here watching MNF (I don't know why, a Manning-less Colts vs. the Bucs is a pretty sorry game no matter how it goes) and the exclusion of the classic theme song was definitly sorely missed. Certainly this decision is exclusively up to ESPN, no question about that. Is it within their rights to exclude Hank? Sure. But I still think that it's a hypocritical one.

After all, how many times have people who have been decidedly liberal sang the National Anthem? I know the Dixie Chicks have, and the Black Eyed Pea's have played half time shows, and those are just the first two that pop into my head! Granted, Junior's words about Obama were pretty harsh. He used a "Hitler analogy", and that NEVER goes over well, even if one is making a really great point.

And I mean, really, who DIDN'T KNOW that Hank Junior was conservative?

Anybody?

That's what I thought. It's not a secret, it never has been. I think that this decision has more to do with WHAT he said (regarding the Hitler analogies) and less about the fact that he was talking politics. If that was their case, ok, but that isn't the reasoning that they gave. They tried to lump Hank into the same category as the announcers, and that just doesn't sit well with me. (Also, as a side note, Hank Junior said in that same interview that he will probably be running for Senate, as a Republican.)

I think that, though it is within the rights of that particular broadcasting group to make whatever decisions that they want regarding theme songs or whatever, in the long run it will kick them in the butt. I know I wasn't the only person in America that was missing the theme song, and I know that Hank Junior himself is an immensely popular artist (in my own opinion not as good as his father, but that's another article itself) and his fans are livid about this.

I hope that whoever made that decision over at ESPN changes their mind, because Monday night just won't be the same without Bocephus.

Considering the Information Generation, September 11, Richard Mourdock and Lake County, Indiana

Warning - You are entering a political zone.   History, philosophy and politics have dominated my day and I am sharing that with you...

The day is no more than halfway over but it has been a great day.   My wife and I got up early and attended the Reagan Breakfast in Schererville, Indiana (South-East of Chicago) at a venue near the corner of US 30 and US 41, which at one time in history was the busiest intersection in the United States in the days before all the Interstates.

Richard with two boosters

A friend and a Richard Mourdock campaign staffer, Suzy Barnhart, met with us soon after we arrived at The Patrician for the event.    State Treasurer and Senatorial candidate Mourdock had planned on attending but then realized that a family marriage (cousin) was taking place and he needed to choose family over politics.  So Suzy was suddenly given the responsibility for speaking on behalf of her candidate with only a few hours notice.  She was certainly glad to see us wearing our bright red Mourdock shirts!  So Richard Mourdock was willing to attend our event had a marriage not intervened, and he had certainly been there at our annual Lincoln Day Dinner even though he was not the keynote speaker (Mike Pence in this case) at the event.  He had been the featured speaker at a Tea Party candidate debate during the last round of primaries.   I had also met him at a second Tea Party event.  I have not seen Dick Lugar involved with any similar events since he apparently only attends very expensive booster dinners devoted to bringing him money.  So that means I never see him!


Dick Lugar is running as an incumbent Republican for Senate in the primary.  The man chosen to speak on his behalf kept talking about what Lugar had done back 25 and 30 years ago.  The sad thing is that Richard Lugar was a conservative Republican at one time.   We call people like Dick Lugar "RINO" as in "Republican in name only."  Dick Lugar left his conservative and Constitution-supporting point of view behind after a couple of decades of being a Senator and has become a Beltway Boy.  Our Founding Fathers never anticipated the concept of a career politician, they were men of work and action who accepted a public office for a time as a service to the nation, not a career.   Funny that the listed Indiana address for Dick Lugar is, according to neighbors, a deserted house?  Hmmm.

In stark contrast to the RINO Dick Lugar and the incompetent current President,  Richard Mourdock as the Treasurer of the State of Indiana has made one billion dollars on the investments he has made for the State of Indiana while in office.  One Billion Dollars!   Chicken feed to the Democrats, who throw billions of dollars down ratholes but frankly very important to Indiana voters!  How many trillion has Obama put us in the red now?  It grows exponentially so it is hard to keep up!

One of the other speakers told a joke about a Democrat going to his eternal reward:

"The Democrat went to see St. Peter at the entrance to Heaven and he took a tour of the place.  It was really nice and he liked it.  St. Peter asked the Democrat if he would like to stay, but the Democrat declared that he wanted to see both sides of the issue, so St. Peter pointed him to an elevator and the Democrat went down to inspect Hell.  Well, Hell was beautiful, just lot of sunny beaches and palm trees and clear blue waters, a wonderful paradise that smelled like cocoa butter and oozed peace and relaxation.   The Democrat came back up to see St. Peter and said, "Heaven is nice, but I saw Hell and it was better, so I am going to spend eternity down there."  

Now the Democrat got back in that elevator for the very last time and went down and the door opened.  It was dark and hot and smelly.   Nothing but fire and brimstone and just nothing like what he saw before.  He then saw the Devil coming and asked, "What happened to this place?  It was beautiful when I came to see it before?"   The Devil laughed and said, "I was campaigning then, but now you've elected me!"

If you inspected Dick Lugar's record, you could see that just recently he had been voting with Republicans but previously he had voted to accept terrible Supreme Court nominees Sotomayor and Kagan and had a "D" rating from the NRA.  The year before the election year he had voted with Democrats quite often, voting for stimulus packages and tax increases and of course helping prepare Barack Obama to debate John McCain during the 2008 campaign.  Like the joke, his actions near campaign time do not reflect his actions as a legislator after he gets safely back in the Senate.  We don't really want to see that particular elevator door open again.

When the Lugar booster was done with his ancient history lesson about the Dick Lugar of long ago, Suzy stepped up to the podium and discussed the Richard Mourdock of recent history.  His accomplishments while in office, his stated positions on important issues and a few of the numerous endorsements he has received.
   
Suzy pointed out Mourdock's battle against the Obama bailout of Chrysler "... On Sunday (June 7), the Indiana State Police Pension Fund, the Indiana Teacher's Retirement Fund, and the state's Major Moves Construction Fund filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court requesting an emergency stay to delay the sale while they challenged the deal.^[10] The funds argued that the sale went against U.S. bankruptcy law because it unlawfully rewarded unsecured creditors ahead of secured creditors..."  Richard Mourdock battled for Indiana pension funds against the Obama Administration all the way to the Supreme Court.   

Apparently Dick Lugar would not battle for Hoosiers in court, as he is not too fond of a large part of his constituency:

Richard Lugar Insults Conservatives, Indiana GOP County Chairmen

Posted by Leon H. Wolf (Profile)

Tuesday, May 10th at 8:00AM EDT

Yesterday, I received an interesting piece of spam from Richard Lugar’s campaign. I call it “interesting” because it indicates that Lugar apparently intends to court voters who might be contemplating a vote for Richard Mourdock by calling them morons. And then speaking to them as if they were morons:

Unfortunately, a large number of Republican County Chairmen have been duped into participating in the same failed scheme that resulted in Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle and cost us two crucial Senate Seats in 2010. (If the Republican parties in Delaware, Nevada, and Colorado had taken the Reagan “big tent” approach, we would have already repealed Obamacare.) Mr. Mourdock has hired the same consultants that brought us these unelectable candidates, and with Mr. Donnelly joining the race the pattern is complete.

A few things. First, while a candidate might think voters are morons for not wanting to vote for him, it is generally a bad idea to say it out loud, on the off chance that some of those voters might be persuaded to come home.

Second, while I agree that O’Donnell and Angle were bad candidates (and strongly disagree on Buck), it’s ridiculous to claim that the GOP would have done better if it had nominated the candidates who were routed by the aforementioned bad candidates in the primary. This is the same line of thinking that posits that we lost to Obama because McCain was such a crappy candidate, and we should have instead nominated… one of the people who lost to McCain. Does not compute.

Third, math is apparently not a strong suit of Dick Lugar. The GOP currently controls 47 seats in the Senate. Adding three more seats (CO, NV, DE) would put us at 50. Thus, even supposing Castle would vote to repeal Obamacare, the best we could accomplish on an Obamacare repeal vote would be a tie, which would be broken by Joe Biden. Which is completely academic anyway, since a) the Democrats would filibuster the vote and b) failing all of that, Obama would just veto it. But, yeah, if those TEA Party people weren’t such morons, we’d totally have repealed Obamacare by now.

We’re not halfway through 2011, and Richard Lugar’s campaign already smells of desperation. The main obstacle to his defeat at this point is disunity among the many groups of people Richard Lugar is currently insulting.

S

Dick Lugar "misremembers" the Reagan Big Tent concept.   We do not expand the tent to cover the ones on the outside, we invite them in where the traditional Constitutional Conservative voters have made room for them.  During the Reagan Administration, large numbers of voters and Congressmen chose to walk into that big tent.   Ronald Reagan had no desire or need to pull up the stakes on the tent and move it, he just kept the opening unzipped and made room for everyone to join him. 

We had the pleasure of meeting several good local and state office-holders and the keynote speaker, Andy Card,  who was a man that worked with Ronald Reagan and GHW Bush and George W Bush, being the Chief of Staff for the latter President Bush and famed for being the man who whispered in President Bush's ear about the 9/11 attacks.  

Never have I heard a long speech that was so compelling and informative.   We were aware it was a long speech but the crowd hung on every word.  One very short conversation, muffled, by a man answering a cell phone was the only interruption during the entire speech.  Andy Card, now a Dean at Texas A&M University, was a Boy Scout,  a man who served in the Merchant Marine and also went to Harvard after first receiving a BS in Engineering from the University of South Carolina.   He ventured first into local and state politics and eventually into the White House.   His inside look at the Bush Administration during the week of 9/11 was one of the most inspirational and moving testimonies I have ever heard.   I am much fonder of Bill Clinton than Barack Obama, but the Clintons did manage to separate the CIA and the FBI so successfully that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated despite the fact that, had the two services shared information, it is pretty certain the ringleaders would have been arrested before they could have carried out their plots.  George Bush managed to do the following between 9/11 and 9/14.

• He refused to panic at the news.  Panic would have scared the children and pleased our enemies.
• He acted decisively upon understanding the situation.   He made sure the military and the air traffic controllers and all parts of government were aware that war had been declared on the USA and thus strong measures were called for...and were taken.
• He gave the FBI a new mission - stop the next attack.   The FBI did exactly that.  He also made sure that the CIA quit being the CYA and shared information that the FBI needed to have and vice-versa.
• He ordered the assembly of a War Council.  He scheduled a meeting at Camp David.
• He got out of the way of his military commanders and led from the Executive Branch rather than hang around in a big deep bunker in Omaha with them.
• He assured the American people that we would answer the attacks.
• He went to New York City and encouraged the responders, met the grieving and/or hopeful relatives of the dead and missing and spent time with every single one of them gathered in the giant room set aside for them.  
• He met with and thanked the volunteers from all fifty states and all thirty-eight countries who came to help look for victims and survivors and deal with the mess.
• He went to Ground Zero and stood upon a broken fire truck and spoke with the men and women there who were working to save lives.  The crowd, even the Japanese volunteers, broke out in a chant of "USA - USA - USA."
• He announced to the World that there was now a choice - be for us or against us.   He called upon those for us to join us in defeating the enemy.
• He and his advisors and cabinet and staff attended a huge church service filled with military and civilians and prayed and sang hymns and listened to Billy Graham speak, then President Bush spoke to all with courage and conviction.
• He identified the primary enemies and determined to attack the nation most responsible while starting the search for the individuals most culpable for the attacks.  

Andy Card showed us a compassionate, decisive, determined, brave and intelligent man who was unlike the caricature presented to the public by the liberal news media.   President Bush gave detailed instructions and duties to each member of his cabinet with specificity and understanding so that the entire nation would be mobilized and prepared for what might come.  All airplanes were grounded.  Many of our allies, like Canada, welcomed our flights onto their landing strips in order that the airspace could be cleared.   Andrew Card revealed the man of faith and compassion who, at the end of a long Friday collapsed into a seat in the new Air Force One and seemed exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Card told President Bush that he had done everything a President should and could do.   President Bush opened his eyes wide for a moment, looked at his Chief of Staff and simply said, "thank you."  

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, when speaking of Lake County, Indiana in 1962, called it the most corrupt county in the nation.  RFK was a Democrat, but he did not like organized crime and corruption, nor did his brother and then-President F Kennedy.  Perhaps that is why both men were killed?  Corruption likes being corrupt and the corrupted hate being identified and rooted out.  President Bush shared that same opinion of our county.   To this day it is still said, for until the last election when County Assessor Hank Adams won office, none but Democrats had held a County elected office since the administration of FDR.  Gary, Indiana has been run into the ground by corrupt Democrats and Lake County has been losing jobs and opportunities for many decades because of the corrupt Democratic Machine.  Usually the only way a Democrat loses a County office is when he is indicted and convicted of a major crime, which has happened dozens of times in the last two generations.  Even the left-leaning local paper, the Times, will admit to this:

Political corruption not limited to Chicago or Illinois

I am not allowed to reprint the article, you will need to follow the link, but I am allowed to post a quote:

"But I got a real shock recently from an article on corruption in Lake County, Northwest Indiana's answer to "Crook"—I mean Cook—County, and found that, on a per capita basis, Lake County prosecutors send 3-1/2 crooked pols to jail for every wayward public official sent to the slammer in Cook. The story also related a comment Robert Kennedy supposedly made in 1962, when he was brother Jack's Attorney General, that Lake was the "most corrupt [county] in the nation."

Corruption "is probably worse in Lake County than Chicago," according to former prosecutor G. Robert Blakey, who wrote the racketeering statutes for Kennedy's Justice Department and helped draft a lawsuit charging former East Chicago mayor Robert Pastrick and 24 codefendants with running the city as a "criminal enterprise."

More recently, the Capitol and Washington blog posted this:

Talk about bad timing: indictments in The Region

By Mike O'Brien

Democrat gubernatorial candidate John Gregg feigned offense at comments made in Gov. Mitch Daniels’ new book Keeping the Republic. The governor criticized Lake County’s culture of public corruption and blamed that in part for The Region’s economic stagnation.  Gregg criticized Daniels for daring to criticize any part of the state while he is a sitting governor.

That all happened yesterday.

Today, the U.S. attorney’s office indicted Lake County Coroner Thomas Philpot on five counts of public corruption along with three Lake County police officers for selling confiscated property on the Internet.

Talk about your all-time backfires.

The charges against Philpot, from his previous term as Lake County clerk, include mail fraud, theft and misappropriation of funds. Authorities said the misappropriation of funds amounted to a little less than $25,000 from the county’s 4D child support program.

Officials said arrangements were being made for Philpot’s surrender to authorities.
Additionally, in a separate six-county indictment, three Lake County police officers were indicted. Sgt. Joseph Kumstar and Officers Ronald Slusser and Edward Kabella are alleged to have misused their positions at the Sheriff’s Department to obtain machine guns and laser sights, then sold them on the Internet for profit.

U.S. Attorney David Capp said all three officers have agreed to plead guilty to all counts and will be making statements in the coming days. — The Times

I think we can expect a brief hiatus from Democrats’ staunch defense of Lake County government for a few days.  At least until the plea agreements are worked out.—

The Reagan Breakfast had the biggest crowd in history this morning, one-third more people than the year before when THAT was the biggest crowd.   It may be that the new Lake County Republican County Chair, Kim Krull, has done more to energize a conservative and Republican base in Lake County than anyone thought possible.   Hank Adams won in 2010.  Perhaps the corrupt and fattened tick that is the Lake County Democratic Machine can be finally removed from the animal and crushed?  

Shaking hands, meeting people, spending time with those met previously in a huge room full of folks was invigorating.   After making it back home, I was watching a show on channel 101 about American youth entitled "Our Time."  One person who was interviewed was a UT at Austin Fellow and a playwright named David Modigliani who made an astute observation.   He said that his generation is the "Information Generation" as they grew up along with personal computers and cell phones and now hand-held devices.   He discussed making a film about Crawford, Texas (home of President George W Bush) about "what happens when your new neighbor brings the whole world with him" to a town of a population numbering 700.  The people of Crawford were proud of President Bush but were appalled at how the news media would always find a shot of a hay bale and a old barn to represent the town, ignoring the brand new high school and depicting the town as a backwards dump.

Modigliani said that his generation now has "the whole world at their fingertips" but this has come at a price.  

"...It also deprives us of the spontaneity that's involved with being truly present somewhere, because we're continually thinking of some other place we might want to be or need to be or should be, as we are able to isolate ourselves more and more through the internet, remember that interacting in a way other than the way you are hearing me speak right now, which is through a TV screen in which I am not a flesh and blood person, but just a bunch of pixels.   That is never going to be as powerful as live interaction, go places where people come together, go be in crowds, go immerse yourself with other human beings!"

This is the sad-but-truth.  Too many of us are hooked on our cell phones and hand-helds to the point we commonly interact with people electronically and rarely in person.   Today my wife and I went to the crowd.  We discussed things with many different people; our current State Senator Sue Landske.  Cedar Lake Town Councilman Randy Niemeyer.  Richard Mourdock staffer Suzy Barnhart.  Lake County Right To Life Chairman Len Reynolds.  Hammond Republican Mayoral candidate George Janiec.  Candidate for Representative Eric Olson.  County Chair Kim Krull.  Crown Point Mayoral candidate Eldon Strong (currently a Township Trustee).

This is the Facebook/Ipod/YouTube generation.   This generation was mobilized to vote in 2008 and with very little understanding but a lot of energy helped elect the worst President who has ever held the office of President of the United States.  This President has brought the corruption of the Lake County and Cook County with him to Washington.  As if Washington needed corrupting?   Because of the liberal bias of the major news media the scandals of this Presidency are being ignored.  The "Fast and Furious" firearms disaster, the Solyndra scandal, the obvious forgery of the President's birth certificate, his fake social security number, his associations with terrorists and mobsters and communists and racists and fringe lunatics and econuts are the kinds of juicy scandals the news media would have chased with a vengeance if Barack Obama was a Republican.  After all, they tried to pin a faked document on President Bush and now they ignore a similar fake associated with Obama.  

Thank God that it was George Bush and not Barack Obama at the controls when 9/11 happened.  Barack Obama cannot even handle the job of the Executive Office in the best of times, for everything he has done to the economy and the nation has been negative.  Our economy is failing because of the stupid choices made by the Federal Government and our relationships and reputation with the rest of the world is nearing an all-time low point.  Barack Obama has even turned victories into losses by boasting of the capture of the HQ of Al Queda, thus losing the primary intelligence value of the records kept on the computers and documents for the sake of a small political boost.   We are glad that Usama Bin Laden is dead.  We are unhappy that the intelligence agencies were not given a chance to review and utilize the intelligence gleaned from the contents of his hideout before the probable intelligence coup was converted into a political football.

I hope the picture Senator Landske took of my wife and I with Suzy and Len comes out and we get a copy.   Ironically, the bright red Mourdock shirts were made in the USA.  There were a few people wearing Lugar shirts, blue naturally, and Suzy pointed out to them that their shirts were made in El Salvador!!!

I will let another writer say a bit more about Mourdock to close out:

Hot on the Senate Trail With Richard Mourdock

by  Lisa De Pasquale

09/04/2011

Last year the conservative movement was energized by Tea Party activists who helped elect new conservative leaders and retire some others.  Next on their agenda is removing Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, a man that MSNBC called “Barack Obama​’s favorite senator.”  Challenging Lugar in the primary is Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

For those curious as to whether Mourdock can go the distance against someone who has been in the Senate for more than 30 years, you should know he is a marathon runner who has done six marathons in the last eight years.  In his campaign announcement, Mourdock said, “Hoosiers want more than a globe-trotting senator, they want a senator who routinely holds town hall meetings, not to talk but to listen.  They want a senator who will walk the parade routes, visit the county fairs and festivals, and who will eat pork tenderloin and an ear of corn.  They told me over and over again that they want a senator who comes back home.”

Mourdock received national attention in 2009 for his response to the federal government’s asset grab.  When President Obama ordered a bailout and government takeover of Chrysler, Mourdock stood up for Indiana pensioners who owned $42.5 million of Chrysler’s debt and took the case to the Supreme Court.  

Thanks to Mourdock’s fiscally responsible budget and garnering more than $1 billion in investment income for the state, he has received accolades from some of the conservative movement’s best leaders, including Steve Forbes​, Mark Levin, Herman Cain​ and George Will​.

Lugar is the most senior Republican member of the Senate, making him president pro tempore of the Senate if Republicans gain control in 2012.  However, Sen. Orrin Hatch disputes that based on how he interprets the seniority rules.  Judging by the current climate in the conservative movement, I wouldn’t be too sure that either of them will be fighting for the title after Election Day.

1.  If there were a television channel that only showed one movie over and over, what movie should it be? 

MOURDOCK: "A Few Good Men​" with Jack Nicholson​ and Tom Cruise​.

2.  What's one of your favorite movie quotes?

MOURDOCK:  "The truth?  You CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

3.  In A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell is strapped in with his eyes propped open and forced to watch images until he is "cured."  If you could give President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Leader Harry Reid the "Clockwork Orange treatment," what movie would you make them watch?

MOURDOCK:  Easy question.  ....  Bedtime for Bonzo with future President Ronald Reagan.  It would drive them nuts (nuttier) to think THAT GUY would ever be one of the most revered leaders in American history.  I'd pay to watch them watch the movie.

4.  What pop culture souvenir do you own that people would be surprised to learn that you cherish?

MOURDOCK:  A six-transistor radio received as a Christmas gift in 1964.  The size of my present Droid, but three times as thick.  AM and FM with a little earpiece that still works.

5.  What's your current "guilty pleasure" non-news television show?

MOURDOCK: CBS' "Survivor."  Never miss an episode.  I could win that show ... oh yes, I could.

6.  Which movie, television or rock star would cause you to lose your ability to speak if you ever met? 

MOURDOCK:  Sorry, none.  They put their pants on one leg at a time too.  Although on second thought ... being a Hoosier race fan, I would like to meet Danica Patrick​.

7.  What was the first rock concert you ever attended and where did you sit and who went with you? 

MOURDOCK:  Haven't gotten to one yet ... ever.

8.  What do you remember most about going to the movies as a kid?  How has that experience changed for the better or worse for your kids? 

MOURDOCK:  Seeing the girl I wanted to date with some doofus and thinking, "What's wrong with ME?"  And, come to think of it, that may explain why I don't have any kids.

9.  If Republicans and Democrats had theme songs for 2011, what would they be?

MOURDOCK: Republicans song: "Dream the Impossible Dream" from "Man of La Mancha​" because we lead best when causing others to imagine a world yet to be.  The Dems' song:  "Imagine" by John Lennon because they don't live in the real world, only one that they imagine, where there are no countries and "no religion, too."

10.  What books were on your summer reading list?

MOURDOCK:  A. Lincoln by Ronald C. White Jr., The Revolt by Menachim Begin, Mad About Trade by Daniel Griswold and Cool It by Bjorn Lomborg.

11.  One mainstay in politics are the grip-and-grin photos that line people's walls and desks.  What grip-and-grin photo do you cherish the most?

MOURDOCK:  Sorry, don't save such photos.  But I will cherish the memories of meeting Jack Kemp​ and George Will.

12.  Tell me about the moment you decided to enter the political arena.

MOURDOCK:  I was a frustrated "any man.”  I was angry at my congressman and began to imagine myself as a congressman.  One day, I gave a brilliant speech while mowing my lawn and decided maybe I should give it a try.

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Miss De Pasquale is a writer based in Alexandria, Virginia. She is the former director of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Follow her on Twitter at  @LisaDeP.