Councilman Pape On Property Tax Reform
At the end of tonight’s council meeting Tim Pape let everyone know what he thought of the state legislature’s property tax reform effort. I agree with much of what Pape says - especially when he says the Democrats never put forth a serious counter-proposal. That was something I wrote about here at FWP a few weeks ago.
Councilman Bender Speaks!
After a little prodding from councilwoman Karen Goldner, Marty Bender tells the council about his encounter with President Bill Clinton and what Clinton had to say about Fort Wayne…
Open Government Ordinance (UPDATE)
Scott Spaulding of Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball alerted me to an ordinance that is being introduced tomorrow night by councilman Mitch Harper. This ordinance mandates that the public notices for all public agencies of the city comply with state statute. It also goes a step further than state law requires by ordering these public notices to be placed on the city website.
Kudos to councilman Harper for pushing what we all hope will be the first of several open government ordinances. You can read the state statute and the proposed ordinance below.
UPDATE: I just want to point out that I physically had to walk down to the clerk’s office between the hours of 8-5 in order to acquire this ordinance. Of course this is despite the fact that Clerk Sandy Kennedy assured me (and others at the open govt task force meeting) that the ordinances were available online with the agenda. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that none of the ordinances have been available online since that meeting. Is it that hard to post a PDF - really now?
2nd Amendment Featured Letter
A good friend of mine wrote today’s featured letter to the editor in the Journal Gazette. He’s more knowledgeable than myself on this topic and is usually the person I go to if I want to talk about the politics behind the 2nd amendment or anything firearm related. Just thought I would highlight it here in case readers missed it. Unfortunately the JG didn’t see fit to include it on their website but he sent me a copy of the original:
Helmke Needs a History Lesson
In his speech at Indiana Tech entitled “Guns, Politics and the 2nd Amendment”, Paul Helmke presented a flawed interpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, ignoring the historical basis.
With a negative view of the 2nd Amendment, he focused on the prefatory clause, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,” since the operative clause, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed”, does not lend itself to contention. Helmke asserts that the introduction restricts the right of the people stated in the operative language. This is incorrect.
Even if the militia clause was meant to modify the right, the militia was and still is considered the body of citizens. George Mason put it quite plainly, “I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.” Today United States Code Title 10 section 311 states: The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and…under 45 years of age.
Helmke flippantly remarked that this is the only amendment containing the word “regulated”. In Federalist Paper No. 29 Alexander Hamilton clarifies that “well-regulated” does not mean restricted, but rather well trained, armed, and equipped. Hamilton also distinguishes the militia consisting of “a large body of citizens” from what we now call the National Guard.
I expected a biased point of view from the president of the Brady Campaign, but Helmke disrespects his audience by promoting his agenda with hollow arguments while ignoring historical facts.
Jeramiah Zimmermann
Deeds of Compassion
Frank Gray’s column highlights a new organization called Deeds of Compassion that has been helping local residents upgrade their homes to come into compliance with city code and thus avoiding fines from the city. They are currently looking for a volunteer webmaster so any of you web-savvy readers with a little extra time on your hands should give them a call.
And also let this column be a reminder for this administration and everyone involved in city government that there are honest, hard-working people out there that are struggling in this economy. So while you pad the pockets of out-of-state developers, fast food franchisees and wealthy condo owners, this group is trying to help people that really need it. It would be nice if their local government would help them out.
Clinton Blogger/Media Follow Up
I had a previous post highlighting the fact that the Clinton media team did not return my call and thus I (along with other bloggers) were not granted media access to the Bill Clinton campaign event at the Grand Wayne Center. I wanted to follow up and let everyone know that Hillary Clinton’s statewide communications director, Jonathan Swain, did return my phone call this weekend. He explained that he was incredibly busy due to the fact that Hillary and Bill were traveling the state in the same week and that he was just now getting around to returning all his phone calls.
He said in the future he plans on holding conference calls with local bloggers and including us in other future events.
Local Columnist Highlights Secrecy of Bush Administration
Sylvia Smith has a column in today’s JG that is a follow up to the story she wrote earlier in the week regarding the VA hospital report that was redacted by the Bush Administration. In this column she highlights the difference between the openness of the Clinton administration and the secrecy of the Bush administration. She also discusses open government and why citizens should not tolerate this from their leaders - a must read.
Obama Discusses “Free Trade” With Journal Gazette
There’s nothing more frustrating than reading a story on NAFTA that doesn’t accurately describe what has happened since its enactment. So after reading Sylvia Smith’s story in this morning’s JG I was certainly frustrated. She briefly interviewed Barack Obama and he mentioned that we need to look at revisiting our trade policies to make sure they are fair to the United States. Smith then added a few statistics to her story that I don’t feel tell the full picture. I have some charts below that will make NAFTA’s effect on Indiana crystal clear.
I also want to point out that we do not have ANY “free trade” agreements. At the end of this post I have included testimony from the Senate floor where Senator Byron Dorgan illustrates why this is so. His examples will probably be eye-opening to those that haven’t seen them before and you’ll understand why our trade deficit has ballooned and why these agreements are unfair to the United States.
Whitewater Never Ends
In today’s News-Sentinel there was a letter to the editor criticizing the paper for not continuing to push uncorroborated right-wing talking points against the Clinton administration:
News item: Sen. Hillary Clinton puts longtime confidante Maggie Williams in charge of her campaign for the presidency.
And our newspapers, for reasons best known to themselves, do not give their valued readers one iota on the background of Williams.
Williams, while secretary to first lady Clinton, testified before Congress that she did not remove anything from Vince Foster’s office the night he was found dead in Fort Marcy Park and take it to the Clintons’ living area in the White House. Williams gave this testimony after a uniformed White House police officer testified he had seen Williams removing articles from Foster’s office the night of his death.
Maybe they didn’t write anything about this nonsense because there’s no news there. But just to refresh everyone’s memory I’ll post the summary of the Independent Counsel’s investigation into this matter:
there was simply insufficient evidence or proof of any kind showing anyone committed perjury, made false statements or obstructed the due administration of justice by refusing to provide relevant records. Accordingly, no criminal prosecutions about this aspect of the Independent Counsel’s investigation will be brought. This matter is now closed.
Get that? Closed - let it go…
1 Down, 5 To Go…
Kansas State demolished USC last night 80-67 and will now play Wisconsin on Saturday. I don’t really watch Big10 basketball so I’m not sure how good Wisconsin is. I know Bob Cousy would be proud of the style of basketball that Wisconsin plays but back in Kansas we actually like to run up and down the court and try to score points…
