Most of you know I was involved in a car wreck in December. I was hit by a driver with no license or insurance. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital. I have full coverage insurance so I am protected from deadbeats without insurance. I told the officer my insurance information before I went to the hospital and gave him my insurance agent's phone number.
Shortly after I received a Certificate of Compliance form from the BMV to be filled out and faxed by my insurance agent to avoid having my license suspended. My agent faxed the document.
Yesterday, I received notice that my license was suspended and spent the better part of today getting it reinstated. Of course, I had to drive around to do this on a suspended license.
I was 96th in line at the ONLY license branch in Indianapolis that will remove suspensions. When I complained about the fact that my insurance agent had faxed them proof a month ago, they just shrugged and said it wasn't their fault and that I would have to endure the wait of nearly 2 hours to fix their mistake.
So much for the new and improved BMV, Governor Daniels.
I'd like compensation for the 3 hours of my life you stole today.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
My horrible experience with Indiana Department of Motor Vehicles
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
19 million uninhabited houses in U.S.
According to a Census Bureau report today, a record 19 million American houses were uninhabited at the end of 2008.
That's an average of 380,000 per state.
Anyone know what our homeless population is today?
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Monster.com Super Bowl Commercial
Monster.com is my favorite Super Bowl commercial because in America if you work hard, have a great resume full of documented ACCOMPLISHMENTS, you do not have to live with your head in the posterior of anyone.
Friday, January 30, 2009
K-Mart Comercial Late 1970's
I think places should recycle their old commercials, they paid for long ago. This one was during the economic turbulence of the 70's.
OPEN LETTER: Challenge to Abdul and Amos
Greetings Amos & Abdul,
I heard about the challenge from Abdul to debate Amos Brown regarding consolidation. I think you guys should go for it. You both are pretty evenly matched, except that Amos has been in broadcasting / journalism longer in Indy and might have a slight advantage.
Anyway, have that public debate and charge for tickets. I'm putting the request out there publicly on the HFFT blog and elsewhere. Surely neither of you are afraid of such a challenge.
Charge $10 to attend and give the money to the winner's charity pick. Let the audience pick the winner I would definitely be there and help sell tickets!
Best Regards,
Melyssa Donaghy, editor
HOOSIERS FOR FAIR TAXATION
The Washington Township School Board San Diego Junket
This junket is going to cost taxpayers plenty.
CIB Stadium outrage
From Indy Tax Dollars:
Readers will remember a recent post we called "Untitled" because we chose not to use profanity. Yesterday's front page headline - "City's sports venues in the red" - has us sputtering again.
The Capital Improvement Board (CIB) compares to a group of school children - primary grades - who spend all their money in a candy shop then are bewildered that they don't have money for the bus ride home. (Or maybe it was planned. "The building is there. We can't just let it stand idle.")
How is it possible that educated adult men and women did not consider the fact that a much larger building, with a much more sophisticated type of operation, was going to cost more to run. And do they really think the taxpayer ought to be on the hook because the basketball team has a lousy season?
The following is a partial repeat of a post we made two years ago on how to handle costs..
We suggest a variation on the TIF approach, which we would call RIF, that is "Revenue Increment Financing." Here's how it would work.
Some time ago advocates of the stadium/convention center project told us the deal would bring into the city an additional (incremental?) $2 billion over a 10-year period. That's $200 million per year of new money.
We believe it is a fair assumption that the original impact of at least 75% of that money would be at the level of downtown service/retail, for-profit commercial businesses in a definable area focused on the stadium. That area would be determined to be an RIF district.
We already know how to set up such districts for sales and income taxes. If the CIB could get its act together to provide accurate future expenditure estimates, it should be a simple matter to determine a share of these expenses to charge to each business in the specified district. Per our assumption above, a base amount of $150 million, the cost to each of these businesses surely would be a modest amount, particularly when considering that every other business and individual in the city is already subsidizing them.
After all, under TIF, the entire property tax increase is diverted from municipal funds.
There is one caveat. Our proposal assumes that the $2 billion estimate of revenues is somewhere near the truth.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Congressman Pence on MSNBC -- defends America
Gotta listen to Congressman Pence defend America, Rush, and the fact that Republicans are thinking about more these days than having drinks.
Bi-partisan Family Planning suggestion for Pelosi that will please most anti-abortion advocates
A few days ago, Advance Indiana posted an interview with Nancy Pelosi regarding her stimulus proposal she helped pushed through Congress. Gary Welsh wanted to know if her next big push would be for a one child per family rule like China.
I've got a better idea. Actually it's not my idea, but that of my friend Neil, who some of my Libertarian friends know.
Pelosi says birth control stimulus is good for the economy. Oh yeah? We think so too!
Why not offer a $100 stimulus payment to any loser who willingly sells his ability to pro-create to get a vasectomy or tubes tied? Lots of crack addicts would be in line faster than you can say, "plasma donation". Snip, snip, stitch, stitch, you're done. Society benefits because the taxpayer doesn't have the burden of a life long liability for social services to countless children whose sperm donors have no business (or commitment) to being parents.
PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
Indiana Democrat Congressman Brad Ellsworth & all Republicans vote against Bailout II
Bailout I was so successful, that Obama and Pelosi are pushing for Bailout II, the new and improved version. Yesterday's Bailout II vote in Congress was rejected by 100% of house republicans and eleven democrats.
HFFT would like to thank Brad Ellsworth for voting against Bailout II and learning from Bailout I, that bailouts don't work and everyone wins except his employer, the Indiana taxpayer.
Thanks Congressman Ellsworth!
Trouble in Paradise? Memo to Democrats written by Nancy Pelosi is leaked to blogosphere
Hat Tip: Human Events
To: Interested Parties
Re: The Republican Problem
Date: January 29, 2009
The House Republican Leadership put its Members in another politically untenable position yesterday: trying to reclaim the mantle of lower taxes and small government -- at the exact time when economists of every ideological stripe agree that government investments are the only way to get our economy moving again and make us competitive for the long term.
So yesterday, while we are facing the greatest economic crisis in decades, Republican House Members ended up voting unanimously against:
* Jobs in their own communities
* Tax cuts for 95 percent of American workers
* Long overdue investments that will transform and grow their economies to compete globally
* Critical services in their own communities, such as police officers, teachers, and health care
Instead, their substitute did not create as many jobs and it increased the number of people subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans complaining about the process does not obscure the record of recent Republican leadership:
* 2.6 million American jobs were lost in 2008 alone.
* The national debt has almost doubled in the last eight years; the debt borrowed from foreign countries has tripled.
* The Clinton Administration left a record budget surplus. President Bush turned it into the worst deficit in American history.
* We face an economic recession unrivaled since the Great Depression, as a result of years of failure to invest in our own global competitiveness, failures to bring common sense to Wall Street and our housing market, and tax policies that favored massive corporations and most affluent individuals.
This is not the first time the Republicans in the House have unanimously voted against a needed economic package. The last time, in 1993, when Democrats voted for tough action to clean up after Republican economic mess, not a single Republican voted for the legislation that produced record surpluses and a balanced budget.
Once again this week, as another Democratic President and Democratic Congress worked to address historic deficits and recession brought on by Republican mismanagement of the economy, not a single Republican voted for the legislation. There's a pattern here of Republican economic mismanagement and Democrats stepping up to do what's needed for the good of the country while Republicans acted in a partisan and irresponsible manner.
False claims made by Indiana Department of Health about the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children’s Home
The Curious Case of Indiana Soliders & Sailors Children's Home Closing
HFFT notices that FEMA, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Corrections are all eying the property for their purposes. No matter who takes over the facility, the taxpayers will foot the bill for renovations.
The federal government is continuing on its mission to build 1000's of detention camps across the country. Who do they intend to put in these camps? Could that be the real reason to close the school?
The organizers of the operation to save the Children's Home tell us that the press and Indiana officials are not presenting the case without bias and are keeping the following facts from the public domain. HFFT frowns on public officials who don't tell us the whole story. Please forward this information around to your lists. --HFFT
FACTS below were prepared by Ryan Liedtky
1: No clear mission statement as “at risk youth” is undefined.FACT: The United States Department of Justice uses the term “At risk youth” to refer to those individuals who are in troubled situations and are likely to commit a crime, or who have already committed a crime, and has an entire task force dedicated strictly to “at risk youths”. One must wonder why the term “at risk youth” is accepted only when it is used by a government agency, and not when it is used by an agency of which the government wishes to dispose.
2. Institution is little more than parental care support outside of the classroom.
FACT: These are children who lack parental guidance at home. Outside the classroom, they need parental care support that they are unable to get anywhere else.
3. The state is providing direct care that is already available through local communities.
FACT: The state has taken away the resources of the local communities, with House Bill 1001, preventing them from having the resources necessary to help these children. The state took over all child care services starting January 1, 2009, so there is no longer any community based care available.
4. Does not follow correct model and trend of education and support in local communities where support can be gathered by neighbors and parents and local charities.
FACT: As any psychologist can tell you, there is no such thing as a correct trend. Trends come and go, they work in some instances, and fail in others. The system is always on the mend. Further, the very reason these children are in this home is because local charities don’t have the resources, the parents are absent, abusive, in the military, etc., and/or the neighbors are unable, unwilling, or simply not trustworthy enough to help care for the children.
5. Little or no data on children after they leave the home.
FACT: 56 children have graduated from the home in the last 4 years. Prior to coming to the home:25 were failing the ISTEP test in their old school, 13 passed at their old school, 19 had never taken the ISTEP test at their old school.
Since graduation: 11 have not gone on to higher education at this time but have gone to work, etc., 45 did go on to higher education. Of those 45: 3 went to vocational school, 13 went to a 4-year college, 17 went to a 2-year college, 13 went into the military.
6. Operationally insufficient.
FACT: A staff to student ratio of 1.4:1 is about the right staff to student ratio given the circumstances that have lead these children here. However, if the Department of Health hadn’t stopped sending children to the Home starting the instant Daniels came to office, this statistic would be closer to 3:1, or higher.
7. Fiscally inefficient.
FACT: It costs $249.88 per day per child. If placed in a juvenile detention center, the cost would be over $300 per day per child.
8. Costs $200 million to modernize facilities.
FACT: The Department of Corrections, Department of Homeland Security, and FEMA have all shown interest in taking over the facility once the school is closed. The $200 million renovations will occur no matter what, all at taxpayer expense.
Also, the Department of Health stated that the school is not feasible because of its geographic location, which has no bearing on the issue. It could be a feeder school if the state had run its contacts properly. The state did not request any staff members to be involved in helping to find a college to align with. The reasons given for not merging with non-profit organizations is lame at best, insulting at worst. It supposes those who read the memo are not familiar with non-profits, and throws in a legislative code issue at the end to cover the fact that the other explanations are faulty.
Further, a change in the mission of the school was explored, but the state determined it could not be done without being inefficient, ineffective, and redundant. Curiosity plagues me: how much time was spent thinking of a new mission? Also, what does the mission have to do with the operation of the school? I have been to a lot of schools, and not one has a mission that impacts in any way the operation. A change in mission does not equate a change in anything else.
The recommendation is to send these students to community based school corporations. In other words, the very schools they failed in previously; the very situations from which they had to be rescued.
After reading through the Indiana Department of Health’s explanation, and finding no sufficient explanation for closing the school, it becomes clear with FEMA, the DOC, and the Department of Homeland Security all involved that the intent is to close the school to give special privilege to another government entity. Essentially, there will be no cost savings involved.
The Economic Aspect of ISSCH Closing
by Ryan Liedtky
Each state has its share of questionable politicians. For those of us in Indiana, it appears that government has become more of a problem since Mitch Daniels was elected Governor in 2004. Starting with the auctioning of the Toll Rode to a foreign company, which is still causing problems with EMS and police, especially relating to traffic accidents, injuries, or icy road conditions, and has moved on to other issues, including Day Light Savings Time, where different counties find themselves in different time zones.
Now, Mitch Daniels and the Department of Health are looking at closing the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children’s Home in Knightstown. A list of reasons was given, including a $200 million renovation that is needed. What is not mentioned in the papers declaring the home shall be closed are that the United States Department of Homeland Security is using the home for weekly meetings, that the Department of Corrections is hoping to take over the facility after the school is closed to create a new prison, that FEMA looked into possible future use for the facility, and that the Department of Homeland Security has been making “donations” for the purpose of repairing pipes and making minor renovations.
When the explanation given by the Department of Health is read, it becomes clear that the $200 million renovations will take place no matter what, as the facility will have to be renovated if a new purpose for the facility is found. The renovation will cost more if it is turned over to the Department of Corrections, or to any other government agency.
As a Libertarian, I have been encouraged to look strictly at the monetary aspects of this situation. After doing so, however, it is clear that the money budgeted for the home ($10 million per year) is negligible, and will be spent for another purpose regardless. When Mitch Daniels “sold” the Toll Rode, he did so to balance the budget, ignoring the long-term loss of revenue as a result. In this situation, he is closing the children’s home for a short-term budget cut to secure his own legacy as a sound economic governor, ignoring the long-term negative effects that will result from removing the children for the purpose of giving yet another big-government agency a new facility in which to operate.
While I understand that many people will not agree with my assessment of this situation, I feel I must stand by my conclusion based upon my own investigation. The investigation I have launched has included talks with the Department of Homeland Security, and with Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office. I have also had the privilege of communicating with many former students and residents of the home, as well as many current employees of the home. As a result, I have run some calculations that reveal the closure of the home will cost taxpayers an extra $3 million per year.
My calculations were forwarded, in full detail (with each item listed and backed by court and government documents to verify the costs), to the Indiana Branch of the American Legion for verification purposes. The American Legion has donated millions of dollars to the home to help keep operating costs low, and was not contacted by the Department of Health in its investigation to determine whether there was a non-profit privately funded option for the Children’s Home.
Social Aspects
While the economic factors all lead to the conclusion that keeping the home open is the most intelligent solution, the social aspects offer an even stronger indicator of the importance of the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children’s Home.
Dr. Judy Monroe, Commission with the Department of Health, issued a letter stating that the home is a problem because good people are working in an outdated system. She acknowledges that the home has been instrumental in helping thousands of children over the years, keeping them out of gangs, taking them from broken and abusive homes, and helping children who could not be helped by the community schools. Yet her solution is that since the system is broken, the solution is to send these children back to the very communities that were unable to help these children in the first place.
The home is large enough to house up to 1000 children at a time, but has not been run at full capacity since Daniels has taken office. As a result, more children are being placed in foster homes, as families get split up in an effort to keep the children within their local communities.
In numerous letters I have received from former students at the home, one resonating theme is constant: the home kept brothers and sisters together while the foster system was splitting them up. The social aspects of keeping siblings together are evident in the criminal justice system. Children split from their siblings and placed in foster care are more than twice as likely to become juvenile offenders, and violent offenders as adults.
Further, while the ISTEP scores are low for these students, many of them never took standardized tests prior to being placed at the Home, and yet out of the last 56 students to graduate from the home, only 11 have not gone on to secondary education. These results are more than three times better than the average inner-city public school, where only 50% of students graduate high school.
All of this results in less crime, more social responsibility, and over the course of several years less of a burden on the criminal justice system, on victims of criminal behavior, and on taxpayers responsible for footing the bill for the prison system and court costs. This creates a more safe, more free, and less expensive living conditions for all of society.
I feel I must now remind readers that the elimination of this home without the examination of the long-term economic and social effects is the work of Gov. Mitch Daniels, the same man so noted for cutting budgets, and yet even though he cut budgets still managed to turn a $236 billion national surplus into a $400 billion deficit. It would appear this is just another of his judgment moves to cut budgets that end up creating more government spending than less, all while causing more social problems and, much like George Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” policy, leaves children in a position far worse than they had just years prior.
Saving the Home
I am no fool, however. I realize that my position to keep the Children’s Home open runs contrary to the opinions of the majority of Libertarians. However, if we are truly serious about addressing the issues that plague our nation, and our state, we must be willing to work within the given reality and to make concessions so that we can accomplish our goal to put us back on a path toward personal sovereignty.
It is a reality that the facilities at the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children’s Home will remain under the control of the government. Working within that fact, we find that we can still influence what our government does with it. We must make the concession that the $200 million renovation project will be undertaken regardless of whether the children stay in the home or not. The only question left is do we keep the facility in use for the children, where we individuals currently hold sway over the government, or do we allow the government to move the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Corrections in, and we lose whatever voice we have?
The question has been posed to me, why would Mitch Daniels want to do this? I am afraid that I cannot answer this question. What I do know is that Mitch Daniels has been more concerned with money than he has been with the social aspects of education. For example, he has stated that the more money spent in the classroom (as opposed to administration within schools), the better test scores and graduation rates. This was disproven, as schools with more money per dollar spent in the classroom do not correlate with higher test scores or graduation rates. With the Iraq War his focus was on economics, and he stated that the war would cost the United States no more than $50-$60 billion by completion, though the war has now cost well over $400 billion.
The biggest problem with Mitch Daniels is his assumption that economic budgets put on paper are not dependent upon social aspects and the varying entities and circumstances surrounding those budgets. Thus, he fails to notice the positive impact on the whole of society from a social perspective (by keeping the Home open), which then corresponds to a positive impact on the whole of society from an economic perspective (through keeping children out of the prison system, which costs $100 more per day per person than the Home costs).
In my discussions with individuals concerning this home, a common theme has appeared in perceptions of the Libertarian Party: that we care strictly about money. I feel that we would be no better than the failed administrations that have attempted to implement Reaganomics with no success if we continued to live up to that perception. The underlying solution to some economic problems is through social aspects, just as the underlying solutions to some social problems are through economic aspects.
Without this understanding we cannot fully address those issues which inspire certain individuals to resort to crime; nor can we accomplish the objective of forging a more responsible society. Ignoring the social impact of this home is a continuation of the social agenda by “conservatives” who have lost all sense of what it means to be conservative: a failed attempt to replace the human condition with simple mathematic principles. Until humans become robotic, economics must not be the determining factor of all we seek to accomplish. We must remember that there are two aspects to a free society, one economic, the other social.
When dealing with children, who do not have the capacity yet to form a voice, to vote, or to serve the nation, we must ensure that we as a society (if we wish to continue to be free, not only from the tyranny of government, but from the tyranny of crime against our property and persons as well) take those children in and give them an opportunity to succeed. We also hold a duty to these children to see that they remain within their family element as much as possible, by keeping siblings together.
When society as a whole takes an extra responsibility towards our children, we grant freedom to those enduring strife at home with no voice, no choice, and no hope. When we talk about social responsibility, there is none greater than that which is the cause of children; our freedoms have been granted us by the struggles of our parents. When we are void of parents, we are void of freedom. And this home is, for these children, Freedom.
The "Rangel Rule" -- no tax penalties for the rest of us!
Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican, sent out a press release earlier today about his innovative new bill:
"Rangel Rule"
All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.
Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Fed Reserve Fails to Reflate the US Banking System
A four minute video revealing the magnitude of the current banking crisis. Our world will never be the same.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Message to Indiana House Minority Leader Brian Bosma: Tax Activists want repeal, not CAPS
WIBC is reporting that Brian Bosma is calling for the public and tax activists to apply pressure on the General Assembly to pass the tax caps.
HFFT and other tax activists tried for nearly two years to make the point that capping tax on a SUBJECTIVE assessed value is not fair. It's also not fair that the legislature saddled Hoosiers with a 17% sales tax increase (one penny) before they transferred the property tax obligation.
It took nothing for the legislature to get that sales tax increase implemented. Why so hard to give Hoosiers property tax relief, as promised?
Hoosiers, supposedly being served by our state legislators are getting screwed, Representative Bosma. How can you not see that?
Keep in mind, if the legislature does pass the caps, down the road, they will do away with our homestead exemption, and if any taxing district comes up short, state government will have the power to force residents in that district to pay a higher tax anyway.
Representative Bosma, caps are not the relief that is best for the people. There is a reason why the Indiana Constitution says that property taxes must be uniform and equal.
The Indy Star reports today that we have thousands of parcels of tax delinquent property headed for public auction, yet there will not be enough bids to solve the problem.
"We've just never had that many (tax-delinquent properties) before," Marion County Treasurer Mike Rodman said Thursday.
The problem would be solved by lifting property tax completely and forever. That will bring massive outside property investment with cash in hand to our state. They will improve our neighborhoods from the inside.
You and your colleagues in the legislature have 150 Indiana fees and taxes (all transparent) to which you can shift the burden of property tax revenue. Get creative.
Property tax REPEAL is the only solution.
