Whose Homeland Is This Guy Protecting?

The Bush administration suffered the embarrassment of the arrest of another top official-this time from the Department of Homeland Security. The Washington Post reports that the agency's deputy press secretary, Brian Doyle, was arrested on charges of using his computer for child seduction and transmitting pornographic materials to a minor. Last month, Bush's top economic advisor, Claude Allen, was arrested for stealing more than $5,000 worth of merchandise from a Target store. The Post reports on Doyle's arrest today:

Doyle had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.The girl was an undercover Polk County Sheriff's Computer Crimes detective, the sheriff's office said. Doyle sent the girl pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations via the Internet, the statement said. During other online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and offered his office and government issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff's office said. Doyle also sent photos of himself to the girl, but authorities said they were not sexually explicit. On several occasions, Doyle instructed her to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.

In an understatment, the Post says Doyle "was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday morning." Not only is this guy sick if the allegations are proven, he is incredibly stupid. NBC's Dateline recently worked undercover with child impersonators to nab adults soliciting sex with minors over the Internet in a series entitled, "To Catch A Predator." The focus of one of the segments took place in the D.C. area where Dateline's Chris Hansen, with the help of his child impersonators lured in 19 men during a 3-day period, including school teachers, businessmen, military officers and even a rabbi seeking sex with minors. The Dateline report got widespread coverage throughout the country and most certainly in the D.C. area.

Early Dividend From Telecommunications Deregulation?

Gov. Daniels will be joined by Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, AT&T Indiana President George Fleetwood and legislators for an announcement about telecommunications investment in rural communities on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. in the Governor's office. After the event, he will travel to a public library in Montezuma for a follow-up news conference at 11:00 a.m. according to the Governor's office. Is this an early dividend from the enactment of telecommunications deregulation? That sounds good George. Now, how about some much-needed competition here in Indianapolis for Brighthouse Communications? We're getting a little bit tired of paying for their high-cost cable TV and putting up with their poor service.

Craziness In Crystal Lake Over Gay Games Rowing Event Continues

We told you last month about efforts of Christian right activists to block Crystal Lake's park district from allowing a rowing event for the 7th Annual Gay Games in Chicago this July to take place on the city's lake. The park board originally voted down granting a permit for the event, but it narrowly gave its approval a week later after the board's chairman returned from vacation and cast the deciding vote in support of the event. The bigots are now appealing to the Crystal Lake city council to block the event. The Associated Press' Dan Babwin writes:

It would seem a simple question: Whether to give rowers a permit to have a boat race this summer on a small man-made lake about 50 miles northwest of Chicago. But because the rowers are gay - participating in something called the Gay Games- what would normally be a mundane debate about parking and street closures is instead a heated battle between those who see the event as a threat to their small town way of life and those who see those views as simply small-minded.

Babwin's story describes the mean-spirited and hateful tone of the Christian right activists. "'Make no mistake: The purpose of the Gay Games is to legitimize homosexuality and make it appear as a wholesome lifestyle choice,' wrote Tim Coakley, a critic of the games . . . It's the same with Sunita Stone. 'Crystal Lake is a G-rated place, ' she said. 'There's no reason to start making things racy. If you want to go to Chicago to do that, that's fine. I'm not going to go there.'" That kind of talk led one couple to make this observation about their city Babwin reports: "After wondering if Crystal Lake's motto should be 'homophobic capital of the Midwest,' they asked, 'How proud are we to live in such a narrow-minded, backward hateful community?'"

The city's mayor, Aaron Shepley, predicts the city council will allow the rowing event to take place. "This is only an endorsement of the First Amendment and the anti-discrimination laws of the state," Shepley said. "That's all it is - following the law." But Shepley showed his displeasure with the event being hosted in his city in the same breath. Babwin writes:

Mayor Aaron Shepley said he thinks the Gay Games organizers have made the event more about a statement on gays and lesbians and not rowing, thus putting Crystal Lake at the center of a debate about social values. "To the extent that part of the agenda of promoters was to draw attention to a social platform, they've been successful," he said. "And to an extent it's been at the expense of Crystal Lake's image."

Advance Indiana is a little surprised by Mayor Shepley's attitude. That's not the liberal Democrat AI Editor Gary Welsh remembered from his political science classes at Eastern Illinois University where both he and Shepley were political science majors. It seems that it was members of his own community who made it a debate on social values. A similar reaction has not been encountered in the City of Chicago and other surrounding communities hosting other events. If he's worried about Crystal Lake's image, he should spend more time advocating tolerance within it. It is after all the law in Illinois as he duly notes.

Expert Says Regions Building Damage Not Caused By Tornado

National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Haines tells the Star that damage done to the Regions Bank Building Sunday night was caused by straight-line winds, rather than a tornado. "We had a team out evaluating the damage (in Marion County), and they couldn't find any signs of 'rotations' that would indicate a tornado," Haines said.

AI is no meteorologist, but we must take issue with a lack of evidence of rotation. Let's start with the fact that the building sustained damage on three sides, the south, west and north sides as the storm approached from the west-southwest. The building's window curtail wall on two sides of the building was bowed outward, indicating a vacuum-like effect. Debris from the building could be found in four directions from the building, some of which landed blocks away. At least some of the damage to the Star building, which is northwest of the Regions building, appeared to come from debris from the Regions building, like the projectile which pierced the ceiling of editor Barb Henry's office on the top floor. A final signature of a twister was the isolated nature of the damage. Other than the Star building, the other surrounding buildings, including those within the immediate block of the Regions building sustained no damage whatsoever. This would be consistent with a funnel cloud briefly touching down and then lifting it up and remaining aloft.

My home in Lockerbie is about four blocks northeast of the Regions building. Whatever winds hit my neighborhood during the storm didn't approach what hit the Regions building, and my neighborhood is populated with homes and buildings over a hundred years old, which sustained absolutely no damage. But we're not the experts so this one will be recorded as straight-line wind damage in the official record book.

How To End The Gay Marriage Debate

Georgetown constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley offers a practical solution to the gay marriage debate: civil unions. The problem with marriage licenses issued by the government Turley argues is that they are used "to convey a religious or moral meaning." The state's real "interest in marriage concerns its legal meaning." He writes:

It is the agreement itself, not its inherent religious meaning, that compels the registry of marriages by the government. Once married, the legal rights and obligations of the couple change in areas ranging from taxes to inheritance to personal injury to testimonial privileges.

Turley points out contradictions in the current policing of marriages by government. "While the government criminalizes the marriage of same-sex couples without official licenses (denied to them as a matter of policy), it does not police religious practices governing divorces," Turley says. He believes we should leave "the moral validity of a marriage" to religious organizations. Let each person decide according to the dictates of their own faith whether to marry in a religious ceremony he argues.

"The government's interest and role would be confined to enforcing the civil contract, as it would any other civil agreement," Turley explains. "The government should address that aspect of marriage that concerns its insular needs: confirming the legal obligations of consenting adults," Turley continues. "As for our politicians, there are levees to be rebuilt, corruption to end and wars to win." Mindful of the political advantages of the gay marriage debate, Turley deadpans, "Of course, this solution would deprive both sides of the debate of a controversy that has been a political and financial windfall." Reminding us of the constitutional separation of church and state, Turley concludes, "Nonetheless, the public certification of the moral relationships is not the call of government; it is the call of the faithful. It is time we move beyond moral licensing by the government and return marriage to its proper realm: in the churches, temples, mosques, and the hearts of every citizen."

Turley's idea has a great deal of merit and is arguably the most fair and constitutionally compatible approach for resolving this debate. We shouldn't forget that the Puritans fled England, in part, over the Anglican Church stance on what constituted a legitimate marriage. Early colonists were reluctant to have government perform any role in marriages, even to issue a license, because they wanted to be able to apply their own religious beliefs to define marriage without any government interference. It is against that backdrop that our founders opted to include the separation clause in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights.

As an aside, France in recent years assuaged its gay population by legalizing civil unions. To make it fair, the French made civil unions available to straight and gay couples alike. The unexpected result was that civil unions became very popular among straight couples, who preferred the non-sectarian civil unions to the traditional state-recognized marriage license.

If Only Bosma And House GOP Could Shed Their Extremist Social Agenda

House Speaker Brian Bosma lays out the case in a guest column in today's Star for why he and the House Republicans should retain their slim majority in the House. If you can forget about the extremist social agenda he and his colleagues have pursued, his case is very compelling.

Gov. Mitch Daniels inherited a huge budget deficit from his Democratic predecessor. At the insistence of House Republicans, the GOP-led legislature crafted a state budget which relied on no new taxes and incentivized Gov. Daniels to find more savings, which he did. As Bosma put it, "In November 2004, Republicans inherited a state that faced unprecedented challenges. Indiana faced a $600 million budget hole, owed $721 million to local cities, schools and universities, and had spent every dime of its reserves." The state now has the first truly balanced budget in nearly a decade. Bosma has earned bragging rights on this issue.

Gov. Mitch Daniels inherited a scandal plagued-administration. The GOP-led House helped Daniels create an "independent inspector general", who has uncovered numerous cases of fraud and corruption in state government since his appointment. Unfortunately, Gov. Daniels' Inspector General compromised his own integrity recently by getting involved in partisan politics involving an offer of a state job, which prompted an investigation by the Marion Co. Prosecutor's office. Nonetheless, Bosma and his GOP-led House deserve credit for creating the statutory framework to help clean up state government.

On providing a 10-year funding plan for the first time in the state's history, Bosma and his GOP-led House must be given high marks. Bosma explains, "With the passage of the governor's Major Moves roads initiative, Indiana addressed its long-standing road funding deficit and becomes the first state in the nation to fully fund its 10-year road construction plan. We will have money in the bank (earning interest) to build every road project to make Indiana more accessible to employers and families desiring to locate here. Not only will this return Indiana to its status as the "Crossroads of America," it is projected to create 130,000 new jobs, especially in northern and southern Indiana where they are so desperately needed."

Indiana has had a long history of being on the wrong side of burdensome state regulation in important areas of commerce. By lagging behind the nation in deregulating our state's banks and utilities, Indiana lost out in the consolidation of these industries, taking corporate headquarters and jobs outside the state. For a change, Indiana will not be lagging the country in the critical telecommunications industry as a result of legislation passed by the GOP-led House this year. Bosma say, "We adopted the strongest telecommunications reform legislation in the nation, with changes designed to streamline our laws and create another 20,000 jobs, potentially lower every Hoosier's cable bill, and make high-speed communications more available throughout the state."

Bosma and his GOP-led House also demonstrated they are willing to throw out "politics as usual" and adopt some critical legislative reforms. The biggest change is the opening up of the House proceedings by broadasting over the Internet live streaming video of House and Senate legislative sessions and key committee meetings. This opens a window to the legislature for all Hoosiers, and it allows any citizen who wants to more actively participate in the business of the legislature to take advantage of this free medium. Bosma, unlike his Senate counterpart, ended the self-serving and indefensible health insurance for life legislative perk much to the disappointment of many members. By contrast, House Democratic leader Pat Bauer will not say whether he will end the perk if he should become Speaker of the House again.

As Bosma sums it up, "House Republicans started this two-year General Assembly by asking what Indiana should be a decade from now, and moving toward it. There is no doubt this General Assembly will be looked upon as the one that turned Indiana in a new direction." Unfortunately, Bosma didn't turn Indiana in a new direction when it comes to hot-burning social issues.

Bosma tackled a very divisive and extremist social agenda. He set the state on the road to adopting one of the broadest anti-gay marriage amendments in the country--so broad it sweeps away rights of gay and straight people alike. Caught up in the anti-gay hysteria, Bosma allowed an extremist member to offer a constitutionally-suspect proposal this session to nullify local non-discrimination ordinances which offered more protection than either the U.S. or state constitution; he later had to force the member to back down when members discovered it would also nullify many other ordinances.

His stubborn advocacy for sectarian prayers and the ensuing legal battle has made Indiana the laughingstock of the country. He originally advocated the teaching of "intelligent design" in our public schools until the idea generated a mostly negative public backlash, and was summarily slapped down by a conservative Republican judge in Pennsylvania when public schools there attempted to implement the controversial policy.

He allowed anti-immigrant legislation to progress, which would have stripped away government benefits and services for the families of illegal immigrants regardless of need or circumstances, angering and alienating the state's growing Hispanic population in the process.

And the efforts of his caucus to adopt sweeping new anti-abortion laws were only thwarted when Senate leaders allowed them to die on the calendar.

So which of these issues will Bosma and his GOP House most be remembered? That's the 64 million dollar question. People who care about these burning social issues will vote accordingly. That is their purpose after all to divide and polarize the electorate along political and cultural fault lines. It's noteworthy that Bosma drops any mention of the divisive social issues in describing his "progressive agenda." He's going to leave that job to the Eric Millers, Micah Clarks and Curt Smiths, who he can rely on to turn out wedge issue voters on election day. It is unfortunate that Bosma and his House Republican colleagues believe they can only win by using these divisive social issues rather than the "progressive agenda" they successfully tackled over the past two years.

Storms Rip Indy

Tens of thousands of people were packed into downtown tonight to watch John Mellencamp perform at the NCAA My Coke Fest concert on Monument Circle. When Mellencamp ended his performance at 9:00 p.m. about 50 minutes after he started, people were disappointed. But when the civil defense sirens went off ten minutes later, it became apparent the concert could not have ended sooner. The storm rolled in quickly by the time I arrived at my home in Lockerbie. A large flash in the middle of the storm looked like a lightning bolt striking the Regions Building. By the looks of this photo on the Star's website, the building sustained quite a bit of damage. There have been reports of a small fire inside the building in addition to the blown out windows covering several floors. Police have closed off the streets on all sides of the building. The high winds were very short-lived here in Lockerbie followed by a brief downpour.

UPDATE: Reports early this morning suggest that a tornado may have swept through downtown Indianapolis last night. WIBC reports that a number of streets are closed off this morning either for clean-up of last night's concert on Monument Circle or damage from the storm. One observer told the Star that he saw the tornado on the ground at the corner of New York and Delaware just 3 blocks from my home and immediately northeast of the Regions Building, which sustained heavy damage. When we experienced the strongest winds during the storm in Lockerbie, the downtown skyline, which is typically visible from my home, disappeared in the storm. The Star also reports that its building, which sits on Pennsylvania between Vermont and New York Streets sustained damage.

Regions Building will be closed today according to WTHR, which reports there is concern about the structural integrity of the building. Mayor Peterson described to WTHR the extensive damage inside the building after inspecting it earlier this morning. He told WTHR that there was twisted metal everywhere, and that entire walls were missing from several offices. The skin of the building is literally bowed out in one location. The earlier reports of a small fire in the building were in error, although the building's sprinkler system prematurely activated as a result of the damage.

What Happens When You Stick A DVD Into A CD Player?

A senior vice president for Warsaw's Zimmer, Inc. has learned the hard way what happens when you try sticking a DVD in a CD player. When his wife tried playing a DVD belonging to him in her car's CD player, it became stuck. She took the car to a local dealer, who delivered the car to a service vendor in Holland, Michigan. After removing the DVD from the CD player, the service vendor viewed it and discovered a video of an underage girl and an adult woman in various stages of undress, whereupon the vendor turned the video over to police.

James P. Simpson, 47 of Akron, Indiana, now faces charges of child exploitation, a Class C felony and voyeurism, a Class D felony. Simpson, who resigned the senior vice president position at Zimmer to which he was promoted in December, is accused of hiding video recording equipment in an air purifier in the room of a girl under the age of 15. The Warsaw Times-Union writes of the charges:

According to count I of the charging information, “James P. Simpson did knowingly or intentionally possess, manage, produce, sponsor, present, exhibit, photograph, film, videotape or create a digitized version of a performance or incident that included sexual conduct by a child under 18 years of age ...” Count II of the charging information says, “... James P. Simpson did knowingly or intentionally peep into an area where an occupant of the area reasonably can be expected to disrobe, without the person’s consent, by means of a camera, video camera, or any other type of video recording device ...” Simpson allegedly made recordings of a minor girl in various stages of undress without her knowledge. The video contains footage of the girl and an adult woman. Neither person in the video seemed to know they were being recorded.

Simpson used to be in charge of government relations for Zimmer. His arrest must be quite an embarrassment to the company. His wife's probably none too pleased as well.

As United Went, So Goes Delphi

The fate of Delphi electonics workers in Indiana is beginning to look ominously like the recent extinction of United Airlines aircraft mechanics in Indianapolis. The bankrupt auto parts giant rolled out a survival plan which calls for the elimination of 1,000 workers in Anderson and a 39% percent wage cut to preserve jobs in Kokomo according to Star business reporter Ted Evanoff.

UAW representative George Anthony is predicting a strike by union workers against Delphi. He and a production worker tell Evanoff:

"The wages, benefits and pensions are not going to be as lucrative. We know that,'' Anthony said. "But what they've put on the table is not acceptable." Delphi Kokomo production worker Todd Jordan, a UAW dissident whose wages would be sliced to $16.50 an hour from $27 by the reorganization plan, said he's ready to go on strike. But he expects that even after a strike, Delphi would continue to provide jobs in Kokomo. "I'm going to stay at this plant as long as I can,'' Jordan said. "I care about the lower pay, but someone needs to help workers here understand what went wrong and the message of unionism.

The Delphi workers can strike all they want, but it's not going to change the future they face. Their jobs will likely be exported to China where consumer electronic goods are being manufactured at a fraction of the costs here in the U.S. The Delphi workers will face an even tougher time finding comparable paying jobs than United's more skilled aircraft mechanics faced.