Carson and May Debate

From left to right, Carlos May, Amos Brown and Andre Carson (Praiseindy.com photo)
 

U.S. Rep. Andre Carson and Republican Carlos May met in what will be their only debate before this year's election on the "Afternoons with Amos" show hosted by Amos Brown on WTLC-AM radio. In his opening statement, May went after Carson for casting votes he says contributed to higher energy costs, a claim refuted by Carson, who shot back that May would threaten the social security system with a privatization plan. Both candidates support some role for the federal government in dictating education standards. On immigration reform, May said he would deport undocumented aliens who have committed crimes, while providing a path to citizenship to children of undocumented aliens brought into this country by their parents. Carson emphasized his current support for the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for children of undocumented aliens brought here by their parents. Carson touted his success at bringing home over a half billion federal dollars to the 7th District. Carson took a swipe at Mayor Ballard for taking credit alone for federal funding he says he obtained for resurfacing Indianapolis' streets. You can listen to the audio from this afternoon's debate by clicking here. It currently only includes the first segment of the one-hour debate. [The full audio of the debate is now accessible. Please check it out]

UPDATE: The Star's Mary Beth Schneider has more here. She quotes Carson as saying federal spending cuts will be achieved through ending the war in Afghanistan, while May said he would look for savings through the elimination of "waste and fraud." May promised to vote to repeal Obamacare if he is elected, which Carson supported and voted for. May also accused Carson of being inaccessible to his constituents according to Schneider, a charge that Carson denies. “I am not going to let him use this race as a WWF wrestling match ... to falsely accuse me of not wanting to debate, where he can use this as a platform to get his name out there to do a favor for the Republican Party so he can one day run for what he really wants to run for, and that’s (county) treasurer or city council,” Carson said.

Early Voting Down Sharply In Lake County

It appears the infusion of Chicago-style politics into Indiana's presidential election four years ago has dissipated this year with the Obama campaign all but conceding the Hoosier state to Mitt Romney, who polls have shown holding a double-digit lead. At the half-way point of early voting in heavily-Democratic Lake County, election board officials report that 10,378 early votes have been cast. In 2008, there were 36,000 early votes cast by election day. At the current rate, early voting is down nearly one-third. That compares to the 18% higher rate reported by the Marion County Election Board this past weekend. In 2008, Obama beat John McCain by fewer than 30,000 votes, 50-49%, to win Indiana's 11 electoral votes.

It's A Question Of Priorities

There has been much consternation among members of the downtown mafia and their friends in the mainstream media about the impact of forcing the CIB to give up part of its cash cow to help shore up next year's city budget. To hear them speak, you would think the CIB's solvency is threatened if it has to use any of its $67 million in cash reserves, which puts it on much stronger financial footing right now than the City-County government's $1.1 billion annual budget. Mayor Ballard's only solution to the problem of adequately funding basic city services was to hike property taxes on persons who have already been hit hard by the economic downturn over the past four years. At the same time, Ballard has pushed through major expansions of the downtown TIF district that further erodes the tax base that funds basic city services at the same time his administration pushed through a $20 million public financing of a new, 1000-space parking garage for a downtown developer that will occur in a TIF district, meaning that no property taxes will be paid for many years to come on the new development to pay for basic city services.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, Mayor Ballard this week called for further privatization efforts to find money to fund our crumbling city parks. The head of IndyVisit, formerly known as the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association, whines in the IBJ that the lack of direct flights into Indianapolis' new billion-dollar airport terminal imperils his efforts to lure organizations to host their conventions in Indianapolis after a $200 million expansion of the city's convention center and a $60 million public subsidy for the construction of the new J.W. Marriott Hotel. It is suggested that public subsidies may be in order to fund direct flights to cities like San Francisco in order to entice more groups to host their conventions here and help fill up the downtown hotels. IndyVisit's CEO claims that the city has lost 10% of its potential tourism business due to the lack of non-stop flights. Apparently the fact that the city now has among the highest tax rates in the country for visitors is not a factor in attracting conventions to Indianapolis.

We are always told each time that we are asked to pony up more money to subsidize the business activities of downtown that such additional contributions will help grow city revenues that will benefit all of the city's residents. From where I'm sitting, these contributions are only draining city resources that are available to fund essential city services. Fellow blogger Fred McCarthy says it best in describing the contempt our city leaders have for our residents:

One does not know whether to laugh or cry when, simultaneously with this outcry about an attempt to fund public safety, the mayor is announcing that we can’t handle the public parks system and he is, hat in hand, asking taxpayers to put that system on an "alms" basis.

Now he wants citizens who are forced to subsidize professional sports with tax money, but who cannot afford to buy a ticket into the palaces built with that tax money, to come up with more money to use the only publicly financed recreation facility within their financial range.

It is difficult to imagine a more outrageous example of contempt for the residents of this city. One gets the impression that all would be well at city hall - and the editorial offices - if we didn’t have to waste so damned much money providing municipal services like police and fire protection for citizens outside the mile square!

As He Did In 2008, Obama Relies Heavily On Illegal Foreign Donations To Finance His Campaign

Four years ago, conservative blogs were aflutter over reports of foreigners making millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, largely because his online contribution system contained no edits and audits that would allow the campaign to filter out illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources. The mainstream media totally ignored those reports. Four years later, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign continues to rely heavily on foreign donations to finance its campaign in clear violation of federal law. The New York Post demonstrates in a story today how a British citizen was able to contribute to Obama's campaign, while that same foreign subject was unable to make a campaign contribution to Romney's campaign in a similar manner.

The Obama re-election campaign has accepted at least one foreign donation in violation of the law — and does nothing to check on the provenance of millions of dollars in other contributions, a watchdog group alleges.

Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected. It is illegal to knowingly solicit or accept money from foreign citizens.

Walker said he used his actual street address in England but entered Arkansas as his state with the Schenectady, NY, ZIP code of 12345.

“When I did Romney’s, the payment got rejected on the grounds that the address on the card did not match the address that I entered,” he said. “Romney’s Web site wanted the code from the back of card. Barack Obama’s didn’t.”

In September, Obama’s campaign took in more than $2 million from donors who provided no ZIP code or incomplete ZIP codes, according to data posted on the Federal Election Commission Web site.

The Obama campaign said the FEC data was the result of “a minor technical error.”

“All the ZIP codes and numbers are real and can be verified,” spokesman Michael Czin said.

It is simply remarkable how low the bar is set for Obama on every level when it comes to scrutinizing his public and private actions. Any other politician in America would have long ago been driven from public office and prosecuted and imprisoned if he had attempted half of the criminal activities Obama has engaged in throughout his political career, dating back to the time he first served in the Illinois state senate. When the media allowed then-Attorney General Janet Reno to cover up a massive effort by President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign to raise millions in illegal campaign contributions from Asia, the federal law banning foreign contributions essentially became a dead letter law. The Democratic Party viewed that as an open invitation to allow the rest of the world to participate in our electoral process.

Early Voting Up 18% In Marion County

Four year ago, an increase in early voting in Marion County served as a harbinger of Barack Obama's historic win in a traditionally red state. The latest figures from the Marion County Clerk's office reports that early voting is running 18% higher than it was four year ago at this same point. Marion County voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama four years ago, but it supported Mitch Daniels re-election bid for governor by an even larger margin over his Democratic opponent, Jill Long Thompson. Early voting statewide in 2008 was not as high as it was in 2004 when George W. Bush beat John Kerry easily in Indiana with two notable exceptions. The state's two largest counties, Marion and Lake, turned out in higher numbers and both voted heavily for Obama over McCain. Good news for Republicans can be found in higher early voting in heavily Republican counties like Hamilton County than was reported four years ago.

Hoosier Lottery Puts Privatization Documents Online

The Hooiser Lottery has now made available documents related to the award of a 15-year privatization deal with an Italian-owned company, GTECH, including the final contract the state signed with the company. A quick review of the contract reveals that it is strikingly similar to the privatization agreement the state of Illinois' lottery entered into with Northstar, a joint venture between GTECH and Scientific Games. The contract headings, definitions, and terms are virtually identical, suggesting that attorneys for the state of Indiana simply "cut and paste" the Illinois contract. GTECH has promised the state of Indiana $1.76 billion in revenues during the first five years of the agreement. Illinois officials have already been feuding with Northstar because it failed to meet income targets provided for in its contract with the state. Efforts by the state of Illinois to force Northstar to pay a penalty under the contract were unsuccessful during an arbitration of the parties' dispute.

Scientific Games, an incumbent vendor with the Hoosier Lottery, has protested the awarding of the contract to GTECH. In a letter written by attorneys at the law firm of Krieg DeVault, Scientific Games complains that the award of the contract to GTECH violated the Indiana Administrative Code, Indiana's procurement statute, Indiana's Antitrust Act and the equal protection and due process clauses of the state's constitution. Scientific Games' attorneys complains that the process for protesting contract decisions in the Indiana Administrative Procedures Act was repealed in February, 2011 and no substitute regulations were promulgated. When Scientific Games' attorneys asked the Hoosier Lottery's attorney what procedures were to be followed for protesting an award, the attorney told them that the protest procedures could be found within the Request for Information; however, Scientific Games' attorneys complain that the RFI provided no procedure or deadline for protesting a final decision.

More specifically, Scientific Games' attorneys complain that the Commission awarded the contract to GTECH without seeking best and final offers from the bidders despite their being only a 1.7% difference in income offered by the second-highest offer. The protest letter complains that the Commission discriminated against bidders by not sharing all questions and answers submitted during the bidding process by competing bidders. Scientific Games complains that the evaluation criteria used by the Commission were "vague and ambiguous" and that the Commission failed to property evaluate its business plan since its transition costs would be less as an incumbent vendor. In a reply letter from the Commission's attorney, the Commission denied the "blanket allegations" contained in Scientific Games' protest letter. It added that the allegations were too "general and conclusory" to offer a formal response. It gave Scientific Games' attorneys one day to respond after taking nearly a week to respond to Scientific Games' protest letter.

As a Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette story earlier complained, little information can be gleaned from the proposals submitted by the two bidders because so much of their responses have been redacted under a claim of confidential and proprietary information.

Gregg Steps Up Attacks On Pence

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg took off the gloves and came out swinging at Republican Mike Pence during last night's gubernatorial debate. Gregg again claimed that Pence has been ineffective during his twelve years in Congress for failing to pass any legislation and having a poor attendance record, claims denied by Pence. Gregg described Pence as being a "show horse" and not a "work horse," citing a survey of congressional staffers taken a few years ago. He claimed that the only person who had described Pence as being a hard-working congressman was Pence. Gregg added that Pence was "about down to being a one-trick pony." Gregg appeared frustrated at polls that continue to show him lagging far behind Pence. Will his stepped up attacks against Pence work?

The Chicago Way: CTA Inflates Bus Miles Traveled To Defraud Federal Taxpayers

A report in today's Chicago Tribune says the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) stands accused of inflating the number of miles its buses traveled as far back as 1982 in order to obtain greater funding from the federal government. A watchdog group says by "fraudulently over-reporting" the number of miles CTA buses travel while in service that the transit agency received at least $150 million more from the federal government than it was entitled. The CTA claims it follows federal guidelines, but Cause of Action cites "insider audit information" from six years ago to support its contention. Cause of Action blames the clout of Valerie Jarrett, Obama's top White House staffer and former CTA Chairman and Robert Rifkin, former general counsel for the CTA and now general counsel for the DOT, for allowing the CTA to continue defrauding the federal government.

CNN Managing Editor Defends Crowley In E-Mail

TMZ has obtained an e-mail CNN Managing Editor Mark Whitaker sent to the cable news agency's staff trying to blunt criticism about Candy Crowley's role as a substitute teleprompter to aid President Obama's performance in Tuesday night's debate with Mitt Romney. Whitaker accused the Romney camp of engaging in pre-debate attempt to intimidate her, defended her misleading fact-checking intervention to rescue Obama on the Benghazi terrorist attack question, and attributed the need to allow Obama much more speaking time because "he speaks more slowly."

"Let's start with a big round of applause for Candy Crowley for a superb job under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. She and her team had to select and sequence questions in a matter of hours, and then she had to deal with the tricky format, the nervous questioners, the aggressive debaters, all while shutting out the pre-debate attempts to spin and intimidate her. She pulled it off masterfully.

The reviews on Candy's performance have been overwhelmingly positive but Romney supporters are going after her on two points, no doubt because their man did not have as good a night as he had in Denver. On the legitimacy of Candy fact-checking Romney on Obama's Rose Garden statement, it should be stressed that she was just stating a point of fact: Obama did talk about an act (or acts) of terror, no matter what you think he meant by that at the time. On why Obama got more time to speak, it should be noted that Candy and her commission producers tried to keep it even but that Obama went on longer largely because he speaks more slowly. We're going to do a word count to see whether, as in Denver, Romney actually got more words in even if he talked for a shorter period of time."

It's no wonder Romney's camp would have been doing pre-debate spin about the potential for Crowley's bias to appear during Tuesday night's debate. After all, she described the Ryan-Romney ticket a couple of months ago as the "ticket death wish." The notion that CNN would go as far as to conduct a word count to prove that Obama said no more than Romney in the additional time Crowley allotted to him to speak is laughable.