That's About Right

Star editorial cartoonist hits the nail on the head with this one. To some, it's always been a mystery why Obama chose the gaffe-prone senator with hair plugs as his running mate in 2008. Biden landed his spot on the ticket the Chicago way. He got his son,  Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, to fabricate criminal charges against Larry Sinclair, who had accused Obama of using cocaine and having sex with him in the back of a limousine in Chicago when Obama was a state senator. Biden's son had D.C. police arrest Sinclair at the National Press Club in Washington where Sinclair appeared to tell his sex and drugs story and have him extradited to Delaware to face the made up charges. How else do you explain picking the biggest idiot in the U.S. Senate as your running mate? A lot of Republicans have been speculating that Obama might drop Biden from the ticket, but that would be admitting that you made a mistake. Obama has never admitted making a mistake in his life. While we're on the topic of Biden, it looks like his good buddy and big campaign contributor, John Hynansky, just landed a $20 million federal government loan to build a luxury car dealership in the Ukraine according to the Daily Caller. You just can't make this stuff up.

UPDATE: Funny new video from American Crossroads PAC.

Mayor Ballard Thanks Billionaire Simon For Improvements To Fieldhouse Paid For By Taxpayers

A further indication of just how much of an enemy of the people Mayor Greg Ballard has become is a statement put out this afternoon by his office thanking billionaire Herb Simon for using public subsidies to make improvements to the Fieldhouse, which is operated exclusively for the benefit of Simon's Indiana Pacers.

"Mayor Ballard thanks the Pacers and the Simon family for their investment at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. 

"These new amenities will greatly improve the fan experience at what is still considered one of the finest venues in the nation, but they will not be a factor during the negotiations to extend the long-term management contract for the fieldhouse with Pacers Sports and Entertainment."

Talk about delivering the middle finger to the hard-working people of Indianapolis who pay the taxes that financed $33.5 million in subsidies given to Herb Simon's Indiana Pacers over the past three years. Herb Simon didn't invest one dime of his billions in these improvements. Ask him to produce the audited financial statements for the Indiana Pacers and Pacers Sports & Entertainment that would prove it. He won't do it because they would prove that he's been lying about how his poor NBA franshise is losing so much money. People who know the Simons know that they never continue operating a business that proves to be a losing investment. You don't become a billionaire operating losing businesses. Ballard's comment is every bit as insulting as President Obama's recent suggestion that "you didn't build that" in reference to business owners. An IBJ story unbelievably makes this comment about $16 million Pacers Sports & Entertainment will spend on a new digital scoreboard and audio system.

Pacers Sports & Entertainment is making the investment into the 13-year-old venue. But whether it will seek reimbursement from the building’s owner, the Capital Improvement Board of Marion County, remains to be seen.

Jim Morris, president of Pacers Sports & Entertainment, said at Thursday's announcement that the organization is in “preliminary conversations” with the CIB about a long-term lease. The current, 20-year agreement expires in 2019.

“I have no idea what the negotiations will entail,” Morris said of whether reimbursement will be sought from the CIB.

The building cost $185 million to construct and only $6 million has been invested in upgrades since its opening, Morris said.

So we might be forced to reimburse this greedy and arrogant billionaire who could give a rat's ass less about the people of Indianapolis after we've already forked over an additional $33.5 million in subsidies to his sports franchise on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars he and his family have taken in subsidies from the City of Indianapolis over the past several decades. This town is so messed up in its priorities that it's beyond belief. Rent-a-civic leader Jim Morris is probably negotiating the next bonus payment Herb has promised him if he suckers the CIB and Mayor Ballard into making the additional subsidies for his useless NBA franchise permanent. Scratch that. The backroom deal has already been brokered. Morris is just waiting to collect his bonus. They're just going to wait until after the dust settles from the budget battle over the city-county budget that is going to result in cuts to basic city services at the same time taxpayers are going to be hit up for even higher taxes. This is what happens when good people stand by and do nothing while a bunch of corrupt bastards plunder our public resources.

UPDATE: Check out this story by Richard Florida in a recent edition of The Atlantic Cities discussing whether professional basketball arenas spurs economic development. The answer of an objective study is a resounding NO.

Grow Mass Avenue A Shill For Developers?

In recent weeks, a new group has sprung into existence claiming to represent the interests of Mass Avenue business owners who want to see a TIF district expanded to include the entire business corridor supposedly because that's the only way the 500 block of Mass Avenue, which is currently home to a fire station, can be redeveloped. Fellow blogger Matt Stone uncovered the fact that Jennifer Wagner of Darvel Communications registered the domain name for GrowMassAve.com. Wagner's husband, Gordon Hendry, is an executive with CBRE, a real estate brokerage firm that stands to make a million-dollar plus brokerage commission as the city's agent if and when the fire station property is redeveloped. Wagner is also a paid spokesperson for the Indiana Democratic Party and has recently angered some local Democrats because she has gone out of her way to undercut arguments made by council Democrats that reforms in the city's TIF policy are needed before any further TIF expansions occur and more information is needed to justify the major expansion of a downtown TIF district to encompass a business corridor that has been booming despite the economic depression that has hit most areas hard. Wagner even berated council Democrats for criticizing the double-digit pay raises Mayor Ballard recently handed out to top members of his staff while he demands cuts from other city agencies to close a $50-$60 million budget deficit. The irony is that Wagner once was Ballard's biggest critics when she published a blog highly critical of him, "The Accidental Mayor."

What's interesting is that the Mass Avenue business owners already have their own business organization, the Mass Avenue Merchants Association, which represents their business concerns. Why was it necessary to form Grow Mass Ave? Is it possible that many of the area merchants aren't buying into the agenda being advanced by Grow Mass Ave? I've personally spoken to several business owners along Mass Avenue, who are doing very well and question the need for the creation of a TIF district or an economic improvement district (EID) that is being pushed by Grow Mass Ave. The EID would collect assessments on all property within a designated district if support can be garnered from owners of a majority of the assessed property within the district and the city-council approves its formation. Assessments collected from the businesses would be used exclusively within the proposed district. One business owner, who is opposed to the idea, shared with me the fact that proponents of the EID are even trying to collect assessments on residential property, whose owners would benefit little from the EID's expenditures, and extend the reach of the district well beyond the borders of Mass Ave.

The face of Grow Mass Ave currently appears to be Cassie Stockamp, who is not a business owner. She is the President of the Athenaeum Foundation, a nonprofit that oversees the historic Athenaeum building adjacent from the block Wagner's husband is trying to redevelop on behalf of the city so he can earn his big-time commission. There are rumors that the foundation may have been promised some money to make repairs to its building if the TIF district is approved. The Ballard administration is currently reviewing proposals from three developers, each of whom are anticipating major public subsidies to undertake the redevelopment of the block. Stockamp has claimed without substantiation that Mass Ave business owners will suffer harm if the TIF district is not created.

In the past couple of years, the corridor has seen continued redevelopment despite the depressed economic condition without the assistance of a TIF. On the north end of the corridor, Riley Area Development CDC is just completing a mixed use project, Trail Side, that involved razing a building formerly owned by Center Township and redeveloping a half block area into 69 affordable apartments with ground level retail/commercial space and off-street parking. The Cunningham Group opened up its second restaurant on the Avenue, Bru Burger, which has enjoyed great success, along with its first restaurant, Mesh. A microbrewery is slated to open up a block from the Avenue at the corner of Park and North, and a major mixed use project, which will cover almost an entire city block at the corner of Michigan and College, is slated to kick off next year without any government assistance.

What should be abundantly clear to the public is that a propaganda machine has been put into place in an effort to steer tens of millions of tax dollars into the hands of private developers to redevelop an area that has already proven that it can sustain current and future development without siphoning off much-needed property tax revenues from other taxing districts. Unfortunately, the mainstream media has simply been shilling for the Ballard administration and the private developers/architects, who stand to benefit handsomely from government handouts. This is an outrage when you consider that basic city services must be reduced because of the lack of revenues to finance them. The public must rise up and demand accountability from their elected officials. If Mayor Ballard gets his way, you will be paying higher property taxes on your homes, while these fat cats walk off with millions of taxpayer dollars. Call your city councilor and the mayor's office today and demand that they represent the public's interest, not the fat cat contributors who are lining their pockets with campaign contributions, free dinners at five-star restaurants and tickets to sporting events.

Will Lawrence Be First Indiana Municipality To File For Bankruptcy?

It looks like the Paul Ricketts racket out in Lawrence left behind a lasting legacy before being tossed from office by voters last fall. Lawrence Mayor Dean Jessup is warning council members that the city could face bankruptcy before year's end unless drastic cuts are made in the city budget, largely falling on the police and fire departments. Mayor Jessup says the city will run out of money by November unless emergency budget cuts are made. Council members are balking at the cuts and denied an opportunity to Mayor Jessup to address the city's budget woes at the council meeting last night according to WRTV. The problems seem to stem from a decision by former Mayor Ricketts to add a bunch of new positions for which there was no permanent funding, including 18 firefighter positions. Ricketts died earlier this year. Will Lawrence's budget woes force it to consolidate its police and fire departments with the City of Indianapolis? It's never made sense to me that Lawrence, which is part of the incorporated consolidated government of Marion County, should have a separate police and fire department.

Lieutenant Governor Candidates Debate

The three candidates for Lt. Governor faced off in a debate at the Indiana State Fair yesterday where the focus was largely on agriculture-related issues. Judging from Niki Kelly's story in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, she thought John Gregg's running mate, State Sen. Vi Simpson, performed the best of the three.

Democrat Vi Simpson offered several specific proposals during the traditional debate, while Republican Sue Ellspermann focused on the heritage of agriculture in Indiana. Libertarian Brad Klopfenstein provided some levity . . .

Simpson offered one concrete proposal – stop using state gas tax dollars to fund Indiana State Police and Bureau of Motor Vehicle expenses . . .

Ellspermann quoted a lot of statistics but didn’t provide a lot of specifics . . .

According to Kelly, all three candidates agreed that Indiana's new property tax cap law unfairly shifts the property tax burden to farmland. Simpson would take the most radical approach be repealing the state constitutional amendment that caps property taxes on residential property at 1%. Ellspermann wants to change the way farmland is valued.

May Claims To Be Victim Of $15,000 Extortion Attempt

Advance Indiana earlier reported on an incident where someone delivered a birthday present containing dead flowers to 7th District Republican congressional candidate Carlos May. In the interview above posted on YouTube, May claims he was also the victim of a $15,000 extortion attempt. Speaking of the extortionist, May said, "From his own Facebook account, he was basically trying to extort $15,000 from my family, claiming he was going to take all of this information to Carson's camp. That one was a little bit more precise. That was a little bit more direct so I let the FBI handle that one." May doesn't name the extortionist. I'm not sure why May chose an interview with RebootCongress.com to reveal the extortion attempt, which apparently happened before the gift of dead flowers was sent to him. An elderly white man in his 60s was described as the person who delivered the package to JT's Bar & Grille where an event had previously been scheduled to celebrate May's 33rd birthday that was later cancelled.

Zoeller's Forced State Fair Stage Collapse Settlement Rejected By Mid-America

Well, this takes the cake. First, Attorney General Greg Zoeller offered the victims of last year's tragic State Fair stage collapse a take it or leave it deal that required the victims to accept a $7.2 million settlement offered by Mid-America Sound Corporation and Thomas Engineering as a condition to the payment of an additional $6 million appropriated by the state legislature above the $5 million the victims were allowed to recover under Indiana's tort claim act. After the deadline passed for accepting the deal, we learned that Mid-America Sound had slipped an indemnity clause into invoices it submitted to State Fair officials after last year's tragedy, which it claimed legally made the state responsible for its liabilities in the event claimants were successful in their lawsuits against the company. The Attorney General's office said it didn't want to take a chance that Mid-America might prevail in court; however, Indiana law seems pretty clear that the company could not have shifted that liability to the state. Now we learn that Mid-America has reneged on the settlement deal because, although 51 of the 62 claimants accepted the deal, the victims not accepting the deal  (namely, the families of the deceased) represented a disproportionate amount of the potential liability the company faced. From WRTV:

Mid-America Sound Corporation, which constructed the stage that collapsed before an Aug. 13, 2011, concert killing seven people and injuring dozens more, said that minimum participation requirements specified by the state were not met by Wednesday's deadline.

"The state's proposal required a sufficient ratio of claimants from the largest claims categories to accept the settlement in order for it to become effective," Myra Borshoff Cook, spokeswoman for Mid-America Sound, said in a statement . . .

"Mid-America Sound Corporation is hopeful that future efforts seeking to resolve the claims associated with the tragic events of Aug. 13, 2011, are successful to bring full and satisfactory resolution to the claims now pending," Borshoff Cook said.

The attorney general's office had not returned calls for comment Thursday.

The Attorney General's office will now proceed to distribute the additional $6 million to all of the claimants as it would have done before Zoeller brokered the agreement with Mid-America.

Lamestream Media Critiques Paul Ryan's Fashion Taste

The media hoped to sink the rollout of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's VP pick by aping the Democrats false and misleading attempts to characterize his constructive plan to rescue the Medicare system that Obama raids to help pay for his new government-run health care plan, but that effort is clearly failing as the American people warm to this rising star from the American Heartland. If we learned anything from the Palin experience, nothing is off limits when it comes to mainstream media coverage of a conservative candidate. The Omedia won't ask questions about who's paying for Michelle Obama's costly wardrobe as they did with Nancy Reagan, a former Hollywood actress, or how the First Couple spend more of the taxpayers' money on travel and entertainment than any other President in the history of the country. Yet apparently they've already found time to critique Ryan's lack of taste when it comes to clothing fashion.

There's this from the New York Times:

The man from Janesville, Wis., was hoisted onto the love pedestal, a nerd suddenly out of his loafers and into the sex dreams of Republicans, who apparently, unlike Democrats, need this kind of thing . . .

My editor asked me to write a critique of the two men’s attire on the day of the announcement in Virginia, thinking there might be something in their casual look . . .

But one thing bugged me about Mr. Ryan’s appearance on the day of the announcement in Virginia, on the symbolic deck of a battleship. He had on a blazer with an open-neck shirt and dark trousers . . .

So much for his lethal six-pack. He was swimming in his coat, like Tom Hanks in “Big” when he becomes a kid again . . .

The Washington Post is not impressed with Ryan's attire either:

On Saturday, Mitt Romney introduced his running mate, Paul Ryan, describing their shared ideals and shared vision for America.

The two, evidently, do not share a tailor . . .

But Ryan (Wis.) appeared rumpled, slightly sloppy for a vice-presidential candidate. As if he’d flown in hours before and mistakenly picked up someone else’s suitcase. His pants sagged at his ankles. His starched, white shirt bunched at his stomach. His dark jacket drooped, better suited for a man of the cloth than a man on a presidential ticket.

And then there's this from Buzzfeed:

Over the past few days, you may have found yourself thinking, "Why, is that a gingham sail or is it one of Paul Ryan's shirts?" Unless you were somewhere *really* preppy, it was probably just one of Ryan's shirts. Wherever he goes, there they are those shirts, folding over the waistbands of his baggy pants while he gestures at a sea of Romney posters . . .

Or bunching up around the belly button when he weeps on stage.

They crinkle just about everywhere when he walks around the big Romney bus . . .

Contrast that treatment with how female reporters ogled over Obama as he pranced around in tight-fitting jeans on his campaign plane during the 2008 election or how they constantly fawn over how stylish Michelle Obama is. Notwithstanding the observations of the mainstream media about the way Ryan dresses, fellow blogger Debbie Schlussel laments the vanity of many women and some gay men because "Paul Ryan Shirtless" is among the top Ryan search terms on Google. To the disappointment of many, there are no shirtless images of Ryan. You'll have to settle for this picture of Ryan, a P/90X devotee, showing off his impressive biceps with Tony Horton.

Paul Ryan with P/90X trainer/founder Tony Horton

Bayh Wants Hogsett To Run For Indianapolis Mayor

The Star's Carrie Ritchie has a story today discussing the political ambitions of U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett and whether he will run for Indianapolis mayor in 2015. Hogsett isn't saying, but his former boss, Evan Bayh, is, who thinks he would make a good candidate.

At least one Indiana Democrat will say with certainty that Hogsett would be the ideal candidate.

"He's honest, he's hardworking, he's smart," Bayh said. "He values saving taxpayers' money. . . . What a wonderful representative for the Democratic Party and the people of Indiana."

Bayh said Hogsett hasn't mentioned wanting to run again, and Hogsett neither confirmed nor denied that he wants to add "mayor" or "senator" to his resume.

"I think that there's going to be plenty of people interested in running for mayor in 2015," he said. "My job as the U.S. attorney is to work with Mayor (Greg) Ballard, which I frankly have enjoyed doing, so I don't really even want to comment on that possible speculation."

If Hogsett focuses on his current job the way he's focused on his political ambitions, he's got a lot of unfinished business to do, including some high profile public corruption cases involving the Ballard administration. My guess is that the corrupt combine of Republicans and Democrats, which pulls all the strings in Indianapolis, will make sure that doesn't happen regardless of what political ambitions Hogsett may have.