Understanding The Latest Howey Politics Poll Supposedly Showing Lack Of Support For Pence Tax Cut Plan

Howey Politics released a poll yesterday that was widely reported in the news media around the state as an indication that the public does not support Gov. Mike Pence's proposal to cut state income taxes 10%. A report by WTHR is reflective of what mainstream media reported throughout the state:

Indiana Governor Mike Pence has been pushing his ten-percent income tax cut with some reluctance from his own party, and now a new poll reveals a minority of Hoosiers on the governor's side.

A Howey poll released Tuesday found that only 39-percent of people in Indiana support the income tax cut. Thirty-three-percent say they support a Republican Senate version. and 17 percent say they don't support either. 

The numbers cited in the news reports accurately reflect the poll number results released by a pollster, which had a decent track record in the past election cycle, but they don't accurately reflect the media spin put on those poll numbers.

As pollsters know, the devil is in the detail. How a question is put to respondents can skew a poll's results. Many pollsters use push-polling techniques in the wording of questions to push respondents in the direction they want to lead them. Brian Howey provided me the wording of the question that was put to the poll respondents on the Pence tax cut question. Here's how it read:

You may have heard that Governor Mike Pence wants to cut income taxes by 10%. He says Indiana can provide taxpayers with relief and still increase education funding by 1% annually, put more money toward transportation, and set aside a reserve. The Republican controlled Senate recently proposed phasing out the inheritance tax and cutting income taxes by 3% in order to increase education and transportation funding beyond what Governor Pence's plan call for.
Which approach do you support?

In response to that mixed question, 39% said they favored Pence's tax cut plan, while 33% said they favored a smaller 3% tax cut proposed by the Senate. Most notably, only 17% said they supported neither proposal. So what can we conclude from this poll? Well, if I want to spin the poll results another way I can say that it clearly shows an overwhelming 72% of the respondents favor cutting taxes to some degree, with a plurality of those supporting a tax increase favoring Pence's larger tax cut plan over the Senate's smaller tax cut plan. The news media reporting on the poll's results lead one to conclude that a minority of Hoosiers support Pence's call for a tax cut when in fact the vast majority are on his side in calling for cutting taxes. The difference is only the degree to which they favor cutting income taxes. The Senate plan would provide greater reductions in the inheritance tax not included in Pence's tax cut plan so that may attribute the trade off some of the respondents favor over Pence's larger income tax cut. Like I said, the devil is in the details.

Coats Says He Wants To "Get To The Bottom" Of FBI's Botched Investigation Of Terrorist Suspects

We've heard this before. Members of Congress promised to get to the bottom of how so many foreign nationals with terrorist ties could slip into the country undetected and then spend months plotting the hijacking of planes they would fly into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The truth was that many of the hijackers were cleared for entrance by a CIA-run consular officer in Saudi Arabia as Sen. Dan Coats well knows, the same post headed up by current CIA Director John Brennan. Nonetheless, Sen. Coats is promising the public answers it never got after 9/11. The Northwest Indiana Times reports on what Sen. Coats, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News' "American Live With Megyn Kelly." yesterday:

Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said Tuesday the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hopes to “get to the bottom” of the FBI’s previous investigation of one of the Boston bombing suspects.

“Obviously we can’t jump to conclusions until we hear what the FBI did do, and what other agencies did do,” Coats said in an interview on Fox News’ “America Live with Megyn Kelly.”

Coats is a member of the Intelligence Committee, which heard from FBI officials during a closed hearing Tuesday afternoon after Coats’ TV interview.

He did not issue a statement after the hearing. His office noted that the hearing information is classified and the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.

Coats earlier told Fox News, “We want as much information as we can procure, and we want to get to the bottom of it for the safety of Americans in the future, and it’s for providing justice in the proper way.”

Kelly asked why the FBI had not kept better tabs on bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev after inquiries in 2011 by Russian officials about Tsarnaev’s activities. Tsarnaev, who traveled to Russia last year, was killed in a shootout with police three nights after the April 15 bombings.

“The FBI said they did a thorough investigation, but obviously it wasn’t thorough enough. We are looking for other information as to what we could have learned that we didn’t,” Coats said.

“We want the full detail of everything that was done pre- and post-incident in Boston,” he said. “It’s important that we tie this down to make sure we know if there were connections to terrorist organizations overseas, if there’s some foreign element in this. It’s important to know what kind of procedures we have in place here to prevent this or to get these people’s names on the right screens so that when they do travel in and out of the United States, they pop up when they go through the process.”

If you really wanted the truth, Sen. Coats, you would insist on more information on the accused suspects' uncle with ties to our own government be made public. You won't though because we know you know the truth and have no intention of letting the American people know the truth. Nobody who seeks the truth on these matters is permitted to sit on the Intelligence Committee. The FBI told Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) they didn't know about Tamerlan Tsarnaez's long trip to Russia last year because his name was misspelled when it was entered into the system. I knew that was a lie as soon as he said it. Tamerlan was a lawful permanent resident who carries an ID card issued by DHS with smart card technology that is swiped by U.S. border control agents on entrance and exit from the country. Graham later professed shock when DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano contradicted what the FBI told him when she admitted the agency's system had been pinged when Tamerlan exited and re-entered the country. Their excuse now? The information wasn't shared with the FBI. That contradicts reforms implemented post 9/11 to share information among federal agencies.

On another note, many Americans are going to be inflamed when they hear that the accused bombers and their family members were receiving welfare benefits until they stopped meeting the income requirements last year. The Boston Herald reports:

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.

State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home.

In addition, both of Tsarnaev’s parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state.  

The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money . . .

Mass Transit Dead For Now

WRTV's Norm Cox reports that legislative efforts by RINO Mayors Greg Ballard, James Brainard and Andy Cook to hike income taxes to finance a multi-billion dollar metropolitan transit system for the sole purpose of rewarding their pay-to-play contractor pals is dead for this session. The most they can salvage is a study committee. Ballard flew back into town to make a last ditch appeal for this horrible legislation to no avail after pitching an international cricketing event for the $6 million sports park he announced during his trip to India the city is constructing using ReBuild Indy funds intended only for infrastructure improvements.

The proponents claim they've studied the issue to death, but not a single one of them can explain why IndyGo has failed to meet its goal of providing efficient bus service in Indianapolis. On that point, kudos to State Sen. Mike Young, who this blogger has been highly critical of this session, for asking the obvious question none of the proponents want to answer:

"I think my question today to them is if they've studied this issue for 16 years and IndyGo is a bad system, why haven't they been able to improve it in 16 years?" asked Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis. "And they still have leeway on the tax to raise it if they need to make a greater and better bus system. And they haven't been able to accomplish that."

The man is telling it like it is. Mayor Greg Ballard has done absolutely nothing to improve IndyGo during the five years he's been mayor. During that time, he's thrown tens of millions in new subsidies to the billionaire sports team owners and passed out hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers subsidies for private real estate developers who have showered him with campaign contributions, meals, gifts and other freebies for him and his family. Carmel Mayor James Brainard and Westfield Mayor Andy Cook have done nothing within their current taxing authorities to establish mass transit for their constituents. It's not a priority for any of them. Yet they think we should create an entirely new, unelected, unaccountable regional transportation authority to do what they refuse to do with their current taxing and spending authority because they have other priorities.

Military Conducting Urban Warfare Drill In Chicago Suburb

The Chicago Tribune alerts residents of the suburban Chicago community of Tinley Park not to be alarmed by urban warfare training exercises being performed in the community tonite and tomorrow where soldiers will be practicing "building breaching and helicopter operations."

The Department of Defense is holding an urban warfare training exercise at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center site tonight and tomorrow, village officials have announced.

The government training exercises “will include building breaching and helicopter operations,” according to Mayor Ed Zabrocki.

“Building breaching” involves the use of small explosives that are used to take out doors, explained Pat Carr, the Emergency Management Agency’s director in Tinley Park.

“The Mental Health Center grounds provide a very realistic training environment for these different types of exercises,” Carr said.

Village officials are notifying the public about the training exercises to avoid frightening local citizens after the Boston Marathon bombing last week.

“The concern we have is that, when this occurs...on the hands of what happened in Boston, it's gonna make people's nerve-endings a little more sensitive,” Zabrocki said.

The Tinley Park Mental Health Center will be closed to the public during the event. Carr said there shouldn’t be too much noise from the helicopters or the explosives.

In the past two years, the Mental Health Center has been used during training exercises by the Illinois State Police, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Chicago Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in addition to Tinley Park’s public safety agencies.

“What’s unique about this one is that it goes on multiple days and it’s probably the largest of what we’ve had so far,” Zabrocki said.

These urban warfare drills have been taking place with greater frequency in cities all across America. One of the first such excercises happened right here in Indianapolis five years ago when Mayor Greg Ballard, a former Marine, welcomed the military exercise with open arms as if might boost tourism. I watched part of the exercise unfold from the rooftop deck of my building downtown as blackhawk helicopters circled the downtown area. It appeared that the military was simulating an effort to build a protective barrier just outside the mile-square that encompasses the downtown area with staging areas on all four sides. Recent training exercises in Houston and other major cities alarmed local residents. More on that from The New American:

The most recent military exercises in urban areas were held this week in Texas — one over Houston and another in Galveston. In southeast Houston, U.S. Army Special Operations forces working with other agencies used unmarked military helicopters to “take over” a former local high school in the area as heavily armed men in fatigues ran around firing what most frightened residents assumed were live rounds.

"When you see this, you think the worst. When you hear this, you think the worst," area resident Frances Jerrals told a local ABC affiliate after witnessing the highly controversial exercise. "I felt like I was in a warzone. … It was nonstop. I was terrified." Other residents who spoke with reporters expressed similar sentiments, and emergency services reportedly responded to multiple reports of gun fire throughout the operation.

Police officials later apologized for not warning people about the exercise, though the Army claimed it had at least notified the city's public safety director. Still, local authorities, including the city council and the mayor, were never informed of the plans. "They should have notified us on this magnitude. They should have let somebody know," complained Houston Council Member Wanda Adams, who represents the district where the drill took place. Authorities also refused to tell reporters exactly what they were doing, according to local news reports.

In Galveston, meanwhile, residents suffered from a similar simulated military invasion by U.S. Army Special Operations forces working with other agencies; although there, at least, citizens were given advance warning in news reports. According to local media, some 80 soldiers and an unknown number of law enforcement agents firing “simulated ammunition” were involved in the “urban combat” operations. A military spokesman attempted to justify the scheme in a statement e-mailed to reporters.     

"We were invited by the city of Galveston to conduct joint training exercises to enhance the effectiveness of both services in order to better protect the residents of Galveston," claimed Army spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Michael Noggle without touching on posse comitatus — legal restrictions on the domestic use of the armed forces. "The purpose of the realistic urban training is to give our Special Operators an opportunity to hone their skills in a controlled, but unfamiliar, realistic urban environment that cannot be replicated with the bare-boned facades found on military installation ranges."

Before simulating “urban warfare” in Texas, the military was also conducting similar drills in Miami, Florida. Multiple videos have emerged online, some from news agencies, of U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters swarming around downtown last week — similar to late-night drills conducted in the city in 2011 without warning that left thousands of residents terrified. Prior to the latest exercises on January 24, however, local authorities issued a statement urging locals not to be alarmed.

“This is routine training conducted by military personnel designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirement,” local police claimed in the statement cited in news reports, adding that the locations and times “were carefully selected to minimize negatively impacting the citizens of the City of Miami/Miami-Dade County and their daily routines.”
 

Here's a local news report out of Miami on a recent urban warfare training exercise the military performed with local police.

Former Democratic Voter Registration Worker Claims Top Democratic Leader Conceived Petition-Forging Scheme

A 27-year old former Democratic worker in the St. Joseph Co. Voter Registration office today took the stand in the trial of former Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan and Dustin Blythe, a fellow worker in the Voter Registration office. According to Lucas Burkett, Morgan concocted a plan to forge signatures on the presidential nominating petitions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during Indiana's 2008 presidential primary.

South Bend's ABC57 News reports that Burkett participated in the signature forging scheme for about a week before he decided it was illegal and would no longer participate. Morgan had instructed Burkett and other Democratic workers in the office to forge signatures on nominating petitions during their lunch hour Burkett testified. Burkett said he didn't speak to authorities about the illegal scheme until 2010 after he ran into an old classmate, attorney Andrew Jones, who convinced him to go to authorities.

Burkett said he had been afraid to report the illegal scheme to authorities because he was being questioned in an unrelated ghost employment case and feared charges would be brought against him. Burkett claims that Morgan told him that he had worked out a deal with St. Joseph Co. Prosecutor Mike Dvorak not to charge him if he remained silent. Dvorak, who had the case reassigned to special prosecutor Stanley Levco after learning his name had been implicated in the case, testified today that he had made no such deal with Morgan. Dvorak's signature was among hundreds of voters whose names were forged on the petitions.

Two former Democratic voter registration workers have already pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme. Pam Brunette and Beverly Shelton are expected to testify tomorrow.

Feds Drop Charges Against Elvis Impersonator Falsely Accused Of Sending Ricin-Laced Letters To President and Senator

They did it to highly-respected bioweapons expert Steven Hatfill, why couldn't they do it to an Elvis impersonator named Paul Kevin Curtis in Corinth, Mississippi? After the FBI and federal prosecutors last week charged Curtis with mailing ricin-laced letters to President Obama, Mississippi's Sen. Roger Wicker and a local judge, red-faced federal officials dropped all charges against him and released him from jail. Curtis' attorney had maintained from the time of his arrest shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings that he had been framed. The government now agrees. CNN reports on the dropped charges against Curtis:

Charges against the Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and other officials were dropped Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams said, citing "new information" that has been uncovered.

Authorities now are investigating whether someone may have tried to falsely implicate Paul Kevin Curtis, according to a law enforcement source, speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity.

Curtis said he wants to "get back to being normal" after being falsely accused.

"This past week has been a nightmare for myself and my family," he said. "My mother has suffered as well as my children."

Curtis, an Elvis impersonator from Corinth, Mississippi, was arrested April 17 and charged with sending a threat to the president last week after letters containing the poison triggered security scares around Washington..  

Curtis' attorney, Christi McCoy, said her client has been framed by someone who used several phrases Curtis likes to use on social media.

Federal officials are now investigating a Tupelo, Mississippi man who was recently charged with child molestation. Tha man says he's innocent and knows nothing about the ingredients for making ricin.

In 2001, the FBI falsely accused Hatfill of sending anthrax-laced letters through the U.S. mail to Senate offices and several news media services. Hatfill later sued and won a settlement of $5.8 million from the federal government for ruining his reputation. The FBI later blamed the anthrax mailings on another government scientist after he committed suicide.

Trial Begins For Two St. Jospeh County Democrats In Obama Petition-Forging Case

Again, you won't read much about this case beyond the South Bend Tribune, which broke the story of how key Democratic operatives in St. Joseph County conspired during the 2008 presidential election to forge signatures on the nominating petitions of Barack Obama in order to secure a place for him on the Indiana Democratic presidential primary ballot. Two officials in the scheme have already pleaded guilty, including the Democratic head of the county's voter registration office. Former St. Joseph Co. Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan and a party worker, Dustin Blythe, now stand trial for their accused roles in the scheme. The Tribune takes an interesting look at the jury selection process yesterday as the trial got underway:

Both sides — the state, represented by special prosecutor Stanley Levco, and the defense, represented by public defender Jeffrey Kimmell (Blythe) and William Stanley (Morgan) — asked the jurors whether they were loyal to a particular political party and, if so, whether that might affect their ability to decide the case in an impartial manner.  

"Do any of you, because of your political affiliation, feel you are leaning one way or another?" Levco asked.

Some said yes, others said no.

In one case, Kimmell flat out asked a group of 14 prospective jurors whether any of them identified as Republican.

A few raised their hands.

Levco also asked whether any of the jurors felt the alleged crimes were not serious or should not be prosecuted so many years after the fact.

Again, on both points, some said yes while others said no.

Despite the considerable amount of local and even national media attention paid to it over the past 18 or so months, less than half of the 41 prospective jurors questioned on the matter admitted to any prior knowledge of the case.

Some did, however, admit to knowing one or both of the defendants and/or one or more of the potential witnesses.

In the end, it took about three and a half hours to select 14 jurors — four males and 10 females, including two alternates — from a pool of 56. A roar erupted from the jury room when the final three entered about 5 p.m.

The trial resumes today with opening statements and jury instructions according to the Tribune.

Police Now Probing Dead Bombing Suspects' Link To An Unsolved Triple Homicide Involving Drug Dealer

The intrigue surrounding the two men accused of carrying out the deadly bombs that shook last Monday's Boston Marathon takes yet another twist. The Boston Globe says police are looking at a possible link to a triple homicide committed more than a two years ago involving a drug dealer and man described as one of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's best friends. Tsarnaev didn't attend the friend's funeral and left on a 6-month trip to Russia seveal months following the killings after FBI officials had questioned him about his ties to radical Islam.

It was one of the most gruesome killings in Greater Boston in many years: three young men found with their throats slit inside a Waltham apartment on a quiet residential street, their bodies sprinkled with marijuana.

Now, police and prosecutors are stepping up their investigation into the unsolved 2011 triple homicide at the request of victims’ relatives who believe that suspected Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have played a role, noting that Tsarnaev had been close friends with one of the dead men.

What is more, the grieving relatives say the killings took place on a highly symbolic date for Islamic extremists: the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon . . .

The death certificates of two of the victims — Brendan H. Mess, 25, and Rafael M. Teken, 37 — say they were killed on Sept. 12, the day that Mess’s girlfriend reportedly discovered the bodies of the three victims and ran screaming from the two-family house where they had gathered.

But a relative of one of the victims told the Globe he is certain they were killed on the evening of Sept. 11, because he was texting one of them about a Sunday night football game between the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys when communication suddenly stopped, at about 8:15 that evening . . .

The Globe reported Saturday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev knew Mess well, once introducing him to the owner of the gym where they both worked out as his “best friend.” But another friend of Mess pointed out that Tsarnaev did not even attend Mess’s funeral.

“If they were best friends, you would think [Tamerlan] would have been absolutely devastated and would have reached out to someone,” said the friend of Mess, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. “That confirms my suspicions that something was up.’’

Records reviewed by the Globe show that at least one member of the Mess family lived in the same Cambridge neighborhood as the Tsarnaevs . . .

In 2011, FBI agents questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev after his native Russia raised concerns about his possible extremism.

In addition, within months of the triple homicide, in early 2012, Tamerlan went to Russia for six months, visiting family members in Dagestan, which borders the Tsarnaevs’ ancestral homeland of Chechnya, a region with a history of violent Islamic rebellion . . .

In addition to the marijuana and $5,000 found at the crime scene, Weissman’s past may have pointed investigators to drugs as a motive. In 2008, Weissman was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, according to a police report.

Sponsor Of $100 Million Giveaway To IMS Prefers Taxpayers, Not Gaming Industry Pay For Subsidy

State Sen. Mike Young is such a nice guy. He first offers an amendment to a vehicle bill in the Senate to provide $100 million to the privately-owned Hulman-George family to make improvements to their Indianapolis Motor Speedway using state tax dollars that was rammed through the Senate in a matter of days with virtually no public discussion. This, of course, came on the heels, of the Hulman-George adding two prominent rent-a-civic leaders, Mark Miles and Jim Morris, to be a part of their corporate leadership team, hiring a team of lobbyists, including former lawmakers, and showering lawmakers with campaign contributions and free tickets to IMS events.

Young acted like he was becoming physically ill after the House Ways & Means Committee proposed tapping the state's two racinos owned by Centaur Gaming, whose principals have several key lawmakers in their back pocket, along with former lawmakers lobbying on their behalf, as the source of funding for the $100 million giveaway. Now that SB 91 is in conference committee, Young, who says he has nothing to do with the gaming industry, isn't about to link his legislation to the industry now, so he'll make state taxpayers foot the bill instead. The Star's Mary Beth Schneider reports on the progress of Young's unprecedented tax giveaway to one of the state's wealthiest families:

House and Senate lawmakers today began negotiating a final version of legislation to help the Indianapolis Motor Speedway finance improvements.

But one thing that won’t be in a rewritten Senate Bill 91: Taking money from the racinos.

The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, had linked the Speedway bill to the racino bill by taking money from the racinos to help the motorsports industry.

Sen. Mike Young, R-Speedway, said this morning that he would not agree to that change at all. Instead, he said, he preferred leaving the measure as it came out of the Senate, with the state contributing up to $5 million annually for 20 years to the Speedway. He said he was open to the House language, which made that a loan.

However, some lawmakers have said that is hardly a typical loan, as it is paid back by the state crediting the Speedway for the growth in sales and income taxes generated on the track’s property. The House version also includes a ticket fee.

The only thing for certain is that ordinary taxpayers will get the short end of the stick. The rich and powerful who pull the lawmakers' strings always get what they want. Why do they even pretend to represent us? On that point, the Star's editors have a good idea for legislation concerning financial disclosure by lawmakers, which means it will never see the light of day:

One obvious answer to the rampant promotion of personal interests in the Indiana General Assembly is greater transparency.

Report all outside income and financial ties. Make clear exactly whom campaign contributions and other gifts come from, and stop allowing influence-seekers to hide their activities under surrogate names. End the insulting practice of letting meals bought by lobbyists for legislators go unreported unless they cost more than $50.

Common sense and basic ethics. Yet there’s no sign of movement into such sunlight, despite a flurry of media attention to the ingrained coziness between lawmakers and special interests.

Nor – and this may be the key – is there much embarrassment about conflicts even when they’re exposed.

Two egregious examples made the news last week.

The coal industry won protection, at the expense of consumers, thanks to two legislators who hold high-level jobs in coal and the railroads that haul it.

A lobbyist for a company seeking a multimillion-dollar state contract got help from her father, a House leader, just a week after the governor placed a hold on state aid the lawmaker reportedly helped obtain for his son’s company.

In both instances, the elected officials insisted they were objective stewards of the public’s will and wouldn’t dream of acting out of personal interest.