The vote is still out in Gary Indiana.   What is going on in Gary?  All major cable news networks are zeroed in on us in Lake County.  It's very close.   Is the delay a play for Obama?  Stay tuned.........

Update: Obama wins Lake County, but Clinton still wins Indiana.    Still I saw far more Clinton signs then Obama ones.   Hopefully they will continue  to  rip  into  each other instead of McCain.   It was fun watching the mayor of Hammond (Clinton supporter) and the mayor of Gary (Obama supporter) tear into each other. 

I meant to write about this last week, but didn't get to it.   The Supreme Court upheld Indiana's Voter ID law.  Read more about it here.  It is designed to prevent voter fraud.   Mostly due to a recent East Chicago city election that was overturned due to massive fraud.   Indiana Democrats are of course against it (since they do the fraud).   Unlike places like Chicago,  it requires a ID like a driver's license to vote,  so it  is easy to  do.    It isn't strict  like many  "news organizations" are making it look.

Even if you  "forget"  your  ID you can still  vote  with a  provisional  ballot  which gives you TEN more days to produce an ID.   Not to hard.    But  too hard for most  Democrats  who  worry  people will not be able to vote.    Of  course  many of those "voters " probably shouldn't be voting because they aren't  supposed to vote to begin with.    And that  is the reason for this law.   Since many who aren't  even  citizens or  people who are voting for dead people, or tampering with the ballot box should be prevented.

The Supreme Court did the right thing for once.   Even  a  liberal (Stephens)  was on  the right  side for  once.

I first wrote about Magnequench Magnets, formally located in Valparaiso, Indiana on April 21,2008, here on this blog.    Hillary Clinton was using, in a speech here in Northwest Indiana and also one of her campaign tv ads (at least in the Chicago area) the closing of this company to blast President Bush.   I was wondering (I still am) why she would use this, since Magnequench closing happened during her husbands presidency not George Bush's.   I guess her campaign workers went to a bad public school and didn't learn any math.

Finally the local press here in Northwest Indiana is picking up this story.   The press can be sooooooo  slow when it comes to Democrats scandals (it would be a huge national scandal already had it been a Republican).    Read the story here.   I have heard it is slowly making the rounds since the Obama campaign  and their supporters discovered this mistruth.   So it is finally a story for the press.    Only a month late!

The local press (Northwest Indiana Times) did find out something I hadn't heard about this mess.   George Soros, the nitwit billionaire,  has his fingers in this company as well.   If you don't know who he is,   he gives large amounts of money to Democrats and other loopy lefty liberal groups like Move-on.   His Soros Fund Management was one of the investors when the plant was sold and moved to China.   So now we know why the Clinton Administration  let this  happen.    Figures!

It's ironic to see Democratic candidates stand in front of these closed plants and decry their closing.    Since many of  the Democrat policies (and insiders) are the causes of the closing of these plants!

Northwest Indiana rarely sees presidential  candidates.   But the Democrats have been around a lot this year.   The picture of Hillary drinking the shot of whiskey (with the beer chaser) was shot in a restaurant in Crown Point.    Michele Obama interrupted the school day in Merrillville.   Indiana primary is so much later then most states so most of the time it been decided before we get to vote.   Both Hillary and Barack are planning on other trips here before Indiana's primary.

Hillary is running a new tv ad about  defense jobs being  outsourced to  China.   The company featured in the ad was in Valparaiso.   It is misleading  (all right it is a lie) because she wants you to blame Bush for this.   Never mind that the company relocated in 1999.    I'm not that good at math,  but I think that was long before Bush was around to be blamed for it. 

YES,  she is blaming Bush for something that happened during the CLINTON years!   Does she think people are that stupid?

The company in question is Magnaquench Magnets.   NOBODY is calling her on this downright mistruth.   Not one story anywhere. 

Well, I woke up to a Earthquake this morning.   Which was interesting, because I am in Indiana.     So, how many townhall bloggers were awakened by the earthquake this morning?     I wonder how liberals will blame it on global warming?   

There is a news story at Fox News about newly uncovered corruption at the U.N.   Not a surprise to this blogger.    “Shocking,” and “scandalous,”  said a William Easterly, at the Brooking Institution.   Brooking is pretty far left so it is rare to see someone saying something negative about the U.N. from there.    Almost  $800 million was spent not following the U.N. (probably lax to begin with) rules on spending.    Why the United States continues to support this useless organization,  it needs to go into the  dustbin of history with the League of Nations.

I don't know what it is with this guy,  but Jimmy Carter just keeps going and going.  Carter was president when I started kindergarten.   He was the first  person  I remember being  president (I was maybe a year old when Nixon left office, and I don't remember anything about Ford).    I remember my mom saying that I should wear a sweater and turn off the lights because President Carter had said so.   Never the less I didn't like him very much (although I believe my mom would have gotten some other way to tell me to turn off the lights).  President Reagan sure made a different impression even back then when I was just a first grader.    

Carter had seemed to find new causes for himself after his failed presidency.   He worked with Habitat for Humanity for many years.  He also monitored elections in other countries.   For the most part I think he rehabbed his image for most Americans during the Reagan years.   But lately he sure has ruined that image.

I don't know if it was because of the contact with corrupt foreign nations during "elections" that were not really elections.   Or it could be because of being around caustic people like Michael Moore and other nasty left wing people.  He broke with tradition of not criticizing the sitting President.   He has criticizing Israel  endlessly using really bad facts.   He has even annoyed the staff of his own presidential library so much they quit.   The liberal community has "rewarded" him with the noble prize and favorable coverage. 

Now he wants to meet with Hamas one of the worst terrorist groups there is.  Read about it here.   It most likely borderline illegal.  Private citizens are prohibited to meet with other nations (not that Hamas is really a government) to negotiate  anything for the  U.S.  government.   President Bush sure didn't ask him to do it.  Even the state department (which contains far too many liberals) didn't think it was a good idea.    He just goes and does whatever he feels like doing.    What a fool.    It time for him to retire!

I don't know about you,  but there is a lot of really screwed up ideas that are running around in this country.   Plenty of them are now pretty ingrained in this nation and are going to be hard to rid ourselves of.    However  I am not one of those folks who think we have gone too far and cannot stop things. 

America is pretty amazing.  We have ridden ourselves of slavery,  child labor, bloody and violent leadership changes just to name a few.    We made the middle class,  made homeownership a common thing,  and many have there own businesses.   We are free to practice (or not) a religion of own choosing.   Most of those things were not provided by the government but by the citizens of the U.S. 

But there are all to many who don't think that.   They have made the Democrat political party a minority one in one generation.  Those who think that government is the solution for problems.   When if fact it is government policies that often are the problems.   They want government in business, church and your home.  

It costs big bucks to get their utopia and they are broke.    So the taxpayer must foot the bill.   Even though most taxpayers oppose the ideas and the spending.    They hate free enterprise, private property, religion and a life not relied on government.   So they call you names,  like racist,  selfish, greedy, or not for the "greater good" or demean your beliefs as backwards,  or just plain stupid when you oppose them.  

We have to educate that we don't need things like socialism (or communism).   The government isn't designed to provide things like healthcare and retirement.   We need to make thing like starting a business a noble thing,  providing for your own family the norm,  providing help to people that will help them instead of making them dependent forever.   We need to really believe in the right to life no matter the age.   These are doable.

All these things are more possible the less the government does (and spends).   The federal government is spending away our future on some really dumb things.   Things the government had no business doing to begin with.   The idea of government doing things has got to end.   Thats the biggest thing in the way of real change. 

I wonder what Obama actually likes about the majority of America.  It sure doesn't seem to be much.   We know his wife doesn't like anything about it,  even though she has done very well.  It is a rare moment that we get a statement out in the open like this,  that we get the truth.   He thinks most rural types as dumb,  backwards and in need of a lot of government.  

It true a lot of small (and not so small) towns and cities have gone though tough times.  Unfortunately for politicians like Obama the economics have been worsened by "government types" screwing around.    Instead of  making it easier for new business to come, regulations and high taxes make for a really bad business climate.   They know nothing about how a business works,  especially small business.    They look to huge businesses to come to town,  however those are few and far between.   Small business is the future for most small towns,  but those places have the fewest of them.  

It seems that many of these "rural types" understand  a whole lot better, what the country is really about.   If they are bitter, its because lazy and stupid politicians don't!    They see the real reasons why some places continue to have economic problems.    Gary,  Indiana is one of those places that are never-do-well.    The political class corrupts the whole city,  making any legal economic activities very difficult.   The high property taxes,  high crime rate, lousy schools make for a place no one wants to be in.   Even the great real estate location is ruined by the city and county government. 

If Obama was really interested in helping  struggling areas,  why  doesn't he start at home?   He lives on the south side of Chicago, an area that has had some tough times over the years.   What has he done to improve it?   It hasn't gotten better since he became a politician.   So what makes him better then some of the other south side politicians?  What makes him better then Gus Savage,  Mel Reynolds,  Jesse Jackson Sr. and Jr, Richard Daley M. and J. or any other south side Democrat?   The south side has produced some of the worst politicians in the whole country.  

They have no idea on how to get the economics of slow struggling areas going.   They just represent the same tired,  old unworkable "solutions" that don't work and never will.    Socialism doesn't work.  It really sucks in areas where the economics are bad, in wealthier areas it easier to mask the results of socialism.  

Most Americans don't believe the lefty ideas are very good for Europe let alone the United States.    They talk about guns because they worry that they won't be allowed to hunt (and fish) or have antique gun collections.  They don't like it that  city politicians "know better" and don't like their outdoor activities.   Guns don't cause major problems in the country so it seems silly to even think they need to discuss it since we have the second amendment that is clear to what it says.    

Politicians like Obama wonder why most people go to and like going to church.  He doesn't seem to like church much, since he didn't know what his pastor was "preaching" about.   Most Americans see their constitutional rights of free religion being slowly eroded.    They  know that there is no separation of church and state in the constitution, when most politicians think that it is. (If anything religion need protection from government.)  There are other areas too,  but Obama didn't zero in on those not so "hot" subjects.   It just shows how little he knows about average Americans.   He is no longer an average American,  he has joined the snotty elitism  crowd.  

It scary to think that a "know it all" could be president of the United States.   Of course a third term Clinton administration wouldn't be fun either.  How does he think that he can work with people who disagree with him. He cannot even come to terms with  different  ideas,  he don't even think they are valid. 

Obama didn't want people to pre-judge him but he doesn't return the favor.   I think the White House will remain Republican for the foreseeable future since the Democrats don't seem to be able to produce an electable candidate.    Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barry Obama,  what a joke, its scary the elections were as close as they were.  Thank you "mainstream" media for bring us these frauds, instead of leaving them under the rocks where they belong.

Barry "Barack" Obama  made a campaign stop in Gary, Indiana yesterday.    This is one weird primary election isn't it?    Fine by me,   the more the Democrats fight over the stupid things, the more likely we will hear the words President McCain next year.    Now I am not the biggest backer of John McCain but these two jokers on the Dem side would truly make lousy presidents, so McCain is looking better to me almost every day.   Most polls are putting McCain in the lead over both Clinton and Obama.   A great choice to be his VP will put him over the top.   Hope he makes the right choice. 

Now if that wasn't weird (that a Democrat would bother campaigning in Indiana) enough,  a bank was robbed nearby at the same time as Obama's rally.  I guess the cops were at the rally and the robbers figured it would be easier.   Only in Northern Lake County.    I wish these folks would get a clue and stop voting for these nitwit Democrats.   Its the biggest thing holding North Lake back in the stone ages, the state government knows it will not get any solutions from these politicians.    If  they let these people  grow they could vote Republican like the  rest of the state.

At least Obama had the sense to not get a huge place for his rally.  Clinton supporters were red-faced when she couldn't fill the Hammond Civic Center a few weeks ago.   He got Roosevelt High gym (I "love" how they don't mind disrupting a school day for the kids)  which took about 2,500 people or so.    His warmed over  speech, only  promised the same tired, worn out ideas that haven't worked for Gary for almost 4 decades now.   But most there didn't seem to know that for some reason.

All this for some delegates.   Neither Obama or Clinton have any chance of winning Indiana in November.   No one from the "media" noted that this time either................. 

There has been a call by Hillary Clinton to President Bush to skip the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games.   Read about it here.   Why, because of the unrest in Tibet.  

But wait a minute!  If China was that bad of a choice for hosting,  then why didn't the Clinton Administration oppose it selection?  The  China  location was selected during their years not Bush's.    They did  NOTHING  to oppose it then,  in fact they were in bed with the Chinese!  

This is a political ploy by the Clintons to paint George Bush yet again.   The Olympics are supposed to be politics-free (like anything  is politics free).    Tibet was in just as much unrest then as it is now.    Its just because the media noticed for once.   Which is surprising since Tibet is a pet cause for many liberals (as a cause its not bad).   But like most liberal causes it all talk,  no real ideas on any how to actually help Tibet. 

Hillary thinks she can score some cheap shots at President Bush,  when she and Bill didn't do anything to help the situation.    I think that hosting Olympic Games should be for free nations only (they can send their team but never host),  not communist or lead by dictators .   Even Nazi Germany hosted the last games in 1938  before they started WWII.    If this was a problem for Hillary  with China why did she wait?    Its because she really doesn't actually care about Tibet!  Free cheap shot,  next one please!!!! 

Yes,  countries like China shouldn't be hosting the games.   But at this point its too late.   They are hosting it this time.   But nobody is proposing changing the crummy way that the hosts are chosen.   Bush should go to support our team.    

 In Illinois,  hospitals cannot just provide whatever services it thinks it needs to provide.  Nor can it chose where to provide those services either.   The state has the final say.  They need to ask to build anything, even doctors need permission to open an office. The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board regulates health care construction in Illinois. Why, I don't know, the nanny state thinks it knows better then the decisions made by those who operate and own the hospitals. 

Now St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island is closing.   Its been losing money for years,  and there was no sign of an end to those losses, in fact the losses were getting larger.  It is very hard to run a hospital with patients with no money and a state that doesn't like to pay its bills on time.  They have been trying to open a second campus in Orland Park,  but had been turned down.   Now if they had been allowed to open the second campus, this wouldn't be happening.   Because then the Orland Park location would subsidies the Blue Island location.    But the state knows better.

I was surprised it was St. Francis was the first to announce it's closing.   I thought that Roseland Hospital or Jackson Park Hospital on the south side of Chicago would go under before a bigger hospital like St. Francis.   Those two hospitals have been on the endangered list for years.   Somehow they hang on,  but they could be gone quickly too.

Its a double whammy,   a state that doesn't pay its bills and a state that won't let you move around to try to make some money.   Why the state is paying bills is part of a larger problem.    But not allowing hospitals to make business decisions on its own is a big problem too.   In Indiana,  there is no regulations on hospital construction.   If a hospital can afford it and thinks it has a business case to go forward the state doesn't care.   Hospitals along the border here in Northwest Indiana are booming.   And a new hospital is going forward in Hammond.   Not because of need of a second hospital in Hammond but to serve mostly Illinois residents priced out of state . 

Health cost are lower in Indiana.   Insurance for doctors is more affordable, and tort reform has gone forward here too (Illinois is at the bottom when it come to tort reform).   The free enterprise system and private charity work far better then any government program.    Allowing hospital to go after wealthy patients is the easiest way to fund care for the less wealthy.    The reason that St. Francis cannot even be given away is because its broke and there is no money coming anytime soon.   It cannot only serve the poor, the money will run out again and again.   Then the government comes in,,,,, its too late,  enormously expensive,  and lousy for everybody. 

This is just one situation that make me wonder why anyone would want socialized medicine.  Instead of ditching this stupid idea once and for all,  they got to keep trying to make something that cannot work, work.    Let the market place do it without unneeded regulations,  it will do the job much better then social medicine ever could.    Too many business decisions (not just medical) are made with regulations in mind more then other reasons.   And that is bad news for everybody when free enterprise is stopped. 

Today,  during the school day,  high school students were bused downtown by the Chicago Public Schools.    Not to tour a museum or to see a play,  or hear music at orchestra hall.    To go to a an anti-gun rally.    Yes a stupid left-wing rally.  Read about it here.   I guess in the minds of "educators" something like this is educational.    Maybe it is a little bit, a study of one-sided politics.    I sure don't see them busing kids to a rally for supporting the second amendment. 

Kids in the past couple of years have been ditching school for "peace" rallies.   They haven't gotten into trouble with school officials.  I doubt this would be  the case if the students had  ditched  school for a  pro-life rally (Most pro-life rallies seem to be scheduled better, not during school hours).   

Never mind that stricter gun laws don't  and won't do anything to stop violence.    In fact strict guns law take guns away from the law abiding.   It's tragic that twenty students in the Chicago district have been murdered this school year.   But a rally and strict gun laws will do nothing to stop the murders of students.   I'm not criticizing the kids for this rally  but school officials for organizing something like this.    They have no right to waste students time that should be in the classroom,  no right to waste taxpayers money for the busing,  no right to political activism during work hours. 

I hope that the students were given the option to skip this.    I know they will not be hearing the other side of the debate on the issue of the second amendment.   Yes that is what this debate is about.    Gun violence is a powerful tool that people who don't like the second amendment use to gut the constitution.   Thats what it is all about,  that a few people would like socialism but that darn constitution gets in the way.   If you wonder why people home-school or send their kids to expensive private schools,  this is one of the reasons it happens!  

We need to make school officials and employees understand that they are the working for the taxpayers,  they forget that.    Their opinion is merely that,  an opinion.  Society as a whole do not agree with the opinions of many "educators" which has become very rigid in the last decades.   Gun control is a opinion not a fact.     The students will not learn that lesson today.   They will have to find the other side on their own since it will not be presented today.  Most will not and form an opinion with out all the facts. 

We do the kids a great disservice by being one sided.   We want the kids to be well-rounded but the current education system does a very poor job of doing that.   Liberals have a hard time with facts,  since most of the time the facts are not on their side.

Recently a California court banned home-schooling.    Hopefully this stupidity will be overturned soon.    But what would happen if all these kids were dumped into the public school system.    I have read that over 200,000 kids are home-schooled in the peoples republic of california.    Isn't  California public school system in a somewhat permanent crisis mode?    Private schools would be able to only take small numbers of new students but would be under no obligation to any take any new kids.    So if they forced people to do so most would end up in public school. 

Home-schooled kids always out do public (and private) schools kids on various tests.  Most do better in college as well.    So "educators" and liberals attack the only part of the "education" system that seems to be working for the majority of those in it.   I think that many  parents will break the law and keep their kids home or plan on moving from California.   This is a power play by the nanny state to take away any parenting rights of people. 

IF ANYTHING home-schoolers are doing everybody a FAVOR by reducing the number of people in "overburdened" public schools.   There would be millions of additional kids requiring a public education if they didn't educate at home.   These  people should be celebrated not  labeled as criminals for doing the best for their kids.   If anything needs to be banned it should be the bad schools. 

Some local stuff for you today.   Illinois butting in on BP's new refinery again.   Read about it here.   Illinois,  still sore from losing to Indiana for new investment, is still trying to derail the new refinery.   ILLINOIS POLITICAL FIGURES,,,,,, LISTEN HERE!!!!   IT'S IN INDIANA, YOU HAVE NO SAY OVER THIS,  GO AWAY!!!! YOU LOST!!  

There are many reasons Illinois is losing so badly to Indiana in new business investment.   Illinois high taxes, high regulations,  high corruption,  and other high costs make for a lousy business environment.    Thats why Honda,  BP, Toyota, IBM,  GM, Suburu and many others are choosing to locate in Indiana over Illinois,  Michigan, and Ohio.   Indiana has gotten ALL of the major projects in the midwest due to our better business environment.   Indiana is even wasting money on billboards reminding people of those facts.

In other Northwest Indiana news,  Hillary visits fairly empty hall in Hammond yesterday.   It was noted by the local columnist  but  the column  has been pulled (You know how that works with even the local press).    The hall seat 5,000 but the mayor of Hammond had to talk people into filling the area in the front so the hall wouldn't look so empty.  They had expected to fill it,  and had put loud speakers outside for the "overflow"..........   

Of course no one noted that neither Hillary or Obama have ANY chance of winning Indiana in November.   Even if either become president  McCain will win Indiana easily.    Democrats are few and far between outside of Northern Lake County.   It was funny how Hillary talked about the rust belt in Indiana,  the midwestern state with the least amount of rust belt.    I guess nobody told her that Indiana's steel mills are the worlds most advanced using the latest in state of the art equipment.   I guess nobody told her that there is no way that employment is going to go up in those plants with all her talk of government action or a new trade wars with China.    I guess no one told her that few Hoosier's want Gary to continue to fail and be continue to be a one industry town.  

That what I hate about politician's like her.   Trying to talk people into thinking they can bring back something that can never come back (or never really existed to begin with).   There are soooooooo many blue collar types around here that still think the mills could employ as many as it once did.   The mills once employed nearly 100,000 (today maybe only a few thousand).     Never mind that the mills have only shed jobs by the thousands over the last 30-40 years.     Instead of going after jobs that can be gotten the lure of the past clouds their minds of northern Lake politician's.   The 1960's are still over folks!   I guess that why Clinton is a front runner instead of some washed up loser.