Sunday, October 29, 2006

It's No Big Surprise The Herald Times Endorses Hill

The Herald Times under the misguided direction of its editor Bob Zaltsberg today sold out and broke a long standing tradition of not endorsing Congressional candidates by endorsing Baron Hill in the 9th District over incumbent Mike Sodrel. The reasoning behind their endorsement was as stale as Baron Hill’s talking points. Its highly disappointing that a newspaper has to stoop to such a low point by encouraging people to vote for a candidate that has failed to gain any traction with his own campaign. Baron Hill has not shown any indication that he has any new ideas or plans that would give the citizens of the 9th District any hope that things would be better if he is elected to serve. The only thing he has offered to date has been personal and professional attacks on Mike Sodrel, George Bush and the entire Republican agenda. Mike Sodrel on the other hand has shown leadership, direction and intelligence in his short time in office. He has shown that he has the ability to get things done and has been truly effective at representing the citizens of his district.

In the HT's endorsement they coincidentally managed to hit on every single one of Hill’s talking points. They even bought into excuse that Hill uses when he is asked why he voted for the war while serving in Congress. Hill and other Democrat talking heads continually spew the line that they were lied to. In other words a Congressman that doesn’t have the backbone to stand up for what everyone believed to be true at the time when he represented us. If he is so sure that he has what it takes to represent us why he is so ashamed of his past voting record? I think we would all like to have the luxury to recall our decisions but that is the very reason we elect people to represent us, they have to make tough decisions and then we expect them to defend their choices. I would like to have the assurance that all elected officials are making the best-informed decisions they possibly can with the information available to them at the time and then I want them to defend their position with credible facts and data. The fact that Hill doesn’t want to be held accountable for his voting record not only on the war but on several issues is reason enough for me to discount him as a viable candidate for such an important position and proves that he has absolutely no credibility.

Excuse me if I don’t feel that HT’s endorsement carries any validity. When a newspaper goes beyond reporting the news to making the news it looses its validity as an unbiased source of information. For the HT to weigh in with an opinion on something as important as a Congressional race without maintaining its objectivity it looses all credibility in my mind. Everyone should be disappointed that Bob Zaltsberg and crew cannot keep thier opinions to themselves. Why this small group feels compelled to attempt to sway the opinions of voters in a race that would be better served by simply providing fair, honest and complete reporting is a mystery to me. Unfortunately we have all been subjected to this type of journalism for far to long in Monroe County and that is why most people discount the HT as a credible newspaper. The only solace people can take in this is if the HT's past track record of endorsements is any indication of their prow ness in picking winners Mike Sodrel won’t have anything to worry about on election day.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Watch List Indeed

Recently the Herald Times ran an editorial indicating some of the ongoing mismanagement of the Auditor’s office. Their editorial was concluded by indicating the Auditor’s office should be watched closely and they even went so far as to suggest the County Council should not rule out the possibility of calling in an outside agency to review or even perform an audit of the misdeeds of Sandy Newman’s office. With the control of the Auditor’s office tightly in the clinches of the left wing neophytes running the Council the likelihood of that occurring is about as likely as Rush Limbaugh turning into a flaming liberal. The likes of Stoops and Travis have been pulling the strings on the Auditor’s office since Newman took office in ’05. Newman’s lack of understanding in running the Auditor’s office shouldn’t come as a surprise because she has had absolutely no experience in the office she currently holds. The citizens of Monroe County are getting exactly what they asked for so if blame is going around shame on the voters for electing her in the first place.

If it weren’t bad enough that since she has taken office Newman’s blundering has created chaos for businesses and citizens of Monroe County she has never once taken responsibility for her actions. She always has someone else doing all of the talking and when she does speak its only to point the blame in someone else’s direction. Come on, we didn’t hire the Deputy Auditor and we sure as hell didn’t hire the Auditor’s staff, she did. So why can’t she assume any of the responsibility? Let’s face it; she is way out over her skis! While on the subject of being way out over their skis did you get a stomach full of Sophia Travis and Andy Ruff being a part in the frivolous lawsuit against I-69? Travis, the poster child for the right wing extremist allowed herself to once again be used to defend the ludicrous position of small minority of vocal individuals that can’t seem to grasp the realities of simple economics. Their only hope is to throw as many obstacles as possible in the way of progress in an attempt to disrupt and delay the process as much as possible when in fact the only thing it is going to do is create additional hardship on the tax paying citizens of the State of Indiana. It is shameful that elected officials are making the assumption that they can speak for all of Monroe County by lending their names and titles to such a laughable lawsuit. If they would only expend that much energy and put that much emphasis in fulfilling their responsibilities as elected officials we would all be much better off.

Another report that has filtered out of the County Council recently is that they’re patting themselves on the back and taking credit for managing to cut the operating budget for 2007. Now the real story, they managed to set the budget for 2007 just a tick under 2006 however, they also managed to borrow two million dollars that will have to be repaid. The reality or net effect is a budget that is two million dollars higher than this year’s with the uncertainty of the revenue figures that support the budget that was recently passed. Furthermore the employees of Monroe County had to forgo even a basic cost of living increase all the while the cash reserves will be tapped to shore up the Council’s spending. I think voters are beginning to see for themselves what a mess they have created by electing individuals without any relevant work experience and you know it must be bad when the liberal editorial staff of the Herald Times puts the public on notice and the Auditor’s office on their watch list! Looks like it's about time to elect a few Republicans to get our house back in order.