23. April 2008 by Greg Kelver.

“If the 2008 fall election were to take place today, Republicans would have their lunch handed to them in an empty bag.  How do we Republicans ensure that the liberal secular regressives do not sweep the White House and Congress and use this unified power to install their activist, living constitutionalists?”- Republican Congressional Candidate Tony Zirkle, April 18th, 2008 http://www.tonyzirkle.com/CAMPAIGN/

Just when you think this already-too-long primary election fiasco can’t get anymore bizarre…….

With the presidential spotlight now shining on Indiana while the Clintonistas and the McPainites continue to shred Obama about his “guns and religion” comment, Republican Congressional Candidate Tony Zirkle raises the bar to an entirely new level with his campaign appearance at a National Socialist Workers Party event in Chicago

  http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=12532 

Apparently, Mr. Zirkle believes that his campaign outreach to a Chicago political group that he may not have been familiar enough with “to support or oppose” is exactly what the Republican Party needs to save it from itself and give them a full lunch bag in November.

God help the Republicans.

As the current primary fight highlights, to maintain power in our incumbency protected two-party system, both of the Old Parties have to breed fear and conflict in voters.  But the political fear mongering designed to get someone to vote against the greater of two evils does not bring out the best in America - nor does it suddenly stop festering after the election is over. Mr. Zirkle’s comments about “liberal secular regressives” are perfect examples of our fundamental political fear mongering problem.  Big Government Democratic Liberals attack Big Government Republican Conservatives. While each side can clearly see the danger posed by the other side having control of government , neither can see the danger of Big Government as long as it is controlled by “their guys.”  Mr. Zirkle’s comments about his days as a “prosecutor” in Indiana going after Eastern Eurpoean gangs trafficking prostitution and pornography are troubling and more details should be provided to voters. But it is pretty ironic that while Zirkle was in Chicago for birthday cake and tributes, that city was experiencing the type of unusually violent crime rampage that will spur many more calls for Hitler style gun control. 

For clear thinking Independents, the picture in the News-Dispatch of Republican Zirkle at the celebration of  Adolf Hitler’s Birthday should be a jarring historical wakeup call of what can happen when government becomes too powerful and We The People don’t even have guns to cling to.

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17. April 2008 by Greg Kelver.

Ya gotta love how Republicans who get elected to office waving a smaller government/balanced budget banner magically morph into the biggest spenders  once they get in office.  Somebody’s Man Mitch has come up with yet another “brilliant” idea to have overburdened Hoosier Taxpayers pickup the tab for the first two years of college.

   www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080417/NEWS05/804170452

Indiana Taxpayers already pay an extremely high price to support Ivy Tech and the other state supported universities in Indiana. There certainly are plenty of ways for deserving students to get to college - we do not need yet another free ride entitlement program paid for by already overstressed taxpayers.  However, we DO need to radically reform our K-12 schools so that students are once again adequately trained to compete in the world after 13 years of schooling.  Better school choices at less cost to taxpayers is the concept that he and his merry band of legislators should be looking at. 

While Daniels apparently doesn’t have a plan on how to pay for his latest brainstorm, he certainly can do an election year pander that matches the biggest spenders that Democrats have to offer. We can only hope that he doesn’t mislead Hoosier Taxpayers as bad about the cost of his new education entitlement as he did about the cost of the Medicare Drug Coverage or the Iraq War when he was Bush’s director of the OMB. 

www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3738/

 www.whitehouse.gov/omb/speeches/daniels_04budget.html

Beam me up Scotty.

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8. April 2008 by Greg Kelver.

The Daily Kos has picked up that there is definite change in the air and the bandwagon is quickly picking up momentum…  

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/4/8581/30964/172/490040

Over the last eight years, the Bush Republicans have clearly demonstrated what the Clinton Democrats proved beyond doubt in the mid 1990’s - neither Old Party retains any moral authority to lead America.  Both are corrupt-at-the-core and have sold out our fundamental constitutional rights for political trinkets and cold cash.

But it is encouraging that more and more grassroots citizens are finally starting to wake-up and realize that it is time for America to find a new and better way to go forward into the future. Let us all just hope and pray that the next president finds time to read and understand the wisdom of Jefferson at the beginning of his term instead of at the end of it.

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2. April 2008 by Greg Kelver.

Because of the way Indiana and other states psychologically stack the deck against Alternative Political Parties with the taxpayer funded “primary” elections, Old Party candidates enjoy billions of dollars in free coverage from the “mainstream” media that covers their made-for-TV dog and pony show.  But come November, voters will have an opportunity (or at least the electronic illusion of an opportunity) to cast their real vote for or against the bullshit that both Old Parties have been feeding us.

Although Obama and Hillary have suddenly discovered flyover states like Indiana, thinking independents should take a serious look at what some of the other parties will be offering this fall. Congressman Ron Paul’s spirited campaign  has clearly demonstrated that there is a large chunk of America that is hungry for and highly supportive of the libertarian ideas he offered.

Unlike the false promises of “change” offered by Old Parties that are inherently incapable of changing, Ron Paul was totally serious about the changes he would make - and he has the voting record in Congress to prove it. Of course that is yet another reason why his campaign never really stood a chance to get through the GOP gatekeepers

 http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1724358,00.html  

But in my opinion, his biggest mistake was in not returning to the Libertarian Party as a candidate so that Independent voters could have an opportunity to vote for him in November.     

With more and more people clamoring for a “Third Party”, an intriguing possibility would be what would happen if delegates to the Libertarian Party Convention chose to offer voters a Barr-Gravel presidential ticket for the November general election.

Mike Gravel is a former Democratic senator who has just left the Democratic Party and joined the Libertarian Party  http://www.lp.org/media/article_573.shtml  As a former senator, Gravel clearly understands that America is not going to get fixed by either the Democrats or the Republicans - it is going to take something far larger than either of the corrupt-at-the-core Old Parties can deliver. 

Likewise former Republican Congressman Bob Barr has demonstrated that he is a highly qualified individual who has the right stuff to be trusted in a national office and is now considering a run

 http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/01/report-bob-barr-weighing-presidential-run/

Barr clearly understands the Constitution, and since joining the Libertarian Party a few years ago I suspect he has a new and better appreciation for civil liberties than he may have had as a Republican.   Barr is the serious kind of guy who won’t wait for the phone to ring at 3 AM because he will be making the necessary calls at 2 AM while Hillary, Obama, or McCain are still sound asleep.

A Barr-Gravel Libertarian ticket would offer voters a highly qualified option that could provide a much better right-left balance that is more closely aligned to Middle America than the ticket either of the Old Parties will offer this fall.  Isn’t it about time that America is once again given the opportunity to actually vote FOR something instead of being fear-mongered into voting  against the greater of two evils?

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1. April 2008 by Greg Kelver.

“It is by far the largest tax increase in the history of the state, … It is blatantly unconstitutional and it still cripples local government and school.”

Rep. Craig Fry (D-Mishawaka)

http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=8018864&ClientType=Printable

Nice to see a little blunt honesty coming out of the Statehouse. But thanks to the bi-partisan coalition of spendaholic legislators governing Indiana, (and the judge who helped create the current property tax disaster) your Sales Tax bill goes up 16.7% today. Indiana now has one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation - higher than the surrounding states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois.

Looks like the joke is once again on Hoosier Taxpayers. Morton Marcus called it exactly right  - ”the perfect election-year tax increase.”

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS05/80330001/1003/BUSINESS  

“People have no idea how much more in sales taxes they’re going to pay,” he said. “They don’t keep their receipts to see how much they paid compared to how much less they will pay in property taxes. It’s a shell game” 

Keep voting for more of the same, keep getting more of the same. 

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