Eye on Indianapolis

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Todd Rokita's actions "improper and smacking of McCarthyism"

Todd Rokita launched an unhinged attack on an Indiana physician recently, and the blowback continues.

According to IBJ.com, "A former congresswoman and retired federal judge are publicly criticizing Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, describing recent actions as improper and smacking of McCarthyism. Susan Brooks, a Republican who represented Indiana’s 5th Congressional District from 2013 to 2021, and John Tinder, who served on the Southern Indiana District Court then the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, jointly wrote a column that was published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal.

Rokita is unfit to be Indiana's Attorney General.

Monday, August 1, 2022

Poor Mike Pence is toast

"Mike Pence can't be president. His devotion to Donald Trump will be his downfall." That's the headline for a feature article on Slate.com.

"Pence is running around the country making speeches in front of small audiences as if he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning a national election again when the sad fact is that he is a man without a constituency," writes Heather Digby Parton.

Of course we Hoosiers know that. He grabbed at the vice-president lifeline when he figured out there was no way he'd be re-elected governor in Indiana.

" Mike Pence is a walking piece of Wonderbread toast."

'"Issues" as we previously understood them no longer exist in the Republican Party. Trump's "dark tone and feedback-loop quality" are the issues. It's all about grievance, anger and resentment served up with the juvenile derision and mockery that only a true demagogue can deliver. A bowl of lukewarm water like Mike Pence simply can't serve that no matter how many dramatic pauses he takes in his speeches,' Parton writes.

Pence is "forlornly trying to salvage a political career based entirely on his fervent devotion to the man whom the only people who would vote for him believe he betrayed. Sad isn't the right word to describe it. It's pathetic."

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Sen. Braun thinks interracial marriage is wrong

Republican Sen. Mike Braun says Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage. That's the headline on an article in Salon today.

"Suggesting the historic Loving v. Virginia ruling by the Supreme Court decades ago was a case of improper judicial activism, Braun said the court should have left that decision to the individual states, including those which had already outlawed interracial marriage."

And that's not all, folks.

"Braun went on to tell a Times of Northwest Indiana reporter that he is also open to the Supreme Court rescinding its 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling establishing a right to privacy on contraceptive use."

Seriously, who elected this clown?

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Sunday, November 21, 2021

Carmel Gets a Shout Out in the NY Times

The New York Times heaped praise on the roundabouts in Carmel, Indiana, this weekend: "An Indiana city has the most roundabouts in the country. They’ve saved lives and reduced injuries from crashes — and lowered carbon emissions."

"Carmel, a city of 102,000 north of Indianapolis, has 140 roundabouts, with over a dozen still to come. No American city has more. The main reason is safety; compared with regular intersections, roundabouts significantly reduce injuries and deaths," writes reporter Cara Bukley.

" A recent study of Carmel’s roundabouts by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety found that injury crashes were reduced by nearly half at 64 roundabouts in Carmel, and even more at the more elaborate, dogbone-shaped interchanges," she reports.

Friday, November 19, 2021

BMV profits by selling Hoosiers' data

CBS4Indy.com reports: "Records show the Bureau of Motor Vehicles is selling people’s personal information and has been for years."

Yep: the repository of all the "REAL ID" information on millions of Hoosiers is sending that detail out into the world. The bureau that collected our birth certificates and passport information and utility billing details has been SELLING the data for profit. "CBS4 dug through public records and found the agency has made $43 million off of the practice since 2018."

"CBS4 spoke with several people outside of the BMV. None of them were aware their information was being accessed by third party companies."

Read the whole report here.

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Mike Braun campaign repeatedly violated election rules

The Indianapolis Business Journal has an online feature today about the mutiple violations uncovered in a Federal Election Commission audit.

"Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun improperly gave more than $1 million to his 2018 campaign, and received contributions in excess of legal limits, a federal audit has concluded," IBJ.com reports.

The ethical lapses have been reported by other media as well, including the Daily Beast.

Braun's disingenuous hedge that "he can’t fully answer the government’s questions because one of his key staffers "vanished" falls apart when The Daily Beast notes they found the "missing" staffer "within minutes".

This Indianapolis Observer waits for the next shoe to drop.

Sunday, October 24, 2021

GOPer Jim Banks steps in it again

Rude, arrogant, discourteous, stupid, coarse, ill-mannered, ungentlemanly ...pick your adjective. There's no excuse for Banks' boorish behavior toward Dr. Levine.

As noted on Huffpost: "Twitter suspended the account of Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Saturday for violating its hateful conduct policy after he intentionally misgendered Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, the nation’s first openly transgender four-star officer and federal official confirmed by the Senate."

If only our elected reps would stop conforming to the Indiana hick stereotype....

Read the article here.