1973 Radio Interview With The Jackson 5

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President Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana

From This Week With Barack Obama

Transcript of President Obama's Commencement Speech

President Obama's Commencement Speech at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, May 17, 2009

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President Obama received the Honorary Doctorate Degree from the University of Notre Dame

President Barack Obama is pictured at the University of Notre Dame with University President Rev John Jenkins

Union Bus Tour: "Keep It Made In America"

I read this morning in my local newspaper. This is an excellent idea and plan for these industries. Take it to the people. Workers and unions have gotten a bad rap for far too long.

There has been a negative stigma regarding unions and the workers that they support that has stuck with many in the public that came from politicians and others on the side of big business that needs to be tamped down if not eradicated.

A bus tour sounds like just the ticket to show that America needs to make stuff and that these industries are essential to our economic growth.

Good wages are also good for our economic growth because people who make good wages buy stuff and invest in the stock market and pay taxes. Not everyone in this country is going to want to be a college educated, suit wearing worker and that's not a bad thing at all.

Labor movement supporters and public officials will travel through 11 states this week to spread a message highlighting the automotive industry's importance to the American economy.

Four bus tours - with one beginning in Merrillville on Monday - are headed in or near towns or cities that have a manufacturing bases. The Alliance for American Manufacturing, the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition and the United Steelworkers are sponsoring the effort dubbed "Keep It Made In America."

"This jobs crisis goes deeper than auto companies and assembly workers in Detroit," USW International President Leo W. Gerard said in a statement. "Reducing U.S. auto manufacturing drives down overall employment, from the people who make auto catalogs and shipping boxes to workers making glass for windshields, rubber for tires and other materials."

The one tour starting in Merrillville, which runs from May 11 through May 13, will visit South Bend, Logansport, Kokomo, Fort Wayne, Bowling Green, Ohio, Van Wert, Ohio, and Dayton, Ohio. On May 19, participants are expected meet in Washington to talk about the impact of the automotive supply chain in communities. source: read more at Northwest Indiana Times

After Notre Dame speech, there may be more stops in Indiana by President Barack Obama

It is being reported that President Obama will be making some stops in Indiana after giving the Commencement speech at Notre Dame on May 17th.

Obama will attend a fundraiser for Indiana Democratic Reps. Joe Donnelly, Andre Carson, Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth, according to a person with knowledge of the visit who spoke on condition of anonymity Friday night because the White House had not yet made an official announcement. source: Examiner.com

Mike Pence Country

There's a nice, little story about Anderson, Indiana in The New York Times which is the district represented by Mike Pence. The article talks about the struggles that Anderson has had, and what affects the stimulus is having there.

Very conservative Anderson received some big time attention from candidate Obama in 2008.

This region still has a strong conservative streak. It is represented in Congress by Representative Mike Pence, a Republican and outspoken advocate of smaller government and lower taxes, positions that put him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Mr. Obama. Several Republicans here said the furious pace of spending would complicate Mr. Obama’s re-election efforts.

Here's a refresher on Mr. Pence in case you missed it or had forgotten. I have never seen an Indiana market that resembles Baghdad. No offense to Baghdad though.

Jon Stewart and correspondent Rob Riggle debunk the claims of hawks like Lieberman, Lindsey Graham and Indiana's Rep. Mike Pence, that Baghdad is just as peaceful as an "Indiana market in the summertime."

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels accused of 'abuse of power' by legislator

Lakeshore Public Television out of Merrillville, Indiana is in my media market. It sounds like a very abrupt loss of substantial funding, which cannot be good for this station.

More than one million dollars, which amounts to one-third of the annual budget of this small station has not been distributed thus far this year.

This abuse of power accusation is coming from Senator Vi Simpson, Senate District 40, who is the leader of the Democratic minority in the Indiana Senate.

source: Channel 8 - Wish TV

[snip]

Simpson pointed to a letter from a public television station in Merrillville. It explains that more than a million dollars earmarked for public television was not distributed this year.

"They did not receive one third of their annual budget. They were called by the budget agency and told you're just not getting it and this language in the budget allows the governor to do that whenever he sees fit," said Simpson.

[snip]

Fort Wayne Tea Party Protest - Wicked Witch Interview

Party Like It's 1983: 10% of us are jobless in Indiana

I have a job. I'm underemployed, but I do have a job for which I am very grateful. I also love my job. That's a good thing.

INDIANAPOLIS -- One in every 10 Indiana workers was out of a job in March as the state's unemployment rate reached 10 percent, the highest level since the recession of the early 1980s.

[snip]

Indiana's unemployment rate last reached 10 percent in November 1983.

State officials partially blamed continued declines in the auto industry for March's increase.

[snip]

More than two-thirds of Indiana's 92 counties had jobless rates of 10 percent or higher. LaGrange County had the state's highest rate, 18.9 percent.

That slightly topped Elkhart County -- which had a rate of 18.8 percent and for months has had the dubious distinction of being the epicenter of Indiana's unemployment problems.

[snip]

source: courier-journal.com

Ind. man who was among Tuskegee Airmen dies at 87

Monday, March 30, 2009

Walter Palmer died at his Indianapolis home Saturday of stomach cancer, according to his daughter, Janice Carter. He was 87.

Palmer flew on 158 missions over Italy and Germany during the war. The all-black Tuskegee 99th Fighter Group was formed in 1941 and trained in Tuskegee, Ala., but faced racism in the segregated South. Palmer was 21 when he became an airman in June 1943.

An eye injury in an auto accident ended Palmer's military career. He and his wife Rosalind Palmer moved to Indianapolis from his native New York in the early 1970s. read more at IndyStar.com

Indiana Republican Congressman Mike Pence on The Republican Program to Recovery

I had to look this one up for myself. Donnybrook. The word comes near the tail end of the video presentation.

Never heard tell of that word being bandied about in the Northern parts of Indiana where I come from.

don·ny·brook

Pronunciation:

\ˈdä-nē-ˌbru̇k\

Function:

noun

Usage:

often capitalized

Etymology:

Donnybrook Fair, annual Irish event known for its brawls

Date:

1852

1 : free-for-all , brawl 2 : a usually public quarrel or dispute

You're concerned about the deficit but I couldn't find anywhere in this what you would project the deficit under your plan. What the number?

No numbers today.

Indiana: Elkhart to receive 6.4 milliion from stimulus funds

In early March, 'Feed the Children' trucks with food and other supplies were in Elkhart to help struggling families.

President Obama was in Elkhart when he was trying to garner support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At that time the unemployment rate was around 14%, but in January it shot up to 18.3%.

Elkhart has learned it will receive $6.4 million in federal economic stimulus funding a day after Mayor Dick Moore told Gov. Mitch Daniels the city needed help fast.

The city, reeling from job cuts in the recreation vehicle industry, will receive $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to rehabilitate a runway at the Elkhart Municipal Airport and $2.25 million in neighborhood stabilization funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"This funding is great news for Elkhart," U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly said in announcing the grant Thursday. "Fixing up the runway at Elkhart Municipal Airport will put shovels in the ground and people to work." source: Examiner.com

Indiana: Fort Wayne to cut 49 teaching jobs

Stimulus funds are not going to solve all the problems for schools struggling with tightening budgets.

Fort Wayne Community Schools will cut $4 million from its budget and eliminate 49 teaching positions for the next school year, officials announced Thursday.

The primary reason for the cuts is a loss in interest revenue coupled with increasing salary, insurance and utility costs.

Officials have begun meeting with teachers who might be affected and, on average, one teacher from each building will be gone at the end of the current school year, equaling $3.5 million in savings.

There are 2,052 teachers working in the school district, and the cut represents about 2 percent of the teacher workforce. Cutting teaching positions trumped other areas that were gutted during an $11 million budget cut in 2003, officials said.

The remaining $500,000 in cuts will come from other areas, including the central office. source: JournalGazette.Net

18% Unemployment Rate: 'Feed the Children' takes care of folks in Elkhart, Indiana

Elkhart is a couple of hours East of where I am.

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This was Elkhart, Indiana when they received President Barack Obama for a town hall on the economic stimulus plan. The unemployment rate in early February was 15.3%.

Part One

Part Two

Here's how we're doing in my neck of the woods.

According to data released on Friday by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, in January the unemployment rate in Porter County hit 9.2 percent, compared to the national rate in the same period of 8.5 percent. It was still marginally lower than the state rate of 9.9 percent.

Disturbingly, Porter County’s 9.2 percent unemployment rate in January represents a significant increase of nearly two full points over the 7.4 percent rate in December 2008, the greatest monthly uptick since the rate started galloping last fall (4.5 percent in October, 5.8 percent in November). And that 9.2 percent rate represents better than a doubling of the 4.3 rate in January 2008. source: The Chesterton Tribune

We're not sitting pretty by a long shot, but Elkhart has twice as many worries.

I watched the 'Feed the Children' infomercials on television before. I equate that organization with helping other impoverished nations, not the United States of America. It's good that they are here to help folks like those in Elkhart, Indiana, but it's awfully hard to think that some of our fellow citizens are in such dire straights these days.

If you've got an inkling to help out some American families, here's the link. God bless them and you.

Are you a 'Socialist'?

There has been much talk about the evil word 'socialism' of late. I have lived in the great RED State of Indiana since I was three years old so I am pretty well schooled in the evils of socialism. Then I read this blog post, and as a result, I think I might to rethink things just a bit.

The diarist begins by citing a recent interview on Air Force One between a reporter and President Obama. The question posed to the President was 'Are you a socialist?'

source: Daily Kos

The special 747, designated as Air Force One when the Commander in Chief is on board, was built to custom order and paid for by US taxpayers. The general design and that specific airplane were enabled by decades of big government spending on aerospace technology. Every nut and bolt in that plane and any other airliner was checked for flight worthiness by government inspectors making it, in GOP parlance these days, a ‘socialist’ aircraft. As with all domestic flights, it is safely guided from take off to landing by a national network of highly trained government paid air traffic controllers – another "socialist" organization -- utterly dependent on an invention using radio detecting and ranging developed under the administration of a socialist President during World War II. Many of the pilots who fly Air Force One and its Marine counterpart were trained to navigate and fly sophisticated aircraft at considerable taxpayer expense in the military – yet another big government "socialist" enterprise tasked with fighting wars and ensuring the survival of American democracy.

That same reporter in all likelihood attended a public socialist kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school. They may or may not have gone on to a state socialist university. Throughout their life they depended on the local ‘socialist’ police force, and may even have had occasion to call a socialist hot line alerting the socialist fire department to quickly intervene in all manner of life and death emergencies. The reporter is old enough to remember standing transfixed in horror the day that thousands of those ‘socialist’ heroes rushed headlong into the burning World Trade Towers, and were ground into socialist pulp in the ensuing collapse before the eyes of millions of horrified viewers watching on television networks created and regulated by a socialist behemoth known as the Federal Communications Commission. read more here

Something to think about.

I also picked this up from The Political Carnival. You got the question, the President's response and then an update clarification from a guy who thinks things through.

Yes, this president actually uses his brain, processes information, communicates, and even realizes when he hasn't been thorough, or even collected his thoughts enough, and takes the time to explain himself more accurately. Kinda hard to fathom, huh?

President Obama’s Response to the Original Question: “Are You a Socialist?”

He called the Times back and followed up. Here's the call:



Zing!

Full transcript of the interview aboard Air Force One, plus lots more audio here.

Carmel, Indiana: Indiana school bracing for teacher layoffs as budgets cut

We will probably be seeing more and more of these types of stories as time goes on.

source: Channel 8 Wish TV

CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) - Two local school districts have announced plans to cut their budgets. The move is likely to lead to layoffs.

Carmel expects to reduce spending by a million and a half dollars, which is likely to mean the loss of almost 20 teaching positions.

Superintendent Barbara Underwood said cuts in Carmel would be spread through every level of the district. She hopes the changes can come through attrition, but she's not counting on it.

"Retirements and resignations are running very low compared to most years, which I don't think surprises any of us," said Underwood.

A member of the teachers union says the teacher layoffs would not be needed if the district eliminated six administrative positions.

Carmel's school board will vote on the plan at its March 23 meeting. read more here

Republican Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana on Face the Nation today

Let's Talk Stimulus: 7.6% is half way to Elkhart and President Obama is heading to the Hoosier city on Monday for a town hall

Is Elkhart, Indiana really the right place for President Obama begin the dialogue to make the case for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to not only Hoosier families, but the American people?

Well there is the fact that the unemployment rate shot up to 15.3% in December in that Indiana city. But is that really a good enough reason to start there?

President Obama has been expressing a rather riled up stance as he has been talking about the legislation that has been debated in the Senate during the last week, and the urgency of getting it passed, and it has less to do with politics and more to do with people.

Statistics are showing where we are going. Yesterdays news reported the national unemployment rate rose to 7.6%. One could also describe that 7.6% rate as 'half way to Elkhart'.

Tuesday, the President intends to conduct town hall meetings with the people in Fort Meyers, Florida where the unemployment rate is 10%.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Friday said Obama plans to visit Elkhart, Ind., on Monday to tell residents what the roughly $900 billion stimulus plan would mean for them. Obama's original proposal was in the range of $800 billion, but the Senate's version has grown to more than $900 billion.

The president also plans a Tuesday trip to Fort Myers, Fla., to try to sell his economic recovery plan, which is being hashed over in Congress. source: AP

Source

You Go Girl!: Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, 9th District, Toledo

I enjoy listening to Marcy Kaptur on C-Span, especially during those times when I'm not feeling like I am going stark raving mad from listening to way too many politicans speak

Ms. Kaptur makes sense of a whole lot of senselessness for me.

I still am very grateful for Rep. Pete Visclosky D-Indiana, 1st Congressional District though.

High fives somebody.

University of Indianapolis student takes the Miss America crown

LAS VEGAS: Miss Indiana Katie Stam has been crowned Miss America 2009 in Las Vegas.

The 22-year-old University of Indianapolis student battled a throat infection and laryngitis throughout the week but still drew loud applause for her rendition of "Via Dolorosa" during the talent competition.

She also strutted onstage in a black bikini and an off-the-shoulder, white lace gown.

Stam, a communications major, plans to work in television news. She began competing in pageants at age 15.

Source: Times of India

Indiana Campaign Memories: Hoosiers reflect on their encounters with Candidate Obama in 2008

I did not get to meet then Senator Barack Obama as he made his way around Indiana last year.

I'm just not fast enough anymore. I am fortunate enough to have met a few supporters who were able to have a brush with greatness, and that is good enough for me.

Here is one of the stories from the Indianapolis Examiner article.

Stacy McColly had been volunteering at the Obama office in Elkhart last spring when she suggested to campaign organizers that her neighborhood would be a good spot for the candidate to visit.

Then, two days before Indiana's primary, she answered her door to find Obama's campaign motorcade outside. Obama stepped from the bus, with wife and daughters, Sasha and Malia, in tow.

They spoke for a while and as Obama was posing for pictures and shaking hands outside his bus, campaign staffers told McColly to get Obama moving into the neighborhood.

"I never thought I'd have to be in the position of nagging the next president of the United States," she said.

Eight months later, McColly says the memory is surreal.

"My insides just buzz," she said. "It's still almost hard to believe it happened."

source: Indianapolis Examiner

I was offered tickets to go to Gary to see the Senator speak. I knew it was a chance of a lifetime, but I also really needed to work.

I declined the tickets from the local campaign staffer, but suggested that it would be OK if the Senator stopped by the house. I think I got a mild chuckle out of that staffer.

It is wonderful to read the accounts of others in the State of Indiana who were able to have those 'surreal' moments.

It's so totally cool, especially being in this formerly Republican for the Presidential state. There's no telling what will happen the next time around, but I think it's safe to say that the Democrats are alive and well in the Hoosier State.