'Round the Bend

From the South Bend Tribune:

SOUTH BEND -- The political action group MoveOn.org has issued a price tag for the Iraq war to congressional District 2 so far:

$517,456,847.

That's more than $500 million out of more than $300 billion that the United States has spent on the war since the first attack.
...
According to its numbers, this district could have used its share of the cost to provide health care to 307,485 children, provide 4,989 affordable housing units or hire 14,339 public safety officers.

The district's Republican congressman, Chris Chocola, has supported war spending.

It's funny they should mention hiring cops, because did you know that violent crime rose for the first time in 5 years last year?

Make sure to write a note thanking the Count for generously squandering other people's money to the glorious cause of an Iraqi Islamist state with strong ties to Iran. I'm sure all those who lost life and limb there are just pleased as punch to know that's the cause for which they gave so much.

You can email the Count here.

(Update: fixed my screwy first sentence, in which I'd botched whose poverty rose and whose had remained stagnant.)

Doug from Masson's Blog caught this article from the Indy Star noting that the number of Hoosiers living in poverty rose, even as the rest of the country remained stagnant at 12.6% after having risen for 4 years in a row (as in, Bush's first year in office was the first year it declined). I remember hearing a conversation about this on NPR yesterday, and the expert mentioned that, judging from how the economy is otherwise strong, the fact that the poverty rate failed to decline is quite bad news.

As Chris Chocola has reminded us in his commercials, he's helped Indiana's middle class and working poor. How? By voting against the estate tax (he calls it "the death tax")... which actually only affects people who make more than $1.5 million... like, for instance, Chris Chocola... hmm...

Doug also found this article about healthcare-- specifically about how it's bankrupting Hoosiers more than any other state's citizens:

Labrecque said Indiana has the highest per capita rate of people who declare medical bankruptcies - about 77,000 residents. Medical bankruptcy occurs when a family is faced with a medical expense they cannot afford.

Labrecque said depending on the survey, between 9-14 percent of Hoosiers are uninsured. When translated to population figures, that's between 561,000 and 868,800 people.

This, of course, is not just an Indiana problem. Nationwide half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses. Think that's bad? There's more:

Surprisingly, most of those bankrupted by illness had health insurance. More than three-quarters were insured at the start of the bankrupting illness. However, 38 percent had lost coverage at least temporarily by the time they filed for bankruptcy.

Most of the medical bankruptcy filers were middle class; 56 percent owned a home and the same number had attended college. In many cases, illness forced breadwinners to take time off from work -- losing income and job-based health insurance precisely when families needed it most.

Healthcare is so expensive now that it's catapulting middle class families into bankruptcy more than anything else. More than credit cards. More than school or car loans or mortgages or unemployment.

Good thing Chris Chocola voted for Medicare Part D, which... err, criminalizes bringing cheaper drugs from Canada across the border... which would've helped Indiana seniors. But drugs here at least would become cheaper, if Medicare could bargain with the drug companies for better prices... except that the Medicare bill specifically prevents Medicare from being able to do that... so the government is paying way more to drug companies than it needs to... drug companies that contribute heavily to the Chocola campaign... hmm...

Cross-posted at Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

I just saw yet another new Chocola ad, this one countering the DNC's attack on Chocola's support for the Federal Energy Bill of 2005. Of course, it's one long exercise in bs, from referring to the DNC as "Donnelly's liberal allies" (meant to insinuate the intrusion of 527's and interest groups into the fight-- in fact, Chocola seems to have more of those on his side, including the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Healthcare Association and Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care that funded the disinformation ad on Medicare Plan D) to cynically referring to the bill as "the ethanol bill."

Because, ya know, it was all about ethanol, and the $5 billion in takeaways to the oil and gas companies that contributed so much to Chocola's reelection fund was just a minor detail!

The icing on the mendacity cake? One of the key parts of the energy bill was a provision protecting manufacturers of MTBE from damages for it soaking into our groundwater. MTBE, you may remember, is a gasoline additive that helps it burn, just like ethanol. Unlike ethanol, if it gets into the groundwater it can be disastrous to the public health. Ethanol and MTBE compete with each other, so protecting the makers of MTBE hurts the makers of ethanol (and, arguably, corn farmers). And this particular provision proved to be so controversial that it threatened to derail the entire bill.

Well, in July 2005 (HR 6, Vote #373, 7/14/2005) the Democrats introduced an amendment to strike that particular provision, holding MTBE manufacturers accountable for the environmental damage their product (which remember, kids, is in competition with ethanol) does. Guess which way Chocola voted on said provision? That's right, folks, he voted for protecting MTBE producers.

I guess that mean Chris Chocola was against ethanol before he was for it.

Cross-posted at Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

Eyes and splinters and whatnot. From the South Bend Tribune (c/o Masson:

U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola's former company, CTB Inc., failed to pay its spring property taxes on time in 2000 and had to pay substantial penalties at the same time Chocola was serving as chairman of the company board.
...
Given Chocola's current ad campaign, the irony of the situation was not lost on Adams, a former Republican state legislator with a long political history of his own.

"You have to be really careful criticizing other people," Adams said.

Ac-Count-ing problems, Chocola? Was it a company that manufactured glass houses, or just non-issues?

Had enough of the hypocrisy? Support Joe Donnelly.

I know what you're thinking: "Joy, another blog! Just what the world needs!"

Funny you should say that, because yes, yes it is. Or at least a blog about Michiana politics from the side of the good guys. Sure, there's a hodgepodge of blogs all over the place who occasionally mention Indiana politics, but they're generally about politics generally, or about Indiana generally, or about Indiana politics but not Michiana.

Or they're rightwing jerkoffs.

Anyway, this blog will be dedicated entirely to politics in Indiana's 2nd district (for all you outsiders, that's northern Indiana, right off Lake Michigan, centered on the South Bend/Mishawaka metro area). We'll be watching the congressional race between "the Count"-- Bushite empty-suit millionaire Chris Chocola (R-Merck)-- and Democrat Joe Donnelly especially closely. We feel that Donnelly can use all the help he can get against the massive special-interest-funded juggernaut that is the Chocola campaign.

We are foolish idealists who believe that the Truth with a capital T can trump endless gobs of cash when you have the right candidate and people willing to do their part to make it happen.

That candidate is Joe Donnelly. Those people are us. And you.

In the interest of full disclosure, I think you should all know that I am a card-carrying partisan Democrat. Furthermore, I support Joe Donnelly, sometimes monetarily, and you should, too. I toss him money when I can, and I have a $20 Democracy Bond (the DNC deducts $20/month from my account--it gives the DNC a steady flow of cash so that they can make long term plans without having to worry about if donations will fall short one month. You should get one, too). I also have a yard sign, and though I hate bumper stickers, I will probably get one before this thing is over.

I do not get paid in any way by the Donnelly campaign or the Democratic party, nor do I get any scratch for maintaining this website. I am simply a concerned citizen doing my part for a cause I believe in.

Lastly, I'm open to suggestions/ideas/leads/insider info/personal insights/whathaveyous, just drop a comment and I'll make sure to read them.

Go Joe!