Saturday, February 28, 2009

Fishers Where Are You on the Simulus Bill?

Fishers where are you?

You are not on the list?

What List?

The State of Indiana has a list of shovel ready project they hope to get funded under the Stimulus Bill. The total of cost of all the projects submitted by Indiana is $2,598,965,295.

Who is on the list?
Carmel • Crawfordsville • Crown Point • East Chicago • Evansville • Fort Wayne • Gary • Hammond • Hobart • Indianapolis • Kokomo • Kokomo, IN • Lake Station • Lawrence • Merrillville • Michigan City • Mishawaka • Muncie • Plymouth • Richmond • St. John • Terre Haute • Whiting

Notice all of these are cities, no towns, how come? You see the list comes from the "shovel-ready" projects the mayors submitted in the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors report.

Will Fishers be totally left out – No. But they will have to file for Federal Grants after the fact, so while they are filling out a grant application, Carmel will be building more of their silly roundabouts and Fishers will still be going in circles on paper.

Will all projects be funded from this list, no, but they will have a head start in the funding process.

Where can you find the list? Glad you asked. Please go:

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state/IN

In the Saturday Indy Star is an article “City to get $11.6M from feds” The article starts out by stating “first wave of stimulus money heading to states and cities.” Once again the word town was left out. Many of the road projects that were listed in the article also appear to be going to cities and not towns.

The overall problem is a Federal mindset that a city is a city and a town is 4 stoplights and 2000 people.

Now back to the first question. Fishers is a town and therefore will always play 2nd fiddle to any city even ones much smaller in population in the eyes of those far away looking at giving away Federal money. Don’t forget they see the word Town and have no clue about what the town really is a large city with the wrong name.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Joe's Leading Indicators Show Economy Going Up.

Joe’s leading indicators show the economy getting better in about 5-6 months and it has started to move upward.

For those of you who read my blog and don’t know this I also make and sell reproduction military insignia, www.1903.com, if you want to look. Well this is not a giant field and it the insignia is sold to collectors, re-enactor and museums. So in a way a limited crowd, but a worldwide crowd. I ship overseas at least 3-4 packages a week. A few months ago when the Euro ruled I was shipping 8-10 packages a week and my US sales tanked. Then everything tanked.

Now I call this my leading indicators because I can track sales shipments and get a general feel for what is going on. For example, last July sales dropped 50% from June and then remained low until December, when I saw an up tick But all of a sudden in January the sales moved up ten percent over Jan 08 and this February is already up 33% over last year with 4 days to go.

So if I look over my sales the drop was predicted about six months before all hell broke use and so I now have to say in 5-6 months we should be moving up again.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Letter to Secretary of State Todd Rokita

In Indiana the Secretary of State is charged with running the elections. Needless to say I don't think he is doing a good job. In fact as you read below I think he is doing what can be expected of someone in one party protecting his own party. Letting the party politics get in the way of doing his job. Rumor has it he is going to run for Governor of this State, so to him I say before you run for Governor, clean up your current job.

The following is a copy of a letter mailing out today to Mr. Rokita. Look for his answer on this blog, or maybe you will never see an answer. Would not surprise me.
Joe

Joseph L. Weingarten
14066 Deer Stone Ln
Fortville, IN 46040

February 6, 2009


Mr. Todd Rokita
201 Statehouse
302 W Washington St # E111
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 232-6536
Fax (317) 233-3283

Dear Secretary Rokita;

On October 9, 2009 I faxed a letter to you of complaint of Ms. Kathy Richardson conducting her own election. To date I have not received a response on any action taken by your office. Ms. Richardson was a candidate as defined by IC 3-11-8-18

Ms. Richardson was clearly in violation of IC 3-11-8-15 as a candidate in a polling place on numerous occasions.
She was also in violation of the following codes:
3-11-10-2 during the receipt of Absentee ballots while as a candidate for office and within fifty feet of the poling place.
3-11-8-18 when she repeatedly offered assistance to voters during voting, while a candidate and within 50 fifty feet of the poling place.

As a result Ms. Richardson ‘s certification of election should be removed for her violations of the Indiana Code and the election re-accomplished under ethical and fair circumstances. Or is it your policy to permit members of your own party to act with impunity when it comes to elections.


Respectfully Submitted


Joseph L. Weingarten


1 Atch October 9, 2008 Ltr


Here is the October 9 letter

Joseph L. Weingarten
14066 Deer Stone Ln
Fortville, IN 46040

October 9, 2008


Mr. Todd Rokita
201 Statehouse
302 W Washington St # E111
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 232-6536
Fax (317) 233-3283

Dear Secretary Rokita;

As Secretary of State for Indiana your office is responsible to insure that fair elections and integrity of the vote take place in this state.

I request that you take immediate action to suspend all voting in Hamilton County until such time as Ms. Kathy Richardson is replaced as Election Administrator. Ms. Richardson is a candidate for State Representative in the 29th District.

Ms Richardson is running her own election. She is in full view of people entering to vote early or to request absentee ballots. This places a candidate within full view of voters during the time of election directly within the boundaries of the polls. She counts her own votes and based on questionable past actions this raises a concern over the integrity of the vote. I request the State of Indiana immediately take over full control of the elections in Hamilton County and insure that the ballot is correctly placed and counted before all voters. Ms. Richardson must be removed from the election office. Or she can withdraw from the election. Failure to do so brings into question the integrity of elections throughout the State of Indiana.



Respectfully Submitted


Joseph L. Weingarten