looks like i picked the wrong week to quit smoking

okay, not really... today will be my seventh full day without cigarettes and i'm feeling good about that. but seriously, what a week!

alberto gonzales finally anounced his resignation. that's great, but he should've resigned months ago, so why now?

in another demonstration of what josh marshall calls the muck gap, republican idaho senator larry craig got arrested for soliciting gay bathroom sex, and may resign soon. craig was a typical gop hypocrite, publicly denouncing gays while privately cruising for dick, so i'm not sad to see him go. but i can't help but think that he didn't really do anything illegal in that minnesota airport bathroom, and that he was victimized by the local police.

in happier, better-adjusted lgbt news, an iowa court struck down the state's gay marriage ban. naturally, the ruling is being appealed.

we're finally almost done with our monthlong moving experience! the old lease ends at end-of-business today. then we get to move on to unpacking, which will probably take even longer but won't require as much physical labor.

i got identity thieved... for the second time this year! this time around i made sure not to use my debit card at too many disreputable web sites, but i guess i got a bit too free with it when using the drive-thru to buy all those breakfast sandwiches, and someone copied down my number and used it to order $90 worth of pizzas. so let this be a lesson to you: never use plastic at the drive-thru! if you must use plastic for your fast food, go inside and swipe the card yourself.¶

i quit!

no, i'm not going to quit blogging. but it's high time i gave up cigarettes.

i never planned to still be smoking into my 30s. now that i'm 31, that means it's time to get serious about kicking the habit. i'd already done what i could to cut way back—for several weeks, i've been down to about 5 or 6 cigarettes a day—so last night i took the next step and bought a box of nicorette (chosen because i can control my dosage better than i could with, say, the nicotine patch). if things go well, i'll never smoke another cig again.

if you've never chewed nicotine gum before, it's a uniquely disgusting experience. it tastes pretty good when you first pop it in your mouth, but by the time you're done with it a half-hour later, your mouth is saturated with that dirty, mesquite-grilled, "just smoked a cigarette" mouthfeel. and you're not supposed to eat or drink anything while chewing (or 15 minutes before), so you can't suck down soda to eliminate the taste until you've spit it out. on the other hand, this grossness could be a good thing, as i certainly don't want to keep chewing this crap forever...

another blog dies... who will be next?

it's true: expresso, the blog that brought us the latest multipage musings of rishawn biddle, is as good as dead. i noticed last month that expresso seemed to be in need of hospice care, with an embarrassingly dated varvel post about paris hilton stuck at the top for weeks on end. today, i discover that expresso is no longer linked from the indystar front page. in its place are links to first thoughts—a first amendment blog which is probably good but i can't bring myself to read it (and i care about first amendment issues!)—and coffee break—which is apparently about "community", judging by the cryptic job titles attributed to co-bloggers tim swarens and jane lichtenberg. or in other words, coffee break is expresso with half the caffeine.

(biddle fans, don't fret: you can still read his musings on the paper's editorial page, though as those are unsigned, you'll have to guess which are his.)

what will be the next blog to be put out of its misery?

will it be indiana blog review, which has been quiet for so long that there are no posts on the front page (only links to spam comments for pharmaceuticals)?

perhaps it will be circle city pundit aka "the scribe", who's been getting in a lot of hot water lately, inspiring indyundercover to publicly unmask him (surprise, he's a failed libertarian candidate) and gary welsh to threaten him with legal action?

will it be the scribe's only defender, kenn "gay watch" gividen, who seems to be deleting a lot of posts recently? (i can't find that "answers to gary" post in the google cache, so either he deleted it too quickly to be cached or he never actually wrote it. however, i did find the cache for this deleted post, titled "more bigotry from bilerico", which i would never have known about if the scribe hadn't eagerly linked to it. you see, the scribe knows firsthand that "disgusting hate and bigotry [...] is common" at bilerico, because—brace yourself—bilerico de-linked him a few days ago. [incidentally, i am proud to admit that i am the "reader" who suggested that bil browning might not want to link to a nut like the scribe.])

or perhaps it'll be me? after months of intermittent posting, will i finally pull the plug on stAllio!'s way? only time will tell, so get in your bets now!¶

back in effect

i've been back online for a couple days now, but assorted editing, moving, and unpacking tasks conspire to keep me away from the blog.

however, i thought you might enjoy this cellphone snap of our local thai restaurant. their food is pretty decent, but they aren't entirely fluent in english.

cell out

i got a new cellphone!

i'd been dreaming of getting a new phone for a while, since my old account with the company that can't decide whether to call itself at&t or cingular wasn't in my name. (it was in my sister's name, because we lived together at the time, but no longer do.) i stepped up my search for a new phone when it appeared that my phone battery was slowly dying. and then when virago decided that she wanted to get a cellphone and eliminate her landline after we move, that was the impetus we needed.

i decided to go with t-mobile because i'd heard they had the best customer satisfaction ratings. i was planning to just go to the local t-mobile store, but my sister suggested we should go to costco instead, so we did. costco has a smaller selection of phones than the t-mobile store has, but the phones they do have are heavily discounted. i got a motorola razr v3t for $20 with contract (instead of $100 from at the t-mobile store) and virago scored a nokia 5300 for $10 (instead of $80). virago is completely enamored with her new phone; i have been trying to focus my new-phone excitement toward creating bad taste mp3 ringtones.

speaking of moving to the new apartment, our big move day is scheduled for sunday. so between packing, moving, fidgeting with my phone, and trying to meet editing deadlines, i haven't had much time for blogging... nor will i probably until next week. in fact, starting sometime this weekend and running until we get our internet connection set up at the new place (hopefully monday), i might not be online much at all... though i'll still be accessible via email if you need me. and of course, i'll have my phone: my number is the same, so if you had it before, you still do.

quitting time

'tis the week to be quittin' your job!

karl rove is resigning!

tommy thompson dropped out of the presidential race!

former speaker of the house dennis hastert is going to resign after this term rather than run for reelection.

fort wayne mayoral candidate matt kelty probably should drop out of the race now that he's been indicted for nine felonies, but will he?

and city county councillor patrice abduallah is resigning after investigative reporting by blogger gary welsh revealed that abduallah does not in fact live in his district. (of course, if a similar investigation had been done by a democrat like wilson allen, gary and his commenters would be up in arms calling it "dumpster diving" and declaring that the researcher was going to hell. but that's neither here nor there.) ¶

why i'm going to buy the new kanye record the day it comes out

imagine a world without 50 cent. it's easy if you try.

Both 50 Cent and West have albums due out Sept. 11. 50 Cent, who has sold better than West, has been riled by forecasts that sales of West's "Graduation" could rival those for his "Curtis" CD.

"Let's raise the stakes," the 31-year-old rapper told hip-hop Web site SOHH.com in an interview posted Friday. "If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on September 11, I'll no longer write music. I'll write music and work with my other artists, but I won't put out anymore solo albums."

not that i would actually count on 50 to keep his word if he loses that wager.¶

let me tell you 'bout voodoo

when election time rolls around, the normally reserved and rational gary welsh at advance indiana starts getting hot under the collar. i spent a lot of time last year analyzing the outlandish things he said regarding the carson-dickerson race, among others, but probably won't spend nearly so much time on that this year (in part because, if you take my writings from last year and do some basic search-and-replace, such as replacing "julia carson" with "bart peterson" and "congress" with "mayor", a bunch of it would probably still apply).

until last night, this comment from june was probably my favorite gary quote of all time:

You've earned a place in hell, Wilson, for the character assassination you engaged in last year against both Dickerson and Kris Kiser, two people who never did anything to bring harm to you. How could a person set out to cause such harm to two individuals with whom you had no prior connection? Is it political victory at any cost for you and your dear lady?

telling one of your commenters that they've "earned a place in hell" is pretty over-the-top. in fact, it sounds like the kind of thing that one of those right-wing homobigots would say (the ones gary says are ruining the GOP). but far from apologizing or expressing remorse, gary actually repeated the claim a couple weeks later.

but as great as those quotes are, they were written in comments, where many readers will never see them. so i think they might have been bumped out of first place by this quote, which currently appears right on the front page:

A well-respected, long-time journalist in town once told me that she had it on good authority that Carson also practiced voodoo. I suppose if she's reading the stars to make important office decisions, almost anything is possible.

now, i understand that some might find it newsworthy that julia carson dabbles with astrology, like millions of americans. but to jump from that to seriously suggesting that our congresswoman practices voodoo? that's... amazing. and of course, gary's commenters eat it up like candy.

update: come to think of it, the "carson practices voodoo" meme mixes quite nicely with that old myth about the thousands of dead black folks who republicans believe rise from their graves in order to vote democratic every november...¶

the human alarm clock

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birthday weekend

sunday was my 31st birthday. these days, myspace reminds all your friends about your birthday, so i received a flood of tidings, including a databent birthday cake photo from syntax (who unfortunately deleted his blog last month, harumph). as far as presents go, i asked for and received a new electric griddle and hand blender... i'm becoming so domesticated. virago got me a copy of alan moore's massive lost girls and the first season of upright citizens brigade on dvd, so i didn't only get kitchen stuff.

friday night we went down to mass ave to check out the visualfringe opening, getting there a bit later than i would've liked. we went first to the loudermilk gallery, and there was my art right in front, as soon as you come in the door (visible from outside if the gallery happens to be closed). however, while i'd been told that all three of my pieces had been accepted, only two were actually hanging. apparently, while they'd initially thought they had enough room for everything, when it came time to actually hang the art, the curator decided there wasn't quite enough space for all three of my pieces where he'd wanted them. so my third piece is in storage at the beilouny; i'm going to go pick it up in an hour or so. (ironically, the piece that didn't get hung was my first selection, which was supposed to be the only one that was guaranteed to get in the show. on the other hand, it kind of works out, because virago loves that one and wants to hang it in our new apartment.)

so that was disappointing, but it did prompt me to talk to gallery owner mike loudermilk (which i probably wouldn't have done had all my pictures been hanging properly), who apparently loves my stuff and wants to get together in the future to do a photo shoot. so hey, even if none of my art sells, i'm still getting something cool out of participating in visualfringe, so it all works out.

(speaking of buying my art, i didn't have time to get to all the galleries, but of what i did see, my pictures were the only ones i saw that were priced under $100. mine are priced at $50. you can judge for yourself whether this says more about me [perhaps under-pricing my work because of my inability to sell records and shirts even at low prices], or about the other artists in the show. also, i wonder whether my shockingly low prices will make the work more or less likely to sell.)

beyond that, what i saw of the show was great. i highly recommend getting down to mass ave sometime this month to check it out.

saturday night we went to thai house to try it out, as it is the closest thai restaurant to our new apartment. the decor was nothing to write a blog entry about, nor was the service. but the food was perfectly acceptable. so it's not quite sawasdee (our current closest thai place, until we move later this month), but it should be a decent option for takeout.

sunday, my actual birthday, was pretty low-key. virago & i spent much of the day in front of the computer, playing civ iv: bts, and went to my parents' house for dinner. but that's all i really wanted. now the question is whether we'll actually get to see girl talk on thursday. (he's not supposed to go on until midnight, and virago needs to work in the morning.)¶

visualfringe opens tonight

visualfringe, the visual-art component of this year's indyfringe festival, opens tonight and runs throughout august in several massachusetts avenue galleries.

i submitted three databent photos to the festival and all three were accepted. i'm told my work is on display at the loudermilk gallery (aka loudermilk photography) at 882 massachusetts avenue.

you can get a quick taste of some of the art here. based on those preview images, and on what i saw when i dropped off my work a couple weeks ago, it should be a great show with lots of cool work.

i guess the official opening/reception is at the earth house, at lockerbie central united methodist church at 237 n. east street. there might also be other stuff going on at the individual galleries; i don't know.

so come on out and buy some art!¶

while i've been gaming...

hello again. did i mention that i love civilization iv: beyond the sword? oh, i did? okay then.

while i've been busy playing video games and eating breakfast sandwiches, a huge flamewar has been brewing between tdw in one corner and the tag-team of gary welsh and melyssa "miss ann" donaghy in the other. the ensuing controversy has not only boosted traffic for both blogs, but also boosted my own traffic as well (despite me not having blogged in nearly a week) as people franticly google for more information on the outspoken dominatrix. (my blog was one of the few indiana blogs to cover melyssa's story; at that time, gary welsh didn't have much use for her.)

it all began when tdw dared to suggest that this saturday's "indiana tea party" protest was... well... a bit silly. (not to mention a bit of a stretch, as far as political metaphors go.)

i already said my piece a couple weeks ago about miss ann's role in the recent tax protests, and i stand by what i wrote then. but i would be remiss if i didn't at least mention this latest flamewar, since it has brought me so much traffic in the past couple days.¶

breakfast sandwiches

one of the perks (probably the best) of working freelance is making your own hours, so over the months i've managed to revert to my old college schedule: up until 2-3am, sleep until 11 or so.

but no longer. today, virago started her brand-new full-time day job, which is all-around good news, as it means our finances are going to get a lot more solid in the next few weeks. but because she doesn't have a driver's license, i will need to drive her to work every morning until we can move into a new place that is sufficiently close to the bus line that goes by her new office. (shockingly, there actually is a bus that runs by our current apartment, but it only runs once per day... at 11 p.m.! i can't comprehend how or why that is.)

hopefully we'll find a new place and start moving in within a few weeks, so i can go back to sleeping in. but on the bright side, until then i get to sample a bunch of breakfast sandwiches. you see, i love breakfast food. some of it i can make at home, or get at a local pancake house. but generally, fast-food breakfast sandwiches are only available during breakfast hours. (those frozen microwaveable replicas from aunt jemima don't quite compare.)

so normally i never get to eat fast-food breakfast because i'm not awake early enough. but now, if i'm going to be up and driving around at 8:30 anyway, i'm going to eat all the breakfast sandwiches i can get. so far i've just revisited the classics. the other day i stopped at mcdonald's for bacon egg & cheese biscuit and egg mcmuffin—the biscuit was good but the mcmuffin was not as good as i remembered it to be. this morning i stopped by hardee's (where i would generally never go for lunch or dinner, but their breakfasts are good) for another bacon egg & cheese biscuit. that was tasty. for future trips, i'm looking forward to trying the breakfast options at chick-fil-a and arby's. i've never had breakfast from either place. and the breakfasts at while castle promise to be interesting, at least.

so as moving day approaches, things might get pretty quiet here on the blog until we are set up in the new place (with new internet access). another reason i might be away-from-blog is because i just got beyond the sword, the new expansion pack for civilization iv... and so far it's awesome. not only are there great new features, but lots of little things have been tweaked to make the game look and work better than ever. when i bought my copy yesterday, the girl at the gamestop counter mentioned that some other customer had been in the day before looking for the game (when they didn't have it yet), but had decided not to reserve a copy. that person was now screwed, because that store had only received one copy of the game, which i was buying. sucks to be that guy... but there is a best buy down the street where he can go, so i don't feel too bad.¶

randall tobias has achieved legendary status!

today's indy star:

Former Eli Lilly and Co. CEO Randall Tobias received warm applause and a hug Friday night during his first public appearance since he resigned from a high-ranking State Department job after being linked to a call-girl ring.

Tobias spoke for seven minutes as he was honored as an Indiana Living Legend by the Indiana Historical Society and never mentioned the abrupt ending to his government job in April.

Tobias resigned after his name surfaced in connection with the high-priced Pamela Martin and Associates escort service in Washington. He has said he hired women from the service for massages, not sex.

He was among a group of four people honored on Friday. The others were Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George and musicians Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Sandi Patty.

is randy tobias really in the same league as babyface, tony george, or even sandi patty? certainly many naptown residents would've already known the name tobias, but outside of the area, how many people do you think had never heard of randy tobias before he resigned in embarrassment over his scandalous "massages"?

i wonder what the criteria are for being named a living legend... let's take a look:

Thousands of Hoosiers have made a positive, lasting impression on the State of Indiana, and many of them have been honored for their contributions. The Indiana Historical Society recognizes the importance of honoring individuals who, while they have accomplished much, are still making an impact today and will continue to do so in the future. These special people are chosen to be honored as Indiana Living Legends.

ah, i see. so, by being named in an escort scandal and subsequently resigning in shame, tobias showed that he is "still making an impact today". i'll buy that. (after all, it did generate a lot of discussion in the media and blogosphere.) but i'm not as sure that he "will continue to do so in the future", unless he testifies at the palfrey trial or something.¶

assessing the tax situation

despite some people's apparent belief that the property tax fiasco is a marion county problem, more counties are now reporting problems. tdw points out problems in northeast indiana. gary points to similar problems in lake county, concluding with this telling paragraph:

Dolan notes that a similar problem cropped up in Lake a couple of years ago and the state wrote the problems off, leaving it to Lake County officials to fix. "The same problems cropped up in Lake County two years ago but were written off by state authorities as the result of government inefficiency, local officials say." "Lake County headed off a similar tax revolt with a circuit breaker that caps an individual's property tax at 2 percent of the gross assessed value."

that sure sounds familiar. (true to form, gary's commenters immediately blame lake county officials.)

governor daniels ordered a new assessment in marion county after his would-be neighbors took to the streets to protest (as in, they would be his neighbors if he could be bothered to live in the governor's mansion). the reassessment might be a good idea, as there were certainly problems with the old assessment (though it creates a number of new technical problems). will the guv follow suit and order new assessments in lake, wabash, whitney, and any other county struck by large tax increases? if he doesn't, he risks sending a message to the rest of the state that he only cares about indianapolis... which is not a good message to send if he wants to be reelected next year.

meanwhile, i think my brain exploded when i read this passage in today's star editorial fellating the guv for finally taking action:

An increase in the income tax for county residents also needs to be revisited. Is there a way to phase in the tax over several years to cover police pensions? Our hope is that Mayor Bart Peterson follows the governor's lead to address issues from the perspective of taxpayers.

not an unreasonable suggestion... until you remember that mayor peterson already suggested raising the county income tax, and that just three days ago, the star attacked that plan as part of a "tax tsunami" caused by corrupt county officials. so on tuesday it was a bad idea that bart should be blamed for; on friday it's a good idea that bart should look into.

doug remains one of the best commentators on this subject, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that he doesn't live anywhere near marion county. and doghouse riley, possibly the best writer in the hoosier blogosphere (despite the fact that he doesn't use nearly enough links), has also been doing a bang-up job. the indy star's news division has also been covering the story as well, though the editorial page should probably be avoided, as they're obviously pretty confused about this topic.¶

parts is parts handmade cds!

the first 10 handmade cd copies of parts is parts by animals within animals are now available.

i actually finished making these a month or two ago, but have been waiting until i could get them scanned before posting about it, both for posterity and so that potential buyers can see what they're buying (and select the copy of their choice from the available stock).

this cd release is limited and numbered. each disc is includes fully handmade packaging and a hand-decorated cd face, and is signed by the artist (in this case, me, but other members will someday make their own). cost for this first run is $10 each.

disc #10 has already been claimed, but discs #1-#9 are now available. check out the flickr set to see all the designs, and contact me to reserve your favorite... before someone else buys it!

how to "balance" a budget

since property tax bills hit a week or two back, local right-wingers have been screaming as loud as they can about the need to cut spending. (of course, at the same time, they've been demanding massive spending increases for public safety, which they also do not see as a contradiction.)

but as doug has discovered, governor daniels has come up with the best method ever for cutting spending... simply refusing to pay your bills! this method of budgeting is awesome because you still get all the stuff you want; you just don't have to pay for it! doug shows us how it works:

Let me make sure I understand this. For many, many years, the State recognized that it imposed numerous burdens on local governments without giving those governments sufficient taxing flexibility. This recognition came in the form of the property tax relief credit and the homestead credit — these State subsidies reduced property taxes. Then, in 2005 and 2007, these credits were reduced by the General Assembly, effectively balancing the State budget on the backs of the counties. Reduction of these credits is a significant part of the huge property tax increases. So now we find out the State is projecting a billion dollar surplus.

This is not a case of those dumb counties outspending their means only to have their hand out when the fiscally responsible State has a surplus. Nope, these jacked up property taxes are directly related to the State surplus. If the State had not reduced the property tax replacement and homestead credit, the surplus would be less and so would the necessary property tax increases.

I could run a surplus too if I had the power to stop paying for the the things I demand.

that's brilliant! (if you read the article touting the massive surplus, you discover that about 4/5 of that surplus can't be spent, which further demonstrates the budgeting acument of our governor.)

then, when local governments were forced to raise taxes to make up for the bills the state wouldn't pay, the guv insisted that runaway local spending was the real problem. funny enough, some people believed him, even people who should know better, like the star ed board, who ran an editorial today effectively blaming all of the state's tax woes on local governments. which is not to say that the editorial doesn't include some good ideas for how to streamline local governments, only that the ed board seems to be ignoring the paper's own news reporting to come to the oversimplified conclusion that "Tax hikes are the result of neglecting reform and public safety."

for example, the editorial repeats the GOP talking point that "pocketbooks will likely take another hit if Peterson succeeds in passing a 65-percent increase in the county option income tax." raising taxes by 65% sure sounds like a lot, and in a manner of speaking it's true, but if you look at the actual numbers (provided conveniently by the star's news page), you get a slightly different picture:

The county income tax rate, which already increased to 1 percent from 0.9 percent on July 1, would rise to 1.65 percent under Peterson's plan. For a person earning $50,000 a year in taxable income, the extra spending would cost an additional $325 a year, bumping the annual total to $825 from $500.

A special provision approved by the legislature this year allows Marion County to raise the income tax by one-half of a percentage point to pay for public safety. But it also requires the county to freeze property tax increases for at least two years for all taxing units in Marion County except schools.

To make up for the lost revenue, the state requires the county to raise income taxes 0.2 percent. This increase, which amounts to about $32 million, must be realized before the 0.4 percent public safety tax increase. The city had originally said 0.5 percent would go to public safety but later realized the property tax freeze would cost more than it originally estimated.

The freeze is expected to increase income taxes by another 0.1 percent in 2009, but it is unclear whether the city will keep the tax unchanged by reducing public safety spending.

The state law also requires a contingency fund of 0.05 percent because income tax collections are not as reliable as property taxes. The total new revenue raised would be more than $100 million, but Marion County must share about 10 percent with townships and other taxing districts.

so bart wants to raise taxes from 1% to 1.65%, which would mean the average taxpayer would pay maybe a couple hundred dollars more per year (spread out across the year, so the hypothetical $50,000-earner, if paid bi-weekly, would see each paycheck go down a whopping $13). it is true that .65 is indeed 65% of 1, so calling this a 65% tax increase is not exactly a lie. but you could just as easily call it an increase of .65% (accent on the point), of which .25% is mandated by the state. one can argue that increasing the county income tax is not the appropriate way to deal with the county's property tax problems, but to pretend this would be some gargantuan tax increase is a bit disingenuous. (and is probably even more disingenuous when so-called "fairtax" supporters say it, considering they want to eliminate property taxes altogether and replace them with an even bigger increase in income tax, along with increasing the state sales tax to something like 10%-11%. now that would be a big tax increase.)

and while i'm talking about the star ed board, does anyone know if their expresso blog is dead or merely dreaming? there hasn't been a post on that thing since june 8, which is pretty pathetic for a group blog, especially one where the bloggers are full-time employees who are presumably being paid to, among other things, blog.¶

new mp3: doctor of love

over at my myspace music page, i've posted my first new solo track in more than two years, "doctor of love". i've been focusing on animals within animals material basically since 2004, but now that parts is parts is finally out, i can move on to working on a new solo record. (and yes, i am finished with the first 10 handmade copies of parts is parts; i'm just waiting until i can scan them before i sell them.)

"doctor of love" (along with 2005's "drinking song") are the first two prospective tracks of said new record, tentatively titled wack cylinders. while i haven't been working on solo studio material in years, i have continued to play live gigs, and i've developed a live improvisational style totally unlike anything that's appeared on any of my records. wack cylinders will be an attempt to "albumize" that sound, and will probably contain excerpts from live performances, studio re-creations of live improvisations, and other studio material loosely in that vein.

i've played variations of the material that became "doctor of love" at several shows over the years, with various text samples on top of the reversed singing stuff, but the live versions that got recorded always had some flaw or mistake that i didn't care for. this studio version uses some wrong-headed discussion of gay marriage (including the claim that lesbians choose to be gay because they were abused by men), which seemed appropriate as it came from the same source material where i got the "music" part.¶

the three ghosts of property taxes

surely by now, most hoosiers have heard about the property tax fiasco, which has caused property tax increases throughout the state (and some particularly large increases in marion county). these increases have inspired several protests, which have also generated their own coverage.

doug, one of the cooler-headed commenters on this topic, explains how we got here:

The primary reasons for the high increases in property taxes recently are: 1) Elimination of the inventory tax - former inventory tax payers are paying less, so other property tax payers, including residential homeowners have to pay more. Counties were given the ability to implement a County Option Income Tax to offset the inventory tax reduction; basically you replace the revenue with income taxes instead of property taxes; 2) Reduction of the homestead credit and property tax relief credit - state subsidies that took the burden off of property taxes. These credits were provided out of a recognition that the state imposed large burdens on local taxes and also imposed significant restrictions on local taxing powers. These subsidies were reduced in an effort to balance the state budget and, effectively shifted the problem to local government and property tax payers; and 3) Changes in assessment rules - years ago, taxpayers brought a lawsuit arguing that the assessment rules unfairly and artificially underassessed some properties and overassessed others. The Supreme Court agreed and required something resembling market values be used for assessments. As a result the relative tax burdens shifted, with the underassessed property owners having to pay more and the overassessed paying less.

So, generally speaking, the dramatic rise we see in property taxes is less a matter of local government spending gone amok, and more a matter of shifting tax burdens. (You can expect those whose tax burdens went down to keep relatively quiet). Also, in some cases - such as, apparently, Marion County, this already difficult situation was made worse by failure to use available tools, such as the County Option Income Tax.

so there's plenty blame to go around, particularly for the state legislature (past and present) and the governor (who "balanced" the budget by reducing the homestead credit and other tricks to pass costs on down to local governments), as well as for local governments that failed to adequately compensate for the shortcomings of the governor and legislature (not to mention allowing their old tax assessment systems to go into disarray).

at any rate, the property tax issue has reawakened some political ghosts from the past. gary welsh and others speculate that professional gay-hater eric miller plans to run for governor in the republican primary, based largely on a platform of property tax reform. perennial libertarian candidate andrew horning, who switched to the GOP in 2004 after losing too many elections as a libertarian, only to lose yet again as a republican, has come back into the public spotlight as a representative of americans for fair taxation. the "fairtax" folks want to eliminate property taxes (one of the most progressive taxes we have) and replace them with increases in sales tax (one of the most regressive taxes out there) and income tax, which doesn't sound even remotely fair to me.

but possibly the most surprising figure to reemerge as part of the property tax debate is melyssa "miss ann" donaghy, the mkna dominatrix who publicly feuded with the mayor back in 2005. miss ann had been quiet: her blog, which she started last summer, hasn't had a post since january, and the front page of her website currently returns a blank white screen. (but the other documents still seem to be there if you know where to look.)

i first noticed miss ann was involved when i read this comment at advance indiana, where she claims to be one of the organizers of the july 4th protest in front of the governor's (non)residence. while i was a bit puzzled by the comment (more on that in a moment), i didn't post about it because i didn't want to write some sensationalist post about "dominatrix organizes protests!" i figured, she deserves her privacy and should be able to be politically active without her past(?) as a dominatrix coming into it.

however, now the star's tim evans has done it for me:

[Eric Miller's] background and approach are a far cry from those of Melyssa Donaghy, a dominatrix who has tangled with city officials over the alleged activities that took place in the basement "dungeon" of her Meridian Kessler home.

Donaghy, who is associated with Hoosiers for Fair Taxation, has whipped up support for the protests through e-mail messages and blog postings. She also pedaled a bicycle around her neighborhood, knocking on doors and talking to anyone willing to listen.

"Melyssa did a lot of work to get this ball rolling," said Andy Horning, who ran for mayor and governor as a Libertarian, then ran for Congress as a Republican. Horning has also been active in the anti-property tax movement.

Donaghy did not return a call Friday from The Indianapolis Star but has sent the newspaper notices about rallies.

Miller said he has been in communication with members of Hoosiers for Fair Taxation but said he had not met Donaghy and was not aware of her background.

i'm not going to criticize tim evans for writing the story, because when a moralistic high-falutin' fusspot like miller becomes somehow associated with a professional dominatrix, it's good to call up that fusspot and get a comment. but i will say that i'm glad i wasn't the one who broke this story.

anyway, getting back to that comment miss ann left over at AI. miss ann has good reason hold a grudge against mayor peterson, considering that the mayor held a press conference back in 2005 to brag about shutting down her business. i'd probably still be pissed if he did that to me, too. but i have to wonder whether that grudge might be tainting her opinion on this subject. note how she fawns over governor daniels and hisses at mayor peterson:

I appreciated the message from Governor Daniels that we picked the appropriate day to hold the event. I also hope our Governor understands we picked the Governor's Mansion because it is the symbolic home of Indiana and it is our very homes that are being threatened by Peterson's runaway spending and inefficiency.

We came to the Governor because we believe he cares and will be moved when he sees the will of The People for the Indiana Fair Tax. We also know the Governor has the wearwithall to push hard agendas forward.

The next event is the city council public hearing on July 16 at 5:30. You can get the ball rolling now by contacting your council persons to demand that they vote against Bart Peterson's Income Tax hike and by voting AGAINST Peterson at the next election.

If our council persons were on the ball they would be pushing a proposal to do a thorough audit of city-county government STARTING with the wasteful and expensive political agendas of Bart Peterson.

if anything governor daniels is more responsible than mayor peterson for helping cause the property tax increases. (to be sure, mayor peterson could have done more to work with fellow democrats in marion county to fix up the assessment system and prevent property taxes from going up as much as they did, but he still would only have been reacting to tax increases forced upon him by the state. the mayor does deserve some of the blame, but he's at best third or fourth in line for responsibility for this mess.) yet miss ann & friends "believe" the governor "cares and will be moved when he sees the will of The People for the Indiana Fair Tax". (it goes without saying that they do not believe mayor peterson cares.) and even though this is a statewide problem, the way to "get the ball rolling" to fix it is by opposing peterson plans and "by voting AGAINST Peterson at the next election." somehow i don't think that will help the people in elkhart or switzerland counties.

but most puzzling of all is the claim that they chose to protest in front of the governor's mansion not because people are angry at the governor (heavens no!), but simply "because it is the symbolic home of Indiana and it is our very homes that are being threatened by Peterson's runaway spending and inefficiency."

it seems to me that if you want to protest the mayor but not the governor, maybe you should go, say, someplace associated with the mayor. at least go downtown and protest at the circle (which protestors will do tomorrow, after 2-3 protests at the governor's [non]residence). of course, signs say that hoosiers are angry with the governor... and they're also angry with the legislature, local officials, and the business community, who all contributed to the problem in their own way. these are turbulent times, but i'm not convinced that the mayor's reelection is in peril.¶

things i'm psyched about part 3

beyond the sword, the new expansion for my favorite video game, civilization iv, is coming out on july 23rd. (unfortunately this isn't a "hard" release date like in some other industries, so it probably won't actually show up in local stores until the 24th or 25th.)

beyond the sword is supposed to be the largest civ expansion ever, and boasts as assload of new features as well as a bunch of scenarios, some of which are supposed to be barely recognizable as civ mods. (i'm really looking forward to trying the "final frontier" scenario.)

the new corporations feature looks interesting, but more importantly, spies and espionage will finally make a proper return to the franchise. (technically, spies do exist standard civ iv, but they're so weak i never even bother with them, which is a shame considering how powerful they were in past versions.)

virago & i have been eagerly awaiting this expansion pack for months, and now we only need to wait a couple more weeks.¶