Everything Else

The New York Times has a good editorial: Making Martial Law Easier

An excerpt:

A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration’s behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law.

Read the whole thing.

I cannot tell you how dangerous this sort of sneaky erosion of our democratic protections and also of Federalism is. It needs to be repealed and Congress needs to stop voting for every anti-democratic provision that gets tacked onto a defense budget bill. That is bad governance and frankly moral cowardice.

There is an anti-Illiana Toll Road email discussion group. The posts look good so far, worth joining. www.no-illiana-tollroad.com

Source: Chesterton Tribune

The Chesterton Tribune has both a poll and a comments section about the proposed Illiana Toll Road.

Also they have a good article about the opposition point of view.

The opposition has a couple of good points:

1. The Illiana Tollroad will only help the proposed Peotone airport to be built as the third Chicago airport, to the detriment of our own Gary Airport, talk about stabbing ourselves in the back.

2. There is no proof that trucks will use the Illiana Toll Road, instead of the freeways. There needs to be some careful traffic studies done first and they have not been done.

3. We really need a comprehensive and coherent transportation policy for the entire country - a lot of goods being transported by truck should be hauled by rail. This is something the Federal Government is supposed to do but does not seem to quite be able to grasp any sort of strategic planning. If this road is only for the benefit of the out-of-state trucking industry then we ought to think again about our priorities.

4. No studies as to the environmental impact of the Illiana Toll Road.

5. No studies on the effect the Illiana toll road will have on sprawl.

Nobody from Indianapolis is answering any of these questions.

Is it my imagination or has the announcement of the iPhone from Apple suddenly have PDA-like Smartphones becoming all the rage? It seems like every time I turn around some new smartphone is being announced: LG Prada, Zune Phone, Samsung.

Unlike previous smartphones which were for business cutomers and early adopters, these are the first of the smartphones for the masses. What iPhone will do/is doing is create a demand for smartphones with mainstream consumers which should heat up smartphone competition, innovation and perhaps drive down cell carrier fees.

I also suspect this will cause local search to take off and may inspire many local, bricks and mortar stores to finally get a website. Maps and driving/walking directions will also be in high demand. Email is a must. Yahoo and Google seem poised to compete in this space and I suspect MSN will not be far behind. Ask is steadily improving their local search and maps but they lack web based email and that might hurt them in the race.

The PC put the internet in our homes. The laptop got us used to taking our computing power with us. Now the smartphone looks like it will put the internet in our pocket where we will have it with us all the time.

All's well that ends well for the disagreement between the National Pork Board and the Lactivist. The pork board showed some real class and worked with the breastfeeding blogger in question to achive a win-win resolution. Good for the National Pork Board and good for the blogger Jennifer Laycock for working out a great solution that raises my respect for both parties.

The Illiana Expressway (good map and article at that link) is to be a privately managed toll road designed to act as a third major expressway to allow East-West through traffic to get around the southern tip of Lake Michigan. The Illiana Expressway is touted, by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels as an economic boon to the rural parts of the Indiana counties it will run through. I have a lot of reservations about this toll road as it has been described and some things need clarification before I can support such an expensive new highway:

1.) Privately Managed Toll Road: I actually have no objection to this being a toll road. In fact user fee supported infrastructure is a good thing in my opinion. What I object to is the "privately managed" part. Something like a 75 year lease is effectively giving away ownership and control of a public highway and right-of-way for nearly 3 human generations. Sorry that is excessive. Second, I'm willing to bet that any private company will start deferring maintenance on this road for the last 10 - 15 years of the lease. In effect they will hand back to the people of Indiana a worthless hunk of crumbling concrete. If the Illiana Expressway is such a good idea then the State of Indiana should own it and operate it.

2.) Tollways Exclude Local Traffic: As a toll road, the Illaina Expressway will not be used by local people for local travel - mainly because of the cost of tolls but also because of the limited number of interchanges. Sure local people will use it perhaps for daily commute to Chicago and maybe to go to the next county - but lets face it - this Illiana Expressway is being built for semi-trucks and people driving around Lake Michigan. Honestly, it ain't for us locals - it's for the trucking industry to save time and money, yet we locals will be expected to provide police, fire and ambulance coverage on this privately managed toll-road.

3.) I like the Intermodel Aspect ... But ...: I like the idea that the highway could serve intermodal (train to truck) yards.

An intermodal facility is a large-scale center, usually of 2,000 or so acres, where cargo is transferred from one mode of transportation to another, such as from rail to truck. A handout released at a recent meeting of the Porter County Economic Development Alliance suggests three intermodal sites in LaPorte County at Union Mills, Kingsbury and at State Road 2.

Source: Chesterton Tribune

Talk is cheap and I hear a lot of grandiose plans but I'd like to see that the intermodal yards are a sure thing in writing and budgeted to be built along with the road. Otherwise, we'll build the road for the trucking industry and the intermodal stuff will never get built and all the truckers will have their own private road. In these days of global warming we should be insuring that more freight will travel by rail than by truck. Full stop.

4.) Sprawl and Underfunded Public Transportation: Roads beget sprawl. I hate sprawl. Sprawl brings more automobiles and more pollution. The Illiana Expressway toll road will surely bring more sprawl, although it will be slower growth than if it were a freeway. In addition Northwest Indiana has a commuter rail plan to expand the South Shore rail road. That really will help the local residents. But nobody has any idea how that very expensive project will be funded. On top of that the Northwest Indiana region is only just now starting a regional bus service, and again nobody knows how we will find funds to do that right. Here is my simple proposal - No Illiana Expressway until all the South Shore and bus service gets complete funding from the Federal, state and local governments. Build the South Shore to Valparaiso and Lowell and we'll talk about shiny new highways.

5.) Bad Route: The current proposed route runs through some of the best farmland left in Lake and Porter Counties. Destroying good farmland just so a bunch of trucks can spew smoke and noise in our quiet communities is not a good thing. Route the darn road through the worst farmland.

6.) Relief of Truck Traffic on I-94: I am not convinced that this tollway would actually prevent trucks from using I-94. Trucks still resist using the Indiana Toll Road which runs nearly parallel to I-94 right now so I doubt that this route will provide that much relief.


Summary: I think we need to go slowly on the Illiana Expressway. The Illiana should only be built as part of a comprehensive plan that includes planning and funds for 1.) Interurban and commuter trains; 2.) Regional bus lines; 3.) Intermodal switching yards; 4.) study of the best use of land, route and location of interchanges.

Back Off National Pork Board, that is what breast feeding blogger Jennifer Laycock thinks about the threats from the National Pork Board. It seems that the National Pork Board's slick special attack lawyers:

I received a letter this morning from Jennifer Daniel Collins, an attorney at Faegre & Benson that represents The National Pork Board. It stated, for the most part, that my use of the phrase "the other white milk" violates their trademark on the phrase "the other white meat."

Okay fair enough, IMO the National Pork Board lawyer, Jennifer Daniel Collins, might have had a somewhat reasonable point if she would have just left it at that, but instead she goes on to insinuate:

"In addition, your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board's mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption, ..."

See it's better not to say too much because by such an outrageous insinuation the Pork folks lost any sympathy from or credibility with me. What kind of sick mind does the lawyer from the National Pork Board have? I've looked over the Lactivist site and there is nothing untoward there in the least. This is just a woman trying to raise breast feeding awareness through humor. Did these lawyers actually look at the website?

So what can you do? Here is the contact form for the National Pork Board, do drop them a line and tell them what you think.

Sources: Cre8pc Blog and Search Engine Land

Update:

Happy resolution: Well Done, Pork