I normally avoid political commentary on this Blog, but some things just have to be said.
We hear so much from our politicians and political commentators about "liberals," and "conservatives," and "right wing conservatives." Is this senator "too conservative"? Is that member of Congress "too liberal"?
ENOUGH ! ! ! Our middle class is disappearing. A huge part of our workforce that once had descent paying jobs are now welcoming people to Wal-Mart or asking "Do you want fries with that." Our Senior citizens can't afford their prescriptions drugs. And our politicians are taking golf trips to the world's vacation paradises as gifts from lobbyists.
Our politicians are diddling while the people of this country are hurting.
Let's throw out the labels, discard all of the agendas, and establish two primary criteria for our elected officials: COMPETENCY and HONESTY. And neither seems to be in great supply lately.
For the Indiana Legislature -- stop all the babbling about what is going to be said in a prayer before you start, and concentrate on what you do AFTER the session starts. If you want to say a prayer for all of us, I commend you and encourage you. But do it on your own time, in your own way. But in the name of that same God you pray to, start paying attention to what you were elected for -- the welfare of the people of the State of Indiana. And let's start by scrapping the idea of selling off parts of the people's property to private companies -- such as our roads.
And if we need any lesson on selecting COMPETENCY over ideology, let's look no further than the latest fiasco from the federal government.
THE LATEST EXAMPLE: Last year, President Bush with much ballyhoo, signed into law a medicare prescription plan. He pushed for the bill, and touted its passage as a tremendous accomplishment.
Well somebody forgot the fact that any buffoon can pass a law (or at least a majority of 435 of them). But someone actually has to implement the law. And implementing the Medicare Prescription plan is a DISASTER!
First, the plan is so complicated that even the sharpest of Senior citizens are having a hard time comprehending it and figuring out what to do. I know, because I have two very bright sisters, each of whom equated this to taking a calculus final. Just take a look at this "simplistic" summary by Princeton University. CLICK HERE. if Princeton is "too liberal" for you to believe, check out this summary from Texas A&M. CLICK HERE. And this doesn't deal with the most difficult part -- selecting your private provider.
Second, and even worse, the administration of the program is AWFUL. Tens of thousands of senior citizens are now falling through the system, and suffering without their prescription medication. The situation is so bad that a number of states, including California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, both Dakotas, and every New England state, have enacted emergency plans to pay for Senior citizens drugs that previously were covered.
It is simply a matter of saving lives. Thankfully we have some governors -- Republicans and Democrats -- who have stepped up to display competency in the face of this outrageous failure.
For a full report of the problems, check out this article in theWashington Post: "States Step In As Medicare Falters." And if you think the Washington Post is too liberal (we've got to drop those labels), then check out the story in the Dallas Morning Star: "Pharmacists, patients frustrated with drug plan."
This is happening at the same time that we are getting a close-up view of the unseemly world of payoffs and junkets in Congress, courtesy of Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay.
All this follows on the heals of the disastrous response by FEMA to Hurricane Katrina, where we had a totally incompetent person leading FEMA. Well, 
"Brownie", who was somebody in power's college roommate, wasn't doing a "heckuva job." Maybe it wasn't all his fault. We needed competency and experience -- not someone whose closest experience to responding to a disaster was directing what to do when a horse did his business in a show ring during the middle of a horse show.
Then we have President Bush's recent admission -- long after everyone else had realized it -- that we went to war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence. Ooops. Sorry about that. But you know, anyone can make a mistake about things like not really having Weapons of Mass Destruction. So we attack a country that has never attacked us -- and in the mean time, now we are facing Iran and North Korea -- countries that really are nuclear threats.
Enough is enough. I don't want to hear any more pontificating. I don't want to hear any more ideology. I don't care if the person running my government is a Christian, Jew, Muslim or Rastafarian. I want him or her to be COMPETENT and HONEST.
If I can get that, I'll take my chances with the rest.