He's absolutely right. It should be named the Eliza Harris Bridge.

In the overall scheme of things, we live in a region that values dull uniformity, and isn't afraid to wield it like a deadly weapon. We're positively evangelical about rote mediocrity.

This explains why certain of our legislators have again chosen to walk the rutted path of deadening predictability and advocate naming the new east end bridge for Lewis and Clark. The state recently electing Matt Bevin as governor chose Abraham Lincoln as the name for the downtown bridge, pointing to another facet of life hereabouts, namely an immunity to irony.

But it gets even worse. With living white males having narrowed the naming competition to dead white males, Indiana's fascist governor is said to prefer Ronald Reagan. I'd rather cut out the middle (dead white) man and cast Steve Stemler and Ron Grooms in a remake of Bedtime for Bonzo, to be filmed at One Southern Indiana.

Keep a pail nearby as you read the recurring, sad litany.

Lewis and Clark bridge naming resolution dies in Senate committee, by Elizabeth Beilman (Clark County Jail TV Guide)

Public safety concern hold-up in naming process

INDIANAPOLIS — The official name of the east-end bridge is still uncertain, since a resolution to name it after explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark died in Senate committee.

My friend LP has sensibly suggested an alternative. He proposes we name the east end bridge the Eliza Harris Bridge, so as to "celebrate the literal freedom crossing that the Kentucky/Indiana border and Ohio River represents."

Eliza Harris: Famous Escaped Slave

Eliza Harris was the name informally given to a slave sheltered by Levi Coffin after a precarious escape on treacherous ice floes with her baby. The event was retold to Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was inspired by the brave slave and based her character, Eliza Harris, upon the slave in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Levi Coffin and his wife thereafter referred to the unknown slave as Eliza Harris.

Or, LP adds, perhaps the Harris-Coffin Bridge; after all, while white and male, the abolitionist Coffin afforded shelter to the escaped slave. It's real history that genuinely matters, and Eliza Harris has the tremendous advantage of NOT being yet another dead white male.

I replied to LP that given the limitations of our creativity-challenged area "leadership" cadre, it's almost impossible to even imagine pitching this idea to Grooms or Stemler. Just try. LP did, and produced this imagined dialogue about the Harris-Coffin Bridge.

Grooms: Coffin was an abortionist? Why would we celebrate that?!?
LP: No, an ABOLITIONIST.
Stemler: Oh, yeah. A tree doctor.

[I leave room]

For once ... just for once ... could we think outside the claustrophobic confines of our cultural box?

Lewis & Clark Bridge? It's better than the Stemler & Stemler Bridge, but only marginally.

Stemler (Kerry) & Stemler (Steve) sounded too much like Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Sacco & Vanzetti and Bonnie & Clyde, so of course Rep. Stemler opted for the most trite and predictable possibility. It's who he is, and what he does.

Whatever happened to NAC's excellent idea of selling the bridge's naming rights to K-Y Jelly?

Is this the new name for the East End Bridge?, by Marty Finley (Louisville Business First)

We could be getting closer to the naming of the East End Bridge that will connect eastern Jefferson County to southern Indiana near Utica when it is completed later this year.

Indiana state Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, filed a resolution with the Indiana General Assembly to name the East End Bridge as the Lewis & Clark Bridge.

After all, it's the only rational response to theocratic fascism.

Credit our Rep. Ed Clere for voting no. Surprisingly, so did Steve Stemler, who finally spotted something Democratic in his party affiliation, but it's small consolation, and as K noted on Fb:

"Ed still votes to give tax dollars to religious schools through vouchers."

In 2008, Barack Obama won the state of Indiana. Since that moment, our state's white, Republican, theocratic fascists have maneuvered remorselessly to turn back the clock to antebellum times. More often than not, they've succeeded. But history is cyclical, and death rattles often are preceded by seemingly powerful, last-gasp emissions of bile and intemperance. Then, the hollow structure collapses in on itself.

Today's vote fuels my contempt for them even more, and it just makes me want to fight back harder. Of all the commentaries I read on this topic, John Krull said it best.

Unholy arguments and religious freedom (NUVO)

 ... We need to understand exactly how steep the slope is we’re standing on with this bill. The premise behind it is that our laws will be subordinate to an individual’s conscience. We only have to follow the laws with which we agree. The burden shifts to the state to prove it has a reason for asking us to follow the law.

Once we start rolling down that hill, who knows where we’ll stop. If following the law becomes a matter of personal choice based on one’s religious beliefs, then the idea of law itself is compromised.

Maddeningly true. But I'll live to see the bastards choke on it ... and I will laugh, long and loud.

Theocratic Fascism Restoration Act: "Ignoring Resistance by Corporations, Indiana Set to Pass Religious Discrimination Bill."

Even the state's major corporate business interests, who customarily enjoy having their boots delicately licked by the likes of a fawning Ron Grooms, view this reincarnation of the Nuremberg Laws to be a very bad idea.

Ignoring Resistance by Corporations, Indiana Set to Pass Religious Discrimination Bill (Human Rights Campaign)

However, such is the importance of assuaging the primal fear of white (and mostly Protestant) Indiana right-wingers that Grooms -- who voted just as enthusiastically for this abomination as he voted against marriage equality, at least gaining points for dull-witted consistency in discriminatory intent -- joins with the fraternity of the Pencenuts in rendering Indiana a laughing stock.

An open letter to the Indiana House of Representatives (NUVO)

Ironic, isn't it? Surely the majority of "Christians" backing such legislation belong to churches that enjoy tax exempt status. But they still avail themselves of the nation's infrastructure, don't they?

So do businesses large and small, most of which are subject to taxation (of course, evasion occurs), and while there'll always be differing opinions as to the what a fair rate of taxation truly is, it remains that most of us remain tethered to this grid of infrastructure for daily use: Streets, roads, sidewalks, electricity, sewers, water ... in short, the collective gathering of resources necessary and beneficial to all, subsidized in ways both great and small by and for us all.

I'm a business owner, and my business depends on this collective infrastructure to operate. Unless my business is prepared to opt out from the collective infrastructure, it cannot opt out of the collective social contract that builds and maintains it -- and how does one opt out from the collective infrastructure? As long as a publicly maintained path leads to one's door, it is scarcely possible.

The gist of American history in my reading is to reserve matters of individual conscience, like religious expression, to the individual: Believe as you please and be as you are, so long as it does not hurt others. For a business to argue that it must be free to discriminate on the basis of "religion" (and whatever that is cannot be agreed upon by Christians themselves) mocks this notion of civilization's advancement.

It's absolutely chilling that so many Hoosiers seem to think these rights exist in a vacuum, unconnected with anything at all apart from their own self-identified sectarian preferences, and that there is no ultimate benefit to giving a little (rigid cultural exclusivity) to gain a lot (expanded enrichment in terms of personal finance and spirituality) of multiculturalism.

I also understand that so much of it is fear. The fear isn't rational, but unfortunately, religion rushes in where the human mind fears to tread. That's a scenario for education, not legislation. I'm told that Rep. Ed Clere (R-72) opposes this example of odious lawmaking. That's good.

Will Steve "Seriously, I'm a Democrat, Every Now and Then" Stemler sit this vote out, too?

Conservatives Admit The Truth On Indiana ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill (Think Progress)

At GAW News: "Indiana falling behind in the Anti-Gay HATING Game."

If you are allergic to impenetrable satire, avoid this link.

If not, join us in firing Ron Grooms this November. Perhaps he can retire to Arizona?

Indiana falling behind in the Anti-Gay HATING Game.

It’s always something!! Just when Goliath getting OH SO SMUG and happy about how Indiana done gone and pass it’s own law to put Anti Gay marriage on the ballet to weld onto the Constitutional, Just when Steve Stemler getting ready to do some HIGH FIVES with good Old Senator RON GROOMS who finally come out with the ANTI GAY CROWD (of which Goliath a PROUD hand holding member) JUS when GoliaTH ABOUT TO write a big fancy full research BOASTING article about how great and Anti Gay Indiana is on the Gawnews……. Along come some other dad blasted State to STEAL INDIANA’s THuNDER!!! Going all “We’re MORE anti-gay than YOU are Indiana!!!

That’s right…Arizona which is apparently some dusty barren god farsaken blasted landscape of a place…hotter than HELL and dry as an old bone STATE that nobody even think about wanting to visit…. ARIZONA now come out with a New and Clever ANTI GAY law what say that anybody running a dad blasted bidness is FREE to kick Gays out on their ASS.

You heard it ! Walk into a bar wearing designer clothes or something and the bartender look at you and say ”Get the EFF out of here you Gay Sumbitch!!!” AND THE LAW ON THE SIDE OF BARTENDER!!! HA HA HA!!!

Keep

reading

Excuse me, says Stemler, as amended HJR-3 moves to Silent Ron Grooms's desk.

I was told yesterday that Steve Stemler is a kind and wonderful man, who might have voted "yes" or "no" to HJR-3, but decided to opt out, because of, er, well ...

Stemler now can be defined by an inability to participate in a measure he once deigned to co-author. Would he have opted for neutrality in WWII? Is his brain hurting?

At any rate, the House has spoken, sending HJR-3 to the Senate, where we now have the great pleasure of watching Silent Ron squirm. Yesterday, every "yes" vote was a Republican.

Indiana House passes HJR-3 with changes, sends measure to Senate (Dan Spehler at Fox59)

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—The Indiana House passed the amended version of HJR-3 Tuesday afternoon.

The bill passed the full house by a vote of 57-40. The measure will now be sent to the Senate.

On Monday, lawmakers dropped HJR3′s controversial 2nd sentence.

Steve Stemler excused from a decision yet again as the House excises an HJR-3 clause and fundamentalist notjobs reach for their Bics.

Gazing at the "how they voted" list, one sees the name Steven Stemler and a word that prompts Yogi Berra's "deja vu all over again."

That'd be "excused." Not exactly a profile in courage, and yep; we've all been here before ... in 2011.

Same-sex marriage: One in the win column for Rep. Clere, who refrains from supporting the "language of hate."

Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, was excused from House action on Tuesday and did not vote. However, he was listed as a co-author of the bill.

As this was the case again yesterday, douchebaggery has a new poster child. Meanwhile, the Indy Star's reporters explain the shape our GOPsters are in, which I can describe with brevity: Like I've always told you, fundamentalism simply is bad for business.

Indiana House amends HJR-3, possibly delaying referendum, by Tony Cook and Barb Berggoetz (IndyStar)

 ... Democrats say Republicans are in a bind for several reasons. They're torn between two traditional bases of support: the business community and social conservatives. They also fear growing opposition to gay marriage bans could hurt them in future elections.

"The governor made it clear he didn't want the amendment on the ballot in 2016," said Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary. "So, now, what do they do? They are between a rock and a hard place. They are killing themselves even nationally with this whole issue. Why would they continue to pursue this when most of the folks who were opposed to this are their friends – big business (and) the (Indy) chamber" ...

The straight lead paragraphs:

In an atmosphere of rapidly shifting opinions on gay marriage, nearly two dozen Indiana House Republicans bucked their leadership to strip a same-sex marriage ban of the clause opponents find most objectionable.

The House voted 52-43 to remove the proposed constitutional amendment's second sentence, which would have banned civil unions and similar arrangements. That leaves only the first sentence, which would still ban gay marriages ...

The PC at LouisvilleBeer.com: "A craft beer toast to opposing HJR-3."

I spent a few minute searching the Internet for a clue as to the whereabouts of Rep. Steve Stemler, District 71's Democrat-pretend, and evidence of his existence is elusive. His last on-line newsletter was in August of 2013, although he mustered the time earlier in January to congratulate a local volleyball team. Evidently there is no available wi-fi when you're up the butt of the ORBP.

First, the C-J on Republican HJR qualms; then, my weekly column ... this time, about beer and activism.

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Indiana House members wavering on marriage amendment
More than a third of the Indiana House members who voted for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2011 now plan to vote against it or are wavering (Courier-Journal) FULL ARTICLE »

There's a reason why the phrase "These Machines Kill Fascists" lies near and dear to my heart.

A craft beer toast to opposing HJR-3

Seated amid the cheesy 1960s-era veneer that delineates New Albany’s primary civic meeting room, idly monitoring a city council meeting, I was wishing there’d have been time at The Exchange for a third martini (sweet Jeeebus, why don’t they run a cash bar at functions like this?), when suddenly a beer discussion broke out on Twitter. My two cents quickly dispensed via the miracle of the iPhone, it was back to the numbingly predictable provincial political skullduggery

Then a friend tweeted.

“You own a brewery? I thought you were a city engineer or something.”

Sometimes I wonder myself ... (read the whole article at LouisvilleBeer.com)

Democrat-pretend Steve Stemler can't wait to support HJR-3. How quaint.

If you can find evidence anywhere that Rep. Stemler has changed his mind, let me know and I'll happily publish it. Until then ... how exactly is he a Democrat?

Goliath's comments compelled me to dig out this piece from February 16, 2011:

Same-sex marriage: One in the win column for Rep. Clere, who refrains from supporting the "language of hate."

 ... Hurriedly speed-dialing ROCK's Ayatollah Wickens for direction, Stemler first beat the pander bear rush to become co-author of HJR-6, but did not cast a vote either way yesterday. Weidenbener explains:

Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, was excused from House action on Tuesday and did not vote. However, he was listed as a co-author of the bill.

Professional grade fluffing like that belongs in California, not Indiana, but I digress. Kindly permit me to publicly ask a question that surely must have occurred to many readers: Is there any known way to distinguish Steve Stemler from a garden variety GOP stooge, save for his own declaration of affiliation, one regularly contradicted by his political actions?

Crickets chirp, pins drop.

"No Tolls" vindication comes with poll results, as Clere Channel crickets continue to chirp.

The story is written by Marcus Green of the Courier-Journal.

We eagerly await responses (if any) from our trio of courageous local "defenders" in the Indiana legislature as to their feelings about this vivid and predictable confirmation of the way Hoosiers really have felt about tolls and the ORBP from the beginning.

I imagine we'll be scolded; after all, since the same legislators already have signed away control over the legal mechanisms in a bid to make tolls inevitable, we'll be told that tolls (taxes) are inevitable, and now we must selflessly and even heroically pay the daily toll tax so Kerry Stemler and the River Ridge oligopolies might thrive, even as Louisvillians cease traveling to the Sunny Side.

The absurdity of tolling has reached a deafening crescendo with the release of these poll results. Trouble is, those who are willfully deaf on ideological grounds cannot hear the sound of their constituents.

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Ohio River bridge tolls show mixed support, poll finds


A public-opinion poll commissioned by a Southern Indiana foundation finds little satisfaction with elected officials and community leaders over their handling of the Ohio River Bridges Project — and mixed support for tolls to help pay for two new bridges.


The research, which was released Thursday morning by the Paul Ogle Foundation of Jeffersonville, Ind., also shows a lack of public backing for tolls on the Kennedy Bridge and overwhelming opposition to the prospect of tolls on the Sherman Minton and Clark memorial bridges.


The findings, based on interviews by Louisville-based Thoroughbred Research Group, show that 69 percent of those surveyed describe the bridges as a “somewhat” or “extremely” important project. In all, 46 percent said they “strongly favor” the project.


The research included landline and cell phone conversations with 875 adults in a nine-county area — Clark, Floyd, Harrison and Washington in Indiana; and Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Meade, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble in Kentucky.


Interviews were conducted between March 7 and March 12. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.


The poll found that Hoosiers cross the Ohio River about four times more often than Kentucky residents. People living in Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana averaged about five trips — or 10 crossings — per week, while Louisville residents averaged slightly more than one such trip each week.


The $2.6 billion bridges project includes new bridges downtown and between Utica, Ind., and Prospect, along with a rebuilt Spaghetti Junction interchange, where Interstates 64, 65 and 71 meet near downtown Louisville. Indiana is in charge of building the eastern segment, while Kentucky will oversee the downtown portion.


Both states are aiming for construction to begin this year.


Specifically, half of those surveyed said they “moderately” or “strongly” supported the general concept of tolls to help pay for the project. Those who said they “strongly” favored tolls included 20 percent of all respondents and 12 percent of frequent commuters.


Among frequent commuters — someone who makes four or more cross-river round trips in a typical week — 35 percent categorically opposed tolls, while 17 percent opposed tolls but were open to changing their minds.


The poll found that among the three elements of the project, the East End Bridge received strong support from 69 percent of those surveyed, while the Spaghetti Junction work garnered 58 percent. Forty-seven percent gave the same level of support to building a new downtown bridge and turning the Kennedy Bridge into a southbound-only span.


In all, 61 percent favored removing the Drumanard Estate in eastern Jefferson County from the National Register of Historic Places. The historic designation forced project planners to propose a $261 million tunnel under the estate, which the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has agreed to purchase.


Robert Lanum, a founder of the Ogle Foundation and a former president and CEO, was to speak about the poll Thursday morning in Jeffersonville. Lanum was formerly vice chairman of the Bridges Coalition, a group of business, government and labor groups that favors the bridges project, but spokesman Matt Kamer said the coalition wasn’t involved in the poll.

Step One: The rag soaked with chloroform ...

According to Step Two of our action plan, State Representative Steve Stemler would awaken in a secret re-education center devoted to proponents of oligarch enrichment and bridge tolls, who somehow still insist on being called "Democrats" against all prevailing evidence.

Unfortunately, our own Doctor Wu decided that Rep. Stemler was too far gone to be helped, and so the rag soaked with chloroform was replaced with a regular old handkerchief.

Foiled again ...

In 1Si's Safe Place, a whole lotta fluffin' going on as English language takes a hit.

Positive? The less said about this exercise in "buy your legislator," the better.

In a nutshell: Lawmakers talk Planned Parenthood funding during legislature recap in New Albany; call latest session positive despite setbacks, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

Five Southern Indiana state legislators recapped this year’s session including the heated debate over cuts in Medicaid to facilities that perform abortions during a question and answer forum at One Southern Indiana on Thursday.

Better to ask: Does he ever vote Democratic, anyway?

Not when it comes to the family obsession with tolling, or his vote against human rights (i.e., same sex marriage). I've asked here before, and I'll ask again: Exactly how is Rep. Steve Stemler a Democrat in the first place, apart from stated affiliation? All this self-serving prattle about doing a job; dude, just switch parties and get it over with.

House Democrat out of step with party walkout; Rep. Steve Stemler says ‘if you take a job you better show up, by Maureen Hayden, CNHI

Bravo: No2BridgeTolls locates the jugular with half-page Tribune ad.

Same-sex marriage: One in the win column for Rep. Clere, who refrains from supporting the "language of hate."

The most poignant passage in Lesley Stedman Weidenbener's Courier-Journal coverage of the Indiana House as proud inheritors of the Torquemada tradition in Indiana politics comes with this Valentine Day's poem written by Rep. Mary Ann Sullivan (D-Indianapolis):

“Just press the red button; the color of no. It will stop all the nonsense and not strike a blow, a blow that hurts thousands across this great state and taints our constitution with the language of hate.”

Not unexpectedly, our own Rep. Clere's comments leave ample wiggle room for placating the many theocratic fascists among his constituents, but at least he got the pesky Constitutional part right by voting no on HJR-6.

Indiana House approves constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (Weidenbener in the C-J)

INDIANAPOLIS — The House approved a proposal 70-26 Tuesday that would make Indiana the 31st state to ban same-sex marriage in its constitution. Indiana law already defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman, but advocates of a constitutional amendment say it’s needed to protect traditional marriage from activist judges ... ... If approved by the Senate this year, the proposal can be considered again either in 2013 or 2014. If approved by the General Assembly a second time, the proposal will be placed on the November ballot in 2014 for ratification.

We must look elsewhere for our daily dose of opprobrium, and accordingly, given the special place he occupies in the exurban hearts of both Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) and One Southern Indiana (1Si), the supposedly Democratic Rep. Steve Stemler plays a wonderful, down-home role in this same-sex rejection production, one reminiscent of Larry Linville's archetypal Frank Burns on M*A*S*H, or perhaps Dan Coffey.

Hurriedly speed-dialing ROCK's Ayatollah Wickens for direction, Stemler first beat the pander bear rush to become co-author of HJR-6, but did not cast a vote either way yesterday. Weidenbener explains:

Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville, was excused from House action on Tuesday and did not vote. However, he was listed as a co-author of the bill.

Professional grade fluffing like that belongs in California, not Indiana, but I digress. Kindly permit me to publicly ask a question that surely must have occurred to many readers: Is there any known way to distinguish Steve Stemler from a garden variety GOP stooge, save for his own declaration of affiliation, one regularly contradicted by his political actions?

Crickets chirp, pins drop.

HJR-6's prime mover, Rep. Turner, is quoted by Weidenbener in the act of pandering to John Q. Public:

“Ultimately, it’s the public that decides whether we want to put this in our state constitution.”

Turner had no comment as to whether he belongs to the Flat Earth Society, and so we're free to surmise to our creationist hearts' content. Spanish Inquisition, here we come ... make that, "return."