Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Hammond Budget Impass (Go Team Go)

Monday's impasse on the City budget is the best thing that can happen to Hammond.  Now the City Council has to keep up their good work for the remainder of the week.  If they do not pass a budget, the City gets last years budget.  No budget increase and no future promotional literature for McDermott if or when he tries to seek a bigger elected office.

This will be a tough road to go for the City Council.  There will be a lot of pressure to pass the budget as "developed" by the political scientist Tom McDermott, Jr. in his "adjunct" job as Mayor of Hammond.  As everyone who is a social scientist knows, all budgets must have a purpose or goal that the budget is intended to accomplish. As the famous political scientist, Harold Laswell, said, politics is defined as "Who gets what, when, where, and how."  This is true, even for city governments. Another famous political scientist, known by anyone who teaches a political science course, is the University of Chicago's David Easton's definition of politics, which is that politics is the "authoritative allocation of values."  Of course, the political scientist Tom McDermott, Jr. Esq., is intimately aware of the meaning of politics and recognizes that his budget must by necessity promote certain values.

But in this budget there is nothing obvious.  There is no expenditure to develop new jobs or business growth.  No direction for new and improved services to the citizenry of Hammond.  It does not put more cash into the pockets of the citizens of Hammond.  So what is it about?  What is the budget's values or goals?

Its primary value is to have in place something that McDermott, Jr. can point to and say he accomplished; something he can claim to have accomplished while he tries to pave his way to bigger and better elected positions (like running for Visclosky's seat when Visclosky decides he no longer wants it or possibly Lt. Governor).  The sole value of this budget is to allow him to utilize certain aspects of it in selling himself.   

For example, there is no value to the citizens of Hammond to removing the Health Department, possibly the opposite, but it can become a good campaign slogan outside of Hammond.  There is no cost savings, actually a guaranteed increase in cost, to homeowners over the shift of employees to the Sanitation District; but, it is a great slogan outside of Hammond for the next political move outside of Hammond.

The best action the City Council can take right now for the citizens of Hammond, and in reality all the citizens of NWI, is to do nothing.  Sometimes and this is one of those times, the best course of action is no action at all.  The only harm that can happen is that McDermott will have to redo his campaign literature for the race for Lt. Governor or Congressman.  Sometimes that is the price a mayor has to pay for not reading his political science books.

PUC vs IUN in Federal Court

Recently, I have become familiar with a system called PACER, which is a means of accessing, electronically, court documents associated with the federal courts.  So I decided to do a little compare and contrast.  Just how many Federal lawsuits have been filed against PUC (either the University itself or University administrative individuals) while Howard Cohen has been Chancellor versus the number filed while Bruce Bergland has been Chancellor of IUN.

I'm ecstatically proud to announce that Purdue University Calumet wins hands down with a 10 to 1 score!  And since Bergland came to IUN in 1999 and Cohen came to PUC in 2001 -- Cohen has managed to overtake Bergland in the alleged violation of rights in two less years! Gooooo TEAM Cohen!

All Hoosiers should be very proud of Team Cohen.  Achieving ten lawsuits is a great and difficult achievement.  And, if there were settlements before court filings, the list may even be more impressive.  Remember, this is all at the expense of Hoosier taxpayer monies and student tuition money -- all for the advancement of education.  Go Team Cohen!!!

Now, let me be clear, all I have done is a simple electronic search via the PACER system.  I have not looked either at the Lake County Court docket or any other docket. But if the record at the Federal level is consistent with any record at the county and State level, it sure is a proud day for those of us associated with PUC and its Chancellor Howard Cohen who is successfully most successful in the useful expenditure of tax payer money.

For the curious, here are the cases of which I was able to obtain some form of electronic document (be patient, some of these files may take a bit of time to load):

PUC - Chancellor Cohen (Score = 10)

  1. elgowainy_complaint.pdf

  2. adf_complaint.pdf

  3. defelice_complaint.pdf

  4. hentea_complaint.pdf

  5. jackson_complaint.pdf

  6. knight_complaint.pdf

  7. raoufi_complaint.pdf

  8. simonetta_complaint.pdf

  9. whitesell_complaint.pdf

10. eisenstein_complaint.pdf

IUN - Chancellor Bergland (Score = 1)

1. iun_case_1.pdf

Purdue's Board of Trustees to Align Itself with Politically Corrupt NWI

The new collusion between the Mayor of Hammond and the Chancellor of Purdue University Calumet is designed to promote the political future of a Democratic Party elected official through the good offices of the Indiana taxpayers via a state-funded institution. 

Almost a year ago, I wrote a column in the Gary Post-Tribune, indicating how the collusion was getting ready to take tax money to fund family, friends, and acquaintances.  I also suggested that the original plan was a cover for getting money to underwrite the misappropriation and incompetence of Father McDermott when his company was running the City's Health Insurance Program, a hole that the City of Hammond still has not dug itself out of.  What was never explained is how did a State institution, Purdue University, get into the act of saving the Mayor and his father?

This was clearly outlined in a recent article in the local newspaper The Times.  This is the specific story by Susan Brown: grant_paves_way.htm.  First, U. S. Representative Peter Visclosky was able to get $250,000 to start the process.  (Remember this is the same Congressman who got $7 million in federal tax dollars for an incubator in Merrillville that is not an incubator.) 

In the first part of the story State Appointed Employee Purdue University Chancellor Howard Cohen is providing a wonderful political presentation for Mayor Tom McDermott's re-election.  It is amazing that there is no protest from any Republicans in the State for this obvious partisan abuse of power.  Cohen's political presentation is that the goal of the academy sponsored by Purdue University's Board of Trustees is to increase "retention of families" in Hammond, which is ostensibly tied to increased home-ownership (a point McDermott Jr. made in that same article).  First, what is the evidence that this is a primary problem that needs solving in Hammond (it has one of the highest homeownership rates in Lake County)?  Second, since when has this been the goal of a State University to help an individual city to retain citizens?  Third, why the concern only with Hammond and its citizens, or mayor, when the University serves all of NWI?

The central question that Purdue University's Board of Trustees needs to ask is: Where does the School City of Hammond stand on this proposal?

Why does the Hammond School City have nothing to do with this program?  Here is what I think: because they know that the plan and the criteria that it encompasses is a form of racism -- maybe not in intent but certainly in its application and outcome.  The plan will leave out the majority of the Hispanic and African-American students of Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary (with a few exceptions) while catering to the predominantly white students from the surrounding schools.

The new "urban academy" is focused on bringing in kids who fulfill certain criteria through a lottery system that ensures that most of the students will not be from the northern part of the County.  This is Cohen's specific presentation in the second part of The Times article where he completely contradicts his and Mayor McDermott's earlier justification, which is improving residency in Hammond, by telling us that students will be drawn from the entire state on a lottery basis (assuming they meet the pre-set criteria, which is biased toward white middle class students).  I suspect that McDermott and Cohen know that according to the criteria they set that they cannot get enough students from Hammond to fill the school.  They have set up the criteria so that most of the students will be white, economically better off, kids from south County or Porter County.  How this helps Hammond's residency rate or "retention of families" is anybody's guess but it certainly suggests that McDermott and Cohen do not want predominantly Hammond students.

With $250,000 from the Federal taxpayers, $15 million from the Hammond tax payers, and lots of money from State Taxpayers to run the Academy, Purdue University's Board of Trustees should be asking: What is the position of the Hammond School District as to how to best use this money for Hammond's children?  The Board of Trustees might also consider asking: Why was the Hammond School District never consulted by the Mayor about what would benefit Hammond students if $15 million dollars of taxpayer money is to be spent?

Here is what Cohen and McDermott (with the aid of at least Dabertin) have in mind.  First, Hammond will build the school from its taxpayers money to the tune of $12-15 million.  Then Hammond will "give" the building, i.e. school, to Purdue Calumet to own so that PUC has to run it.  As Cohen explains to McDermott, "if we [Purdue] build, Purdue West Lafayette construction management gets involved at extra expense and supervision."  Of course, Purdue Calumet, will "assume all operating expenses."  In MauriceSpeak this means that the State will be on the hook for operating expenses. 

Party Politics and Purdue University Calumet, Part IV

In the last half of Part II of my ongoing series -- detailing the unholy alliance between the local Democrats and one of Purdue University's regional campuses -- I talked about how Chancellor Cohen of Purdue University Calumet decided that it was his role and duty, as a State official by virtue of his position as Chancellor of a State funded university, to provide aid and comfort to an elected Democratic Indiana State legislator, John C. Aguilera.  I have termed this unholy alliance between the local Democratic Party and Purdue University Calumet as "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome."

Cohen, as Chancellor, publicly defended elected Indiana State Democratic legislator, John C. Aguilera, against my public-citizen-taxpayer criticism.  Of course, Cohen would argue that he was just defending Aguilera against my "unfair and uninformed" criticism and since I am a tenured professor at Purdue Calumet -- where Cohen is Chancellor -- that he is just doing his job.  If you are not sure what the problem is with that, please see Parts I, II, and III.

On February 13, 2006, I again had the opportunity to voice my constitutional right to freedom of speech and to criticize one of my State Representatives, John C. Aguilera (opinion piece published in the Post-Tribune and on my blog).  It had come to my attention that Indiana State Representative, John C. Aguilera, had decided that while ostensibly representing the interests of Northwest Indiana, which includes Purdue University Calumet, he would take a job with Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).  Nothing wrong with that, right?  Well, not so fast.

Apparently, IUPUI's labor studies program decided that they needed help in the Indiana State legislature to make sure that its funding remained intact.  What to do?  What to do?  I know! Hire a State legislator who happens to be on the House Ways and Means Committee -- one named John C. Aguilera -- who is suppose to be working on behalf of Northwest Indiana, and instead ask him to work on behalf of funding for the labor studies program at the Indianapolis campus of one of our public universities.  Gosh, why hadn't Chancellor Cohen thought of that?  If Cohen wanted Aguilera to secure PUC's finding, why not just put him on the payroll?  Hint: Part of Aguilera's job was to secure PUCs funding as PUC is in his district and let us not forget, most of Aguilera's college attending constituents attend PUC. 

So on February 13, 2006, I "outed" State Representative John C. Aguilera as working on behalf of IUPUI instead of working on behalf of his constituents (you know, the people who actually voted for him) who are far more likely to attend Purdue Calumet than they are IUPUI.  Aguilera was irate at me and I received a nice little letter (aguilera_ltr.mht) threatening to sue me, among other threats.  Aguilera tells me that he "read with interest and dismay" my column "lambasting" him. He takes me to task for "continuing to insinuate" that he did not adequately represent PUC as he was working on behalf of IUPUI.  Then he says, "Let me make it clear that I do not work for IUPUI and was not working for them at the time of the adoption of the 2005 budget."

Being in Northwest Indiana it does not take long to learn that the Democratic Party here is nothing if not a bunch of confirmed liars.  Oddly enough, a February 18, 2006 story indicated that John C. Aguilera had decided not to run for re-election.  This seemed curious to me and my suspicions were confirmed the following month when it became publicly known that -- shock! -- John C. Aguilera had been employed by IUPUI (see here and here).  Needless to say, he never sued me for defaming him, as once again, John C. Aguilera demonstrated that Democrats in Northwest Indiana can manage that all by themselves. 

Did Chancellor Cohen ever apologize for using his official State position as Chancellor of Purdue University Calumet to defend the "esteemed" (now ex) State representative, John C. Aguilera?  Of course not! While Cohen claims that I am "unfair" and "uninformed", his blind dedication to the interests of elected Democrats from Northwest Indiana has, apparently, prevented him from noticing all the lying, theft, corruption, and abuse perpetrated upon the taxpaying citizens by those who are elected to "serve" the public, not "fleece" the public.  Nope, Chancellor Cohen is not embarrassed of publicly defending Aguilera.  I can only conclude that he saves his embarrassment for those who expose the corruption not those who actually perpetrate the corruption.

Only in the Orwellian world of Northwest Indiana can one experience a University chancellor -- in his role as Chancellor, functioning in an official State position, praising an elected Democrat in the Indiana State House of Representatives, in response to criticism leveled against that elected official, for making sure that Purdue Calumet -- in Northwest Indiana -- lost only $500,000 in yearly funding (see Part II) while this same State Representative, John C. Aguilera -- in whose district PUC resides -- was a paid employee of IUPUI (150 miles south of Northwest Indiana) making sure that its labor studies program didn't get short changed. 

Call me crazy, but this "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" has got to go.

Purdue University Shows its "Political Correctness"

It is one of the most cataclysmic events of our nation's history, but it went completely un-noticed by one of our State's publically supported institutions of higher learning, Purdue University.  The best that I can tell, system wide, no official or University organized effort was made to remember the events of September 11, 2001.  There was certainly nothing done at the Calumet campus.  I cannot even say if the flags were flown at half-mast.  There were no ceremonies, no speeches, no discussion, no prayers for the victims, absolutely nothing. 

While Purdue was actively ignoring 9/11, real Hoosiers, like the high school students in Chesterton placed 2,977 American flags in front of their school to memorialize the victims, saying we remember.  In NWI, Valparaiso, Schererville, Indiana University Northwest, and others had ceremonies honoring the fallen and the brave of 9/11.

But not Purdue.  Nothing at all from the new President or the University at large.  The only "event" that happened was an e-mail sent to everyone by an individual faculty member on his own initiative.  This is the email with my response to all the faculty and staff: Remembering_9_11.mht

This was the sum total of all the "memorializing" of the victims of September 11, 2001 by Purdue University.  I am surprised that the University administration did not quote some rule saying that this was an "inappropriate" use of the University's email system.

Maybe it just was not viewed as "politically correct" to remember 9/11 and to honor its victims, so Purdue just didn't bother. 

The Indiana Legislature has a law that University faculty in Indiana, whether they are citizens or not, must sign a commitment of allegiance to the United States and Indiana Constitution.  The law is clearly stated in: Indiana_code_20120_6_faculty_oath.htm. 

The oath is a basic affirmation of American citizenship:

"I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States of America, the constitution of Indiana and the laws of the United States and of Indiana, and will, by precept and example, promote respect for the flag and the institutions of the United States and of Indiana, reverence for law and order and undivided allegiance to the government of the United States."

Everyone should be honored to agree to this.  Maybe if Indiana enforced its own laws and required every faculty member and administrator to sign this oath, Purdue would have had individuals with enough pride, courage, and respect for the United States to have actually done something to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11. 

Party Politics and Purdue Calumet, Part III

In Part’s I and II of this ongoing saga, I tell the tale of how “Politico Corrupticus Syndrome” became rooted into the hallowed halls of one of our local academic institutions, Purdue Calumet. But I still did not know just how well this weed of a syndrome had been cultivated. And cultivated it was. The next explicit manifestation of “Politico Corrupticus Syndrome” was a real doozy.

Sometime during Fall 2005, Cohen decided to “forward” Tom McDermott Jr.’s “resume” to Dr. Saul Lerner (the department head at that time) about providing Mayor McDermott Jr. with an adjunct teaching position within the Department of History and Political Science. So here’s a guy (McDermott Jr.) with a whole year of experience as Mayor of Hammond and not only does Dr. Lerner “decide” to “utilize” Mayor McDermott Jr. to teach a class in the Department of History and Political Science, he “assigns” him a 300 level course called “Lake County Politics.” According to Cohen, he had nothing whatsoever to do with Lerner’s decision. From all accounts, Lerner is sticking to that story.

But I have my suspicions that this is not exactly how the story goes. Call me crazy, but I was a bit suspicious when, Mayor Tom McDermott Jr., just so happened to “pop up” teaching a 300 level course in my department. After all, this is the guy that Chancellor Cohen – as a State official by virtue of his position of as chancellor of a State funded university – decided to defend vis-à-vis my criticism.

And there was a mutually beneficial history between Chancellor Cohen and Mayor McDermott Jr. to take into consideration as well. Mayor McDermott Jr. of Hammond, Indiana gave Purdue University Calumet, $100,000 of City (e.g., City of Hammond) money to PUC in order to fund a scholarship, a scholarship that Cohen agreed to name after McDermott Jr’s father, Tom McDermott Sr. (University news release dated May 23, 2005.) Then, Mayor McDermott Jr. named Chancellor Cohen as Hammond’s representative on the newly created Regional Development Authority (RDA, a political, public agency). (University news release dated June 27, 2005.) Now McDermott Jr. would have a 300 level course at Cohen’s university in my department.

According to information I received from the departmental secretary, information offered voluntarily and without a query, Cohen asked that a class be found for McDermott.  I found this to be an interesting tidbit of information, so I sent an e-mail to myself to document it. Being a good “packrat”, I still have that piece of documentation (note_to_self.mht).

Turns out, I wasn’t the only one a little suspicious of this newfound arrangement. Editorial writers from both the Post-Tribune (post_tribune_editorial.mht) and the Hammond Times (times_editorial.mht) had something to say about it. And the something that they had to say was that it looked a little fishy to them as well. I think we can go by the “if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s a duck” theory here.

I Call Them as I See Them

An explanation of why I write what I write and some of the consequences I end up enduring came out in a story in Sunday's NWI local newspaper.  Although there are multiple reasons many of our local elected, and some appointed, officials complain about my writing, the main one is that I make the thieves, charlatans, and incompetents cringe and crawl by calling them on the carpet and shedding light in on their ugly activities.  The result is that they scamper to try to shut me up either through my employer, my writing outlets, or my speech giving.  They succeeded with my column at the Post-Tribune; but, with the Twenty-First Century media, the Internet, newspapers are not the only available outlet.

The more recent creepy crawlers of NWI, specifically Lake County, are about to go on trial.  This was outlined in Sunday's Post-Tribune, Fraud trial to start for Gary insiders, by Andy Grimm and in The Times on Monday GUEA Defendants Go on Trial by Joe Carlson.  This is about the Federal trial that is about to begin for Lake County Councilman Will Smith and political insiders Roosevelt Powell and Willie Harris.  Andy Grimm and Joe Carlson are good reporters but they did forget to put in there that I was the writer who first "outed" these individuals and called them out for the crooks that they are.  In fact, they are one of a series of local "public figures" I have called on the carpet.  Not all have been indicted; but there are few in law enforcement who would disagree that my perceptions and analysis of all these politicians has been on the mark.  Lake County politics is so rife with corruption that one can truly say in an un-American fashion that anyone who is in office by appointment or election: you are guilty until you prove otherwise.  If voters were to make that assumption, they would not be far off.

Party Politics and Purdue Calumet, Part II

At the end of my last blog on this topic, I stated that little did I know that the trail of letters from McDermott to Cohen to me was the first act in an ongoing performance.  Events from that "first act" did die down, but not before Cohen and I exchanged letters and McDermott delivered a ringing radio performance. 

In the aftermath of my January 31, 2005, column discussed in Part I, McDermott went on the radio February 4, 2005, and ridiculed me saying that I was "starved for attention as a child," calling me a "moron", "nutty professor", and "completely and totally clueless."

But more important than his ridicule of me, on that February 4, 2005, radio show McDermott decided to go after my employment by accusing me of not doing my job.  And just how would McDermott Jr. know how I performed my duties as a professor? He announced he had engaged in conversation with Cohen about me, that I regularly missed classes and I did not hand out syllabi (among other things, all not true). 

Call me crazy, but I find the efforts of an elected official to get a taxpaying citizen fired from their job an unseemly sort of endeavor.  What I find just as unseemly, if not more so, is that Cohen, a high ranking State official by virtue of his position as Chancellor of a State-funded institution, apparently saw nothing wrong with such behavior. "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" was clearly running its full course here. 

Remember, freedom of speech (particularly political speech) is an individual right to be protected against the government's suppression.  It is not a tool to be used by the government or government officials to suppress unwanted taxpayer/citizen criticism. Cohen and McDermott, both government officials (one as administrative head of a State-funded institution the other elected to office) were attempting to stifle political speech.  The Democratic Party should be appalled at this behavior.  That is as un-American as one can get.  It offends every sense of what America stands for and has fought for.

As an American Hoosier tax paying citizen, on February 4, 2005, I wrote "governmental enforcer" Cohen and told him "Shame on you" for sending an official governmental message to elected Democratic Party partisan McDermott Jr. that somehow attacks on a professor's job by an elected official are okay.  Cohen, of course, wrote me back, denied he was any way involved with McDermott Jr's behavior, but did inform me that he considered me an "embarrassment" to him, which just happened to be the exact word that McDermott, Jr. had used on his weekly radio show to describe my relationship to the University. 

It was after this little flurry of exchanges that things died down, but only for a bit.

About six months later, "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" was once again manifesting itself in the halls of academe and the second act in this ongoing performance was underway. 

On August 25, 2005, I wrote one of my regular columns regarding the funding of State universities in Indiana (082505.mht).  This was but one of many columns I have written and speeches I have given on this topic. In this column, I squarely put the onus on our elected State legislators, particularly John Aguilera and Ralph Ayres (who were both serving on the House Ways and Means Committee, which wrote the bi-annual budget), for not addressing the disparity in higher education funding between the center of the State and NWI.  There was nothing unusual about this column.  Or so I thought. 

But this time was different.  Chancellor Cohen, as Chancellor of Purdue Calumet wrote a letter to the editor criticizing my August 25, 2005, column (CohenLtr.mht).  It is important to understand here that Howard Cohen did not disagree with me as Howard Cohen, the citizen, he disagreed with me in his official State position as Chancellor Cohen, and as Chancellor Cohen he defended the Northwest Indiana delegation, in particular Aguilera and Ayres, against my "unfair and uninformed" column. (Speaking of "unfair and uniformed" that year Purdue University Calumet lost half a million dollars in State, tax-payer, funding, which it has never recouped.  That $500,000, that you and I pay as tax payers, went to other parts of the State.  That is $500,000 per year of economic development funds that were lost.)

Local Culture Wars, Part III

The last column about religious harassment at PUC by Prof. Mike adams is here.  For background information, click here. 

Party Politics and Purdue University Calumet

Having lived in at least four very different places here in the U.S. (I have also lived in two other countries), I can say with all sincerity that Lake County in Northwest Indiana trumps them all when it comes to Comical Politics. 

And there is no place or institution in Northwest Indiana that is not susceptible to the disease that plagues the Democratic Party here, "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome."  Even the hallowed halls of academe are infected. 

What was my first clue that "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" infected one of our local universities?  Let me start with a story from late 2004 into 2005.

After winning election as Mayor of Hammond, Tom McDermott Jr. decided that he was not at all happy with the free speech I was exercising.  So, he talked to Chancellor Cohen at Purdue Calumet, my employer (in true NWI strong-arm fashion), and sent him an official Mayor of Hammond letter with attachments (mcdermott_letter.mht). (Of course, I was not aware of this letter until recently through a freedom of information request.)  Now, the Mayor's letter to Cohen would be irrelevant if it were not for the fact that the next column I published on January 31, 2005, which was critical of Mayor McDermott Jr., resulted in my receipt of an "offiicial" Purdue Calumet letter from the Chancellor's office (cohen response and column.mht).

I always thought it was odd that Chancellor Cohen thought my criticism of McDermott was "personal."  Now it is clear to me; McDermott had told Cohen that my criticism of him was personal, and Cohen took it as unadulterated truth.  And I always thought it odd that Cohen would intervene on behalf of McDermott.  After all, I spent considerable time criticizing Pastrick.  But Cohen did not send a letter to me on behalf of Pastrick.  No, for some reason, only due to the "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" of McDermott did Cohn intervene.

As many of my readers know, I am a vocal critic of our many politicians who exhibit clear signs of "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome."  Call me crazy, but I just hate it when my, or anyone else's, tax dollars are stolen, misused, and abused.  Unfortunately, this happens a lot in Northwest Indiana.  Many of the local officials I criticized have been indicted and convicted.  One even fled to Greece to avoid serving jail time. 

Some of you, particularly those who do not like me for attacking "your guy," may think that Cohen did what he should have done.  He was "in the right" and I "had it coming."  But there is a fundamental and, thank goodness constitutionally protected, problem with that view.