Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Purdue and Party Politics, Part V - The Encore

In my Purdue and Party Politics, Part V blog entry, I talked about how Tom McDermott Jr., Mayor of Hammond and political science adjunct instructor extraordinaire at Purdue Calumet (an honor bestowed on him by the philosopher/king of Lake County) -- at about this time last year, criminally mis-identifying himself as a former student, was making false criminal allegations of sexual harassment against me both on my blog as well as on The Times newspaper electronic bulletin board. 

I also indicated that I sent all my documentation regarding these false allegations against me to Purdue University (West Lafayette) and on August 20, 2007, received notification that Purdue could not substantiate any problem.  I then consequently informed Purdue University, "So I was quite intrigued when, on August 22, 2007, I received the following comment on my blog: 'Nice try Maurice . . .better luck next time....maybe West lafayette [sic] would have been a better venue for you.  Have a nice semester, and don't forget to check the IP address."  (View here on blog.) 

Purdue, with all of its computer geniuses, could not determine that this IP -- or any other IP address -- spewing criminally false allegations and anti-Semitic comments, came from a government body, the City Government of Hammond, run by the political science adjunct instructor extraordinaire and close friend of the Lake County philosopher/king (aka Chancellor Cohen).  But I digress.

Now, thanks to a comment I received in response to that blog posting, I was able to obtain further documentation, which continues to point in the direction of Tom McDermott Jr.  I went to the website of ARIN, which was mentioned in that comment, and indeed the 12.37.22.34 IP address does belong to the City of Hammond (ARIN_IP_verification.mht). 

I told you that the comments from 12.37.22.34 makes for interesting reading, so I thought I'd take some time to review one of those comments because real life is constantly more amusing than fiction.  You just can't make this stuff up. 

On Wednesday, October 10, 2007, I received the following comment on my blog, which is NOT from IP 12.37.22.34 (view here; if you do not go directly to the comment, you will go to the blog entry to which the comment is attached).

Eating lunch the other day I noticed a McDermott billboard. It is funny how boldly the mayor reminds viewers of this sign how much he values the "right" priorities and underlines the word "right" in the statement. It is such a great hidden message to all the Republicans how the alleged Democrat still finds his roots in the Republican ideals. One must admit that the man has a good McMarketing scheme. Seems like the statement can also read "The Republican priorities" which seems so odd considering he is a Democrat. Perhaps he will give secret decoder rings out during his next campaign so we can read between the lines and translate the double speak of his McStatements and McActions.

So, on Thursday, October 11, 2007, I was highly amused to see the following comment (see here; if you do not go directly to the comment, you will go to the blog entry to which the comment is attached) from, with an extremely high degree of probability, Tom McDermott Jr!  Remember this comment comes from IP address 12.37.22.34. 

I also saw the McDermott billboard the other day, and I loved it. He's a good looking man, and I love what he is doing for Hammond. I am voting for him, and so is my husband and sister (who also thinks he's great).

BTW, I think you are a jackass Maurice. The only reason I read your blog is to laugh at your follies. You and I know each other from way back, and I know who you really are! You should move to another part of the state, where your P.H.D. will impress people, until they get to know you!

If it has not yet sunk in -- when it does sink in -- prepare to laugh and laugh and laugh.  That's right -- the illustrious Mayor of Hammond -- while falsely posting as a "Working Hammond Mother" called himself "a good looking man."  Wow.  I'm all for self-esteem, but, seriously, folks, pretending to be someone else and calling yourself "good looking" is way beyond any sense of healthy self-esteem.  It took me a full five minutes to quit laughing.  Can you say: m-e-n-t-a-l   c-a-s-e?

As for the "jackass" comments and reading my blogs just to laugh -- maybe I should post how many times the IP address 12.37.22.34 checks out my blog page. 

Anyone who has come in contact with McDermott Jr. (including Kevin Smith and Robert Cantrell) knows that he is a mental enigma.  Am I the only one willing to say so in public? Oh that's right, others are too afraid because they don't want anonymous "former students" falsely accusing them -- on The Times newspaper electronic bulletin boards and elsewhere -- of sexual harassment. And they certainly don't want other such drivel coming their way -- like "Jon Silverman" who would never think of derisively referring to me as "moshe", preferring "Eisentarded" instead (a comment also from IP 12.37.22.34).

When Baby Mac finishes reading this (and then puts on the firefighter gear he has in his office), he will call the philosopher/king and tell him it wasn't him, he is innocent, it must have been someone in his office with access to his password.  He may even say it was the Hammond Police Department (you know they have access to everything), or Hinojosa's daughter who worked for him (he trusted her immensely but --golly-- maybe he shouldn't have), or it was the IT (information technology) guys paying him back for forcing them to fix computers so he could blackmail other employees, or maybe it was one of his advisers off their meds.  Anyone but him!!!

But all the evidence points to him.  And the philosopher/king and his "bosses" at Purdue know it as well. 

The Times Supports McDermott

The Times newspaper has decided to take a stand in support of Tom McDermott, Jr.'s shenanigans.  I provided the readers and citizens of NWI the best documentation and information I had so they could educate themselves and to make an intelligent decision as to the personality and morality of the Mayor who has his hands in their pockets (and probably will for the next four years).

The Times has decided to coddle the Mayor and remove any reference to my blog on its newspaper bulletin board.  Specifically, they allowed the thread, "Prof's Blog", to be completely deleted when it referenced my latest outline of emails and accusations that seemed to come from McDermott Jr. ("Purdue and Party Politics, Part V"). I wonder why now?   Especially after all the name calling and accusations they have permitted to be made continuously about me on their very discussion boards.  Does anyone really wonder who owns them, lock stock and barrel?  For the Mayor of Hammond, Indiana, as a public figure who effects all the citizens of NWI and for the NWI paper to seem to collude with him in withholding information, this is true Tribal Politics.  Why does my case keep on being made for me?

Purdue and Party Politics, Part V

It is within the general "mileu" outlined in "Purdue and Party Politics, The Interlude" that the following set of events take place. (If you can believe it, there were even more disturbing events beginning to unravel in August/September 2006 but I'll save that for a separate blog -- so much information -- where is one to start). 

On November 6, 2006, Tom McDermott Jr. (aka Mayor of Hammond) and adjunct instructor at PUC, taking exception to one of my blog entries, decided to write me a little note (printed below in its entirety but it can also be viewed here). 

I think it's funny that you post such crap on your website Maurice.  If you only put forth such effort into your teachings at PUC, you would be a much better teacher.  That's why your students hate you, and your class, you put forth no effort and are lazy.

I am sure that's why you are so intimidated that I now teach in your department.  The students, who are used to hearing only your point-of-view, now hear the truth from the Mayor of Hammond.  Instead of hearing from one who could never get elected, they hear from one that got elected.

One of my greatest enjoyments in teaching Lake County Politics occurs when your former students realize what a crappy instructor you really are.  It usually takes only a week or two for them to realize that they were ripped-off when they paid good money for your "course." Your [sic] a joke Maurice, and an embarassment to Purdue University, even your 19 year old students think you're a joke!

However, if you insist on lying and dragging my families name through the mud, I will sue you for defamation.  Although I am sure you are judgment proof, I will not tolerate such lies to ever be said about me or my family.  You really have no shame.

Tom McDermott
Mayor, City of Hammond

In response, I decided to email him back and ask Mayor McDermott Jr. if he wanted to come with me to the next meeting of the Indiana Commission of Higher Education to support equitable State funding for PUC's students as compared to the rest of the state.  In response, Mayor "hair-trigger" McDermott Jr. left me the following voice mail: "Professor Eisenstein, I would not be seen anywhere in public with you.  Therefore, I will not go with you to the Commisssion of Higher Education or anywhere else.  Why don't you have a good day and go out there and throw some more bombs." (You can listen to actual voice mail if you click here; (McDermott's Rant) sort of brings up memories of the more recent voice mail he left at the home of Councilman Markovich -- don't you think?)

And, this is where things get really interesting.  Following this blog comment and phone message, Mayor McDermott decided to falsely identify himself as a former student of mine and on November 8, 2006, posted a false, contrived, criminal allegation of sexual harassment against me both on my blog and with The Times newspaper.  Falsely posting as a student named "Patricia L.," McDermott Jr. wrote (printed below in its entirety; it can also be viewed here):

I took a class with Professor Eisenstein in 2003.  Not only did he inappropriately touch me, and make lewd gestures at me away from class, Professor Eisenstien [sic] made it quite clear that, if I were inclined, he would like to see me "away" from Purdue University.

I filed a complaint with the Dean and the Chancellor over this harassment, and Maurice was disciplined accordingly (although he kept all the classes he taught before this incident, after all, Maurice has tunure [sic]).

Knowing what I know about that pervert, I would never believe anything he says about anyone else.  And if your [sic] an attractive female student, stay away from this class. Maurice is a pervert who takes advantage of his students!

The identical false allegation then turned up on Northwest Indiana's The Times newspaper discussion board on November 8, 2006 as well.  Word for word, this same allegation was posted by someone calling themselves "concerned4us" (concerned4us.mht). I have attempted to get the name of "concerned4us" from The Times (my letter.mht -- be patient, the link may take a while to come up) but without further legal action on my part, The Times was unwilling to identify who "concerned4us" is (times_lawyers.mht); although, my personal belief is that Nangle is too close to McDermott Sr. for me to have prevailed on this request. Their weekly meetings I am sure are solely focused on reminiscing about the days when Big Mac destroyed The Times circulation union.  The libelous and slanderous attacks against me became so outrageous that The Times had to shut down their newspaper discussion board to avoid further legal exposure (wouldn't it have been easier -- and better -- to just show Nangle the door and release my requested information?). 

How do I, and The Times newspaper, know that McDermott Jr. sent both the message of November 6 identifying himself as the Mayor of Hammond and the "Patricia L" posting of 11/08/07?  They both came from the same IP address.  The IP address was 67.38.221.102.  This means that both messages were sent from the same computer.  In fact, there were a number of comments that came from that particular IP address, and it is interesting to note that each time the same person pretends to be someone else.  For inquiring minds, here is a list of those comments (comments_from_same_ip_address.mht), while the comments in their entirety can be viewed here, here, here, here, and here (if, for some reason, you do not go directly to the comment, you will be at the blog entry to which the comment is attached). 

I sent all relevant documentation and information to Advanced Technology Solutions in South Bend, Indiana, so that independent documentation was available.  According to the report from Advanced Technology Solutions, "An IP Address is a unique address that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network using the Internet Protocol standard (IP). . . . An IP address can also be thought of as the equivalent of a street address or a phone number for a computer or other network device on the Internet.  Just as each street address and phone number uniquely identifies a building or telephone, an IP address can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on a network."  (See report here --Report.mht-- please be patient, it might take a minute to load.)

Because the report indicated that the IP address in question belonged to the School City of Hammond, I sent a freedom of information request to the SCH (sch_letter.mht). Guess what?  The SCH was not convinced that the IP address belonged to them and "believes the IP address in question belongs to the civil city and not the School City of Hammond" (sch_response.mht). Gee, I'm shocked.  Of course, that IP address is no longer working (I'm no computer technician so I am not sure how that is done, but, to the best of my knowledge, it no longer works).  Gee, another shocker.  For those who may remember, former Mayor Dedelow paid for the fiber optic network for the school district from gaming money, including the internet network, the Civil City was included in this upgrade.  This is why I firmly believe the Civil City's IP addresses show up as registered to the School City.

Thinking that the University might find the conduct of a Mayor -- whom it chooses to employ (along with, his wife, his campaign events coordinator Lisa Berdine, and the Hammond City Judge), who serves on its LASS board, and with whom Cohen wants Purdue to "get in bed with" through an urban academy -- problematic, I turned over all my documentation to the University.  Of course, I am not surprised, the University could not substantiate any problem, and this was communicated to me on August 20, 2007.  So I was quite intrigued when, on August 22, 2007, I received the following comment on my blog: "Nice try Maurice . . .better luck next time....maybe West lafayette  [sic] would have been a better venue for you.  Have a nice semester, and don't forget to check the IP address."  (View here on blog.)

Fowler-McDermott Relationship Evolution, Continued

In my original blog entry about the "evolution" of the Steve Fowler - Tom McDermott Jr. relationship (an evolution offered by Fowler, in his own words, for no apparent reason other than his overwhelming need to express his devotion to Baby Mac), Fowler had decided that he would change his original post.  If you go to the original "thread" of the newspaper bulletin board started by Fowler, he completely deleted his original entry and substituted his "comments" about me.  That, of course, was okay by me as I had a copy of the entire thread and had made that copy available on my blog. 

But, alas, all I had to do was wait long enough -- and sure enough -- Fowler has re-posted his original "love ode to the Mayor" on the newspaper bulletin board again.  What has made him do such a thing? Well, it seems that a local radio host who calls himself "The Preacher" has decided to turn Fowler's written words into a made-for-radio (or i-pod) spot. It is worth a listen and you can find it here. Look for "Oracle's Love Ode to the Mayor." Stupid, but true, humor -- you just can't make these things up -- gotta love it!

Purdue and Party Politics, The Interlude

It has been some time since my last blog on the "Purdue and Party Politics" series I am writing, but I am not yet done (for a review, here are links to Part IV, Part III, Part II, Part I).

In Part IV, I detailed how the ongoing and pervasive "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" had manifested itself as Chancellor Howard Cohen apparently decided that he must defend and protect an elected official, John C. Aguilera, from criticism from one of "his" employees, namely me (if you are unsure what the problem is with such behavior by an administrative head of a state funded institution, please see Parts I through IV).  I will pick-up the story line of "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" (the unholy alliance between party politics and your local university), but first, there is some background information needed to set-the-stage.  Part V is a real scream, so I wanted to make sure that everyone was well informed before that fun filled adventure!

Interlude (aka background information)
By all indications (at least from my point-of-view), Chancellor "the great protector and defender of elected Democrats" Cohen had, apparently, determined that silencing me regarding local politics would just not be so easy.  Since I was not cooperating with the "game-plan," he had to, he just had to do more.  I am sure he, and the other politicos of Lake County wondered what more could be done?  Turning to their "Politico Corrupticus Syndrome" manual, here they were able to find the SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) so desperately needed to deal with political criticism.  Turning to the chapter on "How to Silence Critics" -- there it was -- all laid out for him.  He would need to attack my professional credibility.  He would need to attack my moral credibility. Both types of attacks are meant to isolate the critic (isolate, in the sense that, it becomes clear to everyone surrounding the critic that this is a person that needs to be ignored or the "beast" might try to attack them too).  But in doing so, and here's the trick, never, ever answer the criticisms.  That is the "tried and true" NWI SOP; never answer the criticism but attack and destroy the personal and professional life of the critic.  Why had he not thought of that on his own!  Of course, by 2006, I was aware that the University had been consulting this manual for quite some time and had been actively working its "steps to success."

So, it came as no surprise to me that during the same month (February 2006) that State Representative Aguilerra was threatening to sue me, my then Department head (Dr. Saul Lerner) was actively excluding me from participating in a joint Purdue Calumet-Jewish Federation initiative that involved the Western Galilee College from Israel.  The NWI Jewish Federation was in the process of building bridges between local universities and its sister region in Israel, the Western Galilee.  That's right -- in the name of "Cohen would not like it", Dr. Lerner told the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Northwest Indiana that he (the executive director) needs to exclude me from any discussions involving Western Galilee College and Purdue Calumet.  Dr. Lerner made it clear that if I participated Cohen would make sure that Purdue Calumet would not. 

Now, to be fair, I do not know for certain what Cohen told Lerner that resulted in his acting in this manner.  But I do know for certain that Lerner did indeed tell the above referenced executive director to exclude me because my participation would be a "non starter" for Cohen.  From my point-of-view, the fact that Lerner thought that such a request to exclude me was necessary, suggests that Cohen was in the habit of making his attitudes about me well-known and was actively communicating this message regarding how he wanted  me to be excluded (implicitly or explicitly).  Its purpose was to damage me personally and professionally. As a supporting member of the Jewish Federation, as a faculty member of PUC interested in collaborating with colleges and universities in Israel, and as an Israeli who -- shocker! -- understands Hebrew, this was quite the request -- all in the name of "Cohen would not like it" (and not like it to the extent that he would pull Purdue Calumet from participation). 

Now, I knew from the day that Lerner made this exclusionary request in the name of "Cohen would not like it" that this unseemly little event had occurred.  How?  The Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of NW Indiana called my wife and apologized.....and apologized, and apologized, and apologized.  He was in a horrible position.  After all, everyone had some sort of claim: the Western Galilee College was counting on him to arrange meetings, I am a contributor to the Jewish Federation and presumably, so is Lerner.  My wife told him not to worry about it.  Poor bloke, Cohen -- via Lerner -- had just extended his sorry self into an organization that is good for the Jewish community, and had done so in a manner detrimental to it.

The truth is, this was not the first time that Cohen had issued the "if Maurice is involved then I won't be" ultimatum.  It had also happened on September 26, 2005. This was when the Regional Development Authority (RDA) held its first public meeting at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana.  I attended the meeting, as did Mr. Joe Gomeztagle, founder of OperationTEN (Tax Education Now).  After the meeting ended, Mr. Gomeztagle approached Chancellor Cohen (who he had known previously) asking him to attend a Tax Education NOW community educational event that following week at the NWI Visitors Center.  Chancellor Cohen told Mr. Gomeztagle that he would not attend his event because of my presence on OperationTEN's board of directors.  (I was not scheduled to be at the event itself.)

But interfering in my departmental activities and relationships, and boycotting worthwhile organizations I am associated with, apparently, was still not enough for Cohen.  No, the campaign to professionally and personally take-me-down was underway and there were no limits to be breached.  So it was in August 2006, a well-known local pastor (Stephen Munsey) informed me that in interacting with Ms. Regina Biddings-Muro, the Executive Assistant to Chancellor Cohen (they were both members of the Lake County Drug Task Force), that she had indicated to him that I am someone to be avoided, that I am not well liked by the University and that I had a bad reputation.  This local pastor then asked Ms. Biddings-Muro the obvious question: have you ever actually talked with him?  And, of course, she had to answer "no."  So, essentially, she was repeating Cohen's perspective (which, in large part, comes from the local crooks -- called elected Democrats -- who don't like it when the public, i.e. the citizens, take notice of their thieving ways and run crying and complaining to Cohen who somehow must think that it is his job to defend and protect elected officials), all of which came as a shock to this local pastor as we had fostered an excellent relationship working together on joint Jewish-Christian events.

Well, at any rate, in a delightful twist of events from which I derive great humor, on November 4, 2007, Lerner, Cohen, me, and the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of NW Indiana will all be at the same event -- hosted by the Jewish Federation of NW Indiana.  And guess what, Pastor Munsey is to be honored at this event as well.  Maybe Cohen is just unaware that I will be there so he has not yet had the opportunity to push the "if Maurice is involved I won't be there" button.  (In fact, I'm curious as to why he is attending; after all, to the best of my knowledge, he has never offered any personal financial support to the organization.)

The problem is not with what Mr. Howard Cohen does as a citizen; but when he accepted the position of State appointed head of a major State institution he is required by law to remain neutral, politically.  There is not a political figure in Lake County that would not characterize him as the most politically involved Chancellor in the State of Indiana.  His partisan involvement is in favor of the Democratic party of Lake County and the overall State of Indiana.  All to the best of my knowledge in breach of his fiduciary duty as Chancellor.

It is within this general "milieu" that the events of November 2006 unfold.  That is the subject of Part V.

LaPorte County is Thanking Its Lucky Stars!!!

Now that they have fully appreciated what the NWI Regional Development Authority (RDA) is all about, the NWI County of LaPorte is counting its blessings for having said "NO!" to that useless, self-serving organization.  Citizens of LaPorte County consider themselves lucky; they dodged a bullet aimed at their heart from Governor Mitch Daniels trying to get them to join a sinking ship.

Not only where they being pressured to join a sinking ship, they would have been forced to pay for the privilege with $3.5 million, yearly, from local county income taxes.  This very blog was one of the places that forewarned them of the useless pit that the RDA had become and the destruction that would befall them if they joined. 

And what is LaPorte County's prize for not joining?  LaPorte citizens will miss out on the chance to pay for Lake County's flood control to the tune of over $6 million so that Governor Daniels can be assured of re-election.  They will not get a chance to pay for the new train station in Gary to replace the Miller and Gary stations.  They will miss out on the chance to build a bus system that will keep on coming back and back to the bank for more money just like the CTA and METRA in Chicago.  They will also miss out on paying for a train to Valparaiso from Chicago that already has a price tag of over a billion dollars and will rise to over ten billion when and if it is ever built.

Porter County is already crying the blues, as well it should be, as it passed a County option income tax to pay for their ticket-to-joint.  It has put in millions of dollars into the RDA and will put in millions more in the future with no end in sight.  It will never get anything back close to what it contributes nor what it could have done with the money if they kept it themselves.  No, now Porter County is committed to giving the money to northern Lake County and their political cronies forever.  Remember, the RDA has the power to bond, which essentially means they can put you in the poor house forever. 

What is it about the history of the failures, the crime, the corruption, etc. of northern Lake County politicians, that Porter County did not get?  The RDA is there to support Lake County and a few politician's political ambitions; nothing more and nothing less.  This has been well established by the RDA's lackluster performance over the past two years. (I know it's a shocker, but not all philosopher king's actually know anything about economic development -- can you say "destination retail?"). 

The late lawyer for East Chicago's Mayor George Pabey, Ned Ruff, and I had a number of conversations about the RDA after he was nominated to represent East Chicago on the Board (note, East Chicago was not given a serious choice about being in the RDA; a choice in the way that Porter and LaPore counties were given a choice).  So we shouldn't be surprised that Mr. Ruff believed that the RDA was the biggest waste of the northern city's money because its sole intent was to further the career of a select group of people in NWI and the current Governor.  He never believed it would be of any help to East Chicago or Gary; nor was it ever meant to.  But it was meant to get a hold of their funds. 

Ned Ruff, who was by far one of the brightest people I have ever met, used to laugh at the incompetency of the people serving on the board.  To paraphrase him, he used to say "just look at who we are?  And they gave us the authority to decide on economic development?  What anesthetic where they under when they came up with this?  Unless their plan was to shift more gaming money from Gary and East Chicago, south and east." 

LaPorte County made the right decision to stay away from these RDA charlatans, who have established their inability to aid development; but they will help their friends and acquaintances for future rewards (in this life).  LaPorte thank your lucky stars you remained independent; Porter get out as soon as you can.

Mayor McFlimFlam Finally Responds

Mayor McFlimFlam of Hammond has finally responded to the criticism of his policy on the budget and on the health department presented in my blog and elsewhere.  It is gratifying to have confirmed, by FlimFlam himself,  that the FlimFlam man is as unaware as I believed and presented he really was.

Yes, he is right that the former Mayor is responsible for the 2002-2004 budgets of the City of Hammond, but he confirms that Mayor McFlimFlam continued in the same deficit spending so as to break the City.  What he does not remind the voters is that during the preparation of the 2002-2004 budgets most of the property tax was being paid by industry.  When McFlimFlam was putting together the backbreaking budget, he and his group of thieving cronies already knew that the weight was going to fall on the local individual Hammond property tax payers.

Yes McFlimFlam is technically right in that Hammond's share of the property tax levy did not go up in 2007.  What he does not tell the Hammond voters is that he, McFlimFlam, accomplished this with a slight of hand carny shell game trick.  I have written about this in a previous blog.  The shell game consists of shifting from one shell to another the service with the result that the overall cost to the Hammond tax payer is going to sky rocket on top of the usual 2004, 2005, and 2006 property tax bill that has risen under McFlimFlam's administration.

The budget did not increase because the sanitation department was moved from the Hammond City's budget to the Hammond Sanitary District budget.  The Hammond Sanitary District is going to charge each and every citizen of Hammond at least triple what they have been paying, to cover all the salaries, equipment, and benefits.  What was previously paid for through property tax and a small service charge will now be paid for completely through a service charge, another tax.  This will raise the actual "tax" on Hammond citizens by more than any previous mayor ever did. 

On top of that, several hundred thousand dollars were saved by doing away with the Hammond Health Department.  This was the very recommendation that the Government Efficiency Report said NOT to do because there were unique health requirements in the cities of Hammond, Gary, and East Chicago that could not be subsumed under the umbrella of the County's Health Service.  Not because one is better than the other, nor is it a matter of cost, but because the needs are truly different.  But, I forgot, McFlimFlam has been anointed the great social scientist by Lake County's local philosopher and therefore he is capable of evaluating all programs by himself. 

By the way, James Weiser should crawl back into the hole he came out from for the letter to the editor he wrote to the Post-Tribune lauding this move as a good example of implementation of the Government Efficiency Study recommendations. 

As I have also indicated earlier, the new budget for 2007 will allow increased crime in Hammond, since it does not take into account the requirements of the City's costs for the new McFlimFlam Sr.'s money tree, Cabella.  In yesterday's, Hammond Times story, Parking Problems, McFlimFlam concurs that Cabella will be a drain on the police force but there is no additional funds for overtime or new police personnel.  "Measures to help keep traffic moving include eight Hammond police officers to direct cars and secure the more than 1,000-space parking lot at 7700 Cabella Drive."  McFlimFlam said in the article: "We are anticipating traffic Hammond hasn't seen in years and just about every police officer will be ready to handle the onslaught," McDermott said. "We're going to do everything we can to handle the traffic problems. It's a good thing because they are here to shop."  Kari Blankenship, a supposed spokesperson for Cabella, claims, in the comments to the story, that all "overtime" expenses will be paid by Cabella.  What about regular pay, i.e. normal increased work load?  How about a week from now?  By the way, what new tax revenue is coming to Hammond?  While Cabella is on an honesty roll, why does their spokesperson inform the citizens of how much was "shared" by the McFlimFlam clan? 

As I have written many times before, but McFlimFlam still does not get it, all that "shopping" will be marginal for Hammond's economy.  The sales tax goes down to Indianapolis and the profit goes to Nebraska where Cabella is headquartered.  Hammond is left with the cost of services; where is the economic development?  No one, and I mean no one, ever claimed McFlimFlam was bright.

Oh, How The Mayors and Lake County Government Have Lied!!!

The Post-Tribune came out with an article today (Sunday, 10/14/07) that is misleading and continues the big city mayor's political attacks on their own school system.  The article, School Spending Tops Tax Increases, implies that the property tax "increase" problem lies with the school system's spending being out of control and without any accountability.  The mayors will frequently tell you, the citizens of Lake County, that every time they reduce their spending (which, by the way, never actually happens) the property taxes go up anyway because of the school systems and their lack of concern for the citizens.  The sad part is rather than tell the whole truth the newspapers in NWI give half truths to support these thieves in the night, i.e. the mayors.

The newspapers, apparently, would rather promote flimflam than good government.  They know who butters their bread.  Remember tribal politics does not end at the media's door.  The media in NWI, mainly the newspapers, are part and parcel of the tribe.  If the newspapers were truly independent from the political sludge of NWI politics, tribal politics would be far less possible.

As opposed to the "objective information" that the above article tries to "sell", school districts until 2006 have reduced their overall property tax burden, while the cities have (always) kept increasing.  Only after 2007 will the school districts actually increase, while the cities property tax take has increased continuously, always, year after year after year after year.

The mayors of the three largest cities in Lake County have been shoveling outlandish lies to the citizens of their own cities and to the citizens of Lake County.  Not only that, but the Lake County Government Complex sitting in Crown Point, Indiana has (tacity if not overtly) colluded with the thieves of northern Lake County (like one big happy "family" of thieves in their den-o-thieves treehouse).

Not surprising the worst liar and flimflam man is Tom McDermott, Jr. of Hammond. He is closely followed by the new/old East Chicago Mayor Pabey and then Lake County Government led by the notorious crook former Lake County Council President Willie A. Smith.  One cannot blame Gary Mayor Rudy Clay yet, he is too new at the job.  But the former mayor, Mr. Scott "I can't support my family on a meager $200K a year" King, who I always believed (and said) was a thief (like his good friend McDermott), was also a big fat liar.

What have they been lying about?  They have been lying about what they have been doing with the property tax burden of their cities and they have been putting the blame on everyone else, including their school districts, except their own greed.

This goes for Lake County Government as well.  They have been lying to us by presenting irrelevant details of reductions in spotty areas while the overall property tax burden for their own citizens and for Lake County has continued to spin out of control.

The following file is the official data from The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance.  It presents a five/six year comparison of the approved tax levy not the "make believe" one that "leaves" Lake County to be approved downstate. 

The file (PropertyTax6YearOverviewCountyUnits.xls), is an Excel file from the State Government.  It only includes Lake and Porter Counties for comparison.  Anyone can go on the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance web site and get the complete file for all the State Counties.  In Lake County only five years are presented because when this was put together 2007 amounts were not available (big surprise).  But, for the five years available one can certainly see the trend and the lies that have been told.

The five years covered by this State Government document shows that the amount of money raised through property tax has risen astronomically.

Purdue University Calumet Alumni Success Story

Recently, I sent the following email to everyone at Purdue University Calumet, to friends and acquaintenance at other universities in addition to friends and family across the country as well as internationally.  But, I thought, "hey, why stop there."  So here is a copy of what I sent out (although my original e-mail did not include a picture). 

The attached Baylor University Press book (SeeBook.htm),
is a product of one of PUC's alumni, Marie A. (Witting) Eisenstein. It is already on Amazon and will be officially released on February 15, 2008. The outside reviews of the book speak for themselves about the quality of her work and about her standing in the profession. 

Since many of you here were her teachers and there are a number of individuals, now employed at PUC, who graduated with her, I wanted to pass this information to all of you.

As many of you remember, she was the 1996 outstanding senior student in the Department of History and Political Science and was selected that year as the outstanding senior in the graduating class to deliver the commencement address for the graduating students.

This reflects uniquely well on the Department and on the University itself because of its academic success and yes, I am doing some of my own familial bragging.


Dr. Maurice Moshe Eisenstein
Associate Professor of Political Science
Purdue University Calumet
Hammond, Indiana 46323
(219) 989-2688

"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for
people to work." - Peter F. Drucker

McDermott and Fowler Relationship Revealed

Mr. Steve Fowler (McDermott Jr. appointee and newly minted City worker) is no longer able to hold back his feelings for Hammond's Mayor Tom McDermott, Jr. Earlier today, in a discussion initiated by Fowler (aka The Oracle of the Region) on the local discussion boards of the Times newspaper, the professed "card-carrying" Republican supporter of Mayor McDermott Jr. has proffered an explanation for his devotion and loyalty.  This is the revealing Discussion.htm (note: this is the original posting before Mr. Fowler and Mr. McDermott Jr. changed it).

There are several hilarious comments from other posters -- my personal favorite's are here (and here and here). To the best of my knowledge, nobody asked Fowler about this "evolution", thus, is it very strange he thought he needed to address it.  Other than waiting for the movie, the only thing more hilarious would be a Senator Craig like "I am not now, nor have I ever been......" (well whatever, you know the rest) denial from either Fowler, McDermott Jr., or both. 

I am sure that I am joined by many, many others in wishing both Fowler and McDermott Jr. the best in this relationship of theirs.