Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

The Tale of NWI's Don Powers and Mamon Powers, Jr.

This is the story of two Northwest Indiana Powers.   It is also a story about power and economic development power, political power, power of wealth, the power to giver and take, and the power to educate.  It is the story of Donald S. Powers and Mamon M. Powers, Jr.

There are many similarities between the two.  Both head successful businesses in Northwest Indiana

This is where much of the similarities end.  The most irrelevant difference is that one is black, Mamon Powers, and the other, Don Powers is white.  The most significant difference is that one is a civilizing influence on NWI, Don Powers, while the other is a taker and a negative influence on NWI, Mamon Powers.

Although both men are wealthy, Mamon Powers, to the best that can be determined, is much wealthier.  His company was ranked as one of the highest in revenue for minority contractors in the U.S.  This is a huge company.  Although you would not know it by the crying that Mamon Powers does about his lack of being taken seriously as a business.

I suspect that the main reason for not being taken seriously is that, unlike Don, Mamon has given minimally back to the community in which he got his start.  He has only taken from that community.

Don Powers and his family live and do most of their business in NWI.  Mamon Powers’ family’s living arrangement is generally unclear.  This tends to be not uncommon with wealthy individuals who have no purpose other than spending money.   Mamon Powers’ business has little to do with NWI; most of his business now is in other parts of the Midwest and he does not bother much with NWI.  He bothers so little that few people even know of his existence.

Don Powers made most if not all of his money in private business, doing business with other businesses.  Mamon Powers has mostly lived off the public trough.  The majority of his business’s income has come from public funds and public construction, e.g.  Gary’s Genesis Center and the most costly baseball stadium in history, public housing in Chicago, and Indianapolis public buildings.

It is also a distinction that Don Powers is a self-made success; Mamon Powers inherited everything from his father who started the company.  That probably explains why Don Powers and Mamon Powers, Sr. are both contributors to Republican candidates and policies, while Mamon Powers, Jr. is the big Democrat giver (mostly outside NWI).

Mamon Powers, Jr. contributed $2,000 to Senator Evan Bayh’s PAC, All America PAC, in 2005 and through his family is a big contributor to Barak Obama’s Illinois Senatorial Campaign.  He has also contributed to Al Gore and Democratic Illinois Congressional Candidates.  But all the Mamon Powers family contributed to Congressman Pete Visclosky because that is where the public trough has been and will be with the RDA.  Mamon Powers’ Company built the Purdue Technology Center in Merrillville while he was sitting on Purdue’s Board of Trustees all paid for through Federal funds.

But even with all that, the biggest difference between the two men is the Don Powers has made a difference in his life to the people of NWI.  One does not have to agree with every project to agree that the man had a vision and he put in place valuable institutions to improve the society of NWI.  This is not to say that the man did not make money – profit in business is the American way and that should never be criticized.  But above that he saw his business success as coinciding with the economic, social, and educational success of NWI.  As a result of this single individual, we have the prominent medical facility of Community Hospital, the most prominent cultural entity the NWI Center for the Performing Arts. 

Further, while he was on the Board of Trustees of Purdue University Don Powers fought for having a legitimate higher education presence in NWI.  As a result Purdue Calumet has over 9,000 students now (from over 2,000), the Don Powers Computer Building, the Physical Education Building.  PUC even had an athletic program and an expansion of funds while he was on the Board.  Purdue North Central came into its own.  Don Powers knew that education was important for all people in NWI.  These are just some of the visions that Don Powers put into motion that created a symbiotic relationship for him and all of us in NWI.

Now we have Mamon Powers.  The kid who no one knew existed and in reality nobody cares because he absolutely has no vision to put in place and has had a zero or negative affect (if you include the mess with the Gary ball park) on NWI.  The negative affect results because he is taking space where competent people could be sitting that would improve the lives of those in NWI.  Whereas he just pretends to know what he is doing and to care.

Yes, the Mamon Powers family did give $110,000 for the black cultural center on Purdue’s West Lafayette Campus.  Purdue, West Lafayette has a measly 1,000 Hoosier black on the whole campus.  There is more than that attending either PUC or IUN in NWI where Mamon Powers, Jr. takes all his money from.  Where is his support for the people here?  There is none.  Mamon Powers, Jr. is like the NWI legislative delegation everybody loves them because they know how to say “yes, sir” to other decision makers – they are yes people.  They have no vision like Don Powers to put in place.  That is why Don Powers eventually was forced to leave Purdue’s Board of Trustees.

In 2001 Mamon Powers, Jr. was one of the signatories of a national advertisement, organized by former Congressman Jack Kemp, asking Congress to repeal the death tax.  Now there is an issue that all of us in NWI can sink our teeth into – this is the issue we have all been waiting for. 

Thanks Mamon for finally putting your time into an issue all of us in NWI can sink our teeth into!

and as a result both are wealthy individuals.  While both men are involved in real estate, their main business is in construction for Mamon and insurance for Don.  Both Powers were members of Purdue University’s Board of Trustees.  Both individuals are in high demand because of their wealth to sit on boards and participate in many civic organizations in NWI.

Van Bokkelen, agents need more resources to do the job

Nov. 17, 2005

By Maurice M. Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

Joseph Van Bokkelen, U.S. Attorney, indicated two things at a recent meeting about behavior in public office.

First, there is a fine line between unethical and illegal behavior. Second, he would not tolerate any illegal behavior.

It is fair to say that Van Bokkelen, the assistant U.S. attorneys and the Justice Department agents — including the FBI — have done the most superlative job in Northwest Indiana. It has been a real joy to see the years of thievery and the thieves involved getting their due.

But three factors have been missing for a true turnaround of the culture of tribal thievery that continues to strangle NWI economically.

First, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI staff need to be doubled overnight. In discussions with individuals in the know, the prosecution of the slime of NWI Democratic politics requires greater resources.

Second, the feds have highlighted Lake County Prosecutor Bernie Carter’s ineffectiveness.Carter has never met a public official whose abuse of the public trust he could prosecute. Whether this is a consequence of incompetence or a sellout, the result is the same: Leeches continue to suck the lifeblood out of the county.

Third, the culture of thievery is continuing and the citizens are not complaining. This lack of public trust is occurring at the top of the political ladder.

In Gary, the School Board continues to steal the children’s milk money; the city continues to employ convicted criminals if they are friendly with the mayor’s wife (a wife already heavily subsidized from campaign funds); and the former city clerk and her co-criminal daughter are going around acting like princesses of the ball.

Is there no concept of shame in that city?

In East Chicago, Tom Cappas and Mike Pannos, operators of the city foundations, have been undermining the public trust for their selfish ends since Democrats came into existence. How do you get a city to sign a public contract with a gambling entity to give your for-profit company a percent of the gross income? Don’t Cappas and Pannos know when enough is enough?

Finally, the governor is aiding and abetting the thieves of NWI.The governor followed NWI’s politicos in creating the Regional Development Authority, another economically meaningless entity created to spend taxpayers’ funds on interests and projects only a big-government politician could love.

The RDA is building “people movers.” The federal government says almost half the people of NWI are at a level of illiteracy making them dysfunctional in the 21st-century economy. Where is the RDA going to spend millions of your dollars to move these people?

Then, there is the governor’s support for the $65 million corporate welfare planned for Cabela’s under the sales tax increment financing. This is the deal where the McDermott family leveraged the sale of Woodmar Country Club in Hammond, then got the citizens of Indiana to underwrite $65 million to develop the commercial land. STIF is a tool solely for economically depressed real estate. Woodmar land was never economically depressed.

As an honest Republican, the governor should remind the McDermotts either this is a good business decision or it is not. Why sacrifice credibility and party principles and get entangled with NWI shenanigans?

What does it take to get the citizenry outraged?

The Governor’s Next Mistake? Stealing from Hoosier Tax Payers

Governor Mitch Daniels is now facing a second mistake in his attempt to foster a “Republican/Democratic” NWI that he hopes will support him in the next election.  He believes that this will allow him to repeat the achievement of Senator Bayh – two terms as governor and then overwhelming support for Senator – probably to replace Senator Lugar.

In NWI, the Governor has already made the mistake of creating the RDA because local Democratic operatives told him they wanted it.  The biggest public works project in NWI since Robert Pastrick left office has never made any economic development sense, except to Democrats who are always on the look out for mass transit projects to spend money on to “save the day”.  These projects have no economic value and the RDA is virtually worthless for economic development except that now we have the McDermott family, with Dean White in the supporting role, and as always Bobby Cantrell, Mr. Political Sleaze Extraordinaire.  The RDA is such a fake placed on the citizens of NWI that it is pitiful.  The Governor is going to allow NWI to spend its own money; but, now his man and he will be in charge of the process.  In reality this is going to be a big transportation boondoggle enriching contractors but having citizens to go nowhere.  This has always been true on NWI spend huge sums of money and go nowhere.  Is that not what we have done with the gambling revenues?  Everyone knows this and cannot refer to one idea that the RDA has shown to have any redeeming value for NWI economic development.

All the belief in economic development is based on assumption and guess work performed by interested contractors or interest groups, e.g. the Indiana Airport Association.  There is not one independent study to show that there is any value to any of the projects that the RDA is considering.  Therefore the members of the RDA are nothing more than cheap hacks – useless “boy-toys”, leading to the further problem that the RDA itself is bereft of any talent that anyone outside of the group itself would recognize.  Has anyone on the RDA done anything in particularly outstanding for NWI or anywhere else?  No.  They have all been treading water.

Now the Governor faces his second mistake, probably the most egregious one, because it involves conflict of interest, complete lack of ethics, and possible illegality (at least anywhere else in the world except NWI).  His mistake would be if his administration involved themselves in any way in the Cabala’s thievery that is occurring in Hammond.  The Cabela’s takeover of Woodmar Country Club was engineered as an unethical political act to benefit the economic future of the McDermott family with no consideration for its value to the people of Hammond or NWI. 

Cabelas’ is NOT economic development.  Only morons or thieves would consider retail development economic development.  Minimum wage jobs are not what will keep or attract people to NWI.  The purpose of this plan is to make money for the McDermott family and Dean White’s family collection.  These are people with the same scruples as the low-lifes of East Chicago that sucked the existence out of it, called Pastrick, Tom Cappas, and Mike Pannos.  Anyone associated with any of these people lacks any sense of morality or civic duty.  As we naturally know, they are all Democrats including a former head if the Indiana Democratic Party, the one not in jail (yet), and all are good friends of Senator Bayh.  The Senator who wines NWI but has never done anything for it. 

Now Governor Daniels is faced with the decision about State Tax Increment Financing (STIF’s) for Cabalas’.  This would be added thievery of Hoosier taxpayers’ hard earned funds to support corporations and individuals in their private business dealings.

Either Cabelas’ is a good business decision or it is not.  This is not a question anyone seems to want to ask because they want to justify corporate welfare.  STIF’s are intended, and are used in all states including Illinois, to solely develop economically depressed real estate.  There neither is or was anything economically depressed about Woodmar Country Club, except that the McDermotts and Whites wanted to get their hands on it.

There is therefore no justification for the Governor allowing the use of STIF’s in this situation.  To have the taxpayers of Indiana underwrite the private gain of individuals is to put Governor Daniels in the same racket as Cappas and Pannos are with East Chicago.  If that is the kind of Republican he wants to be then he becomes an embarrassment to the Republican Party and its heritage.

Where’s the outrage over Iran’s call for genocide?

Nov. 3, 2005

Maurice M. Eisenstein

Post-Tribune guest columnist

The parents of the Porter Lakes Elementary School second-graders who listened to a presentation on Islam were upset because they were not forewarned.

This public discussion was dominated solely by “politically correct” perspectives. In reality, the parents may very well be feeling as I do: damn mad and not going to take it anymore.

I am damn mad about the “politically correct” watered-down presentation in educational and political circles of Islam, while the Judeo-Christian tradition is presented, if at all, for its centuries-old negative historical consequences. Twenty-first century Islam is a religion overtaken by hatred and intolerance in some quarters, advocating suicide murders and beheadings in the name of Allah.

What’s sad is, most Americans are too trusting to recognize this and too believing to recognize that their tax dollars are going to promote this brand of anti-Americanism.

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded that “Israel must be wiped off the map” during a conference in Teheran entitled “World without Zionism.” I am damn mad that this kind of call for massive genocide, second only to Hitler’s, is going unchallenged in the great halls of power in America.

Where is the anger from the politicians, the civil rights leaders, the church leaders or our educational leaders?

The Iranian’s call is especially enlightening when Islam was the one religion to openly support the Nazis. To this day, wanted Nazi mass murderers have a safe haven in Islamic countries.

What is most striking is that no Iranians or Muslims overseas or in America are challenging this call for genocide. This made front-page headlines in every news outlet — government or independent — in the Islamic world. The foreign ministers of America’s “allies” — the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Saudi Arabians — all refused to criticize the Iranian president’s comments.

On Friday, after the United States, Great Britain and the United Nations, among others, criticized the president’s statements, more than 1 million Iranian Muslims took to the streets in support of genocide.

Sadly, in our own community, tax dollars go to support many Iranian and Islamic faculty members at Indiana universities. Not one came out to criticize these genocide comments, but they have time to travel back and forth to Iran (and other mother countries) and publish journals and articles critical of America and American values and behavior.

It is difficult to argue that this was the belief only of a small group of fanatic radicals. The call came from the president of a major country with a lot of oil and with a full-fledged nuclear program.

What else did the Islamic president say? The goal of a world without the United States and Zionism “is attainable and could definitely be realized.”

The thinking is that the West, and in particular the United States, placed Israel at the heart of Islam and, therefore, they all must be destroyed.

The defenders of the second-grade presentation stated that it was not for the purpose of proselytizing. That may be true. But many of us certainly see it as propaganda to put America to sleep about the true nature of the war we have been fighting.

The parents should have been much angrier. Forget political correctness; call for accountability for America and your tax dollars.

Maurice M. Eisenstein is a professor at Purdue University Calumet. His comments do not reflect the university. Contact him at

[email protected]