Northwest Indiana Comical Politics

Congressman Peter Visclosky and State Senator Earline Rogers Force Firing of Elected Official Who Criticised Them

Indiana's First District Congressman Peter Visclosky and State Senator Earline Rogers have forced an Indiana State elected official to be terminated from his full time employment because he publicly criticized them.

Mr. Darren Washington, an elected member of the Gary School Board and former President of that body, criticized both officials in an interview with the Gary Post-Tribune newspaper during a public meeting of the School Board.  He disagreed with Senator Rogers about moving the timing of the ISTEP testing and he expressed his disagreement with Congressman Visclosky''s efforts, or lack thereof, on the No Child Left Behind program.

According to the President of Indiana AT&T (the former SBC), who employed Washington, the Congressman and the State Senator called to complain In response to this "criticism" and demanded action on the part of his private employer.  The President insisted that Washington sign a humiliating apology and agree to direction for the school board from him.  The alternative would be the firing of Mr. Washington.  Mr. Washington refused to sign and was fired. (All this is available for download from the site below).

Now to be fair, this kind of strong arm blackmail and destruction of individual lives for criticizing public officials is a common practice in NWI.  It is how NWI politics is done.  Yes, it is un-American.  Yes, it is against everything the Constitution and the Bill of Rights stands for.  And yes, there is nothing more unethical than what these two elected officials did.  But in NWI no one will speak against them including the leaders of the new ethics "movement" in NWI.  This movement is only a new way to cover the politicians and to get new work for the ethics specialists.

By the way, both Congressman Peter Visclosky and State Senator Earline Rogers signed the new ethics pledge.  This makes them into number one liars and unethical heathens.  It also indicates the total uselessness of all the so-called smoke and mirrors that have been put forth as the new ethics initiative.  The lowest thing a person can do is to attack someones livelihood for disagreeing with them on a political issue.

The best lesson for NWI to improve its politics is if both these official and the AT&T president could be sent to jail.  Second to that they should both be removed from office.

Darren Washington has filed suite against Indiana AT&T.  But the real evil here is the Congressman and the State Senator.  They have brought Indiana politics to a new low and they should be ashamed of themselves.

The filing in State court can be downloaded from the following:

Download Washington.pdf

Those who still believe in freedom and the American political process, read and weep.

The NWI Lemmings are Winning

Although this is a wonderful area with unlimited potential, the lemmings are turning it into a cesspool by ignoring the truth. The lemmings continue to follow the mediocre political and civic leadership whose track record would not get them a position as sewer cleaners even giving most of them credit for life experience. 

The possibilities in NWI are endless; but they cannot be realized when the people in responsible civic positions are incapable of recognizing real solutions. Our first problem is economic development. Less than a handful of people in NWI actually understand what economic development is. We have Chester Dobis the State Representative who has no idea of what to do. He keeps shoveling money down a black hole, locally known as the Regional Development Authority, from which nothing will ever arise except for his condominium in Florida and Scott King's childrens tuition. Then there is John Aguilera, the vacation boy of Munster, who takes over $100,000 from Indiana University while giving up $500,000 a year for his district by cutting a deal with the leadership of Bloomington and Lafayette and the lemmings in NWI are actually talking about him returning to run for mayor of East Chicago. 

While his own city’s university is, according to Purdue Calumet's Chancellor, the lowest funded campus in the State before loosing $500,000 per year thanks to Aguilera, Mayor Tom McDermott squandered resources on trying to attract more pick-ups to the former green space called Woodmar Country Club. He’s beginning to learn what economic development truly is with his College Bound program. But Purdue Calumet’s funding is still the critical link. If he could tear himself away from the hip of Chancellor Cohen, he just might be willing to fight for adequate funding for his constituents university of choice, Purdue Calumet.

We are also straddled with our ethics believers.  These believers run around convincing the lemmings that everything will be okay once everyone signs an ethics pledge.  However, do not bother them with actually taking a position on ethical behavior (even if they have signed a pledge!).  They cannot even publicly see anything unethical about Aguilera’s ghost pay rolling and selling his representation to the highest bidder.  How can the lemmings and their ethical leaders take seriously Aguilera’s hand picked compatriot in this fraud, Candeleria-Reardon?  Where are the ethical outcries? 

Where are the ethical outcries with the former Sheriff’s attempt to circumvent the intent of term limits by continuing a shadow organization to return him to power?

What is happening in other cities in Indiana? Muncie is getting over 3,000 Sallie Mae federal high paying jobs. Pfizer in Terre Haute is hiring over 500 people for pharmaceutical production. Toyota of America is building their new car model in Lafayette and hiring over 1,000 people to do it. If anyone has recently been in Indianapolis, they will discover an economically booming city with one high rise being built next to another.

With all this development in Indiana, Lake County is concerned with which thief will become leader of the piece of worthless land called Gary that no one cares about except some vultures like fleeting Scott King; the rejected Dozier Allen and now biggest joke Rudy Clay. 

What do the successful Indiana cities have in common? They have leadership with insight and vision and the lemmings are rare. The citizens push and question not follow blindly and ethics is publicly recognized. 

Finally, each of the cities has a class university that feeds and leads the cities civic structure. You think there is a message here for our lemmings?

King Personifies the Worst of NWI Politics

Finally, it has become clear the the real culprit of bad government in NWI for the past decade has been Mayor Scott King and his negative legacy will continue to haunt the region for years to come.  For the past decade the problem of unethical and incompetent behavior on the part of public officials is not the purview of Mayor Bob Pastrick or Robert Cantrell.  In many ways they just said what they were and what they did, like it or not, you at least knew what they were about.

With King you just receive a lie after lie.  He has now specifically admitted to reporters that the scam about higher education was just that, a scam.  He pointed how now he had to shop for a new car with his daughter because for the past 11 years he has had a car and a driver.  The cost of a car, gas, insurance, maintenance, etc. is more than enough to offset the one new college tuition he says he has coming up.  Adding the car cost to his income of $200,000 + per year would unquestionably indicate that his family are liars and the most insensitive people in the City of Gary.  Knowing that it is a lie, how could his family be with him during the announcement?  That can only be explained by their low moral values that go along with the former Mayor.

It is also fair to say that in his years as mayor of Gary he accomplished absolutely nothing; but warmed a chair.  Mark Keisling has the best description of his tenure as Mayor:  "(King) has taken a cesspool of urban decay with the nation's highest murder rate and in 11 short years has turned it into a cesspool of urban decay with one of the nation's highest murder rate and an air show."

Where I disagree with Mark Keisling is that King tried to make a difference.  The only thing he tried to do after his first couple of years in office was to make sure the his cronies, such as Jewel Harris, were taken care of.  Even the RDA, the Gary Airport, the Marquette plan, etc. are all meant to put money into his and his cronies pockets.

He has now come out to collect his share of the "pay to play" scheme that he has pulled on NWI.  I want to hear for all the ethical "know it all's" about the unethical behavior that he is promoting.

Mayor Scott King Pulls Another Scam on NWI

Mayor, excuse me, former Mayor Scott King of Gary has now pulled the ultimate scam on NWI.  Every word out of his mouth is either a lie or a self serving unethical put-on the citizenry of NWI.

He has set up Gary, and by association NWI, to come under the control of the most incompetent and corrupt official, Dozier Allen, the former Trustee of Calumet Township.  Some people will say that the naming of Dozier Allen is better than former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick; but that is not true.  First, Allen was directly rejected three times by the voters of Gary and like a bad penny he is back through the back door as a slap in the face delivered by the thief King.  Second, Allen ran the most corrupt and bloated organization in NWI even surpassing East Chicago in its prime.

Scott King's explanation lacks the ring of truth and is the most insensitive and grotesque explanation to give to a city such as Gary.  What was explained with a straight face and was uncritically reported by the press is the he cannot afford to get his three children higher education on the $107,000 per year he was making as mayor of Gary.  This is a slap in the face of the majority of hard working people in Gary who are providing for their children, including higher education, while making a lot less than the mayor's salary.  One has to remember how insensitive, or drunk, Scott King must have been when one realizes that Gary probably has the lowest median family income in the State.

Secondly, it was factually just a big fat lie because he really makes about $200,000 per year in his capacity as mayor.  He seems to have conveniently forgotten the approximate $70,000 his wife is paid annually from his campaign funds as a "consultant".  So now he cannot afford higher education when he is making $200,000.  No one who has had three children  believes this.  One of his children is attending Indiana University Northwest.  That costs about $7,000 per year.  His son goes to a small school in the South.  His youngest daughter does not start school until the fall when he would have only a year left to be mayor and be able to leave his position with honor rather than as the slithering eel that he is perceived.

One also needs to ask as to the moral character of the children that he and his wife have raised.  By example, his wife would not let him fire her friend the deputy mayor who was charged with lying to the FBI even after King fired two other people who broke the same law.  What kind of children would let their father quit as mayor so that they can get supported when they are adults.  I guess part of that is explained by the fact that one of his daughters has a child floating on stage with no father in sight.

It is beyond all reason that neither Scott King nor his wife nor their pampered children could not feel the insensitive irony of this so-called leader telling the poorest of the poor that we, the Kings, cannot get by on $200,000 per year.  What kind of human beings are these?

Scott King has shown himself to be the personification of unethical behavior.  His flippant rejection of his responsibility to the people of Gary when he took this office of Mayor, including the fact that he always knew what the salary was going to be and how many children he had, speaks volumes about his incapability of moving Gary ahead during most of his three terms in office.  He has also admitted that he is going to pursue the benefits accrued to him by his public service.  He is now going to the other side and collecting his payback as a consultant.  This keeps him consistent with the unethical tradition of NWI politicos.

Where are all the so called ethical specialists?  Who has their tongue now?  The problem is they want part of the action that Scott King is going after.  So why criticize?  Scott King made all of his connections and created all of his value as a public servant.  That is where he developed the Marquette Plan, the Gary Airport, and the Regional Development Authority (RDA).  These were ostensibly created for the benefit of Gary and NWI; not for the financial benefit of Mr. Scott King.

Now King is going to turn that so called public good into a private gain as a consultant to the RDA on all of these programs.  Let us be clear -- the RDA has no need for a consultant whose only experience is as a lawyer and as an incompetent mayor.  In spite of what lawyers think, a law degree does not qualify you to do everything.  The only reason to hire King as a consultant is to give a "legal" payback.  That is completely unethical and it should be called on the carpet by all those individuals who have been shoving ethics down other public officials throats.

At its very basic tenant, ethical behavior as a public official requires that you do not privately benefit from your public training and responsibilities.  That is exactly what Scott King is doing.  If he did it while he was mayor he would be in jail because it would be illegal, doing it after suddenly resigning is unethical.

Scott King remains a renowned scoundrel for being incompetent as mayor and then holding his position hostage for pay to play after he leaves office.

Where is NWI's Ethical Leadership?

This is a crucial time for the political and economic development of Northwest Indiana. There are a number of real possibilities for advancement of NWI economically beyond steel.

Further, it actually may be possible to clean up the local leaders’ political shortcomings that are reflected by their lack of performance and in NWI’s reputation conveyed to the rest of the state.

Our specific opportunity is in the area of ethics. Ethics has become the most important and overused word in NWI.

Unethical behavior by public officials is not — and I repeat not — technically illegal. Rather, it is behavior considered by most citizens to be improper and self-serving for a public official; behavior that does not serve the public — as a public servant is charged with doing.

Pushing the ethical argument can only serve one of two purposes.

First, it can be a smoke screen for politicians to look as if they are doing the right thing while it creates new jobs for the individuals pushing for ethical commitments.

Secondly, the individuals pushing for ethics really believe and want to act on the principle that anyone in the public arena is governed by rules of ethical behavior. Those rules take into account the proprietary of the public interest and the consequences his or her actions may have on the public’s perception of public servants.

That is our current crossroad. Either we, those who make claim for NWI leadership, are actually for ethics or the whole thing is but a game creating a cover for NWI’s Democratic politicians and making money for ethics specialists.

The uniqueness of ethics arises because it can only be enforced through the ethical standards of our individual leaders. NWI’s leaders have to shed light by criticizing unethical behavior. The U.S. attorney cannot do this job for them because we are not looking at acts that are illegal.

If leaders do not publicly step forward, they are just as unethical as the official committing the unethical act. Where are the leaders stepping up to the plate?

Keeping in the tradition of Emile Zola, I accuse NWI leaders of going along with unethical behavior because they are too scared to act on unveiling unethical behavior of public officials.

Leaders of NWI, stop the silence. Quit being afraid of making waves; if change is what you want, then fight for it.

There is an ethical question surrounding John Buncich’s candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Lake County sheriff. It may not be illegal, but it is clearly unethical.

I accuse members of the Quality of Life Council of unethical behavior for their silence on this fraud perpetuated on the election process.

I accuse former Sheriff Buncich, who signed the ethics pledge, yet does not respect the term limit imposed by the state on the position of sheriff. Term limits mean do not come back; it is too much power.

I accuse leaders of the Local Government Academy and Quality of Life Council for not ethically deploring the fact that Buncich is running.

The list of unethical behavior could go on for pages. But the one truth is that no leaders — except Joe Gomeztagle, Morton Marcus and myself —have ever stepped up to the plate and criticized unethical behavior. Because we believe in the value of ethics, we neither make money nor gain power from it.

Rich James should not be alone in telling everyone when a scam is a scam.

Aguilera's hand-picked successor in theft, Candeleria-Reardon, must be rejected

John "the looser" Aguilera, the current State Representative, who does not remember that he represents NWI, or Indiana, or US citizens, or anything but the ego of John C. Aguilera, Jr., the kick back king of Indiana University.

The only interest Aguilera has is in the money he can steal for his pockets.  As a consequence his hand picked replacement, Candeleria-Reardon is only going to follow what he says and what he tells her to do.  One should not forget that before the "old" press picked up the story from this blog of Aguilera's thievery he thought he had dodged the bullet and I have his letter to prove it.  So when he decided to not run so he can continue stealing the free medical care, he also wanted to find a replacement to keep the money coming in from the universities.  He did this by cutting a deal with Candeleria-Reardon to run for his old seat.  Remember Aguilera is backing her and he took her around to meet all the leadership of the House to give her a boost in electioneering and to get a place on the House Ways and Means Committee.  Hey, House leadership how slick does your hand feel now after that hand shake?  Or is your new mantra "i did not know, how could I know?"

Aguilera's plan was to go the the Universities and get a kick-back for controlling this new representative.  What is important is that the new Representative candidate was going along with this!!!  One should not be surprised if part of this deal was to kick back part of the action to her.  Her family has always lived off the public trough quite well.

Now let us not forget that it takes two to tango.  The universities can not be held blameless.  First is the fact that Purdue WL, IU, and Ivy Tech employ a significant number of the legislators and if anyone really believes they are employed for their talents, I have some underwater land to sell you in New Orleans.  We all know that almost by definition if you are a member of the Indiana Legislature talent and brains are not what you are known for.

When this blog first broke the story of Aguilera's sell out for $68,500+ per year of his representative position of trust to IU, he sent me a letter denying that he had ever worked for IU and informing me that all the loss of funds to NWI and Purdue Calumet were coordinated and approved by the Purdue administration in Hammond and West Lafayette.  Everything the Purdue administration did in West Lafayette and in Hammond confirms that they were, at least tacitly, in collusion with Aguilera.

I think the least I deserve an apology from the Aguilera supporters and from President Jeschke and the local Purdue Administration.

Ivy Tech, the Indiana joke called higher education, employs at least four legislatures and previously Stan Jones the inept Commissioner for Higher Education.  Purdue West Lafayette employs at least one representative and it is a great question how many IU, ISU, Ball State employ.  This has become a good scam at the expense of Hoosier students and Indiana economic development in favor of the EGOs of the big campuses and the pocket books of the State legislators.

This must end now with the arrest and felony charges for this kind of sell out being implemented.

State Rep. Aguilera First Outed as Thief in this Blog

It was this Blog that first presented the scoop that outed State Representative John Aguilar as a thief and a charlatan for being employed by IUPUI in Indianapolis while representing NWI and making sure that NWI was short changed in higher education money.  In that role he is a disgrace to the office that he holds and to the Hispanic community he claims to represent.

It came out today officially in an audit by Indiana University that he was paid "bribery" money to steer funds in the legislature toward IUPUI's Labor Studies program.  This in exchange for $68,500 payment to himself plus any tuition reduction his children may or did get from the University.  He performed this "task" all the while selling NWI, his constituency, short in their funding for higher education dollars.

The only State university in his district, Purdue University Calumet, budget was reduced by $500,000 a year while he was being paid under the table by Indiana University.  In a letter to me he specifically denied that he had ever worked for Indiana University (like he never summered in Munster).  The simple fact is the John Aguilera sold his public job and his heritage to the highest bidder.

It is now clear that, at best, the man has the ethics of a leech, and at worst, he is an incompetent, thieving, low-life politician.  Anyone he endorses, i.e Candelaria for his old position as State Rep., should be soundly rejected and judged by the friends she keeps.  Further he should never ever be welcome back to East Chicago as anything but a street sweeper for what he has done to the future of the kids there.  If he is even allowed to run for Mayor shame on the people of East Chicago.

I have always known that he was the most useless politician in NWI.  He would sell all of us for thirty pieces of silver, assuming he can count, which is a big if.

Remember for scoops on thieves in NWI this is the place.  You will never be mislead.