It’s rare that I write about local politics on It’s Evansville. There’s a few reasons for that. The major reason is that I don’t find it that interesting, and assume that the majority of you don’t either. The other reason is that I don’t think I know enough about it to offer an informed, thoughtful opinion on the subject.

That said, I can’t resist touching on the county commissioners meeting’s recent meeting. At the County Commissioners’ August 5th public meeting, there was an item on the agenda marked as CO.08-08-018 Patient Safety Ordinance. The name doesn’t really say much about the ordinance, but the Thomas B. Langhorne at the Courier sums it up quite nicely.

…the ordinance states a doctor may not perform an abortion in Vanderburgh County without having local hospital admitting privileges in the county or an adjacent county. The doctor also must inform the patient where she can receive follow-up care in case of complications….According to meeting minutes and audio and video tapes of the meeting, Commissioners President Jeff Korb called for a motion to waive second reading on what he called “the patient safety ordinance.” Korb did not use the word “abortion.”

Here’s all 45 seconds of the video thanks to our friends at WNIN:

There are a few things to take note of in the video:

1. There is no mention of the full name of the ordinance An Ordinance Concerning Abortion Provider Patient Safety. Instead, they put it on the agenda with the less controversial Patient Safety Ordinance.
2. There was no reading or discussion of what the ordinance was leaving those that attended the meeting without a clue what was being approved.
3. The issue wasn’t opened up for public discussion.

Whether you agree with the ordinance or not is irrelevant to this argument. My main point of contention is how the whole thing was just slipped into the agenda and passed without any public discussion or reference to what the ordinance is for. Patient Safety is a pretty wide net, and it’s obvious that the commissioners knew tossing the word abortion into the public ring would be a hot button. They even admitted it

Korb and Tornatta traded accusations Friday about which of them was most responsible for passing the ordinance with no debate and no mention of abortion.

“(Korb) asked me if I would be willing to pass it on first and final reading,” Tornatta said. “He didn’t say why, but I knew why. Because it’s too controversial.”

Korb said Tornatta wanted to “keep it on the quiet, down-low side because he didn’t want to experience the wrath of the pro-choice people.”

This is the epitome of political sleaze. Part of being a publicly elected official is dealing with the issues and wrath of those people who may be against it. It is deplorable to try to sneak the issue onto the agenda with an ambiguous name and no public debate, but it’s even worse to openly admit you have an agenda in doing so.

It’s no wonder most people have lost hope in politicians.

While the Indiana primaries aren’t until May, it’s still important to keep track of what is going on in today’s primary elections. Twitter and Google have teamed up to create a cool mashup that shows tweets on a Google Map in real-time.

Check it out.

Twitter-Google Mashup

While I don’t usually post too much on national politics, why not share your thoughts on tonight’s State of the Union address?

Please try to be halfway civil.

Fox 7 did a story on Ron Paul’s pull in the area. Has anyone else seen the guy that sits at the bus stop in front of Denny’s on Green with his Ron Paul sign?