IS IT TRUE that Disney On Ice World of Fantasy show is scheduled at the Ford Center on March 28, 29, 30, and 31st of March, 2012?…the concert featuring classic rock and roll entertainers Journey, Loverboy, and Pat Benatar has been cancelled at the Ford Center?…this same tour played in Louisville’s Freedom Hall in August to a sellout crowd of nearly 20,000 people?…by keeping Freedom Hall in operation Louisville is able to have classic rock concerts at classic rock ticket prices and seldom find themselves in a position of having to cancel concerts due to low ticket sales?…that finding uses for Freedom Hall have not been particularly difficult for Louisville but Evansville didn’t even give Roberts Stadium a creative chance to find new uses?…Louisville’s YUM Center along with Evansville’s shiny new Ford Center are partners in absorbing financial losses and passing them on to the populace in spite of good attendance at most events?

IS IT TRUE that the Wall Street Journal has on its front page today a county by county map of the United States showing each county as red (republican) or blue (democrat) to show how each county voted in the presidential election?…this map adds some clarity as to how the country is ideologically divided when compared to the state color maps that we are all familiar with from watching the election returns?…what becomes clear is that the ideological division in the country are strongly between urban areas and rural areas with the exception of some counties that are overwhelmingly populated by African Americans or Latinos?…that the red state of Texas had a few pockets of blue?…that Dallas, Austin, and a string of counties on the border with Mexico all voted for President Obama with the rest of the state painted red?…Democrat dominated California does not look so blue on a county by county map?…the highly populated coast with the exception of Orange County are all blue but the inland areas are pretty red?…our neighbor state of Illinois is a Republican state with one big Democrat run city named Chicago that nullifies the will of the rest of the state by a large amount?…what is really clear is if the election results were broken down into urban counties that President Obama would have gotten his landslide?…if this was a rural election Mitt Romney would have won an overwhelming majority?…it is possible to drive from one coast of America to the other and never pass through a county that went for the President?…it is not possible travel across the country and stay in Obama country?…that starting from either coast there are only two possibilities to get even 2 states deep before facing a red county in every direction?

IS IT TRUE that the stock market dropped over 300 points (2.3%) yesterday while the American dollar fell against 16 other non-banana republic currencies?…this came on the heels of not only the American election results but some news releases from Europe stating continued failures of bailout programs?…the other driving factor is the so called “fiscal cliff” that is looming at the end of the year if Congress and the President do not find a compromise to avoid the malaise that happens when the fiscal time bomb that was conveniently set for 6 weeks after the election during the last compromise in 2010 before the House of Representatives was taken over by Republicans?…this fiscal cliff is a golden opportunity for President Obama to bring out that guy from 2008 we got to know as candidate Obama that seemed able to do anything and put him to work on solving this problem?…this is no time for the politics of class warfare to dominate the President’s agenda or for the Republicans in Congress to obstruct logical solutions put on the table by the President and the Democrats?…if these folks can’t settle on a real tangible solution to avoid the fiscal cliff then we are headed for one horrible four years when it comes to the economy?…if President Obama gets his way on soaking the folks in the top tax bracket (and we suspect he will) that the additional taxes collected per year will only amount to 2% of the federal budget or 7 days of government spending?…it will become easily apparent that raising the top marginal tax rates is all about the politics of class warfare and not about a real solution to the fiscal crisis?

IS IT TRUE that both Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Americas two largest defense contractors responded to the election results quickly and decisively by announcing layoffs and cut backs of well over a Billion dollars each?…the fiscal cliff is driving the stock selloff too as the tax on capital gains is scheduled to roughly triple on January 1st?…we invite you to imagine you are faced with a scenario of having an investment of a stock or small business that will be subject to the having the tax laws changed in the middle of the game and that you have say $10 Million in gains?…if you sell before the end of the year you get to keep $8.5 Million but if you wait till next year you only get to keep $5.5 Million?…under that scenario and there are many such scenarios out there this is the last chance to sell and keep your earned income for at least 6 years and maybe longer?…a similar situation exists with inheritance taxes that are set to increase from 35% to 55%?…a two generational inheritance tax of a Million bucks above the exclusion will result in a Million dollars (taxes already paid on this by the person that earned it) seeing $550,000 taken by the government on their passing and another $247,500 taken when it passes to their grandchildren a few years later?…that hard earned Million bucks will have turned into $202,500 in two passes through the inheritance confiscation laws?…tax laws like this devalue everything they touch and provide a disincentive to earn?…anyone who thinks it is fair for $1 Million in hard earned after tax dollars to be taxed down to $202,500 going from granny to the grandkids would have been more at home in the now fractured and dissolved USSR?

IS IT TRUE we hope the Congress and the President both recognize the error of their ways and find a way to avoid this “fiscal cliff” that is truly a destroyer of value and ambition?…the campaign is over and it is now time to govern?…that campaign promises cloaked in “soak the rich” rhetoric will solve no problems, will make more problems, and are no way to govern?…as the protesters of the 60’s used to chant, “the whole world is watching” and there are only 7 weeks to find a solution?…we hope the bunch of you prove yourselves worthy?

IS IT TRUE that the people of Vanderburgh County and the City of Evansville went to the polls yesterday and dealt the referendum to consolidate local government a solid defeat by a 2 to 1 margin?…we have not examined these results precinct by precinct to see if there were any wards or precincts that actually voted YES but that will be an interesting part of the autopsy of this four year “machine” supported saga to “reorganize” the County into a single government unit?…there have been promises and threats coming out of the YES camp for the last several week along the lines of “you folks better vote YES or we will annex you against your will”?…those who would start any annexation efforts at this point had better take this thrashing at the ballot box as a firm warning that elected or even appointed officials who support annexation of anything in the short term will do so at their own political peril?

IS IT TRUE that there are also a number of elected officials that just gave their future opponents the political nuclear weapon they will use to defeat them?…a future opponent of the rabid supporters of consolidation like Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, Sheriff Eric Williams, Commissioners Marsha Abell and Joe Kiefer, former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, and assorted but less recognized others will be pounded again and again over support for a referendum that clearly stuck a middle finger in the face of the will of the people of Vanderburgh County?…some of these people just got their second poison issue as three of these (Winnecke, Weinzapfel, and Abell) were also in on the secret meeting to take away the Homestead Tax Credit?…in most places this combination of arrogant and misinformed positions would eliminate them from ever being elected to anything?…if you add that to the Ford Center that is now losing money which was orchestrated by the same cast of characters and their surrogates in a city that thinks, feels, and remembers this elite club would now be political roadkill?…the future will come and one of these people will run for something as they always seem to do?…that then and only then will we find out if Evansville is a city that thinks, feels, and has a memory?

IS IT TRUE that the governance of the City of Evansville needs to look at the overwhelming rejection of consolidation as a mandate to heal the City of the malaise that is obvious to any informed observer?…the easy money route to paying for the City of Evansville’s legacy problems just slammed shut?…the problems like having a horrible plan that offered nearly no savings and spared numerous sacred cows is the principle reason that consolidation failed?…there are a group of young Chamber of Commerce types who vocally supported consolidation who may live to fight another day politically when they are in their fifties but in the near term they will be judged by the company they kept and will have a big target on their back in any political endeavor they attempt to seek?

IS IT TRUE that outside of the consolidation effort the people of Evansville and Vanderburgh County substantially voted for the STATUS QUO?…from the County Council, to the School Board, to the Coroner’s Offices, to the Judgeships the people of Evansville went for the incumbents lock, stock, and barrel?…this seems to indicate that whatever Evansville and Vanderburgh County are right now is how the people of this part of the world intend to keep it?…on a national level Vanderburgh County did not go with the STATUS QUO giving President Obama only 43.7% of their votes to 54.3% for Republican Mitt Romney and Libertarian Gary Johnson a relatively high share of 2.8%.

IS IT TRUE that the country on the other hand did vote to give President Barack Obama a new four year contract with a slim margin with only 50.3% of the popular vote with the final electoral totals still not established at the time of this writing?…this means that 49.7% voted for someone other than President Obama and kept the House of Representative in Republican hands while leaving the Senate in Democrat hands but with substantially less than 60 votes needed to ram things through along party lines?…the divides and differences in different regions of the country are quite stark?…in the South and the Grain Belt you can easily travel over 2,000 miles without going through a state that even cast 40% of their votes for President Obama?…it is clear that the United States is a sharply divided nation and that Republican members of the Congress will have the strong support of their constituencies to oppose President Obama’s will for the next four years?…as was stated in yesterday’s IS IT TRUE we are poised for four years of no legislation and endless executive fiat?…this is sad but true?