“Best Nate Smith Ever” war!!!

As you can see, the other Nate Smith has decided to wage war in his “Best Nate Smith Ever” contest. According to his blog, http://www.nateisablog.blogspot.com/, he feels that he is a better Nate Smith because he looks better with a mustache. True, but I need the help of the Breakroom readers.

Nate writes: “Now I realize there are about 9,100 in Indiana who might disagree with me. If you want to defend Big Shot Nate Smith’s honor, I am willing to listen. Post a comment and state your case. There are two things you must do to catapult Big Shot Nate Smith to victory. One is present a picture of BSNS with a mustache that looks more awesome than I do. The other is for 1,000 Washington Times-Herald readers to visit this site. If you do both of these things, I will claim Big Shot Nate Smith as the Best Nate Smith Ever! Good luck! For the 14 of you who are my regular readers, you can check out Big Shot Nate Smith’s writing at this link here.”

I need a mustache or 1,000 of you all. I am also enlisting Todd’s Cyber Press Pass Nation for help. We must not let those who cannot draw mustaches (the right side is longer than the left) prevail!

—Nate Smith

 

I-69 a reality?

To most of us, it is. But to a few who live in Bloomington, it isn’t. We met them when they rode the proposed I-69 route, and they wanted local economies to work instead of the one we presently use. The problem is it may work in Bloomington, but not in Daviess County.

I-69 will happen, no matter the environmental lawsuit filed in Brown County. We need it to work for us and I think it will. The funny thing is, this will help Bloomington more than it will help Daviess County. Are they protesting the interstate there? Not really.

—Nate Smith

 

More and more home improvement

You ever see when you buy a home the projects just seem to pile and pile up on each other, one on top of the other?

That’s what I’m facing at the new casa de Nate on Washington Ave. We have the bathroom project, the painting project and the heating/ac project. It seemed like everyone had their own special project to do: Haag’s is taking care of the heating/ac for us (Thanks Greg and the guys), Allison and her dad Bill were doing the paint and my Dad and I are on the bathroom.

The only problem is trying to get around everyone’s work schedule, baby schedule and other stuff schedule. I have not played a single round of golf this YEAR, trying to get the house ready. Every moment I spend not at work is there and we still have more stuff to do. The move-in date is June 1 and it will be close to July before we get in.

Also, when you have a cute baby and there’s stuff to do, everyone is not at the house but will offer to take care of the baby. I swear, a bunch of people want the baby and not the paintbrush. Thank God for Bill and my Dad who are helping out.

I had a break last weekend because of Mother’s Day but I think with all the stuff going on, I need another one. I don’t know how the guys on This Old House do it.

—Nate Smith

 

Clinton’s visit

Well, I got to see former President Bill Clinton, from a distance of about 20 feet in the media “pen.” To be honest, the visit at Jasper was a little disappointing.

I didn’t even mind waiting for a while or having to stand for a bit because that was all security-related. The state police wouldn’t even let me use my video monopod, so if my video is shaky, you all know why. But hey, that’s not a big deal.

There were two things that struck me as a bid deal. One, no free swag. Come on, you all raised hundreds of millions of dollars and you all can’t give a reporter a packet? No buttons or press passes like the ones I see in Newsweek? Trivial, but I wanted a memento that I could torture Todd Lancaster with.

Second and the most disappointing from the visit, was we in the press were not able to meet the president. The Hillary and the Dubois County Democrats had volunteers all around the “pen” to make sure we didn’t leave it. One Jasper photographer had to be escorted back into the pen when she tried to get a good closer photo of the President. What really rubbed me the wrong way was when amateur photogs, those who spend money on good cameras and lenses, were right in front of us snapping away. Later, some photogs were able to get different angles of the President but still, nothing that was really great.

And, for me being a Clinton admirer, we as reporters can’t get five minutes? I think nobody would have cared if they waited in Vincennes for five more minutes? Hell, I only had three or four questions, maybe thank him for coming to a place that he normally wouldn’t unless the election hadn’t brought him there.

I went in with high anticipation and I was thoroughly disappointed. I hope the next Clinton or Obama events I go to are better.

—Nate Smith

 

Sending a message

I don’t know if you all read the end of the state’s Department of Local Government Finance story on punishing assessors in both counties but it reads like this:

Mary Jane Michalak, a spokeswoman for the DLGF, said the agency knows that assessors are working hard but wanted to “send a message” to counties that they have to fulfill their obligations.

Here’s the link: State threatens counties for missing tax deadline

What is that message? What happened to letters or an e-mail. Maybe for this message, a horse’s head would have worked better.

(Note to readers: commentary stopped, reporting begin)

The interpretation I heard last night in Martin County was DLGF changed the rules in October and then assessor Carolyn Sue McGuire had to hire an appraiser to help with the new data. According to County Attorney Dave Lett, McGuire said the process was delayed seven to 10 days.

The new report, called a ratio report, will be turned in next week. At Tuesday’s Martin County Commissioners meeting, Lett said McGuire was bothered by having sanctions presented against her.

I am not sure what Daviess County Assessor Dennis Eaton is going through but I would guess the report to be the target.

(Reporting over, commentary to begin again)

Who’s running that office? Tony Montana? No, Cheryl Musgrave, which you could say judging by her time in Evansville to be close to Tony Montana.

It’s sad in this year, arguably the most important year since property taxes were invented in this state, that the agency running the money added a last-minute rule then blamed the counties for following the rule, but not done on time. These guys should run the BCS.

Also, if I were a county assessor, I wouldn’t care what extra rules DLGF gives anyway. Just turn in the tax info and there you go. It’s not like assessors are going to have a job next year anyway.

DLGF looked like morons this week. Although I really don’t like shooting the messenger, Michalak gets special moron recognition for her “sending a message” comment.

Readers, I will be putting up my son’s first video soon.

—Nate Smith

 

Nate’s post-election analysis

Well, what did we learn last night?

I learned that if I was a betting man, I would be broke. One bet I would lose, Larry Haag’s margin of victory over Dave Abel. I thought it would be closer.

If we can look throughout the state, it was a bad year to be an incumbent, no matter what party they were affiliated with. Terre Haute, Washington, Vincennes and the big shocker, Indianapolis, all prove that theory. Indy Republican Mayoral winner Greg Ballard proved EVERYONE wrong. If there was a decent GOP candidate in Evansville, it would be a closer, maybe 70 percent for Jonathan Weinzapfel instead of the 85 percent he won with Tuesday.

What is with the turnaround? Voter anger. Could be a lot of reasons for the anger, but since people are paying their property tax bills around the time they have to vote could have a lot to do with it.

If I were an advisor to Gov. Daniels, I would be scared at Tuesday’s results. If I were an advisor to Jim Schellenger or Jill Long-Thompson, I would be working the fundraising phones all day and night.

Both Haag and Abel ran good campaigns and really all candidates, win or lose, helped raise the level of debate in Washington.

I don’t see a 4-3 (or 5-2 depending on who you talk to) Democrat majority on the Washington city council to be as significant as some would think. The councilmen, a majority of the time, vote regardless of party and usually most votes are 7-0 anyway as long as I have covered it. That doesn’t take away from the job Democrats did in taking back city government.

But anyway, congrats to all.

—Nate Smith