So you’ve watched McCain and Obama do their thing, go head to head, man to man, "Joe the Plumber" reference to "Joe the Plumber" reference, and you’re still not sure you can endorse either gentleman with your vote? Well, the folks at Free & Equal are hosting a third-party debate (McCain and Obama are invited, but not expected to show) Sunday at 7 p.m., which will be recorded by C-SPAN and streamed at Third Party Ticket.

Just exactly who will be there is still murky, since certified letters have just gone out to all candidates, say event organizers. Ralph Nader, who is on the ballot in 45 states as an independent candidate, has indicated he will show up. Cynthia McKinney, former member of Congress from Georgia and the Green Party candidate, will also be there, according to her website. Ms. McKinney is on the ballot in 30 states. Also invited is Chuck Baldwin, running on the Constitution Party ticket in 35 states.

Mr. Baldwin is perhaps the least known of the group. He’s an evangelical minister and hosts a conservative talk show in the Florida panhandle region. He also has gained the endorsement of Ron Paul, whose bid for the Republican nomination garnered a loyal and enthusiastic following.

The only question mark is Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate. Mr. Barr has made it clear that he will only debate Mr. Nader and no one else.

No word yet if these candidates will be mandated to use the phrases "change" or "my friends" a designated number of times.

Note: According to the Elkhart Truth, Barr will be the only third-party candidate on the Indiana ballot, while Baldwin, McKinney and Nader are eligible write-in candidates.

Township employees want to keep their jobs. There’s no big surprise there. But the fact that township employees would willingly and knowingly break the law (they have to understand that, don’t they?) to accomplish that goal is not only ironic, but somewhat tragic.

MySmartgov.org writes about the t-shirts, signs and letters (all generated on the public’s time and/or dime) that are bad enough. The "special dues assessment," however, is basically picking the pockets of taxpayers to run a political campaign. Those taxpayers can make their own choices. They don’t need their money used to save the "level of government closest to the taxpayers" when two-thirds of those taxpayers don’t know who their township officials are and have never used their services.

The November 4 referendum question in 43 townships states: Should the assessing duties of the elected township assessor in this township be transferred to the county assessor? MySmartgov.org wants you to look at the facts and make up your own mind. That only seems fair. 

The U.S. Chamber’s blog had an interesting post today about the problematic nature of counterfeiting and piracy and their impact on legitimate economies. Namely, it seems Georgia is especially plagued by these problems. (Is that why they call it Hot-lanta?):

The U.S. Chamber has sponsored a Gallup study which took a look at the impact of counterfeiting and piracy in Atlanta. The survey found that nearly 1 in 5 consumers have purchased an illicit product in the past year; 41 percent in the 18-24 age group have purchased an illicit product in that period; more than 80 percent say the ability to easily obtain them influenced their purchase decision; and a majority greatly underestimate the economic impact of these crimes. Despite the high incidence of these crimes, a vast majority of respondents favor tougher laws and penalties against these crimes.

The prevalence of counterfeiting and piracy in Atlanta should alarm consumers, the business community, and governments alike. Where these crimes exist, consumer health and safety, workers’ jobs, companies’ reputations, and government revenues are at stake. 

Regarding the 1 in 5 consumers part, that’s not surprising. In fact, consider me guilty as charged. But the only reason I purchased that bootlegged street copy of "You Don’t Mess with the Zohan" was that I simply could not wait until its official DVD release. What’s a guy to do?

Newt Gingrich spoke and answered questions for nearly two hours at a Council of State Governments’ meeting in Lexington, Kentucky earlier this year.

Among my favorite "Gingrichisms" from that day:

• "If we don’t have substantial change from our current system, we will not be capable of competing with China and India in 25 years."
• An author of two World War II novels, Gingrich says it’s "startling to realize how competent we once were. In three years and eight months, we moved 15.3 million troops. It took 23 years to add a runway to the Atlanta airport."
• Washington backed away from support for FutureGen, a clean coal energy project scheduled for Mattoon, Illinois. The government is now saying it will have a clean coal plant in 2016; China’s first clean coal plant will be in 2009
• Relaying a comment from Fred Smith of FedEx that government can’t distinguish between a cost and an investment. Smith said he couldn’t have explained (to government officials) why he needed a wireless computer for his drivers. "It would have been listed as a cost, not an investment."
• One of the offices for American Solutions, the organization Gingrich founded and chairs, is in the Silicon Valley to allow regular conversations with entrepreneurs .

More to come from Gingrich in Lexington, as well as a one-on-one interview with the influential leader in the September-October BizVoice magazine. Gingirch comes to the Indiana Convention Center as keynote speaker for the Indiana Chamber’s 19th Annual Awards Dinner on November 6 — just two days after we elect our next poltiical leaders.

There’s not much good that comes out of a financial situation like the one our country (and the world) is experiencing. The slight exception might be some of the jokes or satirical analyses that emerge.

Such as an e-mail from a former co-worker at 4:40 a.m. one morning (maybe he was up worrying about his retirement funds) with new definitions for some common terms. We’ll share a few here:

• Financial planner — a guy whose phone has been disconnected
• Cash flow — the movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet
• Institutional investor — past year investor who’s now locked up in a nuthouse
• Yahoo — what you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share
• Windows — what you jump out of when you’re the sucker who bought Yahoo at $240 per share
• P/E ratio — the percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing

Or there’s the fact that if you spent $1,000 one year ago on the following stocks, the values today would be: less than $5 for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac; $6.60 for Lehman Brothers or a whopping $42 for AIG.

In comparison, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer, drank it and turned in all the cans for recycling, you would have $214. The drink heavily and recycle plan is also known as 401-Keg.

Remember, things will get better.

If you’re still undecided on the upcoming gubernatorial election, your last chance to watch the contenders square off in debate form will be Tuesday night. This time, Gov. Mitch Daniels, Jill Long Thompson and Andy Horning will sit at a table with moderator Tom Cochran.

And while audience members posed questions in the last debate, Cochrun, a former news director at WISH and a documentary filmmaker, will ask the questions this time.

Kyle Niederpruem, spokeswoman for the Indiana Debate Commission, said Cochrun will use his own questions and some of the 400 submitted by the public to home in on issues not touched on in the first two debates. He plans to push the candidates for answers if he thinks they haven’t responded.

The debate will be held in the I.U. Auditorium in Bloomington at 7 p.m. The event will be shown on some cable stations, according to the Indianapolis Star. So that probably means just flip around until you find it. (I’m sure my fellow males are familiar with that m.o. — flipping through the channels with no clear direction of where you’re headed. It’s a fun little journey, isn’t it?) The Star also notes the debate will be shown on its web site.

Reminder: The final presidential debate will be held Wednesday night, as well.

As we approach Halloween, how appropriate that township officials keep delivering tricks (with no treats) to taxpayers. We’ve seen plenty of examples of referendum campaigning while on the job from the layer of government that is "closest to the people."

Stop Governing Like This reported last week that the Indiana Township Association wants more dues from its members to fight the Kernan-Shepard recommendations and suggests using funds earmarked for professional dues and subscriptions. That’s taxpayer dollars for a political campaign.

You’ve got to be kidding! Can anyone really think that this outdated form of government should be sustained?