Color me confused by this story:

A woman from eastern Indiana has sued the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles commissioner over the agency’s rejection of her request for a personalized license plate with the words “BE GODS.”

Liz Ferris intends for the message to read “Be God’s,” a principle she borrowed from a contemporary Christian musician Rich Mullins and considers central to her life.

Later in the article we learn that administrative code prohibits “personalized plates referring to a race, religion, deity, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or political party or affiliation, though exceptions are allowed for some racial and ethnic references.”

And yet, as Ferris noted in her lawsuit, we’ve got all these “In God We Trust” plates floating around on Indiana roads.

So…

What do we think about this latest twist in the ongoing saga of “Worship On Wheels”?

Is it acceptable — or legally neutral — for the state to print up and distribute for free plates that talk about God while not allowing a citizen to pay to place a godly message on her car?

Look, I understand statesmanship and diplomacy and the pursuit of peace, love and understanding, but there’s a nagging, partisan part of me that really, really thinks Sen. Joe Lieberman should have had to endure slightly more punishment for his repeated and heated campaign appearances with John McCain and Sarah Palin during their failed run for the White House.

In a 42-13 secret ballot vote, Democratic senators approved a resolution stripping Lieberman of a subcommittee chairmanship, but allowing him to remain chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

No staff members were allowed as Democratic senators filed into the old Senate chamber at 9:30 a.m. for leadership elections and other party business. The fate of the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee was the first agenda item, as his colleagues discussed whether he would be punished for slights to the party.

Before the vote, Lieberman gave what one senator described as a “heartfelt” speech explaining his actions.

“He did not say he regretted supporting McCain, but he did say he regretted some of the things he said,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Things like this?

“John McCain had the guts to argue against public opinion, to put his whole campaign on the line, because, as he says, he’d rather lose an election than lose in a war that he thinks is this important to the United States,” Lieberman said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“If Barack Obama’s policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn’t be in Iraq today,” Lieberman said, adding that Obama “was prepared to accept retreat and defeat.”

I understand why his colleagues in the Senate voted the way they did, and I applaud their magnanimity.

But.

I still think Lieberman should have to do a bit more public groveling for choosing to be an outspoken advocate for the wrong side of history.

I was re-reading the “100 Day Report” on the Mayor’s Office website last night. If you’re under the weather and can’t focus on anything, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, the couple pages devoted to the City’s financial condition caught my eye. Specifically, this quote, dubbed “Ballard Rule #2″ in the report:

Local government officials should make financial decisions based on the welfare of the city 10 - 50 years out.

Are we really making sound financial decisions more than one decade out if Hizzoner is governing under the philosophy that we don’t need to save for a rainy day? I hate to belabor this point, but someone needs to call this guy out on his ever-shifting leadership principles. This is, after all, the second set of Ballard Rules we’ve had to endure since he ran for office last year.

I guess that’s what you do when you don’t like the way the game is going.

Here’s your question du jour now that we know we’re getting four more years of Mitch Daniels: Who’s gonna bail?

Despite the fact that the Guv is not, by any account, a friendly or rewarding boss, his employees (hereinafter “the Mitchies”) are fiercely loyal to him.

Think of it as a strange political mutation of Stockholm Syndrome.

The Mitchies are rarely told they’re doing a good job, but they nonetheless soak up their boss’s fierce temper and my-way-or-the-highway attitude.

I won’t ever say Daniels isn’t incredibly smart, but you’d think after four years, his staffers would get tired of hearing how he’s the smartest person in the room.

There was quite a bit of agency head turnover — some voluntary, some due to ethics scandals and general incompetence — halfway through the Guv’s first term. I have to wonder if anyone is eyeing a departure after the first of the year.

If the economy weren’t in the tank, right after a big re-election is traditionally a darned good time to look for a new gig.

We can all sleep easy tonight knowing that we can legally snag free “In God We Trust” license plates, at least according to the Indiana Court of Appeals:

The Indiana Court of Appeals issued a ruling Monday that affirmed Indiana’s “In God We Trust” plates are constitutional.

The appeals court upheld an earlier trial court judgment against the ACLU of Indiana, which claimed that motorists who ask for God plates get special treatment because they don’t have to pay a $15 administrative fee charged for specialty plates.

In its decision, the appeals court affirmed that Indiana offers two alternatives to standard license plates and that the fee structure for those plates is “uniformly applicable to all similarly situated license plates.”

Something tells me this isn’t over yet.

A word of preemption for all the wingnuts who may flock to this thread: I’m not sayin’ you can’t have God on yer car. I just think you just need to pay for Him so the rest of us don’t have to.