Conservative Blogosphere Growing Quickly

Former College Republican chairman at Georgetown College Ben McKown is headed to UK Law school and is getting back to work on his "The Mole" blog. He's a terrific writer.

He joins Eric Wright, who does fine work and pulls from a wide variety of sources to make powerful points "On the Wright."

These young guys can handle the issues and, when necessary, throw a little heat. Good job!

Summer Reading Assignment

Everyone with teenage kids knows the #1 selling book on amazon.com is the latest in the Harry Potter saga. But would you believe that #2 is a book advocating the repeal of federal income taxes and replacement of the entire tax code? The book comes out August 2. The group advocating for HR 25 The Fair Tax reports they are getting a good reception from Congressman Ben Chandler's office, but I am skeptical that he will follow through.

Read up on the Fair Tax. The left wing groups (and some of the tax industry supporters of the status quo) will be in full force against this pretty soon

Smoking Gun On The Run

UPDATE: I will be filing an ethics complaint against AG Stumbo relating to his financial disclosure statement. I guess we can call it BraveheartGate.

Thanks to Susan Allen of the Big Sandy News for digging this up.

Democrats Cave On Social Security Negotiation Ban

Apparently Democrats do have ideas to share on the retirement challenges facing American citizens. Unfortunately, they aren't very good ideas.

At the heart of their proposal is the pouring of taxpayer dollars into individuals' retirement accounts. The trick is their matching proposal does absolutely nothing for people who can't afford to contribute the first dime to an IRA because of the forced taking of their payroll dollars which are then dumped into an underperforming Social Security ponzi scheme.

I think I respected them more when they were just obstructing the Social Security reform process.

Howard Dean Can't Fool UK Students For Life

Last week DNC Chairman (I just love that, I really do) Howard Dean said "I think we need to talk about this issue differently. Republicans have painted us as pro-abortion."

A group of University of Kentucky students aren't likely to fall for the spin. UK Students for Life's Joel Haubenreich said:

"The Republicans have not painted the Democratic party as pro-abortion. The Democratic party's platform paints it as pro-abortion. Of course they will try to be clever and say something like, "I'm not pro-abortion. I'm simply pro-choice." They might even go so far as to say, "While I am personally opposed to abortion, I shouldn't like to obstruct a woman's choice." But the "choice" in "pro-choice" is a euphemism for "dismemberment." Being in favour of a woman's choice to have her baby dismembered, in my opinion, isn't much better than being actively in favour of abortion. There really is no difference."

Young Mr. Haubenreich gives us yet another reason to be optimistic about the future. UK Students for Life has a terrific website here. Please go check it out, contribute your comments, and check back often for thoughtful updates.

Sex Offender Registry Solution

Imagine checking Kentucky's sex offender registry because you have small kids. You are just curious at first, but then you get a shock: you find you have a couple of convicted perverts on your street. What are you supposed to do with this information? Want to sell and move to protect your children? The only problem with this strategy is home buyers check the list too, so now you can't sell. Some defense attorneys contend that the problem is the list, the registry of predators. Might some twice-victimized homeowners be inclined to agree, at least until they can get out of the neighborhood?

This scenario is happening right now in Kentucky. This is bad enough in a few isolated incidents, but what if this plague of sex offenders continues to spread, leaving a trail of blighted neighborhoods caused by the presence of sex offenders? What if, heaven forbid, one of them moves in next door to you?

I have an idea.

Let's remove the legal penalties for harassing sex offenders. Presently you can be sentenced to ninety days in jail for "harassing" someone who is on the registry.

I remember a few years back the state of Louisiana struggled with the issue of flag burning. They couldn't make it illegal, so someone had the outstanding idea to institute a $25 fine for beating up a flag burner. Maybe we could do the same with sex offenders. Got a pedophile on your street? No problem. Go to the ATM, get $50 and go kick his ass twice.

Fixing KY Health Insurance In One Bold Stroke

Found an article in the Wall Street Journal about a good bill that would pull Kentucky out of the ditch Democrats put us in back in 1994 with their own version of HillaryCare.

States can regulate health insurance companies to protect the public against those insurers who don't honor their contracts, but the idea of holding ratepayers hostage to a wish-list of expensive goodies hurts too many people. If we were free to buy health insurance from states who didn't ruin their own markets, we could save money. No reasonable person could oppose that, right?

Hillary The Right Wing Radical Repugnicant

Wonder what the far left folks will do to themselves if Senator Rodham-Clinton really does support the Judge Roberts nomination?

If You Are Not A Terrorist, Don't Run From London Police

When common sense and political correctness collide, anti-war zealots find an opportunity to protest, politic, and do whatever else they do to the detriment of normal people everywhere.

The man killed by London police this week turned out to be a Brazilian with no ties to terrorism. The proper response would be to remind people not to run from the police. The shoot-to-kill policy makes perfect sense under the circumstances. Muslim "civil libertarians" in London will no doubt try to force the guns out of the hands of the police to protect themselves from "overzealous" law enforcement.

We can only hope the Londoners don't cave in to this idiocy.

Stretch: On Both Sides Of The Issue Again

Yesterday, Rep. Ben Chandler voted to kill the Patriot Act three times, before going along on the fourth vote with the law enforcement protections that we need to battle terrorists. While we appreciate Rep. Chandler's final answer, we can't help bringing attention to this well-worn tactic of his (most notably on tax issues): try to kill a good bill on procedural votes and then vote for it when that doesn't work.

This form of legislative chicanery is commonly used by Kentucky's House Democrats in Frankfort who tell constituents they are in favor of a good bill and will vote for it if it comes up, knowing that their buddies can kill it in committee. Fortunately for us, once again, Chandler is in the minority. May the same be true after the next election for our flip-flopping House Dems in the General Assembly.

Prove It: Democrat Leader Claims To Have Ideas

Social Security continues to lose money while Congressional Democrats like Ben Chandler continue to not only whine and cry, but to mislead the public about the necessity to act.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has the following statement on her website, which serves mainly as comedy since Democrats have failed to offer any suggestions.

"We are eager to discuss how to make Social Security strong into the next century, and we have many ideas on how to do so."

Oh, really? Name one idea.

Why Greg Stumbo Has Been Quiet Recently

A minor news story in the growing vote-buying scandal today doesn't mention Greg Stumbo, but follow up articles soon will unavoidably do so. Interestingly, David Hawpe questions Stumbo's ethics on a different matter, but it is the voter fraud that will end his political career. The statute of limitations on Stumbo's crimes runs out late this year. Then he will surely get a fair trial before he is hung out to dry.

This Is Not A Test: It's a LIBERAL FREAKOUT!!!

Good pick...

Here's the proof.

And here.

And here.

This is going to be very interesting.

Crux of State Hiring is Law, Not "Gist"

This from today's Lexington Herald Leader:

Although the nuances of state personnel laws might indeed be "inefficient" or "confusing" as Fletcher noted, the gist is straightforward: the roughly 30,000 rank-and-file state employees are to be hired on qualifications, not for political reasons. (Go here for the whole story.)

With this, we finally reach the heart of the matter. Governor Fletcher has insisted that while mistakes may have been made, laws were not broken. Attorney General Stumbo has built his "smoking gun" case on this "gist."

The challenge to finding the truth in this matter now involves bridging this gap.

The onus is on Stumbo to not only demonstrate "gist," but to show that laws were broken. Failing that, the cost of this investigation will clearly be attributable to anti-Republican political motivations. We hear precious little from the mainstream media about this possibility. We hear only assumed guilt. But laws are not enforced solely on the "gist" of the law. If they were, maybe this episode would already be over. It isn't over.

Pundits who scoff at the Governor's review of the merit system willfully miss the point: Governor Fletcher didn't break this system. It was already broken and left unchallenged for many years of Democrat rule, during which Republicans were almost completely shut out of these jobs, gist or no gist. (Wouldn't it be interesting to see the media do an in-depth review of political affiliation of merit employees?) Once again, the Dems put themselves in the untenable position of hoping that nothing goes right and nothing gets fixed.

Vermont Cable Maybe; Not In Kentucky

Curious to know where the Democrats' talking points on Iraq come from? Try Al Jazeera.

The terrorist television network is planning to launch an English language channel in the Spring of 2006. It will be pretty interesting to see which cable systems pick that one up.

Repeal the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

Signs like this have lined San Diego highways since 1990 to warn drivers of the illegals darting across traffic. These same illegals (and worse) can run down to the local Department of Motor Vehicles and drive away with the closest thing to a national ID that we have. Because President Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 or Motor Voter, they can even vote.

Now we can clearly see that the time has come to repeal Motor Voter, can't we?

Understanding President Bush's Court Choice

John Roberts--Good.
Michael Luttig--Better.

This fight will be fun and will get us back to the debate over filibustering of judicial nominees.

Democrats' Growing Idea Problem

In last year's Democrat Presidential Primary, every candidate was a proponent of socialized medicine. This could well become a problem for Kentucky Democrats in 2006, who claim to not agree with their national party on anything but hatred for George Bush.

"Single payer is not socialized medicine," said Kay Tillow of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care on the Kentucky Focus program this morning. "It makes a social funding of healthcare, taking out the profiteering. The delivery system would remain with the non-profits, with the physicians, etcetera."

Right. Let's call it the Empty Out The Medical Schools Act of 2005. The mainstream in the Democratic Party is really going for this garbage. Ask your local Democrat to explain how nationalizing our system of healthcare will make it better for anyone but incompetent doctors and government bureaucrats.

RoveGate Goes Bust

Despite all the Sturm and Drang going on over at Ben Chandler's new blog, the angry left-wing mob out for Karl Rove's head missed its mark badly on the clumsily manufactured CIA agent scandal.

Even the New York Times got it right. And it just happens to be a pretty good read, actually. Check it out. I particularly liked the Monty Python reference.

Coming to Lexington January 28: Bill Kristol

William Kristol is editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, The Weekly Standard. Widely recognized as one of the nation's leading political analysts and commentators, Mr. Kristol regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and on the Fox News Channel.

Before starting The Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during the Bush administration and to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Reagan. Before coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Mr. Kristol recently co-authored The New York Times bestseller The War Over Iraq: America's Mission and Saddam's Tyranny.

Kentucky Columnist Blames 7/7 On Bush

Last week when we noted that a British MP was blaming the terrorist attacks in London on his government's role in the war, we knew that the rest of the world-wide left would be on board that train soon, backpacks loaded.

Flemingsburg Gazette editor Guy M. Townsend shows that the Howard Deanification of the American Left has reached into the hills and hollers of eastern Kentucky.

Townsend invokes the name of Sherlock Holmes to lead himself to the conclusion that George Bush was responsible for the 7/7 attacks because he led the charge against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and then "diverted" attention from that base to Iraq.

If we follow your reasoning, Mr. Townsend, that keeping all our forces in Afghanistan would have allowed us to finish off the terrorists, then how do you possibly explain the fact that they got to Spain and England, neither of which is in the mountains of Afghanistan?

Lost on these wackos is the simple fact that this is a worldwide effort that defies their simplistic solutions. We just have to stay on guard against this kind of garbage. Let it serve as a fresh reminder that the American Left will say anything to draw attention to itself. We must periodically point it out to raise awareness of their tactics. They must not be allowed to prevail.

Kentucky's Liberal Troika

Photo contributed by John Holbrook of Corbin. Thanks John!

Manic Thursday: Politically Correct Islam

Today's new word is Islamophobia.

Probably was just a matter of time, but the word popped up this week because a gang of white Londoners beat a Muslim man to death, apparently for his cigarettes. According to witnesses, one of the attackers called the Muslim man "Taliban" while killing him and stealing his cigarettes.

The Muslim Safety Forum (dedicated to ensuring the safety of Muslims) is really upset that police have classified the murder for cigarettes as "racially aggravated" and not as "Islamophobia."

Azad Ali, who chairs the Muslim Safety Forum, said: "You can't class this as racist, there was no racist abuse shouted at him, it was Islamophobic. We are disappointed that they have misclassified it, especially after all the advice to be more alert to Islamophobic hate crime."

What is the world coming to when a raging horde of thugs can't go out and commit murder and mayhem without encountering a committee of Islamofascist politically correct agitators? I wonder if they would calm down if we set up sensitivity training classes for the families of all the innocent people who have died in the War of Terror.

Chandler Fights Workplace Protection Bills, Loses

After using his Kentucky AG office's OSHA oversight powers to punish political opponents during his two terms, Ben Chandler voted four times yesterday against needed reforms to government workplace oversight.

Fortunately, his views are in the minority. All the measures passed over his objections.

Kentucky Democrats Need A Slogan For 2006

Amid the revelry over the merit hiring investigation in Frankfort, Kentucky Democrats are starting to realize that they need more to actually win in next year's elections.

They need to display a cohesive message; descriptive, informative, and memorable. They need something to hang their hats on. Let's see if we can help at least upgrade them from their current slogan -- "We're not as bad as the national Democrats."

Mark Nickolas was a guest on the Jack Pattie Show this morning. When pressed to make a policy suggestion, he suggested emulating California's $3 Billion Stem Cell expenditure here. I know that taxpayer-sponsored junk science is probably not the kind of selling point we are seriously looking for, but some might want to have a little fun with that or Canadian style health reform or the famous Against the War/For the Troops split.

If you can't come up with anything appropriate for them, just start making stuff up like John Kerry is doing to raise money for his 2008 run for the White House.

What's Wrong With This Talking Point?

The Democrats' talking point du jour is "We don't agree with everything the national Democrats do or say. We're more conservative."

Election 2007

A lot of behind the scenes activity for an upcoming Republican primary in the races for Kentucky's Attorney General and Governor. Details ahead...

Terrorists Strike England

We have been at war for almost four years. Today we are reminded of the stakes. The fairly muted response from world financial markets is very interesting. I'm not sure how to read that at this point, but will suggest that it is a sign of progress in the war that we haven't gone into a tailspin.

UPDATE: George Galloway, the British answer to Howard Dean, took the very unfortunate opportunity of the terrorist attack that killed dozens and injured hundreds of innocent people to attack the war effort and Tony Blair, saying "We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings." Galloway is a former Labour party kook (the party had the good sense to kick him out in 2003) who is a member of Parliament. Leftist kooks throughout the world should immediately rebuke this idiot, but I am not holding my breath.

Stunningly, the anti-war goofballs still don't get it.

Partisanship is Okay, But This Is Ridiculous

The Lexington Herald Leader today politicizes an issue in a manner that is surprising even for them. In an editorial promoting the Safe Infants Act, the paper quotes and credits Democrat Rep. Tom Burch for sponsoring the bill. Only one tiny problem with that: the Safe Infants Act they refer to was SB 55 sponsored by Republican Sen. Tom Buford.

The Corner House

I took my wife out to dinner Friday night and then we did something we should have done a long time ago. We spent the night in a terrific little Bed and Breakfast in Nicholasville. If any of you guys are looking for an inexpensive way to knock your wife's socks off and get away from it all without going too far, this is the ticket. Or if you have family, friends, or business associates visiting from out of town this is not only cheaper than a hotel, it feels like home away from home.

Karen Pedigo is the owner of the house. She didn't ask me to do this, but it is one of those best kept secrets central Kentucky has to offer. I just wanted to share the idea.

Supreme Court Nomination "Rush to War"

Liberal opposition to the appointment of John Roach to Kentucky's Supreme Court was, you have to admit, pretty weak. It was "He's too young and inexperienced" (which he wasn't), then "He's too conservative" which was, after all, the real objection in the first place. And that objection, to the fringe elements making it, just means that Justice Roach is somewhat to the right of Ralph Nader. Not a problem. The upcoming election will be interesting as Roach faces the voters, but the liberal wish that he will be repudiated then is a pretty tall order.

The Nomination Obstruction Left will not go so quietly as President Bush seeks to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. The NOLs will Bork, High Tech Lynch, hog tie, rape and pillage, tar and feather, Abu Ghraib naked photo, and otherwise demean and destroy anyone he puts up. We all know that. A Mushy Middle Coalition of U.S. Senators will meet to put up a liberal jurist. We all know that too. Those of us who voted for President Bush twice in anticipation of conservative appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court are going to have a good time watching this.

Liberal hair-on-fire freakouts have become all too predictable in recent years. This fall will bring us the Mother of All Freakouts. Just as they have sought to destroy the military effort against the terrorists, tax reform, Social Security reform, and Estate Tax reform, the far left can only tear down.

Where do our "conservative" Democrats stand on this?

Anyone?

Happy Partisanship Day

Some take the opportunity of Independence Day to call for a political cease fire and claim that if we could all just get along, America would prosper faster.

Baloney.

Partisan bickering often results in more rigid talking point orthodoxy than it does honest reflection and questioning of deeply held beliefs, but even in the apparent shortage of honest brokers on both sides, our current system has allowed us the freedom to create the greatest nation on the earth.

I know the America haters have the list of GDP statistics to indicate we are not the most productive nation, the national debt numbers to prove that we are fiscally irresponsible, and the mortality rates and disease statistics to show how our standard of living lags. I've seen all that and yet contend that we are the greatest because the freedom for the individual we all cherish and fight side by side to protect.

You may believe in socialized medicine, tax increases, and surrender of our national security interests to a committee of tinhorn dictators at the United Nations. God bless you! Our Constitution protects your ability to scream these inanities and more from a megaphone in the town square and our tradition of individual rights has provided us with sufficient productivity and moral strength to afford many such travesties as the battle to keep personal choice out of Social Security and to fight back efforts to normalize deviant behavior.

So on the day of national celebration for our freedoms, I say to my conservative friends to keep up the good fight. Great struggles are ahead, and while dark days hang ominously over the horizon, the march to victory depends on teaching the harsh truth of our logic and displaying inexorable adherence to our principles. To my liberal friends, I urge an open mind.

The gathering storm of the 2006 elections will be a referendum on the War on Terror, entitlement and tax reform, private property rights, and public standards of morality. The two largest ideologies, conservatism and liberalism, have already staked out their positions. What remains is for Democrat politicians to beat a path away from their party's beliefs. They have the freedom in this great country to hold dear their falsehoods and pandering.

In the tradition of our founding fathers, we have the responsibility to future generations of Americans to fight against the evil that the American Left would inflict us with while standing on guard against the mutiny within our own ranks by those who would wreck the gains for which we have fought.

Economic Illiteracy Leading Killer of Liberal Reporters

The New York Times is at it again. This time, they are trying to make the case for the sky falling because of all the rich folks who don't pay federal income taxes.

Here is the story.

The key to understanding this issue meshes nicely with the need to reform the U.S. Tax Code. How can they say there is anyone who doesn't pay federal income taxes when nearly one-third of the cost of all goods and services can be attributed to federal income taxes?

The New York Times can't understand that but you can, can't you?