If you can't beat them, hack them.
That's seems to be the philosophy of whoever hacked the Bluegrass Institute's websites Saturday and stifled much of the organization's public communications until at least Monday.
The Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky's free market think tank, has raised the ire of Frankfort politicians and bureaucrats with its non-partisan advocacy of open and honest government spending practices and public education statistics reporting.
An early Institute victory forced the legislature to post floor votes onto the internet each day the General Assembly is in session. The website that came about as a result, Kentucky Votes, managed to escape the hack which brought down The Bluegrass Institute's main site (www.bipps.org) and the group's blog, Bluegrass Policy Blog (www.bluegrassblog.org).
Current initiatives, which have rankled many, include an effort to place government expenditures on a searchable website, pushing for a serious discussion of public employee fringe benefit reform to avert bankruptcy of state and local governments, creating more meaningful oversight of the Kentucky Department of Education, and reducing corporate taxes across-the-board to bring more jobs to Kentucky.
"Clearly, more than a few people have us in their cross-hairs," said Institute founder and President Chris Derry. "But this temporary setback doesn't slow the need to operate government under correct principles. We shall return and double our efforts."
