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."