"Book Of Daniel" Day Two

I will be a guest on the Sue Wylie Show on 590 WVLK AM this morning at 11 AM talking about the "Book of Daniel" controversy.

Walter D. Huddleston Jumps Back In The Fray

Seventy nine year old former Kentucky Senator Walter D. Huddleston appears to be making his move back into public life with a public call for a $10 minimum wage in the Bluegrass state.

Huddleston is really just an honorary co-chair for a left-wing group in Lousville called the Center for Kentucky Progress. But they are promoting a laundry list of darn-near communist legislative priorities like socialized medicine, two year full-day kindergarten, and requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for birth control pills.

They also want huge increases in education spending so that Kentucky winds up being 25th nationwide in per capita spending in ten years. That's pretty arbitrary, but my favorite is the minimum wage thing. We could call it the "Soup Kitchen Bill" or the "Giant Sucking Sound Bill" for all the jobs that would be lost if we suddenly gave employers the choice of paying all their workers ten dollars an hour or leaving the state. (I guess we could pass a law preventing businesses from shutting down like they did in Atlas Shrugged, right?)

The General Assembly session is drawing near. This kind of stuff, which will get a lot more discussion than it deserves, will have the nouveau conservative Democrats flipping and flopping to avoid alienating a key Democrat constituency without getting themselves plastered with the dreaded "L" word.

They will be a sight to behold.

Will WLEX, WAVE Attack Christians With "Book Of Daniel" Show?

If you have not heard about an idiotic television show starting in January purportedly about Christians and Christianity, hold on to your hats.

"The Book of Daniel" is to begin airing January 6 on NBC affiliates and, according to the American Family Association, it is a particularly offensive depiction of "Christians" who engage in drug abuse (and drug dealing), illicit sex, and a wise-cracking "Jesus" character. And all this happens in the home of the Episcopal priest around whom the story revolves.

According to sources at WLEX in Lexington, the station has received about 200 emails and 200 phone calls today about this program. They have not seen any of the episodes, but given the fast outpouring of viewer opinion, are considering the possibility of making a change.

"I'm taking this seriously," said station manager Tim Gilbert.

There is precedent for WLEX pulling offensive programming on a limited basis. This fall, the station received an advance copy of an episode of "The Office" and found it to be objectionable so they didn't air it at the normal time. They later aired it very late one evening.

But completely pulling a show from the network in advance of its premiere would be a big step, one Gilbert isn't ready to commit to.

"We could ask for (an advance copy of the show) and be told 'no,'" he said. "I haven't seen it yet. I'm kind of rocking back on my heels (because of the public response)."

The AFA has issued, via email, the following description of the show:

While the public has not seen the program, NBC is promoting "The Book of Daniel" as a serious drama about Christian people and the Christian faith. The main character is Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on her mid-day martinis. Webster regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus. The Webster family is rounded out by a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer, and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop's daughter. At the office, his lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.

This story is not going away until NBC relents and pulls the television show. Major social shifts have started on less of a platform than this. We will be watching this very closely.

Associated Press Kentucky: Media Bias Parade

Heard yesterday that the Associated Press named the Merit Hiring Investigation as the top story of the year. Partisan Democrats obviously agree. What is funny is that while the AP trumpets a story that no one cares about, the various media efforts to erode American resolve for fighting terrorism was the true story of the year in 2005.

Next December when Democrat politicos are bemoaning their inability to get their message out, more people will realize that the left has painted itself into a tiny corner trying to make war protesting into the mother of all wedge issues.

That is what people care about and what they will remember.

What Kind Of Year Has It Been?

Interesting Ryan Alessi article in the Herald Leader this morning asks Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Ben Chandler to describe the year 2005 in Washington D.C.

In short, McConnell says it was the best year in a long time and Chandler says it was a bad one.

While it is tempting to go along with Chandler's point that it was a bad year for Republicans because Social Security reform was murdered in its infancy, the war effort was attacked relentlessly by the media, and the Tax Reform movement was betrayed by those most capable of moving it along, GOP initiatives to curb bankruptcies and illegal immigration, spur energy production, highway safety, and free trade all the while holding off Democrat efforts to mar the war effort make 2005 a qualified success.

It bears repeating that liberal Republican Senators give Democrats a voting majority on many issues in the United States Senate. Given that, McConnell is right and deserves praise for his work as Republican Whip to gain votes for key bills. Understood in its proper context, it is amazing that President Bush has been able to get anything done at all.

Ben "the wealthy haven't sacrificed anything" Chandler seems to be enjoying his rock throwing days in the minority of the House. He is right that Bush failed in his top priority of securing Social Security. But the Americans who will pay the price for Democrats' Pyrrhic victory of 2005 (read: all of us) will remember at some point that the liberal bum's rush on free market reform of the last huge defined benefit plan.

Zig zagging poll numbers have left wing activists seeing brighter liberal days ahead through their beer goggles. Drink up boys, but please don't drive home. You've done enough damage to America for now. And we want to see your faces when your obstruction comes back to bite you in the next year.

This year hasn't been all fun and games like you see over at Kentucky Kos, but it has just been a warm-up. All the games that count are in 2006. Don't forget that.

And we have them on tape crowing about the war, Social Security, and energy independence. Those should be fun to play back later.

Fetal Stem Cell "Researcher" Bites The Dust

Bad news for abortion fans: the South Korean "scientist" considered a top researcher because of his work with fetal stem cells, was fired from his university in Seoul because his work was found to be fraudulent.

Rather than creating more embryos to destroy them, perhaps these folks would be better off if they quit trying to fake their ideology into existence and joined in with adult stem cell research that has shown legitimate promise.

Can't use that to justify abortion on demand, though. Expect the Hwang Woo-suk case to be treated by the MSM as just another isolated incident and not the exposed underbelly of a pro-abortion movement run amok.

Suck Up: Radio Talker Supports Outspoken Dem

WLAP's Dave Baker had liberal blogger Mark Nickolas on his show this morning talking politics. Nickolas, at the end of the interview, asked Baker if he would support Rep. Ben Chandler in his 2007 re-run for Governor.

Baker took the softball pitch and twisted himself up like a pretzel, claiming that he wouldn't duck the question but that he would have to examine Chandler's voting record in Congress before he could "make an informed decision."

I have sent Dave Baker problematic voting record information of Chandler's on taxes, government spending, social issues, and even the most recent votes against increasing US energy independence repeatedly and AT BAKER'S REQUEST.

We have come to expect kid glove treatment of Democrats like Chandler from mainstream talking heads. I don't know how much of a role sheer laziness played in Baker's tacit endorsement of Chandler, but it seems almost like CNN's resistance to report about Saddam Hussein's misdeeds in order to maintain access.

Pathetic.

Indiana Doesn't Need Right To Work Like We Do

Interesting article in the Louisville CJ today about Indiana's Governor Daniels saying that he wasn't going to push for Right To Work legislation despite his belief that having it would have prevented the loss of a major employer.

Colgate is pulling out of Indiana and Daniels said last week that if state law didn't allow unions to force membership on all companies they control, the state may have been able to save the 475 jobs they are going to lose when Colgate leaves for a Right To Work state.

Indiana has a larger and more diverse workforce and Governor Daniels may be right when he says the state can progress without fighting for Right To Work.

But Kentucky has seen a faster loss of jobs with union affiliation than Indiana has. And the main thing about Right To Work is that it is about freedom. Under RTW, unions don't have a stranglehold on all employees in union shops. If an individual wants to opt out of union membership under RTW, he may do so. The political battle on this is worth fighting in Kentucky. As it gets ramped up, watch for rhetoric like this from the last sentence of the CJ story:
Edwards said there is not enough support in Indiana to impose a right-to-work law.

When the union thugs take to calling freedom an imposition, they clearly have gotten a little big for their britches.

Kentucky Supreme Court: Stephenson Not Eligible

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that Dana Seum Stephenson can't serve in the Senate.

There will wind up being a special election and Rep. Perry Clark (D-Louisville) will wind up representing the 37th Senate district.

Senate President David Williams says he is going to wait until the ruling is final in twenty days before announcing what he will do next.

He will probably announce a special election and Perry Clark will probably win it. Democrats will have fun with this and their fun is made double because they don't have to talk about what a disaster Virginia Woodward would have been.

Will Big Unions Stick Together Versus Kentucky?

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Louisville Courier Journal print a fair article on Rep. Stan Lee's Right to Work bill. The last line of the story, though, provided an unexpected belly laugh just in time for Christmas. Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO, is trying to throw a bone to the teachers' union for help against this commonsense legislation.

From the CJ story:
He argues better funding of education would allow Kentucky workers to better compete internationally.

It's a nice try to bring another powerful lobby into his fight, but it won't work. Not only will the teachers' union back away from the trade unions on this, big education will be protecting their own pockets rather than sticking with their union brothers on the prevailing wage on education construction projects bill filed by Rep. Jim DeCesare.

Central Kentucky Initiative: Disband LFUCG

Three decades ago, Lexington activists organized an effort to create the Lexington-Fayette County Urban County Government with the slogan "The Urge to Merge."

After three years of Mayor Teresa Isaac's relentless pursuit of a liberal agenda, now is the time to purge the merger. Lexington should go back to a regular city government and Fayette county should go back to a regular county government. That way, the power of the Mayor's office will be diminished in favor of the people of Fayette county. Centralized power is something our nation's founders wanted to limit.

For the good of all Kentuckians, we should seek the same.

The political environment in Louisville probably isn't as conducive to such a change, as they just recently merged their city and county governments. But people in Lexington, especially those who want to stop the endless water condemnation fight, should be ready to take back their own voices by rolling back their merged government.

Atlanta Paper: KY Merit "Scandal" A Dead Issue

The gallons of ink spilled over the Kentucky merit hiring issue seems to have just about run dry. Have you noticed that the newspaper stories have slowed to a trickle? Wonder why?

Well, the answer is simple. While the abuse of the merit system was wrong and has been wrong every time it was done in the last fourty years, the abuse that may have occurred in the Fletcher administration is little more than a hiccup in the grand scheme of things. If not for mishandling of the fallout by the Administration itself, really, this would have been cleared up and dispatched a long time ago.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sent a reporter to Frankfort to find out what all the fuss was about and his story appeared in today's paper.

Once again, anything that looks like a cover-up is far worse than most "scandals." But now that the General Assembly is ready to go back into session, perhaps we can get on to some more important things. And just as President Bush's approval ratings have shot up as he has publicly addressed the most important issue to most Americans, Fletcher's will do the same to the extent that he publicly works to improve the most important issue in Kentucky: education.

Some Democrat Nonsense May Be Okay

The rabid left is starting to talk up the idea of impeaching President Bush. While I'm not inclined to argue much with a Democrat suicide strategy of trying to remove a wartime President for trying to help us win a war they don't like, I'm actually starting to warm up to the idea quite a bit.

President Cheney kind of has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

And don't forget VP Rice for good measure.

Kentucky Election Law Needs Change

Did you know most states have laws to allow political parties to replace their nominee on a ballot if he or she drops out?

Kentucky isn't one of them and that needs to change.

My reasoning goes like this: we are a two party state now (with a vibrant and growing independent population, but that's another story) and if one candidate must drop out, that disenfranchises a large segment of the voting population.

We should fix this soon.

Will Georgia's Sex Offenders Move To Kentucky?

An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today discusses some proposed legislation in Georgia that could have an impact on Kentucky and other states that refuse to get tough with sex offenders.

One proposed law would prohibit sex offenders from working within 1000 feet of any place that children congregate. Should this pass (and I think it should) it would cause a mass exodus of sex offenders from the state. Think about it: how do you make sure that you are working 1000 feet away from children? What if a day care center moves in down the street or your employer moves to a building near a school? So the real question is where will these people move when Georgia passes this law, to Tennessee? What happens then?

People who commit sex crimes (especially those against children) should enjoy very minimal freedoms when they are released from prison. At the very least, Kentucky should make laws to establish our state as a place that is extraordinarily inhospitable to these people. If we don't, we may just inherit them as they flee other states who have strengthened their laws.

Some limp-wristed radio host in Lexington got a little whiny back in the summer when I suggested we decriminalize harassment of convicted sex offenders. But when other states start rolling their perverts downhill, we need to make sure that we aren't at the bottom of that hill.

Teachers' Union Weeps, Wails, Gnashes Teeth

As a public school graduate and parent of four young public school students, I would love to see a school voucher system to give people the choice of where to spend the tax dollars dedicated to their child's education.

This would only benefit the sincerely motivated public schools and, more importantly, the students. The schools would have competition, so they would have to survive without the crutch of a government mandated position at the top of the marketplace. The benefit to the children is surely too obvious to need mentioning.

Given this set of circumstances, I find it completely hilarious that the National Education Association issued this press release about a U.S. Senate effort to revive a voucher bill.
The school choice movement is just getting warmed up. And politicians of both parties should know that the status quo mentality will carry a heavy cost for you when school choicers get mobilized.

Liberal KY Group Wants $1.8 Billion Tax Hike

Just in time for the Kentucky General Assembly session to start up, a Kentucky organization is calling for a special kind of tax reform. The Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance wants $1.8 Billion each year in tax increases.

One specific proposal is to increase property taxes by nearly two and half times. Further, the group wants to raise personal and corporate taxes but doesn't say how much.

What Are They Doing Now?

I might as well beat Mark Nickolas to the punch and give the Fletcher Administration a hard time for sending out a big announcement email trumpeting in capital letters that the state has taken out an advertisement in Forbes Magazine.

This does nothing for the image. Neither does the awkwardly worded announcement with a grammatical error in the first sentence. You will see it soon enough.

Sheesh!

Just Exactly What We Are Doing Here

A very funny New York Times Magazine article talks about why they think conservative blogs are more effective than liberal blogs. (You may have to sign up to read the article, but it is free.)

The writer concludes, predictably, that conservative blogs thrive because of the conservative-dominated media that appeals to supporters' emotions and doesn't mind lying to promote an agenda. Liberal blogs, he writes, spend more time examining all sides of an issue and arguing the nuances with other liberals.

While the article is laughably slanted for a publication whose writers manage to keep a straight face when they recoil in horror from charges of bias, it does make one good point. Liberal bloggers are generally less effective when it counts than conservative bloggers.

The "culture of corruption" campaign slogan is effective, for now, on the lefty blogosphere. But when it comes to shedding light on issues that matter to people and not just preaching to the choir, the liberal blogs come up short.

Can the conservative blogs spank the liberals in 2006 like they did in 2004? No one knows. But little of a structural nature seems to have changed since then, except that the mainstream media pays a lot more attention to the blogs. There are many interesting subtexts to this story that I don't want to get into publicly now, but this will be a huge story one year from now.

Democrat Dreams in 2005; Lib Nightmare in 2006?

Watching activist Democrats feel their oats these days with their "GOP culture of corruption" chorus isn't much fun, but it seems to me most likely that their revelry won't last and may already be over. As the merit hiring investigation is about to get some national attention (more on that later), one has to wonder if it has run out of shock value for anyone but the most easily shocked Democrat partisan.

In the real world, inflation numbers out this morning show an actual decrease in November's general price level. That news comes as the media reporting of our nation's economic solid growth of the Bush years stays gagged and bound in the closet. That strategy may continue, but I wouldn't count on it attracting any cross-over votes for Dems next year. The class warfare card won't carry the day in our upwardly-mobile nation.

That leaves out-of-power spinmeisters to rail against the U.S. trade deficit. Seriously, though, I would like to see anyone make a solid case for what is wrong with running trade deficits. Seems to me that with so many foreign entities willing to trade their goods for our little printed pieces of paper, we should feel great pride in our ability to produce wealth and to inspire confidence throughout the world for such transactions. And while Congressman Chandler has made the rounds painting a picture of a U.S. Treasury Bond collapse brought on by hostile Chinese dumping, no credible people see that happening or --even if it did -- having the desired effect.

Running against the "horrible" economic policies of the Bush administration can only hold Democrats' hopes during an election season if the media decides keeping the lid on GDP statistics is more important to them than trying to recover some of their severely damaged credibility. Another Dan Rather incident in 2006 would be a tsunami-like catastrophe for the MSM. They may risk it if their influence continues to dwindle toward niche levels.

Emboldened by their extremists, Democrats seem intent on pushing for socialized medicine and a policy of appeasement for terrorists. Railing against health care costs is easily the better political move, but no amount of reasoning will keep the anti-war movement from crippling what is left of the Democratic Party.

Republican bad actors remain the GOP's Achilles heel, but the national and state Democrats run the risk of blowing their advantage in the Commonwealth's county courthouses. Democrats taking out their own grassroots support at a time that Republicans have handed them so many political opportunities would be extremely difficult for Democrats to overcome for a long time.

The current environment may help Democrats ward off a crushing defeat in 2006, though. That is certainly the conventional wisdom. But their ideas and tactics grow ever closer to running out of steam. Six weeks remain for good GOP candidates to come forward for next year's elections.