Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Trouble For Jessamine's Cecil Moss?

Rumors of abuse have swirled around Jessamine county's jail for years.

Jailer Frank Hubbard is retiring and his long-time chief deputy -- Cecil Moss -- is running to replace him. His opponent has put up a website that is attracting a lot of attention for its inflammatory charges.

John Vest, the Republican nominee for Jailer, says he has a lot more information about trouble at the jail in Nicholasville.

This one might be interesting to watch.

Fleming County Bipartisanship On Education. Great Story!

The Flemingsburg Gazette is a weekly paper in a small town, owned by a wild-eyed liberal.

Fortunately, Guy Townsend has shifted gears from endless rants against George Bush to a cogent dismantling of the local school system and a clear depiction of rampant waste.

Townsend's September 21 article is fabulous:

Speaking of your tax dollars, word has reached us that in one of the county’s elementary schools something like 97 fifth-graders are having to get by with only 53 reading books because there isn’t any money in the budget to buy books. (The situation appears to be even worse in the high school.) We’re working on this now and hope to be able to provide more detailed information soon in a news story. If those figures are accurate, the Fleming County school administration has failed to provide enough funding to one of our elementary schools to enable it to buy books for 44 students. This is the same Fleming County school administration which has been able to find funding to pay a retired administrator (who is already receiving a sizeable pension) $42,000 to do a job that the system would only have to pay a new hire $19,000 to do. That’s a difference of $23,000. I’ll bet you could buy 44 reading books for $23,000.

Also found a special treat in the September 14 edition (all opinion columns are on the same page, just scroll down). A guest column by Kentucky College Republican Chairman Derek Hall:

I NEVER agree with Guy Townsend, and I want to make that clear, but of recent, he has been singing my song on education. His numbers don’t lie; Fleming County is failing educationally and it will cost us more in the future than you may ever imagine. Fleming County is full of unrealized potential, and we need leaders that can help us achieve new levels of success. That’s why I am officially asking Kelly Crain to resign as our Superintendent of Fleming County Schools and give us the opportunity to bring in an individual concerned with positive progress. I understand that my solution may offend some folks, but understand that I am not attacking Kelly Crain personally, only professionally.

Keep fighting the fight guys. We're counting on you.

Man Of The Year

What are we doing picking on poor old Bill Clinton when the Democrats are running Robin Williams for President?

Monday, September 25, 2006

McCainiac For A Day

John McCain's visit to Kentucky tonight was very profitable for Kentucky's Republican Party.

And the good news is he left all the money that he raised here. Jerry Lundergan -- take note.

Good show. Happy folks. Good time for the tide to turn.

On the election, that is. I'm still not crazy about McCain.

Vote No On Eminent Domain Abuse

The Lexington Herald Leader printed the ballot referendum question for re-starting the water company takeover.

At 170 words, the question will require us to bring a lawyer to the polling place on election day to explain the darn thing.

Condemnation opponents might do well to frame the issue as an opportunity to vote against Teresa Isaac twice.

"I Couldn't Find That Man, Mr. Bin Laden"

Bill Clinton's finger-wagging, journalist-poking, ranting, raving screechfest yesterday got a lot of attention and has generated a lot of conversation.

It is just getting started. While going batty might help his wife get the Dem nomination for President next year, it won't do any good for Democrat candidates this year. The Clintons have always belonged to the Party of Clinton first and foremost, so conspiracy theorists will have lots to chew on for a while.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Democrat Family Day In Frankfort!

Some highlights from today's big event:

Speaker of the House Jody Richards: "Ernie raised taxes on our small businesses with the AMC. We stopped that. That's not good policy."

So how did Kentucky Democrats stop that bad policy? By voting overwhelming for it, of course. Notice that Jody voted for it as well.

Senate Candidate Jim Keller, former state Supreme Court Justice, speaking about Supreme Court candidate Mary Noble: "She is a yellow dog Democrat. Don't forget that when you go to the polls!"

And then Wesley Clark flew in from Mars: "Much of what has happened since 9/11 has been a cover-up." And then "President Clinton was a very fine Commander-In-Chief. He kept this country out of war."

But the funniest harangue came from congressional candidate Tom Barlow, who said: "We are delivering lower gasoline prices and when we take office in January we are going to bring peace to the Middle East peacefully, we are going to have affordable medical care and high paying jobs!"

Merlene Davis Does A Lieberman

Remember when Sen. Joe Lieberman gave a speech on the Senate floor about Bill Clinton and how terrible the things he had done were but that, ultimately, we shouldn't do anything about it?

Merlene Davis' column in the Lexington Herald Leader did the same thing with Kentucky's public education system. She manages to complain about some CATS scores, but is happy enough with the status quo to avoid suggesting any changes.

Another missed opportunity by the Left.

Getting Ahead Of Ourselves Again

Sen. John McCain is on Meet The Press right now. As I head off to church I'm wondering: is he the best we can come up with in 2008?

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Liberals Gone Mild: Late Summer Edition

At long last, this is all they have left. Jerry Lundergan is ready to set his own barn on fire because some lobbyists got their names printed on a Republican party fundraiser invitation.

Do they really think they caught two dozen sophisticated legislative agents risking their entire businesses in order to shake John McCain's hand?

No, they really don't. They just don't have any issues. They had to do something and couldn't think of anything else.

All this minimum wage tax increase as fiscal policy nonsense and month after month of vague complaining about gas prices -- grown only louder as prices fluctuated downward -- should have been a dead giveaway they had nothing left in the hopper.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Church Weighs In On Key Dem Issue


It is very easy to make fake political church signs for yourself at www.churchsigngenerator.com.

Fiscal Sissies Need Not Apply

Kentuckians who have had enough of wild government spending will soon have reason to hope for real change. The Club for Growth of Kentucky will blast onto the scene very, very soon.

The Club for Growth is an organization of individuals who support fiscally responsible government policies and candidates with the courage to agree. The Kentucky Club will support their aims here in the Bluegrass State.

Interested? Think you can handle it?

Go here now.

Addressing The Healthcare Crisis

Kudos to Kentucky's doctors for joining the effort to repeal Certificate of Need laws that limit the number of healthcare providers and the services they can provide. The status quo gives us prices that are too high.

Combining this issue with medical malpractice reform will turn up the heat on both, but could help get action on both as well.

Rumor On A Stick

Idle speculation has Steve Pence picking Bruce Lunsford as a running mate.

Lunsford spent eight million dollars of his own money to run for governor in 2003. He finished third in the three-way Democratic primary.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Can't Please Everyone

George Bush's approval rating continues to climb in Kentucky. It is up to 44%.

That's high enough for now. As frustrating as it is that "the Dems are worse" is about the best the national GOP can do for a campaign slogan this year, it is working.

Yarmuth Getting Desperate

Isn't it just about time for John Yarmuth to melt down like Clooney did?

This doesn't look good for him.

Sex Offenders Don't Like New Law

Good.

Call the ACLU, guys.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Democrats Versus Cars

California's Attorney General is suing carmakers for causing global warming.

Maybe we could get our left-wingers to push Greg Stumbo to do the same. That would be fun to watch. In fact, you can call the Sierra Club of Kentucky in Lexington at (859) 296-4335 and tell them to get on the stick and call their Democrats before we all burn up in our fossil fuels!

Dem House Candidate Can't Be Fired

Nothing in the Lexington Herald Leader yesterday or today about the East Lake neighborhood forum at the Eagle Creek Public Library Monday night.

The low point was when House candidate Chris Frost, a UK law professor, answered a question about how he would deal with University of Kentucky President Lee Todd if Frost were elected to the legislature.

Frost stunned listeners by saying "I'm a tenured professor. He can't fire me."

That's the kind of attitude we like in our government employees.

Ensuring "Clean" Judicial Elections?

As election day draws closer, judicial races are heating up all over Kentucky.

My approach to such races has been to pick the more conservative candidate -- so far as I could determine -- and hope for the best. Higher court justices often come up through the ranks, so it stands to reason that sober district court judges are necessary if we are to have good appellate justices down the road.

I've seen a few efforts to improve voter knowledge for judicial elections, but generally they range from the mundane to the absurd.

The Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee is at least bipartisan. But their website, if you read it, offers precious little other than finger-wagging about avoiding conflicts and ignoring voters.

Voters should choose candidates on the basis of their complete records, and remember that the best judges are those who aren’t afraid to make decisions that might be unpopular. The judges’ code of conduct says “a judge shall not be swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism.” The public doesn’t need, and shouldn’t want, judges who make decisions with the next election in mind.

Seriously, what does any of this mean? Interestingly, I found most of the above passage attributed to Al Cross in a Richmond Register news story. Al is out of pocket today, but I will try to get some comment from him about which unpopular decisions we want our judges to embrace and which partisan interests we want them to reject. If we are supposed to pick judges who make decisions we don't like, why are we bothering to have elections?