Georgetown News-Graphic's Weak Pic Scam

Both of these pictures appeared on the front page of the Georgetown News-Graphic. Can you guess which one is the Republican?

Chuck Bradley, on the right, is one of the friendliest people I have ever met. He said the photographer took several pictures. Wonder why they couldn't manage to print one of Mr. Bradley smiling?

Incidentally, the smiling man on the left if liberal Rep. Charlie Hoffman who has benefited from childish pranks like this from the Georgetown News-Graphic for a long time.

Ed Worley's 2007 Gubernatorial Campaign Off To A Bad Start

The Richmond Register had a story yesterday about the 34th Senate district race between Ed Worley and Barry Metcalf.

Metcalf has exposed Worley's avid support of casino gambling when he is not in his conservative central Kentucky district. Sen. Worley's main response has been to hurl insults.

Ed has come completely unglued late in the campaign, calling Metcalf names in public and spending obscene amounts of money on Lexington television and radio advertising.

In yesterday's article, Worley even got his decades wrong trying to attack Metcalf.

Worley says Metcalf’s opposition to gambling is hypocritical. “When Barry was in the Senate, he had a chance to kill the state lottery, but didn’t do it,” he said.

Metcalf was in the state Senate from 1994 to 1999. The Kentucky lottery started years earlier, in 1989.

The added social welfare costs brought on by introducing casino gambling are certain to exceed expected revenues from casinos. Given Worley's penchant for funny numbers like state deficits, land prices, ponzi schemes, and "revenue enhancement," it should come as no surprise that he can't keep his decades straight.

UPDATE: The MSM will never report on this in a million years -- much less before Tuesday -- but this contribution from California-based casino magnate R.D. Hubbard would be interesting to anyone who actually believes Sen. Worley when he says he hasn't made up his mind whether to support the big casinos or not.

More Kentucky Pension Games

The four benefit plans administered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky have a combined shortfall of $17.5 Billion and Rep. C.B. Embry (R-Morgantown) wants to put another hole in the bottom of the boat.

Desperate Dem Voter Drive In Kentucky

This makes sense coming from the party that wants to send another convicted felon to the state Senate.

Combing the prisons for GOTV is a telling sign, isn't it? Hey guys, why don't you call the Registered Sex Offenders List next?

Mike Farmer Attacked By Susan Westrom's Son On MySpace Page

Rep. Susan Westrom's (D-Lexington) son is a real piece of work.

Herald-Leader Spanked By Yellow Dog

Judge Mary Noble had a fit recently when Supreme Court Justice John Roach pointed out her long-standing pattern of going easy on sex offenders.

The Herald Leader followed Noble's lead today calling Roach's concerns "injudicious."

But some history on the relationship between the Herald-Leader and Noble may shed light on why the paper's editorial board was so quick to come to the liberal judge's aid.

On October 26, 1994 the paper criticized Noble for setting free a sex offender who had been jailed for attempted rape and for nearly killing his victim. Thanks to Noble, he served only eight months.

On November 24, 1995 the paper mentioned that same case again and added two more like it in which Noble set the perpetrators free.

Then on November 30, 1995 the paper printed a clarification including the following:

Judge Noble called to our attention additional facts that put (one of the sex offenders) case in a different light and lead us to conclude that extremely lenient sentences are not the norm in her court.

She must have done some pretty powerful persuading to get the Herald-Leader off her back and into her camp. All this was pretty confusing until I heard former Supreme Court Justice Jim Keller call Mary Noble a "yellow dog Democrat" this summer in Frankfort.

Now I understand. The Herald-Leader editorial board got called on the carpet once for attacking a Democrat. A decade later, they are still making up for it by trying to put a liberal on the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Eminent Domain, The New Abortion?

Ralph Hacker is running a radio ad supporting the ballot initiative that would restart the taxpayer-funded court fight and battle to destroy Kentucky American Water Company.

In the ad, he says he believes eminent domain actions should be rare. Sounds like abortion proponents who say killing babies should be "safe, legal, and rare."

But let's do another one, right?

Fayette county voters who vote yes on the ballot question Tuesday won't be resolving ANYTHING. They will just be voting to resume fighting that only the lawyers can win.

Punch Foley For Joe

The New York Times has the story about Republican Joe Negron's bid to replace Mark Foley in Congress. The conservative nature of the district and a great campaign slogan reflecting the unfortunate fact that voters must still choose "Mark Foley" in order to cast a vote for Negron has put him in position to win.

It is looking more and more like the story on November 8 will be "since Democrats couldn't win in this environment, perhaps they never will."

But then, conservatives are going to need a good, long talk with their Republican representatives, who helped create the environment and a real opportunity for the "We have no message" Democrats to make a race out of 2006.

In the end, loathing of the military and a penchant for raising taxes along with a strong desire to coddle foreign criminals ruined the Democrat effort to dominate this election cycle.

Can't Keep These Good Men Down

Democrats have taken African American voters for granted for a long time. They repeat this grievous behavior when Democrats fight against any kind of school choice, champion deviant "lifestyles," and perpetuate generations of dependency on the government.

This week, while Democrats are worried about how badly John Kerry's mouth will hurt their desire for control, a little-noted event in Maryland may have started real change in American politics for years to come.

Read about it.

Latest Polling: No Cigar For Dems

... and Nancy Pelosi hasn't even weighed in on whether she believes our soldiers are stupid.

Fortunately, she is on the record for wanting to raise taxes and wanting to protect the non-existent civil rights of illegal foreign enemy combatants.

Reuters says Nancy doesn't get a new office.

Steve Kay Pulls A John Kerry

Lexington City Council At-Large candidate Steve Kay went on Lexington radio yesterday and chided Lexington voters for not being "compassionate" toward illegal aliens.

In other news: I don't know if will be enough to help Senator Rick Santorum win in Pennsylvania, but his opponent Bob Casey Jr. has John "Soldiers Are Dumb" Kerry coming in to campaign for him today.

Any chance we could get Kerry to come to Kentucky to "help" Democrats here?

UPDATE: All the John Kerry events today have been cancelled. He is available, Kentucky Dems!

Do Kentucky Dems Back John Kerry Now?

Sen. John Kerry may not like being called an elitist snob, but it sure would be funny to see him try to deny that he is one.

Watching him try to distance himself from his own attack on America's soldiers has been pretty funny as well.

I wonder what Mike Weaver, John Yarmuth, and Ken Lucas think about that. More importantly, I would like to see what they say about it. Wouldn't you?

I-Care And Minimum Wage

The Kentucky legislature passed a health insurance subsidy this year and so, sign-ups start tomorrow in the I-CARE program. This bad idea is similar to raising the minimum wage in that it takes a more expensive path than is necessary to reach the desired end. Repealing Certificate of Need regulations would lower health insurance costs for all rather than using the subsidy to lower premiums for a few. In the same way, raising Earned Income Tax Credits would give money to poor families while the minimum wage mainly just increases the costs of employing teenagers.

State Public Pension Reform

South Carolina voters will decide next Tuesday, in part, how soon they want their public pension plan to blow up on them. Their $9 Billion deficit can begin to be addressed by allowing pension dollars to be invested in the stock market. It will take a constitutional amendment to allow it, and that is what is on this ballot.

Kentucky already allows equity investments in its pension plan. (The fact that we are much better off than South Carolina should give pause to local opponents of Social Security private accounts, but it probably won't.)

We can take little comfort in the fact that we have less than half the red ink soaking our pension plan that South Carolina has. Choosing equities is an easy decision to make. Kentucky's decisions will be more difficult. We need to start on it now.

One Week To Go

How are things looking in your part of the state?

I Am Blogger; Hear Me Roar

A couple of us Kentucky bloggers made national news earlier this year for being refused journalist's credentials at the state capitol.

The winds are changing.

Nicole Moore of the National Conference of State Legislatures is writing a column for State Legislatures magazine advocating for bloggers to be given press passes to legislative sessions.

Casino Gambling Is A Liberal Scam

If you like public policy that forces the government to expand and taxes to go up, you will really like the false promise of casino gambling in Kentucky. The rosy scenarios of new revenue for Frankfort never figure in the increased need for social services brought on by the fantastic allure of casinos. Quick losses mount up and families are torn down. The government usually winds up picking up the tab for the families. Unfortunately, the roads and schools build by gambling revenue are easy to see. The uncounted cost is much less visible.

So when the "additional" revenue is offset by new social spending, we wind up spending money on other projects we will need to clean up the toxic waste left by the casinos.

Will people gamble anyway? You bet. Will they run over to Indiana's gambling boats regardless of what Kentucky does? Sure.

But the scam is the idea that building casinos on this side of the river will be a net benefit to Kentuckians. Only casino-sponsored studies count the social costs at zero.

The fact is that casinos will cost the state more than they generate in revenue. It would be cheaper to just let those who want to go to Indiana for gambling trips go.

And speaking of scams: if you like the idea of higher government spending following the implementation of casinos, you will absolutely love the underhanded way the casinos are sneaking in to Kentucky in broad daylight.

It's called "let the people decide."

Looking at legislative campaigns across the state, members of both parties seem to have gotten in the "let the people decide" game.

If casinos can get on the ballot in Kentucky, they will dump many millions of dollars into advertising campaigns. Their organized opposition consists mainly of church groups. Fiscal conservatives would do well to tune into this debate very quickly.

Soon it will be too late.

Club For Growth Monday

Go to the Kentucky Club for Growth website and sign up for email updates.

Take a look at the national Club site for an idea of what is coming.

Democrat Robber Barons: Give Us Your $$$

Fortunately, DNC Chair Howard Dean speaks:

Democratic party chief Howard Dean said Democrats "have no intention of raising taxes except on the people who have got enormous tax breaks - like the oil companies - from the Republicans."

In Econ 101 class, the rest of us learned that a tax increase on producers gets passed on to consumers. So after Nancy Pelosi rolls back all the Bush tax cuts -- including the 10% tax bracket that hits everyone -- Mad Howard will be looking to hit us all at the gas pump.

Thanks for talking, guys.

The Seinfeld Roundtable

Imagine this: A "progressive" political discussion that lasted two hours, but wasn't about anything at all.