Not Good: Keeping Merit Hiring On The Front Page

Governor Fletcher's campaign manager was quick again today to declare victory in the ongoing merit hiring scandal when the Executive Branch Ethics Commission ended its investigation into the Governor's involvement.

"This letter is being released as further evidence that the (Attorney General Greg) Stumbo led witch-hunt was pure political opportunism that is now being trumpeted by Steve Beshear,” said Marty Ryall, campaign manager for Fletcher, in a news release.

Does anyone really think this is going to win back any support for the Governor's campaign?

Given that the Ethics Commission apparently only seems to have been able to find actionable fault with former administration officials who supported Anne Northup in the primary, I would have to guess it won't.

Same Old Education Spin In Kentucky

The ACT has issued their state-by-state average test scores and the Lexington Herald Leader dutifully marched out and interviewed state education commissioner Kevin Noland, who was more than happy to take credit for the slight increase.

"The ACT results are valuable because they provide another means for Kentucky's secondary educators to focus attention on specific areas," said Interim Education Commissioner Kevin Noland. "Kentucky's students are making progress, and that is most evident when we look at long-term trends."

What the bureacrats and their adoring fans in the MSM don't want you to know is the statewide statistics include private and home-schooled students. A breakout of those numbers will be available soon. They will likely show -- again -- an actual decrease among public school students and the media will ignore the real story -- again.

More Bad -- But Fixable -- KDE News

The Bluegrass Institute's Dick Innes reports the education testing people at ACT will introduce this fall a testing solution Kentucky desperately needs, but that education bureaucrats will resist.

ACT will have "a coordinated set of curriculum outlines for about 16 college preparation courses and corresponding end of course exams," Innes said. "Right now, the Kentucky Department of Education is very slowly trying to create end of course exams in just a couple of subjects."

Innes is the education analyst for the Bluegrass Institute.

Someone in the legislature should step forward as an education leader and force the KDE to abandon tests they can manipulate in favor of those that will better serve our children.

Jack Conway, Kentucky's Angry Liberal Pol

Anti-business, pandering redistributionist, and loud. If Conway didn't look the part, he would be a laughingstock.

Yellow Jacket Tuesday Open Thread

I'm taking my son to Atlanta for college on Tuesday. Talk to you Wednesday!

Hey Coach, Put Richie In

Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer gets discounted as a conservative leader because of his athletic career at UK and his eastern Kentucky roots. But an emerging strategy for a bold fall campaign could change that dramatically.

Early polling shows Farmer continuing his prolific voter attraction from 2003 and extending it this fall against a dreadful Democratic nominee who will be lucky to stay out of jail. Farmer's many accomplishments in office have given him quite a story to tell. What he does next could have a lasting, positive impact on the state.

"The Stress Of Success"

Massachusetts officials admit to the Boston Globe they are losing over half of the applications mailed to them for the state's new socialized medicine plan.

Thomas Dehner, the state's Medicaid director, calls it "the stress of success."

Does Kentucky really want to go through this mess again? Steve Beshear thinks so and Governor Fletcher has made troubling comments recently.

A little common sense on health care regulation shouldn't be so hard to muster. We keep trying more and more regulation and keep getting negative results. I guess we can keep doing that until we bankrupt the state.

Liberty, Security, Or Neither?

Anti-war activists like to co-opt the old quote about people willing to trade their liberty for their security deserving neither when opposing federal efforts to track domestic terrorist activity.

The same people like to decry the plight of the poor, overworked low wage American worker who just needs a union to fight off "the man" for him. But it seems we have more evidence that poverty would diminish on its own if more people simply turned off the television and went to work.

Bring On The Former Presidential Candidates

It is time for failing presidential campaigns to start ending. Today it is former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. With any luck, Sen. John McCain will be next.

Daily Kos Takes Credit For Ben Chandler

The extreme left-wingers took a break today from forcing the Democratic party over the cliff on national defense and any semblance of fiscal sanity to take credit for electing Blue Dogs to Congress.

It is amazing to see Kos pat himself on the back for electing the last legacy politician in Kentucky and with a straight face continue to run away from the liberal label in favor of the preferred "progressive" term (which apparently means to pre-emptively surrender all potential military actions, shut down international trade, and stick everyone in a union):

"This had nothing to do with being centrist or liberal or conservative. It had to do with standing tall for core progressive principles. In fact one of the first people we supported was Stephanie Herseth in South Dakota who is now a Blue Dog. Ben Chandler in Kentucky."

Rep. Chandler has already run away from Montana left-wing polemicist Mark Nickolas. How fast will he duck and cover to escape a bunch who wants to chase off Hillary Clinton for being too conservative?

Backward Step On Most Basic Human Right

A pro-life source with inside knowledge of the campaigns of Steve Beshear and Jack Conway reports the two are planning a repeal of Kentucky's fetal homicide law utilizing Attorney General opinions declaring that a fetus is not a person.

Rep. Stan Lee sponsored the original fetal homicide bill in 2004, requiring that anyone charged with killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child be charged with two deaths. Governor Ernie Fletcher signed the fetal homicide bill into law.

Steve Beshear declared in a 1982 Attorney General opinion that an unborn child is not a "person" and instead only becomes "human" at some later point he did not specify.

It Is August, Where's Our Stupid Tax Holiday Bill?

On a day in which the Louisville Courier Journal wastes valuable ink setting the stage for an editorial calling for tax increases to fund crayons, notebooks, and clothes for schoolchildren, I have a question.

When will someone file another bill "giving" Kentucky parents a back-to-school sales tax holiday?

Rather than feel-good legislation though, wouldn't it be better if we repealed corporate income taxes across the board for the whole year? Consumers wind up paying them anyway, in addition to business compliance costs and avoidance techniques.

Bad tax policies hurt everyone in the state. Dropping sales tax on a few items for one weekend each fall does nothing at all to improve that.

Bloggers To Kill Off More Newspapers?

Well, not exactly. Not yet anyway. But if Rupert Murdoch takes the online version of the Wall Street Journal from subscription to free, you will see a lot of newspapers go down the tubes as a direct result.

Further changes to how information is delivered will have a very interesting impact on our political process.

If These People Did This To My Kids, I Would Be Going To Jail For A Long Time

And the thing is, if this happened in my local school district, I would be joined by a whole lot of friends in tearing these people limb from limb. If only we could match our social conservatism in this state with activism for education quality and for fiscal conservatism, we wouldn't be in a lot of our current messes.

More Polling Data To Check Out

The Lane Report poll making the rounds has a few interesting things I haven't seen reported. First, 49% of respondents said House Democrats did the right thing in ending the first special session without taking any action. Governor Fletcher was backed by 38% on the issue.

The Attorney General's race has the highest undecided tally at 53%. That has to be a positive for Stan Lee, whose support will grow for several reasons. More on that later.

Linda Greenwell's rematch against Crit Luallen should get a boost with the news that the race is a close 32%-26% with 40% undecided.

Here Comes The Cavalry

Former Congressman Pat Toomey, now head of the Club for Growth, is coming to Kentucky October 24-25 to raise money for free-market fiscal conservatives in the Bluegrass state.

Will Fletcher Be Like Isaac Or Davis?

Yesterday I was talking to Dave Krusenklaus, host of Kruser and Krew on Lexington's WVLK AM 590, and he brought up a parallel between Governor Ernie Fletcher and former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac. After never getting much traction in the polls last summer and fall, Isaac failed to get re-elected.

So is Fletcher going to be more like Isaac or instead like Rep. Geoff Davis, who trailed throughout much of the campaign last year and pulled off the win?

What do you think?

By the way, I will be on the Kruser program today at 1pm. Call in at (859)253-5959 if you get a chance.

Let's Make 2008 The Year Of The Open Budget

Kentucky's legislative leadership now writes our state's budgets every two years behind locked doors, covered windows, and armed guards.

Whether you want the budget trimmed of fat or loaded with more, you can't be happy with the thuggish tactics we see played out in the spring of each even year.

The only reason the budget isn't worked out in public is because no one has called them on it.

This should also be an issue in this fall's elections.

The Wrong State Of Emergency

Kentucky is still suing Marathon Oil over violation of a "price gouging" law that doesn't exist anymore.

Publicity hound Attorney General Greg Stumbo started the lawsuit, which charges Marathon Oil made "too much" money from Kentucky consumers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The state of emergency which triggered the old law, though, was called by Governor Fletcher.

The new price gouging law doesn't allow a never-ending state of emergency. Currently, we are still under the one from 2005.

Our government wasn't set up to allow politicians to attack private businesses without making a very strong case. While all these guys are trying to get our votes, they should explain in detail why we should be suing under flimsy pretenses using a 2004 law we did well to repeal earlier this year.

There are two key issues here: one, if politicians can go after one industry in such a clumsy, overbearing manner, they can go after another and yours might be next. And two, despite the current fever for alternative fuel sources, we are easily decades -- if not centuries -- away from replacing oil. It is premature and unwise to be picking meat from the carcass of fossil fuels just yet.

Governor Fletcher and Attorney General candidate Stan Lee would do well to at least denounce Stumbo's crass action against Marathon.

Cutting The Size Of Government Isn't Easy

America's Governor Mark Sanford is struggling against his own party to change the political structure and culture in South Carolina.

Keep up the good fight, Mark.