Here Comes Mr. Conservative

The leader of the Club for Growth is coming to Kentucky next week.

No Liberal Scheme Left Behind

Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth both voted this afternoon to override President Bush's veto of the Dems' rapid SCHIP expansion.

Fortunately, though, they failed.

Courier Journal's Hate Speech

The Louisville Courier-Journal's vitriolic partisanship is nothing new. But it is interesting how amateurish today's installment is:

Every time you hear Republicans brag about being the party of fiscal restraint and family values, remember what they really mean: They'll lavish money on the machinery of war but won't do what's necessary to make sure that hard-pressed American families can meet basic needs like health care and shelter.

This stuff would be barely passable as a diary entry on a liberal blog. And this is supposed to convince us that only evil people don't want to buy houses for poor people?

Steve Beshear's Kentucky Circa 2050

Casinos have been fixing all the problems in New Jersey for fourty years. Today, half the people who live there want to move out of the state.

My favorite line from the story:

"Where do all the funds go from all the other taxable sources — the casino, the lottery, the tolls?" Cella asked. "Nobody seems to know, and yet we have a Legislature that's talking about raising taxes all the time."

McConnell's Macaca Moment?

Good grief. This is the kind of nonsense that happens to Republicans who don't stick to correct principles.

If we were arguing against the worthiness of the SCHIP program itself, the issue of one boy's eligibility and some effort to dig into his background would never come up.

You have to read the entire Courier-Journal story to see Sen. McConnell wasn't lying about anything, but if all the senator's statements were about the program's counterproductivity this stupid stuff would never be an issue.

Kentucky's Health Insurance Success

Kentucky has one of the best individual/family health insurance markets in the country. Limited mandates have a lot to do with this, as does the fact more states are edging toward HillaryCare-type setups a lot faster than we are.

Electing Steve Beshear governor would be a near-certain way to screw this up.

Check it out for yourself:

Bloodhound Alert: In Search Of Hillary Clinton

No, Hillary Clinton isn't missing. But her Ivy League-acquired math skills appear to be failing her so badly, we should probably get the dogs out anyway.

If she keeps leading in the polls, we will need them soon enough.

She's campaigning on restoring fiscal responsibility to Washington D.C. and yet champions a $100 billion health insurance program and a new $20 billion retirement entitlement. And now she is denying that Social Security has any kind of problem. That line worked well enough when her party was in the minority, just trying to stop a president they don't like from fixing a daunting problem.

But Hillary seems to be stuck on last year's talking point. At the same time, she is ignoring the slightly more distant past in which her own husband outlined the very real crisis in Social Security almost a decade ago.

The long-standing intellectual slipperiness we have come to expect from politicians named Clinton suggests we are going to need some serious help tracking Hillary down on anything that matters.

Taxing The Sinner, Not The Sin

Steve Beshear has backed off his support for the Democrats' SCHIP expansion since Governor Fletcher called him on the $1 a pack cigarette tax in that bill.

Beshear should have to explain what tax he wants to go up to pay for the entitlement.

Could this be a precursor for the failure of casino gambling in the legislature next year?

Help Mitch Ditch Democrat Internet Tax

Sen. Mitch McConnell is circulating a petition to permanently ban taxation of internet access fees.

Cut Government Waste, Send Politicians Home

Kentucky can put two constitutional amendments on the ballot in any year. Next year, we need to repeal the Treasurer's office and eliminate even-year "long sessions" of the General Assembly.

The gubernatorial candidates should be asked their position on this.

Debate

Governor Fletcher just hinted that some energy projects will be announced soon. I'm assuming he is talking about coal-to-liquid fuel projects.

Mayor Isaac Knew And When She Knew It

An outside consultant to the LFUCG told then-Mayor Teresa Isaac about abuse in the Fayette County Detention Center several months before she went on television a year ago and said no such abuse occurred.

Kentucky's Healthy Health Insurance Market?

I'm working on an analysis of the health insurance markets in the states. I'll post my findings on The Bluegrass Policy Blog when I'm finished, but after looking at plans in all fifty states I have to say Kentucky is a lot closer to the top than I thought they would be.

Grayson Goes Up

"Build 48 More Casinos, Governor"

New Jersey's Governor Jon Corzine has a problem for which Kentucky's Steve Beshear would have a quick answer.

New Jersey has a $3 billion hole in its budget. Corzine has avoided the problem as long as possible with other types of flimflammery:

One challenge will be to replace $1.9 billion in "one-shot" cash that will be gone after the current budget year. The administration this year tapped a $940 million surplus to help balance the books. The current budget also used $650 million stashed away from last year to pay for rebates. And Corzine won't be able to duplicate about $340 million in raids he made on funds dedicated to specific programs like disability insurance.

Meanwhile, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley gave us a preview of what Year Three in the Beshear administration would look like:

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) on Monday plans to call a special session of the General Assembly with the hope of securing quick action on his plan to close a $1.7 billion budget shortfall by raising several taxes and legalizing slot-machine gambling, his office said yesterday.

Jail Birds Singing

I'm working this morning on what might be a major break in the prisoner abuse scandal at the Lexington jail.

There are currently more than half a billion dollars worth of lawsuits against the taxpayers of Lexington directly related to the actions of a few people at the facility.

It is about to get much worse.

Stay tuned...

Leading Meteorologist Predicts Global Cooling

Just as Al Gore was being handed his Nobel Peace prize for stirring environmentalists' wildest fantasies, another leading scientist, Dr. William Gray, explained part of what is happening:

"It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong," he said. "But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."

My favorite part, though, was this:

But Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.

However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.

"We'll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was," Dr Gray said.

Sure hope Gore's prize winning junk science runs its course that soon, if not sooner.

Pimping A National Conservative Blog

Erick Erickson is a Macon, Georgia attorney who publishes RedState.com. If you are looking for some perspective on how conservatives might wrest control of the Republican party from the political class, you will find it there.

Exhibit A:

The GOP has ceased to be a party of ideas. We have John Boehner playing to keep Jerry Lewis on the Appropriations Committee, despite his FBI investigation. He's added to the Appropriations Committee Ken Calvert, also under investigation.

We have Mitch McConnell and the GOP in the Senate caving on earmarks reform, funding bridges to no where, and backing down on judges. We have the White House doing cutesy policy maneuvers, kissing up to China for trade, and reminding people "We gave you John Roberts and Sam Alito and the stem cell veto so suck it up" whenever we point out that they're drifting leftward.

Another Reason To Not Trust Frankfort's "Big Ed"

Remember the mess caused by state officials trying to cram the scandalous Barbara Erwin down our throats as education commissioner?

Her crime spree is catching up to her in Illinois.

Raehl, who also sparked the earlier investigation this year, said she believes Gaffney tried to use his power as a public official to get extra sick days for former Superintendent Barbara Erwin so she could become vested in the state pension system.

Raehl cites an undated memo bearing Gaffney's signature along with a note to district officials, saying the board agreed to credit Erwin with 340 sick days as part of a contract agreement in 2004, when actually Erwin's sick day allotment was not approved and did not start accumulating until 2005.

"There was an attempt to get (Erwin) vested by Jim (Gaffney)," Raehl said. "It was a misuse and an attempted misuse of public funds."

Nice to see a little ranting and raving might have helped stop at least one Frankfort headache.

Kentucky's Real Constitutional Amendment of 2008

Casino gambling won't be on the ballot next year in Kentucky because it won't get past Sen. David Williams. It probably won't even get past Speaker Jody Richards.

But cutting government waste begins with shutting down the Treasurer's office.