Real Emergency Ends, So End The Fake One

Governor Kathleen Blanco's term in office can now safely draw to a close since Republican Bobby Jindal has been elected in Louisiana.

So while our friends to the south are closing the books on part of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Governor Fletcher should take the opportunity to call an end to the ongoing state of emergency in Kentucky he called in the aftermath of that same hurricane.

It was that state of emergency called in 2005 that triggered Kentucky's bad (and since-repealed) price-gouging law under which Attorney General Greg Stumbo has sued Marathon Oil for $89 million.

The lawsuit is ongoing, but shouldn't be. Same goes for Kentucky's 2005 Hurricane Katrina state of emergency declaration.

Another Failure To Communicate

On the federal level, we have replaced welfare with alphabet soup. It would be a joke if it weren't true. At some point we are going to see expanding entitlement programs as a bad thing that gets in the way instead of something that, if we just did a little more, might just start to work:

...child care assistance, EITC, Food Stamps, housing assistance (Section 8 and public housing), Medicaid/SCHIP and TANF. While helpful for those who receive them, they find more needs to be done to ensure that hard work pays.

While these programs "for the poor" or "the children" are the purview of Democrats, all too often Republicans push corporate welfare.

Back in Kentucky, I'm guessing the Fletcher administration soon will announce the first recipient of Kentucky's "energy plan." The announcement will be the biggest yawner of an uneventful campaign.

That will be, sadly, the result of just another failure to communicate.

Jack Conway's Thinking Problem

I read the story about Attorney General candidate Jack Conway's "bush league" non-apology apology this morning and have to admit I kind of feel sorry for him.

As a pro-abortion politician bending over backwards to find a point of attack against his pro-life opponent Rep. Stan Lee, Conway showed that his reach definitely exceeds his grasp.

Then when he got caught he couldn't quite swing the mea culpa.

Conway, in an interview, said he's not faulting Lee for defending Jones. And he said it's not his intent to drag Hufnagel into the race.

"I didn't mean to cause them any additional consternation," Conway said. "If I have, I apologize. I just think it's important to point out the hypocrisy."

Conway may as well have said, "I shouldn't have attacked Stan Lee for representing a victim in a horrible tragedy and I'm sorry I got caught, but my political advisers tell me to keep saying the word 'hypocrisy' when talking about a Christian so 'hypocrisy.'"

Speaking of the h-word, it was a sight watching Conway try to get people worked up about an unborn child while displaying a vampire-in-the-sunlight's duck-and-cover maneuver away from the word "child."

"He is taking the position that ... who lost his 8-month-old viable fetus -- should not be compensated for the loss of love and affection for that 8-month-old fetus," said Conway, 38.

I've seen the polls and I have read the campaign finance numbers. Conway may well win this race, but if this dust-up is any indication, he has been pushed into the big leagues too soon.

Coach Pitino Gives Richie Farmer A Hand

The sports news guys in Lexington may be interested to know Rick Pitino will be in town tonight for a Richie Farmer fundraiser.

Mayor Abramson's $16.5 Million

Some folks in Louisville want to run a $40 million a year tax increase through on the ballot November 6 in order to raise $23.5 million to spend on the city's public library system. As part of the deal, they also want to remove library operations from local government oversight.

Many voters were falling for the idea of paying more money if the library system needed it. But this is quickly turning into a sordid mess as more facts are uncovered about what is really going on.

A good question to ask is "Why does Mayor Jerry Abramson need a $40 million tax increase to give the libraries $23.5 million and what is he doing with the extra $16.5 million?"

Mayor Abramson ran last year on funding the libraries without any tax increases. The big-taxers are very well funded for this fight. Spread the word to stop them.

Mitt Romney Keeps Endorsing HillaryCare

Mitt Romney spoke to the Club for Growth yesterday and positively mentioned the Fair Tax, which is good. Then he started on healthcare, which turned bad when he repeated the questionable statistic that there are fourty seven million people without health insurance, suggesting that we might do the same thing in America he did in Massachusetts.

"We have to see fundamental reform of healthcare overall ... Fourty seven million people without insurance means the cost of fourty seven million people is being borne by everybody else. That can't happen. You gotta get everybody in the system paying their own fair share."

No. We can afford to pay for those who can't pay for themselves if we would only let the market reduce the costs for those of us paying our own way.

Further, Romney often tries to separate himself from some of the worst parts of the Massachusetts health mess by blaming it on his Democratic legislature.

Hello? What is going to be different in Washington D.C.? I sure don't want to elect a Republican president who signs socialized medicine and then goes out and claims it isn't his fault.

Some Rumors Are More Fun Than Others

There is some internet chatter about Treasurer Jonathan Miller that I hope isn't true. We hear this kind of stuff way too often and I wouldn't wish it on anyone's family.

But the one I just got from a Democratic friend is that Miller may have spent Treasurer's office money to pay Mark Nickolas to run his blog.

Now that would be fun.

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.