Busy, Busy, Busy

There are a lot of questions swarming around the federal investigation into the prisoner abuse scandal at the Fayette County Detention Center.

But, unfortunately, there are precious few official answers.

Spokesman for the FCDC Darrin Kelly yesterday referred questions to the Lexington-Fayette Department of Law's Carolyn Zerga.

Kelly said Zerga was told to expect my call yesterday. She has, however, been "in meetings" and "on the phone" for the last twenty four hours.

Fortunately, they can't hide from the federal grand jury in Covington.

Keeping Us In The Dark

The Kentucky School Board is hiding their list of nine candidates for the top job in Kentucky's public school system. Wonder why?

Thanks to Rural Democrat and Page One Kentucky for joining the effort to shine light on this.

Fred! Speaks In South Carolina

Presidential candidate Fred Thompson said this today in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina:

"As I scan the room, I see many people wearing FairTax stickers. I see them everywhere I go. FairTax has a better campaign going on than any of the candidates!"

He then passed on the opportunity to endorse FairTax, just like the rest of the top tier GOP candidates have done.

Herald Leader Masters Obvious, Misses Point

The Lexington Herald Leader editorial page has a news flash:

We already have government-run health care.

Yeah, thanks guys. The point of the editorial is that government control has been creeping forward for decades, under Republicans and Democrats alike, and that we should just keep on going.

But the point is separating health services from people who might keep price increases in check is what has created the runaway inflation in health care.

And pricing the middle class out of the game is government's predominant contribution to health care in America.

Did Ron Bishop Make Him Do It?

Shannon Raglin, a Fayette jail worker, has been arrested and is accused of shaking down a prisoner in the facility. It's just about time for FCDC director Ron Bishop, criminal, to go.

He Doesn't Have A Clue

Don't Just Sit There. Smoke.

The closer you look at SCHIP, the worse it looks. Expanding it a little, like many Congressional Republicans and President Bush want to do is bad enough. Expanding it a lot like most Congressional Democrats prefer is worse. Consider this:

Calling All Kentucky Fiscal Conservatives!

Grab your checkbook and come support the Kentucky Club for Growth's efforts to elect people who will spend our tax dollars more carefully.

Lexington Jail Story Takes Another Odd Twist

A source inside the Fayette County Detention Center alleged ongoing witness intimidation in violation of Kentucky's whistleblower statute by officials in the jail.

Federal whistleblower Cpl. John Vest has been sent a registered letter, according to the source, informing him that he may not take any training related to his job at the jail because he is not employed there.

That is not true. Vest's status is actually "on unpaid leave," despite efforts by Mayor Jim Newberry and several jail officials to fire him illegally. These efforts came after they learned Vest was working with the FBI to uncover widespread prisoner abuse in the jail.

When he was contacted this morning, Vest said he had not yet received the letter. (4:23 pm update: he got the letter today.) A spokesman for the jail said all questions regarding Cpl. Vest are now being referred to the city's legal department. A call to the legal department was not immediately returned.

Miller On The Way Out From KDP

Expect to see Jonathan Miller canned from his post as Chairman of the Democratic Party of Kentucky immediately after the election, a party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said today.

Some embarrassing emails from Miller's aborted gubernatorial campaign and other various allegations are at the heart of the coming ouster.

The Lexington Herald-Leader mentioned the proverbial tip of the iceberg this morning.

Taking On Health Insurance Rates

There can be little doubt we will wind up having a battle royale in the 2008 General Assembly over Kentucky's health insurance market.

Last year's SB 135 would be a good solution to the problem of rising premiums. Several companies have said they would return to Kentucky if we passed this bill.

More competition, not heavy-handed Beshear-Mongiardo price fixing, is what we need. The bill would give companies more flexibility in dealing with sick applicants. They would have the option to exclude coverage for illnesses going back twelve months rather than the currently mandated six months.

Plans that took that option could offer lower premiums to healthy people.

What's Going On With The KY Senate GOP?

Sen. Ken Winters (R-Murray) confirmed this morning he is interested in the Kentucky Education Commissioner's job.

Winters faces a challenge next year from convicted felon Carroll Hubbard.

Beshear's Talking Point Malfunction

Steve Beshear's comments about the SCHIP bill tonight suggest he may not fully understand the legislative process.

Beshear's previous casino constitutional amendment blooper ("I'm gonna pass it") seems, well, perfectly constitutional compared to tonight's statement.

When asked if he would have voted to override the veto of the Congressional Democratic plan to expand SCHIP with funding from a $1 a pack cigarette tax, Beshear answered that he would have voted for the bill and the tax though he is against the tax, and that he thinks the United States should surrender in Iraq as soon as possible:

"I would have voted to override it. I don't like the funding mechanism they have in terms of raising the cigarette tax, but I'm gonna tell you something. We could fund this program if we just saved a few million dollars from Iraq instead of spending it over there on a war we're never going to win."

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.