Beshear Defines Down Immorality

Steve Beshear spoke in Winchester yesterday.

From the Winchester Sun story:

He described the Fletcher administration as "immoral" for failing to support thousands of Kentucky children without health insurance and seniors who must choose between buying food or prescription medication.

Beshear is going to have a long four years in Frankfort, given his promises not to raise taxes, to repeal the LLET, and to pass casino gambling. The legislature will only allow him to repeal the LLET and they will force him to live without casinos and with tax increases.

Also noteworthy is that Beshear scrubbed the Sun story of criticism of his ethics. On Beshear's site where you get an ellipsis, in the paper you see this:

Embroiled in an ethics arms race with the Fletcher administration, Beshear has been accused of engaging in unethical conduct when serving as an attorney during the liquidation of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co. He has also endured criticism for his support of expanded gambling.

Turning Around Healthcare Discussion May Well Start With Michael Moore

Sicko Michael Moore is setting up house parties to try to convince people that America should be more like Cuba.

Get your free CD of "Sicko" today!

Before we go Fidel Castro on our medical professionals, we should allow people to buy health insurance across state lines and repeal Certificate of Need laws.

Hardly Worth Peeing In Your Chair For

Can't help wondering how Governor Steve Beshear would handle this one: via Drudge, ABC News reports on a casino gambler who won $1.6 million on a slot machine and was, instead, given $385 and told to go away.

And in case you don't remember the other lawsuit closer to home referred to in this post's title, here's a link to the story of a casino where the taxpayers are too busy paying taxes to go to the bathroom.

But Kentucky casinos will be different, right?

Like Turning Loose A Bunch Of Hatfields

The Fayette County Detention Center will soon be running short of McCoys.

LFUCG Actions Louder Than Their Words

The old saying about following the money applies to just about anything that happens these days. The Fayette County Detention Center prisoner abuse scandal is no exception.

Consider this: we have two prison guards placed on leave, one with pay and one without. One has been arrested amid charges of extorting money from a jail inmate and the other is an FBI informant with whistleblower status whose bravery in the line of duty sparked a federal investigation that has taken an entire year so far involving an ongoing grand jury investigation. So which one do you keep paying a salary and which one do you strip of salary and status and try to crucify in the media?

Me too.

Lexington is, of course, paying the thug and screwing the whistleblower. Any guesses as to how much this gaffe might wind up costing the city's taxpayers? They can keep their "no comments" coming, we've heard all we need to hear.

We're Already Giving Away Stuff To Friends

Supporters of casino gambling like to say Kentuckians are already gambling so it should be no big deal to open casinos here.

Such reasoning ignores a lot, but Caleb Brown makes an interesting point I haven't seen addressed elsewhere:

Beshear needs to clarify sooner rather than later that expanded gambling will not result in a massive giveaway to Churchill Downs or other tracks.

Some proponents of licensing casinos at racetracks claim that the horse industry needs financial help. Even if we take that dubious assertion at face value -- horses constitute a billion dollar industry in Kentucky -- giving a free casino license to Churchill Downs won't do much for the parts of the industry not owned by Churchill Downs, Inc.

If Beshear would like to remain free of accusations that he's a pawn of a large corporate interest, he should instead pledge to use some revenues raised through the auction of casino licenses to eliminate pari-mutuel taxes and burdensome levies associated with horse breeding and farming.

While the projected revenue versus costs calculation only starts to make sense if the state's take is significantly more than double the often-proposed one-third, the idea of just giving away a value worth hundreds of millions of dollars so narrowly is yet another bad part of Beshear's gambling scheme.

Liars, Like Appearances, Can Be Deceiving

Don't believe it when you hear the Fayette County Detention Center prison guard extortion scandal is over.

While a second guard was arrested today in the scheme, sources inside the jail report at least four more guards need to hauled in on this one.

UPDATE: And despite claims of a joint investigation, jail officials were caught completely off-guard by the first arrest. The inmates have been running this asylum for quite a while. It is pretty funny to watch that get played out literally as employees shuttle between Lexington and Covington to answer grand jury questions. It will get serious, though, when Lexington taxpayers start to figure out how much these zoo animals will wind up costing them.

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."