Mayor Newberry, Call Your Office

Thursday morning in Lexington, federal court proceedings include five sentencings that look suspiciously like a handful of Fayette County Detention Center guards who have flipped on their friends.

Can't tell for sure, but what other case in Lexington would involve five same-day sentencings with hidden defendents and the United States of America as plaintiff?

In any case, we are getting closer to the time Lexington taxpayers have to pay up for Newberry's jail fiasco.

Another Legislator Goes To Big Ed

House Budget Chairman Harry Moberly has been appointed Executive Vice President for Administration at Eastern Kentucky University, according to a memo from EKU President Doug Whitlock.

Legislative ethics rules do not prohibit a legislator from working for a state university, but there is this little goody:

KRS 6.731 General standards of conduct -- Penalties.
A legislator, by himself or through others, shall not intentionally:
(1) Use or attempt to use his influence as a member of the General Assembly in any
matter which involves a substantial conflict between his personal interest and his
duties in the public interest. Violation of this subsection is a Class A misdemeanor;

Moberly has made no secret of his desire to become President of EKU and this is no small step in that direction. Given that Whitlock's memo specifically points out Moberly's position in the legislature as justification for giving him the new job and calls Moberly a "significantly underutilized administrative resource" of the University, I'd say Harry is already dancing dangerously close to the line.

Moberly has clearly shown a predilection for trying to slip dangerous legislation past an unsuspecting public. In order to avoid any more conflicts of interest, he should resign from the legislature now.

This Should Be Part Of Illegal Immigration Fight

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a San Diego policy of conducting home searches of welfare recipients.

The procedure is simple. If the search turns up evidence the welfare recipients don't qualify for benefits, they lose the benefits.

Here's one thought worthy of discussion, though, from a federal judge who sided with the ACLU against the policy:

"This case is nothing less than an attack on the poor," said Judge Harry Pregerson, writing for the dissenters. "This is especially atrocious in light of the fact that we do not require similar intrusions into the homes and lives of others who receive government entitlements. The government does not search through the closets and medicine cabinets of farmers receiving subsidies."

Now would be a great time to crack down on all kinds of people who apply for government checks.

Comparing Global Warming To AIDS

If you read just one thing in the Lexington Herald Leader this year, read this:

My presentation to state legislators on climate change was based on more than 300 peer-reviewed articles in the learned journals. Gore's movie was based on just two.

I made one central point: The U.N. climate change panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has exaggerated the effect of greenhouse gases on temperature at least fourfold. Correcting the panel's flawed math has an effect equivalent to cutting man-made greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent overnight.

The IPCC says the "radiative forcing" from CO2 rose by 20 percent between 1995 and 2005. Yet in that period the atmospheric concentration of CO2 rose from 360 to 378 parts per million -- just 5 percent. The radiative forcing effect -- which causes temperature change -- rose by only 1 percent. That's a 20-fold exaggeration by the IPCC.

Yes, the world is warming, we have made a small contribution to it and we can expect a little more oof it. But Gooch speaks for Kentucky's working miners and for everyone who uses the electricity their labor provides, when he agrees with me that we need to get the science right or -- as with HIV -- we will get the policy wrong.

If we get the policy wrong, it is the poorest people in Kentucky and elsewhere in the world who will suffer most. They will die in the tens of millions for want of the light and heat and power and medical care that we are lucky enough to take for granted.

Protect our precious local resource

The funniest thing I've seen all day is the Lexington Herald Leader caterwauling against itself over health benefits and sick days for the paper's employees.

The union is actually pointing out the Herald Leader is part of "a California corporation."

Somehow this reminds me of the many, many editorials in the same newspaper calling for the demolition of Kentucky-American Water Company because absentee ownership just couldn't be trusted locally.

So I just have to ask: can we really trust something as precious as our primary information source for the eastern half of Kentucky to a group of greedy bastards from, of all places, California?

Nine Minutes of Vanity, Kentucky Votes

I trade in my pajamas for a suit and go on television.

Three Things That Matter About Draud

New education commissioner Jon Draud had thought enough about that job to negotiate a four year, $220,000 contract plus $10,000 to live in a Frankfort hotel for the next six months. But he told the Lexington Herald Leader yesterday he hadn't yet gotten around to putting together a list of priorities for turning around Kentucky's schools.

Draud said he had not had time to draw up a complete list of priorities because he was only offered the commissioner's job Saturday night.

One priority we do know about is getting on the universal preschool bandwagon.

Despite this:

"A high percentage of elementary schools are on track to be proficient by that time," said Joe Brothers, chairman of the Kentucky Board of Education. But the number drops to 25 percent of middle schools, he said, and 12 percent of high schools.

In other words, Draud and the education bureaucracy want to pour more resources into the area that needs it least.

And speaking of bureaucracy: when it gets as bad as it is in Kentucky what we really need is someone to shake up the old ways and chart a new course.

Draud said two words that will define his work are cooperation and collaboration. "We've got to get people cooperating together to be successful," he said.

I'm in favor of people getting along, but the educrats have so badly mishandled the half of the state budget they are entrusted with that playing nice with them doesn't belong on our list.

Something To Be Thankful For Every Day

Three hundred sixty five days a year, we should be grateful for the many Americans who could vote themselves money out of the state and federal treasuries, but choose not to.

These are the kind of patriots we need.

Keep America Red, Nominate Hillary

Talking head Dick Morris blames President Bush for going easy on the Clintons and opening the door for Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic party's front-runner for the 2008 nomination.

Then Bush let Clinton off the hook another time when the former president’s former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was caught smuggling classified documents relating to 9/11 and the war on terror out of the National Archives in his pockets and socks. The Bush Justice Department accepted a plea deal with Berger which did not require him to say what documents he had taken and why he had swiped them. As a result, we never knew what aspect of the Clinton record on terrorism Berger was so anxious to cover up.

I'm not a big Hillary fan, but I'm also not afraid of her. Her nomination would probably be the best thing to ever happen to the right-of-center blogosphere, which could use the help.

I think Hillary loses to whoever the Republican nominee is.

Kentucky Blogger Informs On Steve Henry

Louisville's Jacob Payne states on his blog that he turned over incriminating evidence against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Henry.

Is Damon Thayer Turning Into John McCain?

Sorry, but I can't sit here writing on a blog and have anything but disdain for more regulation of political speech. If a candidate can demonstrate claims are false, he or she can get media outlets to pull an ad. But in any case, what is more regulation really going to accomplish here? Straw man contributions got a lot of attention in the last election, but only because they were done so sloppily. In the next election, cheaters will just avoid running contributions through college students and hairdressers.

Senator Thayer says he is going to file the bill, but it isn't in yet. He should drop it.

Beshear's Chance For Change

Governor Ernie Fletcher gets thumped again by the Louisville Courier Journal this morning. But as usual, the CJ can't separate its fiction from fact.

Four years from now, Republicans are going to claim that they left Democrat Steve Beshear with a state government in sound fiscal shape.

Not true. And Mr. Beshear should say so, up front. He should make absolutely clear, without partisan carping or personal criticism, exactly what shape his predecessor left government finances in.

Clinging militantly to anti-tax dogma, Gov. Fletcher managed to create a mess, which Mr. Beshear will have to clean up.

Four years from now, Republicans are going to be as likely to bring up Ernie Fletcher's fiscal policies as Beshear will be on December 11 to devote his entire inaugural address to returning to the good old days of Paul Patton.

And this may be an opportune moment to remind Governor-elect Beshear of his October 26 promise to repeal Fletcher's LLET tax and to not raise any others.

Speaking Of The 2008 General Assembly

I will be on the Leland Conway show in Lexington this morning (630 WLAP) talking about bills coming up in Frankfort starting January 8.

Do We Really Need This?

The Lexington Herald Leader is sitting on evidence incoming Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Jonathan Miller illegally pre-selected someone named Michael Bates to a position in the Treasurer's office and arranged special pay raises for his Chief Of Staff Brooke Parker.

A Holiday Blogger Oddity

I'm off for a while to spend some time with family, but wanted to check the site. Part of that routine is checking to see where search engine traffic is coming from.

It isn't always directly related to Kentucky politics.

Last night someone in Portland, Oregon googled "whips that make marks" and wound up on Kentucky Progress looking at an article about Rep. Stan Lee getting elected to House leadership.

Didn't stay on the site long...

Eat Like A Conservative At 40

The Wall Street Journal's Health blog says pig out on brain food this Thanksgiving! (Probably not bad diet tips for you twenty year-old liberals, either.)

Governor Beshear, Pick 1,512 Connected Friends Who Don't Need State Jobs And Don't Hire Them

If Steve Beshear is serious about operating state government employment policy within the law, he should read this.

Should We Read His Lips?

A news story from a CNBC reporter's discussion with a Treasury official suggests the Bush administration is considering lowering corporate taxes and replacing the "lost" revenue by instituting a Value Added Tax.

This is not a good thing.

If we are going to lower taxes -- and we should -- we really don't need to be creating any new ones to make up the difference. Other than as another way to manipulate corporations with the tax code, what good would that do?

MitchBlog To Bloggers: Read It And Weep

Senator Mitch McConnell's campaign blog takes issue with critics who say he is running away from the Republican party.

Picking Your Candidate

The Republican Party of Kentucky(RPK) sent out a press release this morning announcing three upcoming fundraisers for presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. The events will be in Northern Kentucky, Louisville, and Lexington on December 5.

The Lexington event will be a joint fundraiser for Giuliani and RPK.