Ten minutes to understanding the meltdown

All is well in Community Organizer Nation

One little-noted detail about the current "financial meltdown" is that the rabble-rousing continues unabated without any community organizers actually having to worry about missing a meal.

Regardless of any of his other sins, Phil Gramm was still right when he said we have become a nation of whiners. How else would you describe a people who have been bellyaching about a recession through eight years of economic growth and now are lobbying for sidewalk expansions to fit the coming soup lines in the Great Depression of 2008?

Joe Klein's debate postmortem for Time includes this: "McCain seemed more prudent and thoughtful than he has since he uttered the most important line of the campaign so far, "the fundamentals of the economy are good.""

The fact is that the fundamentals of the economy are good. Refutations of this hard fact always quickly devolve into bogus statistics about those without health insurance, utter nonsense about the poor getting poorer while the rich get richer, or the latest craze, blaming everyone's problems on laissez-faire capitalism.

We will know the economic fundamentals of the United States are no longer good when community organizers can't find work as community organizers. They certainly have to have an appreciation of these good economic fundamentals on the weekends, when they enjoy the comfort of the homes and the company of their families, as they rest up from a busy week of complaining about how horrible America is.

The mortgage mess is the exact opposite of a failure of the market. Making bad loans and putting them on the books as good loans is a distortion that had to be worked out eventually. This bill (notice the co-sponsors) would have helped a lot, but too few people were listening way back then.

A snag in the Jim Newberry set-up

Judge Jennifer Coffman issued an eight page order yesterday in the Fayette jail employees' class action lawsuit against the city of Lexington. It appears she has some questions about the questionable deal attorneys for both sides worked out.

"The critical question of concern to the Court is not whether the
defendant should settle; rather, in its role of protecting the
interests of the plaintiff-employees, the Court is concerned with
whether it is legitimately in the best interests of the plaintiffs to
settle."

And this:

"The likelihood of fraud or collusion behind the settlement."

In other words, hold on to your hats, Lexington taxpayers. You are going to need them after Mayor Jim Newberry and his lawyer friends get finished cleaning out your wallets.

A preliminary settlement hearing is scheduled for 1pm on September 30 at the Federal Courthouse in Lexington.

"That's not political, it's nooze, baby!"

Since when is it newsworthy that Rep. Ben Chandler is endorsing a fellow Democrat running for Congress?

And don't tell me it is because Chandler is a "conservative" Dem and that the Blue Dog label means something.

Remember this? How about this?

Grover Norquist to the rescue

Americans for Tax Reform is making plans to come to Frankfort to publicly express opposition to Gov. Steve Beshear's internet meddling.

Beshear gets national attention

In a week of disasters in Washington D.C., Gov. Steve Beshear brought some unwanted attention home to Kentucky.

Beshear's plan to seize internet gambling websites has raised the ire of Americans for Tax Reform.

"A ruling issued last week in Kentucky by the Franklin County Circuit Court orders the seizure of over 140 internet gaming websites. The lawsuit, supported by Gov. Beshear, was filed by Justice and Public Safety Cabinet J. Michael Brown. A forfeiture hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 26."
"“This ruling, aside from being unconstitutional, represents an egregious example of government intrusion on free enterprise. The court’s decision unjustifiably hampers the freedom of Kentuckians,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “This Orwellian attempt by Gov. Beshear to censor the internet sets a dangerous precedent that should deeply concern all Kentuckians, not just the thousands of law abiding adults in Kentucky that enjoy poker.”"

Nice job, Governor.

Why re-electing Mitch McConnell matters

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't need any more power.

Jody Richards' golden butt-kicking

House Speaker Jody Richards is trying to get Education Commissioner Jon Draud's job so he can bow out "gracefully" rather than face a challenge from Rep. Greg Stumbo for the Speaker's chair.

This would complete a circle, with both men taking full advantage of Kentucky's rigged public employee pension system for politicians.

Al Gore: "take down" those coal plants

Al Gore has gone off the deep end again, calling for "civil disobedience" and urging young people to "take down" coal plants.

This comes right on the heels of VP candidate Joe Biden saying basically the same thing.

Obama is the real Herbert Hoover

Thanks to the Club for Growth for passing along this video of an interview that lines up both sides of the bailout debate pretty well. About halfway through, the hapless Sen. Chuck Schumer says Sen. Jim Demint sounds like "Herbert Hoover in 1929." If the interviewer knew her history she would have stopped him on that. Hoover was a big-government Republican who rammed through tariffs that choked off trade and massive tax increases that killed growth.

Sounds a lot like our guy Barry.

Kentucky's financial bailout plan emerges

moar funny pictures

Time to speak up

Sen. Mitch McConnell, you may remember, was for the amnesty bill before he heard from us. Now that he is basically on the same side of the welfare-for-pinstripes scheme as Rep. Barney Frank, he should hear from us again.

You'll either love this or hate it

An enterprising new Kentucky website is selling Sarah Palin bumper stickers for the best price available anywhere.

"Now we want to show our support for her and make a lot of liberals mad while we drive to work. We urge you to show your support for Gov Palin by putting the Palin crosshairs on your vehicle."

Check it out here.

Grayson rips Obama/Biden coal plan

Secretary of State Trey Grayson called on Kentucky Democrats Gov. Steve Beshear, Bruce Lunsford, and Sen. David Boswell to take sides for or against the coal industry.

Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden has chosen his side. He is against it.

Grayson said:

"Recently, the Obama-Biden ticket showed its true colors as it relates to the future of coal in our country. Sen. Biden said at a campaign rally in Ohio that in an Obama-Biden administration there would apparently be 'no coal plants here in America.' This bait and switch is similar to Senator Obama's support of clean coal legislation that Senator Bunning and he co-sponsored in the Senate. Obama eventually voted against the legislation."

"Governor Beshear, Bruce Lunsford, and State Senator David Boswell, who either represent coal producing counties or are running to do so, should renouce these reckless and uninformed beliefs of the Obama-Biden ticket, particularly on the eve of Senator Biden's visit to Kentucky. During these difficult economic times, we should be doing more to spur Kentucky's economy, not trying to extinguish it."

Homework help for Ron Bishop

Authorities are looking into reports that Fayette County Detention Center Director Ron Bishop is waiting for someone named Libby Mills to finish writing his response to a devastating but unreleased management review performed by city auditors.

Lexington taxpayers are still paying for Bishop to drive a city car home to Louisville every day.

Mayor Jim Newberry had no comment.

Yeah, there is another side to this argument

The Lexington Herald Leader has a column this morning about Congressional earmarks in which they couldn't find anyone who is against the redistributive nature of pulling so much money of private hands that politicians get to build their political careers on pulling some of back and deciding who gets it.

Bruce Lunsford had a chance to really score points on Sen. Mitch McConnell, but he punted:

"Lunsford couldn't cite a McConnell-secured earmark for Kentucky with which to quibble."

Republicans give fiscal conservatives precious little to support on this front but the "we can pour out the slop better than they can" approach is certainly not a winner.

The Club for Growth of Kentucky has a very interesting take on this. If tax revenues are high enough to fund bovine flatulence studies and the mating habits of hummingbirds, think how much more productive that money would be in what is left of our private sector.

Give taxpayers a seat at the table

Congress battling over the shape of the $700 billion bailout means some want to add in executive pay restrictions and large-scale mortgage renegotiations for troubled homeowners.

While my opposition to limiting CEO pay is melting as the promise of more federal taxpayer bailouts makes more CEOs de facto government employees, I don't see much sense in propping up the last vestiges of the housing bubble by continuing to compensate those who can't afford their mortgages.

If anyone in Washington D.C. is interested in treating taxpayers as more than ATMs, they would repeal automatic deduction of payroll taxes. Let's go back to having Americans make their own tax payments. Congress should make this a part of the bailout bill.

Wow, that was quick!

More than a month ago, you read here that the Fayette County Detention Center had fired the four indicted and suspended officers in the inmate abuse scandal. There were more details provided here last week.

The Lexington Herald Leader is on the case today, talking to the union president I got the same information from in mid-August.

What's odd is that the four indicted former officers appealing to get their jobs back even merits a news story now. All this amounts to is the defendants trying to keep themselves busy before their November 12 pre-trial conference by acting like they aren't going to prison.

What the Herald Leader should be reporting on is why Cpl. John Vest, who the city has been trying to malign for two years, still has his badge, ID card, uniforms, and keys to the jail but isn't allowed back to work. His slander and civil rights violation lawsuit is getting stronger every day.

Another issue Mayor Jim Newberry ignores

Increased federal enforcement of immigration laws will have an impact on Lexington and other areas of Kentucky sooner or later. Given security concerns about the World Equestrian Games in 2010, it might be sooner.

And it could get ugly.

Tears -- and sand -- in their ears

Just wondering if the Fannie Mae debacle might have some of the "There is no crisis in Social Security" crowd rethinking their not-so-long-ago positions.

Perhaps I'm not the only one:

"But the Fannie fiasco matters for a less-obvious reason. There are other accidents waiting to happen in the social entitlements whose costs also will jeopardize U.S. long-term growth. Social Security and Fannie aren't often spoken of in the same breath – as programs go, we associate Social Security with the swinging-and-60-plus crowd, not the Swinging '60s."

"What Social Security and Fannie have in common is that both have lived important segments of their lives off-budget. Tax increases are likely to pay for Fannie and Freddie. These increases will remind voters that being off-budget doesn't mean a program won't eventually penalize the taxpayer. Burned by Fannie, voters may get ready for entitlement reform."

It's past time to stop the whining against Social Security reform and get on with it.