Where have we heard this before?

The Lexington Herald Leader and the Louisville Courier Journal were too busy this weekend to print it, but bond rating agency Fitch had this to say about Kentucky:

"The Negative Outlook reflects plans to continue to deplete fund balances and virtually drain the budget reserve trust in the current biennium. Further, Fitch remains concerned about the weakened pension funding levels and the commonwealth's rising debt position as an additional $1.65 billion in debt has been authorized for the biennium."

Wouldn't want Gov. Steve "Sixty percent approval rating" Beshear to face any tough questions about any of this, would we?

Why newspapers are dropping like flies

Some wuss at the Bowling Green Daily News has his talking points down pat when freedom of speech rolls into his wallet.

But when it starts going the other way and he can't back up his arguments, he does this:

If Barney Frank were a Republican...

No, Congressman Yarmuth, it wasn't "deregulation" or "capitalism" that caused the banking mess. I'm not any happier with the Republicans who jumped in to support "the big fix." Both parties are shooting at the innocent bystander -- free market capitalism -- but when Congressional Democrats were presented with evidence, the went Social Security "there is no crisis" on us.

Don't call KY newspaper bailout a bailout

Funny blog post by Bowling Green Daily News General Manager Mark Van Patten about newspapers and bankers followed by an even funnier discussion in the comments section.

Check it out here.

EVEN Funnier Update: I had to change my log-in on the Bowling Green Daily News website to comment because this champion of free speech was deleting my comments and, ultimately, blocked me from making comments. I just posted this:

It will be interesting to see how long it stays up. Some people's principles sure go out the window fast when their paycheck is on the line.

Having a nice credit crunch?

In the mail today came a $30,000, no fee, 0% APR till 2010 credit card offer from Washington Mutual for my 19 year-old college student son.

"I'm from the government blah, blah..."

An ironically-timed press release from the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions today would be roll-on-the-floor funny if not for the scam perpetuated on us by the Congress utilizing tactics that were identical to those Frankfort is now warning us against.
(Click to read)

Politics at its worst

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the House floor taking credit for killing the first bailout bill and talking about how great the revised version is.

And the increase in federal insurance will just help the FDIC go bankrupt faster.

Pelosi also said the bill would begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people."

Really, Nancy? How, exactly, might it do that?

Rep. Ben Chandler repeated his no vote from Monday, as did Rep. Ed Whitfield and Rep. Geoff Davis. Rep. John Yarmuth flipped to the dark side, joining Rep. Hal Rogers and Rep. Ron Lewis.

Sen. Brett Guthrie, what say you?

Barack Youth

You may have heard of the Obama video with adoring, adorable children singing his praises. If you liked that, you will love this:


(via Caleb Brown)

Oh, and here is a response. Sans kool-aid.

McCain-Palin sleeping through healthcare debate

In his debate, Sen. John McCain didn't answer Sen. Barack Obama's criticism about his health-care and tonight, Gov. Sarah Palin didn't either.

Sure wish they would. This link would help.

Cracking down on Obamacide

Secretary of State Trey Grayson will speak to a student pro-life group on the University of Kentucky campus later this month.

The Barack Obama fans are really going to hate that.

A voice against socialism in America

Food for thought from U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint on the the unrestrained growth of government in America:

"Our own government appears to be leading our country into the pit of socialism. We've seen this government socialize our education system and make our schools among the worst in the world. We've seen this government take over most of our healthcare system making private insurance less and less affordable. We've seen this government socialize our energy resources and bring our nation to its knees by cutting the development of our own oil and natural gas supplies. And now we see this Congress yielding its constitutional obligations to a federal bureaucracy giving it the power to control virtually our entire financial system."

And now might be an appropriate time to remind you that our entitlement disasters dwarf this mortgage/banking mess. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and public employee pensions and healthcare benefits need our attention far more than giving the government more control over the financial system.

The only government solution to these problems is less government.

Bailout advances

The U.S. Senate right now is passing the bailout bill. Bunning voted against it. McConnell voted for it.

Seventy four ayes and twenty five nays.

Now it is back to the House where its fate is still very uncertain.

Hope this helps.

How many bailouts are we going to do?

Whether Congress is going to move closer to free market solutions for the financial mess or not, they have played their cards on socialized medicine. Congratulations, you just bought yourself $4.3 billion worth of a big-government healthcare "solution" for some people in Massachusetts. Enjoy!

Like any government program that measures its success by its increasing budgets, this one will be looking for more suckers like you and me.

(Via Club for Growth)

Wednesday LOL: Jack Conway

These are truly triumphant times for people who don't understand economics at all. While most of the politicians in Washington D.C. are content to let Americans think the raging free market caused bankers to lend money to people who were very unlikely to make good on their mortgages, most of the politicians in Frankfort are thrilled to watch Kentuckians rant and rave about evil oil companies raping consumers with high gas prices.

Enter Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. Courtesy of PageOne, Conway claims to be studiously poring over pricing data as he readies a fresh round of gas price lawsuits after the major price disruptions in the wake of Hurricane Ike. And then he is still on some wild kick about "reviewing" the 1997 merger between Ashland Oil and Marathon Oil.

If Conway knows anything about the Ashland/Marathon merger, he would know that the FTC already fully vetted it in 1998 and again in 2004. He can't seriously think he knows something that everyone else doesn't know.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"

It's ironic that just as Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Jonathan "Skippy" Miller is trying to take credit for posting government expenditures to the internet, the agency that runs the money-losing KAPT program he championed is sitting on that program's actuarial report.

What's wrong, guys? Something you don't want us to see?

Skippy?

Below is a screen shot taken at 10:48 pm Tuesday night on the KAPT web site showing no 2008 actuarial report. It will be interesting to see how fast this gets updated and how bad the news is.

Let there be spending transparency

The Beshear administration will post a website next Monday morning related to the E-Transparency effort. Glad they have finally gotten this far and they deserve credit for making this happen.

The more transparent government activities are, the better the public is served. Nice job, guys. Now do it right.

This isn't helping

You'd think the campaign staff, or the Senate staff, or the party staff, or some random dude running down the street with his hair on fire could come up with something better than this:

"Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said it was time for all lawmakers to "act like grown-ups, if you will, and get this done for all of the people." He predicted a bill would pass this week, although the House, not the Senate, is the focus of the dispute."

Got this from the AP.

Wonder how that little crack will poll...

Picking up steam: no bailouts for junkies

An interesting comment on a Bluegrass Policy Blog post about drug abusers in Kentucky drawing welfare benefits:

"I have worked in law enforcement and you would be AMAZED at the number of drug users who are in line to get their money every month, whose numerous trips to the ER looking for drugs or trips to jail are paid for by you, whose children are supported by the state (who often have numerous special needs because the mother was on drugs while she was pregnant). While they spend time getting high, in jail,or in government funded rehabs the taxpayers are supporting them, their family members/friends are using the food stamps and SSI checks to do what they like. They sell the benefit cards to others to get money to get the drugs. Cut them off, make them accountable and responsible for themselves...stop enabling the abuse of taxpayer funds and government programs."

You can read the whole post here.

Kentucky candidates vote no on bailout

It says something that everyone with an opponent in the Kentucky House delegation voted against the bank bail out.

Chandler, Davis, Whitfield, and Yarmuth voted against. Rogers and Lewis voted for it.

Sen. Brett Guthrie might need to talk about Lewis' yes vote.

George W. Bush, stabilizer-in-chief

No, Mr. President, it isn't for every American.

President Bush is pushing the bank bailout bill this morning. He said "Every member of Congress and every American should keep in mind that a vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage to you and your community."

That isn't exactly true. If you bought a house in the last few years ignoring all the talk about a real estate bubble and now want to sell, this bailout's for you. If you got an adjustable rate mortgage when rates where at a historic low, this bailout's for you. If you underwrote or sold mortgages to people who shouldn't legitimately have gotten a mortgage, this bailout's for you. If you are a politician who wants to take credit for "doing something," especially if you stood in the way of preventing this nonsense back when we tried to fix it, this bailout's for you.

This bailout isn't for the rest of us, Mr. President. If it were, you guys would just do away with the mark-to-market rules and let us get on with our business. A crisis of confidence in a free economy has a great way of working itself out. Kind of like how a big sale at the mall clears the shelves.

No, Mr. President. The vote, the stability, and the bailout aren't for the rest of us. We just get to pay for them.