Where will Beshear put David Boswell?

The latest SurveyUSA poll shows Kentucky's 2nd Congressional district isn't buying the "spread the wealth around" class warfare of Senators Barack Obama and David Boswell.

The latest poll has Sen. Brett Guthrie up by nine points. Boswell is losing despite -- or perhaps because of -- campaign donations from bailout goats Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Post-election scrambling in his district looking for a special election replacement for Sen. Guthrie will be nothing compared to the scrambling in Frankfort to give David Boswell a job so he can take advantage of the sweet pension deal lawmakers worked out for themselves in 2005.

Boswell should have to promise that he will not accept a state job until the excessive pension boost in HB 299 from 2005 is repealed.

Feeding at both ends of the trough

Senate Minority Whip Joey Pendleton wasn't expecting much of a race from his Republican opponent Tom Jones, but an emerging pay scandal related to Sen. Pendleton's job at Murray State University could cause him some problems.

Pendleton's contract at MSU specifies that he is not to be paid on days when he is actually working in Frankfort for the legislature.

According to a statement from the Republican Party of Kentucky, Pendleton "appears to have cheated MSU out of $69,784.00."

RPK Chairman Steve Robertson said Pendleton should "reimburse this money to Murray State University and I hope Attorney General Conway will put aside partisan politics and appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate this matter immediately. The taxpayers deserve accountability."

Massachusetts a small-government leader?

A ballot initiative in Massachusetts to repeal the state's income tax is being vigorously ignored by the national media, but recent polls suggest it actually could pass.

Unlike a possible Kentucky bill to replace the income tax, the Massachusetts plan would simply require that state to spend $12 billion less each year than its current $47 billion annual budget allows.

Voters decide on November 4, but the big-government groups are pouring millions of dollars into maintaining the status quo. Even if the effort falls short of passage, its apparent strength in the land of Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry may inspire others.

State's top lawyer stays mum on net seizure

Interesting that Attorney General Jack Conway has stayed out of Gov. Steve Beshear's effort to seize internet domain names of private companies.

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled this afternoon that Beshear's goofy move is okay with him.

Through his spokeswoman, Conway again refused to get involved.

That's a whole lot of "if" there, Mr. Speaker

Who is ready to join me in calling b.s. on House Speaker Jody Richards' victory lap in the 2008 Special Session on pension reform? If you listen to the floor speech below, think of Barney Frank talking about how everything was fine with Fannie Mae.

Debate wrap-up

Redistribution of wealth won the debate.

Barack Obama said "elf," not "wealth"

When Sen. Barack Obama was telling that plumber in the ABC News video going around that he wanted to take money from him and give it to other people so they can succeed too, some interpreted his statement as evidence of his Marxist redistribution philosophy.

The Obama campaign said that just isn't so. What he said was not "spread the wealth around." In fact, what he said was "spread the elf around."

Like this:

Some racist, right-wing hate groups have taken his words out of context. Please click the image below for a full 5:47 video of Barack and the plumber. At the 4:40 mark you will see the camera cut to an actual elf who says he has to use the bathroom:

Is this why Beshear is taking others' internet stuff?

Judge Thomas Wingate's office just called and said his decision on the Beshear seizure of internet domains fiasco will be delayed until tomorrow morning because of a computer glitch.

Does Gov. Beshear need to seize a Mac desktop computer for the Franklin County Circuit Court?

Jail plaintiffs object to attorneys' settlement

Judge Jennifer Coffman this morning ordered plaintiffs attorneys in a class-action lawsuit against the city of Lexington to answer by Thursday objections to a controversial settlement by several jail workers who are part of the class action.

According to court documents, though, it appears none of the jail employees filed the proper paperwork to object specifically to the amount of the attorney's fees they are going to have to pay to the lawyers.

A tale of two tellers

Kentucky's two big newspapers sat out another key education meeting again yesterday. If they are even going to pretend to cover public policy, the Courier Journal and Herald Leader should at least cover the single largest item in the state budget.

When Education Commissioner Jon Draud's Assessment and Accountability Task Force met yesterday, two people were there to cover it. What's amazing is how different their reports were. First there is EKU professor Richard Day:

"If a vote had been taken today it is unclear whether Commissioner Draud's Assessment and Accountability panel would keep writing portfolios in the CATS assessment."

Then consider the report from Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes:

"Until yesterday, the information provided to the public consistently indicated that findings from this task force would be collected in a report to be provided to the legislature. Well, forget that."

"Now – as announced yesterday at meeting five of the task force – the committee’s findings are going to have to be approved by the State Board of Education. Furthermore, instead of an independent and uncensored report, the task force’s findings will simply be buried in the Kentucky Board of Education’s 2009 legislative request."

While it is no surprise that this task force was set up to provide cover for doing nothing to improve education in Kentucky and provide back-up for the traditional screaming for more money, it is a bit of a shock to see the cover-up performed so publicly. Good thing Dick Innes was there to witness and report on it.

Lawsuit started against Northup opponent lives on

Third parties in Kentucky could get a boost if a lawsuit headed for federal court is successful.

Hint: whether Republican-turned-Libertarian Ed Martin has his votes counted in the November election is an interesting sideshow, but isn't the main issue. Stay tuned...

"Don't know much modern history"

You don't have to wonder why hardly anyone takes Congressional candidate Heather Ryan seriously when you see stuff like this:

Shades of Cynthia McKinney.

Will Beshear spark an Indian attack?

I wonder what Gov. Steve Beshear's approval rating will be if it leads to Kentucky being attacked by Indians.

Beshear's illegal internet domain seizure has irked the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.
"This is a perfect example of someone who knows nothing about the effects of their actions," said Grand Chief Delisle, "It's not the first time that a government has tried to prevent us from conducting business and it won't be the last. But, rest assured, we will always protect our jurisdiction and the integrity of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission."
Maybe it would help if we could get Beshear to apologize for calling them leeches and child molesters.

A leader for a change

Here is an interesting presidential campaign ad ... from 1976:

Obama Voodoo

Sen. Barack Obama's 90 day foreclosure moratorium proposal today is bad enough. His $3000 tax credit for each new job created is a non-starter of a scheme that aspires to be counterproductive.

But his plan to give federal loans to states and cities (whose pre-existing spending problems are much greater issues than any temporary decline in tax revenues) is really bad. Besides, Kentucky has already tried that. This is not a time for more smoke and mirrors.

Hillary Clinton didn't have anything to do with this

They will have a tough time blaming this on any Republicans. Absentee voters in Albany, New York were mailed ballots last week with the Democratic nominee for President listed as "Barack Osama."

Maybe they can pin it on their blind Governor.

Appearance of impropriety in Fayette jail case

Intense speculation this weekend has Fayette jail employee plaintiffs in the wage and hour class action lawsuit against the city protesting the settlement agreement their attorneys worked out for them under suspicious circumstances.

Think low rent Fen-Phen scandal. That would be the class action lawsuit in which the plaintiffs attorneys ripped off their clients, gorging themselves on the settlement.

This case is different in the number of political connections between the low settlement for the hundreds of present and former employees who were cheated by the city ($530,463 in cash, $345,000 in paid leave time), the attorneys fees paid to lawyers at Miller, Griffin & Marks ($1,144,537), and Mayor Jim Newberry.

Judge Jennifer Coffman ordered the plaintiffs' attorneys at Miller, Griffin & Marks to get testimony from three neutral-party attorneys that the settlement amount was appropriate. Two of the three contributed to Mayor Newberry's most recent campaign. All agreed the settlement amount was not improper.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 14 in which individual plaintiffs may express concerns about the settlement agreement. Dissatisfaction among current and former jail employees and the appearance that plaintiffs' attorneys may have short-changed the plaintiffs in deference to Mayor Newberry is further complicated by a four decades-old story from Memorial Coliseum:

The Wes Coffman in the story is not only the same Dr. Wes Coffman who donated $1075 to Mayor Jim Newberry's last election campaign, he is also the husband of Judge Jennifer (Burcham) Coffman, who is also the judge in the class action lawsuit.

Doesn't look good for the plaintiffs in this one:

When the going gets tough...

... tough Americans go to work.

In honor of the can-do, American spirit that will get us through any and all of the struggle that lies ahead, The Bluegrass Institute has rented out The Kentucky Theater in Lexington on the evening of October 29th for a special showing of the inspirational movie "Call of the Entrepreneur."

And you're invited.

For details, you may join "The Call of the Entrepreneur" group on Facebook. If you can't do that, call me at the phone number at the top of this page.

Get ready for our "Inflation Holocaust"

Any bail out supporters want to refute this?

Now is not a good time to be in debt, which has always been a good thing to avoid. But now that our politicians have made all the wrong moves to deepen our crisis of confidence, it is about to be a much worse time to be in debt.

Nevertheless, the fundamentals of the economy have been strong and they remain so. No one ever repealed the business cycle. If we can just get the politicians to back off, the power of the American economy will continue to make its rich and the poor richer. While nincompoops like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are stuck on blaming the Bush tax cuts and while nincompoops like George Bush and John McCain are promising to restore stability, the rest of us are working to keep the engine of the American economy roaring so efficiently that we can even afford to keep their sorry rear ends in their nice, warm seats.

We won't get it, but what we really need is some good old laissez faire capitalism around here.

Is federal government ready for economics lesson?

Can't imagine why the mainstream media wouldn't be interested in picking up a national story about trillions of taxpayer dollars being flushed down the toilet by one out-of-control federal bureaucracy, can you?

This one even has a strong local connection.

Now is the perfect time to reconsider the economic policies wrought by our federal government in the name of eliminating poverty, leveling the playing field, and labeling services provided by individuals as "rights" to be mandated by the government.