KRS to me: go screw yourself

The expensive investment gurus at Kentucky Retirement Systems -- the people whose investment mistakes are now the taxpayers' problem -- are used to getting kid glove treatment in the media. That all changed this weekend when the Courier Journal's Stephenie Steitzer gave them a much-deserved butt kicking, that I followed up on here.

The evident incompetence brought up one simple question: how did these people we are trusting with billions of our dollars do in the recent mortgage-backed securities meltdown?

So I asked.

Rather than provide any kind of insight into what they have been doing with themselves -- and our money -- over the last year and a half, though, I got this waste-of-time response (click the image below to read):


3:39 pm UPDATE: Got another email from KRS stating that they would provide me with information but that a report may have to be generated. I'd be very surprised and disappointed if, with all the hulabaloo, no one has stopped to see just how bad our mortgage losses are.

Get Skippy off our money, now

Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Jonathan "Skippy" Miller's disastrous foray into higher education finance is rolling Kentucky into another river of red ink.

The 2008 actuarial report you have only read about here is out today and the news is as bad as predicted by your humble correspondent years ago.

Bluegrass Institute readers already knew about the new $35.7 actuarial deficit taxpayers will have to make up for Skippy's ponzi scheme. What's really remarkable, though, is how much worse the news is going to get for us.

From the report are future projected losses for this ridiculous money-loser:

Readers will note that the program runs out of money in 2019, leaving taxpayers with an $81 million bill.

Expect Gov. Beshear and Skippy to start pushing for re-opening KAPT to new contract sales very, very soon. As with all ponzi schemes, bringing in more suckers and kicking the losses down the road is the big-government way to deal with such problems. Sort of like what we did with Social Security, Medicare, and our state public employee benefits system.

Serious gun grabber alert

The Kentucky FOP Lodge 4 endorsements included mostly Democratic candidates, as usual. What's interesting is that while they endorsed Kathy Stein for the 13th Senate district, they went against the Democrat running to replace her in the House, Kelly Flood. Turns out Flood is as far to the left on guns as anyone I've seen running for office in Kentucky.

The FOP endorsed Kimberly Ward in the 75th House district. Flood's positions on guns include licensing citizens who wish to carry handguns and prohibiting citizens from carrying concealed weapons. Not even Kathy Stein, who wants to put serial numbers on individual bullets, holds such extreme positions.

Obviously, Flood's risk to public safety is too much for the FOP to stomach.

What part of bubble didn't they understand?

I'm not expecting Kentucky Retirement Systems to answer my questions any time soon about how much money they have in toxic mortgage securities, but data from their 2007 annual report suggests they were busy buying them at exactly the wrong time.

The chart below shows that the KRS held $845 million in mortgage securities on June 30, 2006 and that by June 30, 2007 that number had nearly doubled to $1.47 billion.

Big Ed bloggers prove wrong point, again

Education writer Diane Ravitch (via Kentucky education blogger Richard Day) takes another in an endless string of shots at free market innovations in education by jumping into the deep end for a financial markets analogy.

It doesn't work.

"I wonder if its advocates in the education arena will stop and reconsider whether they are importing free-market chaos and free-market punishments into the lives of children?"

Trying to make the point that introducing competition into the taxpayer funded education is somehow the same as government's hands-off approach to financial markets (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, ACORN, CRA mandates, Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Barack Obama, etc.) supports the opposite conclusion from the one they intend. And it just makes them look silly.

Free markets didn't fail in the financial markets fiasco. They were hardly even consulted. Had they been, they would have advised against pouring trillions of taxpayer dollars into artificial demand for housing. Sort of like how we keep pouring trillions of dollars into unaccountable, monopolistic government schools.

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell just endorsed Obama on Meet The Press.

"I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court," Powell said.

No story here.

First day in office

If you were elected president, what would you do on your first day in office? While reasonable people can certainly disagree on what has to happen January 20, 2009, Sen. Barack Obama's priorities are strangely focused on aborting babies:

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.