Missing another golden opportunity

Years of state and local government overspending will have no reason to correct itself if the feds pass their new bailout package. From the Wall Street Journal:

"House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), said he wants upcoming fiscal stimulus legislation to funnel aid to states and localities. He said he hopes that package can be approved shortly after the election."
""Our hope is that the leadership of both parties will be able to confer and come back after the election, and see what we can do to provide assistance to our local and state governments, as we have been able to do for our banking and finance industry," Rep. Rangel said at the outset of a committee hearing Wednesday on stimulus discussions."

"U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel said he wants upcoming fiscal stimulus legislation to funnel aid to states and localities."
"State governors and local officials testifying at the hearing put forward to lawmakers a wish list worth tens of billions to help shore up their finances. Their argument: we didn't create the financial mess, and we need Washington's help to get out of it."

Kentucky is never going to shake off its poor-state status if we don't learn to lower our dependence on government. This garbage is a big step in the wrong direction. It will certainly gain widespread bipartisan support.

Jim Keller and his good old yellow dog

In a radio ad for Fayette District Judge Julie Goodman, former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Jim Keller tells listeners to vote for the Beshear appointee to keep her seat.

That reminded me of a 2006 post quoting Keller, who was then running for the State Senate, on the stump telling listeners to vote for Supreme Court Justice Mary Noble because "she is a yellow dog Democrat!"

Also worth noting in a year most Kentuckians will vote to not turn over the federal government to Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, that 2006 Congressional candidate Tom Barlow said:

"But the funniest harangue came from congressional candidate Tom Barlow, who said: "We are delivering lower gasoline prices and when we take office in January we are going to bring peace to the Middle East peacefully, we are going to have affordable medical care and high paying jobs!""

That hasn't exactly worked out, has it?

Pandering differently; same type of results

So it looks like we are going to shift from a focus on parents dropping their own children off health insurance policies in favor of putting them on government programs to employers shutting down because their competition was deemed "too big to fail" or "too important not to subsidize" by the government.

Seems that our best hope may be city and state governments bankrupting themselves and having to cut back on spending and nannying just so people will see that small government can work. Out of control public employee pensions just might do the trick in some places. And then there is Birmingham, Alabama which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of the way it tried to finance its sewers.

Another victim for Ron Bishop

A corrections officer at the Fayette County Detention Center has distributed an email at the facility that will earn him the wrath of the secretive thugs running the place. From the email:

"Safety is the major concern. In the event that you are being assaulted by an inmate and I am on break, I will not be allowed to assist you, unless I am given approval by a commander. Understand that if I stop an assault or an attempt to take your life, without direct permission from a commander, I will be progressively disciplined. Keep in mind that we have been trained with a USELESS self-defense method and your hands are tied. PPCT does not protect you from multiple attackers, attackers armed with bladed weapons, or any of the mixed-martial arts that are wildly popular today. So while you wait for designated "responding rovers" and a few command staff, you will be forced to use an incompetent self-defense method. Regardless of the consequences, I will respond to all Signal 7s. DO NOT let our lives be left to the hands of ignorant operational orders."

"By NO means am I asking that we be irrational, irresponsible, or unprofessional. I am asking that we all take the proper steps to make the changes that we need. Whether you have faith in the CWA or not, I suggest that we file our grievances and use them until the option is exhausted. If the union is ineffective then we will act as corrections officers on our own behalf. If the problem persists we will go take it up the chain to LFUCG and stay persistent until an agreement can be made. Please, for the sake of making this a safe and enjoyable work environment, don't just turn a blind eye to the problem and hope that it passes, because it won't."

Rather than address the issues brought up by the officer who wrote this, Director Ron Bishop and friends will likely just fire him. And Mayor Jim Newberry will have no comment.

Kentucky teacher quote of the day

A teacher friend said she received a political phone call at home asking her who she was going to vote for in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race. After answering that she was undecided, the caller told her the Kentucky Education Association supports Bruce Lunsford.

"Well," the teacher replied, "then I'm voting for Mitch McConnell!" And she hung up the phone.

State investment gurus won't show the money

I've been waiting for a week to get information about the toxic mortgage-backed securities held by the $17 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS).

I specifically asked for the cost-basis of the mortgage-backed securities they hold and their current market value. This morning, after I asked again, I was told that the information is not available.

Poor investment returns combined with fiscal mismanagement by the General Assembly for more than 25 years have combined to create a $28 billion actuarial deficit in the state public employee benefits accounts.

Kentucky Club rocks

If you aren't reading the Kentucky Club for Growth web site, you should be. On Monday, Andy Hightower hit the high notes on three different races:

McConnell vs. Lunsford

Flood vs. Ward (Kathy Stein's old seat)

Moore vs. Weaver (House 26)

And if you want to look up details on any of the bills Andy mentions, go to Kentucky Votes.

"Call in sick for Obama?"

The Barack Obama campaign has a new commercial out encouraging their supporters with jobs to call in sick.

Now that's an economic plan!

"What's your socialism exit strategy?"

Sen. John McCain said today in Ohio that "the government will get out of the banking business fast."

How fast, John?

Same question for Sen. Barack Obama. Now that both of you have voted us into the quagmire of a socialistic banking system, exactly when are you going to get us out?

No more bailouts!

The National Taxpayers Union has an online petition to generate support for the idea that we don't need government bailouts when the free market can clean things up. Of course, we are going to have to get past the silly notion some have that free markets caused our current problems.

The overwhelming sense that the nation has given up this battle to the wealth redistributors can't lessen the resolve to set things right.

Interesting to see the difference between the people on the federal level who are just cranking up the printing press to get through the moment and what may be happening in Frankfort. In Kentucky we can print up bonds and create a similar effect, but reality may be closing in on that strategy.

Attack of Joe the Storm Trooper

At a Lexington political event Saturday, a local citizen was handing out brochures expressing opposition to the federal banking bailout when he was approached by two Lexington police officers. The entire event was caught on tape by a camera the young Republican was carrying. The officers asked him if he had any weapons, frisked him and, after finding nothing, one of the officers proceeded to rant about "jacking around" and then threatened to "take your head off your shoulders."

The audio makes clear that the young citizen did nothing to provoke the outburst and terroristic threat from the police officer.

Unfortunately, a small group of Mitch McConnell supporters then picked right up with the intimidation where the rogue police officer left off. Not good.


UPDATE: An anti-McConnell version of the video is also up on YouTube.

A little help?

Can anyone tell me who this is?

Thus spake Obamamessiah

A major key to Sen. Barack Obama's electoral success so far has been a remarkable ability to state something that is completely untrue -- illogical, even -- and to portray his statement as some kind of prophesy.

Take, for example, Social Security. This unsustainable program provides negative returns for taxpayers. As our years of drawing surpluses into the Social Security Trust Fund draw to a close, we have nothing to show for them. We are headed unavoidably to the time that taxpayers who know they will never see any of their money back will have to pay higher taxes to support the older generations. Everyone knows this to be true.

One way out is to allow people to choose personal accounts. And yes, that will certainly damage further the unsustainable Social Security. But the program is already headed toward utter ruination. At some point we are going to have to take a hit to get off our present course toward disaster. Taking that hit will be cheaper now that it will be in five years. It would have been cheaper still three years ago.

There is an odd "spreading the wealth" book going around called "Obamanomics: How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics."

On Social Security it says:

"If we allow people to invest in riskier assets in the stock market, we will just have more losers who end up gambling with their retirment money and end up with nothing at retirement and under Bush's plan, with no one to care for them. This is an example of Obama's greatest strength, the wisdom to see the underlying fundamental causes of our problems, so that we might structure real solutions that will be effective."

In essence, what Obama is doing is turning Social Security into Fannie Mae in reverse. In the mortgage meltdown, the government made extremely risky investments look risk-free. Why would you hesitate to loan money to ACORN voters if you knew you could take large profits on the front end and make a fortune before the music stopped? The more corrupt players gobbled up their competitors and then became "too big to fail." Social Security is now "too big to fail." Opponents of changing Social Security depend on convincing people that any deviation from the current money-losing plan involves catastrophic risk. I think we have had enough mispricing of risk in the last decade to last us for a long time. We need to get Social Security right. Allowing people to enhance their Social Security accounts by contributing less into the system and placing the difference in a personal account replaces a sure loser -- the current system -- with one in which better long-term returns would be so easy as to be a certainty for almost everyone.

The rhetoric about "losing it all" in the stock market has no place in a civilized discussion because it is so ridiculous. In fact, if you like FDR, you may be interested in a blue ribbon commission he put together back in 1934. It essentially unlocked the secret to investing in the stock market: buy a diversified collection of quality investments, the commission said, hold them for the long-term, and re-invest regularly. Ask Warren Buffet how well that approach worked for him.

Besides, if you don't like stocks, buy corporate bonds. A high quality corporate bond paying 8% will double your money in nine years. You could pour money into Social Security for a century and not do that.

The key, again, is understanding the risks associated with our actions. Voters who elevate a President Barack Obama to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to run the national government are showing an inability to learn lessons even from recent history.

Trey Grayson speaks out against abortion

Heading down to the University of Kentucky Student Center this afternoon to see Secretary of State Trey Grayson talk to students about his opposition to abortion.

UPDATE: Grayson noted that Barack Obama didn't mention abortion in his Democratic Party convention speech and suggested that was because Obama knows his position is way out the mainstream. He said Obama would work to codify Roe v. Wade, possibly as his first act as President. Grayson also criticized Obama's opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. He said that position exemplifies how extreme Obama is on the subject.

"That's a position that would even make John Kerry and Al Gore uncomfortable," Grayson said.

Spreading it around in Argentina

Who could have imagined even three months ago that the Wall Street Journal could write a brief story like the one below about Argentina, draw parallels to the United States, and no one would bat an eye? (click the image below to read it)

I can't hear you!

Ho hum.

Another day, another Kentucky newspaper backing up what the Bluegrass Institute has been saying for years about public education.

If you know someone who is newly-inspired to improve public schools in Kentucky, show him/her this.

UPDATE: Apparently, it gets even better as the feds are paying attention too.

Taking care of his own

Slow down, fellas: Obama case not finished

Some legal beagle has put out a blog post overnight sure to shock the world, or at least that part that isn't much into details.

Barack Obama has NOT yet been found to be ineligible to run for president.

The blog post claims -- and even offers court document evidence -- that a judge found against Obama in the first case to have him removed from the ballot for faking his U.S. birth certificate, Berg vs. Obama.

What the legal beagle missed is that the order is not signed. It is merely a proposed order filed by Philip Berg. If Judge Barclay Surrick signs it, then Obama is in trouble.

But we are not there yet. Here, by the way, is the incorrect blog post:

Where the guilty go free

No official information is available tonight about the Fayette jail officer Shannon Raglin was caught shaking down inmates for cash almost exactly a year ago.

The case against him has been dropped and he has moved out of the state. Amazing how local authorities don't seem to be able to tie up loose ends at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Ain't too proud to beg

Can't help thinking this morning that if we were going to start a country or a state from scratch we probably wouldn't base it on an unsustainable system of unemployment benefits, retirement benefits, health benefits, cash stimulus payments, corporate welfare, and bank bailouts.

Nor would we write laws to give exorbitant powers to nameless, faceless, unelected, or possibly even nonexistent bureaucrats.

Rep. Mary Lou Marzian has filed a bill giving serious control of private business practices to the Executive Director of Kentucky's Office of Workplace Standards. After several phone calls this morning, I still can't find out who holds that office.