Republicans and, oh, just all the facts

The Herald Leader and Courier Journal have been wailing for weeks on their news and editorial pages about the successful effort to end CATS testing, so it is no surprise to see them continue that today as Gov. Steve Beshear signed Senate Bill 1 into law.

But it is disappointing to see the many problems with CATS that have been repeatedly and thoroughly documented by the Bluegrass Institute for several years dismissed by reporter Beth Musgrave like this:

No doubt that as the Kentucky mainstream media rolls out continued coverage of this story they will quote heavily education bureaucrats and people like the Prichard Committee who have making up excuses (and worse) for CATS non-stop over the years.

A newspaperman ponders economics

Alan Mutter, former editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, doesn't see the need to go along with Sen. Benjamin Cardin's (D-MD) plan to convert newspapers to non-profit status:

"While it was a nice gesture for the Democrat from Maryland to suggest a Newspaper Revitalization Act to enable non-profit ownership, he might as well try to repeal the laws of economics or gravity, instead. Regardless of whether a paper is owned by a non-profit organization or an unreconstructed capitalist, it has to take in more money than it spends – or it will perish. The form of ownership doesn’t change this fundamental truth."

Okay. Now that we have established that, can we somehow get past this silly idea that newspapers are the very glue holding our free society together?

Maybe then we can have a serious discussion about ending the practice of forcing taxpayers in Kentucky to fund newspapers here.

Good week for blogs, bad one for MSM

A day after bloggers clobbered the Lexington Herald Leader for trying to ignore the Kentucky Tea Party, little known Member of Parliament Daniel Hannan has the most watched video on YouTube.

For the uninitiated, that is a very big deal.

"How did it happen, in the absence of any media coverage? The answer is that political reporters no longer get to decide what’s news."

It's worth a few minutes to learn more about this tipping point. Read it here.

Is he a Blue Dog or an Obama Puppy?

Congressman Ben Chandler's silence about President Barack Obama's $3.6 trillion budget speaks volumes even though he has not made his position clear.


Put down the Kool-Aid, Congressman. Maybe it's time for someone to send him some tea.

Some needed perspective on CATS

The Louisville Courier Journal editorial board has never bothered to address the many problems with Kentucky's CATS school testing, mercifully laid to rest this spring. They were too busy calling teachers "lazy" and dreaming up more ways to slap at the Bluegrass Institute without actually printing the name.

Here's their latest from Wednesday's editorial page:

"That's more than one can say for the odd alliance of (1) Republicans who have opposed the Kentucky Education Reform Act since its passage; (2) reflexive right-wing opponents of public schools, and (3) teacher groups that find KERA too demanding."

Their latest approach is to complain about the three year period in which Kentucky transitions from inflated, discredited CATS testing to a something (anything) better.

Fortunately, Bluegrass Institute's education analyst Richard Innes explains why the three years is probably a good idea:

"Right now, relying on our teachers to carry the ball for a short period of time seems like a much better path to take than following the outdated and misguided CATS path for another three years. Apparently, our legislators agree, because they overwhelmingly passed the bill to revise our assessment program in both houses despite the tantrums a few are throwing in the print media."

Innes' four page report is available here.

A case study in common sense

A Kentucky Department of Insurance press release described the circumstances behind a guilty plea for insurance fraud. Seems a 70 year old woman hit another car with her car, left the scene, and then reported in her insurance claim that she hit a concrete post.

In Barack Obama-land, her auto insurer would be forced to keep her and would be prohibited from increasing her premiums.

Next time should be different

News consumer backlash against very limited mainstream media coverage of the Kentucky Tea Party may have gotten the attention of some local journalists, if WKYT's report this evening on a "follow-up" event coming April 18 is any indication.

Will anyone really believe this?

In his Tuesday night press conference opening remarks, President Barack Obama will say the following:

"At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led to a narrow prosperity and massive debt. It’s with a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest."

"That’s what clean energy jobs and businesses will do. That’s what a highly-skilled workforce will do. That’s what an efficient health care system that controls costs and entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid will do. That’s why this budget is inseparable from this recovery – because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity."

What do you think about that?

Hidden microphone at jail still works

Fayette jail Director Ron Bishop is trying desperately to fire Cpl. Marla Gaines before the FBI frog-marches her out of the facility in front of the tv cameras.

Will he get her out on time? Inquiring minds also want to know if she will be defended by the Communications Workers of America or Mary Sharp at the Fraternal Order of Police.

Herald Leader's bad, bad day

I'm not about to celebrate the dozens of firings today at the Lexington Herald Leader. Those are real people who had nothing to do with their parent company borrowing itself into oblivion, but they were forced to pay the price anyway.

But the paper deserves all kinds of scorn for ignoring the Kentucky Tea Party on Saturday. And they deserve all kinds of ridicule for writing the story two days late.

And columnist Tom Eblen's Facebook status is worth a look:

EEEEE-blen?

You've been heard

Kentuckians who called The Lexington Herald Leader to complain about the lack of coverage of the Kentucky Tea Party over the weekend got action this afternoon when the paper posted a story online by reporter Jack Brammer titled "Tea Party protest draws big crowd in Lexington."

The story mentions Bluegrass Institute's "Bluegrass Tax Liberation Day" coming up on April 18 at Applebee's Park in Lexington from 11 am to 2 pm. For details on that event, contact Kelly Smith at ksmith@freedomkentucky.com.

Beshear promotes socialized medicine pals

President Barack Obama, Rep. Ben Chandler, and Rep. John Yarmuth teamed up in February to expand government health insurance liabilities.

Today, Gov. Steve Beshear has teamed up with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation for "Cover the uninsured week."

"In light of the recent economic downturn, it is more critical than ever that families are enrolled (in government health plans)," said Gov. Beshear.

Kentucky Kernel shows up when HL sleeps

Thanks to University of Kentucky student reporter Sean Patterson for his effort to cover Saturday's Kentucky Tea Party:

"David Adams, a writer for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions and the master of ceremonies at the rally, said he didn’t think President Obama’s spending has been different from his predecessor’s."

""That’s where this movement is different," Adams said. “George Bush did the same thing to us for eight years. This goes way beyond Democrat and Republican.""

You can read the rest of the story by clicking here. And for the record, Sean asked me how many people I thought were there and I told him I didn't have any idea. It was a big crowd full of highly energized people and terrific speakers.

Update: I'm told that reader complaints to the Lexington Herald Leader about their lack of coverage have been coming in pretty fast all day. The official response seems to be something along the lines of either not knowing that the event was happening or that they are working on a larger story about the movement after there have been a few events.

The response from lefty blogs has been, essentially, that Ayn Rand wrote too many words.

Media still trying to ignore Kent Brown

Kentucky Tea Party participants have been discussing today how the Lexington Herald Leader could justify ignoring a nonpartisan political rally with over 1000 participants on an otherwise uneventful Saturday.

This reminded me of last October when the paper also ignored the filing of a lawsuit with national implications involving trillions of dollars and the freedoms of millions of Americans. The suit was filed by Lexington attorney Kent Masterson Brown, who was also a speaker at the Tea Party.

Curious about the lawsuit, filed by the same local man who beat back HillaryCare in the 1990's? That's what blogs are for: (Click here.)

Jim Bunning in Richmond

Sen. Jim Bunning delivered a wide-ranging speech to the Madison County GOP Lincoln Dinner Saturday evening.

He spoke about excessive borrowing and spending, monetary policy, energy, abortion, taxes, and gun rights.

It's worth noting that Bunning didn't read his speech as he has several others this year.

Very good move.

Tea Party #1

Thanks to all the people who made Saturday's event a very good one. Lots more to come!

We're not mad, yet

On my way to the Kentucky Tea Party in Lexington. Should be a fun event, but the key is that it is early in the game. We are just building up a head of steam for the road ahead.

Please, come join us. But if you can't today, don't worry. Straightening out our government is going to take a long time. We will be doing a lot more of these.

Herald Leader still mourning CATS

The Lexington Herald Leader's move to allow reader comments on articles has added an interesting element to their web site. I have been a fairly frequent commenter and posted the following after another editorial longing for the good old days when those who pointed out the waste of CATS testing couldn't get House Democrats to read the research.

Since the Herald Leader has shown a disturbing tendency to erase my comments lately, I thought I would snag this one while it is still online.

Erasing comments like this is, of course, considered very bad form for a blog.

Here is a link to the most comprehensive Bluegrass Institute report on CATS.

Dr. Rand Paul in Lexington

Dr. Rand Paul spoke in Lexington Thursday night about a possible run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. He repeated that he would become a candidate only if Sen. Jim Bunning does not run.

Based on his comments, Paul considers state Senate President David Williams to be his main opposition. Last month's tax increases and pension raid in Frankfort, therefore, would play a large role in that race.

"David Williams has just recently done something that I think is very wrong for Republicans to do," Paul said. "He's gone along with the Democrats in raising taxes. He basically accepts their argument that there is a shortfall."

Rand thoughtfully addressed a split in the Republican party between small government advocates and party leaders.

"A lot of us are new," Paul said. "Some of us are Libertarians, independent, Democratic, or just cynical and haven't voted in a long time. We're new to the party. If they don't want us, they will shrink. They are losing ground. They need us. So we need to convince them of that. But some of it is us, too. We have to convince them in a nice and friendly way. They were afraid we were going to take over. We weren't; we didn't have the numbers to do that. We still need to go, we need to be nice to these people, and shake their hands. But we do need to transcend what we were. We need to be bigger."

Rocky Adkins: let me decide

Gov. Steve Beshear, as an outspoken advocate of expanding state government with the promise of casino revenues, supports putting the expanded gambling question on the ballot to merely "let the people decide."

So it was noteworthy recently in Paducah when Beshear said passing a nuclear energy bill wouldn't cause nuclear power plants to be built in Kentucky. He said passing the bill would only "allow us to begin to have the discussion" about nuclear energy.

House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, like Beshear, favors more communication about casinos, but, unlike Beshear, he objects to having "the discussion" about nuclear energy.

What could possibly account for Adkins' unwillingness to have a simple conversation with his fellow Kentuckians?

Caleb Smith has the latest on the nuclear debate.