Taking the low road to Montana?

Over the weekend Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes noticed two other education bloggers, Pritchard Blog and Kentucky School News and Commentary, weren't printing critical comments he left on their sites and he sought an explanation. Richard Day of KSN&C quickly explained he was having technical difficulties.

Susan Weston of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, however, just seems tired of getting difficult questions leading to conclusions other than that education bureaucrats need more money and fewer questions.

Seems like this dodging of tough questions and comments was the option blogger Mark Nickolas of Bluegrass Report took right before he escaped to Montana.

Winchester project cost inflated by politics

The Winchester Sun wants to know if readers support building a new $50 million high school in Clark County. Kentucky's Davis Bacon requirements complicate such a decision by requiring the payment of union wages for education-related projects.

Taxpayers needing better school facilities for their children shouldn't be handcuffed to political payoffs some elected officials arranged for their labor union friends. Sen. Damon Thayer's SB 145 would have saved taxpayer money by allowing parents to make the decision without the unions getting their cut.

Not what they call it, but what it does to us

Activists on both sides of the socialized medicine debate understand that when they talk about universal health care, what they mean is universal health insurance.

Columnist Thomas Sowell weighs in:

"That is where the difference between health care and medical care comes in. Medical care is what doctors can do for you. Health care includes what you do for yourself -- such as diet, exercise and lifestyle."

"If a doctor arrives on the scene to find you wiped out by a drug overdose or shot through the heart by some of your rougher companions, there may not be much that he can do except sign the death certificate."

"Even for things that take longer to do you in -- obesity, alcohol, cholesterol, tobacco -- doctors can tell you what to do or not do, but whether you follow their advice or not is what determines the outcome."

"Americans tend to be more obese, consume more drugs and have more homicides. None of that is going to change with "universal health care" because it isn't health care. It is medical care."

"When it comes to things where medical care itself makes the biggest difference -- cancer survival rates, for example -- Americans do much better than people in most other countries."

"No one who compares medical care in this country with medical care in other countries is likely to want to switch. But those who cannot be bothered with the facts may help destroy the best medical care in the world by falling for political rhetoric."

Read the rest here.

Getting government out of the health insurance business is the way to manage costs, just as Pres. Barack Obama and Gov. Steve Beshear are pushing hard in the other direction.

Potential Senate candidate coming to UK

University of Kentucky's Students for Liberty will host Dr. Rand Paul of Bowling Green Thursday April 30, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Memorial Hall to discuss "Liberty and the True Meaning of being a Republican."

Onward...

There will be several meetings in central Kentucky next week to discuss where we go next with the Tea Party movement.

Call me for details.

Making it easy for Jim Gray

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry seems almost to be purposely hastening the end of his political career with silly public statements like this:

Contracting out services in one clinic MIGHT make it run less slow, less inefficiently, and less over budget, but it is hardly "proof" of anything yet and certainly isn't any more so because the mayor ends his sentence with an exclamation point.

A Mitch slap coming from the other direction

Sen. Mitch McConnell's favored candidate in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race, Sen. Arlen Specter, is getting creamed in the polls amid calls for him to step down in favor of a new candidate.

Stop taxing income in Kentucky

Kentucky legislators will probably be back in Frankfort in late May to discuss tax reform. Meanwhile, Tennessee, a state with no income tax, continues to eat our lunch economically. And Missouri advanced a bill this week to get rid of their income tax.

Ohio is looking at exempting college graduates from state income taxation for five years. This is the kind of game-playing and manipulation Kentucky has traditionally used to pick winners and losers rather than incentivize income generation across the board.

As more of our neighbors figure out that taxing incomes hurts productivity, Kentucky is going to have to come around. Sooner would be better than later.

Pres. Obama, don't ignore these kids

President Barack Obama seems determined to cancel the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Disgraceful.

Party labels and bad politicians

Congressman Geoff Davis, in an interview with WLAP's Leland Conway, expressed frustration with citizen groups who don't support bad Republicans. He is going to have to get used to it.

Davis said:
"A lot of conservative groups like Club for Growth and others unfortunately spend all their time going after Republicans. As I've shared, it would be nice if they tried to defeat a liberal now and then."

The Club for Growth shouldn't have to spend any of their resources going after bad Republicans. Rep. Davis isn't one of those bad Republicans, but blind support for the party label won't advance conservatism.

Here's a little help from the archives:

This goofy rhetoric sounds familiar

Newspaper columnist Dana Milbank sounds like the auto industry executives bemoaning the end of the world as we know it without bailouts to return them to the lifestyles to which they had grown accustomed.

The idea that scrutiny of government would die without newspapers is a figment of some newspaper guy's imagination.

And besides, Kentucky already has a long (and silly) history of bailing out newspapers.

Think before you kiss your sister

Saving money by consolidating Kentucky's 120 counties into some smaller -- and less accountable -- number of governmental units is the public policy equivalent of kissing your sister.

Martin Cothran weighs in:

"The only thing that the consolidation of counties will do is to take the government of localities out of the localities themselves and place it in the hands of bureaucrats outside of the community being governed."

"Cothran's Rule of Government Efficiency plainly states, "There is No Such Thing." And one of corollaries of this Rule is: "The Bigger the Government Body, the More Inefficient It Is.""

Here's more.

Rooting out ways to save money on local government is a very worthwhile pursuit, but not at the expense of creating bigger government.

Choosing sides in 2010 Senate races

The Kentucky Club for Growth has made a name for itself calling out Republicans who go squishy on keeping government from growing out of control.

"According to CQ Moneyline, the following Senators have donated money to Arlen Specter's campaign:

Mitch McConnell
John Cornyn
Lamar Alexander
Orrin Hatch

It may be expected that the GOP Senate Leader would donate to incumbent GOP colleagues up for reelection. But McConnell was not listed as a donor in Jim Bunning's recent report, suggesting a different explanation may be needed."

More here.

Bunning says Dem primary helps him

Senator Jim Bunning just said the intense primary battle between Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo and Attorney General Jack Conway will make the 2010 race easier for him.

He said he has dropped his fundraising goal from $10 million to $7 million because he believes his opponents will spend much of their money going against each other.

Very interesting email

Just got the following message on Facebook:

Subject: Upcoming McConnell Protest - Read Disclosure though!

This group is made up of a diverse members that agree that Senator Bunning "was right" when he opposed the financial industry bailout. He really was and history will prove it!

It follows logically that Senator McConnell "was wrong" when he bowed to the financial industry and strong-armed the bailout.
I'm writing to let the Anti-McConnell crowd know about an upcoming protest of the Senator outside his speaking engagement at the upcoming U of L Brandeis School of Law Graduation on May 9th in Louisville.

However, I don't want to trick anyone...This protest is specifically targeted at Sen. McConnell's stance on the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) which I'm pretty sure Sen. Bunning shares as he voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. and voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. So if you are responsible and progressive like me, despite Sen. Bunning's act of courage, I hope you'll be joining me in supporting Jack Conway for that Senate seat, as well as helping us protest McConnell at the event linked below.

If you are conservative when it comes to social justice, please forgive this heads up, and keep up the fight against stupid government bailouts! And if you're a Republican, please don't make it a partisan issue, you have many allies across the aisle that oppose corporate bailouts.

I'm not going to the protest, but I appreciate the approach. What do you think?

Movement marches on

Working on details for Freedom Rallies in Frankfort on May 23 and Lexington on July 4. The naysayers will only be right if we quit. So, guess what?

Keeping our kids safe on campus

A Missouri legislative bill that would allow college students with concealed carry permits to possess firearms on campus passed that state's House of Representatives last week.

Keeping a college campus gun-free just means the law-abiding citizens can't defend themselves and that armed predators can be emboldened. If the bad guys don't know who is armed, they will be much more likely to just stay away.

Kentucky law makes no such provisions for innocent citizens to protect themselves.

Jack in the (mail) box

Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo has sent out a steady stream of press releases reading like Twitter entries recently, publicizing his his every move since he declared himself a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Now his primary opponent seems to be doing the same thing. The latest: Attorney General Jack Conway went to the mail box.

It's going be a long spring watching these two use taxpayer resources to campaign against each other.

Bailing out Big College next

The Obama Administration is threatening to turn 529 college savings plans into a federal version of the disastrous Kentucky's Affordable Prepaid Tuition program.

From a White House press release:

And these same people want to make healthcare affordable for everyone, too.

Leland Conway uncovers fear on "Big Left"

The Leftist Myth about the Tea Party Movement

By Leland Conway

First they accused us of racism. When that didn’t work, they said we were organized and funded by the Republican Party. When this was also found to be wrong, they pointed to a recent Homeland Security report and branded us “radical rightwing extremists” capable of any number of terrorist acts. The real story is that the left is terrified of a resurgence of the American spirit of individualism, patriotism and a renewed push for smaller government.

The tea party movement is not the brainchild of some well funded political organization. On the contrary, it is the natural reaction to one. For those who still cling to this argument, consider the following questions.

Where were you when George Soros and Moveon.org was funding much of the so-called “grass-roots” movement to elect Barack Obama as president? Where were you when ACORN was physically breaking into a foreclosed home that a bank had taken back from a perennial deadbeat member of their own group? Where were you when ACORN was paying people in cash and cigarettes to illegally register to vote multiple times?

If the tea party movement is funded by the wealthy Republican elite, then I’m still waiting for my check. So is the Reverend Dan Barnes of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Nicholasville who organized a protest on the courthouse lawn that drew more than 300 angry taxpayers. So is Mica Sims, a stay at home mom who’s fed up with over reaching government and spent her own money to organize an event that drew more than 500 in Lexington. So is Kelly Wallingford, a fed up business man and broadcaster in Richmond Kentucky who opened up his office parking lot for an event that drew more than 100 in Madison County as a prelude to Barry and Janie Spurlock's courthouse rally with 300 supporters.

Not a single one of these events was an "official" event of either major political party.

Sure, lots of Republicans showed up. But whether the media and the left want to acknowledge it, the Republican Party just happens to be full of, well, conservatives. Of course they came out in strong numbers to these events. That’s because Republicans also feel let down by their own party leadership who voted for this terrible spending rampage.

But there were a lot of angry Democrats, Libertarians and Independents at these events as well. I think that is what scares the Left so much. The reality is Obama won the election because Independents swung his way. He lured them with a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility, government transparency and cutting government waste. All promises which he has quickly broken.

Many on the left are trying to point to the "failed policies of the last eight years." This talking point is wearing thin, since those same Independents, and many Republicans have long ago acknowledged that Bush was too big a spender.

That’s why they have a very real reason to be worried about this movement. The only people who care about the "last eight years" argument are the liberal wing of the Democratic party – and there aren’t enough of them to keep congress or re-elect Barack Obama. The independent minded Republicans, Democrats and non-party affiliates see that, not only did President Bush make very poor moves on the economy over the last few months, but Obama made the same moves while stepping on the accelerator.

No, we’re not a Republican-funded bunch of "right wing extremists bent on terrorist acts" gathering at these tea parties. But we are a group of very legitimately angry Americans who see our personal wealth and freedoms disintegrating right before our eyes. That should strike terror into the hearts of the political Left.