At Least He Isn't Our Governor

I've been looking for a reason not to post something about a comment by Rep. Ben Chandler this morning. The conventional wisdom holds that he can do little real harm for now from his minority position in the Congress. While that is true (hey, he could be governor!), it is immensely distressing to see such political strength vested in someone with so few actual accomplishments. Nevertheless, there seems to be little hope to gain traction against him and his policy positions even though Congressman Ben Chandler says things like this:

"The upper echelon of people in this country are not being asked to sacrifice anything and they are being given huge tax cuts."

What planet is this guy from, really? Anyone? In a nation whose government is financed by this "upper echelon" he has such a problem with and in a state where most ambitious people strive to climb to the upper reaches of the income scale, one would think that blind, stupid, hateful, and wrong statements like this would carry a price. No such luck when the rhetoric comes from the top Democrat in Kentucky.

Comrade Chandler made his comments this morning on the Jack Pattie Show in Lexington.

Kids Want More, Education Officials Want Less

Saw a very interesting gap between Kentucky high school students and the state's education bureaucrats in two stories in state newspapers. First, the Kentucky Post reports that students want tougher academic standards in public schools. Then, as if on cue, the Louisville Courier Journal reports on a proposal from education bureaucrats asking the federal government to lower the expectations the schools are held to.

I say we go with the kids on this one.

The Kentucky Department of Education wants the 2001 federal standards lowered for them by shifting the focus of testing from reading and math to include social studies, "practical living" (good grief!), and arts and humanities. I'm not sure what they mean by practical living, but suspect they want a pass if our high school students can show mastery of shoe tying skills. Further, they want to lower even the appearance of accountability by dropping annual test requirements and going to every other year. And then, of course, they want a reprieve from the requirement to allow students to transfer from failing schools after two years, making it three instead. That is what this is all about -- resisting calls to increase standards and accountability for doing what schools are paid tax dollars to do.

What we have here are divergent interests. Our children know that their very survival in the knowledge-based economy depends on how much they know. Too many education officials are bureaucratic drones who are too focused on preserving their own cushy jobs without too much work.

Again, I suggest we go with the kids on this one and let the managers of the public school system sweat a little bit.

From a political perspective, I think education could be the perfect wedge issue. Democrats in Kentucky have presided over mediocre results for decades. Republicans should show the courage to make them answer for their failure. Let's make Democrat lawmakers choose between children and their teachers' union supporters.

Hurricane Hillary Hits Friday

Sen. Julian Carroll (D-Mess in Frankfort) commenting today on the Sue Wylie Show about Hillary Clinton's visit to Kentucky:

"She's coming to Louisville. She's not coming to represent the values of Kentucky. She's coming to represent the values of Louisville."

Carroll admitted that he will be at the Louisville event and claimed that Sen. Clinton is trying to change her liberal image, just as he is. He suggested that Republicans are bad, but that he is just as conservative as they are.

There was another funny exchange with a caller in which Sen. Carroll confessed that he voted for John Kerry even though he says he had "disagreements" with "his morals."

This will be lots of fun watching the Democratic Party try to figure out who they are without completely self-destructing before the 2006 elections.

Bush Gets GOP Back In The Saddle On Immigration

Good.

Earth to Hillary: The Economy Is Good

This Friday, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will have an opportunity to take her national "listening tour" to the average folks in Kentucky. That is, all the average people in Kentucky who put up $10,000 to get close enough for a photo with The Smartest Woman in The World.

We can only hope that one of these good folks will share these economic statistics with her.

Which One Is The Frontrunner?

The race for the 2007 Democrat gubernatorial nomination is on. Otis Hensley has filed with the Registry of Election Finance to start raising money. He will be facing Gatewood Galbraith.

At this rate, I can't imagine who will be next to file.

This Will Help: Democrats Want To Be "Mommy"

Now this is pretty funny. A Madison, Wisconsin man has written a children's book and called it "Why Mommy is a Democrat."

He claims that five percent of the proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Democratic Party. If the sample pages on their website are any indication, Kentucky's "conservative" Democrats might want to run away from this faster than they run from Hillary's Friday night soiree in Louisville. My favorite was "Democrats make sure we all share our toys, just like Mommy does."

Media Waking Up to CATS Story

Two full weeks after Kentucky Progress reported on the Bluegrass Institute's (BIPPS) dismantling of Kentucky's fraudulent school accountability program, the media is starting to report on the disturbing findings.

It is about time.

This is a clear-cut tale of government abuse of children. The Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) very simply allows manipulation of school testing results. Parents then have an erroneous picture of the quality of education provided to their children. This is indisputable.

It is clear that repairing this instance of firmly entrenched waste, fraud, and abuse will involve clearing out more of the status quo holders in Frankfort. Anyone who has driven by the Kentucky Department of Education headquarters in Frankfort during election season knows that they function as a subsidiary of the Democratic Party. Republicans in Frankfort would do very well to make the education lobby take responsibility for their malfeasance.

Yes, I said malfeasance. If you have any doubt, you need only look at the quote from the Kentucky Department of Education's Lisa Gross. Her analysis of the BIPPS 50 page report was a curt "There's a lot wrong with it."

Oh, really? Can Ms. Gross name one thing wrong with the report, other than the fact that it embarrasses the education establishment in the state? Her arrogant answer suggests that the KDE has been exposed and hopes to spin it and make it all into some Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. But get this: the Bluegrass Institute has challenged Kentucky's top education officials to a debate about testing issues. Now that is something I would like to see. The bureaucrats have, unsurprisingly, gone underground into their no-debate spider hole.

Will the media stick to this very real story with anything like the tenacity our children deserve?

Sure hope so. I mean, it has everything: big money, big power, disadvantaged children pushed out of sight and high-achieving children used as unwitting accomplices to cover up the fraud. I suppose if the school officials literally took to defecating on our children, it would make front page, live at 6:00 news everywhere. That is essentially what they are doing. It is disgusting.

Maybe we should tell them it is all Ernie Fletcher's fault. Then the reporters would be on it like ducks on a June bug.

Terrorist News Network Shares Talk Points With D's

Amazing how this sounds just like what we keep hearing from the American Left.

Your Tax Dollars At Work: UK Studies Gay Politics

Take a look at this "Confidence in Government" study underwritten by the University of Kentucky. It seeks to survey people on the internet and the title seems fairly innocuous. But the survey questions seem to be predominantly interested in homosexuals, homosexuality, and the politics of homosexuals.

Surely this wouldn't have anything to do with the upcoming Lexington city council races, would it?

The Perfect Partisan Issue: Education

Just finished reading another petulant appeal for throwing more piles of money at the Kentucky education establishment. The author, unsurprisingly, is a former Speaker Jody Richards (D-Bowling Green) staffer.

As I was reading, it occured to me that there is bi-partisan agreement on the existence of a problem in education, but conservatives and liberals have almost no point of agreement on the path to improvement.

Republicans have historically done a poor job of taking advantage of Democrats single-minded clamoring for more money.

It is too easy. Asked what they would do with more money, Democrats insist that higher teacher pay is the answer. But we now know that Kentucky's teachers are the fifth best compensated in the United States.

More money isn't the answer. A different philosophy is.

Conservatives insist on higher standards, tough discipline, and accountability. Liberals champion permissiveness in the classroom. And when it come to holding the schools accountable, they permit outright fraud in the CATS program.

It has been two weeks since the Bluegrass Institute exposed very serious problems with the testing system that we use in Kentucky to evaluate our schools. The GOP is missing a fantastic opportunity to make real improvements to the schools that Democrats have papered over for decades.

Frankfort Should Change KEES Statutes

If the primary function of the KEES program is to hold Kentucky students in the state's public schools and colleges, then the way the program is set up makes sense. But if the purpose is to maximize educational opportunities for Kentuckians, then it needs a little work.

Currently, KEES money is not available to high school seniors taking college courses, nor is a full award available to home-school students. A college student may not currently use a KEES award for summer term courses.

All of these restrictions need to be eliminated.

A high school senior could have accumulated a $2000 annual award that will benefit no one if he or she plans to go out of state for college. A student who is undecided about plans for college or leaning toward going out of state could wind up spending some quite unproductive months during a senior year of high school. Allowing such students to use up a year of KEES money could provide substantial academic benefit to a student who would also be getting a taste of a state college that he might not otherwise have received.

Home school students who are limited to a KEES supplemental award are being penalized for not going to public school. This should only be so if we seek to make the primary beneficiary the public schools themselves. That's bogus. A home-schooler with a 28 on the ACT should be entitled to a full KEES award.

And students who go out-of-state to college could benefit from a KEES award spent at home on summer school.

These changes are a no-brainer improvement to the educational opportunities provided by the KEES program to the citizens of Kentucky. But of all the education lobbying going on in Frankfort, the only people who are not represented are the public school students. The effort necessary to correct these shortcomings in the law will help put the focus where it belongs.

No More Lip Service: Let's Boycott CATS

You wouldn't know it if you just get your news from Kentucky's big newspapers, but the Kentucky Department of Education's CATS testing has been shown to be a fraud.

So enjoy your Thanksgiving. Rest and relax with family and friends this weekend.

On Monday, we start a full-fledged frontal assault and boycott of the wasteful CATS.

Crack To An Addict: More Money For "Education"?

Some things are just too far gone to fix. That is the case with Kentucky's government strategy for educating its population. It should be self-evident to everyone who doesn't depend directly on the status quo that blindly pouring more money into our state's public school bureaucracy is a bad idea.

And it is getting worse.

So that is why it was so curious to see "EDUCATION UNDERFUNDED" as the bold headline on the jump page in today's Herald Leader. The front page headline for the story was "State's job skills come up short" and the story was one of the typical agenda-driven factoid-laden pieces that gives the newspaper its bad reputation.

Seriously, look at who they interviewed. I count three Democrat politicians and one of them was Paul Patton! The didn't dare interview one single person who might have contradicted their premise. Our vaunted watchdogs serve so poorly when they shovel out this kind of stuff.

We continue to poor more money into public education, though the percentage of total spending decrease statistic that the paper tried to stick to Ernie Fletcher this summer was dutifully trotted out again.

Raising standards and average expectations at the primary and secondary level remains the only way to improve our education results. That doesn't take more money. Our legislators need to return disciplinary discretion to the teachers. We need to clean out the sham elements of the CATS testing and cut layers of education "management" at the county, district, and state levels.

But we already know this stuff.

The main idea of the news story today was that if we just put more money into secondary schools we wouldn't have to put state money into corporate worker training programs. But the same solution fits here. If teachers had more control in the classroom, dealing with disruptive children would not take up so much instruction time. If students had to meet higher standards to advance through school, more of them would be able to think more analytically as adults, making public financing of workplace remediation less necessary. Too much of our current focus is on the bottom tier students in our schools. If we took some simple steps to unshackle our top tier of students, they could excel with very minimal supervision at the secondary level. That would free up resources to push middle tier students toward their potential and past the point that such large numbers as at present graduate high school unable to survive either in the workplace or in freshman level college courses.

Our education bureaucrats are failing the challenge to increase productivity in the classroom. We should give more effort to helping them philosophically approach their jobs more effectively before acquiescing to their demands for more money.

Gatewood Galbraith First Dem Governor Candidate

Perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith just announced on WVLK's Kruser and Krew program that he will register as a Democrat and run for Governor of Kentucky in 2007.

"The Democratic nominee will be the Governor in 2007," Galbraith said.

The "Last Free Man in America" isn't ready to totally buck his party boss, Jerry Lundergan, who is calling on Dem candidates to avoid expensive primary battles. Gatewood said he will meet with Rep. Ben Chandler soon and step aside if the Congressman wants to run himself.

The dynamics of a Gatewood campaign could be very interesting. If several Democrat opponents come forward, he should get lost in the crowd. An interesting possibility is that he could throw a Hail Mary attack against the eventual nominee and damage him (or her) for the fall. In a one-on-one battle for the nomination, this would have to be considered highly likely to occur.

Okay, guys. Who's next?

Meanwhile, as the Dem circus gets underway, Governor Fletcher announced penalties against Anthem Health Plans and ordered them to return $23.7 million to policyholders. Good job!

Iran's Parliament Urges Nuclear Reprisal Against Us

While the Worldwide Left is chattering about another memo (this one has President Bush bombing Al Jazeera, the Islamic media outlet), the Iranian Parliament voted to move ahead with the preparation of nuclear weapons if the UN persists in investigating Iran's preparation of nuclear weapons.

This is a much bigger story than Murtha/Sheehan. This is nuclear brinksmanship with a rogue fundamentalist regime is infinitely more serious than any coming out of the mouths out Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean.

Incidentally, Iran has also jumped on the Murtha/Sheehan bandwagon and called for the United States to pull out of Iraq. Go figure.

Jim Gray On The Sue Wylie Show

Okay, so Lexington City Council candidate Jim Gray is just another liberal politician. What are we going to do about it?

Gray insists on continuing the long-dead issue of government theft of Kentucky American assets. Gray says he supports domestic partner benefits for city employees. And he doesn't recognize the private property rights of business owners who wish to allow smoking in their places of business. He fills in the rest of his speaking with psycho-babble about "good business practices."

There is still time for conservative candidates to emerge. When they do, they must not (and conservative activists must not) bring up the homosexual issue or anything close to it. There will be enough praise for his "courage" to run given his homosexuality to remind Mr. and Mrs. Voter of this controversy.

If handled correctly, having Gray on the ballot could benefit conservatives across the board in 2006. That means focusing on how domestic partner benefits makes it easier for unmarried heterosexual couples to live together, perpetuating an absence of personal responsibility that these heterosexuals pass on to their offspring. When conservatives make that case, and show the public how liberals want to shift personal responsibility away from the individual and toward the government, we win. Unfortunately, conservatives face a two-front battle because of Republican politicians who forget our values once they get elected.

Voter registration numbers continue to shift toward the GOP. As the Democrats try to battle their diminishing influence by stifling internal debate and shunning primary battles, Republicans are gaining greater strength and grow closer to the time that we in Kentucky can vote to "throw the bums out" from both parties.

"Bush Lied, My Brains Are Fried!"

Liberal blogger awaiting new signal from the Mother Ship.

Congressman Murtha, Your Fifteen Minutes Are Up

Democrats are destroying their own credibility on the Terror War.

Luckily, Rep. John Murtha continues to talk.

"The public turned against this war before I said it," Murtha whined about the backlash against his statement that we should pull out of Iraq immediately. Murtha was for the war before he was against it.

Democrats failed on Friday to support their own backseat driving on the war with actual votes. The resolution calling for a full surrender failed 403 to 3.

No amount of wishful thinking by liberal activists can keep support for the war from being the number one issue until we have a decisive victory. Seems like they would get on board with the war and get back to what is left of their domestic agenda. Sticking in the middle of the road on this one isn't going to do anything but give Republicans a pass on whatever they want to do. To be frank, America needs better from their opposition party.

Jim Gray For Lexington City Council

It is too early to make endorsements for Lexington's 2006 local races, but I think Jim Gray could make a very effective At-Large Councilman. His business experience is the main reason for my interest. Central Kentucky's largest city needs more serious leaders to compete in the years ahead.

Yes, Jim Gray is the man who publicly "came out of the closet" recently. And yes, I campaigned last year to define marriage as between one man and one woman. But with that battle won, I think we can look more to the qualifications for office. Jim Gray should be able to do the job very well. It will be very interesting to see how he puts his campaign together.