Jessamine Newspaper Too Afraid To Print This

Jessamine County Sheriff's Captain Kevin Corman has quietly been shopping a plan to hand over the law enforcement duties of the Sheriff's office to the Nicholasville Police Department.

It isn't a new idea, but the fact that the Democrat nominee and heir apparent to Sheriff Joe Walker is discussing consolidation makes it worth asking about.

Interestingly, when questioned directly about his idea, Corman launched a distorted attack on the plan to spread citizen representation evenly across town with a Nicholasville City Council. He then denied that he wants all the salary that comes with election to the office but little of the responsibility that normally comes with the job.

(Note to reader: skeptical newspaper columnists love it when targets answer a direct question with dodges and unrelated political attacks. Kind of like waving a bloody shirt in front of a charging bull.)

Captain Corman might want to get better at answering questions before this fall, but an analysis of his years on the Sheriff's department suggests he lacks the experience necessary to really benefit public safety. All this might explain somewhat why four Republican candidates signed up for the chance to run against him.

After many years of picking Jessamine county's elected officials in the May primaries, registered Democrats eager for a law enforcement upgrade will have to wait to see who Republicans vote for in Tuesday's election.

Fortunately for all of us, three of the four candidates running in the Republican primary have some qualifications that suggest preparation for the job. But limited media coverage of the race has relegated what is easily 2006's most important countywide contest to a yard sign counting competition. That is a shame.

The job of primary voters is to choose their party's best chance to get elected in the November election. That charge would best be met this year by voting for Deputy Sammy Brown.

The Democrat nominee is a political appointee to the position of Captain. As Jessamine county growth brings more law enforcement challenges to the area, the time for partisan favoritism is past. Nevertheless, the fall campaign will be fierce -- and probably will get nasty. The most important base to cover is to nominate someone who knows the needs of the department. As a current Deputy, Brown can best fill the bill. This basic fact should keep voters focussed when the mud starts flying.

Deputy Brown earned the 2002 National Deputy of the Year Award. He won the award for keeping his cool on the morning of November 13, 2001 when all hell broke loose in Jessamine county.

Deputy Brown was serving a warrant with two other officers when the man they were pursuing opened fire with an M-1 carbine rifle at close range. Brown was hit with three shots and Deputy Billy Ray Walls and Captain Chuck Morgan were killed. Deputy Brown stopped the shooter and struggled to get to his car to radio for help.

At the time, Brown was only thirty years old and had been on the job a grand total of five months. He had already been awarded three letters of commendation.

Deputy Brown says that his first actions as Sheriff would be to put more officers on the street and to pursue grant money available to the department. The Sheriff's department already has the money for three additional deputies but, in an act of sheer political gamesmanship, Corman is promising jobs for after the election rather than filling them now. Poor recordkeeping in the Jessamine county department explains our inability to gain grants, a staple in well-run departments.

Jessamine county Republicans would do very well to vote for Sammy Brown on Tuesday. In a low turnout off-year election, every vote will count. And in this race, we can't afford for your voice to go unheard.

FairTax Kentucky On The Move

If the United States repeals federal income taxes and replaces them with retail sales taxes, the resulting economic boom will cause many states to consider the same approach.

The obvious problems that would result from inconsistent comprehensive reform on a state-to-state basis suggests that all states will want to move together on this. Several states have begun studying how this would work. Today, Kentucky joined them.

Details are forthcoming.

Cegelka Goes Negative

Just saw the first negative ad in the Larry Roberts/Bill Cegelka County Attorney race in Fayette County. Cegelka plays an audio tape of Roberts calling early-morning female joggers "dumb" and has Roberts saying homosexuality is "not a victimless crime at all." The climax was a printed quote from Roberts explaining that black criminals are more likely to get caught because they are more noticeable.

Wow, hot stuff!

And Roberts is running ads prominently featuring Democrat Senate candidate James Keller.

Looks like Fayette isn't going to get much a County Attorney upgrade.

Update: The Dems are going CRAZY about this race. Funny.

Still Courting The Convict Vote

Fresh off a failed attempt to re-enfranchise convicted felons, Kentucky Democrats are cooking up a plan to push for conjugal visits in prisons.

Now that all Democrats are conservative Bible-thumpers, I can't wait to see which one has to sponsor this one.

Tweaking The Energy Crisis

Former Congressman John Kasich suggests eliminating most of the federal gas tax and letting states replace it and take care of their own roads, while the feds maintain the interstates.

The main benefit of this is wiping out a lot of the pork sweepstakes that inspire so many Congressional press releases.

Another little goody he doesn't mention is that this would take the sting out of the federal mandate to keep state drinking ages up to 21, as that is currently tied to receiving federal highway dollars. I am assuming several states would take the opportunity to lower the drinking age back down to 18.

I think if we could do this in conjunction with a required significant loss of driving privileges for first time drunk drivers I would be okay with it.

"Some of My Best Friends Are Diverse"

Classic quote from Madison County Clerk candidate David Johnson:

“I believe in a diversity society,” Johnson said. “As for reaching out to the community, looking for diverse people, today I was campaigning in a pretty good subdivision, and I seen [sic] some diverse people, and there are diverse people throughout Madison County.”

I got the story from kynews.org.

Million Moron March?

Wonder why next week's Network of Spiritual Progressives march on Washington D.C. hasn't gotten much media attention yet.

Democrats' notion that all will be well at the ballot box will be fine if they can just out-Godspeak Republicans would actually be kind of fun to watch. The show will be May 17-20.

Ky Democrat Prediction of Resurgence Premature

Don't look now, but the same Democrats who crowed earlier in the year they were going to take over the Kentucky Senate now seem to be pinning all their hopes on their one candidate who seems to have any life in him at all. The really bad news for them is the one candidate is convicted felon Carroll Hubbard who is running for Sen. Bob Leeper's 2nd district seat.

A stealth campaign by former Senator Barry Metcalf against Democrat Leader Sen. Ed Worley is shaping up to be the big story of this fall election season.

More Government Reform: Disband SEC

The Securities And Exchange Commission could be eliminated without hurting public confidence in our financial markets. The internet makes all the relevant information readily available to individuals, the SEC is swamped and terribly inefficient at enforcement, and yet the fact that investors drop their guard because they have the illusion of SEC oversight leaves us ripe for victimization by corporate criminals. Corporate income tax elimination on the way to instituting the FairTax would also make corporate financial records easier to decipher because convoluted "tax planning" would no longer be necessary.

Herald Leader Kiss of Death for Isaac, Newberry

Lexington's mayoral race got a nice jolt this morning with the Lexington Herald Leader's endorsement of Mayor Teresa Isaac and Jim Newberry.

Conservative voters now know to vote for Councilman Bill Farmer. They should have already known that, but I'm sure the Farmer camp appreciates the help. By endorsing both liberals in what is really a three way race, the paper now hands Farmer a 250 word opportunity to make his case. And, for good measure, they will likely print a picture of their two favorites on their election day list of endorsements.

This should help give Lexington voters a conservative choice for mayor in November. After all, the Herald Leader endorsed Jim Gray four years ago. On the strength of that plug, he dropped to third and out of the race. I wouldn't be surprised to see the same happen to Newberry, who has tried to be on both sides of the water condemnation issue and seems to have very few real plans for office.

D.C. Dems Contract To Raise Taxes, Seriously

The Washington Post reports Nancy Pelosi and friends are measuring for drapes in majority leadership offices already.

That's the good news. The great news is they are coming clean on some of their policy initiatives for the first week of their return to power.

They want to require corresponding tax increases for any government increase in spending. Since everyone knows the government spends more money each year, that means they want to not only roll back all the Bush tax cuts, they want annual tax increases as far as the eye can see.

Once again, frustrating Republican "leaders" will get to skate because Democrats are worse.

Beautiful.

Bad Democrat: Stumbo Misses Chance To Preen

What is the world coming to when ten states sue the Bush adminstration of something as critical to the Union as gas mileage requirements for SUV's and Kentucky's leaky chief prosecutor doesn't make Kentucky one of them?

Was he out "running late for a vote" with Patrick Kennedy or something?

Fresh, New Ideas From KY Democrats

Finally! Well, really it is just more of the same. Go here and see for yourself.

Stumbo Sues Trey Grayson For Doing His Job

Last month, Secretary of State Trey Grayson announced his office found thousands of Kentucky voters who had subsequently registered to vote in other states.

Grayson reasonably purged these multiple-state voters from Kentucky's voter rolls, in a strong effort to eliminate voter fraud.

So now we learn that scandal-plagued Attorney General Greg Stumbo has sued to put 8105 such voters back on Kentucky's rolls.

Stumbo has clearly bitten off more than he can chew.

Whining Versus Acting Like An American

If you ever talk to an elderly person about what life was like during the Great Depression, try asking if America could survive a real, prolonged downturn now.

The answer is "not a chance."

We are having Congressional hearings because gas is $3 a gallon. I suppose that next year when the price reaches $4 we will have to bring in UN peacekeepers.

This really is a good time to ask ourselves what it means when we think of ourselves as Americans. Are we just a bunch of fat, drunk, stupid, helpless automatons who can't think beyond "there oughta be a law" when everything doesn't go perfectly? What happened to the pioneers who risked life and limb to build this nation from nothing? Well, the truth is there are plenty of them left, but no one with those heroic attributes that makes America great would ever dream of running to elected officials because commodity price fluctuations turned against them in such a small way.

Those who sit around waiting for some kind of official guidance for surviving "high" gas prices would doubtless fall on the floor kicking, screaming, and turning purple if someone were to suggest shutting off the cable television.

That got me thinking about how what we really need is a small dose of perspective on gas prices. Seriously, if you eat out at restaurants -- ever -- your complaints about gas prices are merely about lifestyle, not survival. In fact, if you eat junk food or drink soft drinks, smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, run up credit card balances, or buy new automobiles, the white hot anger about prices at the pump should be embarrassing. The fact that too many Americans aren't embarrassed by this skewed perspective says a lot about how lost we are. That such a minor hit to our lavish lifestyles would be met with ranting and raving rather than belt-tightening or, at the very least, a little shift in spending priorities, is startling and sad.

Rep. Kennedy: I'm Not Drunk, I'm Drugged

Another Kennedy, another car, another scandal.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy insists he wasn't drunk when he crashed his car. He says he was on Ambien.

If you have ever taken Ambien for sleeplessness, you know it is good stuff. But driving isn't a very good idea. Kennedy said at the scene he was late for a vote. If he has been voting on Ambien, that would explain a lot.

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Today is the day Mexicans celebrate kicking the French invaders out of Mexico. Seems like they had a pretty good solution to illegal immigration back in 1862.

Government To The Rescue; Everybody Run!

Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives stayed stuck on stupid by almost unanimously passing a measure to prevent "gouging" at the gas pump.

There is nothing beneficial for the public in such a bill. It allows legislators to go home and say they are trying to do something about "high" gas prices, but that is all.

This isn't a partisan thing, either. The entire Kentucky delegation voted for this.

What a waste.

KY's Top Dem Plays Hand On Gas Prices

Now this is a partisan witch hunt.

Gas Prices and The Economy

It's more fun to blame the evil oil companies, but here is more common sense on gas prices.