Anne Northup turns on Mitch McConnell

Don't know how this one is going to end up, but I like to see the fight:

I'm not crazy about the typo in the middle of this ad -- and Anne's timing for getting religion on pork spending leaves a little to be desired -- but it is a conversation Republicans are going to have to have with each other at some point.

Let's sing a happy bailing song!

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1000 points since the Congress rushed through its bailout and pork sandwich and President Bush signed it last week.

And I feel great.

No, I'm not celebrating the national angst -- though it's tempting -- or the $700 billion we flushed into the abyss. I'm just relieved there is general agreement we shouldn't print up another $700 billion to fix all our problems again. And the widespread angst will be hugely profitable once we get back to allowing that sort of thing around here.

Nevertheless, I find it necessary to correct some convenient re-writing of history about Herbert Hoover. He is cast, conveniently enough for those doing the casting, as a hard-hearted Republican free-marketeer who sat by and did nothing as the nation collapsed into the Great Depression.

This simply is not true.

In fact, I found this great quote from Hoover about his efforts to stave off disaster:

"We might have done nothing",Hoover said, "[but] we determined that we would not follow the advice of the bitter-end liquidationists."

I am the type of proud "bitter-end liquidationist" that neither Hoover nor Bush would allow to get in the way of all the inverventionist fun. Our problem now, as then, is excessive credit that has to be wrung out of the system. The sooner our politicians let that happen, the sooner the economy will get back to growing.

California's hints that they will need bailing out are just the tip of the iceberg that represents the states and cities that may keep the next president too occupied on that level to do much damage on a large scale for a while.

That and the inevitable firesale prices on assets all over the world for those of us who didn't wreck ourselves in the party, may make it all worthwhile fairly soon.

Sign o' the times

I'm struck by how unhelpful the mainstream media is in the wake the financial meltdown/bailout/new Great Depression nonsense going on these last few weeks. It almost seems like party pooping to point out that if those of us who are able keep providing services people need and keep our spending to within our means and keep our wits about us when some people with microphones are screaming about the end of the world, we will emerge from any temporary setbacks as stronger people.

I hope you can see and enjoy the humor in this (click below to read):

Still looking for that pony!

The Kentucky Club for Growth adds some details to a post I put up this morning about Kentucky's deteriorating financial situation and particularly the official inaction that stands to make it all worse. (Go here to see the Club's post.)

One bit of good news that I just found out -- that's good news in the optimistic sense of the boy who spent hours digging through a room full of manure hopeful to find the pony that was surely in there somewhere -- is that Kentucky has not issued any of the billion and a half dollars in bonded indebtedness the legislature decided to issue in the budget passed last spring. Given the current state of the municipal bond market, it may be a while before they can sign our children up for any of that debt. So -- good news.

Gotta enjoy it when you can find it.

Setting off dead-tree cannibalism

A weekend discussion about the wisdom of subsidizing newspapers with scarce tax dollars has created a minor firestorm at the Bowling Green Daily News that resulted in me being deemed an unperson (reference "1984" Orwell,George). (See this for the latest from the Daily Nooze.)

More on this from me here.

I've been very interested in the ongoing transformation of the news business. So I found a discussion about how big newspapers may start going out of business soon worth a read -- including a much more civil discussion in the comments section.

Emergency Summit in Frankfort

I'm heading to the Capital Plaza Hotel in Frankfort for a 1 pm emergency summit hosted by the Bluegrass Institute dealing with Gov. Steve Beshear's seizure of internet domains.

See you there! (Click below for details)

Where have we heard this before?

The Lexington Herald Leader and the Louisville Courier Journal were too busy this weekend to print it, but bond rating agency Fitch had this to say about Kentucky:

"The Negative Outlook reflects plans to continue to deplete fund balances and virtually drain the budget reserve trust in the current biennium. Further, Fitch remains concerned about the weakened pension funding levels and the commonwealth's rising debt position as an additional $1.65 billion in debt has been authorized for the biennium."

Wouldn't want Gov. Steve "Sixty percent approval rating" Beshear to face any tough questions about any of this, would we?

Why newspapers are dropping like flies

Some wuss at the Bowling Green Daily News has his talking points down pat when freedom of speech rolls into his wallet.

But when it starts going the other way and he can't back up his arguments, he does this:

If Barney Frank were a Republican...

No, Congressman Yarmuth, it wasn't "deregulation" or "capitalism" that caused the banking mess. I'm not any happier with the Republicans who jumped in to support "the big fix." Both parties are shooting at the innocent bystander -- free market capitalism -- but when Congressional Democrats were presented with evidence, the went Social Security "there is no crisis" on us.

Don't call KY newspaper bailout a bailout

Funny blog post by Bowling Green Daily News General Manager Mark Van Patten about newspapers and bankers followed by an even funnier discussion in the comments section.

Check it out here.

EVEN Funnier Update: I had to change my log-in on the Bowling Green Daily News website to comment because this champion of free speech was deleting my comments and, ultimately, blocked me from making comments. I just posted this:

It will be interesting to see how long it stays up. Some people's principles sure go out the window fast when their paycheck is on the line.

Having a nice credit crunch?

In the mail today came a $30,000, no fee, 0% APR till 2010 credit card offer from Washington Mutual for my 19 year-old college student son.

"I'm from the government blah, blah..."

An ironically-timed press release from the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions today would be roll-on-the-floor funny if not for the scam perpetuated on us by the Congress utilizing tactics that were identical to those Frankfort is now warning us against.
(Click to read)

Politics at its worst

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on the House floor taking credit for killing the first bailout bill and talking about how great the revised version is.

And the increase in federal insurance will just help the FDIC go bankrupt faster.

Pelosi also said the bill would begin to shape the financial stability of our country and the economic security of our people."

Really, Nancy? How, exactly, might it do that?

Rep. Ben Chandler repeated his no vote from Monday, as did Rep. Ed Whitfield and Rep. Geoff Davis. Rep. John Yarmuth flipped to the dark side, joining Rep. Hal Rogers and Rep. Ron Lewis.

Sen. Brett Guthrie, what say you?

Barack Youth

You may have heard of the Obama video with adoring, adorable children singing his praises. If you liked that, you will love this:


(via Caleb Brown)

Oh, and here is a response. Sans kool-aid.

McCain-Palin sleeping through healthcare debate

In his debate, Sen. John McCain didn't answer Sen. Barack Obama's criticism about his health-care and tonight, Gov. Sarah Palin didn't either.

Sure wish they would. This link would help.

Cracking down on Obamacide

Secretary of State Trey Grayson will speak to a student pro-life group on the University of Kentucky campus later this month.

The Barack Obama fans are really going to hate that.

A voice against socialism in America

Food for thought from U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint on the the unrestrained growth of government in America:

"Our own government appears to be leading our country into the pit of socialism. We've seen this government socialize our education system and make our schools among the worst in the world. We've seen this government take over most of our healthcare system making private insurance less and less affordable. We've seen this government socialize our energy resources and bring our nation to its knees by cutting the development of our own oil and natural gas supplies. And now we see this Congress yielding its constitutional obligations to a federal bureaucracy giving it the power to control virtually our entire financial system."

And now might be an appropriate time to remind you that our entitlement disasters dwarf this mortgage/banking mess. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and public employee pensions and healthcare benefits need our attention far more than giving the government more control over the financial system.

The only government solution to these problems is less government.

Bailout advances

The U.S. Senate right now is passing the bailout bill. Bunning voted against it. McConnell voted for it.

Seventy four ayes and twenty five nays.

Now it is back to the House where its fate is still very uncertain.

Hope this helps.

How many bailouts are we going to do?

Whether Congress is going to move closer to free market solutions for the financial mess or not, they have played their cards on socialized medicine. Congratulations, you just bought yourself $4.3 billion worth of a big-government healthcare "solution" for some people in Massachusetts. Enjoy!

Like any government program that measures its success by its increasing budgets, this one will be looking for more suckers like you and me.

(Via Club for Growth)

Wednesday LOL: Jack Conway

These are truly triumphant times for people who don't understand economics at all. While most of the politicians in Washington D.C. are content to let Americans think the raging free market caused bankers to lend money to people who were very unlikely to make good on their mortgages, most of the politicians in Frankfort are thrilled to watch Kentuckians rant and rave about evil oil companies raping consumers with high gas prices.

Enter Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. Courtesy of PageOne, Conway claims to be studiously poring over pricing data as he readies a fresh round of gas price lawsuits after the major price disruptions in the wake of Hurricane Ike. And then he is still on some wild kick about "reviewing" the 1997 merger between Ashland Oil and Marathon Oil.

If Conway knows anything about the Ashland/Marathon merger, he would know that the FTC already fully vetted it in 1998 and again in 2004. He can't seriously think he knows something that everyone else doesn't know.