Does Jack Conway respect First Amendment?

Mark Hebert reports Attorney General Jack Conway wants out of Gov. Steve Beshear's questionable foray into internet regulation.

Anyone interested in freedom of expression on the internet should join Conway and shun the whole mess as well.

And anyone who is still unsure might want to consider the angry American Indians.

"Bail, baby, bail!"

President-elect Barack Obama says you are your brother's keeper, subsidizing "green technology" will save the planet, socialized medicine is good, and "America will rise again." So pay up.


Thanks to PageOne for passing this along.

Can we still ignore Kentucky drug cartels?

Federal authorities have identified competing Mexican drug cartels in Lexington and Louisville. And it may be time to care about it.

The National Drug Intelligence Center, a unit of the U.S. Department of Justice reports "Federation" cartel presence in Lexington and "Gulf Coast" cartel presence in Louisville.

This is a new development, but a recent federal crackdown on illegal immigrant drug cartels combined with lackluster local enforcement in Kentucky could create a combustible situation here soon.

Republicans still haven't gotten the message

President George W. Bush is on his way out of Washington D.C. in two months, but this afternoon he shows clearly that he doesn't grasp the damage he has done to his party and his country. He has urged Congress to bail out the auto industry.

While Bush deserves some credit for refusing to support the Democrats' plan to add bank bailout money to the money pit that domestic automakers have become, he still wants to throw $25 billion:

Giving nearly bankrupt companies with unsustainable business models $25 billion loans for "more urgent purposes" -- can you imagine a private bank in the pre-bailout era doing that? -- is just like throwing the money away. What do we expect the Big 3 to do next year when all that money is gone but their structural problems persist?

How Big Auto is like Big Media

Very interesting blog post here with a comparison between the arrogance that destroyed Detroit and the arrogance that plagues American newspapers:

"For the most part, the auto industry’s woes were self-inflicted by decades of insular and unimaginative senior management. The problems are not the fault of the workers, the customers, the suppliers, OPEC or the competition. They result from management’s lack of vision, objectivity, originality and courage."

Then there is this, from the comments section:

"The news industry didn't help anyone, least of all Detroit, by selling out and becoming shills for the industry. They've done the same thing by selling out and shilling for Obama and the Dimwits in Congress. People don't buy your product because they've found you to be untrustworthy and they do have an alternative. That the anti-newspaper is free to them is icing on the cake. Choice, for free ? From home, dry and warm ? Newspapers can't compete with that. Sell the presses for scrap. It's over. The patient died. He refused to take his medicine when it might have done some good."

Sure, some jobs are going to dry up and blow away as the domestic auto industry right-sizes. Same goes for Big Media. But when government jumps into the mix to take from those who are succeeding in the marketplace to give to those who recklessly squandered their own success and learned humility only when the music stopped, government by definition makes things worse.

Are Fayette jail birds singing?

The Feb 2, 2009 trial of the five former Fayette jail officers charged with beating prisoners and orchestrating a cover-up has been cancelled and moved to June 8.

This could mean that the defendents are talking to investigators about others who have not yet been indicted. The trial was originally scheduled for August 18, 2008.

Also haven't seen any action on the whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Lexington. That case can't lie dormant forever.

Yeah, we know...

President George W. Bush, discussing today his role in the government bailouts:

"I'm a market-oriented guy, but not when I'm faced with the prospect of a global meltdown," Bush said.

Actually, Mr. President, a time of crisis is precisely the time in which we need our market-oriented guys.

Otherwise, we're just giving lip service to capitalism and the free market. And that is precisely why we are in the mess we are in and not likely to get out any time soon.

Obamamessiah to disappoint Ky. House Dems

Regular readers of the Bluegrass Policy Blog learned back in June that Barack Obama had no plans to help Frankfort by nationalizing the massive state employee health insurance liabilities.

"Some Democratic legislators have stated quietly their belief that a federal universal health insurance plan will save them the trouble of catching up with the rising costs of state and local employees' and retirees' healthcare costs. The funny thing is, none of them have bothered to ask Sen. Barack Obama about that."

"What's even funnier is that Sen. (Tom) Buford did ask." (click here for more)

Don't tell any of the Obama fans in the General Assembly about this, though. Let them learn it the hard way.

That's another half-million, Governor

Every day that Gov. Steve Beshear stonewalls on his $180 million efficiency study, Kentucky taxpayers lose another $493,150.69.

Better talk to the people, sir.

Which gang is Mayor Jim Newberry's favorite?

If you go down to Garden Springs Park next to Garden Springs Elementary School in Lexington, you will see evidence that Lexington does indeed have Hispanic gangs. In this case, it's the Latin Kings.

Continuing failure to enforce existing immigration laws in Lexington appears to be emboldening those who would spread gang activity into our neighborhoods.

Don't bail out Big Momma

Kentucky legislators are responding to a March of Dimes study about pregnant women who smoke. Before we start blindly writing more checks, we might want to think about how we hope to alleviate the social costs of bad behavior.

More people are catching on to Beshear

WHAS reporter Mark Hebert is asking Gov. Steve Beshear where our $180 million from the last year went.

This time next year, will we be asking about another $180 million or will we be too busy paying his new taxes and paying off his new debt?

Can't blame Ernie Fletcher for this one, Governor.

Let's be clear: auto bailout is a union bailout

One of the talking points du jour is that gas-guzzling SUVs caused the domestic auto companies' current woes when people stopped buying them.

The truth is just a little bit more complicated than that.

The Big Three automakers struggled to transition out of SUVs when gas prices killed demand for them because union-negotiated retirement benefits had already wiped out any financial flexibility the companies once had. Decades ago.

This latest speed bump wouldn't have wrecked the companies if union contracts hadn't already caused the companies to rust through from the inside out.

People still need cars and they will continue to buy cars from someone. But taxpayers don't need to throw good money after bad to prop up a labor system that went bankrupt a long time ago.

Let the companies re-organize and toss the United Auto Workers overboard.

Make no mistake: if we bail out Detroit's car manufacturers, we are paying for fat lifestyles of union thugs. No thanks.

Think tank tells states to raise taxes

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has built a reputation as a reliable, if not always coherent, provider of talking points for big-government politicians.

Their current advice, in favor of tax hikes rather than spending cuts, fills the bill nicely:

In particular, the government spending that would be reduced if direct spending programs are cut is often concentrated among local businesses…. By contrast, the spending by individuals and businesses that would be affected by tax increases often is less concentrated among local producers — since part of the decline in purchases that would occur if taxes were raised would be a decline in the purchase of goods produced out of state. Thus, more of the reduction in purchases that results from tax increases than from government budget cuts falls on out-of-state goods (relative to in-state goods), lessening the adverse impact of a tax increase on the state economy. Reductions in direct government spending consequently could have a larger adverse impact on a state's economy than tax increases, which have a stronger adverse impact on out-of-state goods and services.

This is complete nonsense, but expect to hear something much like it very soon from the tax-and-spend crowd in Frankfort.

The truth is that taxation can't benefit an economy as much as leaving money in the economy where it was produced because the bureaucracy that has nothing to do with the production of wealth has to take its cut before any of the money gets re-distributed and re-circulated.

Common sense.

President Obama loves his people

Just discovered the election of Barack Obama has so terrified the gouging gougers in the produce industry that they have dropped the price of large grapefruit forty cents at Walmart.

Thank you, Benevolent Leader.


Actually, there are very serious consequences for a nation who holds its politicians is such a state of worship. It opens the door to great loss of personal freedoms.

Gotta stop welfare abuse somehow

Michigan is trying again to limit how much of their welfare budget goes to buying illicit drugs. A new bill would require drug testing of welfare recipients every six months and require the recipient to pay for the test.

Michigan passed a similar bill back in 1999 but it was found to be unconstitutional because it mandated random drug tests. Kentucky failed to pass a similar bill last session with the same unconstitutional provision. A Kentucky bill for 2009 repairs that problem by making the drug tests subject to a finding of probable cause.

Tax increases won't get it done in Kentucky

President-elect Barack Obama and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear have all kinds of tax increase plans for you.

You won't read about it in Tuesday's newspapers, but we got more evidence Monday to suggest tax increases will not solve what in Kentucky is simply an overspending problem.

And Kentucky's spending cuts in the area of lottery advertising seem to have not resulted in lower revenues there either. We should make deeper cuts in the Kentucky Lottery's advertising budget as soon as possible.

Who needs pickpockets? We have Jack Conway

Attorney General Jack Conway is supposed to be the top law enforcement officer in the state. That's not working out so well for taxpayers who don't like to get ripped off by legislators who abuse contracts with other government entities.

Back before the election, Conway was dragging his feet on investigating a money-for-nothing scandal involving Sen. Joey Pendleton.

Conway can not deny that he has known about this issue at least since April. Further, he can not deny participating in Sen. Pendleton's re-election campaign. Only now is he claiming to be investigating the matter.

This looks strangely like that good old boy system we used to hear so much about.

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson weighed in with this: "The most troubling aspect of this situation is that Jack Conway had one story before the election and another story after the election. It is a shame that this state’s chief law enforcement officer engaged in a political cover-up and hid the truth from the voters of Kentucky."

A moment in the reinvention of the GOP

Just saw native Kentuckian Diane Sawyer go blank when Bill O'Reilly asked her on Good Morning America who the head of the Republican National Committee is. The point he was making in asking her the question was that "no one knows" who heads the Republican Party, the party has no message, and that "there is no leadership."

"Catastrophic circumstance," Senator Williams?

Just as national Republicans have had their heads handed to them two elections in a row for playing footsie with big spenders, Senate President David Williams told the Louisville Courier Journal that he might be open to a tax increase:

"Asked if he has ruled out supporting a cigarette tax increase, Williams said, "I'm not going to get involved in a discussion about ruling out anything. I've never signed a no-tax pledge in my life because you could have some catastrophic circumstance that would require additional revenue.""

What does that even mean? I thought we all agreed that catastrophic circumstances were exactly the wrong time to raise taxes.

The only way Kentucky is going to get out of any fiscal holes with tax increases is if Frankfort continues its smoke-and-mirrors routine. And we have to know by now we can't keep doing that.

Williams has been one of the few voices of reason on Kentucky's public employee benefits disaster. Let's hope he doesn't mar that record with any more talk about raising taxes.

HELL NO!

Apparently Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid want to expand the banking bailout to the car industry:

"It is our hope that the actions that Congress has taken, and that the Administration may take, will restore the preeminence of our domestic manufacturing industry so that it can emerge as a global, competitive leader in fuel efficiency and in new and path-breaking energy-efficient technologies that protect our environment."

It's time for Sen. Jim "Beanball" Bunning to start his 2010 re-election campaign with a little Capitol Hill headhunting.

Obama's specifics: I liked the fluff better

Now that he has been elected president, Barack Obama can't get away with just promising to make the sky blue and to make his wife proud to be an American: he's shifting to making detailed policy prescriptions. Hold on tight:

Of course, the one missing piece from this mounting disaster is a big tax increase. Nevertheless, these are precisely the wrong things to be doing. Deep tax cuts are the way to stimulate us out of this. The same old borrow-and-spend tricks will only prolong the agony.

Obama's political future depends on his ability to either stimulate the economy or deflect blame while doing nothing that would really help. At least at first, he appears to be opting for the latter.

Don't leave town yet, Gov. Beshear

Gov. Steve Beshear is heading out for a vacation next week just as a transitioning President-elect Barack Obama goes to work on pushing through his plan to bankrupt the coal industry.

Better call your guy, Governor.

In the early stages of Obama letdown syndrome

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Did you get the late-breaking memo?

A friend just pointed out ridiculously coordinated media coverage about the dramatic drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average since Barack Obama was elected two days ago.

Earlier this afternoon the headline "Stocks tumble, lose 10 percent since election day" may have given someone the impression markets were not entirely comfortable with the new president-elect.

Can't have that.

If you do a Google search of that headline, you will see every media outlet who carried the AP article made the same change. I didn't do a screen capture of the original article, but the screen capture below certainly suggests everyone got the memo.

Now there's a great plan

California is back in the news with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to raise taxes by $4.7 billion "to get our budget back on track, invigorate our economy and generate jobs for the state's unemployed."

Stopping government takeover of private sector

Lexington's Warren Rogers went to bat a few years ago to stop the government takeover of Kentucky American Water Company. Now he is back, as Chairman of Kentucky Club for Growth, battling the federal effort to usurp private sector jobs.

This morning, Rogers debated Kentucky AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan. To Londrigan's credit, the union thug did not scream or utter any profanities during the entire debate.

The discussion primarily was about the card check provision of the Employee Free Choice Act which would increase union intimidation of workers. Interesting, Rogers pointed out a provision that is even worse than that:

For more coverage, go here.

Will work for massive pension boost

Expect to see Sen. David Boswell retire now that his bid to either get hired in the Beshear administration or go to Congress have failed. Had he been able to get a state executive branch job, he would have been able to artificially increase the state pension you will pay him. Since he couldn't, his pension payments are set to go down on January 1 if he is still in the Senate.

Thinkin' about goin' to Washington anyway

She's not talking, but it's looking like we could soon have a Sen. Sarah Palin from Alaska.

Sen. Ted Stevens appears to have been narrowly re-elected despite his felony convictions. His ouster would create a very interesting opportunity for Gov. Palin.

She could help keep Sen. Mitch McConnell in line while she gains that critical Washington experience.

Well, okay, there is this

The chairman of the economics department at George Mason University in Virginia has one pretty good reason free-marketeers shouldn't commit suicide just yet:

5 November 2008

Editor, Washington Times

Dear Editor:

Re "Obama wins presidency" (November 5): to all persons who understand that freer markets bring greater prosperity, I offer a reason to applaud Obama's defeat of McCain.

A President McCain would have followed Bush's script: singing paeans to free markets while simultaneously meddling and spending in harmful ways. Nevertheless - with popular attention on the song rather than on the substance - the problems caused by these intrusions would have been blamed on "free market fundamentalism" or even laissez-faire capitalism. At least Pres. Obama's destructive policies will not unjustly give capitalism a bad name.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics

Score one for laissez-faire capitalism maybe not getting blamed for the next failure caused by government manipulation. By that reasoning, we can wonder what kind of financial market fix President John Kerry would have been able to get away with if he couldn't blame the problem on free markets.

And in other news...

The most important Kentucky race of 2008 just really gets started today.

The most important man in Washington

President-elect Barack Obama will have one person standing in the way off his agenda next year. That person, of course, is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

That's because Senate Democrats fell short of a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Sen. McConnell knows better than anyone how to tie up bad bills in the Senate. That means a rough road ahead for tax increases and some of the new spending programs Obama has in mind. Unfortunately, Obama won't need Congress to take over the mainstream media with a new Fairness Doctrine.

Starting in January, Sen. McConnell is America's firewall.

Anyone want a ten-bagger?

If you still think Sen. John McCain can win and want to put your money where your mouth is, you might be able to turn $100 into a quick $1000.

Just go to Intrade.com.

Election coverage tonight online

I'll be on the radio with Clearchannel's Leland Conway tonight from 6 pm to 10 pm eastern. That's 630 WLAP or wlap.com.

Call in on 859-280-2287 or email or message me on Facebook. It will be a very interesting evening.

Trying times

Considering the alternatives to be worse, this morning I voted for two men who loudly supported the banking bailout that Washington D.C. is now trying to expand into other industries.

Endangering lives at Fayette jail

Last week, Officer Luke Valdez blew the whistle on dangerous policies at the Fayette County Detention Center. This week, he is back again with more:

"It will only be a matter of time when the inmates housed at Fayette County Detention Center figure out the times when the minimal amount of people will be able to respond to emergencies. This will happen at least nine times in a twenty-four hour period. Inmates will use this against the officers and take advantage of these windows of opportunity in an effort to maximize the amount of disruption they can cause. I understand that the way we handle breaks and work shifts had to be changed due to the lawsuit, but the officers of FCDC feel that we are being retaliated against because of this. I have been told several times that FCDC officers receive some of the best training in the nation, yet we are not treated in this manner. Currently Operational Order 3.1-2C states that if an officer responds to an emergency tone, without a commander’s permission and is on break, he or she will write a report and the major will take progressive disciplinary action on that officer. That officer is only doing what he has sworn to do. Before the changing of the Op-order, if an emergency tone went off you were required to respond and once you were relieved by a commander you continued your break, and this worked smoothly."

Don't hold your breath waiting for Mayor Jim Newberry to do something about this. As Officer Valdez suggests, this looks a lot like retaliation for the wage and hour lawsuit.

A strong indicator of newspapers' state of decay

If you are looking for proof that agendized newspapers are counting on Sen. Barack Obama to give them the fairness doctrine so they don't have to compete so hard in the marketplace of ideas, look at the Bowling Green Daily News. That paper's whiny general manager is picking fights with high school yearbooks:

"This isn’t even close. High school yearbooks should not be on the agenda or getting awards where budding high school journalists are in attendance."

And if you are still looking for a reason to keep Sen. Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate, let this be it. It could well be that in January, Sen. McConnell is all that stands between us and a radical shift to the left none of us want or can afford.

Caring about kids Steve Beshear's way

Gov. Steve Beshear has unveiled a new, expensive program to recruit families who are eligible for public health benefits but aren't partaking of them. Today, he launched the web site and called for a November 18 pep rally.

The program seeks to spend at least $25 million a year on expanded government health insurance benefits. That's $25 million a year we already don't have. That means we will have to borrow it.

Then there is this from the press release:

"To celebrate the launch of the KCHIP initiative, Gov. Beshear and Kentuckians who care about children’s health care will gather at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, at the Frankfort Civic Center in downtown Frankfort. The public is invited to attend."

Something tells me they aren't going to be much interested in hearing from Kentuckians who care about children's health care and want to improve it by getting the government out of it as much as possible. At a minimum, we could care for kids by repealing Kentucky's counterproductive Certificate of Need law.

Barack Obama shifts to spreading misery

Have you heard about Sen. Barack Obama's plan to bankrupt the coal industry?

Always the last to know

It seems knowledge of Kentucky's fraudulent K-12 school testing system has gone from California to New York and somehow avoided getting picked up in Kentucky. Except, of course, by the Bluegrass Institute.

It's hard to bring up Kentucky's fixation on its flawed assessment process without resorting to name-calling.

Who do you think you're foolin' Obama?

Samuel Thompson is a law professor at Penn State who is circulating an email claiming that Sen. Barack Obama's "spread the wealth" hubbub is only about $4.60:

"What would happen to Joe if he were successful in buying the business and making over, say, $350,000 per year? Under the current Internal Revenue Code, for each $100 Joe earns over $350,000, he would pay a tax of $35. Under Senator Obama’s tax plan, for every $100 Joe earns over $350,000, he would pay a tax of $39.60. Thus, Senator Obama’s plan would tax Joe an additional $4.60 for each $100 Joe makes over $350,000, and this $4.60 is the basis of the argument around Joe the Plumber."

This would only have a possibility of being true if, for starters, you didn't pay any attention to Obama's Social Security tax increase and his health insurance scheme tax increase. And then there are some of us who didn't believe Bill Clinton when he campaigned on a middle class tax cut. That turned into the biggest tax increase in U.S. history. Why should we expect Barack Obama, backed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, to do any differently?

Term limits would fix this

A Lexington Herald Leader article about Kentucky's dependence on long-time incumbents in Washington D.C. building their careers on how much pork they can bring back to the state features the Bluegrass Institute's Jim Waters:

"That's a great indicator that Kentucky is falling behind the other states economically," said Jim Waters, spokesman for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think tank in Bowling Green.

"It really indicates the depths to which our political campaigns have sunk," Waters said. "All we hear from our sitting U.S. senator is the amount of pork he's brought back. We need to be discussing national security and how we're going to strengthen our economy. We're not hearing about any real issues."

Again and again, we see redistribution of wealth serving mainly those who live off the government. The only fair way to fix this is to limit lawmakers' terms in office and cut Kentucky's dependence on federal dollars cold turkey. We will be a wealthier state in the long run with this approach. The old Great Society way isn't getting anything good accomplished.

Obama energy policy

Barack Obama wants to force energy prices higher to lower demand. In his own words:

Hidden camera strikes again at Lexington jail

Correctional Medical Services Director Jonathan Bowen of the Fayette County Detention Center won't allow his nurses to give medical attention to jail staff even in the event of an emergency.

So what was he doing in Assistant Director Todd Eads' office Wednesday administering an allergy shot?

Obama commercial sticks to the facts

It's not a shortfall if you never had it

After yesterday's press conference in Frankfort about our projected overspending of $294 million in Kentucky this year, the big newspapers are all using Gov. Steve Beshear's word for the red ink: shortfall.

This is ridiculous and underscores the biggest problem we have with big government in Kentucky. Everyone knew we were spending in the new budget money we weren't likely to have, but the legislature did it anyway.

Revenues fell short of their political wish list, not of responsible spending priorities. Ignoring that reality allows a politician -- Beshear -- who campaigned on not raising taxes to claim a new and unexpected reality in which tax increases are a "necessity."

It would help if our big media didn't swallow spin about overspending quite so easily. We need more people to see fiscal mismanagement for what it is. That's the only way we will ever stop it.

Finding some Kentucky government waste

On the very day Gov. Beshear admits we will overspend at least $294 million this year, The Bluegrass Institute has the latest on the Kentucky Department of Education's waste-of-time-and-money task force affecting our children.

Education Commissioner Jon Draud and friends may have thought no one would notice.

To learn more, click here.

Another small step for nontaxable income

Even Rhode Island is starting to talk about repealing its income tax and relying instead on consumption taxes.

Massachusetts is actually leading the way this year on income tax repeal. Looks like Kentucky might be getting on board the train as well.

Ted Kennedy, moral leader on the world's stage

Sen. Ted Kennedy sent out an email this morning. Something about, uh, morals and electing Barack Obama and redistributing -- I mean building -- the economy.

Missing another golden opportunity

Years of state and local government overspending will have no reason to correct itself if the feds pass their new bailout package. From the Wall Street Journal:

"House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), said he wants upcoming fiscal stimulus legislation to funnel aid to states and localities. He said he hopes that package can be approved shortly after the election."
""Our hope is that the leadership of both parties will be able to confer and come back after the election, and see what we can do to provide assistance to our local and state governments, as we have been able to do for our banking and finance industry," Rep. Rangel said at the outset of a committee hearing Wednesday on stimulus discussions."

"U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel said he wants upcoming fiscal stimulus legislation to funnel aid to states and localities."
"State governors and local officials testifying at the hearing put forward to lawmakers a wish list worth tens of billions to help shore up their finances. Their argument: we didn't create the financial mess, and we need Washington's help to get out of it."

Kentucky is never going to shake off its poor-state status if we don't learn to lower our dependence on government. This garbage is a big step in the wrong direction. It will certainly gain widespread bipartisan support.

Jim Keller and his good old yellow dog

In a radio ad for Fayette District Judge Julie Goodman, former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Jim Keller tells listeners to vote for the Beshear appointee to keep her seat.

That reminded me of a 2006 post quoting Keller, who was then running for the State Senate, on the stump telling listeners to vote for Supreme Court Justice Mary Noble because "she is a yellow dog Democrat!"

Also worth noting in a year most Kentuckians will vote to not turn over the federal government to Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, that 2006 Congressional candidate Tom Barlow said:

"But the funniest harangue came from congressional candidate Tom Barlow, who said: "We are delivering lower gasoline prices and when we take office in January we are going to bring peace to the Middle East peacefully, we are going to have affordable medical care and high paying jobs!""

That hasn't exactly worked out, has it?

Pandering differently; same type of results

So it looks like we are going to shift from a focus on parents dropping their own children off health insurance policies in favor of putting them on government programs to employers shutting down because their competition was deemed "too big to fail" or "too important not to subsidize" by the government.

Seems that our best hope may be city and state governments bankrupting themselves and having to cut back on spending and nannying just so people will see that small government can work. Out of control public employee pensions just might do the trick in some places. And then there is Birmingham, Alabama which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of the way it tried to finance its sewers.

Another victim for Ron Bishop

A corrections officer at the Fayette County Detention Center has distributed an email at the facility that will earn him the wrath of the secretive thugs running the place. From the email:

"Safety is the major concern. In the event that you are being assaulted by an inmate and I am on break, I will not be allowed to assist you, unless I am given approval by a commander. Understand that if I stop an assault or an attempt to take your life, without direct permission from a commander, I will be progressively disciplined. Keep in mind that we have been trained with a USELESS self-defense method and your hands are tied. PPCT does not protect you from multiple attackers, attackers armed with bladed weapons, or any of the mixed-martial arts that are wildly popular today. So while you wait for designated "responding rovers" and a few command staff, you will be forced to use an incompetent self-defense method. Regardless of the consequences, I will respond to all Signal 7s. DO NOT let our lives be left to the hands of ignorant operational orders."

"By NO means am I asking that we be irrational, irresponsible, or unprofessional. I am asking that we all take the proper steps to make the changes that we need. Whether you have faith in the CWA or not, I suggest that we file our grievances and use them until the option is exhausted. If the union is ineffective then we will act as corrections officers on our own behalf. If the problem persists we will go take it up the chain to LFUCG and stay persistent until an agreement can be made. Please, for the sake of making this a safe and enjoyable work environment, don't just turn a blind eye to the problem and hope that it passes, because it won't."

Rather than address the issues brought up by the officer who wrote this, Director Ron Bishop and friends will likely just fire him. And Mayor Jim Newberry will have no comment.

Kentucky teacher quote of the day

A teacher friend said she received a political phone call at home asking her who she was going to vote for in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race. After answering that she was undecided, the caller told her the Kentucky Education Association supports Bruce Lunsford.

"Well," the teacher replied, "then I'm voting for Mitch McConnell!" And she hung up the phone.

State investment gurus won't show the money

I've been waiting for a week to get information about the toxic mortgage-backed securities held by the $17 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS).

I specifically asked for the cost-basis of the mortgage-backed securities they hold and their current market value. This morning, after I asked again, I was told that the information is not available.

Poor investment returns combined with fiscal mismanagement by the General Assembly for more than 25 years have combined to create a $28 billion actuarial deficit in the state public employee benefits accounts.

Kentucky Club rocks

If you aren't reading the Kentucky Club for Growth web site, you should be. On Monday, Andy Hightower hit the high notes on three different races:

McConnell vs. Lunsford

Flood vs. Ward (Kathy Stein's old seat)

Moore vs. Weaver (House 26)

And if you want to look up details on any of the bills Andy mentions, go to Kentucky Votes.

"Call in sick for Obama?"

The Barack Obama campaign has a new commercial out encouraging their supporters with jobs to call in sick.

Now that's an economic plan!

"What's your socialism exit strategy?"

Sen. John McCain said today in Ohio that "the government will get out of the banking business fast."

How fast, John?

Same question for Sen. Barack Obama. Now that both of you have voted us into the quagmire of a socialistic banking system, exactly when are you going to get us out?

No more bailouts!

The National Taxpayers Union has an online petition to generate support for the idea that we don't need government bailouts when the free market can clean things up. Of course, we are going to have to get past the silly notion some have that free markets caused our current problems.

The overwhelming sense that the nation has given up this battle to the wealth redistributors can't lessen the resolve to set things right.

Interesting to see the difference between the people on the federal level who are just cranking up the printing press to get through the moment and what may be happening in Frankfort. In Kentucky we can print up bonds and create a similar effect, but reality may be closing in on that strategy.

Attack of Joe the Storm Trooper

At a Lexington political event Saturday, a local citizen was handing out brochures expressing opposition to the federal banking bailout when he was approached by two Lexington police officers. The entire event was caught on tape by a camera the young Republican was carrying. The officers asked him if he had any weapons, frisked him and, after finding nothing, one of the officers proceeded to rant about "jacking around" and then threatened to "take your head off your shoulders."

The audio makes clear that the young citizen did nothing to provoke the outburst and terroristic threat from the police officer.

Unfortunately, a small group of Mitch McConnell supporters then picked right up with the intimidation where the rogue police officer left off. Not good.


UPDATE: An anti-McConnell version of the video is also up on YouTube.

A little help?

Can anyone tell me who this is?

Thus spake Obamamessiah

A major key to Sen. Barack Obama's electoral success so far has been a remarkable ability to state something that is completely untrue -- illogical, even -- and to portray his statement as some kind of prophesy.

Take, for example, Social Security. This unsustainable program provides negative returns for taxpayers. As our years of drawing surpluses into the Social Security Trust Fund draw to a close, we have nothing to show for them. We are headed unavoidably to the time that taxpayers who know they will never see any of their money back will have to pay higher taxes to support the older generations. Everyone knows this to be true.

One way out is to allow people to choose personal accounts. And yes, that will certainly damage further the unsustainable Social Security. But the program is already headed toward utter ruination. At some point we are going to have to take a hit to get off our present course toward disaster. Taking that hit will be cheaper now that it will be in five years. It would have been cheaper still three years ago.

There is an odd "spreading the wealth" book going around called "Obamanomics: How Bottom-Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics."

On Social Security it says:

"If we allow people to invest in riskier assets in the stock market, we will just have more losers who end up gambling with their retirment money and end up with nothing at retirement and under Bush's plan, with no one to care for them. This is an example of Obama's greatest strength, the wisdom to see the underlying fundamental causes of our problems, so that we might structure real solutions that will be effective."

In essence, what Obama is doing is turning Social Security into Fannie Mae in reverse. In the mortgage meltdown, the government made extremely risky investments look risk-free. Why would you hesitate to loan money to ACORN voters if you knew you could take large profits on the front end and make a fortune before the music stopped? The more corrupt players gobbled up their competitors and then became "too big to fail." Social Security is now "too big to fail." Opponents of changing Social Security depend on convincing people that any deviation from the current money-losing plan involves catastrophic risk. I think we have had enough mispricing of risk in the last decade to last us for a long time. We need to get Social Security right. Allowing people to enhance their Social Security accounts by contributing less into the system and placing the difference in a personal account replaces a sure loser -- the current system -- with one in which better long-term returns would be so easy as to be a certainty for almost everyone.

The rhetoric about "losing it all" in the stock market has no place in a civilized discussion because it is so ridiculous. In fact, if you like FDR, you may be interested in a blue ribbon commission he put together back in 1934. It essentially unlocked the secret to investing in the stock market: buy a diversified collection of quality investments, the commission said, hold them for the long-term, and re-invest regularly. Ask Warren Buffet how well that approach worked for him.

Besides, if you don't like stocks, buy corporate bonds. A high quality corporate bond paying 8% will double your money in nine years. You could pour money into Social Security for a century and not do that.

The key, again, is understanding the risks associated with our actions. Voters who elevate a President Barack Obama to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to run the national government are showing an inability to learn lessons even from recent history.

Trey Grayson speaks out against abortion

Heading down to the University of Kentucky Student Center this afternoon to see Secretary of State Trey Grayson talk to students about his opposition to abortion.

UPDATE: Grayson noted that Barack Obama didn't mention abortion in his Democratic Party convention speech and suggested that was because Obama knows his position is way out the mainstream. He said Obama would work to codify Roe v. Wade, possibly as his first act as President. Grayson also criticized Obama's opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. He said that position exemplifies how extreme Obama is on the subject.

"That's a position that would even make John Kerry and Al Gore uncomfortable," Grayson said.

Spreading it around in Argentina

Who could have imagined even three months ago that the Wall Street Journal could write a brief story like the one below about Argentina, draw parallels to the United States, and no one would bat an eye? (click the image below to read it)

I can't hear you!

Ho hum.

Another day, another Kentucky newspaper backing up what the Bluegrass Institute has been saying for years about public education.

If you know someone who is newly-inspired to improve public schools in Kentucky, show him/her this.

UPDATE: Apparently, it gets even better as the feds are paying attention too.

Taking care of his own

Slow down, fellas: Obama case not finished

Some legal beagle has put out a blog post overnight sure to shock the world, or at least that part that isn't much into details.

Barack Obama has NOT yet been found to be ineligible to run for president.

The blog post claims -- and even offers court document evidence -- that a judge found against Obama in the first case to have him removed from the ballot for faking his U.S. birth certificate, Berg vs. Obama.

What the legal beagle missed is that the order is not signed. It is merely a proposed order filed by Philip Berg. If Judge Barclay Surrick signs it, then Obama is in trouble.

But we are not there yet. Here, by the way, is the incorrect blog post:

Where the guilty go free

No official information is available tonight about the Fayette jail officer Shannon Raglin was caught shaking down inmates for cash almost exactly a year ago.

The case against him has been dropped and he has moved out of the state. Amazing how local authorities don't seem to be able to tie up loose ends at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Ain't too proud to beg

Can't help thinking this morning that if we were going to start a country or a state from scratch we probably wouldn't base it on an unsustainable system of unemployment benefits, retirement benefits, health benefits, cash stimulus payments, corporate welfare, and bank bailouts.

Nor would we write laws to give exorbitant powers to nameless, faceless, unelected, or possibly even nonexistent bureaucrats.

Rep. Mary Lou Marzian has filed a bill giving serious control of private business practices to the Executive Director of Kentucky's Office of Workplace Standards. After several phone calls this morning, I still can't find out who holds that office.

Boone County's tax increase boondoggle

A microcosm of the national struggle for the heart and soul of the Republican party is happening right now in Boone County over a tax increase proposal that will be on the ballot.

The ballot language does seem a little vague:

The creation of a dedicated natural areas and parks fund (Park Fund) for the purposes of the purchase and maintenance of public parks, to improve water quality, to preserve forests and wildlife habitat, as well as to provide active parks and recreation services, in Boone County, Kentucky through an ad valorem (property) tax not to exceed two point two cents ($.022) on each one hundred dollars ($100.00) assessed valuation of all taxable property within the limits of Boone County?

It's not hard to imagine the "need" to raise more revenues for all those things might suddenly materialize.

The battle lines have been drawn.

KRS to me: go screw yourself

The expensive investment gurus at Kentucky Retirement Systems -- the people whose investment mistakes are now the taxpayers' problem -- are used to getting kid glove treatment in the media. That all changed this weekend when the Courier Journal's Stephenie Steitzer gave them a much-deserved butt kicking, that I followed up on here.

The evident incompetence brought up one simple question: how did these people we are trusting with billions of our dollars do in the recent mortgage-backed securities meltdown?

So I asked.

Rather than provide any kind of insight into what they have been doing with themselves -- and our money -- over the last year and a half, though, I got this waste-of-time response (click the image below to read):


3:39 pm UPDATE: Got another email from KRS stating that they would provide me with information but that a report may have to be generated. I'd be very surprised and disappointed if, with all the hulabaloo, no one has stopped to see just how bad our mortgage losses are.

Get Skippy off our money, now

Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Jonathan "Skippy" Miller's disastrous foray into higher education finance is rolling Kentucky into another river of red ink.

The 2008 actuarial report you have only read about here is out today and the news is as bad as predicted by your humble correspondent years ago.

Bluegrass Institute readers already knew about the new $35.7 actuarial deficit taxpayers will have to make up for Skippy's ponzi scheme. What's really remarkable, though, is how much worse the news is going to get for us.

From the report are future projected losses for this ridiculous money-loser:

Readers will note that the program runs out of money in 2019, leaving taxpayers with an $81 million bill.

Expect Gov. Beshear and Skippy to start pushing for re-opening KAPT to new contract sales very, very soon. As with all ponzi schemes, bringing in more suckers and kicking the losses down the road is the big-government way to deal with such problems. Sort of like what we did with Social Security, Medicare, and our state public employee benefits system.

Serious gun grabber alert

The Kentucky FOP Lodge 4 endorsements included mostly Democratic candidates, as usual. What's interesting is that while they endorsed Kathy Stein for the 13th Senate district, they went against the Democrat running to replace her in the House, Kelly Flood. Turns out Flood is as far to the left on guns as anyone I've seen running for office in Kentucky.

The FOP endorsed Kimberly Ward in the 75th House district. Flood's positions on guns include licensing citizens who wish to carry handguns and prohibiting citizens from carrying concealed weapons. Not even Kathy Stein, who wants to put serial numbers on individual bullets, holds such extreme positions.

Obviously, Flood's risk to public safety is too much for the FOP to stomach.

What part of bubble didn't they understand?

I'm not expecting Kentucky Retirement Systems to answer my questions any time soon about how much money they have in toxic mortgage securities, but data from their 2007 annual report suggests they were busy buying them at exactly the wrong time.

The chart below shows that the KRS held $845 million in mortgage securities on June 30, 2006 and that by June 30, 2007 that number had nearly doubled to $1.47 billion.

Big Ed bloggers prove wrong point, again

Education writer Diane Ravitch (via Kentucky education blogger Richard Day) takes another in an endless string of shots at free market innovations in education by jumping into the deep end for a financial markets analogy.

It doesn't work.

"I wonder if its advocates in the education arena will stop and reconsider whether they are importing free-market chaos and free-market punishments into the lives of children?"

Trying to make the point that introducing competition into the taxpayer funded education is somehow the same as government's hands-off approach to financial markets (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, ACORN, CRA mandates, Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Barack Obama, etc.) supports the opposite conclusion from the one they intend. And it just makes them look silly.

Free markets didn't fail in the financial markets fiasco. They were hardly even consulted. Had they been, they would have advised against pouring trillions of taxpayer dollars into artificial demand for housing. Sort of like how we keep pouring trillions of dollars into unaccountable, monopolistic government schools.

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell just endorsed Obama on Meet The Press.

"I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court," Powell said.

No story here.

First day in office

If you were elected president, what would you do on your first day in office? While reasonable people can certainly disagree on what has to happen January 20, 2009, Sen. Barack Obama's priorities are strangely focused on aborting babies:

Where will Beshear put David Boswell?

The latest SurveyUSA poll shows Kentucky's 2nd Congressional district isn't buying the "spread the wealth around" class warfare of Senators Barack Obama and David Boswell.

The latest poll has Sen. Brett Guthrie up by nine points. Boswell is losing despite -- or perhaps because of -- campaign donations from bailout goats Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Post-election scrambling in his district looking for a special election replacement for Sen. Guthrie will be nothing compared to the scrambling in Frankfort to give David Boswell a job so he can take advantage of the sweet pension deal lawmakers worked out for themselves in 2005.

Boswell should have to promise that he will not accept a state job until the excessive pension boost in HB 299 from 2005 is repealed.

Feeding at both ends of the trough

Senate Minority Whip Joey Pendleton wasn't expecting much of a race from his Republican opponent Tom Jones, but an emerging pay scandal related to Sen. Pendleton's job at Murray State University could cause him some problems.

Pendleton's contract at MSU specifies that he is not to be paid on days when he is actually working in Frankfort for the legislature.

According to a statement from the Republican Party of Kentucky, Pendleton "appears to have cheated MSU out of $69,784.00."

RPK Chairman Steve Robertson said Pendleton should "reimburse this money to Murray State University and I hope Attorney General Conway will put aside partisan politics and appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate this matter immediately. The taxpayers deserve accountability."

Massachusetts a small-government leader?

A ballot initiative in Massachusetts to repeal the state's income tax is being vigorously ignored by the national media, but recent polls suggest it actually could pass.

Unlike a possible Kentucky bill to replace the income tax, the Massachusetts plan would simply require that state to spend $12 billion less each year than its current $47 billion annual budget allows.

Voters decide on November 4, but the big-government groups are pouring millions of dollars into maintaining the status quo. Even if the effort falls short of passage, its apparent strength in the land of Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry may inspire others.

State's top lawyer stays mum on net seizure

Interesting that Attorney General Jack Conway has stayed out of Gov. Steve Beshear's effort to seize internet domain names of private companies.

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled this afternoon that Beshear's goofy move is okay with him.

Through his spokeswoman, Conway again refused to get involved.

That's a whole lot of "if" there, Mr. Speaker

Who is ready to join me in calling b.s. on House Speaker Jody Richards' victory lap in the 2008 Special Session on pension reform? If you listen to the floor speech below, think of Barney Frank talking about how everything was fine with Fannie Mae.

Debate wrap-up

Redistribution of wealth won the debate.

Barack Obama said "elf," not "wealth"

When Sen. Barack Obama was telling that plumber in the ABC News video going around that he wanted to take money from him and give it to other people so they can succeed too, some interpreted his statement as evidence of his Marxist redistribution philosophy.

The Obama campaign said that just isn't so. What he said was not "spread the wealth around." In fact, what he said was "spread the elf around."

Like this:

Some racist, right-wing hate groups have taken his words out of context. Please click the image below for a full 5:47 video of Barack and the plumber. At the 4:40 mark you will see the camera cut to an actual elf who says he has to use the bathroom:

Is this why Beshear is taking others' internet stuff?

Judge Thomas Wingate's office just called and said his decision on the Beshear seizure of internet domains fiasco will be delayed until tomorrow morning because of a computer glitch.

Does Gov. Beshear need to seize a Mac desktop computer for the Franklin County Circuit Court?

Jail plaintiffs object to attorneys' settlement

Judge Jennifer Coffman this morning ordered plaintiffs attorneys in a class-action lawsuit against the city of Lexington to answer by Thursday objections to a controversial settlement by several jail workers who are part of the class action.

According to court documents, though, it appears none of the jail employees filed the proper paperwork to object specifically to the amount of the attorney's fees they are going to have to pay to the lawyers.

A tale of two tellers

Kentucky's two big newspapers sat out another key education meeting again yesterday. If they are even going to pretend to cover public policy, the Courier Journal and Herald Leader should at least cover the single largest item in the state budget.

When Education Commissioner Jon Draud's Assessment and Accountability Task Force met yesterday, two people were there to cover it. What's amazing is how different their reports were. First there is EKU professor Richard Day:

"If a vote had been taken today it is unclear whether Commissioner Draud's Assessment and Accountability panel would keep writing portfolios in the CATS assessment."

Then consider the report from Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes:

"Until yesterday, the information provided to the public consistently indicated that findings from this task force would be collected in a report to be provided to the legislature. Well, forget that."

"Now – as announced yesterday at meeting five of the task force – the committee’s findings are going to have to be approved by the State Board of Education. Furthermore, instead of an independent and uncensored report, the task force’s findings will simply be buried in the Kentucky Board of Education’s 2009 legislative request."

While it is no surprise that this task force was set up to provide cover for doing nothing to improve education in Kentucky and provide back-up for the traditional screaming for more money, it is a bit of a shock to see the cover-up performed so publicly. Good thing Dick Innes was there to witness and report on it.

Lawsuit started against Northup opponent lives on

Third parties in Kentucky could get a boost if a lawsuit headed for federal court is successful.

Hint: whether Republican-turned-Libertarian Ed Martin has his votes counted in the November election is an interesting sideshow, but isn't the main issue. Stay tuned...

"Don't know much modern history"

You don't have to wonder why hardly anyone takes Congressional candidate Heather Ryan seriously when you see stuff like this:

Shades of Cynthia McKinney.

Will Beshear spark an Indian attack?

I wonder what Gov. Steve Beshear's approval rating will be if it leads to Kentucky being attacked by Indians.

Beshear's illegal internet domain seizure has irked the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.
"This is a perfect example of someone who knows nothing about the effects of their actions," said Grand Chief Delisle, "It's not the first time that a government has tried to prevent us from conducting business and it won't be the last. But, rest assured, we will always protect our jurisdiction and the integrity of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission."
Maybe it would help if we could get Beshear to apologize for calling them leeches and child molesters.

A leader for a change

Here is an interesting presidential campaign ad ... from 1976:

Obama Voodoo

Sen. Barack Obama's 90 day foreclosure moratorium proposal today is bad enough. His $3000 tax credit for each new job created is a non-starter of a scheme that aspires to be counterproductive.

But his plan to give federal loans to states and cities (whose pre-existing spending problems are much greater issues than any temporary decline in tax revenues) is really bad. Besides, Kentucky has already tried that. This is not a time for more smoke and mirrors.

Hillary Clinton didn't have anything to do with this

They will have a tough time blaming this on any Republicans. Absentee voters in Albany, New York were mailed ballots last week with the Democratic nominee for President listed as "Barack Osama."

Maybe they can pin it on their blind Governor.

Appearance of impropriety in Fayette jail case

Intense speculation this weekend has Fayette jail employee plaintiffs in the wage and hour class action lawsuit against the city protesting the settlement agreement their attorneys worked out for them under suspicious circumstances.

Think low rent Fen-Phen scandal. That would be the class action lawsuit in which the plaintiffs attorneys ripped off their clients, gorging themselves on the settlement.

This case is different in the number of political connections between the low settlement for the hundreds of present and former employees who were cheated by the city ($530,463 in cash, $345,000 in paid leave time), the attorneys fees paid to lawyers at Miller, Griffin & Marks ($1,144,537), and Mayor Jim Newberry.

Judge Jennifer Coffman ordered the plaintiffs' attorneys at Miller, Griffin & Marks to get testimony from three neutral-party attorneys that the settlement amount was appropriate. Two of the three contributed to Mayor Newberry's most recent campaign. All agreed the settlement amount was not improper.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 14 in which individual plaintiffs may express concerns about the settlement agreement. Dissatisfaction among current and former jail employees and the appearance that plaintiffs' attorneys may have short-changed the plaintiffs in deference to Mayor Newberry is further complicated by a four decades-old story from Memorial Coliseum:

The Wes Coffman in the story is not only the same Dr. Wes Coffman who donated $1075 to Mayor Jim Newberry's last election campaign, he is also the husband of Judge Jennifer (Burcham) Coffman, who is also the judge in the class action lawsuit.

Doesn't look good for the plaintiffs in this one:

When the going gets tough...

... tough Americans go to work.

In honor of the can-do, American spirit that will get us through any and all of the struggle that lies ahead, The Bluegrass Institute has rented out The Kentucky Theater in Lexington on the evening of October 29th for a special showing of the inspirational movie "Call of the Entrepreneur."

And you're invited.

For details, you may join "The Call of the Entrepreneur" group on Facebook. If you can't do that, call me at the phone number at the top of this page.

Get ready for our "Inflation Holocaust"

Any bail out supporters want to refute this?

Now is not a good time to be in debt, which has always been a good thing to avoid. But now that our politicians have made all the wrong moves to deepen our crisis of confidence, it is about to be a much worse time to be in debt.

Nevertheless, the fundamentals of the economy have been strong and they remain so. No one ever repealed the business cycle. If we can just get the politicians to back off, the power of the American economy will continue to make its rich and the poor richer. While nincompoops like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are stuck on blaming the Bush tax cuts and while nincompoops like George Bush and John McCain are promising to restore stability, the rest of us are working to keep the engine of the American economy roaring so efficiently that we can even afford to keep their sorry rear ends in their nice, warm seats.

We won't get it, but what we really need is some good old laissez faire capitalism around here.

Is federal government ready for economics lesson?

Can't imagine why the mainstream media wouldn't be interested in picking up a national story about trillions of taxpayer dollars being flushed down the toilet by one out-of-control federal bureaucracy, can you?

This one even has a strong local connection.

Now is the perfect time to reconsider the economic policies wrought by our federal government in the name of eliminating poverty, leveling the playing field, and labeling services provided by individuals as "rights" to be mandated by the government.

Even more criminal activity in Fayette Jail

Fayette County Detention Center muckety-mucks Mary Hester and Edye Dabney are trying to keep quiet a little problem they have with male employees sexually abusing women in the system.

Mayor Newberry?

Cut spending and borrowing, Governor

Gov. Steve Beshear had a press conference this morning to sell hard the idea that we need lots of new and higher taxes in Kentucky.

But he isn't telling you everything you need to know.

Read this, too.

Good question for Mayor Jim Newberry

Louiville Metro Corrections has a short list for hiring a new jail director. Fayette County Detention Center's Director Ron Bishop used to be the director in Louisville.

Wonder why Bishop isn't under consideration for his old job, especially since he still lives in Louisville?

That's because Bishop is a hot potato and Louisville isn't interested in playing Lexington's game.

Mayor Jim Newberry hasn't shown much gumption when it comes to dealing with real problems. Could it get any clearer that he needs to do something about the mess at the Lexington jail?