Rand Paul in Lexington

Dr. Rand Paul says he will run for the U.S. Senate only if Sen. Jim Bunning does not. Nevertheless, he is campaigning enough to fuel speculation that he is up to something.

Paul will speak in Lexington Thursday night at The Inn on Broadway at 6:30 pm. He will also be a guest on the Leland Conway Show at 9:05 am on 630 WLAP AM or on the internet at wlap.com.

Media bias, laziness generate confusion

Lexington Herald Leader education reporter Jim Warren is at it again, taking dictation from Big Ed bureaucrats in a "news" story.


Today, it's Fayette Superintendent Stu Silberman and Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross trying to take control of the transition away from CATS and to a legitimate student testing program.

It's amazing Warren could write such a long story about "confusion" in the aftermath of CATS without talking to anyone who could shed some light.

I guess if he had, they would need to write a different headline.

The newspaper bailouts are coming

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should soon start hearings about "saving" the nation's newspapers. If a very thin study about democracy in northern Kentucky is any indication, the coming newspaper bailouts should be a very effective focal point for grassroots opponents of tax/bailout/stimulus policies.

Two Princeton University economists looked at a tiny amount of election data and news coverage of the tiny Kentucky Post and quickly -- and repeatedly -- concluded that the existence of newspapers reduces incumbent advantages, motivates citizens to run for office, and enhances voter turnout:

"News coverage potentially inuences election outcomes in many ways. By revealing incumbents' misdeeds or making it easier for challengers to get their message out, a newspaper may reduce incumbent advantage. Newspaper stories could also raise interest in politics, inspiring more people to vote or run for office."

"The Cincinnati Post was a relatively small newspaper, with circulation of only 27,000 when it closed. Nonetheless, its absence appears to have made local elections less competitive along several dimensions: incumbent advantage, voter turnout and the number of candidates for office."

Expect this study to get a lot more attention than it deserves in the march toward making you pay more for propaganda you already rejected.

As an alternative, we might consider spending less on welfare for newspapers.

Education researcher not breathing easy yet

Conscientious teachers and education officials across Kentucky were relieved to see the long-awaited demise of discredited and wasteful CATS testing last week. Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes, however, urged caution Tuesday as we seek a new testing program.

"We need to insure the new assessments are more resistant to the sort of inflation-to-make-educators-look-good problems that ultimately undermined CATS' credibility," Innes said.

Innes remains skeptical of the Department of Education's desires to cover its own tracks and bend the rules.

"We found out in the past that the department is capable of going off on its own despite the provisions in law. The department dramatically proved that when it illegally dropped norm reference testing in elementary schools and when it consistently ignored a provision to create a longitudinal assessment to track student performance over time. That provision was in the 1998 legislation that created CATS, by the way. It’s a decade later, and it never happened," Innes said.

The rest of his comments are available here.

What will you add to Kentucky Tea Party?

The Kentucky Tea Party, presented by News Radio 630 WLAP, The Kentucky Club for Growth, The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions and ConservativeEdge.com, will be this Saturday, March 21 at noon, at the Fayette County Courthouse.

Leland Conway, host of the Pulse of Lexington, 9am-Noon, M-F on News Radio 630 WLAP said:

“Washington, Frankfort, Lexington government…they are all completely out of touch with the common citizen. Americans know intuitively that government expansion and increased spending is not the answer to our economic problems. The only money that government has is money it has taken from productive citizens. Well, we citizens are not in the mood to have any more of our money taken from us and we’re going to send that message on Saturday.”

David Adams of the Bluegrass Institute said:

"You can't just wait around for Kentucky taxpayers to realize too late that years of overspending and over borrowing practices have destroyed the state. We need a smaller, more efficient government that gets out of the business of deciding winners and losers and sticks to the Constitution. And we need that now."

Andy Hightower, Executive Director of the Kentucky Club for Growth spoke about the event:

“The Pursuit of Happiness is no longer regarded by our leadership as an inalienable right; instead they think it’s provided by government subsidy. It’s time to remind folks in Washington and Frankfort that national success follows from individual success, not government direction.”

A special feature of the Kentucky Tea Party will an open mic opportunity to make your opinion heard. Selected speakers will be featured on WLAP radio.

"Teresa Isaac? Never heard of her"

The Lexington Herald Leader continues its efforts this morning to keep Lexington politicians' feet out of the fire in the ongoing inmate beating scandal at the Lexington jail.

In a story about the 2005 death of inmate Gerald Cornett, reporter Michelle Ku talked to the wrong Lexington mayor.

Mayor Jim Newberry's spokeswoman's silence is interesting given her boss' official efforts to silence jail whistleblower Cpl. John Vest, but he wasn't even in office when these events took place.

His opponent in the upcoming 2010 election was.

When the federal investigation of inmate abuse at the Fayette County Detention Center became publicly known, Mayor Isaac famously quipped:

"I've reviewed the same records they've reviewed, there's absolutely nothing in there that would amount to a civil rights violation and I've been a civil rights attorney for 25 years so I think I would know."

If we want to get closer to the truth, we should make the 2010 election between these two about who has handled the jail mess worse. That would be an interesting discussion.

Fighting back in Lexington

The Kentucky Progress blog is a proud sponsor of this Saturday's Kentucky Tea Party in Lexington. In the spirit of our brave forefathers who stood up to an unreasonable government to protect their freedoms, we will join together for one of what will be many such events until we generate change we can afford.

Please join us.

These things always happen in threes

Over the weekend I got a kick out of the Courier Journal referring to Bluegrass Institute as merely "right-wing think-tank" again. Then the Herald Leader struck with their "conservate enemies" bit.

This morning, though, I'm on the floor laughing at CJ columnist Joe Gerth pulling a complete quote off this site and hoping no one notices as he sources only "a conservative blog."

Stick with your "dare not speak their names" approach, guys. It's obviously working.

Herald Leader's sour grape whine

The Lexington Herald Leader's editorial board is even more upset than the Courier Journal was about the end of a disastrous episode in education "reform."

"As it stands, cynics can justifiably conclude that Beshear and House Democrats, under new Speaker Greg Stumbo, caved to the worst impulses of both the teachers union and conservative enemies of public schools."

Thanks for the big laugh and free mention for the Bluegrass Institute, guys!

I take it the Herald Leader would prefer corrupted, unusable testing data, relentless happy-talk from the Prichard Committee, and spin that the phony CATS testing was somehow better than any alternative. In fact, they said as much:

Getting off the CATS gravy train is hardly a three-year pass. Discontinuing a test that has become totally meaningless has no downside. Finding something worse would be a real chore. Choosing from among many options that allow specific, usable results to pinpoint how any teacher is performing and any student is learning provides an easy win for taxpayers, parents, and students.

Bad day for the bureaucracy, though. And the editorial writers who have sided with them for so long are just chapped that everyone who pays attention to this stuff knows they got their heads handed to them.

The Kentucky Department of Education bears close scrutiny in this transition phase, of course. Stay tuned. We'll be watching them.

Fourth District Lincoln Dinner

Rumors that Sen. Jim Bunning would use this hometown event to drop out of his bid for re-election proved untrue.

Sen. Mitch McConnell and Senate President David Williams didn't come to Hebron tonight. There were really no fireworks.

Heard lots of applause for several mentions from the podium about the end of CATS testing and lots of grumbling in the crowd about Republicans caving in on tax increases.

Where is the Kentucky GOP going?

Six weeks ago, the Kentucky Republican Party was still about not raising taxes. Now that is over. So, what's next?

A discussion about the Georgia Republican Party may present a good starting point for Kentucky Republicans to try to do more than hang on to power for one politician:

"You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the dynamics in play throughout Georgia. The Republican Party, having only fully taken over the state four years ago, is already in a rut. Having failed to keep innovating and advancing a conservative agenda, they have become establishmentarians determined to hold on to the status quo, much as Georgia Democrats did before losing power."

About time for Beshear to change his tune

Good to see the legislature come around today and kill off the wasteful and counterproductive CATS testing program in Kentucky's public schools.

Even better to have Gov. Steve Beshear see the light:

"This legislation will create a new system for statewide accountability and assessment that will, for the first time, measure individual student progress over an extended period of time. That is critically important."

No kidding. We've been trying to tell him that for years.

Beshear should have stopped listening to the Kentucky Department of Education a long time ago.

I thought Obama was from Kenya

Looks like our daring Attorney General is on the case of an international, too good to be true money scam.


Now he tells us.

My only question: who even gets off the couch to collect a measly $2.5 million when President Barack Obama and friends are offering so much more?

More evidence of Kentucky spending problems

The Rockefeller Institute of Government compiled a list of state economic and and budget data showing Kentucky was one of only twelve states in the nation with increasing tax revenues in the last quarter of 2008.

We were also one of sixteen states with the worst job loss rates during the same period.

Big-government states Michigan and North Carolina were the only others at the top of these two lists. Perhaps if we worked on growing our state with policies that attract businesses interested in more than corporate welfare and worried less about growing government, we wouldn't be in quite the mess we are in.

The reason for all the tax protests

The Kentucky Tea Party will be Saturday March 21, at noon, at the Fayette County Courthouse.

If you want to know why this is necessary, you need only look to Thursday's words from President Barack Obama:

“I’m not choosing to address these additional challenges just because I feel like it, or because I’m a glutton for punishment,” Obama said. “I’m doing so because they are fundamental to our economic growth and to ensuring that we don’t have more crises like this in the future.”

If he really thinks going deeper into debt propping up discredited government policies and destructive business practices is the key to preventing "more crises," then it is critically important that Obama be stopped as soon as possible. Mass protests like The Kentucky Tea Party will help organize opposition and embolden citizens to step forward as solid candidates to get us back on a path to fiscal sanity.

Buzzing the Capitol with E-Health gimmick

I'm starting to think Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo's answer to any question is to force medical providers to post their records electronically. Unfortunately for us, President Barack Obama likes that plan. Or, at least, he wants to prop it up as an $80 billion a year downpayment on his universal healthcare system. (More about that here.)

Gov. Ernie Fletcher was skewered in the media when the plane he was flying in malfunctioned and scared the U.S. Capitol crowd gathered for Ronald Reagan's funeral. Mongiardo deserves at least as much grief for this:


Obama's plan to spend this promised $80 billion a year in illusory gains amounts to yet another tax increase we can't afford. Mongiardo may not be flying the plane, but he should have to give more substance than the current rhetoric before wasting more of our time and resources on his political ambitions.

Education Department still doesn't get it

Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes has been exposing the Kentucky Department of Education's data manipulation for years. His efforts have provided much of the muscle behind the effort to straighten out student testing.

Last night, he got them again. Good job, Mr. Innes!

Anyone really interested in making public education better in Kentucky would do very well to pay attention to Richard Innes.

UPDATE: Here's more on the bad education data.

Who's the "mouthy drunk" now?

On October 20, 2000, Senate President David Williams called Governor Paul Patton a "mouthy drunk" after Patton quoted Williams saying "I want to build big roads. I want to build roads you can see from the moon." Further, the Associated Press said at the time Williams was telling voters in several Senate elections "to keep the Senate under Republican control to block Patton from reviving a gas-tax increase."

My, how times have changed.

Fresh off securing tax hikes last month on cigarettes and alcohol and performing a raid on the state employee health fund, Williams now apparently has a different view of the value of keeping the Senate in Republican hands. No word on what that is, though.

The Senate is expected to pass an increase in the gasoline tax tomorrow, just like Gov. Steve Beshear wants.

Here is another interesting Patton quote from the October 2000 story:

""David Williams' credibility is nonexistent," the governor said."
""He has deceived his own members. He has deceived me. He has deceived the people in his own district.... It is not honorable and our government cannot function
progressively as long as the Senate is led by an individual who won't do what he
says he'll do.""

At recent public appearances, Williams has been fueling speculation that he could be a candidate for U.S. Senate next year.

Because Kentucky isn't finished messing up

House Speaker Greg Stumbo wants to sneak in a budget committee meeting tomorrow about saving the state from its overspending ways with video lottery terminals.

“Given the rapidly declining state of our budget, and the fact that our signature horse industry is facing tough challenges from gaming in other states," Stumbo said," "I believe this option will only become more attractive in the months ahead. Tomorrow’s meeting will provide important information to the public.”

The committee meets Thursday at 10 am. It is clear that no one is going to shrink government down to an affordable level. We will, instead, bank on these half-baked ideas that never work.

Last chance to do something this session

The House Education Committee meets today at noon in Frankfort to take up improvements to the way Kentucky assesses its public schools' efforts.

After the many disappointments of this current General Assembly (here, here, here, here, and here are a few examples), doing something good on SB 1 would be a very pleasant surprise.

Violence over government waste in Jersey?

As Kentuckians breath a sigh of relief from the quick death of a proposed secretive bureaucracy designed to "protect" us from government waste, New Jersey legislators are hyperventilating because they don't have one.


There is an ominous tone to this that is new:

The most panicked part of the story comes later with a Republican Assembly member predicting blood in the streets:

"The amount of pressure that's going to be put on you in leading this process is probably more than you've ever had in your life," Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone (R-Burlington) told Boxer. "The accountability and obligation -- that you have to ensure that these funds are properly being spent -- is going to be something that will be looked at every minute, every day for probably the rest of your career. I am very concerned that if we fail the people this time, there's going to be riots."

As the national Tea Party movement comes to Kentucky, small-government activists will have to be very sure not to give the big-government types an excuse to crack down on us.

A $646 billion (expletive deleted)

Sen. Jim Bunning got a lot of attention Tuesday morning for his choice of words, so some of his other comments escaped media notice.

Bunning also said President Barack Obama's massive $646 billion (Obama's estimate) cap-and-tax system doesn't have enough Democratic votes to pass Congress. He explained that most people realize imposing huge new taxes on everyone's energy use over the next decade would be bad for the economy.

That's (expletive deleted) good news!

Building a better Wiki

In case you haven't had enough revisionist history, you could try posting something critical about Pres. Barack Obama on Wikipedia and count the seconds until it is mysteriously removed.

Or if you are a Kentuckian who cares about preserving freedom, you will be a lot more satisfied reading and contributing information to the Freedom Kentucky wiki.

Bailing out bad Kentucky diets

One indication of what is wrong with Kentucky government comes from a Department for Public Health press release out today. Excerpted below, the release says the state employs "numerous nutrition and dietary professionals" who all, apparently, do pretty much the same thing:


So, if you are keeping score at home, we have a small army of nutrition and dietary professionals combined with increasing taxes to change dietary habits versus the moral hazard of a Medicaid program that is wide open for anyone who is poor enough.

Once again, the moral hazard wins.

Squeezing the wrong people

Gov. Steve Beshear and his friends at The Lexington Herald Leader have made a lot of noise the last few months about everything being "on the table" on the way the balancing our state's bloated, out-of-balance budget.

It has never been true.

They are still squawking about building the state's future one bogus diploma at a time, but can't see far enough to save commonsense dollars on prevailing wage repeal or by straightening out the MUNIS accounting system.

Sounds more like anything except raising taxes and clinging to the status quo is very much "off the table."

Here is the latest from the Herald Leader. What a waste...

David Williams gets fliered up

The 5th district GOP Lincoln dinner was fairly uneventful until after the program ended. One attendee came to the press table with a flier which had been placed on the windshield of every car in the parking lot.

The article contained copies of two Lexington Herald Leader stories about tax increases in which Senate President David Williams expressed his desire to raise taxes and his confidence that the Senate would play along, regardless of the state of economy.

The headline on the flier read "David Williams Not Only Voted to Raise Your Taxes, He Led the Effort."

That's when the fun started.

Williams stood at the front door showing the flier to people leaving the event and was heard explaining to several of them that this was evidence of Jim Bunning's "desperation."

It has been a month since Williams and the Senate went along with the tax increases and the $50 million raid on the public employee health fund. He can't possibly be surprised that this is being used against him.

If you are upset now, Senator Williams, this is going to be a very difficult year for you.

Sen. Mitch McConnell speaks

Sen. Mitch McConnell spread the praise around lavishly tonight at the 5th District Lincoln Day Dinner. He lauded Rep. Hal Rogers as the longest-serving member of Congress in Kentucky's history.

"I think our Senate President David Williams has done a fabulous job," McConnell said.

Of Secretary of State Trey Grayson, he said "we're going to hear a lot from him in the future."

The closest he got to mentioning Sen. Jim Bunning came at the end of his speech when he said "both of our Senators are Republicans and we intend to keep it that way."

Rand Paul questions budget "shortfall"

(The following is a guest column from Dr. Rand Paul. I added some links.)


What Budget Shortfall?

When Republicans act like Democrats, who is the taxpayer to trust? Recently, Senate Republican President David Williams has agreed to go along with the Democrats and raise taxes.

Williams apparently drank the Democrat Koolaid and accepts their argument that Kentucky has a budget shortfall. One would think with all the years Williams has spent in Frankfort he would understand the gamesmanship involved in budget numbers.
Budget numbers are chewed, crunched and passed around according to each partisan’s political agenda. So, Governor Beshear and his fellow Democrats cry long and hard that we have a $456 million budget shortfall.

But do we really?

The government’s own statistics show that even in this recession this year’s tax receipts are exceeding last year’s receipts. So where do they get the so-called shortfall?

The Kentucky Budget is short only in “projected” revenue: what the politicians “want” to spend, their “proposed” budget. This year’s revenues continue to exceed last year’s revenue. Let me repeat. Kentucky has more money coming in this year than last. This fact cannot be overstated.

Yet, even if we had a shortfall, where is the opposition? Where is the voice that once called for spending reductions not tax increases? Where is the voice that argues that raising taxes, any taxes, in a recession is a mistake?

We need to have two parties in Kentucky. We need to hear opposing arguments. David William’s capitulation on the budget simply gives up the fight and shows that perhaps there is not that much difference between the political parties. Or that Senator Williams is perhaps carrying water for the wrong team.

Rand Paul
Chairman
Kentucky Taxpayers United

Bunning speaks to 5th district

Sen. Jim Bunning warned a friendly crowd at the 5th district Republican Lincoln dinner that President Obama is trying to pay back the people who helped Democrats take control of the federal government by passing "card check" legislation.

Bunning said new debt in the "stimulus" and "bailout" plans won't help the economy and that he will continue to oppose those policies and promote lower taxes and smaller government.

Reporters from Lexington Herald Leader, Louisville Courier Journal, Associated Press, and CNHI News Service who came here for fireworks or gaffes didn't get much.

Kentucky tax protests almost ready

Dealing with the city of Lexington to set up tax protests has proven to be pretty cumbersome. Big shock, right?

Now it looks like we will have all the details hammered down on at least the March event by Monday. Stay tuned...

Who is Stumbo using now?

House Speaker Greg Stumbo was still selling the idea that the tax increases enacted last month are simply "user fees" at a news conference Friday.

What will he call the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority scheme the Kentucky Club for Growth uncovered? Check it out here.

These guys never stop.

The kiss of death for GOP candidates

The New York Times jumped on the bandwagon to criticize Sen. Jim Bunning today. But National Public Radio got to the heart of the matter regarding a potential GOP challenge from the left in a blog post:

"But is Williams the right guy to save the GOP? Williams was instrumental in working out a deal with Beshear to raise taxes, not the kind of thing that would attract conservatives to your cause. Right-wing chatter suggests that there's no way they would abandon Bunning for someone whose record on taxes was so questionable."

It should be pretty clear by now that efforts to move the Republican party leftward haven't done much for the country.

Will David Williams apologize?

Listeners to Leland Conway's radio show on WLAP 630 AM in Lexington know Senate President David Williams wants to make an appearance and that Leland put it to a vote on his web site.

Looks like the ball is in Williams' court. If he apologizes for raising taxes, listeners say, let him on the show.

Can anyone in the Senate President's office really be surprised that things are working out like this?

It's about time to ask members of our federal delegation if they support Williams' tax-raising and pension raiding efforts.

Kentucky tea partiers, unite!

Michelle Malkin reports the U.S. Senate stopped the progress of President Obama's $410 billion pork-laden spending bill tonight. Majority Leader Harry Reid fell one vote short of the 60 required to call a vote.

Here's Michelle's advice:

"The delay buys time not just for lawmakers, but for constituents to mobilize and make their voices heard."
"Tea Party people, activate! Time to melt the phones — not just of Republicans, but of those liberal and moderate Democrats on the fence."

At least two Kentucky tax protests are being planned. Should have details Friday. Stay tuned...

Trouble in bailout paradise?

Just as the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the $75 billion mortgage bailout today -- and no, you can't have any -- General Motors is admitting that their bailout didn't work and they need $30 billion more or they are done.

How surprised are we supposed to be when all those bailed out governors and mayors come back and beg for more?

Vanity alert

If you understand how Google rules the world, then you may think this is pretty cool:

Busy day today with several meetings but, thanks to Verizon Wireless, I'll be updating the blogs. If you're in Lexington tonight, come on by the Fayette County Republican Party HQ tonight at 7:00. I'll be there for the Young Republicans meeting.

Kentucky's beer-goggled tax hikers

The Kentucky General Assembly is soaking taxpayers so fast some legislators are making a mess of their voting records.

Andy Hightower at the Kentucky Club for Growth points out that eleven House members stood up to the booze tax increase but then turned around and caved on a technology tax hike.

"We can't really guess the motivation for this divide, except that one issue (beer) has a large lobby that organized beer trucks to drive around the Capitol and dump bourbon on the Capitol lawn, and the other (IT businesses) is just a collection of small businesses entrepreneurs that did not put on a show," Hightower said.

More here.

More useless and misleading government info

The Lexington Herald Leader and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) have teamed up to provide more useless and misleading government information in order to promote another one of their solutions. The following clip is from the paper's Bluegrass Politics blog:

The Bluegrass Institute has repeatedly blown the whistle on KDE's phony dropout rate numbers. That didn't stop the Herald Leader from repeating them here without attribution.

And what's this "can expect to earn a salary" stuff? The reporter is quoting here average salary figures. Thanks for the sloppy reporting. And the numbers are useless in making the case for or against the subject of the article, HB 189, which would force students to stay in high school until age 18.

Maybe this dumb idea will be more effective than Kentucky's no pass, no drive law, but I doubt it. In any event, making the case with junk numbers doesn't help anyone but those who make their living off keeping Kentuckians in the dark.

The Bluegrass Institute's education analyst Richard Innes has more here.

Following orders at Lexington jail

Fayette County jail Director Ron Bishop sent Assistant Director of Operations James Kammer to dig through federal whistleblower John Vest's training records yesterday.

It is unclear whether Bishop was looking for information for the upcoming criminal trial or his upcoming civil trial. Could be for a new criminal trial against Bishop that hasn't been initiated yet. More on that later.

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry has no comment.

Doesn't KY media care about solutions at all?

Kentucky's mainstream media has been mostly silent about the state's endless trail of wasteful economic development tax scams, pension raids, and union schemes. And they have made it easier for Frankfort politicians to ignore almost every kind of free market, small government solution to our most persistent problems.

But this is ridiculous.

A new group, Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, is promoting a commonsense prevailing wage exemption for school building projects and is being actively ignored by the pundits when the need for money-saving ideas couldn't be more clear.

Just watch: when the media can be bothered to respond at all to Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, they will focus on the organization's connections to the Gov. Ernie Fletcher Administration rather than engage anyone in a discussion of the issues.

Pathetic.

Kudos, however, to Elephants in the Bluegrass and Kentucky Politics for telling the story.

Bubba Bailout advances

After making us endure their endless whining about needing more of our money, raising our taxes, and raiding the employee health fund, you might think Frankfort legislators would be almost finished ripping us off with their half-baked schemes.



Of course, you'd be wrong.

Gov. Steve Beshear should laugh less and do more explaining about why we need to give tens of millions of dollars to someone to build his business up in a way that he already said he was going to do on his own.

Do you really enjoy wasting our money that much, Governor?

Are we all Orwellian economists now?

I love that the Obama Administration has started this morning labeling high questionable press releases "FACT SHEET." (Click the image below to read it.)

Feel better yet?

Highlighted in this press release is the assertion that Spendulus "is expected to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year."

Of course, there will be no way to prove or disprove this unless several million of us will give Obama and Congress credit for "saving" our jobs.

What's really funny is that they used "the same economic model" to make up a number of road jobs created or "saved."

What a mess...

Possible Senate candidate coming to Lexington

Dr. Rand Paul, a Bowling Green physician and the son of Congressman Ron Paul, will speak about his possible campaign for U.S. Senate on Thursday, March 19 at The Inn on Broadway in Lexington.

The meeting will take place from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm and is open to the public.

Dr. Paul said last week he isn't interested in running against Sen. Jim Bunning next year, but would enter the race if Bunning dropped out.

What will Mitch do, this time?

The last time Sen. Mitch McConnell had a choice of who to help in a Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat representing Pennsylvania in 2004, he chose Sen. Arlen Specter over Congressman Pat Toomey. Specter won then and cast the deciding vote this year in favor of the Mother of All Bailouts.

Toomey is the President of the national Club for Growth and a very strong fiscal conservative.

Now it appears Toomey is gearing up for a 2010 run at Specter. At least that is what he suggested to a Pennsylvania talk radio audience this morning, saying a run was "back on the table." Toomey added:

“Senator Specter cast the deciding vote on the very worrisome stimulus bill, when he could have negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama for more productive tax cuts and less wasteful spending.”

Should Toomey file to run, it will be interesting to see who Mitch supports.

Not enough pig in AIG's poke

Amazing that we are giving another $30 billion to AIG when they can't repay the first $150 billion.

My favorite is the "as needed" part.

Debunking more Big Ed spin

Last fall, Kentucky's education bureaucrats beat their chests about Kentucky ACT scores while Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes quietly suggested they were taking credit for success that wasn't theirs.

Now we know Innes was right. Click here to read the latest.

A new campaign, an old dirty trick

The most popular post on Kentucky Progress in the last week was the breaking news about Rand Paul weighing a run for the U.S. Senate.

The most popular post on Bluegrass Policy Blog was about the David Williams/Greg Stumbo legislative secrecy effort.

Jessamine Co. Lincoln Day 2009

The evening started with a little nervous laughter when a letter was read from Sen. Mitch McConnell expressing his appreciation of the Kentucky state Senate for not raising taxes.

Senate President David Williams is the speaker. No one fainted when he stated, when talking about the U.S. Senate, there are three Senators that "can't be counted on." Presumably he is talking about Specter, Snowe, and Collins rather than anyone in Frankfort.

Williams just hinted that he may be running for U.S. Senate next year by saying that he will be campaigning next year just like he did last year for Sen. McConnell, but that he didn't know in what capacity he would be "riding the bus."

AP: What overspending problem?

The Associated Press read Warren Buffett's famous annual letter to his shareholders today and managed to miss the part in which he predicted things will get much worse for state and city governments.

The Bluegrass Policy Blog, however, didn't miss it.

Saturday reading assignment

Christina Romer, Chairwoman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, makes the case for Spendulus 2009 and beyond. You can read it here.

She makes three main points. First, she says it's okay that we can't measure the plan's results:

"The first issue is what it would mean for the policy to work. The President gave a very concrete metric: he wanted a program that would raise employment relative to what it would be in the absence of stimulus by 3 to 4 million by the end of 2010."

So the plan is essentially to start with an unknown (national employment without government stimulus), add 3 or 4 million to it, and declare victory. Nice jobs plan.

Second, she says that if we assume stimulus will create "or save" jobs then it's okay to go ahead and assume the government will inflate the economy into another comfortable bubble.

"When people are employed and buying things, loan defaults fall and asset prices are likely to rise. Both of these developments would surely be helpful to stressed financial institutions. This is, I believe, a key lesson of the Great Depression. In the Depression, the end of deflation, renewed optimism, and increased employment and output were as crucial to the recovery of the financial system as the more direct actions taken to stabilize banks. Thus, real and financial recovery reinforced each other. So, fiscal policy to raise employment may help to restart lending and in that way generate a more durable recovery."

Finally, Romer offers as proof that the city and state bailout is working the fact that the money is already being spent.

"And when, a week after the bill is signed, we see my home state of California raising taxes and cutting spending by more than the amount of the relief the package provides, it certainly doesn’t feel like we’ve accomplishing anything. But we have. States have balanced budget requirements. In the absence of the relief provided in the package, the best case is that their spending cuts and tax increases would be even larger, and the worst case is that they would be unable to pay their bills at all. The fact that states are already changing their budgets, and are factoring in the funds from the package in doing so, is a sign that this portion of the package is timely and effective."

As scary as it is that this pitiful rationale was sufficient to ram massive pork spending through Congress, what's next will be even worse. That comes when taxpayers start buying government health insurance for 48 million people while being promised that doing so will generate "slowing health care costs."

What you already knew about Jim Bunning

National Journal's Congressional Conservative/Liberal ratings are out for the 2008 session. Sen. Jim Bunning leads the way for the Kentucky delegation, coming in 9th most conservative in the Senate. Sen. Mitch McConnell was 15th.

In the House were Rep. Geoff Davis #48, Rep. Ron Lews #75, Rep. Hal Rogers #102, Rep. Ed Whitfield #121, Rep. Ben Chandler #230, and Rep. John Yarmuth #323.

Beshear's "Weekend at Bernie's" policy

Looks like Gov. Beshear sat around all week trying to think of something to make a YouTube video about and could only manage to re-float a flat, two week old trial balloon.

Now you see them, now you don't

Tuesday night, President Barack Obama said this:

"But let me perfectly clear, because I know you’ll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime."

Friday morning, Stateline.org reports this:

"On climate change, the administration figures the federal government will collect $646 billion between 2012 and 2019 for carbon credits. That plan assumes Congress would be able to pass a nationwide “cap-and-trade” system quickly, likely by the end of this year. Obama cabinet officials told governors last weekend they hope Congress passes a law by this summer."

"The nationwide limits on carbon dioxide pollution would apply to all sources of the problem, including cars and trucks."

I didn't see Obama deliver the "one single dime" line on television. Was he wagging his finger?

But maybe he is going to lean on the "see your taxes increased" as justification for hidden costs of the cap-and-trade (or cap-and-tax) scheme.

Ron Paul's son may run for Senate from KY

Congressman Ron Paul's son Rand is going to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Jim Bunning if Bunning ultimately decides not to run, he said Thursday night.

"We will need a conservative to run against that liberal David Williams," Dr. Paul, 46, a Bowling Green opthamologist, said.

"Bunning has been treated unfairly," he said. "It's been his finest hour within the last year or so with his votes on the bailouts."

"David Williams has given up the ghost on the budget. He didn't even put up a fight on raising taxes."

Welcome KY Politics readers!
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Stop feeding them...

... and the Left turns to eating each other.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman isn't happy with the bank bailouts that the rest of us aren't happy with either:

"Obama and Geithner say things like,"
"If you underestimate the problem; if you do too little, too late; if you don’t move aggressively enough; if you are not open and honest in trying to assess the true cost of this; then you will face a deeper, long lasting crisis."
"But what they’re actually doing is underestimating the problem, doing too little too late, and not being open and honest in trying to assess the true cost. The actual plan seems to be to keep the banks semi-alive by implicitly guaranteeing their liabilities and dribbling in money as necessary, all the while proclaiming that they’re adequately capitalized — and hope that things turn up. It’s Japan all over again."
"And the result will probably be a deeper, long-lasting crisis."

As funny as it is to see President "Nationalize It All" catch hell for not nationalizing fast enough, the rest of us need to keep making the case for less government intervention so the private sector can pull us out of this downturn. Just like it always does.

Eliminate these middle men

Why in the world are we trusting a bunch of bureaucrats who can't balance their own books with picking our winners and losers in the corporate welfare game?



If we are going to credit "incentives" with bringing the factory and "creating" jobs via bureaucratic decree, doesn't it make more sense to lower taxes for everyone and see how much better the market can do at creating growth?

How's your new hope and change going?

It's funny how every time a bunch of politicians get together and claim a grand victory for bipartisanship, what really happens is that the taxpayers get hammered and the ranks of principled lawmakers just gets smaller.

Nevertheless, it's disheartening that, with all their wheeling and double-dealing in Frankfort, they couldn't manage to even give a hearing to a bill that would merely require a 24 hour waiting period on tax and spending bills.

I know several Kentucky groups are working up tax and wasteful spending protest rallies. If you know of one, please mention it in the comments section.

Otherwise, stay tuned for at least one big announcement tomorrow on this site.

Drinking our way to prosperity

The Hartford Courant reports Republicans in Connecticut want to solve their state's overspending problems by expanding drinking hours in casinos. With a $1.35 billion projected deficit, what's next, a 2500 drink minimum?

Fortunately for Connecticut, cooler -- Democratic -- heads seem to be prevailing.


Can't wait till Kentucky's good-time crowd in Frankfort gets wind of this one. In our new era of bipartisan cooperation, there is no telling what we might get when the good old boys start mixing booze, late nights, and gambling.

Obama, the flesh-eating zombie?

When President Barack Obama talked about curing cancer last night, I couldn't help thinking of the movie "I am Legend" in which a cancer cure kills almost everyone and turns most of the survivors into cannibal zombies.


Does eating people pay prevailing wage, Mr. President?

Beshear spins for Big Ed and Big Health

Gov. Steve Beshear went on the Leland Conway radio show in Lexington to explain why he raised taxes and raided the state employee health fund. Here is what he said:

"We had some priorities that if at all possible we needed to maintain. And one was in education and the basic funding formula for our schools. I think everybody felt that it was just a requirement that we continue the effort that we're making to improve the education system. We had public safety issues that people felt were a priority as well as the healthcare safety net for our most vulnerable people."

In other words, he wanted the money to expand programs with a poor efficiency track record. Great.

I wonder if Senate President David Williams' answer will be any better.

Bad news, Bishop

Fayette County Detention Center Director Ron Bishop has been trying for two and a half years to get rid of federal whistleblower Cpl. John Vest.

For some strange reason, Bishop thought he had his big chance recently when a career small time criminal busted in Vest's home, only to be thrown to the sidewalk and chased off by Vest.

The criminal went downtown and filed assault charges on Vest. Bishop seemed to think this would allow him to fire Vest legitimately after trying repeatedly to do so illegitimately.

But the charges against Vest were dismissed with prejudice Tuesday.

Bishop has failed repeatedly in his efforts to escape from a big civil lawsuit that also has Mayor Jim Newberry and candidate Teresa Isaac sweating.

Mr. Obama, tear down your campaign web site!

As President Barack Obama addresses the nation tonight, it might be worthwhile to look at some of the promises he made before the election that didn't make it passed his first bill.

Bunning: Williams owes me $30,000

Senator Jim Bunning said KY Senate President David Williams came to him last year and asked for financial help for the campaigns of Sen. Jack Westwood and Sen. Ken Winters. Bunning said he got a promise the money would be repaid.

"David Williams owes me $30,000," Bunning said.

Who are you and what did you do with KY Senate President David Williams?

A month ago, we had a Kentucky state Senate determined to hold the line on taxes and a House minority that usually showed evidence of a spine.

Or so we thought.

Now, we have an army of tax raisers. And don't you dare call the tax raisers tax raisers or one of the tax raisers will let you hear about it.

House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover is someone I have always liked and respected. This is probably about as confrontational as he is going to get in defense of his bad votes.

But now Senate President David Williams is going to come to my county this weekend to a Lincoln Day dinner. This comes after raiding the employee health fund of $50 million and raising taxes that, a month ago, I would have sworn that he understood wouldn't solve anything. It's easier to make the case, in fact, that the tax increases and the health fund raid may make things worse because, as in the case of the federal bailout that is on the way, the money has already been spent. Having failed to discipline ourselves this time, how much worse do you think it will be next time around?

Williams has also filed a bill to take executive branch power away from the executive branch and entrust it to the legislative branch. Can't imagine why anyone other than Greg Stumbo would think that is a good idea now.

Where's the rest of the cavalry?

Secretary of State Trey Grayson has just issued the following statement in support of Senator Jim Bunning:

"Recent news reports change nothing about the US Senate race as I am concerned," Grayson said. "Senator Bunning is a friend and mentor. As I have mentoned before, if he were to decide not to run, I would be keenly interested in the race. Senator Bunning has said that he is running, and I take him at his word. I am not planning a primary."

Mr. Tax Raiser, where are you?

Casey County Republicans report Taxpayer Protection Pledge breaker Sen. Vernie McGaha failed to show up for last Friday's Lincoln Day Dinner.

Wonder if any other Senate Republicans are getting nervous about keeping their speaking engagements?

Thank you, Uncle Albert

This looks like a great idea. The Organizer-In-Chief wants us to "thank" our representatives for voting for the latest bailout scheme for those running our state and local governments into the ground.

I think I will do just that.

Just wondering

When Rep. Ben Chandler ran for governor in 2003, he refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, calling it a stunt. When he ran for Congress the following year, he quickly promised never to vote for a tax increase. He has broken that promise many times.

It will be interesting to see if Sen. David Williams signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge prior to running for the U.S. Senate.

David Williams running for U.S. Senate

(2/23 10:30 am update: Williams denies making calls to members of the House and says he will make a statement about his plans soon.)

State Senate President David Williams is making calls to members of the state House drumming up support for what had been only a possible run for the United States Senate seat currently held by Sen. Jim Bunning.

Hmmmm....

Same as the last corruption

Please help spread the word about this.

Apology to Rep. Joe Fischer

In one of my other day jobs, I write for the Bluegrass Policy Blog. It was just brought to my attention that I left Rep. Joe Fischer off a list of legislators worthy of appreciation for voting in the best interests of taxpayers.

Sorry, Rep. Fischer. I fixed it here.

Having it both ways in Frankfort

Don't let President Barack Obama see this.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear offers some sensible advice to Kentuckians about managing their personal finances (below), but if we all follow it and stop financing our lifestyles with debt, jobs will be lost. Like in the car industry and the government sector.

And we know Pres. Obama is all about saving, and "creating," jobs.

Can't get criminals away from Lex. jail

Disgraced, audited, and mail order educated former Lexington jail administrator Don Leach has been calling the Fayette County Detention Center to tell his buddies how to get Lexington taxpayers to pay them to go to upcoming American Jailers Association conferences.

Hey Don: what do you think about Teresa Isaac running for mayor again?

Why do we let this stupidity persist?

Kentucky's practice of providing health insurance benefits for retired state and local government workers under 65 has to go.

Kentucky's $8.9 billion in unfunded health insurance liabilities for public retirees can't be made to go away quickly, but the practice of offering these benefits should be phased out as soon as possible.

The Commonwealth ranks 8th in the nation in per capita unfunded health insurance liabilities for public retirees. That is especially bad when it is considered that we are 42nd in per capita income and that all of the states with higher unfunded liabilities have more money than we do.

In other words, we are the single most unprepared state in the nation in terms of ability to dole out overly rich benefits to public employees. But we are doing it anyway.

Funny neither of the major newspapers in the state picked up on this story this week right after we raided the same fund of $50 million. But I guess we should be used to it by now.

SC Governor calls a spade a spade

Here's yet another reason to wish Kentucky had another state's governor.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is the reason Pres. Barack Obama's bailout of the cities and states included a provision essentially prohibiting governors from refusing to accept the "stimulus" money. South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn slipped that into the bill when Sanford was trying to explain that it was a bad deal for everyone.

Now, Clyburn says Sanford is against wasteful spending because he hates black people:

""The governor of Louisiana expressed opposition. Has the highest African-American population in the country. Governor of Mississippi expressed opposition. The governor of Texas, and the governor of South Carolina. These four governor's represent states that are in the black belt. I was insulted by that," Clyburn said. "All of this was a slap in the face of African-Americans. It had nothing to do with Governor Sanford.""

Sanford's response, through a spokesman, was fantastic:

""Representative Clyburn is no stranger to playing the race card, because he has no defense for the runaway spending and the deficits contained in this so-called stimulus bil that will hurt our economy. Spending money at the federal level that we do not have represents a future tax increase on all South Carolinians, regardless of their color - and in the process of doing so, he's ripping off everyone he claims to represent.""

Our own Gov. Beshear is eagerly awaiting the money with no apparent concern for the future.

Uh, no

It's not hard to blame Republicans in power since 2000 for giving us Democrats who make insane stuff like this our new reality.

What a dying political career looks like

Someone in Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry's office wanted to see if his recent Fox News appearance garnered any good press.

Google says no.
Newberry still hasn't announced his plans for re-election. Hope this helps. Then he can concentrate on fending off a certain lawsuit.

Where is Ben Chandler today?

Rep. Ben Chandler doesn't want you to know he is quietly urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to call up a bill that would force unionization on private businesses.

President Barack Obama campaigned hard for so-called card check legislation, his ACORN buddies are on board, and the union officials who fund Chandler's campaigns are counting on his support.

Everyone else? Not so much.

Here is video from a card check debate between Kentucky AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan and Kentucky Club for Growth Chairman Warren Rogers.



In other news, Chandler was against the bailouts before he was for them.

Someone has to say it

"Kentucky isn't like California."

How many times has a Bluegrass state native heard that? It used to be a putdown of Kentucky since, years ago, everything cool happened in California first and then we got it about ten years later.

But then California started going for every new left-wing crackpot idea under the sun. They have greened themselves, and taxed themselves, and spent themselves to the edge of fiscal disaster. Being unlike California has become a badge of honor.

Maybe, just maybe, circumstances are about to put us in a position where we go back to looking up to California again.

Now the only thing standing between Californians and the largest state tax increase in history ($14 billion and counting, tax increases are never "enough") is the state's small group of Senate Republicans.

We had a similar opportunity come up in Kentucky last week, but we aren't like California.

And now, California Senate Republicans have ousted their caucus leader for going along with the tax increasers. California big spenders are going to have to get with the cost-cutting program, it appears. And the sooner they do, the better. But we aren't like California.

Indeed, we aren't. More of our Senate Republicans went for the tax increases and the pension raid last week than went against them. Whisperings of efforts to run primary opponents against Republican taxers and raiders are starting to be heard.

Stay tuned...

Kiss that money goodbye!

The Louisville Courier Journal reports the Kentucky Department of Education will receive a $305 million federal bailout.

The schools' MUNIS accounting system is such a mess no one is going to be able to account for this money. That should stimulate someone to action in Frankfort or Washington D.C., but I'm not holding my breath.

"More bail, please"

Automotive News reports that Chrysler wants another $2 billion of your money. I sense a recurring theme here.

And, of course, our politicians are watching.

UNBELIEVABLE update: make that $2 billion for March. And another $2.6 billion in April. Up to a total of $30 billion. Nancy Pelosi says she is hopeful.

Words fail me...

Here is a link to a video in which the GM CEO talks about returning the company to profitability.

Watching California, thinking Kentucky

The budget fireworks in California took a positive turn Tuesday as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has started the major downsizing of government he should have done months ago.

One single Republican vote in the state Senate is all that stands between the nation's biggest state and the nation's biggest tax increase. Should that resistance hold, spending cuts and Obama bailout funds will have to make up huge deficits.

Federal bailout funds prevent much of the forced spending discipline that would do California a world of good. To a much lesser extent, that ship has already sailed for us in Kentucky.

Of course, we will be back having this same argument again very soon in Frankfort. Will it be deja vu all over again, perhaps? Hope not.

Let them eat stock certificates

General Motors is expected to announce Tuesday that their survival plan includes taking more taxpayer money, making fewer cars, and paying off their bonds with soon-to-be worthless stock.
From Automotive News:

Real progress won't begin until after the deal involves paying off union officials with blank pieces of paper.

I have a question, Mr. President!

Just got my invitation in the mail for the Jessamine County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner at 6 pm February 28 at Equestrian Woods in Nicholasville.

Senate President David Williams is the featured speaker.

After last week's votes to raise taxes and raid the state employee health fund of $50 million, this could be a very interesting event indeed.

Admission is $30 per person.

Up with hemp, down with Mountain Dew?

The most popular post on Bluegrass Policy Blog is about a bill to make hemp production legal in Kentucky.

Check out the action in the post's comments section.

At the same time, the most popular post on Kentucky Progress is about making Mountain Dew illegal in Kentucky.

Lexington's own "Trial of the Century"

This summer, Lexington will endure an unusually long federal criminal trial city officials don't want you to know anything about.

The Lexington jail inmate abuse trial starts June 8 and is scheduled to last three weeks.

This suggests former Mayor Teresa Isaac and current jail Director Ron Bishop may have been mistaken when they said on television that there was nothing to this story.

Presidential irony

I wish it were funnier that America has a president whose name and image inspires spam email scam artists.

This isn't even the first time. Won't be the last, either.

Beshear gives Kentucky an Obama

Gov. Steve Beshear borrowed the rhetoric of Pres. Barack Obama yesterday in congratulating himself for his smoke-and-mirrors fix of Kentucky's government spending problem:

Just last Saturday, Obama was saying the same thing about his bailout of the cities and states:

This is what Republican leaders in the Kentucky House and Senate have signed up with? Unbelievable.

If you liked Tax Jam 2009, just wait

The Kentucky Senate voted this morning to raise taxes and to raid the public employees' health fund of $50 million.

Can't imagine where the raid idea came from, since a mere seven months ago the Senate majority seemed to have a pretty good handle on the dire situation in public employee benefits. But the tax increase train never had to leave the station.

If the people behind the tobacco and alcohol industries had only realized that this wasn't about being unfair to the people who make, distribute, and consume their products, their opposition may have been more effective.

These tax increases and the health fund raid won't provide "enough" money to hold back future tax increases and smoke-and-mirrors transfers. Too bad the tobacco and alcohol folks never seemed to realize that the issue wasn't about just them, but was about the size of government all along.

Text messaging is best

Tax raisers in the state Senate are currently one vote short on HB 144. Will your Senator fall into the big government trap?

9:37 AM Update: They just came back in. Wonder who folded?

Senate, don't be as cynical as the House

The theme for this week in Frankfort has been politicians saying one thing and meaning another. A bipartisan Gang of 11 House members betrayed a pledge to their constituents to never support a tax increase. That same Gang also joined 54 fellow House members in tossing aside their seven month old promise to stop making the public employee benefits debacle worse.

Then it was House Budget Chairman Rick Rand's turn.

"We felt it was important that we let the citizens of Kentucky know," he told his Budget Committee, "that everything would be on the table: all cuts, any potential revenue measures, and anything we could do to bring this budget into balance."

Then, presented a commonsense amendment by Rep. Joe Fischer to stop forcing Kentucky taxpayers to pay excessive union wages for public construction projects, Rand spit the bit. Fischer's measure didn't even get a vote. Others tried the same thing on the tax increase bill with the same result.

Unless the Senate's intention is to simply join their friends in the House in raising taxes, they should restore Fischer's amendment and remove the Health Fund raid in HB 143. It also hardly makes sense to allow Beshear to restore funds to prior spending cuts as the bill does with borrowed money. You remember how overextending got us into this mess, right?

Come on, guys. This is ridiculous.

Barack Obama wants us to trust him

Kentuckian in exile Caleb Brown of the Cato Institute wonders why Pres. Barack Obama is playing "hide the details" with his big bailout bill:

"If this legislation is such a good idea, why don’t we get to look at it?"

Seems Obama is disappointing some who thought he was serious when he promised to, you know, not be so secretive about important stuff.

Will Kentucky rob Peter and Paul both?

Federal governments all over the world are printing "stimulus" money faster than grass runs through a Kentucky Derby champion. In Frankfort, politicians are breaking promises just as fast.

It's about to get worse.

Part of the deal to "raise revenues" for the state is, apparently, agreement to allow Gov. Steve Beshear to raid the public employee fringe benefits accounts of $50 million.

Just to get us through this temporary problem. Until the next one, of course.

Whatever happened to this guy?

House fails to hold the line on taxes

House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover delighted Frankfort's big spenders this afternoon by not only voting for higher taxes, but also making a floor speech in favor of higher taxes.

The bill passed 66-34. It now goes on to the Senate. President Pro Tem Katie Stine has pledged to oppose the tax scheme.

Bellying up to the wrong table

House Budget Chairman Rick Rand, speaking in favor of a tax increase bill, just repeated the fiction about everything being "on the table" in the effort to balance the state budget.

If that were true, we would have repealed prevailing wage, ended corporate welfare and sales tax exclusions, dropped out of the Master Settlement Agreement, fired some political appointees, and called it a day.

Smart if true

Gov. Steve Beshear's reputation for meaning what he says isn't the best. Nevertheless, this sounds good:

"I am looking forward to starting work with my colleagues in the legislature on a longer term solution to the challenges confronting us. We will need to discuss how we create a tax system that is not only equitable, fair, and responsive to the changing nature of the global economy, but also keeps Kentucky competitive with surrounding states."

Ending taxes on corporate income and exclusions from the sales and use tax would be a nice start. Getting out of the corporate welfare game completely and repealing prevailing wages show a seriousness for the kind of reform Kentucky really needs.

Time for a Kentucky stimulus task force?

Now that Virginia is a blue state, they must feel obligated to set up web sites asking for citizen input on spending their Barack Obama bailout money.

So they did just that.

Can Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear be very far behind?

Get ready to wave bye-bye to Senate majority

Tonight's blow out loss in the state Senate special election combined with the compromise (read: cave in) on tax increases tells me Kentucky Republicans have gotten tired of having a seat at the table.

What else should anyone expect from a sell-out of principles?

Some good friends won't like this, but get ready to lose a lot more elections if the Senate decides not to hold the line on taxes.

Jim Bunning speaks

Sen. Jim Bunning said today the eligibility for full Social Security benefits should quickly be pushed from age 67 to 70. He said just doing this would put Social Security on "a sound financial basis until 2075."

He also advocated lowering cost-of-living raises for Social Security recipients.

Asked about the bailout bill currently before Congress, Bunning repeated that it was a step toward socialism and that most people understand that and oppose the bill.

"About 95% of my calls are against the bill and the other 5% are from mayors and government employees in Kentucky," Bunning said.

Bunning also mentioned a recent poll showing him ahead of all potential Democratic rivals. He said the results were closer than they should have been because the polling was completed during the ice storm, when much of western Kentucky was without power.

He said that he plans to run his own poll the first week of March.

Assume a woodshed...

... and watch the Cato Institute take President Barack Obama there!