Maybe We Should Pull Their Press Credentials

Has the Louisville Courier Journal done enough unbalanced reporting to show themselves to be not actual "journalists?" At what point do we consider them liberal bloggers with a print edition?

Judge for yourself.

Part of the fun of a partisan site is to run the occasional item with little redeeming value but smear. And when The Courier Journal throws together a completely one-sided "news story" about how Governor Fletcher isn't on the list of contributors to the Mansion restoration project he and his wife have championed across the state, they figuratively climb off their high horse and go step in his (the horse's) tangible work product.

Nashville Dumps "Book of Daniel"

Nashville's NBC affiliate has dropped "Book of Daniel" citing a torrent of viewer complaints.

Nashville, Tennessee is the nation's 30th largest television market.

Money Meets Mouth: A Book Of Daniel Update

Flipped over for three commercial breaks on the Book of Daniel television program on WLEX. Guess how many paid advertisements there were in three breaks?

ZERO.

The liberal media wants you to believe that the protest against this piece of trash was ineffective.

Zero commercials means no dollars. And that means a very short-lived attack on Christians by the Book of Daniel television program.

KY Democrats Bringing Higher Prices To Wal-Mart

Maryland Democrats yesterday struck a blow to consumers with a "Wal-Mart Health Care Bill." Kentucky Democrats may be about to follow suit.

The Wal-Mart bill in Maryland mandates that employers with more than 10,000 employees spend 8% of total employee wages on health benefits. This would double Wal-Mart's expenses in this category. Guess who gets to pick up the difference then. That's right. You do.

The good folks at the AFL-CIO are behind the Kentucky cut-and-paste version of the Maryland bill and Rep. Melvin Henley(D-Murray) is the lead sponsor.

This whacking of private businesses fits the union modus operandi and is just another fine reason why we need Right To Work in Kentucky.

Really Improving Education In Kentucky

This looks like a great bill.

Unfortunately in the Democrat House, it is unlikely to get out of committee.

Just yesterday, Rep. Harry Moberly made a statement about holding the education establishment accountable. This bill, presently before his A&R committee, presents an excellent opportunity for us to see if he was sincere about it.

Now They Are Calling Him BorkAlito

The liberal blogosphere is going bonkers with news that Sen. Joe Lieberman wants to filibuster Supreme Court justice nominee Sam Alito.

The only problem is that it isn't true. A group of Deaniacs went to Lieberman and asked him to not "stifle debate." He said he would think about it.

Doesn't take much to get them worked up.

I Thought We Already Killed This Bad Idea

Kentucky had a law called "no pass, no drive" from 1990 to 2003 that was supposed to cut down Kentucky's high school dropout rate.

It didn't work. Unfortunately for us, that isn't stopping House Democrats from bringing it back up all in the name of doing something about education.

There is no evidence whatsoever that "no pass, no drive" had any impact on the dropout rate in Kentucky back in its heyday, when 129 of 176 school districts used it. Thousands of students each year lost their licenses under the law for dropping out before turning 18, failing four classes, or skipping school more than nine times, but the dropout rate didn't go down.

If old court records are any indication, this law was largely ignored by its targets. Many would continue to drive on their suspended licenses and then plead "hardship" when they were caught and dragged into court.

School officials familiar with the "no pass, no drive" law complain that enforcement was often delayed by the time it took for the Department of Transportation to process school records.

Former liberal talk show host -- also former Third District Congressman -- Mike Ward sponsored the original bill back in 1990. Rep. Mike Cherry (D-Princeton) is pushing it now.

There is no good reason to consider passing this bill. It would be one thing if it worked or could convincingly be portrayed as more than another weak excuse for "doing something" about schools, but it didn't work and we can't afford to pretend that this is somehow worth another try.

We have made mention here before that there is no lobbying group to protect students and parents like there is to protect the status quo in the public education arena. If there were, louder objections to this bill would have been made this morning in the House Education Committee meeting. As it went, the Home School Legal Defense Association was notified this morning, an objection was voiced, and the bill was tabled for now. That was because of a tacked-on line by Rep. Cherry that looks like a back door method for making home schoolers answer to the Kentucky Department of Education and the courts. Rep. Tom Riner(D-Louisville), a home school parent, suggested the bill's reference to home schoolers be changed to "non-public schools," making it possible to anger more people. While this point was used to table the bill as that proposed change is to be discussed further, it really misses the larger point. Why are we trying to dredge up failed bills from the 1990's when we have real current problems to address?

The legislature is taking this moment at the crossroads of our educational system and cramming it down the toilet.

What a waste.

Democrats deserve blame for the current dithering and the recent decades of increasingly expensive treading of water, but Republicans are the ones who could have chosen real increases to educational standards as the perfect wedge issue and they have failed to capitalize.

It looks like we are going to spend the 2006 session arguing about the color of the drapes upstairs while the basement is flooding.

KY Legislature Versus Home Schoolers, Again

The House Education Committee will consider a bill tomorrow that could cause home-schooled high schoolers to lose their drivers licenses.

The purpose of the bill (HB 51) is to resurrect the old No Pass, No Drive bill that was found to be unconstitutional in 2003 because of unfair enforcement. The unconstitutional part of the bill has been removed, but one change has been added to the bill that makes it particularly problematic. The bill could prove to be a back door into regulation of home schools. Here is the most troubling part of the bill:

(5) Withdrawal of a student from a public school with notification that the student will be home schooled shall not enable the student to avoid the consequences of this section if the basis for entry into home schooling is to avoid the consequences of this section. For purposes of this section, the student shall still be considered to have dropped out of school or to be academically deficient.

The home school associations don't seem to have this one on their radar screens, but that will soon change.

Stand Up For Right To Work

It is nearly impossible to calculate the positive economic impact Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky has had on our state.

Many of us know someone who works directly for Toyota or one of its providers. That can be measured and has been. But how many millions of dollars repeatedly flood our regional economy because of the ripples caused by people who serve food, clean up for, provide paper and technology equipment, temporary and permanent housing and hundreds of other products and services to people who provide even the most mundane services to help Toyota put cars on the road?

Again, it is nearly impossible to calculate.

So why would we consciously do anything to jeopardize all of that? Clearly, we wouldn't. But the same bad result could come about if a bill before the Kentucky General Assembly is killed by the big labor unions.

House Bill 38, filed by Rep. Stan Lee (R-Lexington), would simply allow employees of union shops to opt out of union membership. This is called Right To Work and it is the law in 23 states.

The United Auto Workers has been battling against the majority of Toyota's 7000 Georgetown workers who have consistently resisted unionization since 1988. They claim to be gaining support, though that seems hard to believe. But here is the rub: if barely half of the Toyota workforce did vote to allow the union in, then all the workers would be forced to join the union and pay dues or they could lose their jobs. That is one of the reasons we need Right To Work in Kentucky.

We already have enough difficulty bringing in industrial jobs. But our vitality depends heavily on housing and serving many of the people who work in those jobs. As union membership dwindles in the Rust Belt, ferocious proselytizing for unions like the UAW has moved here and elsewhere in the south looking for new converts. They are finding precious few takers, but the efforts continue with greater urgency and wilder rhetoric. Union sycophants have even stooped to blaming mining accidents like the recent one in West Virginia on the declining influence of unions.

Toyota has one American plant in Fremont, California -- co-owned with General Motors -- that is a union shop. Does Kentucky want to risk putting the key to its economic engine into the hands of those unions who have pulled companies like General Motors and Ford to their knees?

The problem with the big American auto makers is not much more complicated than union benefits negotiated in less competitive times that now have a stranglehold over those companies as they become less able to soak up excess costs in a new business environment. These companies often can't make small personnel adjustments that could help them ride out temporary slowdowns. With defined-benefit pensions and rich lifetime-guaranteed health insurance plans piling billions of dollars in fixed costs on their balance sheets, American auto makers are watching Toyota eat their lunch in the marketplace.

Unions, it seems, are consumed beyond all reason with their own perpetuation, even as their parasitical nature becomes clear to most people. Their financial support for liberal causes and politicians only manages to decrease their appeal with the public.

And financial support for such causes is what this is all about.

Common sense Right to Work legislation risks the symbiotic relationship between union leaders and Democratic Party politicians. In Kentucky, House Speaker Jody Richards(D-Bowling Green) has been outspoken in his opposition to HB 38. Interestingly, some "conservative" Democrats have been silent on this key economic issue. Polling indicates that 74% of Kentuckians favor a Right to Work law here. Democrats have seen the clear choice between the economic interests of Kentuckians and the union leaders who finance their campaigns. Sadly, they seem to be taking the money and running with it.

Finally, a comparison tale of two states is informative. Tennessee and Kentucky have spent much of their existence sharing similar circumstances. Their trajectories have diverged, however, as Tennessee has offered its citizens the choice to not pay dues to labor unions. As recently as 1969, Kentucky was 44th in per capita disposable income and Tennessee was 42nd. Currently, Kentucky ranks 41st and Tennessee is up to 19th. How much longer do we need to wait before moving onto the right economic track?

At its heart, Right to Work really is about employee choice and employer choice. Employees should be able to work in a business without joining a labor union. The choice they have now is to go to work elsewhere. Companies who want their employees to have that same opportunity have a choice as well. Right now, it is just too easy for those companies to avoid Kentucky. Remembering that ripple effect caused by Toyota, wouldn't it make sense to do all we can to encourage large employers to come here? Providing Right to Work freedom is the least we can do.

Bush, Economy, Liberal Media Bias

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed back to its pre-9/11/01 level and the liberal media is none too happy about it. Thanks to The Locker Room for the heads up on this.

Democrat Response: 2025?! That's Not Even An Election Year!

The most telling aspect of Governor Fletcher's State of the Commonwealth address was in the Democrat response. After hearing the Governor lay out a wide array of short and long-term goals, Sen. Ed Worley and House Speaker Jody Richards couldn't get past the fact that Fletcher mentioned some standards for the state to reach by the year 2025.

"Setting ambitious long-term goals and laying out a vision for gradual improvement was a bold stroke for the Governor," Senator Worley utterly failed to say. Then he did not hasten to add "Democrats just don't have any ideas at all, so we are kind of stuck on whining about minutiae."

The upcoming budget speech is where we will get the real meat, but this was pretty good. The Democrats are just chafed about the Right to Work bill.

Rep. Perry Clark Resigns

Current State Rep. and Senate candidate Perry Clark has resigned his House seat and Speaker Jody Richards has called for a special election the same day as the Senate special.

This will get very interesting very quickly as most special elections usually are solo efforts. How the two campaigns are intertwined will be made more interesting if the Democrats nominate two men and the Republicans nominate two women. I have no speculation on who the Republicans are going to nominate, but would guess that Councilman Ron Weston is will get the nod from the Dems.

UPDATE: Kentucky Kos has picked up the story and is pushing again for Virginia Woodward to get the Dem nomination. Too funny.

But Will Raising Teacher Pay Help Students?

Look for a good old-fashioned bipartisan snow job this winter from our General Assembly on teacher pay in Kentucky. Taxpayers need to call a halt to this before it is too late.

We have heard the teachers' union complain about teacher pay for so long that it has become part of the wallpaper, accepted as true and never scrutinized. But distressingly often when education bureaucrats' statements do face scrutiny, they come up short. A look at some of these statements might give us pause on this hot-button issue.

Just this past August, we heard weeping and wailing about how Kentucky had fallen to 50th in state spending for education under Governor Fletcher. Turned out that Governing Magazine, the first source of this dire statistic, had used 2002 Census Bureau statistics. Stuck on blasting the Governor even for something that happened two years before he took office, some groups such as the Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance, the Kentucky Democratic Party, and most of the state's mainstream media outlets persist in promoting this falsehood today.

This fall I learned gains in ACT scores touted by the Kentucky Department of Education evaporate when private school and home school students are removed from the statistics. Last time I checked, these students didn't fall under the purview of the state's public education system. From a cynical, no-holds-barred point of view, taking credit for something they didn't do might be considered a shrewd piece of work. But coming from government officials who make policy affecting the lives of our children, this is extremely disappointing.

The sorry track record of those who have made careers out of demanding more and more money, coupled with Kentucky's failure to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind student testing component nearly provides the proper context in which to examine the idea of greatly increasing teacher pay.

For help with that, we turn to North Carolina. Researchers at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh sought to examine similar claims of insufficient teacher pay in their state by making an apples-to-apples comparison of all the states. What they found was interesting: North Carolina's national salary ranking of 23rd was corrected to 11th when benefits were added in and relative cost-of-living was figured in. Cost of living is significant in the real world. New Jersey's $53,663 average salary goes roughly 70% as far in New Jersey as it does here in Kentucky. That helps put New Jersey's teachers at the bottom in pay nationally and Kentucky ranks number five.

That's right. Kentucky's teachers are the fifth best paid teachers in the nation. That should have been the education story of the year last year, but chances are excellent that you are seeing it for the first time here.

The current effort in Frankfort to bring Kentucky teacher pay up is said to keep them from escaping to higher salaries in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Georgia. Interestingly, of those states Indiana actually pays less than Kentucky in terms of real dollars. Louisville-area Kentuckians who run across the bridge to teach in the Hoosier state might actually want to take another look at the fringe benefits offered to Kentucky teachers. They make the total compensation here in the Bluegrass higher than that of Indiana. Ohio, Illinois, and Georgia join Michigan as the only states in the nation that have higher average teacher compensation than Kentucky. They all possess better education statistics than we do, but so do nearly all of the states who pay their teachers less than we do. I fail to see how adding enough to move us from #5 to #3 in teacher pay nationally is going to do much to benefit our children, who seem to be faring much worse than their teachers. Maybe they need a students' union.

Before we risk busting the budget with even higher teacher pay, skeptical taxpayers would do well to demand proof that it will actually help student performance commensurate with the high cost being suggested now. Given that Kentucky teacher pay already compares so favorably with other states, perhaps we need to look elsewhere first to improve student benefits.

Debbie Peden For Senate 37

Today Louisville Republicans nominated Debbie Peden to run in the special election February 14 to fill the 37th Senate district seat.

Peden is the wife of Louisville Metro Councilman James Peden and mother of two small girls ages 6 and 3.

She is a first time candidate, but a veteran campaigner for multiple local campaigns. A former teacher, Peden views education as her top priority, followed by affordable healthcare, and bringing more retail shops and jobs into her district.

Asked why she felt qualified to serve in the Senate, she replied that she brings "the voice of an educator, the voice of a woman, and the voice of every resident of the 37th district." She said she plans to run a positive campaign, adding that after the year-long court battle over her distict's representation "we need a Senator."

Power Struggle In River City

Louisville Republicans gather Sunday at 2pm to vote on their candidate for the 37th Senate district special election coming up on Feb 14.

Doug Hawkins and Debbie Peden appear to be the locked in a tough battle for votes.

It is unclear whether a Peden win would actually be some kind of protest against the GOP leadership that has shown strong suport for Hawkins.

Stay tuned...

NBC Doesn't Want Christian Viewers

Nearly all NBC affiliates went ahead and aired the "Book of Daniel" television program Friday night. I have heard WLEX got slammed with complaint phone calls during the episode. Probably not a bad idea to keep that up every Friday at 9 pm.

In fact, I've been thinking about how difficult it would be to just stop watching the network altogether. Law & Order used to be interesting, but of late has fallen back on liberal preaching. What else is there? I can't think of anything good on NBC at all.

What do you think?

Louisville Dems Pick Perry Clark

Breaking News From Louisville: After deliberating nearly three hours, Louisville Democrats picked Rep. Perry Clark to run for the vacant 37th district seat.

Fur Flies In Louisville

Louisville's 37th Senate district electors have been locked in a room for 2 1/2 hours arguing about who will be the Democrats' candidate in the February 14 special election.

What could be keeping them in there so long?

Common Sense Eludes House Democrats, Still

It's a new year, but don't tell Frankfort's House Democrats.

They are partying like it is 2005 all over again.

Last year in their largest policy "achievements" in decades, Washington D.C. Democrats shouted down the discussion about saving Social Security, tried to shut down the war effort, and cried all year to prevent anyone from building oil refineries or drilling in the Alaska wilderness.

Their actions didn't feed any children, as the saying goes, but they sure showed everyone that they aren't completely irrelevant. Great.

Well, Frankfort's own Harry Reid is on a filibuster path of his own.

Asked his position on Right To Work legislation, Speaker Jody Richards said "Our agenda is 'A Commitment to Kentucky Families,' and during the 2006 General Assembly session, we'll be addressing these issues: Educating our children, leading the way to energy relief and independence, preserving our family farms, creating and keeping Kentucky jobs, standing up for Kentucky families, and promoting open and honest government. We invite the governor and Senate Republicans to join us in 'A Commitment to Kentucky Families.'"

In fewer words, Speaker Richards has a "no comment" on economic development. I guess their best idea for last year -- doing nothing, but doing it loudly -- is going to be their plan for 2006.

Great.

KY Democrats Choose Symbolism Over Substance

House Speaker Jody Richards came on Lexington's Kruser & Krew program on WVLK 590 AM to discuss Democrats plans to raise teacher salaries.

What he didn't discuss is that his plan would move Kentucky teachers from 5th highest paid in the nation currently to 3rd. I hope they didn't stay up too late last night crafting that big plan.

Throwing more money at education is the liberal mantra, but if that were the key, Washington D.C. would have the best school system on the planet instead of the worst.

The hapless Richards admitted that the move is nothing more than politics as usual: "It will be a symbol that we are truly trying to raise our educational standards."

Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: "Intelligent Designers" Kill Time Fighting With "Evolutionists"

They haven't yet posted it on their site as I write this, but ACLU of Kentucky is moving to take advantage of the weak push by Republicans to make a wedge issue out of creationism.

ACLU of Kentucky is going to have a public meeting next Wednesday night at Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville. Speakers include two U of L biology professors and one anthropology professor.

I can't believe we are wasting time talking about this when the GOP could very easily take advantage of the wreck that public education in Kentucky has become during so many decades of Democrat control -- as both parties continue to have great ideas like throwing more money at the problem in hopes that it will go away.

Clinton Suspension To End

The five year suspension of Bill Clinton's law license for lying under oath is set to run out in two weeks. He agreed to the suspension on the last day of his term in office in order to avoid prosecution.

"Book Of Daniel" Update: A Crack In The Facade

As word gets out that two NBC affiliates are going to refuse to air the anti-Christian "Book of Daniel" television program, the network is having a bit of a meltdown.

Executive VP of current programming Vivi Ziglar actually said "People are reacting based on not having seen it. They're seeing the advertising, not seeing what the core of the show is."

So which is it, NBC? Is your own marketing of the show (which describes rampant drug abuse and illicit sex by a "Christian" family) meant to be misleading in some way or is the advertising specifically designed to make people not want to watch the show? It would seem that an organization that owes its very existence to advertising would be totally focused on showing "what the core of the show is," right?

Tim Gilbert, President of WLEX (Lexington's NBC affiliate), has said that his station will air the show, but he has said publicly that the show itself is a waste of time. He has seen the first episode, set to air tomorrow night and said "I was so bored I thought 'what am I doing here?'"

KY Democrats Have Their Wedge Issue

House Speaker Jody Richards (D-Bowling Green) should be unveiling Democrats' grand scheme to lock in teachers' union volunteers for their fall campaigns. They are talking about raising teacher salaries in budget-busting fashion.

I'm not surprised to see the party that hears "education priorities" and thinks "money, money, money" ramping up another effort to play to the KEA gallery by talking about 15% pay increases rather than somethiing that would actually improve education in Kentucky.

This only works for them because most people don't realize that Kentucky teachers are not the 34th best paid teachers in the nation as we continue to hear.

They would be, if we ignore both employee benefits and economic reality. In the real world, Kentucky's average teacher pay plus benefits (and figuring in relative cost-of-living expenses), Kentucky's teachers rank 5th best compensated in the nation.

Conservative Versus Moderate In Lexington's 88th

Rep. Bill Farmer (R-Lexington) might have been a little concerned when he noticed that former Lexington city councilman Fred Brown filed to run against him in a rare House Republican primary.

He shouldn't be.

In an interview today, Mr. Brown was asked to explain why he thought he would make a better legislator than Rep. Farmer.

He said,"I am more moderate than the incumbent." He added that he thought Rep. Farmer is an "ultra-conservative."

Looks like a pretty good way to position yourself out of a Republican primary before it even starts. Mr. Brown is well regarded from his years on the council, but 2006 is shaping up as the year of the conservative in Kentucky. Not only are nearly all the House Democrats busily trying to out-conservative each other, but insiders say that Governor Fletcher himself is ready to blaze a more consistently conservative trail through this session.

With any luck, that will mean more for economic policies and less for the goofy intelligent design in schools stuff. I call that lipstick on a pig. Let's not worry so much about the odd biology teacher who wants to make monkeys of all of us. We need school choice and to get serious about school accountability first. And be watching for a school voucher bill.

New Media Swings A Big Stick

Watching the staffers of www.kentuckyvotes.org hold court in the Capitol cafeteria this morning was striking. I saw legislators come by and explain their actions and ask questions about the functions of what is essentially the new sheriff in town.

Expect the House to change some of their voting procedures this year, especially the bum's rush of bills that legislators have to vote on without even reading in the waning days of each session.

When that happens, Kentucky Votes will deserve the credit. Complete legislator voting records will be available online for the 2006 session. Who do you think made that happen? The Herald Leader or the Courier Journal? Nope. It's Kentucky Votes again.

Voter disconnection from the legislative process has long since turned most people off to how our laws are made. Those who thrive in the shadows are hoping you don't embrace the new technology that Kentucky Votes has harnessed.

The Death of 24 Hour News

The West Virginia mine disaster story illustrates perfectly why we don't need 24 hour news.

The feeding frenzy that began in the middle of the night when a rumor that twelve of thirteen trapped miners had been found alive should never have made its way all around the world unchecked.

The mainstream media continues to push the ridiculous idea that they are the "official" word because they have layers of editors. The editors didn't help last night. The rush to get the word out first did.

Incidentally, I just got in from the Capitol in Frankfort. Got my "media" credentials.

So there. The times, they are a changin'.

Two Stupid Kentucky Bills

Two House bills filed yesterday jump off the page as particularly wasteful government activity: Rep. Rick "Black Out" Nelson (D-Middlesboro) wants to suspend market forces and prevent utility rate increases in 2006. Rep. Don "The Private Sector Already Does That" Pasley (D-Winchester) wants to set up a state government agency to compete with the private non-profits who have successfully for years helped low-income senior citizens get their prescription drugs for free.

Up Next: Louisville's 37th Senate Special Election

We are waiting for Democrat Virginia Woodward to drop any appeal of last month's Supreme Court ruling so Senate President David Williams can call a special election for Louisville's vacant Senate seat. President Williams said today that he is waiting for such an assurance from Woodward before he sets the special election.

Woodward said that she was unaware of President Williams' request and had not heard anything from him. Republicans would be well-advised to get on the phone with Woodward immediately. Then call the election.

Virginia Woodward is seen even by many Democrats as an illegitimate candidate because she only became the Democrat nominee in 2004 because of a scheme cooked up with Sen. Larry Saunders. He withdrew his filing, allowing Woodward to file with less than thirty minutes before the deadline as the only Democrat in the race.

Louisville Metro Councilman Doug Hawkins looks like the best shot for the Republicans.

Final Answer: "Book Of Daniel" To Air On WLEX, WAVE

I sat down and looked at a few network television shows Friday night to see if there was an alternative to the upcoming "Book of Daniel" show that starts this week.

There really wasn't anything on worth recommending.

WLEX President Tim Gilbert said today that despite local requests to not broadcast the program, the "Book of Daniel" show will go on.

He said he watched the program to see if it met community standards, a quasi-legal standard that usually refers to obscenity. He found no compelling reason not to air the show.

"Do I think someone went out of his way to demean the Christian faith? No," Gilbert said.

Gilbert said that, having watched the show, he could understand objections to the program but that banality wasn't a strong enough reason for an affiliate to fight a programming decision by the network.

"The show is completely ridiculous," Gilbert said, adding that the characters were unusually dysfunctional. "Halfway through the first hour I was so bored I thought 'what am I doing here?'"

Democrat Insider: John Kerry Coming To Bluegrass

Sen. John Kerry is making plans for an early spring fundraiser in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, according to a Democrat insider who spoke on condition of anonimity.

Can't wait to hear from elected Kentucky Democrats who Sen. Kerry is coming to represent.

More Drunk Tennesseans In Orange

A new law in Tennessee starting yesterday requires first-time convicted drunk drivers to don orange vests and pick up litter on the state's highways.

It's not all bad for the drunks, though. Following their community service, they are provided two free football tickets and they get to keep the snazzy vest.

Good Ol' Rocky Top!

Make A Law Against Anti-War Funeral Protests

Several states are actually having to go to the trouble of passing laws forbidding protest marches at Iraq war soldier funerals.

Kentucky needs to join this.

Or maybe we can trot out my favorite: a $25 dollar fine for beating up a war protester who would rant and rave at a soldier's funeral.

Could Kentucky Democrats Change Their Name?

Despite the flurry of media-inspired public relations debacles for Republicans in 2005, the fact remains that many Kentucky Democrats are going to have a tough time at the ballot box in 2006, primarily because of problematic policy positions locally and a national party seemingly oblivious to issues that resonate with the electorate.

One scenario could play out that would result in at least a superficial change for Kentucky's left-of-center politicians.

They could change their name.

I noticed a Wall Street story that could provide momentum for such action. Investment giant Merrill Lynch announced their strategy for improving the results of their troubled mutual fund division: you guessed it, they are changing its name.

Such a move is not unprecedented in recent American politics. Minnesota's liberal party is actually named the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Has been since 1944 when Democrats merged with the Farmer-Labor party.

Kentucky's left-wing name change probably wouldn't involve such a coalition, but would of necessity probably have to undertake a little creative positioning and marketing license.

Maybe the "Very Conservative, Strong Christian, Family-Oriented Democratic Party of Kentucky."

What do you think? I don't know; maybe they need to work in something about having the courage to raise taxes and to hold the seemingly contradictory position of being against fighting terrorists but for the military.

Oh, and they will have to do something about their bad habit of protecting trade unions at the expense of regular workers and consumers. And there is the little issue of holding to the status quo in education with regard to policy and just continuing the clamor for more and more money.

Maybe a name change won't get it done for Kentucky Democrats, but neither will embellishing their fundraising efforts with Hillary in December. We will have the real numbers on that very soon.

Stay tuned.

Welcome, Lexington Herald Leader Readers!

The new year is going to be pivotal for conservative people in Kentucky. The General Assembly starts next week and the action will not slow down even a little bit until the elections in November.

It's noteworthy that nearly every Democrat from Pikeville to Paducah is busily trying to cover himself in "conservative" clothes -- just like Extreme Makeover Hillary!

Top priorities for Frankfort over the next three months include enacting anti-union protections for workers, saving taxpayers dollars with prevailing wage legislation, saving Medicaid, and changing how we handle our education spending and prioritization. Also have a little issue about cutting taxes on business. It will be a wild time.

Conservative people have taken a beating in the media this past year. This is our time to stand up for our principles and take our cities, towns, counties, state, and even our nation back from those who are just as happy to see us cave in to those who would see us ruined all in the name of not hurting some pervert's feelings (or worse, a terrorist's).

I think the first order of business for conservatives in 2006 is taking a stand and shutting down the NBC television show "The Book of Daniel." The network's own promotional materials show this to be a ridiculous depiction of "Christians." That is bad enough, but its characterization of our Lord, Jesus Christ, as some kind of smart aleck is beyond the pale. Call your local NBC affiliate and tell them not to air the show.

Happy New Year!

Is This Our Guy For 2008?

Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) may be our best shot for the White House in 2008. Tradesports.com has John McCain as the current favorite for the nomination, but there just aren't enough open primaries for Democrats to nominate him. What McCain has now is name recognition. When all the people who aren't going to run -- like Gingrich, Giuliani, Cheney, Rice, and Jeb Bush-- drop off, Allen will have to get past Senator Bill Frist and my bet would be that he can do it. Pretty easily, really. For the record, I think Jeb Bush would make a better President, but I can't see the Bush family getting a hat trick.

Much more on this to come in the new year.

"Book Of Daniel" Update

An inside source at WLEX, the NBC affiliate in Lexington, reports that calls of protest against the "Book Of Daniel" program continue to inundate the station's switchboard and that management has ordered an advance copy of the show to determine if it fits community standards.

This is a great story and the media is missing it.

This Time, Open Mouth Disease For Howard Dean's Brother

Jim Dean just put himself in the running for idiot of the year.

In a letter to supporters of his website "Democracy For America", Jimmy made a list of successes in 2005. Several of them are noteworthy-- shutting down the discussion on Social Security, joining the Cindy Sheehan parade, electing a Democrat governor in New Jersey, and shutting down conservative ballot initiatives in California, but one talking point surprised even me.

Here it is, from the brother of Howard Dean:

"In June, you helped expose the Bush administration's rush to war by forcing the Downing Street Memos into the mainstream media. Public support for the war has been on the decline ever since."

First off, it took about 48 hours for even the New York Times to admit that there was nothing to the Downing Street Memo. But that isn't a big deal. Touting a decline in public support for the war as some kind of badge of honor for the fringe left leaves me speechless.

When are Kentucky Democrats going to publicly repudiate this character and his brother? Why won't they do this? Will they stop at nothing to relive their glorious days of our loss in Viet Nam?

Child Molesters Against The War

We know that the ACLU, Sierra Club, NARAL, NOW and the full alphabet soup collection of liberal groups in this country have spoken loudly their opposition to the war effort.

Well, did you know that a national association of homosexual child molesters stands with them all in opposition to hunting down the terrorists in Iraq?

The North American Man/Boy Love Association, whose main function is providing tips to pedophiles on how to avoid detection while raping little boys, had this to say before the war with Iraq started.

An excerpt: We will not insult readers’ intelligence by pointing out the many even worse dictators who have not been targeted or the ones current and past American administrations have hypocritically supported.

Thanks for not insulting our intelligence, guys. And thanks for being on the other side of this issue too.

"Book Of Daniel" Day Two

I will be a guest on the Sue Wylie Show on 590 WVLK AM this morning at 11 AM talking about the "Book of Daniel" controversy.

Walter D. Huddleston Jumps Back In The Fray

Seventy nine year old former Kentucky Senator Walter D. Huddleston appears to be making his move back into public life with a public call for a $10 minimum wage in the Bluegrass state.

Huddleston is really just an honorary co-chair for a left-wing group in Lousville called the Center for Kentucky Progress. But they are promoting a laundry list of darn-near communist legislative priorities like socialized medicine, two year full-day kindergarten, and requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for birth control pills.

They also want huge increases in education spending so that Kentucky winds up being 25th nationwide in per capita spending in ten years. That's pretty arbitrary, but my favorite is the minimum wage thing. We could call it the "Soup Kitchen Bill" or the "Giant Sucking Sound Bill" for all the jobs that would be lost if we suddenly gave employers the choice of paying all their workers ten dollars an hour or leaving the state. (I guess we could pass a law preventing businesses from shutting down like they did in Atlas Shrugged, right?)

The General Assembly session is drawing near. This kind of stuff, which will get a lot more discussion than it deserves, will have the nouveau conservative Democrats flipping and flopping to avoid alienating a key Democrat constituency without getting themselves plastered with the dreaded "L" word.

They will be a sight to behold.

Will WLEX, WAVE Attack Christians With "Book Of Daniel" Show?

If you have not heard about an idiotic television show starting in January purportedly about Christians and Christianity, hold on to your hats.

"The Book of Daniel" is to begin airing January 6 on NBC affiliates and, according to the American Family Association, it is a particularly offensive depiction of "Christians" who engage in drug abuse (and drug dealing), illicit sex, and a wise-cracking "Jesus" character. And all this happens in the home of the Episcopal priest around whom the story revolves.

According to sources at WLEX in Lexington, the station has received about 200 emails and 200 phone calls today about this program. They have not seen any of the episodes, but given the fast outpouring of viewer opinion, are considering the possibility of making a change.

"I'm taking this seriously," said station manager Tim Gilbert.

There is precedent for WLEX pulling offensive programming on a limited basis. This fall, the station received an advance copy of an episode of "The Office" and found it to be objectionable so they didn't air it at the normal time. They later aired it very late one evening.

But completely pulling a show from the network in advance of its premiere would be a big step, one Gilbert isn't ready to commit to.

"We could ask for (an advance copy of the show) and be told 'no,'" he said. "I haven't seen it yet. I'm kind of rocking back on my heels (because of the public response)."

The AFA has issued, via email, the following description of the show:

While the public has not seen the program, NBC is promoting "The Book of Daniel" as a serious drama about Christian people and the Christian faith. The main character is Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on her mid-day martinis. Webster regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus. The Webster family is rounded out by a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer, and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop's daughter. At the office, his lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.

This story is not going away until NBC relents and pulls the television show. Major social shifts have started on less of a platform than this. We will be watching this very closely.

Associated Press Kentucky: Media Bias Parade

Heard yesterday that the Associated Press named the Merit Hiring Investigation as the top story of the year. Partisan Democrats obviously agree. What is funny is that while the AP trumpets a story that no one cares about, the various media efforts to erode American resolve for fighting terrorism was the true story of the year in 2005.

Next December when Democrat politicos are bemoaning their inability to get their message out, more people will realize that the left has painted itself into a tiny corner trying to make war protesting into the mother of all wedge issues.

That is what people care about and what they will remember.

What Kind Of Year Has It Been?

Interesting Ryan Alessi article in the Herald Leader this morning asks Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Ben Chandler to describe the year 2005 in Washington D.C.

In short, McConnell says it was the best year in a long time and Chandler says it was a bad one.

While it is tempting to go along with Chandler's point that it was a bad year for Republicans because Social Security reform was murdered in its infancy, the war effort was attacked relentlessly by the media, and the Tax Reform movement was betrayed by those most capable of moving it along, GOP initiatives to curb bankruptcies and illegal immigration, spur energy production, highway safety, and free trade all the while holding off Democrat efforts to mar the war effort make 2005 a qualified success.

It bears repeating that liberal Republican Senators give Democrats a voting majority on many issues in the United States Senate. Given that, McConnell is right and deserves praise for his work as Republican Whip to gain votes for key bills. Understood in its proper context, it is amazing that President Bush has been able to get anything done at all.

Ben "the wealthy haven't sacrificed anything" Chandler seems to be enjoying his rock throwing days in the minority of the House. He is right that Bush failed in his top priority of securing Social Security. But the Americans who will pay the price for Democrats' Pyrrhic victory of 2005 (read: all of us) will remember at some point that the liberal bum's rush on free market reform of the last huge defined benefit plan.

Zig zagging poll numbers have left wing activists seeing brighter liberal days ahead through their beer goggles. Drink up boys, but please don't drive home. You've done enough damage to America for now. And we want to see your faces when your obstruction comes back to bite you in the next year.

This year hasn't been all fun and games like you see over at Kentucky Kos, but it has just been a warm-up. All the games that count are in 2006. Don't forget that.

And we have them on tape crowing about the war, Social Security, and energy independence. Those should be fun to play back later.

Fetal Stem Cell "Researcher" Bites The Dust

Bad news for abortion fans: the South Korean "scientist" considered a top researcher because of his work with fetal stem cells, was fired from his university in Seoul because his work was found to be fraudulent.

Rather than creating more embryos to destroy them, perhaps these folks would be better off if they quit trying to fake their ideology into existence and joined in with adult stem cell research that has shown legitimate promise.

Can't use that to justify abortion on demand, though. Expect the Hwang Woo-suk case to be treated by the MSM as just another isolated incident and not the exposed underbelly of a pro-abortion movement run amok.

Suck Up: Radio Talker Supports Outspoken Dem

WLAP's Dave Baker had liberal blogger Mark Nickolas on his show this morning talking politics. Nickolas, at the end of the interview, asked Baker if he would support Rep. Ben Chandler in his 2007 re-run for Governor.

Baker took the softball pitch and twisted himself up like a pretzel, claiming that he wouldn't duck the question but that he would have to examine Chandler's voting record in Congress before he could "make an informed decision."

I have sent Dave Baker problematic voting record information of Chandler's on taxes, government spending, social issues, and even the most recent votes against increasing US energy independence repeatedly and AT BAKER'S REQUEST.

We have come to expect kid glove treatment of Democrats like Chandler from mainstream talking heads. I don't know how much of a role sheer laziness played in Baker's tacit endorsement of Chandler, but it seems almost like CNN's resistance to report about Saddam Hussein's misdeeds in order to maintain access.

Pathetic.

Indiana Doesn't Need Right To Work Like We Do

Interesting article in the Louisville CJ today about Indiana's Governor Daniels saying that he wasn't going to push for Right To Work legislation despite his belief that having it would have prevented the loss of a major employer.

Colgate is pulling out of Indiana and Daniels said last week that if state law didn't allow unions to force membership on all companies they control, the state may have been able to save the 475 jobs they are going to lose when Colgate leaves for a Right To Work state.

Indiana has a larger and more diverse workforce and Governor Daniels may be right when he says the state can progress without fighting for Right To Work.

But Kentucky has seen a faster loss of jobs with union affiliation than Indiana has. And the main thing about Right To Work is that it is about freedom. Under RTW, unions don't have a stranglehold on all employees in union shops. If an individual wants to opt out of union membership under RTW, he may do so. The political battle on this is worth fighting in Kentucky. As it gets ramped up, watch for rhetoric like this from the last sentence of the CJ story:
Edwards said there is not enough support in Indiana to impose a right-to-work law.

When the union thugs take to calling freedom an imposition, they clearly have gotten a little big for their britches.

Kentucky Supreme Court: Stephenson Not Eligible

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that Dana Seum Stephenson can't serve in the Senate.

There will wind up being a special election and Rep. Perry Clark (D-Louisville) will wind up representing the 37th Senate district.

Senate President David Williams says he is going to wait until the ruling is final in twenty days before announcing what he will do next.

He will probably announce a special election and Perry Clark will probably win it. Democrats will have fun with this and their fun is made double because they don't have to talk about what a disaster Virginia Woodward would have been.

Will Big Unions Stick Together Versus Kentucky?

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Louisville Courier Journal print a fair article on Rep. Stan Lee's Right to Work bill. The last line of the story, though, provided an unexpected belly laugh just in time for Christmas. Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO, is trying to throw a bone to the teachers' union for help against this commonsense legislation.

From the CJ story:
He argues better funding of education would allow Kentucky workers to better compete internationally.

It's a nice try to bring another powerful lobby into his fight, but it won't work. Not only will the teachers' union back away from the trade unions on this, big education will be protecting their own pockets rather than sticking with their union brothers on the prevailing wage on education construction projects bill filed by Rep. Jim DeCesare.

Central Kentucky Initiative: Disband LFUCG

Three decades ago, Lexington activists organized an effort to create the Lexington-Fayette County Urban County Government with the slogan "The Urge to Merge."

After three years of Mayor Teresa Isaac's relentless pursuit of a liberal agenda, now is the time to purge the merger. Lexington should go back to a regular city government and Fayette county should go back to a regular county government. That way, the power of the Mayor's office will be diminished in favor of the people of Fayette county. Centralized power is something our nation's founders wanted to limit.

For the good of all Kentuckians, we should seek the same.

The political environment in Louisville probably isn't as conducive to such a change, as they just recently merged their city and county governments. But people in Lexington, especially those who want to stop the endless water condemnation fight, should be ready to take back their own voices by rolling back their merged government.

Atlanta Paper: KY Merit "Scandal" A Dead Issue

The gallons of ink spilled over the Kentucky merit hiring issue seems to have just about run dry. Have you noticed that the newspaper stories have slowed to a trickle? Wonder why?

Well, the answer is simple. While the abuse of the merit system was wrong and has been wrong every time it was done in the last fourty years, the abuse that may have occurred in the Fletcher administration is little more than a hiccup in the grand scheme of things. If not for mishandling of the fallout by the Administration itself, really, this would have been cleared up and dispatched a long time ago.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sent a reporter to Frankfort to find out what all the fuss was about and his story appeared in today's paper.

Once again, anything that looks like a cover-up is far worse than most "scandals." But now that the General Assembly is ready to go back into session, perhaps we can get on to some more important things. And just as President Bush's approval ratings have shot up as he has publicly addressed the most important issue to most Americans, Fletcher's will do the same to the extent that he publicly works to improve the most important issue in Kentucky: education.

Some Democrat Nonsense May Be Okay

The rabid left is starting to talk up the idea of impeaching President Bush. While I'm not inclined to argue much with a Democrat suicide strategy of trying to remove a wartime President for trying to help us win a war they don't like, I'm actually starting to warm up to the idea quite a bit.

President Cheney kind of has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

And don't forget VP Rice for good measure.

Kentucky Election Law Needs Change

Did you know most states have laws to allow political parties to replace their nominee on a ballot if he or she drops out?

Kentucky isn't one of them and that needs to change.

My reasoning goes like this: we are a two party state now (with a vibrant and growing independent population, but that's another story) and if one candidate must drop out, that disenfranchises a large segment of the voting population.

We should fix this soon.

Will Georgia's Sex Offenders Move To Kentucky?

An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today discusses some proposed legislation in Georgia that could have an impact on Kentucky and other states that refuse to get tough with sex offenders.

One proposed law would prohibit sex offenders from working within 1000 feet of any place that children congregate. Should this pass (and I think it should) it would cause a mass exodus of sex offenders from the state. Think about it: how do you make sure that you are working 1000 feet away from children? What if a day care center moves in down the street or your employer moves to a building near a school? So the real question is where will these people move when Georgia passes this law, to Tennessee? What happens then?

People who commit sex crimes (especially those against children) should enjoy very minimal freedoms when they are released from prison. At the very least, Kentucky should make laws to establish our state as a place that is extraordinarily inhospitable to these people. If we don't, we may just inherit them as they flee other states who have strengthened their laws.

Some limp-wristed radio host in Lexington got a little whiny back in the summer when I suggested we decriminalize harassment of convicted sex offenders. But when other states start rolling their perverts downhill, we need to make sure that we aren't at the bottom of that hill.

Teachers' Union Weeps, Wails, Gnashes Teeth

As a public school graduate and parent of four young public school students, I would love to see a school voucher system to give people the choice of where to spend the tax dollars dedicated to their child's education.

This would only benefit the sincerely motivated public schools and, more importantly, the students. The schools would have competition, so they would have to survive without the crutch of a government mandated position at the top of the marketplace. The benefit to the children is surely too obvious to need mentioning.

Given this set of circumstances, I find it completely hilarious that the National Education Association issued this press release about a U.S. Senate effort to revive a voucher bill.
The school choice movement is just getting warmed up. And politicians of both parties should know that the status quo mentality will carry a heavy cost for you when school choicers get mobilized.

Liberal KY Group Wants $1.8 Billion Tax Hike

Just in time for the Kentucky General Assembly session to start up, a Kentucky organization is calling for a special kind of tax reform. The Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance wants $1.8 Billion each year in tax increases.

One specific proposal is to increase property taxes by nearly two and half times. Further, the group wants to raise personal and corporate taxes but doesn't say how much.

What Are They Doing Now?

I might as well beat Mark Nickolas to the punch and give the Fletcher Administration a hard time for sending out a big announcement email trumpeting in capital letters that the state has taken out an advertisement in Forbes Magazine.

This does nothing for the image. Neither does the awkwardly worded announcement with a grammatical error in the first sentence. You will see it soon enough.

Sheesh!

Just Exactly What We Are Doing Here

A very funny New York Times Magazine article talks about why they think conservative blogs are more effective than liberal blogs. (You may have to sign up to read the article, but it is free.)

The writer concludes, predictably, that conservative blogs thrive because of the conservative-dominated media that appeals to supporters' emotions and doesn't mind lying to promote an agenda. Liberal blogs, he writes, spend more time examining all sides of an issue and arguing the nuances with other liberals.

While the article is laughably slanted for a publication whose writers manage to keep a straight face when they recoil in horror from charges of bias, it does make one good point. Liberal bloggers are generally less effective when it counts than conservative bloggers.

The "culture of corruption" campaign slogan is effective, for now, on the lefty blogosphere. But when it comes to shedding light on issues that matter to people and not just preaching to the choir, the liberal blogs come up short.

Can the conservative blogs spank the liberals in 2006 like they did in 2004? No one knows. But little of a structural nature seems to have changed since then, except that the mainstream media pays a lot more attention to the blogs. There are many interesting subtexts to this story that I don't want to get into publicly now, but this will be a huge story one year from now.

Democrat Dreams in 2005; Lib Nightmare in 2006?

Watching activist Democrats feel their oats these days with their "GOP culture of corruption" chorus isn't much fun, but it seems to me most likely that their revelry won't last and may already be over. As the merit hiring investigation is about to get some national attention (more on that later), one has to wonder if it has run out of shock value for anyone but the most easily shocked Democrat partisan.

In the real world, inflation numbers out this morning show an actual decrease in November's general price level. That news comes as the media reporting of our nation's economic solid growth of the Bush years stays gagged and bound in the closet. That strategy may continue, but I wouldn't count on it attracting any cross-over votes for Dems next year. The class warfare card won't carry the day in our upwardly-mobile nation.

That leaves out-of-power spinmeisters to rail against the U.S. trade deficit. Seriously, though, I would like to see anyone make a solid case for what is wrong with running trade deficits. Seems to me that with so many foreign entities willing to trade their goods for our little printed pieces of paper, we should feel great pride in our ability to produce wealth and to inspire confidence throughout the world for such transactions. And while Congressman Chandler has made the rounds painting a picture of a U.S. Treasury Bond collapse brought on by hostile Chinese dumping, no credible people see that happening or --even if it did -- having the desired effect.

Running against the "horrible" economic policies of the Bush administration can only hold Democrats' hopes during an election season if the media decides keeping the lid on GDP statistics is more important to them than trying to recover some of their severely damaged credibility. Another Dan Rather incident in 2006 would be a tsunami-like catastrophe for the MSM. They may risk it if their influence continues to dwindle toward niche levels.

Emboldened by their extremists, Democrats seem intent on pushing for socialized medicine and a policy of appeasement for terrorists. Railing against health care costs is easily the better political move, but no amount of reasoning will keep the anti-war movement from crippling what is left of the Democratic Party.

Republican bad actors remain the GOP's Achilles heel, but the national and state Democrats run the risk of blowing their advantage in the Commonwealth's county courthouses. Democrats taking out their own grassroots support at a time that Republicans have handed them so many political opportunities would be extremely difficult for Democrats to overcome for a long time.

The current environment may help Democrats ward off a crushing defeat in 2006, though. That is certainly the conventional wisdom. But their ideas and tactics grow ever closer to running out of steam. Six weeks remain for good GOP candidates to come forward for next year's elections.

Education War, Day Two

Rep. David Floyd (R-Bardstown) fired the shot that could well be remembered as the first one in the battle to bring true reform to Kentucky education with his bill (HB 999) mentioned here yesterday.

Today from his office in Bardstown, Rep. Floyd said that his purpose for filing the bill was indeed to start the conversation about how we should finance our public education system. He also explained that he intends to revise the language in the bill that would mandate 62% of the state budget to go to education costs. The revision will simply add "no more than" prior to the number 62%, setting a ceiling on the portion of the budget that can be eaten up by Big Education. This is a good thing and will allow us to get off the bi-annual demands for more and more tax money for schools. That way, we can turn our focus to changing our approach to education rather than fighting about whether to throw more and more money at it.

In the current budget, the state spends 60.6% of its entire budget on education expenses.

Education War of 2006 Starts

Looks like we might be going back to the voting booth on another constitutional amendment. HB 999, pre-filed today, would call for a vote to decide if spending on education should be mandated at 62% of the state budget.

If nothing else, this will get people talking about education. It is a subject too many Kentuckians have given up on.

Obviously, more money isn't the answer, but I welcome the discussion. Conservatives have the upper hand here. They just need to play it. What a terrific opportunity.

Right To Work For Kentucky To Get Senate Help

Right to work legislation got a boost today when we confirmed that Sen. Damon Thayer is going to sponsor a Senate version of Rep. Stan Lee's much needed workplace freedom bill.

Sen. Thayer can get it passed and then Rep. Bob Damron can steal Rep. Lee's bill just like he did with the fetal homicide bill last year.

Education Liberals Go Wobbly in Kentucky

What exactly does The Prichard Committee on Academic Excellence do in Kentucky? Since they have been "on" academic excellence since 1983, a cynic might conclude that they haven't been doing very much.

But I wasn't that cynical until I went and looked at their website and found that they seem to be little more than a lobbying group for education bureaucrats to demand more money for "education."

Sometimes they do say good things, like that students should work hard and parents should get involved, but their credibility was dealt a crushing blow today.

In much the same way that war protestors say Arabs can't handle democracy, teacher's union officials were thought to be the only people who could claim with a straight face that school choice wouldn't improve schools in poor Kentucky like it does in nearly all the states that outrank our state in scholastic achievement.

So it was in this spirit that the Bluegrass Institute challenged Pritchard's leader Robert Sexton do debate the merits of school choice.

Mr. Sexton took his opportunity to step up, and he punted it.

Republicans in the General Assembly absolutely must take on education improvement issues in the 2006 session. They can start with getting rid of the discredited CATS testing and then move on to school choice. The Democrats have no bullets left in this gunfight. Now is the time.

Grassroots Tax Reform

Take a look here at the latest discussion of the Fair Tax. The people are picking up where the politicians dropped the ball.

And don't look now, but FairTax supporting candidates are 8-0!

Clinton Secretary of State Reads Liberal Blogs

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright can't get it right as Democrats continue to ignore Sen. Harry Reid's good advice to stop talking about the war.

Speaking on the Meet the Press program, Albright repeated the war protestor/liberal blogger/mainstream Democrat talking point that President Bush claimed Iraq was an imminent threat.

For the one millionth time, President Bush told us that if we waited until Iraq was an "imminent threat" it would then be too late.

Republicans have had their problems for the last year or so. But the craziness coming from the loyal opposition on the economy, war, and social/spending/entitlement issues makes it easier for the few bad actors in the GOP to skate by.

Just keep calling Bush a liar, guys. The opportunity that you are throwing away is not only damaging to your party, but also to your country.

You should think about that.

Ken Lucas Opens Mouth, Shoots Self In Foot

Ken Lucas isn't going to run for Congress.

Democrat activists have been, well, active is trying to crank up momentum for a Lucas return to Kentucky's 4th Congressional district. This is coming on the heels of their effort to draft him to run for governor.

The former Congressman's comments about current events seem to be a trial balloon for the Democratic party line. That is unlikely to fly in northern Kentucky, and the next poll will probably convince Mr. Lucas to spend more time with his family.

Some highlights for the "conservative Democrat" file at NRCC headquarters:

"I voted with my commander-in-chief for the war because he said you don't want to see a mushroom cloud over New York or Washington," Lucas said. "It became apparent after the fact that the administration had pretty much made up their mind that they were going; it was just a question of coming up with the rationale."

It's funny that a lot of Democrat poll readers haven't yet figured out the nuances of voter discontent with the war effort. Until they do, they would be well served to take Harry Reid's advice and say nothing at all.

This following quote has special meaning for northern Kentuckians, who deeply understand the value of keeping government close to the people to keep elected officials accountable locally. It seems Lucas is still hot on the idea of consolidating local governments in the name of "efficiency."
"There's a lot of inefficiency in duplication all over Northern Kentucky," he said. "But you have smaller governments who are very protective of their turf. Really, for Northern Kentucky to make some more strides, there needs to be certainly more cooperation and consolidation."

League of Women Voters Dips Into Lexington Water

Central Kentucky observers who keep hoping for the water condemnation story to die are about to find themselves knee deep in the wet stuff all over again.

The League of Women Voters of Lexington have announced, via a small article in today's Herald Leader, that they have "studied" the condemnation issue and determined they are all for it.

This issue is not going away and truly conservative candidates at all levels in central Kentucky would do very well to embrace the issue and run on it.

Liberal Professor Calls God An Idiot

Here is an article about a Massachusetts professor who takes all his complaints about the human body and concludes that God must be an incompetent.

Kind of puts what they say about George Bush and Republicans into perspective, doesn't it?

Democrats Try To "Social Security" The War

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is urging Democrats to stop talking about the war so they can avoid uncomfortable circumstances like those presented recently by Howard Dean and the increasingly sane and sober Joe Lieberman.

"Just Say No" may be good politics for the Democrats. But the rest of us will spend this Christmas season praying they don't succeed in shutting down national defense the same way they succeeded in killing Social Security reform. After all, their "victory" on entitlements only costs us money.

America Wins, Democrats Lose

Today, 193 House Democrats voted against extension of the 2003 tax cuts. And yes, Ben Chandler went right along, voting to increase your taxes. Too bad for them, 225 Republicans voted the right way.

"It's for the rich," they will say over and over again. All the multi-millionaires who saw their 15% tax bracket drop to 10% under President Bush know better. The middle class families who will escape the punitive alternative minimum tax do too.

History will show the solid economic gains of the first decade of the 21st century happened despite a world-wide war effort like none before and with the assistance of tax cuts that were delivered by Republicans and fought by Democrats every step of the way.

They tried to "Murtha" the economy and they failed.

Good day.

KY Schools Can't Live With Or Shoot Private Schools

The Kentucky Board of Education is treating the state's private schools like Maureen Dowd wants to treats men: keeping them around for convenience but kicking them to the curb when they get too uppity.

Yesterday, the KBE refused to put an end to the KHSAA's bid to remove private school athletic teams from state playoffs. This comes in the same week we find the KY Department of Education can't show increasing ACT scores without taking credit for private and home schooled students' scores.

Bad week for public education in Kentucky.

No, Virginia, There is No Guaranteed Benefit

In ruling today that a Social Security recipient's benefits could be seized to pay delinquent student loans, the United States Supreme Court confirmed once again that there is no "guaranteed benefit" in Social Security.

Earlier this year, Congressional Democrats used their megaphone in the mainstream media to beat home the idea that Social Security benefits are guaranteed. This has definitively been untrue since the 1960 Flemming v. Nestor case stated that no such guarantee exists.

The existence of a "guaranteed benefit" was the cornerstone of Democrats' arguments against Social Security reform. Social Security will be insolvent in eleven years.

Sunlight V. Fake Blindness

Interesting article by Ryan Alessi this morning about fundraising in the Supreme Court race beween Justice John Roach and Judge Mary Noble.

It seems that Justice Roach is going to publicize campaign contributions more quickly than required by law. In response, Judge Noble told a group of fifty contributors, apparently to their faces, that she is going to pretend not to see any of them.

Is this what she thinks "justice is blind" means?

KY Ed. Officials Take Credit For Private ACT Scores

Each year, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) touts the ACT scores achieved by Kentucky high school students. What they don't say is that those scores are skewed upward by the inclusion of scores made by private school students in the state.

The KDE, a state government agency, plays no role in the education of nonpublic-school students.

Accountability for our public schools has been a key federal government issue since 2001. The Bluegrass Institute has published a report that points out this reporting discrepancy and asks why Kentucky's public school officials "would rather hide behind the stellar performance of Kentucky’s nonpublic-school students than acknowledge more than a decade of stagnation in the commonwealth’s public schools. "

KDE spokeswoman Lisa Gross addressed the question by questioning the motives of BIPPS researcher Richard Innes.

"We have concerns about Mr. Innes," Gross said. "I can't refute his numbers but his conclusion is that we are intentionally trying to mislead people. If we had time to do that, we would do a better job of it."

Gross said that scores of thousands of nonpublic students are included in the KDE press releases because the ACT reports them to the state that way. ACT confirms this.

But is the incorrect picture of state school achievement simply the cause of laziness or lack of curiosity on the part of school officials? Gross said it isn't.

"We don't have any way of breaking (public versus nonpublic results) out," she said.

Innes scoffed at this claim. He said that the state's Office of Education Accountability, part of the state's Legislative Research Commission and located less than three miles from KDE, has public school ACT results for individual students going back to 1990. Figuring out the difference between public and private results is then just a matter of subtracting the number of public school students and their scores out.

"It's a simple algebra equation," Innes said.

KY Budget Chairman Finance Scheme Uncovered

Rep. Harry Moberly (D-Richmond), Kentucky's House Budget Chairman, spent money he didn't have last year to keep his office in Frankfort. One full year after the election, he still owes more than $20,000 to a company owned by a Kentucky Democratic Party executive.

One interesting thing about this is that you can pull up "Harry Moberly" on the Ky. Registry of Election Finance website and find an erroneous positive balance $2437.29. This doesn't take into account, though, his carrover debt from last year. To find the truth you have to dig down to the PDF file which shows Moberly's one year old campaign debt of $21,698.45 still owed to Emmons & Company Inc.

Looking at this brings up a few questions: why is Harry Moberly in a position of responsibility over the state budget when he can't even balance his own campaign fund? If corporate campaign contributions are illegal, why is Moberly allowed to carry indefinitely a debt owed to a corporation? At some point doesn't that amount to the same thing? And why does the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance continue to show Moberly's balance nearly $25,000 higher than it actually is?

This budgeting scheme allowed Harry Moberly to spend much more money than he had to get elected. (Good enough for government work, I suppose.) As the Kentucky vote buying scandal works its way slowly to the courtroom, we see some Democrats have moved past bag men, vote haulers, booze and McDonald's coupons. The new trick is to get a corporate sponsor to spend huge chunks of money on a candidate, who can then show it as a carryover debt in perpetuity.

More Good News: Howard Dean Speaks

At the DNC meeting in Phoenix, Howard Dean pledged that Democrats will campaign in 2006 on taxpayer-provided health insurance for all, giving all illegal aliens legal status, and defense policy ranging from full surrender in Iraq in six months or going ahead and telling the terrorists to hide out for two more years (and pulling out then.)

The highlight, though, was when Dean suggested that Democrats have to talk even more about their core principles: "We have to stand up for what we believe."

Translation: "elect us to raise your taxes and spend it on HillaryCare for citizens and any Mexican who can swim. Then we will bring our soldiers home so they can fight terrorists from the comfort of our American cities."

Can't wait to see what they will stand up for next.

The Hillary Clinton Problem

Two serious conditions exist that keep me from feeling too smug about Hillary Clinton's visit to Louisville last night. Fortunately, a third even more serious one will ensure that Hurricane Hillary does most of her damage on the Democrat side of the street.

First the bad news: too many Americans have joined in this hatred of oil companies to take immediate advantage of the fact that Hillary covets the "amazing profits" of American oil companies. She would mandate taking an extra cut of those private funds to establish a government research and development bureaucracy to magically do with speed and without pain what the best scientific minds in the world have not managed to do in decades: replace fossil fuels with something cleaner and just as efficient. This would be a great jumping off point for showing that HillaryCare has been expanded to include Hillary Oil, but too many of the same people who used to understand free markets, supply and demand, and capitalism now concede the premises of the Left. Until so many forgetful Republicans stop taking their economic analysis from the politicians who have actually spun the current string of solid economic growth (not seen since the roaring 1980's, mind you) into the image of a soup kitchen catastrophe, do we have a chance to expose the folly of putting the government in charge of such an important function of our still-free economy.

Also, Democrats persist in railing against the cost of health care when their best answer continues to be to put that cost on the backs of the American taxpayer. A Republican bill currently before Congress would allow people to go across state lines to purchase private coverage. States that haven't fattened health policies with lard-like mandated coverages found in Kentucky, would be a safe haven for many Kentucky health insurance consumers. A private solution to a government-created problem. Again, until GOP "leaders" can put government-run health care for all into a proper perspective, the allure of the single-payer system will persist.

The good news, finally (and, I think, decisively) is about the war. Too many Americans understand (as the flower children don't) that we are in a battle for our survival. No amount of nuanced verbiage will get the Democrats out of the hole they dug for themselves by seeking naked political advantage over the struggle against terrorists. Hillary can be for the war but against torturing terrorists all day long. She won't be trusted when push comes to shove that she can make the tough war-time calls that President Bush has made. Yes, the polls show unhappiness with the war. But I think these negative numbers are lumping in peacenicks with those who would prefer large-scale bombing until everyone we want to capture is turned over by their host countries. The anti-war folks will keep the heat on Democrats and their own tortured positions will just continue to vacillate day by day. This politicking, along with economic Chicken Little-ism (we have ample soundbites of Dems giving the GOP policies all the credit for their imaginary horrible economic conditions) will betray them in 2006.

On a local note, it was interesting that Jonathan Miller showed at the HillaryFest. Could this mean that he is taking himself off the stage in 2007? Or could it mean that he hopes to run as LG to non-attending Crit Luallen in an attempt to broaden a base for that ticket (we are both for and against Hillary!!!)?

Campus Pro-Life Group Making An Impact

On a night that the Democratic Party of Kentucky is meeting with none other than Hillary Clinton to figure out what they stand for, it is wonderful to see the good work that some young people at the University of Kentucky are doing.

They are the UK Students for Life. This week, when the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, UK Feminist Alliance, and other abortion groups staged a forum on campus to discuss abortion, more than two dozen members of UK Students for Life came, listened, and peacefully made their points.

Congratulations to the UK Students for Life and best wishes for continued success!

UP NEXT: TED KENNEDY!!!

On the eve of the Hillary Clinton visit to Kentucky (or, according to Sen. Julian Carroll, just Louisville), Kentucky's Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Lundergan announced this morning that none other than Ted Kennedy may be next.

I was a guest on the Sue Wylie Show talking about why Republicans are as excited about tomorrow's fundraiser as "conservative" Democrats are demoralized about it. Maybe we should start calling them non-liberals.

Anyway, Chairman Lundergan called in. He admitted that the Hillary visit was his idea and then dropped the bomb: Ted Kennedy may be next.

A caller suggested that anything that helped Democrats get their message out was good. I couldn't agree more.

At Least He Isn't Our Governor

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

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

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

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

Kids Want More, Education Officials Want Less

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

I say we go with the kids on this one.

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

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

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

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

Hurricane Hillary Hits Friday

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

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

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

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

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

Bush Gets GOP Back In The Saddle On Immigration

Good.

Earth to Hillary: The Economy Is Good

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

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

Which One Is The Frontrunner?

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

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

This Will Help: Democrats Want To Be "Mommy"

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

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

Media Waking Up to CATS Story

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

It is about time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Terrorist News Network Shares Talk Points With D's

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

Your Tax Dollars At Work: UK Studies Gay Politics

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

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

The Perfect Partisan Issue: Education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frankfort Should Change KEES Statutes

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

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

All of these restrictions need to be eliminated.

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

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

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

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

No More Lip Service: Let's Boycott CATS

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

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

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