"Build 48 More Casinos, Governor"

New Jersey's Governor Jon Corzine has a problem for which Kentucky's Steve Beshear would have a quick answer.

New Jersey has a $3 billion hole in its budget. Corzine has avoided the problem as long as possible with other types of flimflammery:

One challenge will be to replace $1.9 billion in "one-shot" cash that will be gone after the current budget year. The administration this year tapped a $940 million surplus to help balance the books. The current budget also used $650 million stashed away from last year to pay for rebates. And Corzine won't be able to duplicate about $340 million in raids he made on funds dedicated to specific programs like disability insurance.

Meanwhile, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley gave us a preview of what Year Three in the Beshear administration would look like:

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) on Monday plans to call a special session of the General Assembly with the hope of securing quick action on his plan to close a $1.7 billion budget shortfall by raising several taxes and legalizing slot-machine gambling, his office said yesterday.

Jail Birds Singing

I'm working this morning on what might be a major break in the prisoner abuse scandal at the Lexington jail.

There are currently more than half a billion dollars worth of lawsuits against the taxpayers of Lexington directly related to the actions of a few people at the facility.

It is about to get much worse.

Stay tuned...

Leading Meteorologist Predicts Global Cooling

Just as Al Gore was being handed his Nobel Peace prize for stirring environmentalists' wildest fantasies, another leading scientist, Dr. William Gray, explained part of what is happening:

"It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong," he said. "But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."

My favorite part, though, was this:

But Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.

However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.

"We'll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was," Dr Gray said.

Sure hope Gore's prize winning junk science runs its course that soon, if not sooner.

Pimping A National Conservative Blog

Erick Erickson is a Macon, Georgia attorney who publishes RedState.com. If you are looking for some perspective on how conservatives might wrest control of the Republican party from the political class, you will find it there.

Exhibit A:

The GOP has ceased to be a party of ideas. We have John Boehner playing to keep Jerry Lewis on the Appropriations Committee, despite his FBI investigation. He's added to the Appropriations Committee Ken Calvert, also under investigation.

We have Mitch McConnell and the GOP in the Senate caving on earmarks reform, funding bridges to no where, and backing down on judges. We have the White House doing cutesy policy maneuvers, kissing up to China for trade, and reminding people "We gave you John Roberts and Sam Alito and the stem cell veto so suck it up" whenever we point out that they're drifting leftward.

Another Reason To Not Trust Frankfort's "Big Ed"

Remember the mess caused by state officials trying to cram the scandalous Barbara Erwin down our throats as education commissioner?

Her crime spree is catching up to her in Illinois.

Raehl, who also sparked the earlier investigation this year, said she believes Gaffney tried to use his power as a public official to get extra sick days for former Superintendent Barbara Erwin so she could become vested in the state pension system.

Raehl cites an undated memo bearing Gaffney's signature along with a note to district officials, saying the board agreed to credit Erwin with 340 sick days as part of a contract agreement in 2004, when actually Erwin's sick day allotment was not approved and did not start accumulating until 2005.

"There was an attempt to get (Erwin) vested by Jim (Gaffney)," Raehl said. "It was a misuse and an attempted misuse of public funds."

Nice to see a little ranting and raving might have helped stop at least one Frankfort headache.

Kentucky's Real Constitutional Amendment of 2008

Casino gambling won't be on the ballot next year in Kentucky because it won't get past Sen. David Williams. It probably won't even get past Speaker Jody Richards.

But cutting government waste begins with shutting down the Treasurer's office.

What Part Of "Education Bureaucrats In Frankfort Are Screwing Up Our State" Don't You Understand?

It doesn't have to be this way.

Hot Ticket Next Thursday

The Keeneland Entertainment Center in Lexington will be the setting for next week's Interim Joint Appropriations and Revenue Committee meeting next week.

UK President Lee Todd will update members on the University of Kentucky's Top 20 Business Plan and Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry and World Equestrian Games 2010 President Jack Kelly will speak about the progress of the World Equestrian Games.

The meeting is set to start at 10:30.

Now This Is Tough

The Tax Foundation released its 2008 State Business Tax Climate Index yesterday, which shows Kentucky ranked #36 in the nation and our corporate tax index ranked #39.

Unfortunately, in 2004 Kentucky was ranked #30 overall with a corporate tax index of #22.

Readers may wonder why I would point something like this out when I am a Republican. My only answer to that is I support Republicans generally, but conservatives specifically. Not raising corporate taxes would be a great way to keep our state competitive for economic development.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Didn't "Save" America

Page One Kentucky had this video and comments that this is devastating for Ernie Fletcher. I'm not so sure it was.

What do you think?

Score One For Stan Lee

At the U.S. Supreme Court, no less.

Same-Sex Contribution Flap Is Sad

Liberal bloggers are red-hot mad because the Fletcher campaign dug up a Beshear contribution in which a man claimed his spouse is another man.

With so many more important issues that we could and should be discussing, it would be nice if we could just ignore this dust-up.

But, of course, we can't just ignore it. I wish the Fletcher campaign hadn't put this out as a press release. Whisper it to a blogger or two, maybe, but not an official campaign press release.

Sheesh...

They Won't Take Our Cell Phones Away Like This

Talking on a cell phone in the car is not a right Kentuckians will let slip away easily.

Especially not with a bill like this one.

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Will Fletcher Lose To This Bozo?

The Beshear campaign is mailing out unsolicited "Support the troops, end the war" protest yard signs with requested Beshear/Mongiardo yard signs.

More Media

I will be on the Kruser and Krew radio program (590 AM WVLK) in Lexington this afternoon at 2 pm talking about pre-filed bill for the 2008 General Assembly.

You can listen online and you can call in on 859-253-5959.

Here Comes The Crisis

The actual "first Baby Boomer" will sign up for Social Security on Monday.

Ignoring the impending collapse of our nation's entitlement programs will then get a bit tougher.

Conservatives Of The Commonwealth, Unite!

The Kentucky Club for Growth will host a fundraiser Wednesday, October 24 with special guest Pat Toomey in Erlanger.

Toomey is the former Pennsylvania congressman who nearly toppled Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2004 GOP primary. He now heads the national Club for Growth.

The Club for Growth supports fiscally conservative candidates for public office.

Interested? Call 859-261-2582 for details.

How About Some Conservative Policies?

Never too early to start talking about tax cuts.

Google Search Follies

Noticed last week a google search for "Greg Stumbo Senate" brought up this Kentucky Progress post that speculated Stumbo was about to drop his bid to run against Sen. Mitch McConnell.

But now the top post for the same search brings up Stumbo's exploratory committee.

If he is sending money to Google, he must be serious...

Media Appearance

I will be on the Leland Conway show at 9:35 tomorrow morning on Lexington's WLAP 630 AM talking about the price-gouging lawsuit against Marathon Oil.

You can listen here.

"Big Ed" Fights Back Against School Choice

Caleb Brown skewers the Kentucky Department of Education for being difficult about fulfilling their legal responsibilities to our children.

If Lying To Taxpayers Were Football, U of L Would Be Back In Top 25

The University of Louisville claims that extending health insurance benefits to employees' roommates won't cost taxpayers any money because they make the roommate pay the premium.

We pledge that there will be no taxpayer dollars used for it," said university spokesman John Drees, who said employees were informed of the new plan Monday.

Despite the pledge though, the program is begging to become a magnet for sick, uninsurable people who would be delighted to wait a year and then pay premiums into the state-supported schools self insurance health plan.

After all, excessive losses to the plan simply get picked up by the taxpayers.

If you want more of state universities' gaming the system at your expense, Jack Conway is your man for Attorney General.

Bluegrass Policy Blog Goes Viral!

How about a link to a link of linked story on a national magazine's blog from little old me?

Hillary Clinton, Super Soaker

The John Edwards presidential campaign surely knows how to recognize pandering from personal experience. Nonetheless, they earn the Line of the Day Award for noting that Hillary Clinton punted her "$5000 for every baby" plan today:

"Apparently, new polling data seems to have pressured the Clinton campaign to throw out the baby bond with the bathwater," said Edwards spokesman Chris Kofinis.

Hillary has instead jumped into the deep "there is no crisis" Social Security waters, with a plan now to increase the death tax and fund an income-based federal match for a new retirement entitlement.

As for the retirement accounts, Clinton said during a campaign stop in small-town central Iowa, "They will begin to bring down this inequality that is eating away at our social contract." She said, "This is a major commitment to how I believe we can begin to right the balance again."

Her campaign said that for every $7 million estate that gets taxed, at least 5,000 families would receive the matching funds.

Clinton said she wants to create "American Retirement Accounts" in which each family could put up to $5,000 annually in a 401(k) plan. The federal government would provide a tax cut to match the first $1,000 for any household that brings in less than $60,000 a year and 50 percent of the first $1,000 for those that make $60,000-$100,000.

Of course, the devil will be in the details but like with her government health insurance scheme, there should be enough bath water getting dumped out to soak us all.

Kentucky, Caught In The Dark Ages

Red State blog shines a light on some of the education weirdness in the Bluegrass state.

Louisville Columnist Discounts Fletcher's Chances

John David Dyche may get attacked for detailing his version of the failures of the Fletcher campaign in today's Courier Journal. And he may get attacked for listing what he calls achievements of the Fletcher administration.

But it is hard to argue with his bottom-line analysis:

So, does Ernie Fletcher stand a chance? Perhaps the prevalence of the question provides its answer. Beshear is a big government liberal Kentuckians would ordinarily reject, but these are not ordinary times. Fletcher's best hope now may be a big mistake of the kind his foe is unlikely to make.

But mistakes do happen. For example, this pundit, ever prone to optimistically overestimating the rational self-interest of Republican voters, predicted they would prefer Anne Northup to Fletcher in the GOP primary.

The Fletcher campaign probably will turn in the final days of the campaign to promoting actions of the past four years or laying out a vision for the next four years. The public has a greater need for the latter, but the campaign probably will have to focus on the former.

The major untold story of the campaign is the severe damage the Fletcher campaign inflicted on itself recruiting over the summer against GOP House members who supported Northup in the primary. Seeking retribution has its place in politics, but that place is usually only after the general election.

Huckabee Cancels Danville

GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has cancelled a planned trip to Centre College in Danville on Wednesday.

His campaign said he will come to Danville in November.

Bluegrass Institute Invokes Mark Twain In Going After School Bureaucrat

It's almost automatic: say something stupid in the newspaper and it will get blogged. And if you say something stupid about Kentucky schools, the Bluegrass Institute will blog about you.

The New Farmer's Almanac?

Fashion designers are predicting there will be no more winters:

"The fashion system must adapt to the reality that there is no strong difference between summer and winter any more… You can't have everyone showing four times a year to present the same thing. People are not prepared to invest in these clothes that, from one season to the other, use the same fabrics at the same weight."

Source: Drudge

Kentucky Already Losing $500 Million A Year To State-Sponsored Gambling

Gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear keeps talking about bringing in $500 million a year with casino gambling.

A chart in today's New York Times about state lotteries falling short of expectations suggests the surest way to inject $500 million back into the economy would be to get rid of the Kentucky Lottery.

($742 million in sales minus $204 million in profits equals $538 million in losses last year alone.)

GOP, Dems Missing Point Of SCHIP Failure

The Lexington Herald Leader's editorial page has a funny idea of what constitutes failure of a government entitlement:

In Kentucky, 50,000 children eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Program (KCHIP) are not covered.

Resisting dependence of government programs used to be considered a good thing.

Of course their idea of a solution to this "problem" is spending more money pushing people who don't want it to take the government entitlement.

The vetoed bill provides incentives for states to enroll the poorest of the poor, kids who are eligible but not in Medicaid.

Republicans will wind up caving in on this and dramatically expanding SCHIP. This is a shame, because we should be making the case for scrapping the whole thing.

What Beshear Knew

From the "secret report" page 34 of this section:

During the period May 5 - June 14, 1993, Beshear had general knowledge that work was being done on behalf of Bank of Louisville with respect to the Bond Powers. Neither Beshear, nor any other Stites & Harbison attorney, informed or disclosed to the Rehabilitator that Stites & Harbison was undertaking this effort on behalf, and for the benefit, of the Bank of Louisville. The failure to disclose this conduct contravened the commitment in the Engagement Letter not to represent Bank of Louisville in "that transaction," and, in addition, violated Stites & Harbison's commitment to disclose conflicts discovered or arising after the date of the Engagement Letter.

McConnell Spanks Chandler, Yarmuth For Bad SCHIP Expansion Bill

Sen. Mitch McConnell's criticism of the Democrats' failed SCHIP expansion is on point and highlights who Kentucky's two liberal Congressmen side with when Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants them to go against the interests of Kentucky taxpayers and poor children:

In my home state of Kentucky, the Democrats’ vetoed bill would provide less coverage for kids’ health care in 2008 than our Kids First plan. Kentuckians would pay $600 million more in new taxes than they would receive in new benefits under the Democrats’ plan — a $600 million wealth transfer from Kentucky to states like New York and New Jersey. Kentuckians don’t want the money they’ve targeted for poor children going to adults and middle class families who live in other states and can afford insurance on their own.

Subsidizing Success

The Fletcher campaign is touting the I-CARE health insurance subsidy program as one of the major successes of the administration.

I wish they would stop.

Tomorrow Is D-Day For Beshear's Legal Scandal

The Conservative Edge has the latest on Steve Beshear's shoddy legal work on the Kentucky Central debacle.

We Might Want To File This Away For Gov. Beshear

Michigan has wrecked itself with profligate unions and tax-raising politicians.

The Americans for Tax Reform has the scoop and the effort to fight back.

Romney's Charade Is Over

One thing is clear from the presidential campaign finance reports: Mitt Romney is wasting his money and our time.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I just got my first post up on The Bluegrass Policy Blog, which will be a regular, full-time gig.

Please check it out if you will and leave a comment if you want. Links will be greatly appreciated.

Market Solution Saves Kentucky Health Dollars

Walmart's wildly successful $4 prescription drug program has been great for Kentucky consumers, who have saved more per capita than consumers in all but four states.

We are waiting around for Hillary Clinton to come to our rescue when we should really be getting government out of the way.

State Politicians Mugging Marathon Oil

Attorney General Greg Stumbo will be making a big deal out of a federal court ruling that his unconstitutional "price gouging" lawsuit can proceed in state court in Frankfort, which is right where he wants it.

Marathon Oil knew their only chance for a fair hearing would have been in federal court.

The old price gouging law Stumbo sued under is unconstitutional and everyone knows it. That is why it was repealed in the 2007 General Assembly.

I would suggest that our gubernatorial candidates should weigh in on this disgrace, but unfortunately they will both side with Stumbo.

My New Responsibilities

At some point Thursday morning I will take over publishing the Bluegrass Institute's blog. The purpose of that blog is discussion of state public policy.

It is listed as one of my links to the right and you can go here to check it out.

I will keep this site updated with unique posts; same as always.

Here Is A Real Issue For Candidates

Haven't heard anything from the gubernatorial candidates about the president's veto of the SCHIP expansion/tax increase bill this morning.

Might be interesting to see where they come down on this one.

Herald-Leader's Proof-Free Higher Ed Editorial

This morning's editorial about higher education started off badly:

Kentucky's low-income families must now devote almost a quarter of their incomes to pay for a community or technical college education, even with financial aid.

This is patently absurd and I would love to see them try to attach any legitimate numbers to this.

Of course, they are extolling the wisdom of freezing tuition costs and -- worse -- the proliferation of need-based financial aid.

To Kentucky's credit, the state has also been increasing need-based financial aid at a higher rate than the region or nation.

But even with the increased financial aid figured in, the sticker shock will price many Kentuckians out of an education.

The average Pell Grant is $2500 and the maximum is $4310. Full-time annual tuition at KCTCS is $2760. A student who graduates high school with a 3.0 GPA and gets a 21 on the ACT will receive $1250 a year in KEES money.

State and institutional grants and private scholarships combine to easily -- easily!! -- cover the total cost of education for needy families.

It's all this focus on need-based aid (and the lack of price sensitivity that goes along with it) that makes it tough for middle-class families to cover the cost of college.

Even a minor shift toward more merit-based financial aid would lower costs and improve educational outcomes for Kentuckians by requiring kids to get serious about school sooner and crowding people out based on lack of preparation rather than lack of ability to demonstrate financial need.

Legal Defense Fund Bill Pre-Filed

Rep. Darryl Owens pre-filed a bill today that, if it had been in place at the beginning of this year, would have required Governor Ernie Fletcher to report all relevant details of his legal defense fund eight times before the November election.

Huckabee Coming To Kentucky

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is coming to Centre College on October 10. The biggest criticism of Huckabee comes from his tax-and-spending days as governor of Arkansas.

RGA Supports Half-Priced Socialism

Hello?

Are there any Republican organizations out there still supporting conservative fiscal policies? I'm just curious.

The Republican Governors Association touts a newspaper editorial cheering on Indiana for expanding state-run socialized medicine. And the part they are most excited about is the Republican governor of that state got it done with a federal matching grant:

The plan will close at least part of Indiana's growing insurance gap. There are about 560,000 adult residents of the state with no health care coverage. Many of these are the working poor. They are people with jobs but not jobs that include health insurance as a benefit. And their income isn't sufficient to allow them to afford insurance on their own.

In his January State of the State Address, Daniels asked the Indiana General Assembly to approve a cigarette tax increase of at least 25 cents a pack. The tax increase grew to 44 cents by the end of the legislative session. That is $206 million a year in revenue.

Pineville Knows Bruce Hendrickson

Before former Pineville Mayor Bruce Hendrickson got demolished in his race for re-election last year, his greatest contribution to his city was either rigging the bid for building the local senior citizen center for family members or failing to apply for coal severance money.

Now the Democratic party wants us to put him in charge of "fixing" our elections.

Time To Get Our $100 Million Back

Learning from others' experiences is always cheaper than waiting around to take the hit yourself. We have a golden opportunity to avoid some serious pain right now.

We learned over the weekend China has backed off their effort to supplement their country's transportation fuel needs with coal. Meanwhile, Kentucky hasn't yet bonded the $100 million HB 1 would borrow and spend on CTL plants here.

We have a chance to cancel the whole thing and keep our money. We should do just that.

Taxing Their Way To Prosperity

Don't laugh at Michigan's financial problems. Their tough votes will be in our future pretty soon as the much-ignored public pension mess in Kentucky gets much harder to ignore.

Our state workers are overpaid and we spend too much on social services. Until we get some people willing to be one-term politicians (by their own choice), we will continue to miss opportunities to deal creatively with our fiscal problems.

Another Great Reason For You To Move To Indiana

Indiana has casinos and soon will add government health insurance for families earning up to 300% of the poverty level.

So if you think out-of-state casinos make good in-state public policy and you don't think you can get by on $62,000 without taxpayer-provided health insurance, maybe you should move north.

Hey, Let's Make Another Law!

The best thing about the Courier-Journal story on bogus campaign contributions is that anyone could have put this one together, but no one did.

The all-too-predictable response will be to make new campaign finance laws. But after we all got caught ignoring law-breaking, let's not lose sight of the fact that the necessary laws already exist.

Too Much Socialism For The Communists

As Kentucky lurches checkbook-first into the world of heavily subsidized "energy production," the world's largest experimenter in coal-to-liquid technology, China, is backing off. This is according to the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission.

Kentucky has already sunk more than $106 million into this stuff that has failed to be self-sufficient any place else.

We should cut our losses there.

No Newt In 2008

Newt Gingrich ended speculation today that he might run for president in 2008.

Over the past few months, Gingrich had stoked speculation he might enter the crowded GOP field. He noted that Republicans, especially conservatives, were unhappy with the candidates already in the race.

Yet he also has spoken positively of all the leading contenders, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Splitting The Difference With Socialism

Thanks to the Club for Growth for pointing out this one:

Honor Among Thieves

I love this one:

A request by Caesars Indiana to dismiss a Tennessee woman's lawsuit claiming that the casino took advantage of her gambling addiction was rejected yesterday by a Harrison County judge.

Circuit Judge H. Lloyd Whitis' ruling in the case of Jenny Kephart could open the door to a trial examining a casino's duty in handling compulsive gamblers.

Given the potential public policy implications of such a lawsuit, can gambling proceeds recipients really afford to have disgruntled gamblers suing to get some of their money back using what amounts to a "temporary insanity" plea?

What's next, nicotine addicts suing the state and federal governments to get their tobacco taxes back? And what would that mean for the "the children" whose government health insurance is funded by those smokers?

Would "the kids" have a lawsuit against the smokers? Maybe "the kids" should start working up a lawsuit against compulsive gamblers.

Californial Dreamin' Makes Sense For Kentucky

Newport Beach, California city council members killed a proposal this week to require a public vote before increasing pension benefits for public employees.

Kentucky and all its municipalities should do what Newport Beach didn't have the courage to do. And we should do it immediately.

If nothing else, by pushing back against the multi-billion dollar sea of red ink our politicians have poured on us with pension goodies for their cronies, we might get to see some serious issues aired out like this:

The Pilot also quoted the head of the city's firefighters union, arguing that the initiative would "be ground zero of a statewide war. … We don't want to go there." Well, a political war is brewing, as government pensions have gotten out of hand and as pension debt has soared. We know why the unions don't want to go there, given that they have the cushiest deal imaginable. But someone is going to have to go there, given that the current situation cannot be sustained without leading to bonds, tax increases or reduction in other government programs.

Writing in the Register's Orange Grove earlier this month, Lincoln Club officials Richard Wagner and David Bahnsen pointed out that San Francisco has had such a pension-vote measure for 100 years, which has resulted in that city having a fully funded pension system that is the model for the nation. San Diego voters approved a similar measure after "a string of pension mismanagement scandals resulted in a $1.3 billion retirement-fund shortfall that nearly caused the city to declare bankruptcy and led to five felony indictments of union, city and pension officials in January 2006."

Better Yesterday Than Never

They probably should have hopped on this wagon over the summer when everyone else was hot on immigration, but the Fletcher administration has engaged on getting tough with illegals.

Good.

College Affordability Challenge

In an email to constituents this morning, Congressman Ben Chandler repeated a bogus "statistic" that 200,000 students don't go to college each year because they can't afford it.

That is complete bunk.

I will personally show anyone struggling with financing a college education how to get it done. Just email me.

And the less money you have, the easier it will be.

Thanks To Bunning And McConnell

Kentucky's U.S. Senators both voted yesterday against the liberal "Middle-Class Kids Need HillaryCare Now" bill.

The bill passed by a veto-proof margin in the Senate, but as long as the House Republicans hold strong, Hillary will not get her way on this one.

Rep. Yonts Incentivizing Crime-Free Students

Rep. Brent Yonts pre-filed a bill yesterday that is worthy of discussion. The bill offers a financial incentive for high school and college to avoid illegal use of drugs and alcohol and other various forms of illegal activity. It also provides some tax deductibility for college tuition costs.

Unfortunately, a discrepancy between the actual bill and the Legislative Research Commission's description of the bill may cause some confusion.

The bill refers to assistance with tuition expenses, but the bill description claims the program will provide scholarships for "up to 100 percent of the total cost of education." This is not correct.

Anyone who has financed a college education knows "tuition" is only a fraction of the "total cost of education," which includes room and board, transportation, books, fees, and -- more frequently these days -- purchase of a computer.

Update On Jody Richards Paycheck Scandal

He's giving himself a huge payday loan, I guess.

Jody Richards keeps telling people he is going to turn in the excess taxpayer money House members received after Democrats surrendered the special session in July.

He still hasn't paid up. Should we check his freezer at home?

Would Governor Beshear Tax Health Benefits?

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is threatening to shut down state government starting Monday if she doesn't get some tax increases, pronto.

Here's one Steve Beshear will like a lot: some Michigan legislators want to start taxing health insurance benefits.

How better to raise money to pay to resuscitate and hospitalize the thousands of Kentucky middle-class surburbanites dying in the streets for lack of government health insurance?

This plan would mesh well with Beshear's welfare for politicians plan and his plan to subsidize the out-of-state casino mafia.

Liberal Has-Beens For Beshear

Let's Destroy All Farming Like We Did Tobacco

A funny thing happened to the tobacco industry that was supposed to die with deregulation and the tobacco buyout.

It is booming and there's no reason to expect other domestic agriculture products would respond differently to getting government out of the way.

Carpet Bombing The Fayette County Jail

The FBI hit the jail in Lexington again today to drop off subpoenas in the ongoing inmate abuse scandal.

The grand jury meets tomorrow.

With $10 Million In The Bank, He Should Be Able To Do Better Than This

Mitch McConnell has a blog.

While We're Talking About Gambling

The Democratic party's candidate for Treasurer Todd Hollenbach actually wants to expand the money-losing KAPT program, which our legislature has mercifully closed to new losses. This drain on taxpayer funds hasn't been explored as Steve Beshear's plan to soak Kentuckians with casino gambling losses has gotten all the attention.

GOP candidate Melinda Wheeler has a much more sensible plan: she promises to shut down the Treasurer's office, which serves currently as an expensive resting place for politicians.

Supporting Republicans Who Act Like Republicans

Kentucky's entire GOP delegation in the U.S. House voted yesterday against expanding government health insurance to more middle-class families.

Good. Much of what ails America can't be fixed without entitlement reform. And that means fewer entitlements for people who are better off without them.

Immigration wouldn't be a problem if everyone were coming here to be productive. Public and private pensions wouldn't be melting down absent the short-sighted greed of union negotiators. Medicare and Social Security are on a collision course with reality. Hillary and her storm troopers march determinedly toward making it worse as soon as possible.

Predictably, Democrats think Hal Rogers, Ed Whitfield, Geoff Davis, and Ron Lewis made a political mistake on this vote. They deserve our thanks and our support for this vote. The only thing that would make it better would be to let the program die off completely. But I suspect we will have to be happy for now with slowing its rapid expansion.

When the left's prediction of death of middle-class kids in the streets fails to materialize, we will have more hard evidence for avoiding socialized medicine once and for all.

That's what liberal critics are afraid of.

1:02 Update: Nicholasville Conservative recommends an article from John Stossel on this subject. It's a good one.

Acting More Like Democrats

DNC Chair Howard Dean is pushing the Democratic party to the left through the organization that survived his run for president. He is raising money for more consistently "progressive" candidates like Donna Edwards who is running against Maryland Congressman Al Wynn, who Dean refers to as a "Bush Democrat."

And yes, I know Democracy for America is officially run by Mad Howard's brother Jim. If Jim were really going too far left for Howard, though, DFA would be shut down immediately.

Is Beshear Playing Dumb Or Is It You?

As Ryan Alessi's latest revelation about Steve Beshear's role in the destruction of Kentucky Central comes to light ...

The court-appointed liquidator of Kentucky Central at one point barred Steve Beshear from doing further work on the case and informed Beshear that his law firm would have to pay for an ethics investigation, documents show.

This comes after Beshear, the Democratic nominee for governor, has repeatedly claimed he didn't recall anything about a secret ethics report by a Cincinnati firm, Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur. And he recently said he wasn't aware his former firm, Stites & Harbison, paid more than $100,000 for it.

... Beshear's previous memory-related comments make a little more sense:

"When I say 'I don't recall,' if later you come up with something that says I was there, that's OK because I'm being up front in saying I don't recall because this is, what, 14 years ago?" he said.

Just don't say you weren't warned.

And, of course, when it comes to policy we always have this:

Beshear Campaign Staff Gains As UAW Strikes

General Motors union employees across the nation walked off the job today in a massive strike larger than any seen in the automobile industry in thirty years. Now they will have more free time to campaign for the Democratic campaigns.

Good thing Beshear and friends haven't succeeded in unionizing Toyota yet.

Jody Richards Agrees To Return Unearned Money

The unearned checks distributed to legislators after the House Democrats surrendered the July special session will be returned today, House Speaker Jody Richards' spokeswoman reported this morning.

2:27 pm UPDATE: Frankfort sources report Speaker Richards will refuse again today to send back the taxpayers' money.

We need to have a little fun with this while we wait for Jody Richards to pay up. Whoever can get closest to the time and date which confirmation goes out that the unearned paychecks are turned back in wins.

Where Are Steve Beshear's Barking Dogs?

Kind of funny to see the Beshear campaign still proudly touting their unsurprising support from former state Rep. Steve Nunn, who was run out of office last year in part because of a hilarious barking dog radio ad that hounded him for supporting a variety of tax increases.

After Beshear's casino gambling plan bites the dust in the legislature again, he and his dogs would have little choice but to try biting us with tax increases as well.

Socialized Medicine Plans Shrink In Sunlight

Maybe we should call California's ArnoldCare and Sen. Clinton's HillaryCare "the Shrinky Dinks."

Hillary couldn't take the heat in the '90's. This time won't be any different.

The claim that no new bureaucracies are created will be challenged. Like Gov. Schwarzenegger, Mrs. Clinton envisions requiring everyone to prove they have health insurance. But she's vague on the details: "At this point, we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed." You can bet she will have some ideas.

Even so, making certain people have insurance is easier said than done. California has had a law mandating that drivers have car insurance since 1970 and has required physical proof of insurance to register a car for a decade. Even so, the Insurance Research Council says 25% of the state's drivers remain uninsured.

• Illegal aliens and their access to health insurance will be controversial. Mrs. Clinton promises health care for all, but is punting on the issue of whether the illegal aliens, who often use emergency room services, will be covered. Ms. Rubiner admits it's a "huge issue," but says "that's one we're going to have to think through a little bit."

"Let The Liberal Editorial Boards Decide!"

Just heard Hillary Clinton describe public financing of political campaigns as her solution to her own campaign finance scandals.

If Steve Beshear wins the governor's race -- and after his casino plan falls flat -- it will be fun next year running against this and other really bad ideas he and Hillary share.

Destroying Business As Fast As They Can

Sen. Barack Obama's idea to save Social Security without paying a political price among the middle class would make HillaryCare look like a bounced check fee.

What he hopes you fail to realize is that employers pay half of Social Security taxes. And taxes on businesses have a funny way of hitting everyone with price increases and job cuts.

Meanwhile, it's a terrible shame Republicans squandered the opportunity to stop spending the annual Social Security surplus while we still have one.

Frankfort's Own Frito Bandito

Jody Richards still has the taxpayers' money he promised to return after the House Democrats surrendered the special session in July. Maybe we should check under his hat.

Reading Past First Paragraph For The Real Story

Which do you think is more newsworthy, that Steve Beshear's law firm paid $100,000 for research into its role in the destruction of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company, or that the head of the firm's Louisville office now says the report "will be 100% discredited" even though he hasn't seen it and no one in the firm can seem to remember seeing it.

To the Herald-Leader's credit, they did include that interesting quote (albeit near the end of the story) as well as this classic from Beshear:

"When I say 'I don't recall,' if later you come up with something that says I was there, that's OK because I'm being up front in saying I don't recall because this is, what, 14 years ago?" he said.

Left Can't Stop Lying About SCHIP

U.S. Census data clearly shows (page 19) that the rate of uninsured in America has been unchanged for almost fifteen years.

But that doesn't stop some group called Mathematica Policy Research from making this up:

SCHIP was enacted at a time when the number and rate of uninsured children were growing rapidly, especially among those just above the poverty threshold— too poor to purchase private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.

And, of course, Daily Kos bit hard.

President Bush is promising to veto expansion of SCHIP, though his own original proposal was to expand it as well. He just wanted to expand it less than Congress wants to.

SCHIP has served mainly to increase government spending and increase the cost of health insurance. I'm not holding my breath, but the data strongly suggests scrapping the whole thing would be great fiscally. And I suspect that when the sky didn't fall, it would be a great thing politically as well.

Laptops And Library Cards

Steve Beshear's education plan (spend more money and give kids library cards) would be pretty easy to ignore if he weren't 20 points up in the polls.

Musical Chairs In Lexington's City Hall

Some observers thought Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry might be serious about cleaning up the mess in Lexington's public safety bureaucracy when he fired Rebecca Langston from her post as Public Safety Commissioner.

Alas, it was not so.

Langston has re-upped as Council Administrator, Grade 121E, and is being paid more than $85,000 a year for her trouble.

Union Attorney Champions Government Healthcare

Polwatchers just needs a different headline on this post.

Battling It Out In A Casino Town

Since Ernie Fletcher reported from Aurora,Illinois, the town has been in an uproar. The hubbub isn't because of the controversy over its casino, but because Planned Parenthood is trying to sneak a huge abortion clinic into the town.

There has already been a big pro-life rally. Next Tuesday, the pro-abortion folks will take to the streets.

Just Like Being Homeless, Except When It Isn't

Cardboard box? Check! Outside all night? Check! Pizza, movies, and live music? Check!

In what is easily the most ridiculous thing I have heard since Speaker Jody Richards blew up the July special session and promised to return legislators' paychecks but didn't, Eastern Kentucky University students are going to sleep outside overnight to "to create a sense of empathy for problems the homeless face every day."

If you've seen the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," this next part will infuriate you:

Participants will partake in free pizza and refreshments, as well as enjoy live music during the event. At 9 p.m., a speaker from United Way will take the stage, followed by a screening of the Will Smith film "The Pursuit of Happyness." The film was chosen for its relevance to the issue at hand.

"We have a big outdoor screen," said David Fifer, student body president. "It's a moving tale on the plight of homelessness."

There is more, but I just can't stand it. Read it yourself.

"Honey, The Union Thugs Are At The Door Again"

Kentucky's most politically active union members will be knocking on doors this Saturday to benefit the big government, high tax, anti-growth policies of gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear.

Don't Lose Jack Conway's Pants If He Wins AG

Remember the story of the bozo judge who sued his Washington D.C. dry cleaner for $67 million after his pants went missing?

Well, the bozo didn't get the money but he did destroy the business.

The bozo judge has graciously lowered his demand from $67 million to $54 million.

By the way, if anyone finds Jody Richards' pants let us know. He is carrying around hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

George W. Bush The Fiscal Liberal

Alan Greenspan says George W. Bush has been a big spender. Dick Cheney says it ain't so.

The data says -- Republicans deserve to lose when they spend like Democrats.

Taking A Break From The Action

Still waiting for Jody Richards and the House Dems to pay back our tax dollars? Me too. While we are waiting, hit this link and play a little chess.

If you can beat that darn thing, you are a better man than I am. Pay up Jody.

Beshear Can't Back Up Education Statement

The Louisville Courier Journal reports Steve Beshear wants to depend more heavily on CATS testing because, he says, it is a better measure of skills than NCLB.

Better at what, keeping liberal hacks employed at the Kentucky Department of Education?

In the face of no evidence to back up his confidence in CATS testing, Beshear should have to explain what he means by this.

Can Ernie Fletcher make him do it?

BIPPS Rips Questionable School Data, Spending

The conclusion of this article is that Kentucky public schools don't need more money as much as they need more honesty and greater accountability.

These incremental rates of educational improvement seem out of whack with the massive new spending that accompanied the Kentucky Education Reform Act. So those expecting reform from within the Kentucky Department of Education best look elsewhere.

Research Report 338 published last year by the Legislative Research Commission found that while educators now devote more money to improving key educational outcomes, “spending for programs linked to specific accountability areas, such as reading and math core content, currently cannot be analyzed” due to misreporting of expenditures. The report stated that such misrepresentation “limits the ability to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of these programs.”

For several spending categories at some schools, the commission found it impossible to determine where much of the money went, concluding in its report that “there is no way to identify the specific purpose of the expenditures or to evaluate the impact of the spending.” Due to this atrocious accounting, it’s likely that even a competent audit could not track the money.

Following Through On Jody Richards' Political Stunt

Remember after the aborted special session this summer when legislators promised to return the paychecks they didn't earn?

Those checks still haven't been returned.

Get them in now, folks, and let us know when you did it.

The 45 Million Uninsured Looks More Like 8 Million

Before you run off to your next "Socialize Me More" rally, please watch this:

What The AG Race Poll Numbers Tell Me

Attorney General candidate Stan Lee needs to start talking about why he voted against the budget bill that heaped over $2 billion in debt onto future Kentucky taxpayers.

The poll released last night says Lee won't win unless he clearly displays his record of independence.

Disappointing

I just spent an hour watching our gubernatorial candidates not talk about the elephant in the room: our public employee benefit plans.

On Having, And Eating, Government Cake

Ohio is considering a couple of bills to cut down on public employee double-dipping.

We should do the same here.

Where's My Socialized Car Insurance?

Despite existing laws mandating car insurance, Kentucky has as high a rate of uninsured drivers as it does of people without health insurance.

So on the day President Hillary is set to announce how she is going to force everyone to buy health insurance and then make taxpayers pick up the cost for everyone who "can't" afford it, I have to wonder when she is going to socialize our car insurance as well.

But, of course, if we "go Canada" on car care, will we have to wait a year to get our cars fixed in the event of an accident? Cars are a necessity, you know. Actually, they are a right...

Can I get an Amen for universal cars?

Make mine a Mercedes!

Rewriting History Of Recent Fiscal Insanity

The Club for Growth points out liberal former Senator Lincoln Chafee is no longer a Republican.

There is one point in the article about Chafee that needs to be addressed, though.

Yesterday, he criticized Republican leaders for abandoning fiscal conservatism, once a mainstay of Republican politics, by passing tax cuts without spending cuts to balance the resulting loss of revenue.

The truth is federal tax revenues are at an all-time high. Excessive "Republican" spending -- championed by RINOs like Chafee -- was the problem, not "Republican" tax cuts.

"Let The People Decide" Baloney

The Lexington Herald-Leader has released another poll about how overwhelmingly the people of Kentucky want to vote on casinos.

The only question that matters needs to be asked of Senate President David Williams and House Speaker Jody Richards.

If they won't both bring it up for both chambers of the legislature to approve, it is a moot point.

And they won't.

Wouldn't it be great if they did a poll instead on public pensions, prevailing wages, repealing certificate of need, repealing prevailing wage, making Kentucky a "right to work" state, public school accountability, or economic development accountability?

Casinos + Cigarette Tax Increase = ???

You wouldn't know it from reading the Lexington Herald-Leader or the Louisville Courier-Journal, but a couple of issues Kentucky will face in 2008 are hitting Indiana now.

We would save ourselves a little time if we paid attention.

Indiana already has casinos, but they just raised cigarette taxes another 44 cents per pack to expand health insurance coverage.

This is happening while gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear is promising to expand government-paid health insurance and several other initiatives with new casinos alone.

Beshear's scam might get him elected, but his questionable proposals have done little to inspire confidence that anything more will come of that than putting Democrats back in charge of abusing the merit system.

Yellow Jacket Family Day Open Thread

I'm in Atlanta for Georgia Tech's Family Weekend and don't expect to have time for getting online.

By the way, my son just got his KEES scholarship money credited to his checking account. So for all you lottery ticket buyers -- and losers -- thanks again.

And since KEES' open-ended promise and declining lottery sales cause us to dip into the General Fund now, thanks to everyone else.

And ... for the parents who encourage their kids to take easy high schoool courses so their kids can maximize KEES awards -- and then flunk out freshman year due to lack of preparation -- thanks even more. I'll have two kids using your money next year!