Conservative Blogosphere Growing Quickly

Former College Republican chairman at Georgetown College Ben McKown is headed to UK Law school and is getting back to work on his "The Mole" blog. He's a terrific writer.

He joins Eric Wright, who does fine work and pulls from a wide variety of sources to make powerful points "On the Wright."

These young guys can handle the issues and, when necessary, throw a little heat. Good job!

Summer Reading Assignment

Everyone with teenage kids knows the #1 selling book on amazon.com is the latest in the Harry Potter saga. But would you believe that #2 is a book advocating the repeal of federal income taxes and replacement of the entire tax code? The book comes out August 2. The group advocating for HR 25 The Fair Tax reports they are getting a good reception from Congressman Ben Chandler's office, but I am skeptical that he will follow through.

Read up on the Fair Tax. The left wing groups (and some of the tax industry supporters of the status quo) will be in full force against this pretty soon

Smoking Gun On The Run

UPDATE: I will be filing an ethics complaint against AG Stumbo relating to his financial disclosure statement. I guess we can call it BraveheartGate.

Thanks to Susan Allen of the Big Sandy News for digging this up.

Democrats Cave On Social Security Negotiation Ban

Apparently Democrats do have ideas to share on the retirement challenges facing American citizens. Unfortunately, they aren't very good ideas.

At the heart of their proposal is the pouring of taxpayer dollars into individuals' retirement accounts. The trick is their matching proposal does absolutely nothing for people who can't afford to contribute the first dime to an IRA because of the forced taking of their payroll dollars which are then dumped into an underperforming Social Security ponzi scheme.

I think I respected them more when they were just obstructing the Social Security reform process.

Howard Dean Can't Fool UK Students For Life

Last week DNC Chairman (I just love that, I really do) Howard Dean said "I think we need to talk about this issue differently. Republicans have painted us as pro-abortion."

A group of University of Kentucky students aren't likely to fall for the spin. UK Students for Life's Joel Haubenreich said:

"The Republicans have not painted the Democratic party as pro-abortion. The Democratic party's platform paints it as pro-abortion. Of course they will try to be clever and say something like, "I'm not pro-abortion. I'm simply pro-choice." They might even go so far as to say, "While I am personally opposed to abortion, I shouldn't like to obstruct a woman's choice." But the "choice" in "pro-choice" is a euphemism for "dismemberment." Being in favour of a woman's choice to have her baby dismembered, in my opinion, isn't much better than being actively in favour of abortion. There really is no difference."

Young Mr. Haubenreich gives us yet another reason to be optimistic about the future. UK Students for Life has a terrific website here. Please go check it out, contribute your comments, and check back often for thoughtful updates.

Sex Offender Registry Solution

Imagine checking Kentucky's sex offender registry because you have small kids. You are just curious at first, but then you get a shock: you find you have a couple of convicted perverts on your street. What are you supposed to do with this information? Want to sell and move to protect your children? The only problem with this strategy is home buyers check the list too, so now you can't sell. Some defense attorneys contend that the problem is the list, the registry of predators. Might some twice-victimized homeowners be inclined to agree, at least until they can get out of the neighborhood?

This scenario is happening right now in Kentucky. This is bad enough in a few isolated incidents, but what if this plague of sex offenders continues to spread, leaving a trail of blighted neighborhoods caused by the presence of sex offenders? What if, heaven forbid, one of them moves in next door to you?

I have an idea.

Let's remove the legal penalties for harassing sex offenders. Presently you can be sentenced to ninety days in jail for "harassing" someone who is on the registry.

I remember a few years back the state of Louisiana struggled with the issue of flag burning. They couldn't make it illegal, so someone had the outstanding idea to institute a $25 fine for beating up a flag burner. Maybe we could do the same with sex offenders. Got a pedophile on your street? No problem. Go to the ATM, get $50 and go kick his ass twice.

Fixing KY Health Insurance In One Bold Stroke

Found an article in the Wall Street Journal about a good bill that would pull Kentucky out of the ditch Democrats put us in back in 1994 with their own version of HillaryCare.

States can regulate health insurance companies to protect the public against those insurers who don't honor their contracts, but the idea of holding ratepayers hostage to a wish-list of expensive goodies hurts too many people. If we were free to buy health insurance from states who didn't ruin their own markets, we could save money. No reasonable person could oppose that, right?

Hillary The Right Wing Radical Repugnicant

Wonder what the far left folks will do to themselves if Senator Rodham-Clinton really does support the Judge Roberts nomination?

If You Are Not A Terrorist, Don't Run From London Police

When common sense and political correctness collide, anti-war zealots find an opportunity to protest, politic, and do whatever else they do to the detriment of normal people everywhere.

The man killed by London police this week turned out to be a Brazilian with no ties to terrorism. The proper response would be to remind people not to run from the police. The shoot-to-kill policy makes perfect sense under the circumstances. Muslim "civil libertarians" in London will no doubt try to force the guns out of the hands of the police to protect themselves from "overzealous" law enforcement.

We can only hope the Londoners don't cave in to this idiocy.

Stretch: On Both Sides Of The Issue Again

Yesterday, Rep. Ben Chandler voted to kill the Patriot Act three times, before going along on the fourth vote with the law enforcement protections that we need to battle terrorists. While we appreciate Rep. Chandler's final answer, we can't help bringing attention to this well-worn tactic of his (most notably on tax issues): try to kill a good bill on procedural votes and then vote for it when that doesn't work.

This form of legislative chicanery is commonly used by Kentucky's House Democrats in Frankfort who tell constituents they are in favor of a good bill and will vote for it if it comes up, knowing that their buddies can kill it in committee. Fortunately for us, once again, Chandler is in the minority. May the same be true after the next election for our flip-flopping House Dems in the General Assembly.

Prove It: Democrat Leader Claims To Have Ideas

Social Security continues to lose money while Congressional Democrats like Ben Chandler continue to not only whine and cry, but to mislead the public about the necessity to act.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has the following statement on her website, which serves mainly as comedy since Democrats have failed to offer any suggestions.

"We are eager to discuss how to make Social Security strong into the next century, and we have many ideas on how to do so."

Oh, really? Name one idea.

Why Greg Stumbo Has Been Quiet Recently

A minor news story in the growing vote-buying scandal today doesn't mention Greg Stumbo, but follow up articles soon will unavoidably do so. Interestingly, David Hawpe questions Stumbo's ethics on a different matter, but it is the voter fraud that will end his political career. The statute of limitations on Stumbo's crimes runs out late this year. Then he will surely get a fair trial before he is hung out to dry.

This Is Not A Test: It's a LIBERAL FREAKOUT!!!

Good pick...

Here's the proof.

And here.

And here.

This is going to be very interesting.

Crux of State Hiring is Law, Not "Gist"

This from today's Lexington Herald Leader:

Although the nuances of state personnel laws might indeed be "inefficient" or "confusing" as Fletcher noted, the gist is straightforward: the roughly 30,000 rank-and-file state employees are to be hired on qualifications, not for political reasons. (Go here for the whole story.)

With this, we finally reach the heart of the matter. Governor Fletcher has insisted that while mistakes may have been made, laws were not broken. Attorney General Stumbo has built his "smoking gun" case on this "gist."

The challenge to finding the truth in this matter now involves bridging this gap.

The onus is on Stumbo to not only demonstrate "gist," but to show that laws were broken. Failing that, the cost of this investigation will clearly be attributable to anti-Republican political motivations. We hear precious little from the mainstream media about this possibility. We hear only assumed guilt. But laws are not enforced solely on the "gist" of the law. If they were, maybe this episode would already be over. It isn't over.

Pundits who scoff at the Governor's review of the merit system willfully miss the point: Governor Fletcher didn't break this system. It was already broken and left unchallenged for many years of Democrat rule, during which Republicans were almost completely shut out of these jobs, gist or no gist. (Wouldn't it be interesting to see the media do an in-depth review of political affiliation of merit employees?) Once again, the Dems put themselves in the untenable position of hoping that nothing goes right and nothing gets fixed.

Vermont Cable Maybe; Not In Kentucky

Curious to know where the Democrats' talking points on Iraq come from? Try Al Jazeera.

The terrorist television network is planning to launch an English language channel in the Spring of 2006. It will be pretty interesting to see which cable systems pick that one up.

Repeal the National Voter Registration Act of 1993

Signs like this have lined San Diego highways since 1990 to warn drivers of the illegals darting across traffic. These same illegals (and worse) can run down to the local Department of Motor Vehicles and drive away with the closest thing to a national ID that we have. Because President Clinton signed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 or Motor Voter, they can even vote.

Now we can clearly see that the time has come to repeal Motor Voter, can't we?

Understanding President Bush's Court Choice

John Roberts--Good.
Michael Luttig--Better.

This fight will be fun and will get us back to the debate over filibustering of judicial nominees.

Democrats' Growing Idea Problem

In last year's Democrat Presidential Primary, every candidate was a proponent of socialized medicine. This could well become a problem for Kentucky Democrats in 2006, who claim to not agree with their national party on anything but hatred for George Bush.

"Single payer is not socialized medicine," said Kay Tillow of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care on the Kentucky Focus program this morning. "It makes a social funding of healthcare, taking out the profiteering. The delivery system would remain with the non-profits, with the physicians, etcetera."

Right. Let's call it the Empty Out The Medical Schools Act of 2005. The mainstream in the Democratic Party is really going for this garbage. Ask your local Democrat to explain how nationalizing our system of healthcare will make it better for anyone but incompetent doctors and government bureaucrats.

RoveGate Goes Bust

Despite all the Sturm and Drang going on over at Ben Chandler's new blog, the angry left-wing mob out for Karl Rove's head missed its mark badly on the clumsily manufactured CIA agent scandal.

Even the New York Times got it right. And it just happens to be a pretty good read, actually. Check it out. I particularly liked the Monty Python reference.

Coming to Lexington January 28: Bill Kristol

William Kristol is editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, The Weekly Standard. Widely recognized as one of the nation's leading political analysts and commentators, Mr. Kristol regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and on the Fox News Channel.

Before starting The Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during the Bush administration and to Secretary of Education William Bennett under President Reagan. Before coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol taught politics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Mr. Kristol recently co-authored The New York Times bestseller The War Over Iraq: America's Mission and Saddam's Tyranny.