Anyone who doubted whether casinos will distort Kentucky's political process have just been disabused of that notion. Rather than live with the verdict of the committee that was appointed to determine such issues, House leadership has just thrown Dottie Sims off the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee because she didn't vote the [...]
Anyone who doubted whether casinos will distort Kentucky's political process have just been disabused of that notion. Rather than live with the verdict of the committee that was appointed to determine such issues, House leadership has just thrown Dottie Sims off the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee because she didn't [...]
For Immediate Release Contact: Martin Cothran
February 26, 2008 Phone: 859-329-1919
Casinos lose in committee
"How can we say, "let the people [...]
For Immediate Release Contact: Martin Cothran
February 26, 2008 Phone: 859-329-1919
Casinos lose in committee
"How can we say, "let the people decide" [...]
Rumors are swirling around the State Capitol that the House of Representatives received a visit today from an FBI agent. Now why would the FBI be poking around the Capitol while a debate over casino legislation was in progress?
To quote Shakespeare's Antony: I pause for a response...
I will appear on KET's "Kentucky Tonight" program next Monday night, February 25 at 8:00 p.m. to debate Senate Bill 1, which would scrap the state CATS tests in favor of a standardized norm-referenced system. Sharon Oxedine, president of the Kentucky Education Association (the state teacher's union) will be defending [...]
Well they have apparently taken up literary criticism over at the liberal Bluegrass Roots blog, and their first literary pronouncement, by MediaCzech, is that is that Hunter S. Thompson was "KY's greatest writer." Someone needs to advise MediaCzech not to give up his day job.
The pantheon of Kentucky writers [...]
I normally do not agree with the opinions expressed over at the Rural Democrat blog, but one recent post descends from simply being disagreeable being downright ignorant.
The bold question; will Senate President David Williams (R) ignore Kentucky? Williams has already made his position on the possibility of allowing Kentuckians the right [...]
My article on the consequences of casino gambling on the state's political culture ran in today's Louisville Courier-Journal.
[...]Watching Steve Beshear unveil his constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling yesterday had all the plausibility of a coming out party for Norman Bate's grandmother: the bill has been dead for a while now, but the Governor seems to be completely unaware of it.
Beshear has taken so long to roll [...]
It looks like House Majority Caucus Chair Charlie Hoffman (D-Georgetown) and Rep. Darryl Owens (D-Louisville) will be sponsoring two pieces of gambling legislation in the State House, Hoffman the enabling legislation and Owens, chair of the Elections, Constitutional Amendments, and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, the constitutional amendment bill.
The bill will include [...]
As it turns out, there is not enough pro-casino money distorting the political culture of the Commonwealth, and so the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) is starting another organization to peddle influence among Kentucky's lawmakers. It will be a 527 campaign fund, which means it can raise lots of [...]
Things can't be very happy in the Governor's office right at this very moment. Champagne bottles, which had been intended for purposes of celebration, have been put away and replaced by bottles of vintage bourbon and shot glasses to make easier the writing of press releases explaining why the loss [...]
The supporters of domestic partner benefits at taxpayer-funded universities are complaining that the State Senate moved so quickly in passing Senate Bill 112, which would ban such benefits.
But I'm wondering why they are complaining about the legislation moving so quickly. Last session, far from complaining that the [...]
Passing legislation in a bipartisan legislature requires building alliances, not burning bridges. The Beshear administration's recent cancellation of a road project in David William's senate district was an attempt by the Governor to put Williams in his place. It was Beshear's first big mistake.
It's one thing to jerk the chain [...]
The gambling industry apparently thinks it can not only buy legislative votes, but change history. Several liberal, pro-gambling blogs, including The Hillbilly Report and BlueGrassRoots are questioning the core convictions of John Mark Hack, the spokesman for SayNoCasino, who, they charge, once tried to get a job [...]
BlueGrassRoots, a liberal blog, had this to say about The Family Foundation:
The Family Foundation always seems to be a thorn in the ass and the poison in the belly that slows progress in Kentucky, either by spreading their hate via the Kentucky Citizen or standing on their hypocritical stump preaching against gambling [...]
The Beshear administration came to office on the wings of a promise that it was going to avoid what it considered the ethical lapses of the previous administration. Does it seem strange to anyone that, in the wake this exalted rhetoric, his first act as governor has been to ally himself with an industry [...]
Well, the Courier-Journal interviewed former State Sen. David Karem of Louisville yesterday and told him he could speak frankly, which is a little like telling the Pope that it's okay to be Catholic. Karem was probably the Kentucky General Assembly's most formidable liberal the day (the 1990's I mean), but [...]
I was quoted in today's article on casino gambling in the Lexington Herald-Leader
[...]I think I agree with every point in this piece by Douglas Wilson.
[...]The University of Louisville was among a number of schools that received the worst rating from a national free speech organization: Cardinal Red. The "Red Light" rating came from The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, whose report, "Spotlight on Speech Codes 2007" rates schools for the prevalence of student [...]
There have been various reports that, on it's way out the door, the Fletcher administration awarded a fat road contract in Senate President David Williams home district.
I'm not going to argue that this didn't happen. This is the way Frankfort has worked for years, and let's just speculate on [...]
When even the Democratic state blogs started talking about a sex scandal in the Beshear administration, I thought perhaps one of the Governor's people had been outed as a heterosexual. But it was not to be.
What the buzz is about is a Jonathan Miller aide who, since she was hired [...]
Here is the first paragraph of the Lexington Herald-Leader's article, written by Ryan Alessi, on a bill filed by 21 House Democrats that would prohibit state agencies from paying for the health benefits of live-in partners of their employees:
Two Democratic state lawmakers are dredging up a controversial proposal to block public [...]
In yesterday's presidential debate, the Republican presidential candidates were asked for a show of hands to indicate whether they believed that global warming was a significant threat caused by man. Fred Thompson rebelled against the format and asked if he could give a minute long answer.
No way, said the moderator.
Thirty seconds?
Nope.
Thompson refused to play along, [...]
Tim Tebow, this year's winner of the Heisman Trophy, college football's most coveted award--and the only sophomore ever to win it, was home schooled.
Just thought I'd mention it.
[...]If you want a good illustration of the difference between a necessary and a sufficient condition, look at John Podhoretz's article over at Contentions on why Mike Huckabee is not a shoe-in for the Republican nomination for president. Here is the essence of Podhoretz's argument:
The Christian base of the Republican [...]
Well the steel toed boots got another good workout today when Page One Kentucky expelled Jim Waters from its site for associating with the wrong kind of people. Page One had been hosting Water's column the "Bluegrass Beacon" (for how long I don't know). Waters is with the conservative [...]
Uh oh. It turns out that Steve Beshear has a woman problem (No, not that kind). The feminists are after him. As it turns out, men outnumber women two to one in the Governor's cabinet choices For shame, Governor, for shame. The Kentucky Women website is after the Guv. [...]
In an editorial today, the Lexington Herald-Leader reminds the Beshear administration on the importance of cleaning up the Transportation Cabinet. The problem their worried about is making sure that road contracts are given to people fairly. Has anyone asked the question of whether we just spending too much on [...]
Page One Kentucky claims that the robo-calls made in support of the Fletcher campaign by an unidentified caller are already illegal. And they print several sections from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to prove it.
Not so fast, guys.
The problem with Page One's claim is that they either didn't read [...]
My, my. How terribly intolerant we are becoming. And by "we", of course, I mean "them".
In yesterday's Louisville Courier-Journal James Wilmott, a former science teacher in Goshen, KY who now lives in England, wags his finger at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, and anyone who might choose to go there. It [...]
Did anyone notice that the only one of the Youtube questioners in Wednesday night's presidential debate who got the opportunity to speak at the debate itself was the gay gentleman? He was handed the mike and proceeded to expound his position to the nation.
Is CNN going to give the floor over to someone [...]
John David Dyche has the perfect banner for Kentucky Republicans to rally 'round after their defeat at the polls earlier this month: a white flag.
In yesterday's Courier-Journal, Dyche argues that Republican lawmakers who oppose casinos "should hold their fire in Frankfort during the legislative session and instead campaign against the [...]
In his classic novel, 1984, George Orwell writes of the "Two Minute Hate": a periodic event in which members of the Party are gathered together before a video screen featuring images of Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers: the enemies of the State. Participants are worked up into a frenzy of hatred and vitriol [...]
Reports are that State Rep. John Draud (R-Edgewood) will be getting the nod from the State School Board as Kentucky's new Education Commissioner. Here are a few pluses and minuses of a Draud administration:
Word now comes that Dr. Hamid Hussain Sheikh, Lexington's infamous abortionist, has been indicted by the State Attorney General. According to the AG's press release, Sheikh "committed fraud by performing abortions and disguising patient visits as fetal ultrasounds for normal pregnancies, which he billed to Medicaid." Additional charges could come [...]
You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound. A dimension of sight. A dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both style and substance of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into ... the Jefferson County School [...]
My opinion piece on media bias appeared in today's Lexington Herald-Leader.
[...]Over at Kentucky School News and Views, Richard Day criticizes Joe Brothers, the head of the State School Board, for moving ahead with the appointment of a new state schools chief in the face of a request from new Governor Steve Beshear to restart the process of hiring a new [...]
In a recent article, John Cheves attempts to analyze the Fletcher campaign's actions in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign to play what Cheves calls "the gay card." But Cheves missed the real story--a story in which he himself was a player.
The Fletcher campaign conducted a calling blitz [...]
Some people seem to think there is a good chance that the issue of casino gambling will make it on to next year's ballot.
They're wrong.
In an article in yesterday's Courier-Journal Tom Loftus and Stephanie Steitzer discussed the chances of a gambling measure passing in next year's General Assembly. Although [...]
Ernie Fletcher lost yesterday’s election because he walked through a gauntlet of bullies and didn't fight back, largely because he never really had anything to fight for. Turning the other cheek is a great rule of personal behavior but it is a poor substitute for a governing philosophy.
Political leaders succeed [...]
"Jake," over at Page One Kentucky (who I plan on quoting on a regular basis on the grounds that his comments are perfectly representative of morally directionless politics) is accusing Steve Beshear of being "homophobic".
Now we must remember what the term "homophobic" means: it means anyone who disagrees with [...]
