Beshear has done little as Governor. He has spent most of his time moaning about the state budget deficit and trying to get his pet issue, gambling, passed. He has not shown any form of true leadership. That fact was never more painfully obvious than when he decided to create an imaginary budget this year. One that included money from a gambling bill that has no chance of passing through the legislature. His budget is nothing less than a fairy tale. Rather than showing leadership by making difficult cuts, he passed. Now the legislators are stuck creating a budget from scratch while Beshear does little to help.

Is it any wonder that his poll numbers are fading?  Anything below 50% for a sitting governor is fairly abysmal. Governors aren't in the news every day so they generally get the benefit of the doubt. But the latest numbers show him with a 44% approval rating. It isn't that he is doing poorly in different parts of the state either. He is doing poorly across the board. His best region is the Louisville area where he garners a measly 47% support. Ouch! It doesn't get any better when delving into age and race groups. He only does better than 43% with one age group and race. He gets 55% support from the 65+ crowd and 54% from African Americans.

He is in a world of hurt with voters right now and I am not sure how he is going to turn it around in the next 20 months. He has shown little leadership in any area and has done little to bolster confidence in his capabilities. I think his only hope now is that the economy improves by the middle of 2011. Otherwise he is likely to be a one term governor.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the federal judge presiding in Proposition 8 case, is himself gay.

Hmmm. Wonder how that decision will turn out.

My theory about the attraction many of my generation had with Ayn Rand (I noticed this particularly in college) was that the people who became enamored of her just simply had read little else. Their estimation of her as a novelist--Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, etc.--was hampered by their lack of having read other novels--or at least their lack having read any very good ones which they could have used for comparison.

Upon reading Roger Kimball's own personal testimony about Rand--that he read never actually read her books, partly because he started one or two and simply couldn't get through them and partly because he was dissuaded by the testimonies of critics who found her literary skills to be severely lacking, I find myself in much the same position: I tried The Fountainhead, and after several chapters just put the sorry thing down, wondering what it was that had so transfixed so many of my friends.

I would have tried harder, but I had already read Whitaker Chambers famous literary take-down of her books written more than 50 years ago now in his review of Atlas Shrugged:

Since a great many of us dislike much that Miss Rand dislikes, quite as heartily as she does, many incline to take her at her word. It is the more persuasive, in some quarters, because the author deals wholly in the blackest blacks and the whitest whites. In this fiction everything, everybody, is either all good or all bad, without any of those intermediate shades which, in life, complicate reality and perplex the eye that seeks to probe it truly. This kind of simplifying pattern, of course, gives charm to that most primitive story known as: The War between the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. In modern dress, it is a class war. Both sides to it are caricatures.

The Children of Light are largely operatic caricatures. Insofar as any of them suggests anything known to the business community, they resemble the occasional curmudgeon millionaire, tales about whose outrageously crude and shrewd eccentricities sometimes provide the lighter moments in boardrooms. Otherwise, the Children of Light are geniuses. One of them is named (the only smile you see will be your own): Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian dAntonio. This electrifying youth is the world's biggest copper tycoon. Another, no less electrifying, is named: Ragnar Danesjold. He becomes a twentieth-century pirate. All Miss Rand's chief heroes are also breathtakingly beautiful. So is her heroine (she is rather fetchingly vice president in charge of management of a transcontinental railroad).

So much radiant energy might seem to serve a eugenic purpose. For, in this story as in Mark Twain's, "all the knights marry the princess" — though without benefit of clergy. Yet from the impromptu and surprisingly gymnastic matings of the heroine and three of the heroes, no children — it suddenly strikes you — ever result. The possibility is never entertained. And, indeed, the strenuously sterile world of Atlas Shrugged is scarcely a place for children. You speculate that, in life, children probably irk the author and may make her uneasy. How could it be otherwise when she admiringly names a banker character (by what seems to me a humorless master-stroke): Midas Mulligan? You may fool some adults; you can't fool little boys and girls with such stuff — not for long. They may not know just what is out of line, but they stir uneasily. The Children of Darkness are caricatures, too; and they are really oozy. But at least they are caricatures of something identifiable. Their archetypes are Left-Liberals, New Dealers, Welfare Statists, One Worlders, or, at any rate, such ogreish semblances of these as may stalk the nightmares of those who think little about people as people, but tend to think a great deal in labels and effigies. (And neither Right nor Left, be it noted in passing, has a monopoly of such dreamers, though the horrors in their nightmares wear radically different masks and labels.)

Those and his other comments made me think the effort unlikely to yield any greater appreciation. Why read this kind of thing when there are so many other more worthy contenders for my time?

The silly names alone reminded me of having the misfortune of seeing one of the "Left Behind" movies one night while scanning the channels when I was staying at a hotel: Rayford Steele, Nikolai Carpathia, Ivy Gold. If you ever find yourself in a room with more than one or two names like this, you may be in a bad novel.

Now a Randian could argue that I have not read the books, and that therefore I cannot judge them, to which I can only say that I am not judging them. I am only explaining why I have not read them: because I have never yet encountered anyone whose literary tastes I respected say they were worth reading--and plenty whose tastes I did respect who assured me I needn't bother.

CQ Politics notes that Sarah Palin confused U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Rand Paul with his father, career politician Ron Paul:

Chris Wallace asked Sarah Palin on Fox yesterday "why would you support a guy like" Rand Paul and forced Palin to acknowledge, over and over, that Paul is not exactly a "perfect candidate." Wallace draws a road-map for Trey Grayson's campaign by highlighting those issues on which Paul is, shall we say, colorful:

In the race to become Kentucky's junior senator the differences between democrat Jack Conway and republican Trey Grayson have been hard for some to discern. One left leaning blogger had this to say: Trey shouldn’t run for Senate this go-round because he isn’t as experienced as Jack Conway and just can’t beat him in a general election. If he runs against him, Grayson risks splitting his own support base in half and cutting his fundraising by nearly 50%. Because both he and Conway share support and financial bases. Politically, they’re on the same side of nearly every issue. And with...

2/8/2010 11:12:00 AM By BlueGrass Bulletin

Sarah Palin's decision to endorse Rand Paul took many by surprise. Chris Wallace, on FoxNews Sunday put it this way: You recently stirred up some controversy, as you often do, even your — when you endorsed Rand Paul as the Senate — he's running in the Senate primary for — in Kentucky, the GOP Senate primary. And Bill Kristol, your longtime supporter, was upset with you because one of the things he pointed out — Paul wants to close Guantanamo. He wants to send the detainees back to Afghanistan. He wants to repeal the Patriot Act. He wants to do...

2/8/2010 11:12:00 AM By BlueGrass Bulletin

Kenton County Deputy Judge Executive Scott Kimmich resigned his position in order to continue his campaign for the top spot to replace the retiring Ralph Drees. Kimmich wrote for and obtained a legal opinion regarding whether "The Hatch Act" applied to him. When told that it does, Kimmich stepped down. "The Hatch Act" makes it illegal for anyone employed by a state or local executive agency who works in connection with programs financed in whole or in part by federal loans or grants to run for a partisan office. According to Rick Robinson, Kimmich's attorney, the Office of Special Counsel...

2/8/2010 11:12:00 AM By BlueGrass Bulletin

Sarah Palin called Dr. Rand Paul before her speech at the Tea Party convention this weekend, according to Joe Arnold. Paul's campaign manager, Dave Adams, said Palin called to "establish contact."

If you saw the love story told through Google search queries, then you’ll find this … well, you’ll find it something. Produced by the usual suspects.

2/7/2010 11:15:00 PM By Bluegrass Policy Blog

There’s a brand-new demographic class now under consideration by the Kentucky Legislature – the “dating class.” This class is not exactly defined yet, but it is not made up of people who now, for the asking, have domestic-violence protections – those who have been married, lived together or had a child in common, presumably the natural way, according to the editorialist in the Lexington Herald-Leader of 07 February. The editorialist called the people involved “dating partners.” Most daters are partners in the dating process, so that seems reasonable.

So…the “dating class” seems to be made up of people who…well, date. The Legislature – mostly under the pressure of Speaker Stumbo – is desperately trying to protect anyone who feels threatened by someone he/she is dating. The editorialist called this “domestic violence,” which means that just about anything that happens in an untoward way anymore is simply domestic violence. Two people go out on a date, get a little soused, have a dustup of some kind, and the one who hates the other the most or acts the fastest goes down to the judge and gets a protective order of some kind against the other.

Of course, it all goes back to the Amanda Ross murder for which Steve Nunn is alleged to be responsible and has even been undergoing tests to see if he has all his marbles. It seems that Ross and Nunn had been engaged at one time, but were not even dating at the time of the alleged murder.

Get the connection? No? That’s because there isn’t any. Ross had already requested and received a protective order against Nunn account some skullduggery on his part. Like most protective orders, it would have been worth no more than the paper upon which it was written if the other party decided to wreak havoc, as Nunn allegedly did. Whatever happened was not “domestic violence” because Ross and Nunn did not live together, with or without marriage.

HB 189 would create a database of “intimate partner crimes,” according to the editorialist. Apparently, an “intimate partner crime” has not been defined as yet, so the lawmakers will have to decide just what it is. Is a dustup between two daters (or maybe even among a threesome) a crime if the partners haven’t been intimate? Apparently not! But, then, of course, “intimate” will have to be defined.

As of now, if a guy slaps his “dating partner” on the way home from the movie and dinner but does not become “intimate” in the usually considered way, his name won’t go into the database. But, if they go all the way and she doesn’t scream “rape” she can get a protective order, even though the slap happened before the hanky-panky. Make any sense? Of course not, but this is the Kentucky legislature, remember?

Well…this might discourage some of the frat boys over at the university from feeding the drug “ecstasy” to their dates and then, when the lady of the night is a zombie, take advantage of her. When the lady screams “rape” under those circumstances, she’s likely to be unsuccessful in getting even with him, never mind that she had no business getting herself into that predicament in the first place. But these ankle bracelets being considered under HB 189 might slow a guy down since his every move would be on somebody’s radar. Having that siren go off on the bracelet when he’s an “intimate partner” with another “significant other” could be embarrassing.

One supposes that an “intimate partner crime” wouldn’t be as bad as a “hate crime,” the going thing right now among the social engineers, but why not just lump it in with that category – if the state has it – and let it go at that? Whoever gets the HB 189 protective order probably would hate the “dating partner,” anyway, so what’s to lose?

Of course, as the case with a lot of protective orders, the one who gets it against a “dating partner” could decide to kiss and make-up, in which case, if the law doesn’t hear about it down at the City Building or Courthouse, a deputy or policeman might make somebody mad trying to enforce it…and get shot. Happens all the time.

Oh well…the whole thing takes everyone’s mind off the state’s near-bankruptcy. In the meantime, the guy who asks a girl for a date had better be sure they go in separate cars and eat at separate tables and say “goodnight” over the phone. Those electronic ankle bracelets could be bothersome, and to be put into that “intimate partner crime” database…gangbusters!

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Watch this ad for the 2010 Census. Apparently the Census is doing some Super Bowl activities, including TV spots. Here’s a quote: If we don’t know how many kids there are, how do we know how many classrooms we need? The Census helps us know exactly what we need, so everyone can get their fair share [...]

2/7/2010 5:24:00 PM By Bluegrass Policy Blog

Today I interviewed Bill Johnson, Kentucky GOP candidate for the US Senate. Johnson has recently polled ahead of Rand Paul for the nomination. Subscribe To "The Marcus Carey Perspective":

2/7/2010 4:05:00 PM By BlueGrass Bulletin

Here are the poll numbers to back up my recent discussion on the really bad spot Democrat candidates in Kentucky are in this year. The top Republican candidates hold a double digit lead on Mongiardo and a comfortable lead on Conway. The biggest problem for the Democratic candidates are neither of them poll over 40%.  Mongiardo is around 36% and Conway is around 40%. 40% is the Democratic floor in this state.

Such a low percentage means that neither candidate has any appeal beyond their base constituency. That is a poor place to start. And will become painfully apparent once the Republican nominee start stying the Democratic winner to the Democratic leadership in D.C.

What is interesting is how little the drive by media has been able to effect the debate. No matter how much they pimp Democrats and attempt dividing Republicans, the poll numbers for their candidates are still in the toilet.

Today I will bring you my interview with Bill Johnson, republican candidate for the US Senate A recent poll has him ahead of Rand Paul among likely GOP voters and recent reports are that he was the stand out speaker at several republican gatherings, taking many by surprise. Don't miss it. 6 pm Eastern Time at "The Marcus Carey Perspective" on RFC Radio, The New Voice Of Conservatism. (And don't forget, you can log in to chat during our broadcast with only a screen name. No password required)

2/7/2010 1:28:00 PM By BlueGrass Bulletin

Please join us for the monthly GOP Breakfast

Sponsored by the Republican Party of Fayette County

 Hilton Suites Lexington Green 
 
 Saturday, February 13, 2010, 9:30 to 10:30
Doors open at 9:00


 Reservations are required by February 10th!

254-3532 or rpfc@windstream.net


 The cost is $10. This includes coffee, juice and an assortment of pastries.


 Saturday’s speakers are:

Andy Barr, Candidate for 6th District US Congress  

and Chuck Ellinger, Candidate for LFUCG Council at Large
 
Please join us as we prepare for the 2010 elections.


This message was sent from Republican Party of Fayette County to kylaw74@gmail.com. It was sent from: Republican Party of Fayette County, 241 Southland DRive, Lexington, KY 40503. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below.
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Criminologists are questioning the value of some crime statistics in New York: In interviews with the criminologists, other retired senior officers cited examples of what the researchers believe was a periodic practice among some precinct commanders and supervisors: checking eBay, other Web sites, catalogs or other sources to find prices for items that had been reported [...]

2/6/2010 7:43:00 PM By Bluegrass Policy Blog

Bill Johnson, candidate for U.S. Senate has announced that a new poll now has him finishing ahead of Rand Paul in the race for the GOP nomination. Johnson released the poll on Facebook and on his website. The Bill Johnson for U.S. Senate campaign received the following poll results. Shamrock Polling conducted the statewide poll for an undisclosed client. Questions regarding the poll can be directed to Persistence Consulting (persistenceconsulting@gmail.com). The Johnson for U.S. Senate campaign did not pay for or participate in this poll. The results are consistent with internal polling done by the campaign. We asked 1,257 likely...

2/6/2010 6:54:00 PM By BlueGrass Bulletin

We interrupt your regular propagandizing about how gay relationships are just like heterosexual ones to bring you this important revelation from the New York Times:

As the trial phase of the constitutional battle to overturn the Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage concludes in federal court, gay nuptials are portrayed by opponents as an effort to rewrite the traditional rules of matrimony. Quietly, outside of the news media and courtroom spotlight, many gay couples are doing just that, according to groundbreaking new research.

A study to be released next month is offering a rare glimpse inside gay relationships and reveals that monogamy is not a central feature for many. Some gay men and lesbians argue that, as a result, they have stronger, longer-lasting and more honest relationships. And while that may sound counterintuitive, some experts say boundary-challenging gay relationships represent an evolution in marriage — one that might point the way for the survival of the institution.

New research at San Francisco State University reveals just how common open relationships are among gay men and lesbians in the Bay Area. The Gay Couples Study has followed 556 male couples for three years — about 50 percent of those surveyed have sex outside their relationships, with the knowledge and approval of their partners.

That consent is key. “With straight people, it’s called affairs or cheating,” said Colleen Hoff, the study’s principal investigator, “but with gay people it does not have such negative connotations.”

Read the rest here.

We now return you to your regular programming about how same sex marriage will not corrupt the institution of marriage.

Mark your calendar: Social Security is now costing us now in the red:

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Don't look now. But even as the bank bailout is winding down, another huge bailout is starting, this time for the Social Security system.

A report from the Congressional Budget Office shows that for the first time in 25 years, Social Security is taking in less in taxes than it is spending on benefits.

Read more here.

Okay…POTUS had a TOTUS-moment in his speech at the Prayer Breakfast the other day. It seems that at least some of the media quickly chose to delete that part of the speech from earlier transcripts in which a couple of times he pronounced the term “corpsman” as “corpse-man.” One hopes the teleprompter plainly indicated “corpsman;” otherwise, the prez was badly served by his speechwriters if they gave a phonetic hint that caused the error.

More likely, the slip of the tongue was due to the fact that Obama has no clue with respect to anything military, although one could hope that in his highly touted education-process he might have learned how to say “corpsman.” Imagine calling the president’s band the “Marine Corpse Band” or alluding to the “drum-and-bugle corpse” that often participates in parades, etc. John Philip Sousa would flip in his grave. Maybe the pundits who made so much of George Bush’s mispronunciation of “nuclear” will shut up now for a while. The suspicion here is that he purposely did that anyway, just for the heck of it.

The president’s astuteness came into play when he said this: “But there is a sense that something is different now; that something is broken; that those of us in Washington are not serving the people as well as we should. At times, it seems like we're unable to listen to one another; to have at once a serious and civil debate. And this erosion of civility in the public square sows division and distrust among our citizens. It poisons the well of public opinion.”

That, of course, was the mother of all understatements. The “brokenness” began with the gloating in 2007 as the democrats took over Congress and was enhanced last year when Obama began what has turned out to be a disastrous first-year presidency, his constant mantra having to do with the fact that he inherited a mess (the case with all incoming presidents), the implication being that he should be cut some slack. He should, but only up to a point, certainly now reached.

The most egregious approach to governing shown by the president thus far was seen in the “stimulus package,” which made ordinary earmarking look like very small potatoes. It was designed ostensibly to create jobs but it has mostly created government jobs at a time when government workers, on average, make about $30,000 more per year (taxpayer monies) than all other workers. Government jobs are also highly unionized (some 52% of all union jobs), so labor-union hotshots can often run the show. Teacher-unions are among the worst, providing teacher-immunity from everything from teacher-ignorance to teacher-incompetence to curriculum-stupidity.

As for listening to each other, the Congressional democrats and the president determined last year to construct/enact cap-and-trade, health-care, and most everything else as exclusive products of the respective democrat caucuses and the administration. The well-publicized method ballyhooed the fact that lawmakers no longer had to read the bills on which they voted – and they didn’t. The citizenry DOES see the efforts as evidence of a totally broken government.

As for civility, it’s doubtful that current lawmakers are any worse at exercising it than those since the beginning. Even worse than name-calling is that of being ignored, as the republicans have been. Even worse than that is the blaming of republicans for recalcitrance regarding debate/compromise when the deep rifts among the democrats are the cause for entirely shutting down their agenda. They have or had the votes all year for doing anything and everything they wanted, up to and including the closing of Gitmo and wars anywhere.

The president said this: “It is this spirit of civility that we are called to take up when we leave here today. That's what I'm praying for.” He should have prayed this prayer last year when the tawdry wheeling and dealing accruing to trying to pass a health-care bill was front-page news or TV-talk-fodder on a daily basis. This dirty linen was rotten to the core but in this age of the Internet and 24/7 cable-news it was aired for all the world to notice…and laugh.

The president has learned some, but not everything, in the last year. This is what he said at the Prayer Breakfast of 05 February 2009: “But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.” Innocent women and children are being blown to bits all over the world today because of a tenet of Islam (Allah as god), to wit, “kill the infidel at every opportunity.” Not just soldiers, of course! No…people just eating in a restaurant or in school or walking along a highway or in a mosque or working in a place like the WTC and Pentagon of 2001.

The main concern of the Prayer Breakfast might well have been approaching the God of the founding fathers and beseeching him to help deliver the world from the terrorists who slay in the name of their god. Then, shoe-bombers and skivvies-bombers and plane-hijackers would be treated like the monsters they are, not hurt, of course, but also not read their “rights” and handled with kid gloves. Harsh? Maybe…but try that epithet when talking to a scarred-for-life survivor or the family of a victim.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Few in the GOP are willing to be so bold when it comes to discussing Rush Limbaugh as Sarah Palin. Afterall, Limbaugh speaks to the large audience on a daily basis and while it used to be hard to fight newspapers who bought ink by the barrel, nowadays its hard to fight talkers who blow air by the lung full. But Sarah Palin doesn't seem the least bit intimidated by any one. If she believes something, she says it. Take for example her call for Rahm Emanuel to step down as Obama's chief of staff for referring to democrats as...

2/5/2010 1:37:00 PM By BlueGrass Bulletin

Trey Grayson's campaign announced that he has been endorsed by Judge Executives from 27 counties across Kentucky:

Rand Paul likes to open his stump speeches by saying that he "has a message from the Tea Parties: we've come to take our country back."

Lech Walesa is a modern hero. He stood up against the communists in his own country and the Soviet Union on behalf of his beloved Poland and presided over its transformation from a Communist to a Post-Communist state. He has been hailed for his courage in support of liberty. Walesa spoke recently at a republican campaign event in Chicago, the political birthplace of Barack Obama. Here is part of what he said: The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily. They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they...

2/5/2010 8:43:00 AM By BlueGrass Bulletin

The Daily Beast has decreed that Kentucky ranks 20th in terms of the attractiveness of our residents. D.C. is supposedly number one.

Dr. Rand Paul gets a big profile in the Washington Post as the Kentucky Senate race continues to draw national attention. The tone is down-right Messianic (I thought Obama was the Second Coming?). A few excerpts:

At least, it works for me.

2/5/2010 6:42:00 AM By Bluegrass Policy Blog

When I heard about Amanda's Bill I thought cool they want to find a way to help women with domestic problems. Then I read what they wanted to do and warning bells went off in my head. They wanted to use tracking systems on those under an EPO. Wait a second. These people have not been charged with any criminal activity. Why are we wanting to track innocent people? The government has no business tracking people who have not been charged with a crime. I don't care what they might do. It only matters what they have done. I don't want the government  tracking my location because they think I might some day in the future break a law. That is a precedent that would lead us down a very dangerous path!

Apparently, District judges have the same concern. It was part of the issues they raised about Amanda's Bill.

There are at least 18 other states that have passed similar legislation but it appears that tracking devices are used only in criminal cases in most of those states. Emergency protection orders and domestic violence orders are civil matters, the judges said.

Some judges said they would favor using the device after there has been a violation of a domestic violence order, which is a criminal offense.

Bingo! These are civil proceedings and the government has no business tracking people who have done nothing wrong. Destroying personal liberties doesn't even phase Stumbo.

Stumbo has said that he believes restriction of movement in a civil case is constitutional.

After Thursday’s hearing, Stumbo said he believes that the judge’s concerns will not derail the bill.

This is the same legal genius who has argued that slots are a form of lottery. What blows me away is his utter disregard for the opinions of judges who are best suited to understand the legality of what they propose. I am all for protecting women in violent relationships, but this bill does little to protect women while taking away too many liberties from law abiding citizens.

Test

2/4/2010 7:20:00 PM By BlueGrass Bulletin