It’s that time of year again, folks. As soon as January hits, I get antsy with anticipation for baseball season and, perhaps even more so, BBQ season. I hope to enjoy both this weekend. Squee!

Owen Covington at the Messenger-Inquirer reports that neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. Hillary Clinton will be in Owensboro this weekend, though representatives of the campaigns are coming. Unsurprisingly, Sen. Mitch McConnell also has better things to do than hang out at the beer garden in McConnell Plaza. Of course, I don’t suppose he’s ever pretended to be a real “man of the people” or anything. (*cough* elitist *cough*)

Organizers are “working to get the other Republican candidate, Daniel Essek, to attend.” Yeah. The guy who, earlier this year, listed a Tennessee address for his campaign. The Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate who have confirmed so far are Bruce Lunsford, Kenneth Stepp, and Michael Cassaro.

Oh yeah, there’s also the KDP fundraiser tonight in Louisville at the Kentucky International Convention Center. I understand it’s quite a bargain compared to those thousand dollar dinners the GOP has.

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This is not serious stuff, just a little humor!!!!
March 2008, I put up a video called, “If I were A Terrorist”.
Today I received the following Youtube account message:
Did u see my comment?
May 07, 2008

I’m new to learning how to upload and use UTube but I liked your commentry about what I would do if i were terrorist so I asked you (under comments) if there was any problem with uploading video of my cat with him listening to you or any other person such as Michael Moore, Jon Stewart, etc. I didn’t know I could send message here.
I see I can attach the video and do you like the title? “Cat listens to News Commentary” and then I credited it to Hillbilly and Pence where I assume it originated from? Your video is also listed under my favorites and I subscribed too which I’m not sure what that means. All my other videos are listed under pets and animals but I put this under News etc.
So do u have any problem with that and is there any copywrite infringement? I have had 15 views but no comments. It was my first attempt to get some attention to this interesting POV and wasn’t sure how to title it. Please help. Thanks. (chellamia)

Cat contemplating news commentary

Schooch and I were listening to James Pence video called “If I were a Terrorist” posted by the Hillbilly Report. Wonder what he thinks about all this?

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Video of KY-2 Democratic candidates Reid Haire and David Boswell is now available online. Thoughts? A Ron Lewis/Brett Guthrie supporter was recently accused of cybersquatting a Reid Haire-linked domain, so look for this to be a very exciting campaign in the fall, whoever wins the primary. (h/t: BlueGrassRoots diarist CoolerKing)

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Hillary Clinton squeaks by in Indiana with a 51 to 49 win and loses by 14 points  in North Carolina.
Last night  Tim Russert  said “We now know who the Democratic nominee will be.” He added: “The Clintons have a big decision to make in the morning.”
I believe Tim Russert has it right. This race is over!!!!

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Elderly nuns in South Bend, IN were turned away from their polling place today, thanks to Indiana’s GOP-backed voter ID law. (h/t: Crooks & Liars)

Anti-choice activists contend that 20% of American women are “murderers.” (h/t: Feministing)

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The Courier-Journal endorsed Obama for President today, just a few days before folks across the river in Indiana will go to the polls and about two weeks before we Kentuckians vote.

Here’s a little piece of the endorsement.

….we also believe that Sen. Obama is the Democratic candidate better equipped to restore Americans’ hope for the future and to bring change to Washington.

For that reason, we endorse Sen. Obama in Tuesday’s Indiana primary and in the May 20 contest in Kentucky.

Sen. Obama’s relentless focus on change, and the hordes of new voters he draws to the polls, would make it hard for his victory to be read as anything other than a mandate for changing how Washington works.

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Reid Haire’s TV spot will run in Louisville, Bowling Green, and Evansville, markets covering the 2nd congressional district.

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Roger Hickey has a great post at ourfuture.org on the “dangerous fraud” that is John McCain’s healthcare plan. As I point out ad nauseam in The Real McCain, McCain’s positions are not simply fraudulent. The “straight-talker” rarely limits himself to simple dishonesty.

First, read the email The McCain Campaign sent out today on this issue:

My Friends,

Today, there are 47 million uninsured individuals in the U.S., and nearly a quarter of them are children. High costs and limited access are the underlying, fundamental problems in our healthcare system.

As you know, both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are touting outrageously expensive and unrealistic universal health care plans - a government monopoly over health care.

Unlike my opponents, I do not believe that all of our nation’s problems can be solved by turning control over to our government, with all the tax increases, new mandates and government regulation that come with that idea.

Today, our campaign began running a television ad focused on health care - that you can view by following this link - to ensure all Americans hear the truth about how I plan to tackle the challenges facing our nation’s health care system. To ensure this important ad is aired in as many markets as possible, I’m asking for your immediate financial assistance.

I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves. Americans need new choices beyond those offered in employment-based coverage.

That’s why, as president, I will seek to encourage and expand the benefits of Health Savings Accounts, tax-preferred accounts that are used to pay insurance premiums and other health costs. These accounts put the family in charge of what they pay for.

In addition, I will reform the tax code to provide every family the option of receiving a direct, refundable tax deposit - effectively $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 cash for families to offset the cost of insurance.

The reality is that both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, in their haste to garner support for their so-called “solutions,” are promising more than they can deliver. And, once again, they are simply out-of-touch with the real problems facing our health care system and how to solve them.

Here are the facts: Under the Democrats’ plan, we will have all the problems, and more, of the current health care system - rigid rules, long waits and lack of choices - and we risk degrading the system’s great strengths and advantages, including the innovation and life-saving technology that make American medicine the most advanced in the world.

My friends, this is not my definition of real reform. I hope you will join me in my fight to tackle the real problems facing our nation’s health care system by making a contribution of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, or $2,300 to help fund this important ad.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

John McCain

A good rule of thumb: When John McCain says “my friends,” start looking for a bomb shelter. Another good rule of thumb when McCain utters this trite phrase: Dishonesty is about to morph into full scale hypocrisy.

Here is a man who has been on government healthcare his entire life (daddy was an Admiral)–all seven decades–who dares deride it by saying, “Unlike my opponents, I do not believe that all of our nation’s problems can be solved by turning control over to our government… .”

No, only his own healthcare is worthy of that.

In case you missed McCain’s position: Government healthcare is good enough to pay his hospital bills–with your “taxes” to quote him–but it is not good enough for the rest of us–oh and by the way, can you spare $1000 “my friends?” That means a lot coming from a guy who enjoys lounging at 8 different houses on his wife’s inherited dime, and laughably calls other candidates “elitist.”

With straight talk like that, who needs mendacity?

Cliff Schecter is the author of The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him And Why Independents Shouldn’t. Every time you buy a copy (for only $10!), an angel gets their wings.

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(crossposted at B & P)

I’ve honestly never seen supporters of a candidate gloat about being 25 points down in a poll with only 20 days until an election. I’m not sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for them. It’s like they are Greg Fischer’s Tinkerbell constituency: just clap louder and everything will be OK.

What’s not funny is that Fischer’s folks are actually believing their own hype in order to justify starting Mitch McConnell’s attack Vencor ads for him. For all this talk about Lunsford’s “baggage”, the only relevance I can see is that Fischer is serving as Mitch McConnell’s bellboy, doing all of Mitch’s heavy lifting for him. Once more, pointing out the Fletcher endorsement and claiming he’s too far to the right are fair game; beating on Vencor is simply Mini-Mitch mudslinging.

And I love this ridiculous theory about how Lunsford will inevitably fail at the end of the campaign. The last time I checked, Jonathan Miller wasn’t in this race about to drop out and hand over a significant % to Fischer. And the last time I checked, criminal Steve Henry isn’t in the race imploding with supporters going to Fischer. Looking at this objectively, there’s absolutely no comparison between this year and last year.

Want more proof? 80% of voters say they have already made up their mind, with only 20% saying they might change their mind. It’s simple math.

(There also seems to be little discussion of Fischer’s internal poll from two months ago showing the race 39%-22% for Lunsford. Does this mean that Fischer has dropped 8 points in the past 2 months???)

You may not like it (as I don’t), but Bruce Lunsford is in all likelihood our nominee, and it’s time to close ranks behind him if he wins this primary so we can Ditch Mitch. Every time Fischer makes this low blow, Mitch McConnell is sitting back and laughing. It’s like Greg Fischer’s campaign is being run by Hunter Bates. It’s sick.

So to all the Fischer supporters: I have no beef with you, but once this primary is over, if Bruce is our nominee, we have to let bygones be bygones and focus on Mitch.

Remember, when Greg Fischer makes statements like this:

“…replacing Mitch McConnell with Bruce Lunsford is no change at all”

…he is simply deceiving you. He’s insulting your intelligence. We may not love (or even like) Bruce, but he is NOT Mitch McConnell. Not even close. Not in the same ballpark. Our state and our country can’t afford to let grudges stand in the way of ridding us of Mitch once and for all. (looking at you, Crazy Shark)

(P.S.- since when is Greg Fischer the candidate of the KY Netroots? I know of only one pro-Fischer website. Odd…)

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Here it is, almost 11:30 PM, less than a week away from the beginning of the second round of my first year finals in law school and what am I doing? Sitting in the library reading Kentucky political news on teh internetz of course!

An interesting article just popped up in my inbox and caught my eye so I had to take a break from learning tort law to write about it.

The Hill is running a story about Greg Fischer’s strengthening campaign. But, what I find most interesting about the article is that Bruce Lunsford goes out of his way to be completely dismissive of the progressive community and the Netroots influence on the race.

Lunsford compared Fischer’s candidacy to former state treasurer Jonathan Miller’s (D) run for governor last year, which never took off despite early netroots support.

Lunsford finished a distant second in the six-way primary, losing to now-Gov. Steve Beshear (D), 41-21.

“It kind of centers around four or five families and a few progressives, and the rest of the state, especially outside of Louisville, barely know who they are,” Lunsford said of Fischer’s campaign. “It’s more of an east-end, upper-echelon, second- and third-generation crowd.”

I think Lunsford is being a little presumptuous about the race being all but over. While everyone acknowledges that the race will be hard fought for Fischer, the new SUSA numbers are extremely encouraging for him and are not good news for Lunsford. Not only did Fischer double his numbers in only two weeks, Lunsford lost 4 points.

Folks are just now starting to pay attention to the race. As more people start tuning in, the numbers are only going to become more fluid. Three weeks is a political eternity and more than enough time to make up the gap between Fischer and Lunsford. In fact, if these numbers continue trending the way they are now, this is going to be a very close race. And that’s not just some pie-in-the-sky dream, that’s just simple math.

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Albert Benjamin “Happy” Chandler, Sr. did the right thing in 1947 and , in my opinion, his grandson Ben Chandler did the right thing today.
I was proud of Happy Chandler in 1947 and I was proud of Ben today. For me, it was a good day to be a Kentuckian!!!!

Congressman John Yarmuth introducing Ben Chandler.

Congressman Ben Chandler endorsing Barack Obama.

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

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Isn’t it funny how his numbers go up when the Senate is in recess and nobody sees him, yet he plummets back downward once we all hear him bloviate again?

Approve- 46%
Disapprove- 46%

And do you remember that old meme that Western KY is Mitch McConnell’s “base”.

Whoops.

That would be a 20% drop in his approval rating over one month.
And a 25% increase in his disapproval over one month.

Wow.

Was Western KY offended by Mitch McConnell trying to portray himself as some kind of hero in the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant debacle? I’m betting that they knew better. Perhaps you should stop insulting the intelligence of your constituents, Mitch? Eh?

Eyes on the Prize. Ditch Mitch.

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

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(crossposted at B&P)

Some things are just so important, they justify blocking the will of the majority.

Making sure that employers are free to discriminate against women is one of those, according to Mitch McConnell.

And once more, McConnell has blocked popular, bipartisan legislation from a vote, as only 57 Senators favored the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act last night. Add women to the growing list of constituents that Mitch McConnell enjoys screwing over (sick kids, union workers, troops, veterans, etc….)

But don’t worry… when this guy is running the show next year, things are going to change.

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(crossposted at B&P)

If you’ve seen Mitch McConnell’s ad on his action involving the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, you might get the impression that Mitch McConnell is some kind of friggin working class super-hero.

But facts have a funny way of getting in the way of campaign propaganda.

Check out the account by Mark Donham, who sat on the Department of Energy’s Citizen’s Advisory Board (CAB), a federal advisory committee chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, for 8 years, and was chair or co-chair for 6 of those years.

From the time that the residents that live and own land around the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion came to find out that their wells were badly contaminated in the late 1980s and that they could no longer use them, they and other local activists pushed to find out what was really going on at the plant.

During the decade between 1988 and 1998, McConnell did little or nothing to speak out for local residents and workers. In fact, DOE continually lied to local citizens about the presence of plutonium at the facility. It was brought up a number of times in public meetings, and was always denied. In fact, it was usually ridiculed, and McConnell was never on the side of those calling for more openness and more environmental controls of the facility.

This changed August 8, 1998, when the Joby Warrick, of the Washington Post, had a headline story published about how workers had been lied to for decades about what they had handled. Many times workers were told that they were handling “safe” and “low level” uranium when in fact they were handling materials that contained the full range of transuranic elements and fission products, including plutonium, neptunium, technetium and all the others. The materials that contained these elements were recycled reactor tails from plutonium reactors from Hanford, Savannah River, and elsewhere. At the time, materials that contained uranium in any form that could be extracted and used for fission was rare and very valuable. We tried to recycle everything.

While a lot of the lower level workers were told continually that they were “only” handling “low level” uranium, which they were told was “safe” or of low risk, in actuality, they were handling product derived from these plutonium reactors which were a hundred thousand times or more radioactive than uranium would have been. This is critical because these workers weren’t even properly protected from handling uranium, let alone plutonium contaminated materials. Untold cancer and non-cancer illnesses occurred, both from the workers and from their families as they brought home contaminants in their clothes, shoes, hair, skin, etc. and exposed their families.

But, for Fuller, and McConnell to portray to the public that this was all kind of an innocent, accidental occurrence that, as soon as it was discovered, McConnell went out of his way to correct, is really a huge distortion. First, it was known within the DOE system since the early 50s, and there are documents which prove this, that using these plutonium reactor tails would significantly increase risk for workers exposed to the materials. Apparently, workers hadn’t been told, but not because no one knew, but purposefully to keep them in the dark.

Secondly, McConnell and other politicians were aware of the concerns of workers and local residents about the possibility of plutonium at the facility, and, those concerns, which dated back to the sad saga of Joe Harding, a worker who had been badly exposed and had suffered such serious health effects as having fingernails growing out of his knees. Harding became the first real whistleblower at the plant in the late 1970s, and was followed around and ridiculed by plant officials whenever he spoke in public. Harding knew that he had been exposed to more than “just uranium.” McConnell was certainly aware of this.

In fact, the deception was so bad and the impacts of the deception so serious that the U.S. Sec. of Energy at the time, now Gov. Bill Richardson from New Mexico, came to Paducah 3 times, and once delivered an official apology to the workers on behalf of the U.S. government. From what I saw, Richardson was the leader in the government trying to come face to face with the problem. McConnell was late to get on board. To the best of my recollection, McConnell never once appeared with Richardson when he came to Paducah. Richardson’s actions lead the way to the compensation program, and McConnell went along to save face because he had been caught so off guard by the entire controversy.

David Fuller’s cooperation with the deception about McConnell’s involvement isn’t anything new. In an article in the Paducah Sun just a few days after the initial expose in the Washington Post, Fuller, then president of the Atomic Workers union, was quoted as saying that prior to the Washington Post story, “he had ‘no inkling’ ” that plutonium was in the plant. Personally, I find that hard to believe. I do not think that Fuller was being totally forthcoming, and I don’t think he is now. He is running inaccurate, unnecessary and less than helpful political cover for McConnell, and one can’t help but wonder what is in it for Fuller?

Good question: why would Fuller do so? Probably the same reason that he would do this:

Fuller, David —- Bechtel-Jacobs Co. —-8/19/04 —- $1,000 —- McConnell, Mitch
Paducah, KY 42001

Nice to know that Mitch McConnell’s big $ donors are willing to deceive voters in his campaign commercials too….

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Last year the Supreme Court rubber-stamped discrimination against women in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tires, as they ruled that employees can only file gender discrimination suits within 180 days of the original discriminatory act. As Avoce says:

That means that even if the discrimination is ongoing, a woman cannot file suit, which, of course, assumes we both become aware of the issue and can form a substantive claim of discrimination - notoriously difficult to prove in the first place, let alone within 6 months. The ruling effectively shut down any wage discrimination suits by any woman, ever.

Today, bipartisan legislation is in the Senate which seeks to correct this travesty, co-sponsored by Republican Olympia Snowe- The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. But…. like all good legislation in the last year plus…. you know what happens next:

Senate Republicans said on Tuesday that they were confident they would be able to block legislation intended to reverse a Supreme Court ruling last year that established tight time restrictions on lawsuits over pay discrimination.

*****

But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans said the bill, which is opposed by the business community and the Bush administration, could create a flood of lawsuits.

“We think that this bill is primarily designed to create a massive amount of new litigation in our country,” said Mr. McConnell, the minority leader.

Leadership aides and other Republicans said they expected to be able to deny backers of the bill the 60 votes needed to bring it to the floor in a showdown scheduled for Wednesday.

Block. Obstruct. Blame. Same old game.

Those whiny women will just have to take their lower wages and like it.

There’s no doubt about it. Mitch McConnell is not fond of women.

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
Fired up and ready to go at a Barack Obama Campaign Organizational Meeting right smack dab in the middle of Red State Kentucky in the city of Radcliff.

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

The Detroit News
Ex-Chrysler CEO also rips Congress, but the harshest criticism goes to president’s leadership.
Washington - Lee Iacocca, author of the original business management best-seller, is giving President Bush an “F” in leadership.
The former Chrysler CEO - who supported Bush’s first campaign in 2000 but backed Sen. John Kerry four years later - accuses Bush of leading the nation to war “on a pack of lies” and lacking the basic components of good leadership.
The book, co-written by New York journalist Catherine Whitney, comes 23 years after Iacocca’s best-selling autobiography “Iacocca,” which reshaped the way the publishing industry viewed business books. USA Today recently ranked the book among the 25 most influential among publishers and readers over the past 25 years.
In addition to politics, Iacocca weighs in on his experiences at Chrysler and the future of the U.S. auto industry in typically blunt fashion.
His latest broadside is in character, said Matthew Seeger, chairman of the communication department of Wayne State University and author of a book on Iacocca’s speeches.
“As he’s gotten older, he’s gotten more blunt, more willing to take stands on issues,” Seeger said.
But tough words from Iacocca may not carry the same weight they once did, said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Michigan.
“Some people might have some awfully harsh criticism of Lee Iacocca, too,” Cole said.
Despite his stature as the savior of Chrysler in the 1980s, Cole said, other events, including his failed bid with Kirk Kerkorian to take over the company in the 1990s, have diminished his clout.
Iacocca has described himself as a political independent, and his new book is the latest twist in political history that includes a brief flirtation with his own run for president. He had a close relationship with Democrat Gov. James Blanchard and President Reagan during his time at Chrysler; he made ads for President Bush in 2000 but made campaign appearances with Kerry four years later; and he made more ads, this time for GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos, last year.
“Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening?” Iacocca writes. “Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course.’”
Disdain for Washington is nothing new from Iacocca, said Gerald Meyers, former chairman of American Motors and a business professor at the University of Michigan. Recalling a trip to talk to lawmakers in the 1970s about the Clean Air Act, Meyers said, Iacocca had little regard for politicians.
“Zero respect. Nada. No respect whatsoever,” Meyers said.
Iacocca has tough things to say about Congress, corporate America, the press and even the voters who put the nation’s current leadership in power. But his harshest criticism is saved for Bush.
He savages Bush’s famous determination: “George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping,” Iacocca writes. “There’s a disturbingly