The Governor of Kentucky is calling a special session to settle the issues of our budget, or so he says. But all of the focus isn’t on our budget issues as much as it is on his passion to increase gambling in Kentucky. Sure, we aren’t going to have the Bellagio built in downtown Lexington, but he is pushing to have slots at race tracks, and that is just the first step down this slope.

But what gets my ire this day is not his asinine solution to our budget, its the cavalier way that he is spending the Commonwealth’s money throwing a lavish party at the Governor’s Mansion after the first day of the special session and we get to pay for it. It is like his master who speaks in the afternoon of our economic doom and then takes Air Force One to New York for a date with his wife, all at the tax payer’s expense. When will all this madness end?

Not too surprising the Governor has called a special session to iron out some of the state’s budget woes. But what surprised me was that once again we see gambling as a part of the solution.  Kentucky’s governor is going to add casino style slots (at designated horse tracks) as just another desperate solution to solve our financial problems.

I saw a great show the other night where a gambler was begging for money to get out of debt. The brother tells him that while he has the money he won’t give it to him because he won’t pay off his debt. Instead he would go to the casino and place a bet to try to double his winnings and if he won he would play again and again until all the money was gone.  This is EXACTLY how so many of today’s politicians try to balance the budget. If they get some money they will just find another area to spend it and then come begging for more again.

The solution to the state’s financial problems are not pleasant, but they are easy. We need to tighten our budgets, and in some areas make cuts. These are not easy, but it is the only solution to getting us out of this mess.

Kentucky offically became a part of the United States on this day in 1792.

It looks like for now Jim Bunning, Kentucky’s junior Senator, is making a go of it for another term.  A lot of people had questioned if he was really going to run (me, for one) and it looks like it is official. This certainly begs some questions such as why he was almost inviting others to join him.  This is also going to bring about some problems for a couple of candidates who have stated numerous times that they will not run if Bunning is running.

The question becomes “why”? His numbers in the polls are low, he doesn’t have the support of the Republican leadership (that feud is getting worse all the time), and he hasn’t been able to get the fund raising numbers necessary to do a decent campaign. I will leave that answer to those who have more wisdom than I.

http://bunningforsenate.org/

With the current senatorial race for Kentucky heating up, another candidate has thrown her hat in the ring, Cathy Bailey of Florida.  For a second, just ignore the fact that she and her husband live in Florida, she lived here once and apparently has enough political clout to pull off a Clintonesque move to show how she really is a Kentuckian.  But Ms. Bailey has some positives and negatives that are going to make her candidacy a problem (except that nasty residency problem).

First, her occupation. She is known as a philanthropist. Great! We need more people who are philanthropic, but I think that we also need people who work.  Hand me a few million and I am sure that I can give it away, but the harder task is to create something, manage people, sell something. I want a candidate who actually has some experience in the working world.

Second, she is not the fresh face to the party that we need. In fact, she was a “ranger” for Bush raising over $200,000 and was thus name an ambassador to Latvia. Now that is cool, and I don’t want to take away anything from someone who raises a LOT of money for the party or a candidate.  And being an ambassador is something that I have always wanted to do (although I would have pushed for Fiji).  But, this is often viewed as nothing more than a position of gratitude for those who have done favors to the president (as is the case here).We are grateful for her work as McConnell’s campaign manager for 2008 and it is obvious who is pushing her into the spot light (add fuel to Bunning’s fire!), but is she the right choice for someone who is fresh?

Finally, let’s just admit it! That residency thing is kind of a problem. If she were a Democrat running for President then we could jsut sweep it under the carpet bag, but we are not. I am not going to give 10 seconds of concern for a candidate for the Kentucky Senate who doesn’t even live here.  In fact, honestly I don’t want a candidate who has such little love for the Commonwealth that they would even consider a vacation home in a foreign land like Florida. What’s wrong with a house on Dale Hollow or that getaway retreat near Ashland? Let’s have an election just for Kentuckians.

America is in a difficult position.  We have allowed the media to frame the debate on what is important. When it comes to how the Democrats are performing we focus on the President’s humor, his wife’s beautiful arms, the wonderful smile, his kind eyes.  When we talk about Conservatives we talk of the defection (I prefer ejection) of Arlen Specter, Rush Limbaugh’s latest, or whether Bristol Palin should be a spokesperson for abstaining (and who would know better than her!).

But it seems that no one is talking about the trillions of dollars our government is giving away.  No one is looking at the issues of our failing banks now with their hand out for a third helping of bail out bucks. Where is the debate on immigration that we had a year ago?  Where is the discussion on unemployment or declining of educational standards year after year. Who is talking about the reduction of our freedoms? Why do we not care that the administration considers speech on secession terrorist talk? We allow the media to talk about such asinine subjects as Michelle Obama’s shoes.

We have a country that is in desparate trouble and its time to keep our focus on those issues that are erroding our country daily.

The beleaguered Senator Jim Bunning told guest at this evening’s Lincoln Dinner that he is in the race and will fight for values.  While not supported publicly by his peers and showing an inability to do any serious fund raising, this will make it easy for his opponents on the Democratic side, and really caused a problem for many of the Republican contestants.  Grayson and Paul have said that they won’t run unless Bunning announces his retirement. Now what?

Be certain that Democrats all over Kentucky are jumping up and down with delight. Bunning will be an easy target. Bunning’s approval ratings are poor and Mongiardo has proved to be able to raise the money. He lost by a slim margin last time, I doubt that he will have that much difficulty this time. Let’s see what happens next.

Bunning describing how much money he has raised in 2009 so far.

Today the AP ran a story on Kentucky’s next ex-Senator, Jim Bunning.  This was the saddest demonstration of a failed leader I have seen in Kentucky since Paul Patton got on TV and cried because he couldn’t get some family to sell their farm so that the state could bring in Honda for a new factory.  Senator Bunning complained about McConnell’s leadership for the loss of FIFTEEN seats since he has become the Senate Republican Leader.  He whined about his inability to raise money.  He slammed Arlen Specter (like that wasn’t an easy target!). He discussed his advanced age and health.

Recently some Republicans have been attacked (by me for one) for their new image tour. They say it is a listening tour, what a waste! It needs to be a tour where good conservatives get out there and share our good story.  Jeb Bush made the terrible comment yesterday that we can no longer look back to the days of Reagan.  That is the problem. This isn’t about hero worship, it is about the longing for someone with some principles to stand up and draw people to something.  Liberals already have the market at bashing the opponent without anything to draw them to.  And now Sen. Bunning has fallen into that same trap.  He can’t run a successful campaign so he is blaming everyone…except Jim Bunning.

Jim, remember the 11th commandment and then enjoy your life of retirement. We don’t need someone with an attitude that says that we are going to lose more seats, we need people with a fire in their bosom for our country to bring the voice of every man to the polls. You sir are no longer that man.

One of the most basic laws in the founding of our country is that the President of the United States is a natural born citizen, with the exception of the few who were around when we didn’t have a nation.  The definition of  “natural born citizen” is not one who was born in the United States, but one who is born of US citizens. In fact we have had President’s who were born outside the US but to US citizens.  It was the location that was the concern of our founding fathers, it was the heritage.

And this is the rub. Our current President has currently spent over $800,000 in legal fees to prevent that fact from being made known. In fact, it was his obligation to prove so before being sworn in, and it didn’t happen and for some reason or another everyone (including Congress and Senate) to look the other way.  So someone sued and he was given an enormous amount of time to come up with the answers that the court requests, but he asked for an extension. The second date was May 5 and another 20 day extension was requested.  The guy can spend a trillion dollars with the snap of a finger but for some reason can’t come up with the $15 to get a copy of his birth certificate.

Now before everyone jumps in here and tells me to just let this thing go, I can’t.  I can’t because this is the law of the land. The President of the United States is sworn to uphold that law more than any other thing. And truly, if he is found to be disqualified then the law stipulates that VP Joe Biden becomes President and that is probably worse. But that isn’t the point. The point is that the law be followed and I just can’t understand why our President would spend so much money to cover up this very simple thing.  We simply want to see the birth certificate and see where he was born and who his parents are (and ensure that they were both citizens of the United States). We are all aware that President Obama’s parents split up, that is unfortunately becoming more and more the way of marriage in America. We know that he moved to Indonesia and went to a Muslim school. Not an issue, old news.  We just want to know that the President of the United States is made in the USA. So let’s have a peek at that ol’ birth certificate so we can put  this thing to rest.

CNN is reporting tonight that Rand Paul is “very serious” about running for the seat potentially available once Sen. Jim Bunning FINALLY announces his retirement.  But here is the problem with that yet to be announced retirement; Grayson and Paul are waiting in the wings while things could be happening! Meanwhile people without any loyalty to the party, like David Williams, have just gone ahead and announced that they are running. Seems like it might give Mr. Williams an advantage, and early polling numbers indicate he is going to need any advantage he can get.

I also found that former UK quarterback Tim Couch is considering running. Advice: Don’t go there Tim.  You have one piece of serious baggage that you really don’t want to pull out of the closet.  You really don’t want to do that to your family.