Don’t forget to watch Comment on Kentucky tonight on KET at 8:00 P.M. Eastern.
Scheduled guests:
It’s always a hoot!
→ No CommentsTags: Mainstream · Journalism
This ad from the DNC is hitting Lexington and Louisville this week:
→ 5 CommentsTags: Economy · Hypocrisy · Jobs · Mitch McConnell
Today is basically a holiday for most people, so, you know, we won’t be writing as much. But stick around. We’ll have a few posts today.
Don’t miss your chance to win copies of Bluegrass Treasures and Horse Farms! Enter now. Drawing is this afternoon. [Page One]
Check with your local state park to see if there’s a 4th of July event going on. They’re tons of fun. [Kentucky State Parks]
Matthew Barzun made the Wall Street Journal. [WSJ]
Alice Forgy Kerr’s nephew allegedly lost his state job because she voted against casino gambling. [Bluegrass Politics]
Daniel Mongiardo really should think about the company he keeps. [Barefoot & Progressive]
If you have student loans, you know how screwed your life is. I had a $650 student loan that was sold so many times (during deferment) that it quickly ratcheted up to over $4,000. But it’s nothing like the $400,000 this guy’s got. [NY Times]
Poor Emily Gimmel.WATB. Complaining to a humorist that she’s gone too far in ridiculing her “serious journalism career.” We’ve got a couple things to say: If Gimmel was a serious journalist, she could handle HILARIOUS criticism of her embarrassing and ridiculous behavior on television (I mean, really, throwing a fit and crying because someone rightly says your wardrobe looks skanky?) If she was a serious journalist, she would have been focusing on nailing EVERY report, not just the first one (at her new hooker job in Las Vegas, where she wore hooker clothes that ripped). If she was a serious journalist, she wouldn’t feel the need to swarm dozens and dozens of websites (as she’s done here), writing each and every writer to beg them to write nice things about her. Fact of the matter is, that whole bunch of “Southern Belles” are flipping embarrassing. From Kellie (whose mother does her attacking for her - ask me privately) to Emily. These self-absorbed, insufferable nutbags need to get over themselves. They’re terrible examples of Louisvillians, let alone southerners. Also, surprisingly, we like Shea the most. [You’ve Gotta Read This Crap]
→ 1 CommentTags: Giving Back · Contest · Embarrassing · Dan Mongiardo · Education · Gambling
Don’t miss your chance to win copies of Bluegrass Treasures and Horse Farms! Enter today. Drawing is tomorrow afternoon. [Page One]
Journalism dead in America? Apparently so. The Washington Post is selling access at $25,000 a head. Seriously. Offering to “alter the debate” on health care for mega cash. [Politico]
Just in case you were still questioning whether or not Sarah Palin is legit, read the details of her dishonesty and craziness. [CBS News]
Today First Lady Jane Beshear promoted sustainability through the alleged first ever Governor’s Garden. Excess food will go to Frankfort-area soup kitchens. We’re pretty sure this isn’t the first garden of a governor, but it’s a great gesture. Everyone should garden. [Press Release & Photo from Jonathan Miller]
Got a hundred bucks and support veterans? Then buy a memorial brick at Kentucky Veterans Cemetery. [Veterans]
KACo has spent more than $300,000 on the criminal defense bills of just five elected officials in Kentucky. Why is it, again, that our tax dollars are funding their CRIMINAL DEFENSE? Leland Cox, Tony Horn, William O’Banion, Randy Thompson and Tim Conley. That’s right. Your tax dollars paid for their criminal defense. [Ryan Alessi]
Will sparking the green revolution help jump start our economy? [John Waltz]
Swift is a pox on Butchertown and apparently can’t follow the law. Will anything be done about it? Definitely not holding our breath. Like the Butchertown Neighborhood Association says, Board of Zoning director Bill Schreck and planning director Charles Cash are complicit in the corruption. [The ‘Ville Voice]
→ No CommentsTags: Economy · Contest · Presidential Race · Veterans · Giving Back · Embarrassing · Corruption · Journalism · Environment · Wasted Money
You know, there really is a bit of a sick culture in the high school athletic world - especially high school football. With that culture comes the equally sickening idea of what makes a man a man.
The way the high school athletic culture perceives what makes a man masculine… it’s nigh impossible for a sneaky little man like Sheldon Berman not to defend what his coaches do.
The culture seems to welcome things like telling players that they play like they’ve got vaginas. It supports phrases like ’split the line open like a whore.’ It’s commonplace to motivate with homophobia and sexism. Coaches and principals just laugh behavior like that off, saying it’s just the way you have to coach young males.
It’s sick that Jefferson County Public Schools is officially pointing the finger at Max Gilpin and his parents. It’s possible that Gilpin could have been under the weather that day. Who knows, maybe he did take over the counter medication and was also on physician-prescribed medication at the same time? Maybe he didn’t tell his coach because of that ‘win at all costs’ philosophy and the notion of what makes a man a man.
But Gilpin wasn’t a man. He was still a child. A child who was supposed to be under the protective watch of adults. We hire these people (coaches) who are supposed to act as responsible adults. Adults who keep the best interests of our children at heart.
Guess we’ll never know what kind of man Max Gilpin would have become. But we know what kind of men Sheldon Berman and his cohorts have. They deflect blame at all costs and point fingers at the defenseless. Responsibility is not a value they embody.
→ 8 CommentsTags: Embarrassing · Corruption · Education
Governor Beshear’s weekly video address comes a day early this week in observance of Independence Day (Saturday, most offices closed on Friday as a result).
He spends a full 2:28 discussing debris removal. Quite the important issue during this time of economic crisis and such.
→ No CommentsTags: Flashback · Steve Beshear
The Herald-Leader editorial board has handed down what can only be called an indictment of the Kentucky Legislature and the corruption surrounding the handling of the Mountain Water Board:
It’s good to have friends in high places, even if they won’t claim you in public.
No one’s owning up to authorship of an amendment that was added to the state budget during the recent special legislative session.
The amendment appears to be a favor for a company that federal prosecutors say served as a channel for illegal payments from road-building magnate Leonard Lawson to former state Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert.
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The amendment could have a tough time surviving a court challenge because it appears to violate the constitutional requirement that bills be about a single subject.
But if anyone in the Senate objected, no one heard about it, and Gov. Steve Beshear passed up his chance to exercise a line-item veto.
Interesting, isn’t it, doing a special favor for a company that may have had a role in defrauding Kentucky taxpayers?
Keith Hall has publicly stated that he was “for” the legislation and that he voted for it. His ties to the company allegedly responsible for Lawson-Nighbert cash funneling are clear.
How long will it take Hall to come clean? House members all point the finger at him. You know they’d be pointing the finger at Greg Stumbo if he was responsible. And about Keith… he says he isn’t responsible. If he’s not, he needs to come clean about who is responsible.
→ No CommentsTags: Greg Stumbo · Corruption · Eastern Kentucky · Flashback
Rand Paul is all aflutter over “money blitzes” and “freedom lovers” and such in his latest campaign video.
Still no word on what percentage of Kentuckians constitute his donor base. Cause, uh, if that “grassroots support” isn’t in Kentucky? Fat chance.
→ 10 CommentsTags: Senate · Spotted · Campaign Finance
Remember J.D. Sparks? The guy who assaulted a LEO Weekly reporter at a Republican Party Dinner a few months ago?
If not, refresh yourself:
Now that you’re refreshed, here’s the latest from editor Stephen George. Sparks pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, issued a $250 fine + court costs and is on the receiving end of a court order not to communicate with the LEO writer, his friends and family or LEO Weekly. The charges remain on his record for 5 years. If he violates the order? $500 fine and up to a year in jail.
Meador and the newsweekly filed charges against Sparks, and last week he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He was issued a $250 fine (on top of court costs) and a court order barring him from communicating with Meador, the writer’s family or friends, and LEO Weekly. The charge will remain on Sparks’s record for five years. If he violates it, Sparks faces as much as a year in jail and a $500 fine.
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The only aspect of the court order not granted — we pushed for it — was to prohibit Sparks from carrying a firearm for a certain period of time. We know from Sparks’s various online missives that where guns are concerned, his is a love supreme. We have also heard from many former associates and colleagues since the incident. They say uniformly that Sparks is boastful about his stockpiles of arms and ammo, and that his temper is dangerously short.
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Given his violent tendencies, we don’t think Sparks is a guy who should have a gun strapped to his belt. Period.
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We pursued this not to humiliate Sparks — he did plenty of that himself — or the local GOP, whose hands are clean here (in fact, GOP officials helped Meador in the moment and spoke with me at length afterward). And it has no direct correlation to gun owners or the Second Amendment, which does not inherently protect instigators.
Click here to read the rest.
Ruh ro.
→ No CommentsTags: Embarrassing · Spotted · Journalism · Flashback
In my travels across Kentucky, parents have often asked me what government can do to protect kids on the Internet. Law enforcement have also complained to me that many officers don’t have the resources to process a computer hard drive for evidence, despite the fact that 80% of crimes committed today involve some type of digital evidence.
The concerns of parents and police in every corner of the Commonwealth have helped shape my agenda as attorney general. For the past year-and-a-half, I have worked closely with Kentucky lawmakers to draft legislation that would strengthen state laws to better protect children from the dangers that exist online and have identified areas where the law lags technology. I have also worked closely with parents, like Mark Neblett, whose daughter, Rachel, committed suicide after being stalked online.
My cybercrimes legislation, passed by the General Assembly during the 2009 regular session, took effect on June 25. This was not only a personal victory, but a victory for Kentucky families.
My new law puts in place important safeguards for parents and it gives police and prosecutors the tools they need to arrest and convict cyberpredators who try to harm our children.
Read the rest after the jump…
→ 1 CommentTags: Jack Conway · Mainstream
