How hilarious would it be to watch Jerry Abramson get his ass handed to him by Crit Luallen? He and his lackeys, like Jim McGovern, are still complaining about Crit’s audit that detailed their decades-long corruption scheme. These sons of bitches think they’re above every person and every thing. [C-J/AKN]

Lonnie Napier can’t read or use the Google so there’s no way for him to realize that welfare drug testing doesn’t work. What does work, though, is testing legislators for drug use. Someone needs to file that as an amendment ASAP. [WKYT]

What kind of economic impact will this have on the United States? Economic conditions and social media are making protests more common in China—at a delicate time for the country’s rulers. [The Economist]

Ron Paul’s associates say he signed off on those racist newsletters from the 1990s. This is sure to enrage a few more folks. [WaPo]

Mitch McConnell is declining to write off a tax increase. This will make all kinds of folks angry, right? [Politico]

Here’s why new photo identification laws will mean some people won’t vote. [NPR]

Louisville’s Metro Council President – Jim King – is also playing pat-a-cake with that city’s Metro Animal Services nightmare. [The 'Ville Voice]

What was that, again, about the Legislative Ethics Commission not being under the direct control of the good old boys in Frankfort? [John Cheves]

Whaaat? Sexytime Herman Cain endorsed Multiple Sexytimes Newt Gingrich? Surely not! [More WaPo]

You should probably check these three stories out to see just how bigoted some Republicans are in the south. They’re just like Kentucky Democrats, for the most part. [Wonkette Here, Here & Here]

Newt Gingrich is pulling a Napleon Dynamite (or is it a Pedro?) by trying to claim businesses will start creating jobs on election night if President Barack Obama loses re-election. Can we just go ahead and get this over so Republicans can lick their wounds? [HuffPo]

“In a time when dollars are so scarce, the need is so great, I can’t in good conscience get in here and make a statement that we need a whole lot of new money,” Auditor Edelen said. “I think it pays a large amount of disrespect to the families of Kentucky who are struggling, who frankly don’t have a lot of tolerance for listening to a politician complain about his budget.”

-SNIP-

“In a difficult economy like the one we find ourselves in right now, there is an enhanced incentive for bad actors to cheat, to fraud, to create waste or to take for themselves.”

Just when you thought Edelen had balls, he pusses out with something like that. Going along like cutting one of the most important budgets in the Commonwealth is puppies and rainbows.

You wonder why Crit Luallen couldn’t audit everything necessary? Maybe why she was unable to go balls-to-the-wall with the KDE? It’s because her budget was constantly getting slashed.

That’s one office this state can’t afford to bankrupt. This ‘please, sir, may I have some more?’ bit with the legislature – many of the very people he’s tasked with watching – maybe isn’t the best foot to get off on. All of Frankfort is snickering about it.

Doesn’t help that many of his staff are already whispering about problems involving his Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff.

This is why Kentucky can’t have nice things.

Crit really us a corruption fighter by Kentucky standards. But that’s a really low bar by any other standard.

Either way, it’s a good idea to read her op-ed from Sunday:

As I look back on my eight-year tenure as Kentucky’s Auditor of Public Accounts, it is my hope that the legacy of those years lies not in the series of controversial audit results we released, but in a heightened sense of accountability on the part of those who hold the public’s trust across the commonwealth.

I leave office proud of the record we established and with deep respect for the outstanding professional staff of the Auditor’s Office, who stepped up to every challenge with diligence and integrity. We learned valuable lessons along the way.

In the area of local government audits, our work resulted in 35 criminal prosecutions of public officials or employees across the state. That is not a number I am proud of as a Kentuckian, because it means there are still pockets in the state where a culture of corruption has hampered progress. We took seriously our responsibility to help break that cycle.

What are the lessons learned from those troubling local audits?

Really is a good read. Especially when you remember that her budget gets cut every five seconds and she’s still tasked with protecting your tax dollars.

One quote really stuck out at us:

And we learned what a vital role the media can play in exposing the need for change.

She’s got that right. Here’s hoping Adam Edelen doesn’t forget that and that his staff don’t forget the old and new media relationships built by Luallen and her former communications director. They were key in change the face of state government.

BUT. This is a big but. Crit’s remark about the media directly contradicts the gag order she essentially approved for the Kentucky Retirement Systems trustees, barring them from talking about corruption with media. And it doesn’t help that she came down against banning placement agents, only recommending that they register as lobbyists. Kind of a major conflict of interest. Even with that KRS-Conway-Riddle mess… there likely won’t be a better auditor than Crit any time soon.

The audit said the financial firm invested MSD money in government securities but used a proprietary buying-and-selling tactic based on interest rate changes — and that board members were largely in the dark about it. Luallen said she would forward her findings to the Internal Revenue Service to determine if MSD investments were appropriate for a nonprofit agency.

The audit said the Yield Enhancement Program had generated $30 million a year during the past two years. But it also found that MSD had paid more than $10 million in fees in the past three years

Convenient, we know.

Because that tactic in the Yield Enhancement Program is “propriety” because it is illegal. The IRS will likely back fine much of that $30 million in profit made.

The tactic? It’s to game the system the Treasury put in place to help municipalities fund projects.

Those $10 million in fees will remain lost and wasted. Because MSD likely won’t be able to recover them because they involved sweet, sweet kickbacks for a couple people we’ve covered extensively the past few weeks.

There will be no accountability.

Is 2012 going to be a bumpy ride? Ronnie Ellis thinks so and he explains why. [Ashland Independent]

Ron Paul finally manned up (this time) to admit he had some responsibility for those ridiculous newsletters. [The Hill]

Leave it to the faux “family” folks in North Carolina to usurp Kentucky when it comes to hating the gays. Using sniper crosshairs to attack the gays. Cute. [HuffPo]

Here’s your first taste of the reality that even if a gambling amendment passes? The legislature may not be supportive of constitutionally guaranteeing gambling licenses to race tracks. [H-L]

Regardless of what happens today with the University of Louisville Hospital merger decision, Kentuckians will still be screwed. You already expect it, we know. [FOX41]

You’ve seen the corruption Greg Stumbo admits publicly he’ll do nothing about, right? Because it involves his friend, Keith Hall? The guy Crit Luallen fingered in a massive audit? The guy Jack Conway refuses to investigate? The guy the Ethics Commission fined and spanked? Yeah. [Page One]

Fresh off of making it clear that he’s protecting his friend, Keith Hall, Greg Stumbo decided to discuss the 2012 legislative session with the teevee folks. [WYMT]

Frankfort is still living in the dark ages, believing their pseudoephedrine legislation will solve the meth problem. Something that’s only really an issue in ten counties. And wouldn’t be if more than 30% of doctors and pharmacists actually used systems that already exist. But that’s the Kentucky way – raising costs to Medicaid, killing tax revenue and playing to fears. [C-J/AKN]

HAHA, are you still laughing over Michele Beard Bachmann’s staffers coming out of the closet for Overlord Ron Paul? She’s so crazy that the Paulbots can’t even back her. [Wonkette]

Don’t miss Comment on Kentucky tonight at 8:00 P.M. Eastern on KET. Scheduled guests: Ryan Alessi, Joe Arnold, Jack Brammer. Should be loosely entertaining, even though Ronnie Ellis won’t be there. [KET]

Students can’t afford real educations these days and they’re flocking to for-profit schools. So rather than actually help those folks, Jack Conway poked his head out of the turtle hole when it was politically beneficial for him. Now he’s back to not investigating Democrats and hating his critics. [HuffPo]

Crit Luallen isn’t running for the U.S. Senate and she isn’t going to run for governor. Her own current/former staffers say she’s just toying with things. [Ryan Alessi]

This is an actual headline: “Barney Frank’s Nipples Steal The Show During House Address”. [HuffPo]

Julie Denton says Janie Miller should resign. Tom Burch says there’s nothing to see here, move along. Maybe Tom just has no clue what’s going on because he’s always in Indiana or because he refused to hold hearings on child abuse deaths until he had egg on his face. [H-L]

It’s hilarious that anybody would consider Jack Conway for the U.S. Senate in 2014. Everybody’s pushing Crit Luallen to run. But if Mitch really decides to run again, here’s betting she loses, as she’ll surround herself with the likes of people who will only be helping her to try to get rich. [Ryan Alessi]

The public is being encouraged to weigh in on the Ohio River Bridges Debacle. Which, loosely translated, means the hundreds of thousands of comments already provided don’t matter and any new comments won’t matter, either. [FOX41]

Orange Man John Boehner and all of his friends are super-angry at Mitch McConnell over the payroll tax extension. [WaPo]

Some losing teabagger racist has called for the assassination of President Barack Obama and his family and doesn’t think it’s a big deal. And you wonder why there’s a difference between teabagger and tea partier. [Wonkette]

A Lexington company is giving the gift of heat. It’s why Kentucky can have nice things. [WKYT]

Haha, aww, it’s so cute that these people think they’re going to be able to make public pensions as open as public salaries in Kentucky. [John Cheves]

How long will it take these anti-abortion folks to try the same stunt in Kentucky? Until then, we believe all children should be aborted and/or sold to pay down the deficit. [HuffPo]

An overturned tanker in Eastern Kentucky started leaking. The region just can’t catch a break in 2011. [WLEX18]

Somebody has finally been indicted for that Eastern Kentucky University arson case. [Richmond Register]

What did the makers of America believe about god and religion? The subject is stirring the very rancor they wanted to avoid… for the mouth-breathers. [The Economist]

Mitt Romney got permission to destroy 150 boxes of records during the final weeks of his governorship. Sounds like something we’re going to experience in Kentucky in a few years. [Reuters]

It doesn’t tell you that Patricia Poprick/First American Municipals was the “Investment Management Firm” that was paid $7.1 million. See page 68 (Warning: External PDF Link) of the audit.

The audit also doesn’t tell you that the firm is just a one person operation outside Philadelphia. Or that Kentucky seems to have an affinity for corrupt Pennsylvania folks, as the former head of Kentucky Retirement Systems CIO Adam Tosh is from PA. He came from a firm where a big dog is still serving jail time.

Who is Patricia Poprick? What’s the deal with her firm?

CLICK HERE to read the rest…

And just like that, heads started to roll at Louisville’s Metro Sewer District. Funny how that works. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of people. [The 'Ville Voice]

It’s time for the real work to begin in Frankfort but don’t hold your breath that anything is actually going to happen. [Ronnie Ellis]

Don’t miss Comment on Kentucky tonight at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. Scheduled guests: Bill Bryant, Joe Gerth, Jamie Lucke. It’ll be rather boring because they’re not having Dan Klepal on to discuss the scathing MSD audit. [KET]

A winter adventure weekend has been planned at Carter Caves State Resort Park for January 27 through January 29. Trust us when we say you should get on that like white on rice. It’s only $25 for adults. [CLICK THE CLICKY]

Yet another we-told-you-so moment: Kentucky has been denied – yet again – Race to the Top funding. [Toni Konz]

Corn dogs are not safe around Rick Perry. And he sure is askeerd of the gays for some reason. [Wonkette]

Woah, it’s always the closet case Republicans who get caught buying sexytime toys at gay sex shops when they get audited. [HuffPo]

Jefferson County Public Schools just can’t catch a break. Teddy Gordon has filed another suit – this time over alleged bullying. [FOX41]

Law enforcement folks are reacting negatively to Steve Beshear’s latest move. Particularly in Bell County. [WKYT]

A year of living pigheadedly? America will apparently be a tad more cheery than Europe in 2012. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be woah better. [The Economist]

Let’s be sure to kill all the Sandhill Cranes this weekend. Can’t be having any wildlife in Kentucky. [WFPL]

Changes in the economy leave workers scrambling. You can’t count on Warshington to try to improve the situation at all. [NPR]

Here’s the release:

Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Secretary Joseph U. Meyer today announced the appointment of Joseph William “Bill” Riggs as deputy secretary of the cabinet. Riggs has spent the last four years in the Finance and Administration Cabinet where he served as chief of staff and executive director for intergovernmental affairs. He begins his new duties Jan. 1.

“Bill’s experience will make him a tremendous asset to the cabinet,” Meyer said. “He has spent a great deal of his career dealing with workforce and labor issues, and I look forward to the input he can provide as we continue to improve our workforce development system in the Commonwealth.”

Riggs previously served as deputy secretary of the former Kentucky Workforce Development Cabinet from 1996-2000, where he led the cabinet’s legislative efforts to create the Kentucky Community and Technical College System as a separate entity from existing state universities. He also has served in various roles in the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, including cabinet secretary.

In addition, Riggs has served as chief of staff in the office of the Lieutenant Governor, labor relations director for the Kentucky Nurses Association and vice president and business agent of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227.

“I look forward to joining Secretary Meyer and his team in the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet,” Riggs said. “The cabinet’s work and its programs are integral to the quality of life for all Kentuckians.”

That puts to bed rumors that Crit Luallen was getting the spot. So you folks can finally stop foaming at the mouth.

They’re hyping that Crit Luallen will run for the office with Jack Conway as her running mate. Will it happen? Of course not. Crit loves to be courted, though. And, no, she won’t be running with Bruce Lunsford but we’d love to see that happen. Maybe then the state wouldn’t be bankrupt.

The other rumors? Crit will run for the U.S. Senate against Mitch McConnell. Will it happen? Highly unlikely. If she was serious, she’d already have gotten her hands on the McConnell research book and she has not done so. It remains under lock and key in my possession. Related note: Mitch McConnell’s people continue to hint that he won’t run for re-election, which is super-weird.

Jerry Abramson could run against McConnell. Will it happen? HAHAHAHA. Please. In his dreams.

Happy Tuesday.