Rocky Adkins says he won’t be joining the Beshear Administration to work for an energy cabinet. [PolWatchers]
The Democratic coordinated campaign is holding an open house this Friday the 25th @ 5:00 P.M. at 2230 Dundee Road in Louisville. That’s just a couple blocks from Mitch McConnell. This should be interesting. [Press Release]
Like Hebert says, Mitch will be at Fancy Farm this year. Should be pretty interesting, right? [Mark Hebert]
Secretary of State Trey Grayson, the dude who pays us millions of dollars in a secret pact for us to help get him elected leader of the free world, is expected to be nominated to serve as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State during that organization’s gathering this weekend. [Politicker]
Louisville’s arena financing plan has fallen apart and Jim Host is left holding the pieces of his crumbled plan. This is bad news for the city of Louisville and the surrounding metro area. Especially after spending millions and millions of dollars to demolish buildings on the site for the planned new arena. [The ‘Ville Voice]
Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford held a press conference this afternoon to unveil his eight-point energy independence plan. Lunsford says the plan will provide both short-term relief and long-term solutions.
Here’s Lunsford’s plan from his press release. Let’s discuss.
Opening Up the Strategic Reserve. The Lunsford Plan would take a two-fold approach to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It would continue the moratorium on putting new oil into the Reserve, as well as releasing barrels from the Reserve into the marketplace to lower gas prices. This could put up to 50 million barrels of oil back into supply, which would have an impact on prices. In the past, America has tapped the SPR which resulted in a dramatic decrease in price. [Energy Information Administration; New York Times, 9/23/00; Center For American Progress, “Sell Oil From The Strategic Petroleum Reserve To Lower Prices,” 6/13/08]
Fully Closing The “Enron Loophole.” The “Enron loophole” allows hedge funds, investment banks, and other Wall Street speculators to secretly buy and sell oil contracts. It is named after Enron, the notorious energy trading company, which pushed for a provision that kept energy trading off of regulated exchanges, evading speculation limits and accountability. Experts, including oil executives and economists, say that speculation trading has potentially increased oil prices by as much $40 per barrel, or $1 per gallon of gas. The Lunsford Plan would fully clamp down on Wall Street traders who are driving up oil prices in search of paper profits and bring more accountability to energy trading. [Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 4/12/08; Business Week Online, 5/14/08; Detroit Free Press, 10/31/07; Dr. Mark Cooper, Testimony Before Senate Commerce, Science, And Transportation Committee, 6/3/08]
By now everybody knows what’s going down with Ken Mullikin in northern Kentucky. So we thought we’d drop an update based on what we’re hearing from prominent Democrats in Campbell County.
Mullikin’s father apparently passed away a few weeks ago. Then the police raid/investigation drama began. Shortly after his wife is rumored to have bailed on him. And now Mullikin is allegedly hospitalized after some sort of breakdown.
Our calls to Mullikin have not been returned and those close to him only tell us they don’t wish to speak about him.
If (we’re saying if - because he hasn’t been arrested or charged with anything) Mullikin needs any help, we’re hopeful that he’s receiving it.
Worst of all, the Beshear Administration has had no ethical scandals. None.
Yeah, it’s so ethical to give your former law firm no-bid contracts. It’s so ethical to appoint people to boards when they’re convicted jury tamperers. It’s so ethical to meet with Bill Yung after he throws $1 million at a pet cause and then lie about it.
Give me a damn break. We may like Beshear’s new chief of staff Adam Edelen a ton and definitely approve of the positive changes the governor is making, but come on. This administration is NOT free of ethical lapses. The governor can improve– as he is trying to do (and succeeding)– but let’s not white wash recent history. Let’s stick to complete honesty.
And give us a break about Beshear meeting with Joe Blow on the street. He’s hand-selecting the people he wants to speak with.
400 people in Pikeville. 350 in the Republican stronghold of Somerset.
Yeah. The crowd in Pike County was invite-only. What a total man of the people, holmes.
We get what BGR is trying to do. It’s trying to spin things positively for Democrats and to call out hypocrisy as it sees it. But. Uh. Seriously? This is how it’s gonna be done?
To quote another fancy Bluegrass blogger, “bizarre.”
We give it five minutes til Greg Fischer’s last remaining lackey is commenting at BGR about how much we love Trey Grayson or about how fancy Joe Sonka is.
UPDATE: Frankfort types insist that the Pike Co event was open to the public despite what Pike Co officials tell us.
FYI folks: Calling to threaten us will get you no where but a nice little jail cell. So if you’re unhappy about something we’ve written? Take your Prozac before reaching out to us.
John Yarmuth and Anne Northup have an opponent in the 3rd District congressional race. Libertarian Edward Martin qualified for ballot access. We’re disappointed that it’s not wacky Donna Mancini. [PolWatchers]
Dick Brown will be the featured speaker at the International Association of Business Communications of Kentucky’s August program. Check the title of it all - New media and Politics: Bloggers are Killing the Message. We’re cracking up. When has Dick Brown EVER spoken to a blogger? We can’t wait to hear what he’s got to say. [IABC-KY]
Did you know Mitch McConnell is “one of the Good Guys in the Senate” who is saving the world and solving the problem of higher gas prices? Screwing with the gas prices issue would never be considered a campaign gimmick, though. Mitch’s opponents are just trying to bring him down. [Some Republican Site]
Speaking of Mitch, oh noes! He is so broke with his $15 million and he needs more money! The mean Democrats will just spend their own money an in attempt to hurt Mitch’s feelings. [C-J]
The Campbell County Democratic Party has a new chairperson - Sue Orth. Northern Kentucky is still shaken from news yesterday of a criminal investigation involving computers seized from former chair Ken Mullikin’s home. [Pat Crowley]
Anne Northup’s congressional campaign sent out an email blast touting support of conservative blogger Jefferson Poole of Blue Grass Red State. Northup’s blast said Poole was “holding John Yarmuth accountable” by attacking him with her campaign spin.
Take a look for yourself:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Call us crazy, but doesn’t this now mean John Yarmuth’s congressional campaign can start touting everything we say about HER? Does she really want THAT to happen?
Thanks, Anne, for opening up this can of worms. Maybe we’ll start to talk about some things that regularly occur at K.T.’s and Ditto’s in Louisville soon. Maybe we’ll even publish photographs. That’d give John’s campaign some absolutely great material to play with.
Goodness gracious. RPK/Local GOP: You need to reel that woman’s campaign in STAT. Somebody needs to rescue her ass. Immediately.
A campaign or two needs to drop us a confidential note letting us know what will go down. We can guarantee confidentiality. But we’re not gonna suffer through a lack of healthy vegetarian options for two sweat-filled days unless we know it’s worth our time.
Will there be wi-fi? Any kind of internets? Electricity? Does Sprint even have towers out there? Will we die of the starvation and lack of connectivity?
What’s the deal with attacking reporters for, you know, REPORTING?
We find it absolutely laughable that long-time Louisville attorney Mike Lemke would continue to attack the Courier-Journal for reporting information it was given in the case of the woman who murdered her two children.
Seriously, what the hell is the deal? What’s with this rash of attorneys lately who want nothing more than to squash the freedom of the press and free speech? What is with people like Lemke who want to out sources and punish media outlets who are tasked with providing a service to the public as the fourth estate?
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
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Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford held a press conference this afternoon to unveil his eight-point energy independence plan. Lunsford says the plan will provide both short-term relief and long-term solutions.
