Kentucky

The Hypocrisy Of Mitch McConnell And Rand Paul! :(

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul, both from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, represent one of the poorest states in the Union, and yet both are believers in limited government and talk about balancing the budget no matter how much it hurts their own constituents.

But in actual fact, despite their rhetoric, Kentucky is a leading “welfare” state!

According to the conservative Tax Foundation, Kentucky gains back $1.51 for every dollar they send to the US government! Other so called “conservative” states also receive much more back than they contribute.

Imagine this: it is the “blue” states, that are accused of reckless budgets, who actually are cheated by the US government!

For instance, California gets back only 81 cents for every dollar sent to the national government, while Illinois gets 75 cents, New York gets 79 cents, and Connecticut even less with only 69 cents!

So the ‘blue” states are cheated in favor of the “red” states, even though they claim to be against welfare and handouts!

If it was not for the wealthier states contributing to Kentucky and other Southern and Western states that are poorer, those “red” states would be even worse off than they are!

But at the least, could we not expect Senators McConnell and Paul to be more honest and admit that they do truly believe in welfare and handouts, as long as their residents are not paying for it?

Anything less is HYPOCRISY! So what is new? 🙁

Senator Rand Paul Of Kentucky: Center Of Controversy And Nightmare For The Republican Party! :(

Ronald 2 Comments

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has had to learn to live with fellow Kentucky Senate colleagues that have both embarrassed him and made his life miserable! If only one could read his mind, as his body language regarding past Senator Jim Bunning and his successor Rand Paul reveals discomfort, it would be an interesting analysis of how a party leader must survive both fools and loons! 🙁

Rand Paul may only have been in the Senate now for one month, but he is like a hurricane in his promotion of ideas that almost no one will accept, even in his own party, but yet saluted by the Tea Party movement!

Rand Paul seems to love introducing legislation that will never pass, just to draw attention to his looniness and his weird libertarian ideas which will never go anywhere, except into the minds of those who believe that government is a total evil and that we must isolate ourselves from the outside world! 🙁

Rand Paul, in association with Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is promoting a Life at Conception Act, which he believes would overrule Roe V. Wade, and in the process take a woman’s right over her own body totally away! 🙁

He is also sponsoring legislation to prevent the children of illegal immigrants born in America from being citizens, thereby introducing a new interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship!

Additionally, Rand Paul wants all foreign aid to our ally, Israel, ended, as part of his proposal to cut $500 billion from the present year’s national budget with only eight months left in the fiscal year. He wants the $3 billion aid to Israel ended, along with massive cuts in education, housing and energy programs, the most extreme idea of cuts proposed by any Republican, with the party shooting for only $100 billion cuts this fiscal year, with no cut in aid to Israel and other foreign aid, which he wants cut by $20 billion!

Republican leaders such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ilena Ros-Lehtinen of Florida have condemned a cutoff of aid to Israel, and Jewish groups in both major political parties, and both conservatives and liberals have made clear their opposition to such a cutoff, so Rand Paul’s advocacy has no chance of success, anymore than his other ideas mentioned above!

And get this: this past week, the Senate unanimously, except for Paul, adopted a measure making it a federal crime to aim a laser point at an aircraft, with the Kentucky senator feeling that should be an issue for states to handle individually, even though aviation is interstate, and there has been a growing problem of such incidents, thankfully without a disaster occurring!

It is clear that Rand Paul will be a center of attention over the next six years with his outrageous statements and actions, and imagine this. It is rumored that his father, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, may run for the soon to be open seat in that state after Kay Bailey Hutchison decided not to run for re-election in 2012!

If Ron Paul were to win that seat, he would be the oldest first time freshman at age 77 to take a seat in the US Senate!

Can one imagine having two Senators Paul at the same time? 🙁

The only worse scenario is the nightmare of either Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann as President of the United States in 2013!

If both scenarios were to occur, the nation would be in a living hell of its own making, due to stupidity, ignorance, and lack of common sense of the American people! 🙁

Creationist Theme Park Being Backed By Kentucky State Government: Is That Appropriate? :(

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A creationist theme park, sponsored by the Creationist Museum located seven miles from the Northern Kentucky-Cincinnati, Ohio Airport, is being supported by the Kentucky State government and Governor Steve Beshear, allowing the organization to gain tax advantages in the construction and operation of the theme park.

The corporation backing the project promotes the creationist concept, and denies the validity of Darwinist concepts of evolution!

It teaches that the earth is about 7,000 years old, that dinosaurs walked the earth with mankind, and that dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark!

Is it appropriate for a state government to sponsor and promote such a theme park, considering the reality of the concept of separation of church and state? 🙁

Kentucky’s US Senators: Not Good For Kentucky! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, somehow has managed to have elected US Senators who are not good for the state’s population! 🙁

Not only did they have Senator Jim Bunning, the Baseball Hall of Famer, who was considered by many observers, to be one of the absolutely worst Senators the chamber has ever had, who was always hard to work with, and who constantly seemed angry when he was not seen as loony!

But now they have Senator elect Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite, who is a libertarian all the way, and will likely over time make Kentuckians wish that Jim Bunning was back! Paul has led the move against earmarks, the bringing of projects to a state that is one of the poorest in the nation, and shows no concern about the conditions of coal miners in his state, despite recent coal mine disasters in West Virginia!

And now Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has looked like a genius when compared to Bunning and Paul, has shown himself to be a hypocrite (actually nothing new) as he was a champion ear marker, bringing nearly a billion dollars to his home state over the years, but now switching gears and agreeing to prevent earmarks over the next two years, and therefore undermining his state’s ability to improve its poor economic conditions!

And why has McConnell done this? It is because of pressure from conservative and Tea Party favorite Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who was seen as a rival of McConnell for the leadership of the Senate Republicans!

So in order to keep his job and look in sync with other Republicans, Mitch McConnell shows a lack of courage and principle, except for one thing!

He has made it clear that the Republicans will do everything to undermine President Obama and assure that he is a one term President! And this is already showing by the fact that the scheduled meeting of House and Senate Republicans with Obama at the White House that was due for Thursday has been postponed by McConnell and Speaker to be John Boehner due to “scheduling” problems!

What is that supposed to mean? Why would anyone after arranging an appointment at the White House with the President of the United States suddenly change it? The only good reasons would be death or illness, but neither is the case!

It is simply pure rudeness and disrespect for the President, and a sign that there will be no attempt by the Republicans in Congress to cooperate at all with the President over the next two years!

So what else is new? 🙁

The Dangerous Rand Paul, New Senator From Kentucky! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

The most disconcerting result of the Senate elections this past Tuesday was the victory of Tea Party favorite and libertarian Republican Rand Paul in Kentucky! 🙁

Rand Paul is the son of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who has been a big favorite of the libertarian movement for many years, and ran for President as a libertarian in 1988, and was a candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.

Often ridiculed by fellow Republicans, Ron Paul has never cared what people thought about him, and his son Rand Paul ran a campaign of anti government rhetoric that reached the level of lunacy that one would have thought that Kentucky would have rejected him for the solid, sane leadership of state Attorney General Jack Conway, the Democratic nominee!

But Kentucky, a state which elected Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning to two terms in the Senate,where he proved to be one of the most outrageously terrible Senators in US history, has now gone worse by electing Rand Paul, who is considered by many intelligent people to be an extremely dangerous man, with his crazy idea of preventing, by senatorial privilege or the filibuster tactic , any increase of the debt ceiling which is unavoidable if the federal government is to avoid bankruptcy, an action which would mean the government could not pay off government bonds, which would lead to a world wide depression! 🙁

Even right wing Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has made it clear that the debt ceiling must be raised early next year to avoid catastrophe, but Rand Paul seems intent on causing a confrontation that could lead to total economic chaos and anarchy!

One wonders if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky can convince Rand Paul to abandon his crazy, loony mission to stop the debt limit from necessarily increasing. Since McConnell did not support Paul in the primary,and since Paul is such a weird character, one has to wonder what if any influence might exist. McConnell had the same communication problem with Senator Bunning, but Paul could indeed be actually worse as a colleague since he is such a rebel against government!

Paul may call himself a libertarian, but in many ways, he is more of an anarchist than anything else, and whatever has to be done to stop him from his announced mission to stop an increase in the debt ceiling MUST be accomplished ! 🙁

Tea Party Republican “Thugs”: Supporters Of Rand Paul And Joe Miller! :(

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A disturbing trend is developing around Tea Party candidates, who have supporters and employees who are roughing up people who show up in opposition to their candidates, or are news journalists who want to ask questions of the candidate! 🙁

This has happened in the past week in the Rand Paul and Joe Miller campaigns!

A Rand Paul aide attacked, roughed up, and stepped on a woman holding a sign critical of Paul at the site of the debate in Kentucky yesterday between Paul and his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway. Paul has refused so far to come out and apologize in person, although he has issued statements of regret. Instead, he should be firing the aide for what he did! 🙁

A news reporter in Alaska was mishandled and handcuffed by private security guards employed by Joe Miller, and no apology or explanation has been offered! 🙁

Both Rand Paul and Joe Miller have been intolerant toward anyone who opposes their candidacies, and that attitude has spread to their supporters and employees, leading to these examples of reprehensible behavior!

Additionally, other candidates, such as Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, and Christine O’Donnell have evaded reporters and refused to answer questions, and some have rejected debates because of anger at criticism in the press.

This kind of arrogance, resentment, and abusive actions cannot be tolerated, and it demonstrates that the Tea Party Movement has elements in its candidates that make them unacceptable to hold high office in the Senate, so hopefully these characters will be defeated next week.

The dignity of the Senate is at stake, and it is obvious these Tea Party activists will be, if elected, “loose cannons”, who Republican leaders will come to regret, as they will not be willing to conform to the rules of the Senate, and have the potential to be a nightmare to the GOP! 🙁

The Copiapo Copper Mine Rescue In Chile: A Repudiation Of Rand Paul’s Libertarian, Anti Government Lunacy!

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The whole world is gripped by the rescue that has begun of the 33 copper miners who have been stranded underground for ten weeks in Chile, and the realization that Chile has no regulation of the conditions of its miners! This crisis is a call on Chile, an advanced country compared to most in Latin America and the world at large, to accept the responsibility of its government to change its attitude on this matter!

But it is also a repudiation of Tea Party favorite and Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul of Kentucky, with his assertion that the federal and state governments should not be meddling in the conditions of coal miners, whether in Kentucky, where they are not unionized, or elsewhere, where some mining operations are unionized. Paul is upset that, in all cases, there is federal oversight of mines!

We have seen so many accidents and tragedies in coal mining and other mining operations in the recent past, as well as in the long run of American history!

For someone running for the Senate to assert that federal oversight is unnecessary, and that unionization is interference with the free market, makes one wonder what kind of lunatic Rand Paul is!

A man with such anarchistic views, who does not give a damn about the lives and safety of coal miners and other miners, and wants to leave their condition in the hands of mine operators alone, should be denounced!

If Kentucky elects Rand Paul to the Senate in three weeks, with such outrageous views on his part, it can be said that the state will gain the reputation of being one of the most backward states of the Union! The proper reaction would be to say “Shame on you!” 🙁

The Total Arrogance Of Republican Politicians! :(

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We are now witnessing total arrogance of Republican politicians, feeling no need to face news media or participate in debates, and yet expecting the voters to elect or reelect them! 🙁

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had a “brain freeze” at a debate with her opponent, Attorney General Terry Goddard, yesterday, but more significant than that, was that she refused to answer his charge that she had fabricated the idea that headless corpses have been found in the Arizona desert, an assertion that has been denied by county governments near the border with Mexico, but constantly repeated by Brewer as a way to stir up support for the immigration law passed by Arizona and now in litigation!

As a result of the embarrassing “brain freeze”, Brewer has now declared that she will not participate in any more debates during the campaign! What gall and nerve, and it should be rewarded by the voters defeating this woman who is best at lying and being a demagogue than governing the state in a competent manner! 🙁

In Florida, gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, who spent $50 million of his fortune to win the GOP nomination, now refuses to debate Democratic nominee Alex Sink, and has shown a high level of arrogance, including referring to himself as the “bald, handsome guy!”

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul and Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle have both refused to be interviewed by mainstream media, favoring Fox News Channel only!

None of these or other candidates have any solution to the problems their states or the nation faces, but they seem to think they can ride on the discontent of the population to win office without having to deal with hard questions and real challenges as to their competence for office!

Hopefully, the people of these states and across the nation are not going to reward these arrogant politicians with the responsibility for high office!

Libertarianism Gone Loony: Rand Paul And Coal Mine Safety!

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Back in April, we had the horrible coal mine disaster in West Virginia, only the most recent of several such disasters in one of the most dangerous occupations in America!

The need for stronger coal mine safety regulations by state and national governments is obvious to anyone who has a brain in his head, but apparently not to Kentucky’s Republican Senate nominee, Dr. Rand Paul, son of Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul!

Rand Paul said in a public appearance before the primary election in May that it was not the job of the US government to regulate the mines, since people in Washington do not have the expertise and experience to know how to regulate that industry!

He also said that if coal miners do not wish to do that work because it is dangerous, then they can always quit, but there will always be people who will do that work!

Paul has no understanding of the fact that economic conditions are so poor in much of eastern Kentucky in particular, that coal miners will take on the work, even though the work is dangerous, because there are few alternatives for those workers!

Mining companies are infamous for fighting unions and evading work safety rules, and for a politician to come out with outrageous statements such as Paul made, after 29 miners died in April in West Virginia, is clearcut evidence that he is totally incompetent to be a United States Senator!

Rand Paul And Creationism: Refusal To Answer Question On Age Of The Earth! :(

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Rand Paul, the GOP and Tea Party Movement nominee for the Senate in Kentucky, is facing a new controversy! 🙁

He was asked how old the Earth is, and did he believe, as Creationists believe, that we are on a planet which is only 6,000 years old?

His refusal to answer indicates his awareness that this is a loaded question, considering the number of evangelical Christians who truly believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and that mankind inhabited the earth alongside dinosaurs! 🙁

This creationist belief continues to dominate fundamentalist Christian belief, despite the preposterous nature of the idea, and defies all scientific evidence that refutes it! 🙁

There is even a Creationist Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, just seven miles west of the Cincinnati, Ohio airport! 🙁

Rand Paul is not the only Senate nominee or Senator or Congressman who clearly believes in Creationism! Many believe it, or claim to believe it when asked, including several of the GOP Presidential candidates in 2008! And Senators such as Oklahoma Senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn have proudly proclaimed their beliefs in the concept! 🙁

The thought that intelligent people could totally defy the realities of scientific research is just as amazing as those who say that there is no climate change or global warming! 🙁

The old saying is that you can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink!

The fact that Rand Paul will not answer the question will, ironically, probably help him win support from the Religious Right, which furiously promotes Creationism! However, it is hoped that there are enough people in Kentucky who will use their brains, rather than their religiosity, when they vote for US Senator in November! 🙁