House Speaker Greg Stumbo professed not to be worried. He knew the redistricting bill passed by the Democratic House and the Republican Senate would pass constitutional muster. He even arranged for a top flight constitutional attorney to be hired (at your expense, taxpayer!) to argue the case before the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The court heard arguments in the morning, and a few hours later issued a unanimous opinion the new districts were unconstitutional. This is the legal equivalent of a Slam Dunk. So that senator from Henderson doesn't get to represent Fayette County, and Kathy Stein doesn't have to move to Bath County. Hoo-ray, hoo-ray!
All very important. Much more important is that the legislature realize its hand will be called in the future when it practices more "incumbent protection." But, the legislature will almost always try to do just that. Let's head them off in 2021--now. Let's get started on a bi-partisan commission to draw new districts and submit them to the legislature...as free from political considerations as possible for an up/down vote. Other states do; it's past time for Kentucky to join those ranks. But it won't happen unless the ACLU, Common Cause, major papers, League of Women Voters, etc. start working now for this truly important change.
Guess what? David Le Terrible was Rat On! He told the guv there weren't enough votes in the Senate to pass the casino amendment, and there weren't. Not by a long shot; that one absent vote made no difference. The guv cried "sabotage" but it wasn't, just the Senate President being a much better vote counter.
Now what? Well, if I supported such an amendment I'd put up huge billboards so that as people entered and left the Commonwealth they'd be told just how much of our money was being sent to Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia gambling establishments. And I'd put up an even "huger" billboard in Frankfort, just like the National Debt Clock, and keep track of the millions going out of state that could be spent here on roads, schools, and health care.
There certainly are arguments against the casino amendment that just failed. There is no argument that a lot of badly needed Kentucky dollars are going out of state. Somehow, we need to get them back.
I'm just sayin'...
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Two of My Favorite Four Letter Words
Two of my favorite four letter words are "film" and "free"; and for the past two Sundays I have indulged each at the annual One World Film Festival--and you can,too. Many more interesting free films remain.
Two Sundays ago I saw "The Rape of Europa", how the Nazis looted fine art treasures from conquered countries, some of whom sixty years later have yet to return them to their known owners or heirs. And that includes some of the Allied countries.
This past Sunday it was "Inside Job", how the housing collapse happened, and how some of the same people who should have seen it coming--and acted, didn't...yet they are still in charge today! (The lesson is that every time Congress yields to pressure from the business community and deregulates certain industries, or fails to provide adequate oversight, bad things happen; and they are getting worse!)
Ahead are films as different as underground youth music in Iran, how trying to solve our energy problems may lead to more problems, how 9/11 and Afghanistan are related (it's not the Taliban), and the gay riots at New York's Stonewall club.
Most of these are at the Kentucky Theater on Thursdays at 5 and 7:30, the weekend films on Saturdays and Sundays are at the central library or at Transylvania. Many are in English, the rest have subtitles. A complete schedule is at www.oneworldfilmfestival.org.
Try them--somewhere is one you will enjoy and will add to your knowledge and pleasure. And they're free!
Two Sundays ago I saw "The Rape of Europa", how the Nazis looted fine art treasures from conquered countries, some of whom sixty years later have yet to return them to their known owners or heirs. And that includes some of the Allied countries.
This past Sunday it was "Inside Job", how the housing collapse happened, and how some of the same people who should have seen it coming--and acted, didn't...yet they are still in charge today! (The lesson is that every time Congress yields to pressure from the business community and deregulates certain industries, or fails to provide adequate oversight, bad things happen; and they are getting worse!)
Ahead are films as different as underground youth music in Iran, how trying to solve our energy problems may lead to more problems, how 9/11 and Afghanistan are related (it's not the Taliban), and the gay riots at New York's Stonewall club.
Most of these are at the Kentucky Theater on Thursdays at 5 and 7:30, the weekend films on Saturdays and Sundays are at the central library or at Transylvania. Many are in English, the rest have subtitles. A complete schedule is at www.oneworldfilmfestival.org.
Try them--somewhere is one you will enjoy and will add to your knowledge and pleasure. And they're free!
Monday, February 13, 2012
MEMO TO LOCAL TV STATIONS:
Folks, it is the winter season. Sometimes it even snows...but that is no reason to bend your news judgment and head the newscast with a report that a light snow may be heading our way; making it the "Big Story"...that is after we get the "Breaking News"--half a day old, and a "Developing Story", and maybe even a "Follow Up."
BTW, "dusting" is a word not to be used in any Lexington weather-cast, even when said in jest.
And one more local advertiser has used a fake news report to promote its product. Shame on KIA.
More shame on our station managers who continue to dilute their most important service, local news, by allowing such pseudo-newscasts on their air; as in that fake home security system interview. Years ago, when all 3 stations belonged to the Radio-TV News Directors Association, that group's Code of Conduct forbade using commercials which mimicked newscasts. The Code is gone, so what's next--a pitchman/woman on a news set..."I'm not a reporter but I play one on TV, and I'd like to tell you about this great offer...?"
We're in a ratings period, so we have the Monday Mystery, and various other features designed to get you to watch. I wish stations would spend the time and energy on exploring issues before the legislature: redistricting (has anyone seen a map illustrating this most important issue on local newscasts?), those cold remedies that also support meth labs, the need for extra social workers, why courts in our 120 (!) counties can't talk to each other and alert authorities to the baddies amongst us...or...so many others.
Have you noticed the plethora of ads supporting public charter schools? Enough to float a political campaign; and from groups that just popped up (including one with the intriguing initials: KERA) Who are they? Who funds them? Why this issue now? Surely worth looking into. Shirley.
Finally, since most local news room staffs are young, and lack what J-Schools call "institutional memory", it was no wondner the recent death of former UK First Lady Gloria Singletary didn't get the coverage it deserved. For those of us privileged to know her, she truly deserved her nickname "Glo." She did; the UK projects she championed did; UK and Lexington are much better off because she lived among us.
I'm just sayin'...
BTW, "dusting" is a word not to be used in any Lexington weather-cast, even when said in jest.
And one more local advertiser has used a fake news report to promote its product. Shame on KIA.
More shame on our station managers who continue to dilute their most important service, local news, by allowing such pseudo-newscasts on their air; as in that fake home security system interview. Years ago, when all 3 stations belonged to the Radio-TV News Directors Association, that group's Code of Conduct forbade using commercials which mimicked newscasts. The Code is gone, so what's next--a pitchman/woman on a news set..."I'm not a reporter but I play one on TV, and I'd like to tell you about this great offer...?"
We're in a ratings period, so we have the Monday Mystery, and various other features designed to get you to watch. I wish stations would spend the time and energy on exploring issues before the legislature: redistricting (has anyone seen a map illustrating this most important issue on local newscasts?), those cold remedies that also support meth labs, the need for extra social workers, why courts in our 120 (!) counties can't talk to each other and alert authorities to the baddies amongst us...or...so many others.
Have you noticed the plethora of ads supporting public charter schools? Enough to float a political campaign; and from groups that just popped up (including one with the intriguing initials: KERA) Who are they? Who funds them? Why this issue now? Surely worth looking into. Shirley.
Finally, since most local news room staffs are young, and lack what J-Schools call "institutional memory", it was no wondner the recent death of former UK First Lady Gloria Singletary didn't get the coverage it deserved. For those of us privileged to know her, she truly deserved her nickname "Glo." She did; the UK projects she championed did; UK and Lexington are much better off because she lived among us.
I'm just sayin'...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
PENNY WISE---AND PILL FOOLISH
Kentucky's future is "wasting away" because of prescription pill abuse Gov Beshear and a host of public and medical leaders said this week. No argument here.
So surprise!
Kentucky is one of seven states with NO abuse treatment program for people on Medicaid.
This makes no sense; from a medical standpoint or from a human viewpoint.
And even less from a fiscal viewpoint as a story in the Herald-Leader points out. Treatment under Medicaid is estimated to cost payers $2500 on average, but if an adult goes to prison for drug law violations it costs at least $23,000 to treat them.
Even in these times of great budget constraints, this is a good return on investment for citizens. And there are collateral benefits. Get adults off pills and you lower: traffic accidents (including fatalities), robberies and break-ins, child abuse by pill-popping-parents, crimes of all sorts, the list goes on and on and on and all the way to Florida.
Beyond stopping our "wasting away", and lowering crimes of all kinds, setting up such treatment programs within Medicaid, allocating the money now to pay for them is simply, the right thing to do for our fellow Kentuckians who right now can't help themselves...or us.
I'm just sayin'...
So surprise!
Kentucky is one of seven states with NO abuse treatment program for people on Medicaid.
This makes no sense; from a medical standpoint or from a human viewpoint.
And even less from a fiscal viewpoint as a story in the Herald-Leader points out. Treatment under Medicaid is estimated to cost payers $2500 on average, but if an adult goes to prison for drug law violations it costs at least $23,000 to treat them.
Even in these times of great budget constraints, this is a good return on investment for citizens. And there are collateral benefits. Get adults off pills and you lower: traffic accidents (including fatalities), robberies and break-ins, child abuse by pill-popping-parents, crimes of all sorts, the list goes on and on and on and all the way to Florida.
Beyond stopping our "wasting away", and lowering crimes of all kinds, setting up such treatment programs within Medicaid, allocating the money now to pay for them is simply, the right thing to do for our fellow Kentuckians who right now can't help themselves...or us.
I'm just sayin'...
Monday, January 30, 2012
And Now, The Big One!
If you are as unhappy as I am over the illegal shenanigans in Frankfort; where the Democratic House screwed some of its GOP members, all in the name of protecting Democratic incumbents, and the GOP Senate screwed some of its Democratic members, all in the name of politics---take heart.
People are upset. House Republicans have filed a lawsuit; in the Senate Fayette County Senator Kathy Stein, banished to north east Kentucky, may do the same. It's always hard to predict how such suits will turn out, but the state Constitution seems to give both a reasonable chance of success.
Please let your state senators and representatives, regardless of party, know of your displeasure; and that it doesn't have to be this way. Other states use bipartisan commissions to do the redistricting. It works there, and Kentucky should follow suit. A bill to do this may be introduced by Fayette Rep. Bill Farmer, possibly others; it's chance of passage is not good, but there is no chance unless all of us insist a change needs to be made.
But this state skirmish is but a warm-up for the BIG battle coming this fall. Right now you and I do NOT elect the President. "Electors" we vote for do, and the Electoral College constitutes the most corrupt and rotten of all political redistricting. Several times in our history candidates without a majority have become president thanks to this "college."
If you believe, as I do, that one Kentucky vote is just as good as one vote in Tennessee or Nevada, then you must believe that one California vote should be worth one Kentucky vote; no more, an no less. It's either "one person, one vote" or it isn't. There is no middle ground, and there is no super computer in all the world that can make votes equal through an Electoral College.
The "college" should be abolished and all of our votes made equal. There is no other way.
It will take an amendment to do this. Let's get started, before we witness, once again, hanging chads in Florida, incorrectly counted votes in Iowa, or a Supreme Court that wrote its own politics into its decision and made a loser President.
I'm just sayin'...
People are upset. House Republicans have filed a lawsuit; in the Senate Fayette County Senator Kathy Stein, banished to north east Kentucky, may do the same. It's always hard to predict how such suits will turn out, but the state Constitution seems to give both a reasonable chance of success.
Please let your state senators and representatives, regardless of party, know of your displeasure; and that it doesn't have to be this way. Other states use bipartisan commissions to do the redistricting. It works there, and Kentucky should follow suit. A bill to do this may be introduced by Fayette Rep. Bill Farmer, possibly others; it's chance of passage is not good, but there is no chance unless all of us insist a change needs to be made.
But this state skirmish is but a warm-up for the BIG battle coming this fall. Right now you and I do NOT elect the President. "Electors" we vote for do, and the Electoral College constitutes the most corrupt and rotten of all political redistricting. Several times in our history candidates without a majority have become president thanks to this "college."
If you believe, as I do, that one Kentucky vote is just as good as one vote in Tennessee or Nevada, then you must believe that one California vote should be worth one Kentucky vote; no more, an no less. It's either "one person, one vote" or it isn't. There is no middle ground, and there is no super computer in all the world that can make votes equal through an Electoral College.
The "college" should be abolished and all of our votes made equal. There is no other way.
It will take an amendment to do this. Let's get started, before we witness, once again, hanging chads in Florida, incorrectly counted votes in Iowa, or a Supreme Court that wrote its own politics into its decision and made a loser President.
I'm just sayin'...
Monday, January 23, 2012
NO EXCUSES!
There is NO EXCUSE for the dirty, politics at its worse, mean-spirited legislative redistricting bill the Kentucky House recently sent the Senate.
There is NO EXCUSE for the dirty, politics at its worse, mean-spirited legislative redistricting bill the Kentucky Senate recently sent the House.
Both were "incumbent protection bills", with some incumbents, in both chambers, on the outs with their leadership being screwed; they and of course, the citizens they represent. Among the more egregious mistakes, totally planned by Sen. Pres. David Le Terrible, and acquiesced in by Georgetown Sen. Damon Thayer and the majority of the Senate, was giving Fayette County a senator for the rest of this year from 200 miles away in Henderson, while shifting longtime Fayette Senator Kathy Stein to Northeast Kentucky. Neither of the "shiftees" knows the territory they have willy-nilly inherited.
Do you begin to see the enormity of this contradiction of our theory of representative government?
There is NO EXCUSE for any member of the Fayette House and Senate delegation who voted for this bill--and I hope it comes back to haunt them in future elections.
There is NO EXCUSE for Governor Beshear to have signed this monstrosity. He could have vetoed it and he should have. His "excuse" was the need to have districts set by the filing deadline, Jan 31st. Meadow muffins! That deadline itself is another incumbent protection law, designed to force people to file locally long before they know what stands the incumbent takes on major legislation which comes up late in the session.
In fact, the governor was a member of the House when that deadline was in late March; where it should be. And the Jan. 31st deadline may have to be moved anyhow if the legislature can't agree on Congressional districts still not settled.
Since the current bill divides counties unnecessarily, in what appears to be a violation of Section 31 of the state constitution, there is NO EXCUSE for the Attorney-General not to challenge the redistricting law in court. He's supposed to represent all the people (and took an oath to uphold the Constitution), not just the few incumbent people in Frankfort.
There is, also, NO EXCUSE for you and I not to insist this affront of logic, justice, and our democratic traditions never be done again. We need, as other states do, a nonpartisan commission to draw these lines, subject to a straight up-or-down vote; as Congress does now on other hot potatoes.
Let's have no more excuses!
There is NO EXCUSE for the dirty, politics at its worse, mean-spirited legislative redistricting bill the Kentucky Senate recently sent the House.
Both were "incumbent protection bills", with some incumbents, in both chambers, on the outs with their leadership being screwed; they and of course, the citizens they represent. Among the more egregious mistakes, totally planned by Sen. Pres. David Le Terrible, and acquiesced in by Georgetown Sen. Damon Thayer and the majority of the Senate, was giving Fayette County a senator for the rest of this year from 200 miles away in Henderson, while shifting longtime Fayette Senator Kathy Stein to Northeast Kentucky. Neither of the "shiftees" knows the territory they have willy-nilly inherited.
Do you begin to see the enormity of this contradiction of our theory of representative government?
There is NO EXCUSE for any member of the Fayette House and Senate delegation who voted for this bill--and I hope it comes back to haunt them in future elections.
There is NO EXCUSE for Governor Beshear to have signed this monstrosity. He could have vetoed it and he should have. His "excuse" was the need to have districts set by the filing deadline, Jan 31st. Meadow muffins! That deadline itself is another incumbent protection law, designed to force people to file locally long before they know what stands the incumbent takes on major legislation which comes up late in the session.
In fact, the governor was a member of the House when that deadline was in late March; where it should be. And the Jan. 31st deadline may have to be moved anyhow if the legislature can't agree on Congressional districts still not settled.
Since the current bill divides counties unnecessarily, in what appears to be a violation of Section 31 of the state constitution, there is NO EXCUSE for the Attorney-General not to challenge the redistricting law in court. He's supposed to represent all the people (and took an oath to uphold the Constitution), not just the few incumbent people in Frankfort.
There is, also, NO EXCUSE for you and I not to insist this affront of logic, justice, and our democratic traditions never be done again. We need, as other states do, a nonpartisan commission to draw these lines, subject to a straight up-or-down vote; as Congress does now on other hot potatoes.
Let's have no more excuses!
Monday, January 16, 2012
DR. KING'S MESSAGE TODAY
I truly believe that if Dr King had been allowed to live, America would be a different and better place today. I can't tell you how but there is no doubt in my mind that he, and his movement, would have helped all of us, and our country, to be better.
His was the most revolutionary of all messages-love your fellow man--a message spread by one of the most revolutionary men of all times: Jesus. Other prophets of such a message--Gandhi for one--also met an ironic end through violence.
I think Dr. King would have tried, had he lived, to spread his gospel, as Gandhi did, among the nations. Lord knows we need that today; when we have yet to learn the lessons of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan. Having not learned, warmongers in both parties, are beating the drums,and sometimes not very softly, for a new war with Iran.
Iran hasn't helped matters with bellicose positions on Hormuz and nuclear policy.
But let's put the shoe on the other foot. If Iran had the bomb, and the U-S didn't, could any American leader not have a policy of getting our own bomb as quickly as possible? Why then do we proclaim that a sovereign state like Iran cannot do the same?
Wars in the four cases cited earlier have solved few problems. Why should we think a new war with Iran would? Knowledge is universal; the atomic genie IS out of the bottle and a new war would not put it back in.
If war can't solve our problems, and it can't, just delays them, then diplomacy must. The approach Dr. King urged on us throughout his too short life must be our new foreign policy, as well as our approach to many domestic problems.
"Can't we all get along?"
Dr. King, I think, would say we can and his urging us to observe the brotherhood of all peoples, at home and abroad, can, in time, give us a much better chance at peace than all the sabre rattling by any and all of the nuclear nations---whose numbers, no matter what we do, are just going to increase.
Armageddon can be avoided, and Dr. King has shown us the way.
I'm just sayin'...
His was the most revolutionary of all messages-love your fellow man--a message spread by one of the most revolutionary men of all times: Jesus. Other prophets of such a message--Gandhi for one--also met an ironic end through violence.
I think Dr. King would have tried, had he lived, to spread his gospel, as Gandhi did, among the nations. Lord knows we need that today; when we have yet to learn the lessons of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan. Having not learned, warmongers in both parties, are beating the drums,and sometimes not very softly, for a new war with Iran.
Iran hasn't helped matters with bellicose positions on Hormuz and nuclear policy.
But let's put the shoe on the other foot. If Iran had the bomb, and the U-S didn't, could any American leader not have a policy of getting our own bomb as quickly as possible? Why then do we proclaim that a sovereign state like Iran cannot do the same?
Wars in the four cases cited earlier have solved few problems. Why should we think a new war with Iran would? Knowledge is universal; the atomic genie IS out of the bottle and a new war would not put it back in.
If war can't solve our problems, and it can't, just delays them, then diplomacy must. The approach Dr. King urged on us throughout his too short life must be our new foreign policy, as well as our approach to many domestic problems.
"Can't we all get along?"
Dr. King, I think, would say we can and his urging us to observe the brotherhood of all peoples, at home and abroad, can, in time, give us a much better chance at peace than all the sabre rattling by any and all of the nuclear nations---whose numbers, no matter what we do, are just going to increase.
Armageddon can be avoided, and Dr. King has shown us the way.
I'm just sayin'...
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