BluegrassBulletin.com

One Week Out, Here Are My Endorsements

You hear it all the time from politicians known for hyperbole: "This is maybe the most important election of your lifetime."  But there is one difference, this time they would be right.

UNITED STATES SENATE

Most Kentuckians know that Barack Obama has done terrible damage to our nation.  And that majority knows that if he is not stopped from executing the rest of his agenda the damage may become irreversible.

Elections are about choices.  And the ONLY choice in this race for those who want to stop Barack Obama is Mitch McConnell.

It is clear that Barack Obama wants to bankrupt the coal industry, flood our nation with illegal workers competing for jobs with out of work Americans, to destroy national pride in favor of an international apology, and to fundamentally transform our nation built on faith in God into a nation that looks to government for blessings.

Alison Lundergan Grimes recently told reporters in Northern Kentucky that her election will "make history".  I can't believe she said that.

The Grimes campaign is a mirror image of Obama's: blame the predecessor, hide your true loyalties and get people to vote for making a dangerous change in direction by calling it "historic".

Here's the real history.  Mitch McConnell has nearly always had close races. It would not be surprising if this one was as close as the polls suggest.

So forget the polls and consider the real question of historic proportions: will Kentucky make history by electing the next majority leader of the United States Senate or make the mistake of repeating the errors of 2008 and 2012 to the detriment of our Commonwealth and our nation by electing an inexperienced upstart?

We need to put a stop TO Obama in the Senate, not a vote FOR Obama in place of one that works.

Grimes campaign is grounded in the firm belief that voters are dumb.  Dumb enough to let her get by without answering questions, dumb enough to not see that she is running the same kind of campaign Obama did, and dumb enough to expect different results.

McConnell is the only choice a chance for America has.

JUDICIAL RACES

Supreme Court

Michele Keller is currently filling the position left vacant by the passing of Wil Schroder.  Keller was elected to the Court of Appeals eight years ago.  Prior to that she was a relatively unknown lawyer.

As in many judicial elections in Kentucky people know very little about the opinions held by judicial candidates until they get elected.  Then their opinions become law.

Efforts to change the law so voters can learn more about candidates before they acquire the power to rule over life and liberty continue to be met with great resistance, particularly by those already on the bench.

Perhaps the most damning piece of information in any judicial race I have seen in years came out not long ago about Michele Keller.  It was her vote in favor of allowing a teenager from another state to travel out of state for an abortion without their parents ever knowing that has cut her campaign deeply.

Her opponent, Teresa Cunningham has gotten very little attention except from those who oppose Keller for her pro-choice opinion and her deep roots inside the democratic party operation in Campbell County.

Keller will likely win and her time on the Court of Appeals and Supreme court has been marked by mostly rather kind and well reasoned opinions, but for those who vote principle over personality, Cunningham will be their choice.

These are your options.  I make no recommendation.

COURT OF APPEALS

When Governor Steve Beshear appointed Allison Jones to the Court of Appeals to fill the seat left vacant after Keller got appointed to the Supreme Court, everyone knew exactly why.  Her husband was credited with raising tons of money for Beshear.  In other words, quid pro quo.

Jones will likely lose to Justin Sanders in large part because Sanders is from Northern Kentucky where most of the votes will be cast.  In addition Sanders has worked far harder on his campaign than Jones and has earned his votes.

But Sanders should win not because he worked hard but because he is clearly the better choice.  He has experience in the courtroom, experience handling both criminal and civil cases and he has the most important experience of all, he represents people.

This race has come down to voting for quality versus voting for quid pro quo.  I suggest you vote quality.

Sanders has the temperament, the knowledge and the compassion to make a great jurist and should receive your vote.

CIRCUIT COURT

Kenton County

In Kentucky our court system is divided into various levels of decision making.  Circuit court is the court of general jurisdiction.  It is also the first level of appeal from the District Court.  Within Circuit Courts there has been carved out the relatively new "Family Court" which combines some of the old functions of the District Courts regarding family issues and mixed them under a new umbrella.  In Kenton County one Circuit Court seat is on the ballot, two Family Court seats are on the ballot and one District Court seat is contested.

For the Circuit Court the choice should be Kathy Lape.  There are many reasons why her experience, her background and her commitment to family would make her the better choice, but there is a political reason as well.  

For judges to be truly independent they should have as few loyalties to court house politics as possible.  We lawyers have seen it far too many times in counties all across the Commonwealth.  A judge's impartiality is questioned by his close relationship with the prosecutor, the county judge, the sheriff, the police department or some other powerful political force in the community.  Few if any lawyers have the courage to speak out about such things, but the people we represent often express fear of them.

Distrust of the judiciary unravels the fabric of our nation of laws.  Kathy Lape is truly independent.  She is not part of the "courthouse crowd" and her service to the people of Kenton County will help restore trust in our judiciary.  I urge you to give her your vote.

For family court there are a couple of races pitting the current incumbents against lawyer challengers.  In both races the incumbents are doing a very good job and deserve to be re-elected.

Chris Mehling has had to run a harder race than necessary due to the last name of his opponent.  The Knochelman who challenges him is not the guy who just won the County Judge Executive's seat.  Clear out that confusion and you will be left with the clear choice, Chris Mehling for Family Court 2nd Division.

Incumbent Lisa Bushelman is being challenged for her seat in the 5th Division Family Court Race by Stephanie Dietz.  Lisa is doing a very good job and there has not been a compelling reason made to replace her.  Bushelman should get your vote.

In the only contested District Court race incumbent Ann Ruttle is being challenged by Chris Nordloh.  Ann enjoys a solid reputation for making good calls in hard cases.  Her challenger just wants the job.  You should vote for Ruttle.

Boone County

The single biggest race for Circuit Judge in Northern Kentucky is in Boone and Gallatin counties.  The clear choice is Rick Brueggemann.  Rick represents a break from lawyer driven politics on the bench, much like his predecessor Tony Frohlich has.  Both are men of extremely high character, solid legal backgrounds and courageously hard workers. 

In this race Brueggemann isn't just another lawyer turned judge.  He is a true constitutionalist.  We live in times when the law and the Constitution are being challenged not so much by cases but by lethargy on the bench.

Defense of the Constitution has cost millions of American lives.  Rick Brueggemann will honor those sacrifices by his own courage, in his own time, as Circuit Court Judge.

Owen, Grant, Carroll Counties

Two lawyers, John Brent Threlkeld and Leslie Knight, are competing for the seat now held by retiring Circuit Court Judge Stepehen Bates.  Developments in the last couple of weeks have made this a tough race.

Leslie Knight won handily in a mult-candidate primary and looked to be the favorite.  But Threlkeld has out worked her by a large measure and has been helped by a recent scandal surrounding Knight.

Knight, it is being said, advocated for giving heroin addicts clean needles during a recent debate.  Then her brother was recently charged with manufacturing methamphetamine.

This coupled with a lawsuit foreclosing on unpaid tax bills she has accumulated and another lawsuit in which the address she listed as her residence on her campaign filing papers is being challenged as false has tainted her suddenly in the waning days of the campaign.

Knight is presumably the choice of the "courthouse crowd" but that isn't as much a positive as it once was.  These negative stories swirling around her and her campaign raise real questions about her trustworthiness.  It would be helpful to voters to have them resolved before their votes are cast, but considering that they might not be resolved leaves much to be concerned with.

A hearing over her qualifications to serve in the seat will be held in front of Judge Bartlett in Kenton County this week.  I will update with an endorsement after that hearing.

Update On Obama's Reaction To State Sovereignty

Yesterday I commented upon the Obama administration's request for over $1 Billion to impose gun control.  Today I was alerted to this development:

The National Guard is following a direct order — but it’s not happy with it.

All of the Guard’s AH-64 Apache helicopters are scheduled to go to the active Army, and there’s nothing its top brass can do about it. [Washington Times]

Some have interpreted this move by the POTUS to have more sinister implications.

As if the Obama administration's purchase of more than 2 billion rounds of ammunition, and nearly 3,000 urban tanks, along with their unprecedented (and highly illegal) domestic spying program was not enough to convince you that the federal government is about to suspend the Constitution once and for all, the man who once vowed to run "the most transparent administration in history" has just rather inexplicably, ordered the U.S. Army to seize every Apache attack helicopter currently in use by the National Guard.

In all, the Defense Department will confiscate 192 Apaches from National Guard units around the country and give them to the active duty Army.

In exchange for the heavily armed and highly maneuverable choppers, Guard units will receive 111 UH-60 Blackhawktransport helicopters from the Army, Defense One reports.

Last week, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, claiming that the measure will save taxpayers $12 billion, over the next three years.

So, what could be another, more reasonable explanation?

The Apache, which began service in 1986, is armed with a 30 mm M230E1 Chain Gun (with 1,200 rounds), Hellfire anti-tank missiles, and 70 general-purpose 70 mm rockets. In short, it is capable of fending-off any enemy, foreign or domestic.

Obviously, these helicopters could pose a substantial obstacle to say, a tyrant drunk on his own power, with an army at his disposal. [Washington Examiner]

Time and time again this administration gives the impression that something is afoot which has bad written all over it.

According to one group the BLM agents at the Bundy ranch were in fact supposed to engage in violence in order to incite a larger scale crackdown centered around the expected death of some of the agents after a shootout.

Where does your state stand on the growing tension between "The People" and the Federal Government?  And perhaps to my fellow Kentuckians, which candidate for the US Senate has been tapped by none other than the First Lady as a reliable vote in favor of her husband's gun control efforts?

Stand Your Ground Update

When the Bureau of Land Management surrounded Cliven Bundy's ranch in Colorado in an effort to reclaim land upon which he and his family had been grazing cattle for generations, the armed forces of the United States took aim at citizens with their weapons.

Some say that revelations implicating Harry Reid and the Chinese in a plan to use the land for other purposes caused the BLM and the armed agents to stand down.  Not so says the rancher's son.

A show of force was necessary to stop the government seizure and sale of embattled cattle rancher Cliven Bundy's cows, his son said on Sunday, a day after an armed standoff between federal agents and hundreds of Bundy's supporters. [Reuters]

The armed standoff came after a contingent of militia groups headed for the ranch in support of Bundy and in opposition to the military like maneuvers of the BLM and other agents.

Under the Obama administration there has been a rise in the number of states which have created a separate militia unit under the control of the governor alone without any requirement that the  members treat the president as their commander in chief.

Obama is angered by the several State Governors who have reestablished “State Defense Forces.” These forces are described as: “State Defense Forces (also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias) in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are not regulated by the National Guard Bureau nor are they part of the Army National Guard of the United States. [Politcalvelcraft.org]

And just how has the president responded in the face of the increase in militia groups, state military units and private citizens having the ability to defend themselves?

President Obama has requested $1.1 billion and the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked for $382.1 million for gun control "to protect Americans from gun violence." [Foxnews]

Is it just me or do you hear echoes of "The Concord Hymn"?

Hank Aaron vs. The Black Sphere

Former baseball player Hank Aaron has accused Republicans of being like the KKK.

Speaking to USA Today Tuesday on the 40th anniversary of his then record-breaking 715th home run, the 80-year-old Aaron said that Republicans are hindering Obama’s job performance.

“Sure, this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated,” Aaron told USA Today Sports.

Aaron continued: “The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.” [CBS]

Maybe he took one too many hardballs to the head.

The Ku Klux Klan‘s first incarnation was in 1866. On September 28, 1868, a mob of Democrats massacred nearly 300 African-Americans. The Klan was involved in a wave of 1,300 murders of Republican voters in 1868. The group was an offshoot of the Democrat Party. [Gateway Pundit]

In a column back in February writing for his website "The Black Sphere" Kevin Jackson came up with this cool idea.

In celebration of 150 years since the Republicans freed the slaves from slave-loving (pardon the double-entendre) Democrats, my team has come up with a snarky way for you to get back at them. We are projecting what famous black people would be doing had Republicans not fought and died for their freedom. In short, my team does what the Republicans won’t do for themselves, and that is SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.

Putin Wants To Claim Finland

From the International Business Times:

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ex-advisers has claimed that the ex-KGB agent ultimately wants to reclaim Finland for Russia.

Andrej Illiaronov, Putin's economic adviser between 2000 and 2005 and now senior member of the Cato Institute think tank, said that "parts of Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Finland are states where Putin claims to have ownership."

"Putin's view is that he protects what belongs to him and his predecessors," he said.

When asked if Putin wishes to return to the Russia of the last tsar, Nicholas II, Illiaronov said: "Yes, if it becomes possible."

Romney Pretty Chatty For A Non-Candidate

Mitt Romney is adamant, he is not running for president.  But every time you look at the news he seems to be leveling pretty specific criticisms at the president.  Now he has taken aim at the democratic front runner Hillary Clinton.

Mitt Romney blames former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton along with President Barack Obama for the situation in Ukraine, saying they both misunderstood the world stage.

“There’s no question, but that over the four years where he and Secretary Clinton were working together, and now the year since then, it’s hard to name a single country that holds America in more esteem and respect than when the president took office five years ago,” Romney said on Fox News’s “Hannity”on Tuesday. “It has not been a time of building America’s respect and admiration and esteem and frankly our soft power or our hard power around the world.” [POLITICO]

Charles Krauthammer pulls no punches either.  He says the world sees Obama as weak, a situation which clearly puts our nation at risk.

 

As Romney says:

The former Republican governor said Obama and Clinton gave Russia “gifts” early in the administration.

“I would not have given Russia the gifts that Secretary Clinton and President Obama gave Russia, this whole reset with the smiling pictures of them pressing the button, it’s like are you kidding me?” Romney said. “Don’t you understand that Russia has different — Putin has different interests than America, and they will pursue those interests?”

He said the president needs to show strength.

“The best way to keep them from pursuing those interests is by being a strong and powerful nation that can stand up to them,” Romney said. “When you say in Syria, ‘There’s a red line here in Syria, you go across that line there’s going to be serious consequences.’ You go across the line, what do you do? You let Putin do a sleight of hand and then nothing. Weakness only leads to other people taking advantage of you, being aggressive and in part, that’s what leads to situations like Ukraine.” [POLITICO]

Like I told you, tough talk is going to be the winning ticket for the GOP nominee, not going soft.

Obama Gets "The Clap"

Barack Obama concluded a press conference in Europe before a room full of people.  What happened next is quite a departure from the adoration he received before his miserable failure of a presidency struck the world dumbfounded.  Instead of a round of applause, Obama only got one, weak, little clap.

This is embarrassing.

 

Imagine This Headline: "Mexican Troops Surround US Military In Advance Of So. California Vote To Leave The USA."

Imagine that Mexican troops, bolstered by Russian allies, amassed on the border of California and Mexico, that some in Southern California invited them into the area and that they surrounded our military bases in the region in advance of a vote by the largely Hispanic population to leave the USA and join Mexico.

That is what is going on in the Ukraine.  Crimea is a part of the Ukraine.  It's population is largely Russian.  They voted to leave one country and join another as Russian troops stood guard.

In the wake of a March 16 referendum in which Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation, Ukrainian leaders refused to cede any part of the peninsula, calling on their troops to prepare for war.

“Crimea was, is, and will be our territory,” said Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh in a statement delivered at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center on March 17.

Former heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Vitali Klitschko announced that Ukrainian troops would remain at their bases, even after March 21, the end of a peace treaty signed by the interior ministries of Ukraine and Russia.

In accordance with the March 16 peace treaty, the Russian Interior Ministry promised to allow Ukrainian soldiers to pass freely into and out of their bases, which Russian troops had surrounded for more than two weeks. Tenyukh said that the Russian military had thus far respected the terms of the treaty.

Although tensions have de-escalated around military bases in Crimea since the signing of the treaty, neither side is prepared to back down. The Russian government expects that Ukrainian troops will surrender their military bases before the conclusion of the treaty. The Ukrainian government has said that it will not withdraw forces from Crimea, using the peace as an opportunity to replenish supplies for Ukrainian troops stationed on Crimean bases.

When asked whether Ukrainian troops would fight to defend Crimea, Tenyukh replied tersely, “The armed forces will execute their tasks, ” later adding, “Ukrainian forces will stay [in Crimea] until all their tasks have been completed.” [Kyiv Post]

Told Jah: Putin Laughs At Obama

Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today  asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list. [ABC]

Told Jah.

Obama Proposes New Executive Action To Award Over-time Pay

Salaried and executive employees are currently exempted from department of Labor regulations requiring overtime pay for hourly employees.  But Barack Obama blindsided the business community this week by announcing that he was going to review and modify that law, on his own, through executive order.

His efforts to raise minimum wage have been abandoned by democrats after the non-partisan Congressional Budge Office calculated that the raise would cost 500,000 jobs by 2016.  Expect the Congressional Republicans to ask the CBO to make a similar review of this proposal.  And expect similar if not worse results.