Morgan County Probe: Partisan Hack Stumbo Strikes Again!!!!

Apparently Greg Stumbo is not content with unleashing a witch hunt, motivated by partisan political purposes, against a Republican governor elected from a state with a majority of registered Democrat voters.

Now Stumbo has turned his persecutorial and prosecutorial sights on a Republican county executive elected from a county that has been a traditional Democratic stronghold.

And scantly a month before that county judge-executive stands for re-election, no less.

For several weeks now, Democrats in Morgan County have been floating rumors alleging improper acts by County Judge-Executive Tim Conley, whose election four years ago was a shocker when he replaced a retiring Democrat county judge.

(For those of you who are geographically challenged, or think there's nothing worth seeing south of I-64 and east of I-75, Morgan County is located in the east-central part of the state. The county's slogan is "The Bluegrass County of the Mountains" and it is located roughly in the center of a triangle formed by I-64, US 23 and the Mountain Parkway. The county seat is West Liberty; the community is famous for its annual Sorghum Festival which was held just this past weekend; and the south shore of Cave Run Lake is one of its major attractions.)

And now here we are, on the eve of Conley's re-election bid, and word comes that at the attorney general office's request, a special grand jury has been empaneled in Morgan County. No one is discussing, for the record, the subject of the inquisition but rumors are strong that it's Conley.

By all accounts except those of the most partisan Democrats in West Liberty, Conley has been a breath of fresh air for his county. He's a political neophyte but has worked hard to bring projects to Morgan County. Most importantly, he broke a stronghold of Democratic rule in a Kentucky community that had previously been reluctant to elect Republicans. That followed a trend in which many other Kentucky counties have recently elected Republicans to top offices, sometimes for the first time ever.

However, Conley suffered the same problem as a lot of other GOP county judges in Democrat counties. The majority of the fiscal court was made up of obstructionist Democrats, who have tried as hard as they could the last four years to make his life miserable. Despite them, however, Conley has persevered and any objective evaluation of his performance would judge him worthy of consideration for re-election.

When Ernie Fletcher was elected governor three years ago, talk immediately turned to what Democrats might challenge him in 2007. Greg Stumbo said at the time he would not mount a campaign unless Fletcher became "wildly unpopular," then Stumbo proceeded to fulfill his own prophecy by embarking on the merit system investigation.

Stumbo succeeded in his goal to wound Fletcher politically, perhaps fatally, but Democrats aren't satisfied with the damage to Fletcher's re-electability inflicted by the attorney general. The indictment strong-armed by Stumbo's prosecutorial staff against Fletcher, drawn on the flimsiest of evidence that might have possibly linked Fletcher to admitted personnel mistakes by members of his administration, was all that was needed. Still the Democrats wanted more. They wanted Fletcher tried, convicted, forced from office, sent to prison and sexually violated while in the lockup as his just punishment for daring to take what they feel is their birthright.

Now Stumbo is meddling in the affairs of a county election, and something smells fishy. Morgan County is only one county removed from Floyd County, Stumbo's home, so there are lots of connections between the two mountain counties. The special prosecutor for the Conley Tribunal is Brent Turner, commonwealth's attorney from Floyd County and a political crony of Stumbo's. Neither Turner nor the AG's office will discuss the purpose of the grand jury, unlike the panel that was called into service in Frankfort to investigate alleged misdemeanors.

It's obvious that this is a political ploy. Why else do you start rumors and then seat a grand jury so close to an election if not to influence that election's outcome? One of two things is happening here. Either Greg Stumbo has no control over his office and is being used -- which seems more likely given Scott Crawford-Sutherland's recent self-serving opinion pieces published last week in the Herald-Leader and Courier-Journal; or he is using his powerful office for partisan purposes. If the former is true, Stumbo is too stupid to hold high office in this state. If the latter is true, his public life is as disgusting and shameful as his private life and he ought to resign in disgrace.

Time for the American left to accept responsibility for its role in causing 9/11

As we pause today to remember the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, it's equally important that as we remember the innocent lives lost and pay tribute to the first responders who died trying to save them, we explore the root causes of the attack and steel our resolve to make sure this never happens again.

Practically since that awful day, there has been a vocal crowd that suggests America look inward first; that somehow we chould change whatever it is that has fostered such hatred for us.

If we do that, then we change the very fabric of what we are as a nation. We are free and we support freedom-loving people. We believe in Israel's right to exist as granted by God himself. We sponsor no official state religion and allow people to worship as they see fit, or not at all if they so choose. And we allow women the same freedoms as men.

These are concepts that the authoritarian, Jew-hating, theocratical misogynist Muslims cannot abide. They do not honor the concepts of freedom and free will and since the United States is the shining light of the world, the radical Muslims will do what they can to destroy us.

Anyone who blames America for the attacks is both wrong and idiotic. There is no other way they can be described.

But have we terrorist enablers in our midst? Did the followers of Osama bin Laden find aid and comfort within our borders?

Without question, and this support has come from America's left. The liberals in this country and the Democratic Party power structure helped sow the seeds of destruction that took root on Sept. 11.

How? Let's start with Clinton's presidency. It might as well be gospel truth that Democrats are weak on national defense. They have never supported putting America in a place of strength. They have always favored negotiation and disarmament, failing to realize that there is no reasoning with this country's enemies. The Cold War wasn't won because of some treaty. It was won because the Soviet Union spent itself into a death spiral trying to keep up with our defense initiatives. We won the Cold War because we were strong. And that strength emanated from Ronald Reagan himself. He knew the value of a strong America.

Clinton, on the other hand, seemed intent on trying to secure goodwill with humanitarian gestures. Our military was sent to places it didn't need to be, like Bosnia, to do missions it was never intended to do, like feed people. There were no American interests to be benefitted in most of the exercises he ordered.

The cynical among us say that Monica Lewinsky was a distraction. The liberals say the legal fallout from Clinton's perjury stemming from the Lewinsky situation took his focus off the task at hand. (They're utterly wrong, but that's a different story). The truth is that Clinton was never focused on defending this country, either from enemy nations or from rogue terrorists.

This point has been brought home to roost in dramatic fashion with the revelation in the last two years that Clinton had an opportunity to take the known terrorist bin Laden into custody during his presidency, but did not.

The attack occurred only eight short months after Bush was sworn into office, true, but Clinton was the one who let the situation develop. A little action on his part may have prevented an unspeakable horror in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Due to Clinton's presidency, the terrorists were emboldened.

And the campaign of 2000 certainly did nothing to discourage them. All during the campaign. liberals constantly referred to Bush as being dumb, stupid, an imbecile, unintelligent, whatever adjective you want to choose. (It doesn't matter that subsequently he was shown to have had a better academic record than Al Gore). Terrorists listened to such things and they paid attention.

So what was the end result? America was vulnerable due to eight years of inaction by Clinton. A president had just been elected who was being called an idiot by his loud braying ideological foes. That gave bin Laden all the incentive he needed. Obviously he felt that America was weak and was being led by someone without the mental capabilities to fight back.

Bin Laden was wrong.

Today, America is a safer place. We haven't had a repeat of 9/11 due to the diligence of our protectors. One of our sworn enemies, Saddam Hussein, is out of power. Bin Laden's on the run. He's darting from cave to cave, knowing that the next time he shows his face in public will probably be the last. He can have no semblance of a normal life. He's in hiding and constantly looking over his shoulder.

Those of us who love this country and support it will never forget what happened on that awful late summer day. But we must also never forget that there are those in America who, through their political gullibility and ignorance, helped bring this about.

It is time for the American left, starting with Clinton and his supporters and including the Bush-bashers, to take their rightful share of the responsibility in causing the 2001 attacks. The liberal political mindset has always been a danger to America and to our way of life, and this was never more aptly demonstrated than five years ago today.

May God forgive their sins against their fellow countrymen.

Mark Nickolas loses it!

Kentucky GOP Desperation or Kentucky GOP Desperation

If you follow Kentucky politics, you know who Mark Nickolas is.

The campaign manager of two failed Kentucky gubernatorial campaigns, the California Carpetbagger has started his bluegrassreport.org Web site with the primary purpose of bashing Ernie Fletcher and a secondary purpose of bashing any other Republican or conservative.

The California Carpetbagger thinks that Kentucky state employees, have, or should have, a constitutional right to waste time at work and violate the state's Internet acceptable use policies by having unlimited access to his blog while they are at work. It's not enough that they be allowed to read it on their own time. Nickolas wants them to read his Fletcher-bashing garbage while they should be doing the taxpayers' business.

Nickolas started a Web site oriented at drafting Ken Lucas to run for Congress against incumbent Geoff Davis, so Lucas' candidacy has become somewhat of Issue 1-A to Issue 1, which is Fletcher-bashing.

Well today, Nickolas lost it in his response to a Republican Party of Kentucky mailing promoting Davis.

Nickolas suggests that his lemmings e-mail RPK Chair Darrell Brock and complain about what the California Carpetbagger contends are falsehoods in the direct-mail piece. He posts Brock's e-mail address and he even posts the work telephone number of the district GOP party chair, which is definitely stepping across that line.

Well, turnabout is fair play.

Perhaps conservatives and Republicans should e-mail the California Carpetbagger at mark@bluegrassreport.org and tell him they are sick of someone from California purporting to know more about Kentucky politics than do lifelong Kentuckians and that he has standing to tell them how they should conduct themselves politically.

And perhaps they should help enlighten Nickolas to the truth by putting some attachments on their e-mails.

I think that a three-hour MP3 of the Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh shows each day, encoded at 320 kbps, would be a nice start. That way we could be sure that he hears the shows in high-quality audio.

Just doing our part to educate the politically challenged and intellectually deficient folks who move to Kentucky and claim they plan to stay here for awhile. :-D

Kentucky's shame

Helen Thomas is at it again.

The former White House correspondent, now a political commentator, is -- we are ashamed to say -- a Kentucky native. She certainly does not do her state proud.

It's always laughable to hear members of the traditional (or some may say, mainstream) media proclaim that they are not liberals. Indeed, as the senior White House correspondent, Thomas traditionally had the right to ask the first question in any presidential press conference or briefing. But after her retirement as a correspondent and her re-emergence as a columnist, ofttimes she won't even be called on. And for good reason. Her post-correspondent-era rantings show her to be a liberal of the Nth degree.

And for her to claim that the media lets the administration get away with too much is laughable. Can anyone remember a presidency that has been so lambasted in the press? Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush had walks in the park compared to the beating George W. takes every day.

The next time it's ever pointed out that Thomas is a Kentuckian, your mission is to reply, in a sorrowful voice, "Yes, I know and I am ashamed of that fact. On behalf of the Commonwealth, I apologize to the country for foisting her upon you."