Democratic Operative Accuses Progress Kentucky Of Juddgate Bugging

Things are moving quickly on Juddgate. As professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection notes;
"Mother Jones and David Corn better start lawyering up (which I assume they already have), because the question will become What did Mother Jones know about alleged McConnell bugging, and when did it know it?"
It appears that the bugging was merely eavesdropping recorded on a cell phone however this does not necessarily mean it was legal. The audio was recorded by two members of Progress Kentucky super PAC, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison. the two bragged about their exploits to Jacob Conway, who is on the executive committee of the Jefferson County Democratic Party and who in turn outed them to protect the local Democrat Party.





Update: Shawn Reilly was a delegate to the DNC in Charlotte.

No, Mister President, You Can't Have $63 Billion Dollars To Give To Your Eurotrash Friends

It's an ill wind that blows no good and while I thought Richard Mourdock's Senate bid was a mistake and refused to endorse his bid to unseat Dick Lugar he did deprive the International Monetary Fund of its chief supporter in the Senate. The head IMF honcho in the House was Barney Frank who is also gone. Christine LaGarde, the fund’s managing director was so counting on the $63 billion that Obama had promised.
President Obama asked both the Senate and House appropriation committees last month to include the IMF aid in the 2014 budget, but both rejected the idea.

Senate Democrats Block Resolution to Honor Margaret Thatcher

It's so nice that 16 GOP Senators crossed party lines double crossed their supporters to vote to move the gun control bill the forward in the Senate. Wonderful stuff that bipartisanship. Makes a body feel all warm and fuzzy. But if bipartisan agreement is is the holy grail of the legislative process one might be excused for wandering why Senate Democrats are holding up a simple resolution to honor the late Margaret Thatcher. The resolution passed the Senate but has been placed on hold by unknown Senate Democrats. The failure to honor one of the 20th century's strongest leaders for purely partisan reasons is reprehensible. More

Ashley, Smashley, That Senate Seat Is Safe Republican

What is mildly embarrassing for Senator Mitch McConnell may turn into a full blown catastrophe for Democrats. I am referring to the bugging of McConnell's Louisville office.
In a radio interview with Mike Huckabee, McConnell campaign aide Jesse Benton said: "The FBI is taking this very seriously. They were at our office for about an hour today. They tell us that they're running down some leads."
"We're very glad that the FBI is so quick to address this … we're going to make sure that this is prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Benton said.
The upshot of the strategy session was how to attacked air-head Ashley Judd should she win the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat currently held by McConnell. They were reading from her published autobiography-not her personal diary-a fact that seems lost on the mainstream media. Since the bugged meeting Judd has taken her herself out of the race and the Democrats seem to be pinning the hopes on Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. If the FBI finds Democrats involved in the bugging incident it could be lights out in Kentucky and maybe nationally. The Democrats see an opportunity because the senior senator's polling number hint at vulnerability but consider a few fact prior to tweeting Mitch's political obit.
In spite of the fact it has a popular Democratic governor in Steve Beshear Kentucky has steadily drifted Republican for the last 30 years. The last Democratic Presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote in Kentucky was Jimmy Carter in 1976. He lost it 4 years later. Al Gore lost by 16 points and Bill Clinton carried the state twice with less than 50% of the vote.
Of 6 congressional districts the Democrats control 1. Prior to the last election they held 2 but Obama, who lost 42% of the primary vote to "uncommitted", could not help the grandson of legendary Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler hang on to his 6th district seat that he had held since 2004.
The Democrats have not won a senate race in Kentucky since Wendell Ford was re-elected in 1992.
A history of the Second Congressional District illustrates Kentucky's drift to the Republican camp. The district was represented by William Natcher from 1953 until his death in 1994. The Republicans had never held the seat. Ron Lewis, who is an ordained Baptist minister and who owned and operated a religious bookstore, Alpha and Omega Bookstore in Elizabethtown was served up as "the sacrificial goat" to carry the Republican banner in a district they had never won. In the special election he won 55% of the vote. In the next regular election he faced the mayor of Owensboro, David Adkisson, thought to be a rising star in the Democratic party. So sure of himself, Adkisson made known his intention to run just days after the special election.  Lewis won 60% of the vote and held the seat until his retirement in 2009. Brett Guthrie now holds what is considered a safe Republican seat.
McConnell's polling problems are probably more from the right than the left. If Kentuckians don't think he is conservative enough they are not apt to vote Democratic.

Rush Limbaugh Fails to Make THR's Most Powerful People List

One wonder why a magazine would create a story it knew to be inaccurate. The Hollywood Reporter has just released its list of the 35 most powerful people in the media. This sent me to Wikipedia to identify many on the list who hold such sway over my personal life and the lives of all other Americans. Of course Roger Ailes is powerful and his name is not a household word as is the case with the NYT's executive editor, Jill Abramson. Mika Brezezinski and Joe Scarborough hobnob with powerful people ergo they must be powerful and so the list goes on with Barbara Walters and without Ann Curry. The list is laughable when one considers the absence of Fox News's Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren who have better ratings than anyone on MSNBC. Howard Stern made the list but- now remember we are talking about powerful individuals-Rush Limbaugh did not.
Maybe THR could collaborate with the people who select for the Baseball Hall of Fame and the and the National Honor Society.

Volt Sales Tank; Same again, Please

Don't tell me the sequester hasn't hurt the economy. Just look at the terrible March Chevy Volt sales. They plunged over 35% from last year to a paltry 1,478 units. To put that in perspective, that's about one Volt sold every two months per dealership which probably makes selecting Volt salesman of the month a rather problematic exercise. From the taxpayer's point of view this is good news since only 1478 $7500 rebates had to be paid out. In the past General Motors has blamed lack of availability due to production problems for poor sales but in March it produced 2722 and now has about a 5 month supply on hand. Undaunted by this set back GM is bringing out a plug-in Chevy Spark and actually has plans to produce a plug-in Caddy. "Live and learn" seems to have gone out of vogue.

Cops Not Sold On Gun Control

Obviously the nays have it but who was in the polling sample? Police officers. This was part of an online survey of 15,000 verified peace officer conducted by PoliceOne.com You know, they're the folks who are going to be laid off because of the sequester brought on by the Republicans. Of course we all know the caveats that must be attached to self selecting samples but the spread is 95-3.

Breaking down the results, it's important to note that 70 percent of respondents are field-level law enforcers -- those who are face-to-face in the fight against violent crime on a daily basis -- not office-bound, non-sworn administrators or perpetually-campaigning elected officials but it could be that their backgrounds in law enforcement, unlike Senator Patty Murray's undergraduate degree in recreation, don't equip them to judge serious policy decisions.

Guns or Gold?

To the left and the popular media gun owners are a blood lustful and irrational lot, thuggish, and low brow. Could it be that they are the most astute among us? Recently a man I know only slightly mentioned that he owned 12 handguns and thought he had purchased number 13 but the sale was still pending as the seller had yet to make the final commitment. That's crazy you say. No one needs 13 handguns for self defense. That is especially true in this man's case as he lives in a tiny rural community-just a half of dozen or so homes clustered around a century old Catholic church. As for being thuggish or low brow he is neither. Were he a younger man we would call him an altar boy. This good fellow is a member of an honor guard organized by, I believe, the American Legion that causes him to attend 4 or 5 funeral every week. His group of volunteers provides the military ceremony due every veteran whose family requests it. A salute is fired and the flag that draped the coffin is folded and presented to the widow. In other words he in no way resembles the crude caricature of a gun owner but rather a kind and gentlemanly grandfather who weekly spends 10 to 12 hours fulfilling the Seventh Corporeal Work of Mercy namely to bury the dead.
I don't own a lot of weaponry. I still have the .22 single shot that I bought at Sears when I was 15, no questions asked, and I have still have a shotgun and a semi-automatic .22 caliber squirrel rifle collecting dust but guns are not high on my preference list. Why would any sane person purchase 13 handguns? Because they are a damn good investment. What other consumer durable actually appreciates with age? A quick online check for a model 1913 .45 automatic showed this auction were the reserve had not been met even though $1,000 had been bid. It can be purchased for $2,000. This was the standard military sidearm until it was replaced by the 9 mm in the 1970's There must have been a million of them manufactured but obsolescence is a minor factor with firearms. So how much will an Ipad or an Android Razor be worth 100 years from now? An I Phone 1 that was released in 2007 can be had on Ebay for the princely sum of $41, down a bit from the original price of $599.
So if there a 100 million firearms in the hands of the American public who is to blame? Many on the right credit Eric Holder and Barack Obama for the escalation in gun ownership but I'm inclined to give the credit to Ben Bernanke whose idiotic monetary policy coincides with Holder's and Obama's ascent to power and affinity for scaring the average citizen. The average gun owner may not think in terms of investing but those who pay attention to gun prices have the good sense to know that their spare cash will not earn them bus fare in a money market account or a bank cd while there is a good chance of beating inflation with an AR-15. There is an urge to buy before prices go up. An automobile that loses a third of its value in the first 2 years and appliances that have a projected life of 7 years don't fulfill the role as a store of value as do firearms. Some may argue that gold bars in a safety deposit box beats inflation and in the short run they maybe right but  it's hard to sell gold on the spur of the moment and there are transaction costs and while I would rather see Glen Beck running the Federal Reserve than Ben Bernanke, I like the gun owners, remain skeptical of gold.
In my final analysis the only consumer durable that would serve as a store of value is a good rifle, shotgun, or handgun.

Big Talk and Small Minds

I've always maintained there is a lot that can be said for keeping your mouth shut. This story from tiny Albion, Illinois, population about 2000, has me laughing. Talk about political ineptitude! Why would an elected official think she could win a fight with people who work for free, as for example the volunteer fire department. Evidently there has been an ongoing feud between Albion City Alderwoman Karen Shupe and the Albion Volunteer Fire Department. It has become customary to slow down and blare the siren and honk the fire truck horn when it passes Shupe's home.

Say it ain' t so. That is harassment.

Damn right it's harassment and Alderwoman Shupe has filed two FOIA requests to see just who is disturbing her slumber. It's also a violation of the state code that governs the use of public noise makers and presumably Ms Shupe wants the offender brought to justice to atone for this egregious misuse of public property. Last week she asked for the records of all fire department meetings and activities since last April. Lest readers get the impression that the only time the fire department makes too much noise is when it passes the Shupe home there was another ugly incident in Shupe's ward when some of her constituents complained about the noise levels following the volleyball escort when the team qualified for state. In discussing the matter, Shupe made it a point to state local law enforcement has not addressed her complaints, even though there is code covering the use of sirens and horns. OMG! Shupe went to the fire station and says that while most members were polite a few had the colossal effrontery to suggest she mind her own business.

“I was told that I’m sticking my nose into things that are none of my business. I’m sorry, but is the fire department part of the city operations?”

Well sort of, Adlerwoman Shupe, the city owns the fire truck but no one on the city payroll has to roll out of bed at 3 AM in zero weather and rush into a burning home at considerable risk of injury or even death.

The mayor saw it Shupe's way.

“It needs to stop,” said Mayor Kevin Harper, looking at Fire Chief Kent Nale.

Well it has stopped. The fire department resigned en masse.

How The Media Spin EVERYTHING!

THE RAW FOOTAGE

Ugh! CBS will not allow the embed that sanitizes the event and absolves the Kellys of all wrongdoing. The link is here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkbzasSL6lI