Bevin

On Wednesday, Boston talk radio was ablaze with Matt Bevin's upset victory in the Kentucky gubernatorial race. Howie Carr reported that Bevin ran a campaign that focused on Matt Bevin and was losing in the polls. In the final weeks he retooled his campaign to run against Barack Obama and victory was clutched from the mighty jaws of Jack Conway. So the story goes.

I like the story but I am not sure it's entirely accurate. I have been reading the local and national sites and I cannot get a confirmation of this. Bevin was always opposed to Medicaid expansion and he was an early supporter of Kim Davis. I don't know if he ran TV or radio spots denouncing the current administration or if he ran ads equating Conway with the radical-in-chief. Have not been able to find anything like that.

At any rate, the sagacious Tom Brokaw (you saw the Dominick Dunne spectacles) promotes a similar spin.

Update: Flash bangers appeal to the Supreme Court

To update the post of 10/31/15 Let's not confuse racism with stupidity the city of Evansville has appealed the decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals directly to the Supreme Court. The petition for a writ of certiorari was placed on the Supreme Court's docket Tuesday, filed on behalf of Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin and 11 officers named in the lawsuit and the plaintiff's lawyers have until December 2 to respond. As the Supreme Courts accepts only a few of the more than 10,000 petitions filed each year this action can only be viewed as a Hail Mary pass.
The writ argues that the Court of Appeals failed to look at the Fourth Amendment issues from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene instead of from hindsight. Unfortunately for the appellants reasonable officers are in short supply in the EPD. A reasonable officer would have had the good sense to run the legality of flash banging a residence by a lawyer who would have told him that the use of flash bang grenades in private dwellings is generally considered to be an excessive use of force by the courts. The reasonable office test is meant discern how a reasonable officer would respond when forced to make an immediate decision not how inept police administrators willfully violate the constitutional rights of innocent people. In this instance said inept police administrator,  Chief Billy Bolin, literally had weeks to formulate a reasonable course of action.  Even in the age of Obama stupidity is not a defense.

RIP Fred Thompson

 

Republicans might be cowards and traitors and hypocrites but I maintain that they are the lesser of two evils and that this dubious distinction has become more obvious over time.

 

One quick comparison. When the sleaziest and most corrupt president in US history appeared to be complicit in weaponizing the IRS for the purposes of winning a presidential election, the Democrats circled the wagons and helped to facilitate a cover-up. Party first, country second.

 

When Richard Nixon was accused of attempting to do what Obama succeeded at doing, the GOP put country before party. Senator Howard Baker, Republican from Tennessee, markedly asked, "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

 

 Some people claim that Minority Counsel Fred Thompson

prompted the question. I don't know but it is certainly believable. Thompson was a lawful man in a country descending into thugocracy. His kind were once the norm. Now they are a rarity, made even rarer by Thompson's departure.

Rest in peace, Fred.