Meanwhile, Back in Frankfort ...

The General Assembly, having barely staved off budget disaster by approving higher taxes on booze and smokes, has another month of off-year session to make mischief. One good bill that needs your support and three Only Hetero Freakazoid White Guys Have Rights abominations that need to be stopped.

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, via Shankula, on how to leave voice messages telling legislators how to vote on any and all bills you care about:

Please take a moment to leave a message on the Legislative Message line to let your senators know you support House Bill 70 to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.

It's so easy and just takes a moment!

1. Call 1-800-372-7181 (The Message Line is open 7am-11pm Monday through Thursday, 7am-6pm on Friday.)

2. Ask to leave a message for some legislators

3. The operator will take down your name and address.

4. They'll ask you who to leave a message for. I'd suggest Dan Kelly, David Williams, Robert Stivers, Damon Thayer and your own Senator (if you don't know who that is, they'll let you know).

5. Leave a message like "I support HB 70 to restore voting rights to former felons."

That's it! - You've just made a big impact on restoring voting rights for over 186,000 Kentuckians!

Call early and often for even greater impact.

For extra credit, please call back with the same message for "members of the Senate State and Local Government Committee"

For even more impact, call again and leave a message for all Senators from your area like "Louisville Senators" or even just a random set of up to ten senators. Here's a list of all of them - http://www.lrc.ky.gov/whoswho/sendist.htm

Oh - and get your friends to call too!

Here's Jake on who to harangue, with email address, and work and home phone numbers, against Gary Tapp's Throw Orphans Into the Streets bill.

And support House Bill 72, which would include definitions for sexual orientation and gender identity relating to Kentucky's civil rights chapter. The legislation would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.

Not to mention stopping this perennial The Bitches Deserve It piece of crap from the Xian Taliban.

Senate Bill 79, the "avert your eyes" abortion bill, will be heard tomorrow in committee in the Senate. It's likely to fly out of there and straight to the House.

Aren't you excited to see how the fraidy cat Democrats in the the House vote? You know, the ones who are complaining that they made that hard tax vote and just need to have a pro-life vote this session.

Terri at Barefoot and Progressive has the don't miss rant on that one.

Lastly, don't forget to register your objections to House Bills 24 and 25 to force Kentucky taxpayers to pay for license plates promoting Dark Ages superstition.

For more on the nice and nasty surprises hiding in the mountains of legislative paperwork, read Ralph Long.