Watch Live As the Dark Ages Descend on Kentucky

The public swearing-in is at 2 p.m. Eastern, but Matt Bevin was sworn in as governor at midnight. By now, he's already signed executive orders destroying everything worthwhile in the Commonwealth.

Four hundred thousand working-poor Kentuckians stripped of health insurance.

Thousands of minimum-wage state workers losing their $10.10 per hour pay, dropped down to $8.00 per hour.

The death of the bourbon, horse and tourism industries as oil and gas fracking poison groundwater throughout the Bluegrass.

Crumbling roads and bridges and mass unemployment as conservatard austerity slashes the state budget.

Tens of thousands of non-freakazoids forced into a christianist theocracy.

Heading for the hellscape Sam Brownback created in Kansas; ultimate goal the Galtian paradise of Haiti.

Live on KET.

Bevin Doesn't Know What the Fuck He's Doing, Part 2

Or maybe he does.  These are exactly the lies Sam Brownback spread to justify gutting Kansas' economy to further enrich the obscenely wealthy mooching people and corporations.

Tom Loftus at the Courier:

Gov.-elect Matt Bevin said Tuesday that he is inheriting a "financial crisis" from departing Gov. Steve Beshear.

"According to the Beshear administration, they are leaving Kentucky burdened with a projected biennial budget shortfall of more than $500 million," Bevin said in a news release naming John E. Chilton, of Louisville, as the new state budget director. "The appointment of a highly qualified budget director, therefore is of tremendous importance."

Asked to elaborate on Bevin's comment about a financial crisis, the Bevin transition office released an analysis of the state's 2016-18 budget outlook by the Beshear administration's budget office.

But Beshear said in a statement later Tuesday that there is no shortfall and that Bevin is simply confronting a problem he confronted repeatedly the past eight years of dealing with needs and requests that outstrip available revenues.

"I have had to balance and rebalance the state's budget 15 times," Beshear said. "We are leaving the state's finances in much better shape than what I was presented with my first year in office," Beshear said.

Make Voting a Condition of Public Assistance

David Atkins is an excellent analyst of Democratic voting behavior, especially at the local level, but I think he misses the obvious solution on this one.

If formerly Democratic strongholds in Eastern Kentucky are going repug because the working class votes and the poor don't, the solution is not to keep digging the bottomless hole of pandering to the middle class.

The solution is to get the poor who are not voting out to the polls to vote.

And the way to do that is to provide government assistance only to people who prove they are voting.

Repugs are so enamored of piling conditions on people who are starving and homeless; Democrats should propose this one and make repugs explain why not.

It's the turnout, stupid.

David Atkins at Political Animal:

Alex McGillis at the New York Times has one of the most intriguing and important pieces of political analysis I’ve seen in quite some time today. Most of us are familiar with analyses reliant on racial and cultural resentments to explain why poor white communities seem to vote against their own interests: voters with racist tendencies and those who fear the changing of social mores vote for Republicans in order to thumb their nose at minorities and coastal social liberals—even if the impact of conservative policies is worst in their own communities. But McGillis’ analysis suggests that conservative voters in these areas are just as resentful of their white neighbors on public assistance, and that most of the poor whites on public assistance aren’t voting for Republicans but have simply stopping voting altogether:

In eastern Kentucky and other former Democratic bastions that have swung Republican in the past several decades, the people who most rely on the safety-net programs secured by Democrats are, by and large, not voting against their own interests by electing Republicans. Rather, they are not voting, period. They have, as voting data, surveys and my own reporting suggest, become profoundly disconnected from the political process.

McGillis points to data showing that people who struggle economically are most likely to hold liberal views on economics, but are also least likely to vote. The more they need government help, the less connected they feel to their communities and the less interested they become in politics. Crucially, 57% of these nonvoters are white—mostly living in conservative communities.

In the meantime, those who vote Republican in these areas are the ones doing somewhat better economically who feel not just sublimated racism and generalized cultural resentment against coastal elites, but also direct anger at the increasing number of their neighbors and acquaintances in need of assistance:

SNIP

Democrats don’t really have a good answer for this problem. As a matter of public policy, obviously reducing inequality and improving working-class economics broadly should make progressive politics more palatable in these communities. But that’s a long-term project. From a communications standpoint, if voters are willing to give away tax breaks to Wall Street while intentionally voting for policies that will throw their friends and neighbors into the street and deny them lifesaving medical care, there’s not much you can do.

These mostly suburban and rural communities are infused with a Calvinist ethic that attributes success to moral virtue and failure to moral weakness. The cultural and psychological pull of that doctrine is incredibly powerful and buoyed by hucksters preaching the prosperity gospel that God will make you rich if you are faithful enough and want it badly enough. This toxic stew creates an instinct to push down the person below them rather than up against the person above them, and transcends simple racism and cultural resentment at this point.

From a communications standpoint, one approach Democrats can and should take is to strongly promote policies that not only help those who have fallen through the cracks, but also those who have middle-class jobs as well. Many of those policies already exist, but are hidden from voters in the form of tax credits rather than direct transfers. A more radical analysis would suggest that the forces of mechanization and globalization may require a universal basic income that would supplement the incomes of the employed and unemployed alike in a way that might make welfare payments seem fairer and more democratized to these voters. And, of course, a more full-throated progressive economic message (and laws that create easier access to voting) from Democrats may be able to encourage more of the downtrodden to make their voices heard at the polls.

Ultimately, though, there may be little Democrats can do to win over these surburban and rural white voters. Their shift to the GOP has been overwhelming, and if they’re willing to throw their friends and neighbors under the political bus there’s not all that much to be done. We can excuse it with economic, religious and social analysis, but at the end of the day that approach to life and ethics is usually described with negative moral language designed to invoke shame. Urban voters and minority communities don’t share this dog-eat-dog moral value system, and their numbers are growing. A more powerfully aggressive progressive politics and economic egalitarianism would likely help, but ultimately the solution may simply be a matter of waiting for demographic change and limiting the impact of gerrymandering designed to artificially increase the influence of these voters.

No, KY Did Not Elect a Black Lt. Gov.

She was not "elected" to anything, because Kentucky no longer "elects" the Lieutenant Governor.  Governor candidates choose a running mate whose name appears below that governor candidate's name on the ballot. She never appeared on her own ballot line.  If she had, not a single white repug - and in Kentucky, they're 99.9999 percent white - would have cast a vote for her.

Kentucky repugs are racist motherfuckers who never voted for her, but are happy to use her as the personification of their lies.

Adam Beam of AP:

Hampton never made it to space, but she did rise from an unemployed tea party activist who couldn't win a state House race to become the first African-American to ever hold statewide office in Kentucky. Elected lieutenant governor alongside Republican Gov.-elect Matt Bevin, she joins Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina as the only black statewide elected officials in the South.

Republicans view her election as a rebuke to claims by some Democrats that President Barack Obama's dismal approval ratings in the state are driven by race. Kentucky's minority population is less than 10 percent, and the state had divided loyalties during the Civil War while never officially joining the Confederacy. The state Capitol has statues of both Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis in its rotunda.

As for you, Jenean: you can be sure that every repug in the state is calling you a ni**er behind your back.  And they'll never elect you to a real office.

Fletcher Crimes II: Bevin Hires Lawyer of Indicted Repug Governor

Is this some kind of reverse prevent defense?  Is Bevin planning the same kind of illegal shenanigans that sank ol' Ernie?  Do repugs shit themselves in stupidity?

John Cheves at the Herald:

M. Stephen Pitt, a Louisville lawyer who defended Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher during the state hiring investigation that led to Fletcher's indictment in 2006, will be general counsel to Republican Governor-elect Matt Bevin.

Bevin announced the appointment Tuesday.

"I am pleased to have Steve Pitt join our team," Bevin said in a prepared statement. "He is widely respected and has a deep understanding of the law that is rooted in decades of experience. The office of general counsel is a critical one, and Steve's character, competence and commitment to the commonwealth are beyond reproach."

Pitt, 69, is a member of Wyatt Tarrant & Combs.

Nine years ago, Fletcher hired Pitt to defend him on misdemeanor criminal charges of violating the state's merit system rules. Democratic Attorney General Greg Stumbo, now the House speaker, said Fletcher and his aides awarded state merit jobs to reward campaign donors, relatives, friends and others, regardless of their qualifications. Fletcher pardoned his indicted aides and ultimately settled the case with Stumbo.

"The governor acknowledges that the evidence strongly indicates wrongdoing by his administration with regard to personnel actions within the merit system," the settlement agreement stated.
The next year, Fletcher named Pitt's daughter, Caroline Pitt Clark, to the state Public Service Commission, the agency that regulates utilities.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/11/10/4131055/bevin-names-louisville-lawyer.html#storylink=cpy

"Keep Fighting, Beloveds"

Molly Ivins knew better than anyone what it is like to be a liberal in a deep-red state, and she never gave up.  We can't either.

First, we need to know what we're facing.

Joe Sonka at Insider Louisville:

Gov. Bevin’s changes likely to be felt immediately

Even before next year’s session of the Kentucky General Assembly convenes, many of Gov. Steve Beshear’s executive orders are now at risk of being immediately rescinded by Matt Bevin once is sworn in on Dec. 8.

Beshear’s executive orders at risk include prevailing wage on construction projects; a $10.10 per hour minimum wage for state employees and contractors; protection of state employees from discrimination in hiring based on sexual orientation and gender identity; and – most significantly – his creation of Kynect and the expansion of Medicaid to those up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate. Bevin appears likely to rescind most of these, though he at times backtracked during his campaign on a pledge to do away with Medicaid expansion “on day one.”

The hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians who have coverage through Medicaid due to this expansion will be watching Bevin closely to see whether their eligibility will be rescinded with the stroke of a pen – assuming that is legally possible, which is up for debate – or if he will attempt to push for this through the legislative process.

Democrats still have a firewall in the state House… for now

While Bevin becoming governor is a major victory for Republicans and their policy agenda, the big remaining hurdle is the Democrats’ slim majority in the state House. Republicans have long called for so-called “right to work” legislation, tort reform, charter schools, abortion restrictions, fuller privatization of public pensions, and a more regressive consumption-based tax reform in the General Assembly – only to be stymied by Democrats in the House. Though Bevin will now have the bully pulpit of the governor’s mansion, his favored legislation still will face the hurdle of Democrats and House Speaker Greg Stumbo.

Or will he? A serious threat for Democrats over the next two months will be rural conservative House Democrats flipping to the Republican Party, seeing the writing on the wall of their electoral future by having a D next to their name in a region of voters trending solidly Republican. Another threat is Bevin appointing any of these Democratic House members to a position in his administration or a judgeship, which would come along with a hefty boost in their public pension and open up the seat for a Republican to win in a special election. Gov. Beshear tried the same strategy with Republican members of the Senate in order to flip the majority of that chamber, though ultimately failing in that task.

If this happens and the Republicans take over the House, the entire Republican policy agenda likely will pass by this spring. If not, Bevin and his party still have the opportunity to pick up enough seats in next year’s state House elections, delaying their long sought after wish list of policy goals until 2017. Until then, the House remains the Democrats’ only firewall.

Dems to the left, Dems to the right?

Following Tuesday night’s bloodbath, Sen. Ray Jones – the Democratic minority leader of the state Senate – blamed his party’s losses on Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, saying Kentucky Democrats have to further distance themselves from the party’s national leaders. Pressed on this by Rene Shaw of KET, Jones had difficulty differentiating local Democrats and Obama on policy positions outside of coal regulations, highlighting the challenge of how his colleagues could pull off this familiar strategy that has failed so badly in the past two statewide elections.

Other Democrats have taken the exact opposite lesson from this election, saying their candidates’ insistence on villainizing Obama over the past seven years has managed not only to suppress the vote of progressive Democrats, but made the party’s brand so toxic that no attempts by candidates to distance themselves for Obama – like Grimes in 2014 and Conway this year – can work.

This internal debate among Democrats will not be resolved anytime soon, but it will surely shape the direction of the party going forward.

Voting Republican

From Down with Tyranny:


 

Yeah, We're Doomed.

Sliding down the repug Slope of Death past North Carolina, past Texas, past Louisiana, overtaking Kansas and heading for Haiti.

Make way for the disaster capitalists, and bend over Kentucky. Best we can hope is that they use lube.

Herald can't bring itself to update its website; here's the Courier.

Yes, Virginia, There's a Big Difference Between Candidates Tomorrow

Yes, Jack Conway is a terrible candidate and a repug-lite Blue Dog.  But I'm strapping on the hazmat suit and voting for him and all the other Democrats anyway because the alternative is catastrophe.

Jack Conway will keep Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion - a Democratic policy that has already lifted thousands of Kentuckians out of poverty and into good health, not to mention thousands of new healthcare jobs and billions of dollars into the economy.

Bevin has vowed to kill Obamacare and Medicaid. Widespread suffering and economic collapse doesn't bother him.

Jack Conway will keep the state pension system.  Yes, it's a clusterfuck squared, and needs a thorough clean-out, but state employee pensions keep billions of dollars in the state economy every year.

Bevin told state retirees flat-out that he would eliminate the pension system, adding insult to injury by labeling it "tough love."

Jack Conway understands how state taxes support the economy, and that slashing them creates an inescapable downward spiral like the one currently killing Kansas.

Bevin thinks Kansas Governor/Destroyer Sam Brownback is an economic genius and wants to implement the same lethal plan in the Commonwealth.

Jack Conway thinks human beings should have human rights, and will uphold the laws ensuring that.

Matt Bevin would put Kim Davis on the State Supreme Court if he could, but since he can't, he'll just put her in charge of his new Department of Only Freakazoid Christians Have Human and Civil Rights.

And so on and so forth on every issue you can imagine.  Get out and vote for Jack Conway.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

At its heart, this is an election about issues, though it's not easy to tell given the personalities of the candidates, the modern style of politics and the general disinterest (disdain?) displayed by the electorate.

In a state where Democrats often sound like Republicans, the choice voters often face is between night and later that night.

But in this race, Conway and Bevin are night and day — even weeks — apart on major issues of enormous importance to the future of the commonwealth.

Not on coal or guns or some of the commonwealth's traditional battlefields, but on health care, labor union laws, education and many other topics. The two major-party candidates are offering two very different visions of the future.

We've seen the attempts to nationalize this race by Republicans who have painted Conway and the rest of the Democratic slate as presidential puppets, but the issues being debated will have a real-life, practical effect on the lives of the people who live here.

If the people who show up Tuesday are looking to avenge Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis' short stint in jail, then Conway is toast. If Kentuckians go to the polls with the goal of ensuring that the state's health care programs aren't set on fire and left to burn, then Bevin will be on the outside looking in.

Matt Bevin Wants to Make Your Nana Pee in a Cup

OK, now I think Jack Conway has a chance against this asshole.  But never doubt the ability of DINO candidates to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Which is worse?  That Bevin didn't know Medicare covers everyone 65 and older, including rich white people?  Or that he backed off from his granny-pee plan after he found out it would affect rich white people?

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

During a debate between Republican Matt Bevin and Democrat Jack Conway at Centre College (Tuesday), Conway asked Bevin about his statement from April that recipients of Medicaid and Medicare should be drug-tested.

In April, Bevin said during a Louisville Tea Party forum that he supports random drug testing for recipients of both programs.

"I firmly believe we frankly should drug test people that are on Medicaid and Medicare," Bevin said at the time. "We just should."

During Tuesday night's debate, Bevin didn't back away from that call, saying "there should be expectation of you as somebody who is a recipient, or, as it's often referred to in this state, on the draw."

Conway interrupted Bevin to make clear that he was asking about Medicare and not Medicaid, to which Bevin responded: "Understood." Despite that, Bevin later argued that he was talking about Medicaid.

SNIP

Bevin spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said Wednesday night that "Matt does not support drug testing for Medicare recipients," adding that "what he said in April was a misstatement."

Hey, Matt:  Real libertarians want to get rid of Medicare along with every other government program, including air traffic control.  You're a coward.

Also, the new sign along I-64 next to Kentucky Democratic Party headquarters, the one Matty went crying to the building receptionist about? Twice?  It now reads:

"Matt: Next time bring your tax returns."

Can Matt Bevin Top NC Repugs on Fucking Over the Poor Just For Fun?

National repugs have pulled their money out of the Kentucky Governor's race, so Bevin's probably desperate.  But is he desperate enough to tell the truth about what he'll do as governor to turn Kentucky into Haiti?

Zandar:

Since GOP Gov. Pat McCrory took over North Carolina in January 2013 and Republicans gained complete control of the government, the NC GOP has cut jobless benefits back so far that the state no longer qualifies for federal unemployment dollars, they have eliminated the state's earned income tax credit for the poor, they have purged the state's regulatory commissions and filled them with McCrory cronies, they have ended medical school programs that taught abortion procedures, they have wrecked the state's public education budget, and implemented a regressive tax on repair and maintenance services.

At every turn, NC Republicans are continuing their crusade to smash the state's poor population and give as much money as possible to the wealthiest. And now, their hatred of the poor in the state is so all-consuming, that they are kicking people off SNAP benefits after three months even though the program is 100% funded by federal dollars and the state won't save a dime by doing it.

SNIP

People at this point in their lives would easily qualify for SNAP benefits federally, but NC Republicans are literally turning down federal tax dollars just to hurt the poor.

And they're going to go to college?  With what money, exactly?  They're still going to be poor, and these clowns know it.

No, this is just outright punishment of the poor,  It's what Republicans do.

It's Called "Politics," Matt

What is it with these Bro Faux Libertarians?  So thin-skinned, such Whiny-Ass Titty Babies. Warning to new moms: when you fail to teach your infants the meaning of "no," they grow up to be Matt Bevin and (shudder) Rand Paul.

Joe Gerth at the Courier:

The Kentucky Democratic Party said that Republican gubernatorial nominee Matt Bevin stopped by party headquarters Friday afternoon to complain to a receptionist about a marquee sign on Interstate 64 in Frankfort that said, “You still can’t trust Matt Bevin.”

Party spokesman David Bergstein said that Bevin came into the building’s lobby and began telling the receptionist about civility and then became agitated when speaking about the sign.

“You’not going to believe this,” said Bergstein. “Matt Bevin just came to our headquarters and yelled at our receptionist,” he said. 

Bevin’s campaign acknowledged that he went to the Democrats’ headquarters but gave vague answers to why he was there – but spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said, “There was no yelling.”

But was there the stamping of tiny feet and red-faced crying?

It was the second time Bevin stopped by the Democratic headquarters because of the sign. Earlier this month, he filmed a short video from the side of the road in which he sarcastically thanks the Democrats for featuring his name on the marquee and offering to have a company he owns replace the old sign with a a snazzy new LED sign.

They should take him up on it. Then program the sign to flash:

"Somebody change Matty's diaper; he's getting cranky./"

Matt Bevin Promises to Kill Thousands of Kentuckians

Yes, he is.  Because half a millions Kentuckians have health care now thanks to Obamacare and Medicaid expansion, and Bevin is swearing to destroy both.  That's premeditating murder of thousands of Kentuckians. Somebody arrest this motherfucker.

Think Progress:

Though it has been largely ignored by national media and pollsters, Kentucky’s November gubernatorial election could mean striking changes for the Bluegrass State. The nation’s most unlikely Obamacare success story — a state system that has provided more than 500,000 Kentuckians with affordable health insurance — might well be ransacked by a Tea Party candidate named Matt Bevin.

SNIP

But with Beshear term-limited, Bevin, the GOP nominee, has made it clear he wants to reverse course. The Tea Party-backed candidate vows he’ll do away with both the successful state exchange and the Medicaid expansion that has helped hundreds of thousands get affordable health care — moves that the governor could likely make unilaterally.

It’s a prospect that worries many state-based health experts, business groups, and public officials who spoke to ThinkProgress about the upcoming election and the state of Kentucky’s health care system. One of those officials was Beshear himself, who accused Bevin of playing politics with the hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians who now have insurance for the first time.

“It terrifies me,” Beshear said. “There’s over 300,000 [Kentuckians that are on expanded Medicaid], and Matt Bevin is just going to take it from every single one of them — just because he doesn’t like the fact that President Obama was the one that got it passed.”

Despite Kynect’s popularity and growing support among conservatives for the system, the most recent polls show Bevin locked in a tight race with current Attorney General Jack Conway (D), who has indicated he would continue the state’s current health care regime. So the questions are surely worth asking — who is Matt Bevin? And what would happen to Kentucky’s health care system if he won?

SNIP

Beshear hopes Bevin will not be his successor, in part because of his adamant and seemingly unwavering stance against Kynect. “It has nothing to do with the benefits or the arguments for or against it,” he said. “It’s just the fact that, who the president was at the time it was passed, makes him automatically against it. And that’s about as short-sighted as you can be. ”

But the end of Kynect is not some far-fetched possibility. The most recent data, a Public Policy Polling survey in June, showed Bevin leading Democratic nominee Jack Conway 40 to 38. With voter turnout typically low in “off-year” Kentucky elections, it is anybody’s guess who will succeed Beshear in January. For hundreds of thousands of people, that result could well determine whether they return to the ranks of the uninsured.

To his credit, Jack Conway is foursquare in support of both "kynect" and Medicaid expansion. But he is losing this race because he's running a campaign that is a carbon copy of how Alison Lundergan Grimes lost the U.S. Senate race last year by 15 points to the most hated man in the Commonwealth.

Bevin Hands Gov Race Conway, Who Will Piss It Away

Conway has already come out in favor of the get-out-of-having-to-do-your-job bill for county clerks; no way he'll attack Bevin for supporting one of them, even if it's Conway's only ticket to victory.

Zandar:

With two months to go before the election for governor here in Kentucky, Republican Matt Bevin has just thrown in his lot with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and the wrong side of history.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin rushed to defend Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis after she again refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday morning. 

Bevin also scolded Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, for failing to stand by the religious liberties of county clerks who oppose the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. 

“Jack Conway has failed to do his job as attorney general by refusing to defend Kentucky’s marriage amendment, and he is failing to defend the religious freedom of our Kentucky clerks,” Bevin said in a statement. 

The comments come amid an intense standoff at Davis's office where a gay couple sought to obtain a marriage license after the High Court rejected her last-ditch effort for a stay Monday. After a heated exchange between Davis and the couple, their attorneys filed a motion to find Davis in contempt of court for refusing to issue them a marriage license. 

In response, the Bevin campaign sought to tie Conway — who refused to appeal the initial federal ruling against the state's same-sex marriage ban last year — to the controversy in a series of Tweets. Bevin's campaign said the Democrat is refusing to defend the First Amendment rights of county clerks. 

"As attorney general, it's Jack Conway's job to defend the Constitutional rights of all Kentuckians, including county clerks," Bevin's Twitter account said.

I swear, for a while there I was afraid Matt Bevin wasn't this much of a moron.  He might actually find a way to lose this thing now.  If he had just said that this was a matter "for the courts" or "for the legislature" to deal with he could have gotten away with it.  It wouldn't be up to Bevin anyway to impeach and remove Davis from her office, and he doesn't make federal court decisions.

But by coming out squarely in the defense of an anti-gay bigot, Bevin has nowhere to hide now.  As Governor he'd be a national embarrassment to the Commonwealth, as it is we Kentuckians look like backwater hicks most of the time.

If Jack Conway can't find a way to bloody Bevin's nose over this and severely damage his campaign, then he's too incompetent for the job in Frankfort anyway.

The Tribble-Toupeed "Libertarian" thinks Davis is just the thing, too.

Will Matt Bevin Let Fracking Poison Mammoth Cave?

He's a repug bidness man full of anti-gubmint FREEDUMB.  Of course he will.

James Bruggers at the Courier:

Pushing a toxic mixture of natural gas liquids through an aging pipeline near Mammoth Cave National Park threatens the world-famous cave’s unique and fragile ecological systems, the National Park Service is warning.

“The National Park Service is concerned about the potential for a catastrophic failure of the ... pipeline” within areas designed to protect endangered cave shrimp and other rare park resources, park superintendent Sarah Craighead wrote recently in a letter to federal energy regulators.

The pipeline is 70 years old and was designed to carry a different product, natural gas, said Bobby Carson, chief of science and resource management for the park. “It’s been underground for a while” and may not be safe for carrying the liquids, which if spilled could damage the park’s rare natural resources, including a variety of endangered species, he said in an interview this week.

The proposal by Kinder Morgan to convert part of its subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. operations from carrying natural gas to moving natural gas liquids has stirred controversy all year along a 256-mile path through Kentucky, with citizen groups, environmental organizations and some local officials objecting. Many have asked for a full environmental study rather than the less extensive review now underway.

Yeah, it's a federal agency decision, but Bevin vows to defy the EPA on coal rules; why would he obey the feds on fracking?

Independent Curtis Unlikely to Affect KY Governor's Race

Repugs are going to hold their noses and turn out to vote for Bevin no matter how much they may hate him.  If Conway continues to pander to repugs who will never, ever vote for him or any other Democratic candidate, he'll chase away even more Democratic voters than repug-lite Alison did last year.

Disillusioned Democratic voters stay home; they don't go to the polls hoping to find a third option.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Digital entrepreneur Drew Curtis and his wife, Heather Curtis, paid $500 and submitted more than 9,000 signatures Monday morning to enter the race for Kentucky governor and lieutenant governor as independents.

The secretary of state's office said a few hours later that the husband-and-wife team from Versailles had submitted at least 5,000 valid signatures of registered Kentucky voters, as required by law, and therefore would appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The major party names on the ballot are Democrat Jack Conway and running mate Sannie Overly, and Republican Matt Bevin and running mate Jenean Hampton.

Tuesday is the deadline for independent candidates to enter the race.

Drew and Heather Curtis, both 42, are not the first married couple to run for the state's two highest elective offices. Steven Maynard and his wife, Bonnie, of Inez ran for governor and lieutenant governor in the 1995 Democratic primary. Paul Patton won the nomination.

The Conway campaign said it had nothing to say about the Curtis campaign. The Bevin campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

 Of course not.  Curtis is irrelevant.

Fifty Years of Voting Rights, and It's Just Getting Harder

Kentucky may not demand photo ID, but it still makes it next to impossible for anyone who works or doesn't have a car to get to the polls during the 12 hours on Election Day that is the only time you can vote.

And is Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, running for re-election, making easing Kentucky's voting restrictions part of her platform?  Is gubernatorial candidate Jack Conway or attorney general candidate Andy "I Shill for MotherFrackers" Beshear?

They are not.  Repugs with Ds next to their names, all of 'em.

Ed Kilgore:

Thursday is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And since said act was largely vitiated by a conservative majority of SCOTUS in 2013, and congressional Republicans have barely lifted any fingers to restore it, the president’s going to do everything possible to force voting rights into the national consciousness that day, and perhaps even into the GOP debate, as reported by The Hill’s Jordan Fabian:

President Obama will call for the restoration of the Voting Rights Act on its 50th anniversary Thursday, the White House said.

Obama will hold a teleconference to commemorate the landmark legislation and call for its renewal, following a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that voided one of its central provisions.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who rose to prominence in the 1960s as a civil rights leader, will participate.

The event will allow Obama to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans, many of whom argue some provisions of the 1965 law went too far. It will take place on the same day as the first GOP presidential primary debate.

Also in no coincidence, there's a new book out on voting rights.

In Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, journalist Ari Berman looks not just at the significance of this landmark civil rights law, but at what's happened to voting right in America since Lyndon Johnson signed the VRA in 1965.

Rolling Stone recently spoke to Berman about his new book, the trauma of the 2000 Florida recount and what the gutting of the VRA means for the upcoming presidential election.

Beshear Whines Like a Little Bitch About Weak-Ass New Coal Rules

If every ounce of coal vanished tomorrow, life in Kentucky would go on without a hiccup. Steve Beshear, Jack Conway, Matt Bevin, Mitch McConnell and every other Big-Coal-cock-gobbling politician in the state knows it.

Gov. Beshear’s Statement on EPA Rule Announced Today

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Aug. 3, 2015) – “I am extremely disappointed and frustrated by the huge changes the EPA made from the proposed rule. What is being proposed for Kentucky is disastrous – disastrous for our declining coal economy and equally disastrous for our very important manufacturing economy. The EPA claimed that it listened to the comments received on the proposed rule for the Clean Power Plan. It is clear from the emissions numbers the EPA has set for Kentucky that the agency did not listen to us. This rule leaves the Commonwealth with few, if any, alternatives to formulate a plan without significant harmful impact to rate payers, manufacturing companies and the overall economy.

Attorney General Jack Conway and I will continue to fight this onerous rule in the courts. During my entire term as Governor, I have remained steadfast in my support of Kentucky’s important coal and manufacturing industries, and the affordable energy and good jobs they provide the Commonwealth and the nation.

This is an extensive rule, and we will be meeting with stakeholders to assess its potential impacts. We will, however, continue to explore ways for Kentucky to comply with the rule should it become law, because we believe that a Kentucky specific plan would be better than a federal plan imposed on us.” – Gov. Steve Beshear.

Lies, motherfucking lies, and motherfucking liars lying about fucking their mothers.

Meanwhile in Reality World, here's Kevin Drum:

But Michael Grunwald isn't buying the hype. He's not impressed with Obama's plan to reduce power plant emissions 32 percent by 2030:

That’s nice, but by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the power sector’s emissions will already be down 15.4 percent from 2005 levels — about half the anticipated reductions in just a decade, and before the plan goes into effect. In other words, even under the strengthened plan, the rate of decarbonization is expected to slow over the next 15 years. What, did you think the strongest action ever taken to combat climate change would actually accelerate the nation’s efforts to combat climate change?

....If you’re really ranking them, the Clean Power Plan is at best the fourth-strongest action that Obama has taken to combat climate change, behind his much-maligned 2009 stimulus package, which poured $90 billion into clean energy and jump-started a green revolution; his dramatic increases in fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, which should reduce our oil consumption by 2 million barrels per day; and his crackdown on mercury and other air pollutants, which has helped inspire utilities to retire 200 coal-fired power plants in just five years.

Kevin thinks that's a little unfair, but generally agrees on the main point.

In the meantime, Grunwald is right to say that the new mandates aren't really all that tough. At the same time, the fact that we have any power plant mandates at all really is a big deal. Just setting the precedent that the federal government should regulate carbon emissions from power plants is a critical first step, and if it survives court challenges and congressional temper tantrums it will likely lead to further cutbacks in the future. And that's a big deal.

No. Outlawing all fossil fuel use starting yesterday would be a big deal. Anything short of that is sucking Big Oil cock while the oceans rise.

Conway Wins Fancy Farm; Bevin Disses Whole Event

It's hard to imagine a deeper insult to Kentucky's oldest and most revered political event than a candidate for U.S. Senate refusing to attend as AynRandy did, but Matt Bevin managed to top it.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

The annual political picnic here has long been a partisan battle of wits and one-liners, where the politicians trade barbs and laughs and the crowd eggs them on.

But apparently nobody told Matt Bevin, the Republican candidate for governor in the November election.

On Saturday, while Democrats, including gubernatorial nominee and attorney general Jack Conway, used their time on stage to remind voters of Bevin's rocky past as a politician, Bevin took the stage to decry the nature of the event and call for unity.

In a sharp departure from the theme of the picnic, Bevin said he was glad to be at the event, which primarily serves as a fundraiser for St. Jerome's Parrish, but said that the people there "literally are celebrating the very worst elements of the political process."

 Now that, my friends, is chutzpah.  Bevin, running on the repug ticketm, representing the party suffering from what Charlie Pierce calls a prion disease, and having run one of the dirtiest primary campaigns in state history against Mitch McConnell last year, pleading for bipartisan unity.  At Fancy Farm.

Matt Jones, host of Kentucky Sports Radio and the emcee of the event, approached the lectern after Bevin finished, noting how unusual the speech was.

"Matt I've got to give you credit, that was a strong speech, coming to Fancy Farm and saying you don't like Fancy Farm," Jones said. "It's like me going to Rupp Arena and saying Rick Pitino is a better coach than Calipari."

 For you non-roundball fans out there, that would be suicide.

But Conway was on-message, reminding voters that McConnell's campaign last year called Bevin an "East Coast con man" and a "pathological liar," noting the size of the crowd and saying, "normally he's got to go to a cockfighting rally to get a crowd this big."

Conway said that Bevin "lies to us about the big things and the small things (and) we can't trust Matt Bevin to look out for us."

Conway and the Democrats that followed talked about Bevin's New Hampshire upbringing, his history of tax liens and his attendance at a pro-cockfighting rally.

And that's exactly how it happened last year: Alison Lundergan Grimes gave a great Fancy Farm performance, as Youngman puts it , "on the way to a 16-point loss."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/01/3969995/at-fancy-farm-bevin-takes-an-unusual.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/01/3969995/at-fancy-farm-bevin-takes-an-unusual.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/01/3969995/at-fancy-farm-bevin-takes-an-unusual.html?sp=/99/164/#storylink=cpy

The Kansas Catastrophe Matt Bevin Plans for Kentucky

So, now that Jack Conway has conceded the Kentucky Governor's race by running the same repug-lite campaign that boosted Alison Lundergan Grimes to a 15-point loss against the most hated man in the Commonwealth, what are we likely to suffer under Governor Matt Bevin?

Give the repug piece of shit credit: he hasn't tried to hide it.  He's going to turn Kentucky into Sam Brownback's Kansas.

And what's so bad about that, you say? Just that in four years Sam Brownback managed to turn a functioning U.S. state into fucking Haiti.

From the Atlantic:

Kansas's Failed Experiment

The state's budget problems didn't go away after Governor Sam Brownback's reelection—they got worse. Will the lesson of tax-cuts-gone-awry give Republican candidates pause in 2016?

Russell Berman Apr 9, 2015

Surviving a tough reelection race, as Sam Brownback did in Kansas last year, can often be a cleansing experience for a governor. It should certainly bring relief. After all, Brownback managed to earn a fresh nod of support from voters despite a messy first term marked by a fiscal embarrassment of his own making.

Yet three months later, the humbling in the heartland goes on, much to the frustration of a Republican governor and one-time presidential contender who hoped to make Kansas the national emblem of conservative governance. Brownback's hard-fought victory on election day won him another four years, but it did nothing to fix the problem that nearly cost him his job: the state's finances. Kansas's budget has for months resembled a wallet with a hole in it—every time the state's bookkeepers peek inside, they find less money than the government thought would be there. Just a few days after the November election, the Kansas budget office revealed that revenue projections were off by more than $200 million, bringing the budget gap facing Brownback to $600 million in all.

The yawning deficit is widely blamed on the deep income tax cuts that Brownback, along with a Republican legislature, enacted during his first two years in office. They not only slashed rates, but more importantly, they created a huge exemption for business owners who file their taxes as individuals. By Brownback's own description, the tax plan was a "real live experiment" in supply-side economics, with the idea being that lower taxes would spur investment, create jobs, and refill Kansas's coffers through faster growth. Yet even under the most charitable analysis, revenue has plummeted much faster than the economy has expanded. 

"He’s lived and died by this philosophy, and it’s becoming more and more obvious that it is not going to be successful."

Now, Kansas's red ink has left the governor red- faced. Brownback is asking Republican state lawmakers to slow the income tax cuts over the next few years, raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, overhaul school funding, and divert money from the state's highway fund in order to balance the budget. It's not as if he's abandoning his conservative economic philosophy—he still wants to replace the state's income tax entirely with consumption taxes over time. And like any politician on the ropes, he is preaching patience. "These things take time," he said last month. He also acknowledged the toll his stumbles have taken on his image. "We're in Lent season, so I'm giving up worldly things, like popularity," he joked to a small crowd. Brownback has blamed the budget shortfall in part on automatic increases in education spending (a subject of a long-running court dispute), and he's cited a recent uptick in job growth as evidence that the tax cuts, on the whole, are working. "Kansas is on the rise, and the state of our state is strong," the governor proclaimed in an annual budget address in January.

 Oh, it gets worse. And it's getting even worse than that.