Gov. Neutron Bomb Doubles Down; Blasts University of Louisville

He can cite all the KRS he wants; eliminating the entire leadership of one of the state's flagship universities is the act of an out-of-control dictator.

From the press release:

Gov. Matt Bevin today announced a reorganization of the University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees, as established by the provisions of KRS 164.821. This reorganization is subject to the approval of the General Assembly in 2017.

“There have been a number of incidents in recent months and years related to the University of Louisville that have shed less than the best of light on the University and the Commonwealth as a whole,” said Gov. Bevin. “The University’s Board of Trustees, as it exists right now, is operationally dysfunctional. Its dysfunction has precluded it from being fiduciarily effective. Today we are going to start putting the University of Louisville house in order. A fresh start is the right thing to do and is in the best interest of the students, faculty and staff.”

An interim Board of Trustees has been created by Executive Order to govern the University of Louisville as needed for the next two weeks until permanent appointments are made to the Board of Trustees.

Man, I can't wait to see the list of rich, white, male, freakazoid wastes of oxygen ol' Lying Coward appoints.

As for you, UK: toe the Bevin Billionaire line, or you're next.

Courier coverage here.

Letting the Fox Guard the Henhouse is Not Bipartisanship

Is there some kind of virulent bad appointments contagion going around?

Because President Obama is considering doing it again.

Sometimes I'm just rendered speechless, and this is one of those times. Natasha Chart via Sustainable Food at Change.org:

Obama's considering appointing a former Monsanto vice president, Mike Taylor, to head the Food Safety Working Group at the FDA.

As Jill Richardson writes at LaVidaLocavore at the link above, Taylor thinks the FDA wastes too much time on food safety inspections at meat packing plants. Further, he believes that one of their main problems is that they have to slow down their line speed too much.

Everyone who's read anything about the horrendous working conditions at US meatpacking plants knows that incomplete kills before slaughter and worker injuries increase dramatically when line speeds increase.

As also noted at the Ethicurean, Taylor is the reason milk from rBGH/rBST cows doesn't have to be labeled. Bovine growth hormone is perfectly safe, after all. Except for cows, or humans who drink its breakdown products in milk.

So yes, Mike Taylor is the person we have to thank for putting pus from mastitis-infected cows into the milk supply, and exposing milk-drinking Americans by the millions to greater cancer risks.

This guy is heading up a food safety working group.

I'm just swimming in the changeiness.

Kids, if you care about your food, you know what to do:

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
Or click here.

Monsanto, of course, is the company driving third-world farmers into destitution and starvation by selling them genetically-modified seed that cannot reproduce itself, forcing farmers to buy new seed every year instead of saving seed from each harvest.

The president might ask the organic vegetable gardening First Lady what she thinks of that.

Backwards Priorities

Two stories out of Frankfort this weekend perfectly illustrate how state government has its head up its ass on deciding what to preserve and what to destroy.

Franklin County is about to destroy a historic building to satisfy a state program to build giant ugly monuments to our lack of justice.

The church and its adjacent Good Shepherd School sit on Wapping Street in historic downtown Frankfort, just around the corner from the county courthouse that judges and officials say they outgrew long ago. The church, with its distinctive steeple, has been a signature of Frankfort's modest skyline and a keystone building in the historic district near the Kentucky River.

The steeple is depicted in several works of 19th-century artist Paul Sawyier, who lived in Frankfort.

And as Governor Beshear prepares to dismantle state services in the face of a depression, his second-biggest cabinet is proudly maintaining the tradition of creating unnecessary jobs for political cronies.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services created a $63,000 job earlier this year for a woman who had dated a key lawmaker who helps oversee the cabinet.

The political appointment was made in June, at a time when many front-line positions that serve the state’s most vulnerable citizens remained vacant.

It's bad enough that the state's personnel laws and regulations institutionalize seniority, requiring the dismissal of newer staff, no matter how exceptional, to keep staff who have been around longer, no matter how borderline.

But spending a week crying to the press about having to cut services while adding management layers takes arrogant malfeasance to a new level.

And where are all those downtown Frankfort business owners who bitch and whine nonstop about how nobody visits downtown? Do they really think yet another concrete eyesore full of accused criminals and their lawyers is more business-friendly than a historic church that draws tourists?

This budget crisis is an opportunity to examine our priorities and figure out what's really important to save and what's even more important to destroy.

Keep the church; dump the deputy.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.