Boy, Rand Paul is fitting in very nicely in the hypocritical Republican Party of Kentucky. You know, the Republican Party that is against any government spending unless of course that spending is going to Corporate Welfare for the greediest and least patriotic among us as they outsource our jobs and cut wages. In the case of Rand Paul, he wants to slash government spending except of course the government spending that has made him rich.
Here in my home state of Kentucky I have long watched in amazement as the voters of this state continually vote against their own interests. With the coronation tommorrow of "tea-party" candidate Rand Paul in the Republican primary, it only cements this point. You see, Paul and his tea-party backers want to "starve the beast" and slash the federal budget down to nothing. They want to do this because the Republicans here have convinced them that the very rich should not have to pay their taxes. The only problem with this approach is that many Kentuckians, including the "tea-baggers" are reaping handsome rewards from federal grants for needed programs.
Many of us have argued against the Iraq War for some time now and more of the cost and scope of the failure in that war is emerging as it begins to come to an end. At a time when America is debating whether to invest in it's own people or not, I think we should remember that a great many of the Senators that will be debating Universal Healthcare if they even vote to do that were all for the extended war in Iraq and the wasted money invested there.
Like many I was against the War in Iraq, but believed we had some business to conduct operations in Afganistan in a responsible way. Now, hundreds of billions and probably over a trillion dollars later it does not feel very warm and fuzzy to be proven right on Iraq, and on the "War on Terror" in general. It also does my ego no good to watch my party continue the failed initiatives of the worst president in American history.
As if we needed even more evidence of the failure of Kentucky's Congressional delegation which has included such visionless folks such as Mitch McConnell, Jim Bunning, Ed Whitfield, Geoff Davis, and Hal Rogers it has come across the wire. The consequences of their many years of rubber-stamping the failed Bush policies of spend, spend, and dole out Corporate welfare and de-regulation is now being felt.
After it was reported Sunday that many state employees it has spurned lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Stumbo to look into the policy, or lack thereof for state employees recieving overtime.
In this diary I detailed the "Kentucky Pork Kings" Ed Whitfield and Hal Rogers, who combined asked for $1 billion in earmarks, all while hypocritically lecturing the rest of us on the need to be "fiscally responsible". Now, some facts about some of this stir-fried pork requested by Rogers are emerging and they would be comical if it would not be straddling a small Kentucky city with added debt.
Kentucky has long been known for several things. One of them is racehorses. Another is tobacco. Yet another is coal. And what would a discussion about Kentucky be without a mention of Bourbon and Basketball??
We all remember the no-bid contracts we were so opposed to under the last administration. Now, it has long appeared that all the crimes committed on all levels in this fiasco will go unpunished. Although we are still far from punishing the lies and propoganda unleashed on the American people to start this war, after a court ruling hopefully at least part of the rampant fraud that will cost Americans well over a trillion dollars will be punished.
