In the “what's shakin' and bakin’ in Kentucky” news, Congressman Ben Chandler, KY-6, lost his seat today on the powerful House Appropriations Committee when House Leader Boehner downsized the Appropriations Committee from 60 to 50 members. Kentucky Republican Hal Rogers, KY-5, will now take the Chairman’s seat on the Appropriations Committee.
Another Kentuckian, U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, this week became chairman of the House Appropriations Committee following many years on the panel — and billions of dollars in federal spending Rogers steered to his district. But that sort of benefit may be coming to an end, Chandler said.
"Frankly, it's not the worst Congress to lose it (an appropriations seat) because we're going to spend most of our time cutting budgets," Chandler said.
And not to be outdone in the surprise-of-the-day category here in Kentucky, Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson... who we expected to either run for a Senate seat (before Rand Paul ascended) or Governor... has just announced his resignation as Kentucky's Secretary of State to head to Harvard University. As of January 31, Grayson will become director of Harvard's Institute of Politics, located in Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Governor Beshear has already appointed Elaine Walker, mayor of Bowling Green and president of the Kentucky League of Cities, as the interim Secretary of State for the next 11 months.
As for the local news... with Kentucky’s legislature back in session... you don’t want to know. The Rebublican bozos in Frankfort are trying to outdo Arizona in the “Show me your papers” department... too much tea partyin’ will do that to ya’. Keith Olbermann had Kentucky’s Senate leader, David Williams, as his Worst Person in the World. Ol’ David is runnin’ for Guvnor so he’s burnishing his tea party credentials and cookin’ up some vile vittles.
And the Troglodytes reign supreme as they demand that pregnant women not only be required to pony up an ultrasound before an abortion, but the good doctor must turn that ultrasound into Brahm’s Lullaby and really really explain in minute detail all the whittle developments of the fetus.
So, bad news with Chandler, probably good news with Grayson. And Frankfort is 100 years behind civilized people and hopelessly dysfunctional.
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Now it’s on to the TOP COMMENTS OF THE DAY submitted from all you wonderful Kossack readers today in the Top Comments mailbox... TYVM to everyone who sent these excellent comments!
From va dare:
Who broke the Snark-O-Meter so early in the day? That would be Upper West with this comment: Don't you get it? in BruinKid's tribute to Colbert mocking Bill O'Reilley.
Kristina40 coined a twelve-word response to a passage in Meteor Blades' FP story: Job creation weaker than expected. Jobless rate falls to 9.4%. Her 12 word comeback evoked thousands more in a spirited discussion of methodologies used by economic analysts.
Loving me some logic-based discussion. Kudos to hannah for explaining That's
partly because "objectivity" has been (redefined). My mind quickly toted up long lists of events / evidence to support hannah's contention.
This one was actually posted on Thurs. 1.06, but I forgot to send it in. As a true newbie to DK4 who's been too busy to keep up, I really appreciated a thread started by WisePiper who neatly explained a widely-perceived flaw in DK4. It even got a reply from Our Favorite Big Orange Head (and no, I don't mean Boehner).
From jnhobbs:
I have long admired cskendrick and never more than after reading this comment in the flame-infested comment section of MinistryOfTruth's diary, Alan Grayson CALLS OUT Obama's Blue Dog Only Cabinet.
From sardonyx:
In georgia10's long-awaited return to Daily Kos, she writes an excellent diary about political campaigns and ignorance called The Wasteland. In the comments, slinkerwink writes about her experience in political campaigns and as a legislative assistant in the house.
jfromga reminds us to look at the underlying totals, rather than percentages, to figure out which voters we most need to win back for a Democratic victory in 2012.
priceman quotes an interesting report on how increasing income inequality is reducing the percentage of covered earnings that are taxable for Social Security, and argues for raising the cap on earnings to restore SS solvency.
In the front-page story by Meteor Blades, Public employees work for less, not more, porchdog1961 writes my dad worked for Atlantic Richfield.
From bronte17 [tonight's diarist]:
rasbobbo says humpty dumpty's the operative mindset and ain't it the truth... in this diary that you do not want to miss Throwing Sand in the Umpires Eye by Renzo Gasolini.
... if we don't use the CBO numbers as a starting point for all of us...whose numbers do we use for congressional debate and policy?
Good stuff.