Sigh. John McCain says our problems are "psychological".

Someone needs to get John McCain some BETTER talking points.

Republican Columnist Takes Party To Task, Advocates "A New 'Third Way' Alternative To Partsan Political Gridlock".

Courier Journal Columnist, John David Dyche, has penned a column where he takes his Republican Party to task for its aversion to taxes, not withstanding dire need. You can read the column here.

Some excerpts:

... Being anti-tax at the federal level is completely consistent with conservative, and constitutional, principles. The national government is supposed to be one of limited powers, but now grossly exceeds them. Its bloated bureaucracy poorly performs functions that under federalism, to which conservatives at least pay lip service, should be state responsibilities.

It is, therefore, perfectly consistent with conservative principles for one to advocate for smaller government and lower taxes in Washington, but at the same time support bigger government and higher taxes in Frankfort. Some, like state Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, nonetheless suggest that only ultra-liberals could back a budget containing a cigarette tax hike. ...

Kentucky formerly featured more philosophical diversity among its Republican politicians. Many will argue that is the very reason why the GOP was so long in the minority. Perhaps aggressively pairing an inflexible anti-tax stance with fundamentalist Christian positions on social issues is the key to a renaissance of Republican political success.

But nothing in the conservative intellectual tradition requires any such linkage. And little, if anything, in Kentucky's quality of life or future prospects proves that the commonwealth is better off because of it.

This stagnant state is in desperate need of a new "third way" alternative to its current partisan political gridlock. Pragmatic Republicans with the courage to reclaim real conservatism from the misguided ideology that has consumed it can point the way.

As many of you know, I have consistently said on the issue of "sin" taxes, that they do not bother this Conservative; and I have even gone far enough to defend Governor Steve Beshear's call for .75 cigarette tax, if the tax revenue generated thereby will be used to address issues associated with smoking.

And I have also consistently argued that we have too many in the Republican Party who are NOT REAL Conservatives, but who think that Conservatism means anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-tax.

Granted taxes should be imposed as a LAST resort, after spending is curtailed, and gay and abortion issues are equally important, but REAL Conservatism goes beyond those issues.

Sometimes, it is acceptable to raise taxes to address problems that CANNOT be addressed otherwise. If you think that just because the legislature doesn't raise your taxes, that you pay less, think again.

All forms of taxes are imposed on citizens in the benign or hidden form of INCREASED fees and costs.

A tax by any other name is STILL a tax, folks! Believe it or not.

So whether a "third [party] alternative" consisting of "pragmatic Republicans with the courage to reclaim real conservatism from the misguided ideology that has consumed it" is the panacea is open to debate.

You can guess on which side I stand should that debate take place.

John McCain Speaks The TRUTH To IDOTS, Says Barack "Obama 'Absolutely' Qualified To Be President".

Enough said.

John McCain is "absolutely" a REAL man, an AMAZING man of integrity.

And you know what the naysayers are, don't you?

T-R-O-U-B-L-E for John McCain: L-O-B-B-Y-I-S-T-S.

Read about it here.

Here's what now President Bush attacked him with in 2000:

Here we go -- again.

Read about it here.

It seems to me that we went through this once before. Let me think -- it had something to do with reading lips.

The Courier-Journal's Bob Hill "calls out" Kentucky on Abraham Lincoln. I say: Good for him!

Read the "calling out".

Here are excerpts:

Somewhere in Kentucky's mad bicentennial birthday rush toward further deification of Abraham Lincoln, it must be said his native state gave him just 0.9 percent of the vote in the pivotal 1860 presidential election that saved our nation and changed the world — as in 1,364 votes in a total of 146,216 cast.

You can — and should — look it up.

Lincoln was our greatest president. Yet the great fuss in celebration of his 200th birthday seems too much an exercise in public relations, bragging rights and tourist promotion — without enough honest history.

Three states now rightly claim Lincoln: Kentucky, where he lived his first seven years; Indiana, where he grew up, taught himself to read and write, and lived until he was 21; and Illinois, where he became a lawyer, got into politics — and returned in a flag-draped coffin as a martyred president.

Kentucky, of course, remained personally important to Lincoln — his wife, Mary Todd, was from here; John Todd Stuart, a Centre College graduate, got him started in law in Illinois; Louisville's Speed family welcomed him as a guest.

But that didn't mean Kentuckians ever wanted him to be president.

Let's begin this way-too-brief history in 1860 with Lincoln being chosen as the compromise Republican candidate for president. The party was only 6 years old, and formed in opposition to the immense political power of slave owners in the South.

Lincoln was then considered a "moderate" on slavery, and being from the "west" — Illinois — he appealed to that constituency. His first vice president — and you could win a bar bet on this one with 90 percent of our current populace — was Sen. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine.

Hamlin was chosen to balance the ticket. He didn't want the job, didn't even know he was a vice presidential candidate until some friends burst into a hotel card game to tell him he'd been selected. He was ignored by Lincoln in his first term, and dumped for the hopeless Andrew Johnson in his second.

Lincoln did not campaign prior to the 1860 election. His opponents in a nation horribly divided over slavery, state's rights and economic issues were John Bell, the Constitutional Union party pick from Tennessee; Stephen A. Douglas, the "Northern Democratic" pick from Illinois; and John C. Breckinridge, the "Southern Democratic" choice from Kentucky.

The Democrats were so divided — some things never change — they eventually required three conventions at two locations, one north and one south, to pick Douglas and Breckinridge.

Breckinridge, another Centre College graduate, would go on to become a Confederate general of Kentucky's famous "Orphan Brigade" of southern supporters, and U.S. vice president from 1856 to 1860.

So Kentucky could claim two of the four horses in the 1860 presidential race. The voter turnout nationwide was 81.2 percent. In Kentucky, Bell, a prosperous slave owner who was opposed to southern secession, got 66,058 votes. Breckinridge got 54,143 votes. Douglas received 26,651. Lincoln crept home with 1,364.

Lincoln carried both Indiana and Illinois in 1860, but received only 39.8 percent of the total national vote. It did give him 180 electoral votes — with 152 required to win.

In the 1864 election, Lincoln ran against Gen. George McClellan, whom he'd once appointed head of the Union Army. Lincoln, joining with the "War Democrats" in a "National Union Party," lost only three states — New Jersey, Delaware and, yes, Kentucky, where at least he received 30 percent of the vote.

The nation got his second inaugural address — with malice toward none and charity for all.

U. S. Senate Ethics Panel publicly admonishes Senator Larry Craig for his "toilet wide stance".

You can read the contents of the letter of admonition signed by all the panel members.

Social Conservative? I do NOT think so!