Saturday, April 26, 2014

Slow Saturday Special: Kentucky Cockfight

It's no place for a hen, although I guess Bill Clinton could come:

"The Republican candidate who is trying to unseat US Senator Mitch McConnell said it was ‘‘a bad idea’’ to outlaw cockfighting and that he ‘‘will not support it,’’ during a rally on March 29 in Corbin, according to a report by WAVE TV. The comments contradict Bevin’s earlier statements that he was speaking to the group about his Senate candidacy and that he did not know it was a rally to legalize cockfighting. Bevin later told the station he does not personally support cockfighting

The wimp went limp on it?

The disclosures come less than a month before the Republican primary. A spokeswoman for McConnell called Bevin an ‘‘East Coast con man’’ who ‘‘thought so little of Kentuckians that he pathologically lied to us about absolutely everything until an undercover camera caught him red-handed at a cockfighting rally.’’

Bevin bitten by Michael Vick syndrome?

"Mitch McConnell said job comment out of context" by Adam Beam | Associated Press   April 26, 2014

FRANKFORT, Ky. — US Senator Mitch McConnell said Thursday that his comments to a local newspaper that it is ‘‘not my job’’ to bring employment to a struggling Kentucky county were taken out of context.

For a story in the Beattyville Enterprise, McConnell was asked what he would do to bring jobs to Lee County, where the unemployment rate is 12.8 percent.

‘‘That is not my job. It is the primary responsibility of the state Commerce Cabinet,’’ the paper quoted McConnell in its story Thursday, which ran on the paper’s front page.

McConnell said in a statement Thursday that his comments were taken out of context.

‘‘It seems my message got lost in translation, and I was surprised to see a headline about my visit that sent the exact opposite message to the one I was trying to convey,’’ he said in the statement. ‘‘In my travels across the Commonwealth, I hear too often how government is blocking job creation. It’s up to all of us — at the federal, state, and local levels — to fix that.’’

Beattyville Enterprise editor Edmund Shelby said he stands by his story. ‘‘He said that, and I swear those were his words,’’ Shelby said. ‘‘If [Democratic US Senate candidate Alison Lundergan] Grimes would come to town, I would ask the same question.’’

Grimes wasted no time attacking McConnell for his comments to the newspaper and used the opportunity to tout her jobs plan that would, among other things, raise the minimum wage and invest in infrastructure. Grimes added that her top priorities as US senator would be ‘‘creating good-paying jobs for Kentuckians and growing our middle class.’’

‘‘It is reprehensible that Mitch McConnell believes that it is not his job to help Kentucky families who are struggling to make ends meet,’’ Grimes said in a statement provided by her campaign.

McConnell pointed out that he sponsored federal legislation last year with fellow Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, that would lower federal tax rates for areas that have high unemployment — a bill McConnell said would benefit eastern Kentucky. The bill has not become law.

‘‘Encouraging positive economic development and job growth is at the center of what I do every day,’’ McConnell said in his statement. ‘‘At the federal level I support policies to try to improve the economy as a whole, which in turn will help preserve and create Kentucky’s jobs. These efforts include supporting an end to President Obama’s war on coal and repealing job-killing Obamacare.’’

McConnell and Grimes are locked in one of the closest Senate races in the country in an election cycle where Republicans are trying to take control of the Senate.

Here is the book on thatClosing the Book on Liz Warren

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate who is trying to unseat McConnell said it was ‘‘a bad idea’’ to outlaw cockfighting and that he ‘‘will not support it.’’

Matt Bevin made the comments during a rally on March 29 in Corbin, according to a report by WAVE TV.

Asked if he would vote to legalize cockfighting, Bevin said: ‘‘Criminalizing behavior, if it’s part of the heritage of this state, is in my opinion a bad idea. A bad idea. I will not support it.’’

The comments contradict Bevin’s earlier statements that he was speaking to the group about his Senate candidacy and that he did not know it was a rally to legalize cockfighting. Bevin later told the station he does not personally support cockfighting.

‘‘What I stand behind is people’s ability to examine their First Amendment rights to speak about whatever they want to speak about,’’ he said.

Technically he is right; however, I can't believe he is trying to cloak this under the First Amendment.

The disclosures come less than a month before the Republican primary.

A spokeswoman for McConnell called Bevin an ‘‘East Coast con man’’ who ‘‘thought so little of Kentuckians that he pathologically lied to us about absolutely everything until an undercover camera caught him red-handed at a cockfighting rally.’’

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Speaking of cocks:

"Ky. jury says ex-priest should serve 15 years" Associated Press   April 18, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A jury says a former Catholic priest stricken with late-stage cancer should serve a 15-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a teenage boy at a Louisville church in the early 1970s.

James Schook’s lawyer urged the jury to give the former church leader a more lenient sentence, since the 66-year-old is terminally ill. A judge will make a final determination on Schook’s punishment May 30.

He will be frying in Hell soon.

Attorney David Lambertus said Schook has lived longer than was expected, so he may not have much time left. Lambertus had asked for a sentence that would allow Schook to seek parole in two years.

‘‘If you’re talking about time in someone’s life, I think it’s fair to say how much life is left there?’’ Lambertus told the jury Thursday morning.

Schook was convicted Wednesday of three counts of sodomy and one count of indecent or immoral practice with another, a felony that has a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison. The sodomy charges ranged from two to five years. The jury declined to convict Schook on a sodomy charge for the alleged abuse of a second teenage boy dating to the mid-1970s.

Prosecutor John Balliet said a 15-year sentence would be ‘‘very appropriate.’’ He told the jury that Schook’s health problems should not factor into punishment for the crimes he committed.

David Whitfield testified at the trial that he was 13 when he began a years-long sexual relationship with Schook. Whitfield was interested in becoming a priest, and he said the two often had sexual encounters in Schook’s room on church property.

Balliet said Schook took advantage of his position of trust with Whitfield.

‘‘He was supposed to be guiding Richard on the path to becoming a priest,’’ Balliet said. Instead, Whitfield learned ‘‘all the wrong things about a relationship.’’

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They do hard time in Kentucky, too:

"Kentucky inmate starves to death"  Associated Press   April 22, 2014

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A prison doctor has been fired and two other staffers are in the midst of being dismissed after an inmate at the Kentucky State Penitentiary starved himself to death, a case that has exposed lapses in medical treatment and in how hunger strikes are handled at the facility.

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James Kenneth Embry, 57, and with three years left on a nine-year sentence for drug offenses, began to spiral out of control in the spring of 2013 after he stopped taking antianxiety medication.

Seven months later, in December, after weeks of erratic behavior Embry eventually refused most of his meals. By the time of his death in January of this year, he had shed more than 30 pounds on his 6-foot frame and died weighing 138.

An internal investigation determined that medical personnel failed to provide him antianxiety medication that may have kept his suicidal thoughts at bay and didn’t check on him.

The internal review of Embry’s death also exposed broader problems involving the treatment of inmates — including a failure to regularly check them on medical rounds and communication lapses among medical staff. The probe led to the dismissal of Dr. Steve Hiland, the prison’s lead physician, who signed off on a nurse’s note about Embry consistently refusing food and being taken off of the hunger strike watch because he drank tea.

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