Did I Mention That 4 Ex Presidents Met For President George W. Bush's Library Inauguration?

President George W. Bush Opens His Presidential Library.

Words To Live By, Words Of Wisdom, And Words To Ponder For Patriotic Liberty Lovers Like Mysel.

Tyranny takes root once the people have been effectively disarmed.

--- Osi Onyekwuluje

Al-Qaeda's Job.

Newly Released Documents Shed More Light On Tommy Brown's Deadly Shooting Of Brandon Bradshaw.

FATAL SHOOTING OF BRANDON BRADSHAW 

 Documents paint picture of tragedy 

  Related Documents

  Bradshaw shooting court documents released
(Media outlets today received copies of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Brandon Bradshaw. A portion of those documents are provided here.)

Moments after Ashley Crowe witnessed one man shoot another Feb. 26 in a business parking lot on U.S. 31-W By-Pass, she was so shaken by what she saw that she drove to the Ford’s Furniture parking lot off Scottsville Road, vomited and called 911.
The shooting was the end result of a road rage incident between youth theater educator and former constable Brandon Bradshaw, 27, and off-duty Warren County Sheriff’s Office court security officer Tommy Brown. Both men were armed with handguns.

Brown had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, Kentucky State Police records show. Bradshaw did not have a concealed carry permit, according to Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron in comments he made during a March 27 news conference. Cohron did note that in the location where Bradshaw’s weapon was found Feb. 26, it would have been legal for him to have it there.

Crowe told state police that Bradshaw brandished a weapon at Brown. Then Brown pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired. Crowe remembers hearing two shots.

After filing an open records request with state police March 28, the Daily News on Thursday received a copy of the 190-page investigative file. The case was closed March 27 when a Warren County grand jury did not find sufficient evidence to charge Brown with any crime in the shooting that led to Bradshaw’s death March 2 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Records show that Brown fired his personal weapon three times, striking Bradshaw once in the left lower earlobe, right upper arm and right wrist area. If Bradshaw had lived, the gunshot to the lower left earlobe that penetrated the head and injured the spinal cord would have left him paralyzed, according to a statement a Tennessee medical examiner made to KSP Detective Brad Stevenson.

Two days after the shooting, Brown, in the presence of his attorney, told state police that on Feb. 26, Bradshaw had cut him off in traffic in front of Arby’s as he and his wife, Mindy, discussed what they should eat for lunch, according to the police file.

A verbal exchange

“Man, you almost hit me,” Brown recalled saying to Bradshaw, to which Bradshaw replied “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” Bradshaw then said an expletive and raised his middle finger, according to Brown’s statement in the case file. Bradshaw then drove his white Ford F-150 in front of Brown. Fearing that Bradshaw would stop suddenly in front of him, Brown said he moved to the left lane. Bradshaw slowed his truck next to Brown’s truck. Brown’s wife was smoking and had her window down. Brown yelled to Bradshaw, asking him if he was a constable. Bradshaw replied, “not anymore.”

Bradshaw’s truck still had the remnants of constable decals from the brief period he served as a Warren County constable. The truck also had an anti-meth decal.

Bradshaw said something like “pull over” and then said “I’m pulling over,” according to Brown’s statement in the case file. Bradshaw pulled into the Enterprise car rental parking lot. Brown told police he pulled into the parking lot of Michelle’s Consignment Boutique at 1135 U.S. 31-W By-Pass to turn around and head back to Arby’s.

At this point, Crowe saw the two vehicles pull into the respective parking lots. She was facing south in traffic on the bypass and was talking to her husband when she saw Brown’s truck stop suddenly in the consignment store’s parking lot as if it were about to pull back onto the bypass. Crowe saw a white truck, driven by Bradshaw, pull in behind Brown, according to the police records.

Brown got out of his truck and walked “abruptly” to Bradshaw’s truck, records show. Crowe said Brown was yelling and waving his hands in the air, and described Brown’s demeanor as “agitated.” Bradshaw rolled down his window. Crowe saw Brown pointed his finger in Bradshaw’s face.

Bradshaw attempted to open his door and Brown prevented him from doing so. Crowe then saw Bradshaw pull a gun from somewhere in his truck and point it in Brown’s direction, police records show. She recalled telling her husband “the man in the truck has a gun,” records show. Records show that police observed a semi-automatic handgun with a silver slide and black bottom housing in Bradshaw’s passenger side floorboard.

Crowe watched as Brown pulled his shirt up and retrieved a gun from his waistband. She noted that there appeared to be a struggle between the two men, and then she heard two shots. It appeared to Crowe that Brown’s arm was inside the cab of the truck when he fired the weapon. He then took two steps back and lowered his gun. She saw Bradshaw slumped over and bleeding with a hole under his left ear.

Witness accounts vary

Crowe appears to be one of five witnesses who testified during a Warren County grand jury meeting that began March 26 and ended March 27. The no true bill in the case file identifies five witnesses – KSP Sgt. Jaman Childers, Detective Chad Winn, and three others identified only by their initials, G.H., A.C. and S.M. The case file shows that the only civilian witnesses with those initials were postal carrier Gary Heffelfinger, Crowe and Walgreens employee Shane McCreery.

While Bradshaw told police that he remained calm throughout the incident and never lost his temper, two witness accounts seem to conflict with his self assessment.

Crowe described Brown’s demeanor as “agitated.” She recalled Brown waving his empty hands through the air and yelling something. McCreery said both Brown and Bradshaw were operating their vehicles in a “reckless” manner and that Brown passed McCreery and crossed in front of him from the left lane to the right abruptly into the consignment store lot, causing McCreery to hit his brakes to avoid hitting Brown’s vehicle. McCreery was on his way to work at the pharmacy.

McCreery saw Brown get out of his truck, slamming the truck door. He told police that Brown seemed “hostile in his body language” and appeared to be yelling something when he came to the front of Bradshaw’s vehicle, records show. Both witnesses noted that Brown’s hands were empty when he approached Bradshaw.

Heffelfinger, who was parked in a lot across the street from the shooting, did not see Brown approach Bradshaw. He told police that he heard the first gunshot, ducked down and spun around in the direction of the bypass and saw a man in a gray sweatshirt fire another time. He saw Bradshaw lean away with his face looking at Brown, and Brown walked up, immediately put the gun within six inches of Bradshaw’s head and shot him. Heffelfinger recalled three distinct gunshots.

Heffelfinger then saw the shooter (Brown) pull his wallet out and show it to women standing in the window of the consignment shop. Heffelfinger thought that the shooter “must be a police officer,” according to police records.

After the third shot, Heffelfinger saw a woman – Brown’s wife – get out of Brown’s truck. He said that Brown said something to her, but he couldn’t hear what was said. According to Brown’s account, he instructed his wife to call 911. Records show that Mindy Brown did call 911.

Medical help delayed

While Brown sat injured in his truck, ambulance personnel left to answer the call that first came across the emergency radio as a shooting at nearby Taco Bell and was then updated to a shooting at the consignment store, according to statements made to police by Jim Williams, field operations manager of EMS for The Medical Center.

The first emergency medical truck arrived seconds before Williams did. Williams met with his crew to see if they knew anything about the scene. He noted a couple of sheriff’s deputies on the scene as well as several Bowling Green Police Department officers, all walking around. Williams assumed that there had been a robbery or a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the business and that police were securing the firearm before allowing emergency medical personnel to approach.

After waiting there at least for a minute to 2 minutes, he noticed civilians inside the store and thought that was unusual. He also noticed that the movements of the city officers didn’t seem to indicate that there was still an immediate threat. Williams saw BGPD Capt. Terrell Sharber standing in the road and yelled for him. Williams asked Sharber if the scene was secured and if EMS could check on the patient. Sharber checked with someone and then told EMS it was OK to check on the patient. As EMS personnel approached the vehicle, a second BGPD officer said he knew they had to check on the patient but asked them to be mindful of the crime scene.

After talking to Sharber, Williams said that given information that EMS crews received from their dispatch, city police, sheriff’s deputies and seeing the wound, they were under the impression that their patient was deceased and they were there to confirm death. After Williams saw the wound, he reached the same conclusion.

He stared at the victim’s chest for about 20 seconds to see if Bradshaw was breathing. He sent an EMT to retrieve a cardiac monitor. He felt Bradshaw’s neck and found a pulse. At that point, the emergency crew began to work on Bradshaw and get him out of the truck.

Other EMS personnel also recalled waiting anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute before BGPD gave them access to Bradshaw, KSP records show. One unidentified officer told EMS worker Justin Reesy, after about 30 to 45 seconds of waiting, that Bradshaw was “10-7” – the 10-code for deceased.

When directly asked if EMS crews were denied access to Bradshaw, EMS worker Christie Quinn told KSP that they were denied access.

BGPD spokesman Officer Ronnie Ward said the department is looking into the matter.

“We have been made aware of the statements made by ambulance personnel, and we are looking into the validity of those statements,” Ward said. “At this point in time, we’ve not been able to determine if there was a breakdown in communication. However, if there is a problem, we will take all actions necessary to correct it.”

There was no toxicology report in the investigation file on either man.

Brown, who was a part-time sheriff’s office employee and was retired from Bowling Green Municipal Utilities, has since resigned his position, Sheriff Jerry “Peanuts’ Gaines said Thursday. Brown was not facing disciplinary action nor was he asked to leave, Chief Deputy Tommy Smith said.

Barbara Bush On Her Son Jeb Running For President: We've Had Enough Bushes In The White House. I'm Sure Many Will Respond: Amen, Sister. Watch Video.

The GOP. I'm ROFLMAO!

Some Richie Farmer Events On Federal Court Day. Watch Video.

CONgress As Chechen Littles.

As Expected, Federal Grand Jury Indicts Richie Farmer On Multiple Felony Charges.

Farmer indicted on felony fraud charges  

The attorney for former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said Monday his client will plead not guilty to felony charges of misappropriating state funds.J. Guthrie True told reporters in Frankfort on Monday that Farmer is not in custody and will appear in court for his arraignment April 30.

In an indictment unsealed Monday, Farmer was charged with four federal felony counts of misappropriating state funds and one count of soliciting goods.

The former state basketball icon was the state's agriculture commissioner from 2004 to the end of 2011. The indictment charges him with using his state position to obtain thousands of dollars' worth of gifts, hotel rooms, clothing and computers. It also charges him with hiring friends who did little or no work for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
"Throughout his tenure, Farmer wrongfully used public funds and KDA resources to obtain goods and services for himself and his family," the 13-page indictment said.

If convicted on all counts, the 43-year-old Farmer faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
True said he was "disappointed but not surprised by today's indictment."
At a news conference in Frankfort, True said he and his client were aware of "the plan to indict Richie for several weeks now."
True said he viewed the federal indictment as "a dangerous precedent," saying the issues raised in it are state matters.
"The manner in which the elected commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture conducts his business is a political, not a legal, issue," he said.

U.S. attorney Kerry Harvey declined to say if others may be indicted in the case.
"The investigation continues, and I wouldn't speculate about the course that that might take," Harvey said.

Along with the criminal charges, federal prosecutors want Farmer to give up $450,000 in either cash or assets.
Farmer, a homegrown athlete from impoverished Clay County, remains one of the biggest names for fans of one of the country's most successful college basketball programs. He was a shooting guard for the University of Kentucky's Wildcats basketball team from 1988 to 1992, a team known as "The Unforgettables."
His jersey hangs in the rafters of Rupp Arena alongside those of Dan Issel, Pat Riley, Kenny Walker and Sam Bowie.

Farmer had been a rising star within the Kentucky GOP until a 2011 unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor on a ticket with Republican state Senate President David Williams. They lost overwhelmingly to incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear.

In March, Farmer was charged with 42 Kentucky ethics violations, a state record.
The indictment, which was handed up Friday, said Farmer used an account that included state funds to purchase an excessive amount of gifts for visiting state agriculture commissioners for a 2008 national conference. The indictment alleges he kept the gifts that were left over.
"For the thirteen commissioners who attended the 2008 (Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture) conference (a number that included Farmer), the KDA ordered twenty-five customized Remington rifles, twenty-five rifle cases, fifty-two embossed Case knives, and fifty personalized cigar boxes," the indictment says. "... For the approximately thirty-nine KDA employees who worked at the conference, the KDA ordered 175 customized watches. Following the conference, Farmer misappropriated and took possession of the excess `gifts' for his personal use."

The grand jury also accused Farmer of using agriculture department funds to benefit his family and friends, including naming at least three people as "special assistants" who did little or no work for the department.
Farmer directed the "special assistants" to perform personal tasks for him on work hours, including building a basketball court at his home, installing flooring in his attic and organizing his personal effects, according to the indictment.
Farmer approved the salaries and overtime of the assistants who performed the work, the grand jury said. One of these assistants was Farmer's girlfriend, the indictment alleges.

Farmer is also accused of having Agriculture Department employees drive him on personal errands, babysit his children, mow his lawn and transport his dog.
On the solicitation count, the grand jury alleged Farmer in 2009 accepted an unnamed "thing of value" from a motor vehicle dealership in Whitley County in exchange for a state grant.

Editor's note: Read the 13 page indictment.

Also, read the state ethics charges against Richie, and the audit report, which started everything rolling.

GOP Must Work For Black Vote.

Leonard Pitts | GOP must work for black vote

Written by Leonard Pitts

Rand Paul did just fine at Howard University, thank you very much. Or at least, that’s how he remembers it.
Paul, GOP senator from Kentucky, told the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday that his recent visit to Howard didn’t go so badly at all. He said any perception to the contrary was created by — all together now — the “left-wing media.”

Knowing what we do about the political right’s capacity for self-deception, we may trust that he’s telling it like it is — or at least, telling it like he believes it to be.
But reality-based Americans know it wasn’t left-wing media that insulted students at the historically black school by acting as if a visit to their campus was like a visit with headhunters. “Some have said that I’m either brave or crazy to be here,” Paul said, somehow resisting the urge to add, “Me come-um in peace.”

And it wasn’t left-wing media that lied to those students. “I’ve never wavered in my support for civil rights or the Civil Rights Act,” claimed Paul who, in fact, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in 2010 that the act overreached in telling private businesses they could not discriminate against black people.
It wasn’t left-wing media that told those students, “I want a government that leaves you alone,” somehow neglecting the fact that, had government left their grandparents alone, those kids would still be legally required to feed their money into the colored-only slot of the Coca-Cola machine.

Finally, it wasn’t left-wing media that condescended to those students, at one point telling them, “If I were to have said, ‘Who do you think the founders of the NAACP are?’ would everyone in here know they were all Republicans?”
“Of course they would,” one woman grumbled.

Indeed. Any first-year history student would know that. But they’d also know the Republicans are not the same party now that they were prior to 1968, when they essentially traded ideologies with the Democrats and inherited from them all those disaffected white Southern voters who were mortally offended by the aforementioned Civil Rights Act and its sequel, the Voting Rights Act.

 And would someone please tell Paul and any other Republicans planning “outreach” to African-Americans that if you must go back 104 years (the NAACP was founded in 1909) for examples of solidarity with black folks, it kind of illustrates the problem?

For decades, the Democratic Party has commanded the African-American vote. Yet, the Obama phenomenon aside, this dominance seems not to reflect love for the party so much as the fact that the Democrats are all that is left once the GOP has effectively removed itself from contention.

But let the record show that, as Paul had to reach back to 1909 to show solidarity with black folks, the Democrats themselves are still living on the 50-year-old fumes of Lyndon Johnson’s legacy. So there is no reason the GOP cannot command a portion of the black vote.

To do that, it must repudiate its own recent legacy of bigotry. Stop acting as if going to Howard University is like traveling into the rain forest. Stop trying to repeal the Voting Rights Act. Stop trying to repeal the 20th century. Stop expecting a ticker-tape parade for things that happened before movies had sound.
And begin to provide much-needed leadership on issues urgent to African-American voters in the here and now. For instance, mass incarceration, the failed drug war, the achievement gap and job discrimination.

In a word: compete.

That, after all, is how the Democrats broke the Republican stranglehold on the African-American vote in the first place. It would be nice — it would create a healthier nation — if Republicans returned the favor.

Unfortunately, Paul’s performance at Howard suggests that we ought not hold our breath while we wait.

Joseph Gerth | Former Kentucky basketball legend Richie Farmer followed wrong game plan

A federal grand jury in Lexington will likely soon write the final, sad chapter in the troubled political career of a Kentucky legend.
The grand jury is looking into the actions of former Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, the University of Kentucky basketball fan favorite who just a few years ago looked like he was destined to turn his star power into a long, successful political career.

It may have been a sense of entitlement that comes with an uncanny ability to put an orange ball through an 18-inch hoop from the time he was in middle school and then being the most beloved player on the state’s most celebrated college basketball team.

It could have been that he just couldn’t tell right from wrong and didn’t have the people who would tell him when he was screwing up — or that he wouldn’t listen to them when they did.
Whatever it was, Farmer’s wrongdoing has resulted in a record 42 findings of ethics violations against him, findings against employees and even a finding against his sister, Rhonda Monroe, who was placed on leave from her job at the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Those violations could cost him $210,000.

What did he do?

He allegedly used state employees to mow the lawn at his home, build a basketball court in his back yard, take him shopping and hunting and even chauffeur his dog.
Farmer took home guns that were purchased for attendees of a conference in Kentucky, he hired a girlfriend to a $5,000 per month job for which she rarely showed up and did little work, and he kept a compact refrigerator at his home that was purchased by the state.

Some of those actions could result in federal corruption charges against him.
It really didn’t have to be that way, if only Farmer could have learned to survive on the constitutional officers’ $113,616 per year salary without extra perks he allegedly created for himself, he could have spent decades bouncing around the minor constitutional offices.
He got more votes than anyone on the ballot in other than Ernie Fletcher in 2003 and more votes than anyone when he ran for reelection in 2007.

The only reason he is back home in Clay County, selling cars at last report, is that he ran for lieutenant governor in 2011 on a ticket with former Senate President David Williams, whose personal approval ratings were toxic.
In touring the minor offices, maybe he could have spent eight years as treasurer, eight years as secretary of state and another eight years back in the agriculture commissioner’s office. With that, he could have retired with a generous retirement package.

Yes, Farmer, a Republican, could have been the next Frances Jones Mills.
Mills won her first statewide office in 1971 when she became clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and went on to win two terms as secretary of state and three terms as state treasurer.

But the story doesn’t end there.

See, Jones, a Democrat, lost her last race for office under the cloud of an ethics investigation.
She was the first person found guilty under Kentucky’s ethics law after an investigation found she had accepted Kentucky Derby tickets at no cost from a bank with a state contract, failed to report the Derby tickets and New York trips she received from banks, made personal use of a state storage room and required her employees to perform personal errands for her.
Mills also was found to have violated the ethics law by directing one of her Treasury Department employees to speak to another about forgiving a $5,100 campaign debt.
So, in a way, it seems that Farmer did become Mills. It’s just unfortunate for him that he that he followed in her ethical, rather than political footsteps.

Joel Pett Picks On GOP Again.

Words Of Wisdom, And Words To Ponder.

"If the president alone was vested with the power of appointing all officers, and was left to select a council for himself, he would be liable to be deceived by flatterers and pretenders to patriotism."

--Roger Sherman, 1789

White Clergy BELATEDLY Respond To Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, Morally Superior "Letter From Birmingham Jail".

The Rev. Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham jail gets formal pastoral response

After 50 years, church group acknowledges wisdom of civil rights leader's criticism

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., above right, and the
Rev. Ralph Abernathy are released in 1963 after
spending eight days in jail in Birmingham, Ala. 

Bernice A. King attends the unveiling of a historic marker Tuesday in front of the Birmingham, Ala., jail where her father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was held. 

Fifty years ago this week — this awful week of violence and terror — a nonviolent campaign for civil rights was building toward crisis in Birmingham, Ala.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was in jail for demonstrating without a parade permit in a bid to desegregate the city’s stores and other institutions.

King was indignant over an open letter by local white clergy — including Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist bishops, a rabbi and Presbyterian and Baptist pastors — urging King to cease the protests and instead use patient negotiation and legal action.

King replied with a handwritten letter that became a classic articulation of the philosophy and theology of civil disobedience.
“I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate,” King wrote. “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who … prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”
No one can “paternistically set the timetable for another man’s freedom,” King wrote. “… Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”

King’s letter went viral — by 1963 standards — which means it spread in the coming weeks through publications such as the Christian Century magazine.
Meanwhile, the nation was horrified to watch images of child protesters assaulted with police dogs and firehoses. Birmingham was ultimately desegregated, and the movement’s momentum helped lead to passage of the landmark Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts.
The group Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. — representing three dozen Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox denominations — gathered in Birmingham this past Sunday and Monday to mark the letter’s 50th anniversary.

And since it was a letter from pastors that prompted King’s letter, the group decided it needed to issue a formal pastoral response to it.
Louisville Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz took part in the ceremony, representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as its vice president.
“Letters deserve a response, and in fact, some demand one,” Kurtz said. “… This letter, which is rich in foundations of scripture and human philosophy, direct, and prophetic, gave a rationale for strong action as well as marching orders for the steps we must follow.”

Kurtz said King correctly “uncovered the words of St. Thomas Aquinas that the unjust law is ‘the human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law’ and so is, as Dr. King says, ‘out of harmony with the moral law.’ ”
Kurtz, recalling that he was 16 years old and taking his seminary entrance exam in his native Pennsylvania at the time of the protests, said he sees King’s “response as true wisdom, whose time had long since come.”

Christian Churches Together issued a statement saying that while much has changed since 1963, including the dismantling of segregationist laws, racial disparities persist in such things as rates of poverty, illness and incarceration.

“Segregation is no longer the law, but a form of it is experienced as a fact of life for many Americans, as we reside, are educated, work, and worship in largely homogenous settings,” it says. “While African Americans seldom now face the open expressions of vicious racism endured by Dr. King’s generation, they feel the downward tug of persistent undercurrents of racial prejudice and misunderstanding. ...

“As church leaders, we confess we have tended to emphasize our responsibility to obey the law while neglecting our equal moral obligation to change laws that are unjust in their substance or application. … We confess that we often prefer stability to upheaval, even when upheaval is the necessary precondition for the establishment of justice.”

MEANWHILE, MARK SANFORD SEEKS SOUTH CAROLINA VOTES! LOL.

We Salute ALL Our Boston Heroes, For These Are Indeed Times That Try Men's Souls.

How Liberals See The Senate Vote On The Failed Gun Grab Bill.

Marlene Davis Claims "Rand Paul Wasn't Talking To Blacks At Howard University Speech, He Was Only Planning To Run For President". Do You Agree?

Merlene Davis: Rand Paul wasn't talking to blacks at Howard University speech

• 

By Merlene Davis

A lot of white people have said to me recently that Republican Sen. Rand Paul should get kudos for visiting Howard University and talking with a majority black audience.
The number of folks telling me that made me think something was wrong with me. I didn't see Paul's visit that way.
Why wouldn't, and shouldn't, a U.S. senator talk to a group of young, intelligent, black college students? Aren't they Americans?

Did Paul simply deserve credit for talking with a group that may not agree with him? President Barack Obama does that frequently. Obama spoke with a group of CEOs who have serious disagreements with his efforts to raise their taxes. He has addressed Congress and received a "You lie!," for his efforts.
I didn't quite understand why I should applaud Paul's visit anymore than I should gush over my husband picking up a broom now and again.

In his talk, Paul said today's Republican Party is essentially the same party Abraham Lincoln belonged to. Today's Republicans are the same as those of the 19th century who helped end slavery.
In essence, he said to those students that they should understand that when today's Republicans reach out to them, black people should joyfully clasp the hand that brought them freedom 150 years ago.
Democrats, Paul said, were the bad guys back then, and that's true. A majority of black voters once were Republicans. My father was a Republican. But black voters began leaving that party when integration fell out of favor with the party of Lincoln.
Paul knows that.

In the 1950s and 1960s, southern Democrats, who were demanding the right to remain segregationists, were rebuffed by northern Democrats for that stance. Those Democrats then fled to the Republican Party, where they found a welcoming home.
They were lured by that party's "Southern strategy," which was in direct opposition to federal policies regarding civil rights. So those segregationists became Republicans, changing how that party was perceived by black people, who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats during the past election.
Paul knows that.

So when Paul decided to give those bright students a history lesson that left decades of issues out of the discussion, I began to wonder why our senator had gone there in the first place.
He said he was there to try to get them to look at Republicans differently. Republicans really need to reach out to minorities, he said. That's true. But I don't think that's why he was there.

And then it came to me.
Yesterday, while speaking at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Paul said he is considering a presidential campaign in 2016. Such a move had been rumored, but now Paul has put it out there for all to see.
"I want to be part of the national debate," Paul said. "Whether I run or not, being considered is something that allows me to have, I think, a larger microphone. We're considering it."

That's why he went to Howard. His talk wasn't to persuade black students to give Republicans a second look. His talk at Howard was to give white students a chance to see him as magnanimous.
He had to have known that black people remember the longstanding racist and homophobic beliefs that his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, used to publish in his newsletters.
He had to have known that those black students would remember his recorded statements that businesses should be allowed to discriminate.

He wasn't there for black people. He was there to win some of the white votes that Obama had snagged from soccer moms disenchanted with the Republican desire to dictate what happens in their vaginas. He was there to convince those white people that he isn't such a bad fellow, really, and that they "should pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
He went to Howard because he is planning to run for president. How better to get the "larger microphone" than to go where other conservatives fear to tread?
That's why I can't give Paul credit for talking to black people. He wasn't really talking to them.

Senate Fires First Shot And Rejects Gun Bill, President Barack Obama Denounces Result.

Rand Paul: Obama Using Newtown Families As "[Gun Debate] Props".

Fox News.

As I Predicted, U. S. Supreme Court Rules Law Enforcement MUST Obtain A Warrant Before Drawing Blood Sample From A Driver Suspected Of Driving Drunk.

Check out the case here.

As an avowed Liberty Lover, I greatly applaud the near unanimous opinion of the court. as wise Justice Sonya Sotomayer told it:

"But the fact that people are “accorded less privacy in . . . automobiles because of th[e] compelling governmental need for regulation,” California v. Carney, 471 U. S. 386, 392 (1985), does not diminish a motorist’s privacy interest in preventing an agent of the government from piercing
his skin".

Concluding she states:  "We hold that in drunk-driving investigations, the natu­ral dissipation of alcohol in the bloodstream does not con-stitute an exigency in every case sufficient to justify

conducting a blood test without a warrant."

Yes, indeed!

Richie Farmer Faces Grand Jury, Indictment Expected.

Attorney: Grand jury meets Friday on Richie Farmer

Richie Farmer, a Kentucky basketball icon turned politician, will be the subject of a federal grand jury probe, his attorney said Wednesday.
Farmer, a former Agriculture Commissioner, has not been called to testify before the grand jury Friday but several former agency employees were subpoenaed, attorney Guthrie True said. It's not clear what the grand jury will be looking at.

Farmer has previously been accused of ethics violations during his time at the ag department.
True said he was preparing for an indictment.
"I'm going to be real disappointed if that happens, but, given what I'm beginning to hear, I'm concerned that it's going to happen," True said.
True said Farmer acted appropriately and ethically during his eight-year stint as agriculture commissioner.
Kyle Edelen, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, declined to comment.

Farmer's popularity as the shooting guard for a University of Kentucky team dubbed "The Unforgettables" catapulted him into elected office a decade ago. The homegrown athlete from impoverished Clay County remains one of the biggest names in one of the country's most successful college basketball programs. His jersey hangs in the rafters of Rupp Arena alongside those of Dan Issel, Pat Riley, Kenny Walker and Sam Bowie.
Farmer served two terms as ag commissioner. He lost a bid for lieutenant governor in 2011, in part because of the brewing ethics scandal.

The Executive Branch Ethics Commission, a state agency that investigates ethics allegations involving government officials, charged Farmer last month with 42 ethics violations. The charges included accusations that Farmer gave jobs to friends, had state employees build a basketball court on his property and gave state-purchased laptops to his family members.

One charge alleged he spent more than $30,000 to take visiting agriculture commissioners to Churchill Downs to watch horse races. Another accused Farmer of directing government employees "to chauffeur the family dog" from Louisville to his home in Frankfort.
The charges, which are still pending, came nearly a year after a scathing state audit characterized the agriculture department under Farmer as "a toxic culture of entitlement."
If the commission finds Farmer guilty of the ethics charges, he could face fines of up to $210,000.
The ethics commission and auditor had turned over their findings to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
Farmer is currently a car salesman in Manchester.

Taxing Only The Poor -- And Middle Class.

A Tax System Stacked Against the 99 Percent

Capital Gains Tax, Income Inequality, Income Tax, Taxation

LEONA HELMSLEY, the hotel chain executive who was convicted of federal tax evasion in 1989, was notorious for, among other things, reportedly having said that “only the little people pay taxes.”
As a statement of principle, the quotation may well have earned Mrs. Helmsley, who died in 2007, the title Queen of Mean. But as a prediction about the fairness of American tax policy, Mrs. Helmsley’s remark might actually have been prescient.
Today, the deadline for filing individual income-tax returns, is a day when Americans would do well to pause and reflect on our tax system and the society it creates. No one enjoys paying taxes, and yet all but the extreme libertarians agree, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, that taxes are the price we pay for civilized society. But in recent decades, the burden for paying that price has been distributed in increasingly unfair ways.

About 6 in 10 of us believe that the tax system is unfair — and they’re right: put simply, the very rich don’t pay their fair share. The richest 400 individual taxpayers, with an average income of more than $200 million, pay less than 20 percent of their income in taxes — far lower than mere millionaires, who pay about 25 percent of their income in taxes, and about the same as those earning a mere $200,000 to $500,000. And in 2009, 116 of the top 400 earners — almost a third — paid less than 15 percent of their income in taxes.

Conservatives like to point out that the richest Americans’ tax payments make up a large portion of total receipts. This is true, as well it should be in any tax system that is progressive — that is, a system that taxes the affluent at higher rates than those of modest means. It’s also true that as the wealthiest Americans’ incomes have skyrocketed in recent years, their total tax payments have grown. This would be so even if we had a single flat income-tax rate across the board.

What should shock and outrage us is that as the top 1 percent has grown extremely rich, the effective tax rates they pay have markedly decreased. Our tax system is much less progressive than it was for much of the 20th century. The top marginal income tax rate peaked at 94 percent during World War II and remained at 70 percent through the 1960s and 1970s; it is now 39.6 percent. Tax fairness has gotten much worse in the 30 years since the Reagan “revolution” of the 1980s.

Citizens for Tax Justice, an organization that advocates for a more progressive tax system, has estimated that, when federal, state and local taxes are taken into account, the top 1 percent paid only slightly more than 20 percent of all American taxes in 2010 — about the same as the share of income they took home, an outcome that is not progressive at all.
With such low effective tax rates — and, importantly, the low tax rate of 20 percent on income from capital gains — it’s not a huge surprise that the share of income going to the top 1 percent has doubled since 1979, and that the share going to the top 0.1 percent has almost tripled, according to the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Recall that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans own about 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, and the picture becomes even more disturbing.

If these numbers still don’t impress you as being unfair, consider them in comparison with other wealthy countries.
The United States stands out among the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the world’s club of rich nations, for its low top marginal income tax rate. These low rates are not essential for growth — consider Germany, for instance, which has managed to maintain its status as a center of advanced manufacturing, even though its top income-tax rate exceeds America’s by a considerable margin. And in general, our top tax rate kicks in at much higher incomes. Denmark, for example, has a top tax rate of more than 60 percent, but that applies to anyone making more than $54,900. The top rate in the United States, 39.6 percent, doesn’t kick in until individual income reaches $400,000 (or $450,000 for a couple). Only three O.E.C.D. countries — South Korea, Canada and Spain — have higher thresholds.

Most of the Western world has experienced an increase in inequality in recent decades, though not as much as the United States has. But among most economists there is a general understanding that a country with excessive inequality can’t function well; many countries have used their tax codes to help “correct” the market’s distribution of wealth and income. The United States hasn’t — or at least not very much. Indeed, the low rates at the top serve to exacerbate and perpetuate the inequality — so much so that among the advanced industrial countries, America now has the highest income inequality and the least equality of opportunity. This is a gross inversion of America’s traditional meritocratic ideals — ideals that our leaders, across the spectrum, continue to profess.

Over the years, some of the wealthy have been enormously successful in getting special treatment, shifting an ever greater share of the burden of financing the country’s expenditures — defense, education, social programs — onto others. Ironically, this is especially true of some of our multinational corporations, which call on the federal government to negotiate favorable trade treaties that allow them easy entry into foreign markets and to defend their commercial interests around the world, but then use these foreign bases to avoid paying taxes.

General Electric has become the symbol for multinational corporations that have their headquarters in the United States but pay almost no taxes — its effective corporate-tax rate averaged less than 2 percent from 2002 to 2012 — just as Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee last year, became the symbol for the wealthy who don’t pay their fair share when he admitted that he paid only 14 percent of his income in taxes in 2011, even as he notoriously complained that 47 percent of Americans were freeloaders. Neither G.E. nor Mr. Romney has, to my knowledge, broken any tax laws, but the sparse taxes they’ve paid violate most Americans’ basic sense of fairness.
In looking at such statistics, one has to be careful: they typically reflect taxes as a percentage of reported income. And the tax laws don’t require the reporting of all kinds of income. For the rich, hiding such assets has become an elite sport. Many avail themselves of the Cayman Islands or other offshore tax shelters to avoid taxes (and not, you can safely assume, because of the sunny weather).

They don’t have to report income until it is brought back (“repatriated”) to the United States. So, too, capital gains have to be reported as income only when they are realized.
And if the assets are passed on to one’s children or grandchildren at death, no taxes are ever paid, in a peculiar loophole called the “step-up in cost basis at death.” Yes, the tax privileges of being rich in America extend into the afterlife.

As Americans look at some of the special provisions in the tax code — for vacation homes, racetracks, beer breweries, oil refineries, hedge funds and movie studios, among many other favored assets or industries — it is no wonder that they feel disillusioned with a tax system that is so riddled with special rewards. Most of these tax-code loopholes and giveaways did not materialize from thin air, of course — usually, they were enacted in pursuit of, or at least in response to, campaign contributions from influential donors. It is estimated that these kinds of special tax provisions amount to some $123 billion a year, and that the price tag for offshore tax loopholes is not far behind.

Eliminating these provisions alone would go a long way toward meeting deficit-reduction targets called for by fiscal conservatives who worry about the size of the public debt.
Yet another source of unfairness is the tax treatment on so-called carried interest. Some Wall Street financiers are able to pay taxes at lower capital gains tax rates on income that comes from managing assets for private equity funds or hedge funds. But why should managing financial assets be treated any differently from managing people, or making discoveries? Of course, those in finance say they are essential. But so are doctors, lawyers, teachers and everyone else who contributes to making our complex society work. They say they are necessary for job creation. But in fact, many of the private equity firms that have excelled in exploiting the carried interest loophole are actually job destroyers; they excel in restructuring firms to “save” on labor costs, often by moving jobs abroad.

Economists often eschew the word “fair” — fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But the unfairness of the American tax system has gotten so great that it’s dishonest to apply any other label to it.

Traditionally, economists have focused less on issues of equality than on the more mundane issues of growth and efficiency. But here again, our tax system comes in with low marks. Our growth was higher in the era of high top marginal tax rates than it has been since 1980. Economists — even at traditional, conservative international institutions like the International Monetary Fund — have come to realize that excessive inequality is bad for growth and stability. The tax system can play an important role in moderating the degree of inequality. Ours, however, does remarkably little about it.

One of the reasons for our poor economic performance is the large distortion in our economy caused by the tax system. The one thing economists agree on is that incentives matter — if you lower taxes on speculation, say, you will get more speculation. We’ve drawn our most talented young people into financial shenanigans, rather than into creating real businesses, making real discoveries, providing real services to others. More efforts go into “rent-seeking” — getting a larger slice of the country’s economic pie — than into enlarging the size of the pie.

Research in recent years has linked the tax rates, sluggish growth and rising inequality. Remember, the low tax rates at the top were supposed to spur savings and hard work, and thus economic growth. They didn’t. Indeed, the household savings rate fell to a record level of near zero after President George W. Bush’s two rounds of cuts, in 2001 and 2003, on taxes on dividends and capital gains.

What low tax rates at the top did do was increase the return on rent-seeking. It flourished, which meant that growth slowed and inequality grew. This is a pattern that has now been observed across countries. Contrary to the warnings of those who want to preserve their privileges, countries that have increased their top tax bracket have not grown more slowly. Another piece of evidence is here at home: if the efforts at the top were resulting in our entire economic engine’s doing better, we would expect everyone to benefit. If they were engaged in rent-seeking, as their incomes increased, we’d expect that of others to decrease. And that’s exactly what’s been happening. Incomes in the middle, and even the bottom, have been stagnating or falling.

Aside from the evidence, there is a strong intuitive case to be made for the idea that tax rates have encouraged rent-seeking at the expense of wealth creation. There is an intrinsic satisfaction in creating a new business, in expanding the horizons of our knowledge, and in helping others. By contrast, it is unpleasant to spend one’s days fine-tuning dishonest and deceptive practices that siphon money off the poor, as was common in the financial sector before the 2007-8 financial crisis. I believe that a vast majority of Americans would, all things being equal, choose the former over the latter. But our tax system tilts the field. It increases the net returns from engaging in some of these intrinsically distasteful activities, and it has helped us become a rent-seeking society.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We could have a much simpler tax system without all the distortions — a society where those who clip coupons for a living pay the same taxes as someone with the same income who works in a factory; where someone who earns his income from saving companies pays the same tax as a doctor who makes the income by saving lives; where someone who earns his income from financial innovations pays the same taxes as a someone who does research to create real innovations that transform our economy and society. We could have a tax system that encourages good things like hard work and thrift and discourages bad things, like rent-seeking, gambling, financial speculation and pollution. Such a tax system could raise far more money than the current one — we wouldn’t have to go through all the wrangling we’ve been going through with sequestration, fiscal cliffs and threats to end Medicare and Social Security as we know it. We would be in sound fiscal position, for at least the next quarter-century.

The consequences of our broken tax system are not just economic. Our tax system relies heavily on voluntary compliance. But if citizens believe that the tax system is unfair, this voluntary compliance will not be forthcoming. More broadly, government plays an important role not just in social protection, but in making investments in infrastructure, technology, education and health. Without such investments, our economy will be weaker, and our economic growth slower.
Society can’t function well without a minimal sense of national solidarity and cohesion, and that sense of shared purpose also rests on a fair tax system. If Americans believe that government is unfair — that ours is a government of the 1 percent, for the 1 percent, and by the 1 percent — then faith in our democracy will surely perish.

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THE REAL MARATHON.

Mitch McConnell Raises Tons Of Money For Re-election.

McConnell fundraising nears $13M for re-election

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has banked nearly $13 million for his re-election campaign, including more than $1.8 million since January, according to a financial report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.
 
The FEC filing also shows he still has more than $8.6 million on hand.

"Mitch's popularity and deep, longstanding support make him the most prolific fundraiser in the game," said campaign manager Jesse Benton. "We are building the best statewide campaign America has ever seen, and will work hard to make Kentucky proud."
The latest report shows McConnell with an enormous head start over any potential rivals, although no serious challengers have stepped forward so far.

Actress Ashley Judd had considered running, but announced late last month that she won't. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a rising star within the state Democratic Party, has said she is now considering getting into the race. But she hasn't indicated a deadline for making a decision.

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said Monday he continues to get encouragement from supporters to run against McConnell. But Beshear, in his second and final term as governor, told reporters he won't seek election to any other office.
Instead, Beshear said he is encouraging others to take a serious look at the race because he believes Kentuckians are ready to make a change if Democrats can provide "an appropriate alternative."
"I sincerely believe that Sen. McConnell is very vulnerable," Beshear said. "I think that people in Kentucky and, honestly, people throughout America are sick and tired of most of the folks in Washington right now because it's turned into a place where nothing gets done and where everybody simply yells at each other and raises money to stay in office and feather their own nests."

Defeating McConnell would be the Democrats' biggest prize of the 2014 election. His seat is one of 14 that Republicans are defending while Democrats try to hold onto 21, hoping to retain or add to their 55-45 edge.

McConnell, who has served in the Senate since 1984, has never lost an election. He spent more than $20 million in 2008 to beat Louisville businessman Bruce Lunsford by 6 percentage points.
Although the next round of Senate elections isn't until next year, McConnell's race has already heated up in Kentucky. Several Democratic groups have been running TV ads attacking McConnell. And McConnell has begun running TV, radio and Internet ads of his own.

Political ads aren't the only developments keeping the race in the public eye. The FBI, assisted by the U.S. Capitol Police, has begun a probe into the secret taping of a private campaign strategy meeting involving McConnell and several of his aides.
Progress Kentucky, a liberal political fundraising group, has been tied to the recording that was leaked to Mother Jones magazine and published last week. Mother Jones said the recording came from a confidential source. It posted audio and a transcript of the meeting online.

IDIOT Florida Police Sergeant Fired For Having Trayvon Martin Shooting Targets.

Florida police sergeant fired for having Trayvon Martin shooting targets

In February 2012, Trayvon Martin, 17,
was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A Port Canaveral Police sergeant has paper hoodie shooting targets in his police car
• He offers the so-called Trayvon Martin targets to two other officers, who say no
• Sergeant is fired after an internal investigation
• "It is absolutely reprehensible," Martin family attorney says

(CNN) -- A Florida police sergeant was fired for possessing several so-called Trayvon Martin shooting targets, authorities said Saturday.

Sgt. Ron King of Port Canaveral Police Department was fired Friday after an internal review investigated how he offered the hoodie paper shooting targets to two fellow officers, said John Walsh, interim CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority.

The officers, who saw King with the targets in his police vehicle, declined the offer, Walsh said.

"Port Canaveral Police Department considers that behavior unacceptable," Walsh said of King's conduct.

King couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

In February 2012, Martin, 17, was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who is awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge in Martin's death.

Zimmerman's lawyer worries brother's tweets could hurt defense

Martin family attorney Ben Crump condemned the use of the targets.

"It is absolutely reprehensible that a high-ranking member of the Port Canaveral Police, sworn to protect and serve Floridians, would use the image of a dead child as target practice," Crump said in a statement. "Such a deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable."

Report: Martin's family settles with homeowners association

Walsh said the Canaveral Port Authority plans to apologize to the Martin family.

King brought two of the targets to a firearms training session on April 4 at the Brevard Community College campus in Cocoa, Florida, CNN affiliate WFTV reported.

King, who bought the targets on the Internet, and other officers at the training site were on duty at the time, the affiliate said. Port officials said King had been employed at the police department since January 2011, the affiliate said.

On Deterring North Korea.

My Privacy. LOL.

We Congratulate Our Marvelous Louisville Cardinals Basketball Team On Being Crowned The 2013 NCAA Mens' Champions. Way To Go, Guys!

Want More Pictures? Check This Out.

School Cheating Scandal. LOL>

We Join Others In Mourning The Passing Of Britain's "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher. RIP.

Margaret Thatcher, Who Remade Britain, Dies at 87

 

“It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother, Baroness Thatcher, died peacefully following a stroke this morning,” a statement from her spokesman, Tim Bell, said. She had been in poor health for months, and suffered from dementia.

Mrs. Thatcher was the first woman to become prime minister of Britain and the first to lead a major Western power in modern times. Hard-driving and hardheaded, she led her Conservative Party to three straight election victories and held office for 11 years — May 1979 to November 1990 — longer than any other British politician in the 20th century.

Queen Elizabeth IIand Prime Minister David Cameronoffered tributes to what Mr. Cameron called “a great leader, a great prime minister, a great Briton.” Mr. Cameron cut short a visit to Continental Europe to return to Britain.

Buckingham Palace said the queen was “sad to hear the news” and would be sending a private message of sympathy to the family.

A statement from the White House said that “the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend.”

The tough economic medicine Mrs. Thatcher administered to a country sickened by inflation, budget deficits and industrial unrest brought her wide swings in popularity, culminating with a revolt among her own cabinet ministers in her final year and her shout of “No! No! No!” in the House of Commons to any further integration with Europe.

But by the time she left office, the principles known as Thatcherism — the belief that economic freedom and individual liberty are interdependent, that personal responsibility and hard work are the only ways to national prosperity, and that the free-market democracies must stand firm against aggression — had won many disciples. Even some of her strongest critics accorded her a grudging respect.

At home, Mrs. Thatcher’s political successes were decisive. She broke the power of the labor unions and forced the Labour Party to abandon its commitment to nationalized industry, redefine the role of the welfare state and accept the importance of the free market.

Abroad, she won new esteem for a country that had been in decline since its costly victory in World War II. After leaving office, she was honored as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. But during her first years in power, even many Tories feared that her election might prove a terrible mistake.

In October 1980, 17 months into her first term, Mrs. Thatcher faced disaster. More businesses were failing and more people were out of work than at any time since the Great Depression. Racial and class tensions smoldered so ominously that even close advisers worried that her push to stanch inflation, sell off nationalized industry and deregulate the economy was devastating the poor, undermining the middle class and courting chaos.

At the Conservative Party conference that month, the moderates grumbled that they were being led by a free-market ideologue oblivious to life on the street and the exigencies of realpolitik. With electoral defeat staring them in the face, cabinet members warned, now was surely a time for compromise.

To Mrs. Thatcher, they could not be more wrong. “I am not a consensus politician,” she had often declared. “I am a conviction politician.”

In an address to the party, she played on the title of Christopher Fry’s popular play “The Lady’s Not for Burning” in insisting that she would press forward with her policies. “Turn if you like,” she told the faltering assembly. “The lady’s not for turning.”

Words To Live By, Words Of Wisdom. And Words To Ponder.

"The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head."

-- Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788

WE WON'T REMEBER!

Luke Hancock: Louisville Cardinals' Basketball Great Leader.

For Louisville, a Leader Steps Forward

Louisville captain Luke Hancock comforted Kevin Ware after he broke his leg in last week's N.C.A.A. Midwest Regional final game against Duke. 

ATLANTA

In the moments immediately after Kevin Ware’s right leg snapped, it was virtually impossible not to recoil. A shard of bone jutted grotesquely through the skin of the Louisville guard’s leg, so players, coaches, officials and fans understandably — and uniformly — shrunk back.

 Except Luke Hancock. While everyone else was looking away or turning away, Hancock was going in the other direction. Hancock was the only player who immediately ran toward Ware after he crumpled, and he knelt beside his teammate and began praying with him, patting Ware’s chest over and over. He knew Ware was scared, he would say later, and he did not want his teammate to be alone.

This display of humanity is emblematic of a larger point about Louisville’s team. Hancock, a junior, transferred from George Mason in 2011 and was named a team captain before he ever played a game for Louisville — a development that speaks both to Hancock’s character and, perhaps even more, to that of his teammates, who saw his motivation and accepted him as a leader despite barely knowing him.

Why? Now, a season of games later, they say they could simply see what everyone else saw when Ware was writhing on the court and Hancock ignored the screams and gasps and groans to kneel beside him. It is why the Louisville players mobbed him in celebration after Hancock scored 20 points during the Cardinals’ Final Four victory over Wichita State here Saturday.

Hancock is not the Cardinals’ most talented player (that is guard Russ Smith). And he is not their best-known player (that is surely Ware, who spent the last week doing a variety of interviews, including one on David Letterman’s talk show where he read the Top 10 list). But despite having played just one season for the Cardinals, Hancock is a significant piece of Louisville’s soul.

 “He showed his leadership out there tonight,” guard Peyton Siva said after Saturday’s victory. “He showed his leadership when Kevin got injured. He’s an all-around great player and person. Tonight, he showed the world what he’s capable of doing.”

Hancock admits that he can be difficult to coach at times — mostly because he believes he has an advanced understanding of the game’s tactics — and Coach Rick Pitino opts to bring him off the bench in an effort to keep him out of foul trouble. He is also not the only leader on the Cardinals; Siva, a senior, is also a captain.

But Hancock’s passion is unmatched among his teammates and it is that devotion that led Pitino to make him a team captain.

 The genesis of that unusual decision has two parts: first, Pitino had a lengthy discussion with Jim Larranaga, who coached Hancock at George Mason. Larranaga, who left George Mason for Miami (which prompted Hancock to transfer to Louisville), raved about Hancock’s mental capabilities and praised his passion.

Then, during his first off-season weight training program at Louisville, Hancock did not hesitate to make clear his own high standards. After the players opted to have some early-morning lifting sessions, Pitino recalled, two players — Smith and Rakeem Buckles, a former Cardinals forward — showed up late. Hancock, uninhibited by his status as the new guy, confronted them.

 “Remember now, they’re just seeing Luke really for the first time,” Pitino said. “They knew him a little bit. Luke said, ‘That stuff is not going to cut it here at Louisville.’ And right away you think some guys would answer back, ‘Who are you to say that?’ But they immediately said, ‘It’s our bad, it won’t happen again.’ ”

Leadership in sports often comes with murky motivations, but Hancock’s drive — it is the only way he knows how to act, he has said — is genuine. Yes, he arrived at Louisville with a track record, having famously hit the game-winning 3-pointer for George Mason in a 2011 N.C.A.A. tournament victory over Villanova, but his worth has always been about more than that.

 It is also his presence, his teammates say. His willingness to push and prod and demand. His calm during a time of crisis, as when he dropped next to Ware — a player he used to compete with for playing time — and tried to convince his teammate that everything would be O.K.

 “It surprised everybody,” forward Wayne Blackshear said of Hancock’s leadership. “But he was that first one there by Kevin when the accident happened, just trying to hold him and make him stay calm. It is great to have Luke.”

On Saturday, Hancock displayed all his attributes. In a game in which the Louisville starters struggled to score, Hancock and another reserve, the walk-on Tim Henderson, were the offensive sparks. Hancock drilled two critical 3-pointers late in the second half, nailing his shots not far from where Ware was sitting with his damaged leg splayed across an adjacent chair.

 Then, after missing a crucial free throw with eight seconds remaining, Hancock made up for his mistake by forcing a critical (albeit disputed) jump ball, returning possession to the Cardinals as they finished off their victory.

Not surprisingly, Hancock is hesitant to offer much in the way of self-praise, and he has deflected questions about where his leadership skills come from, saying that it probably does not hurt that he was the youngest of six children.

“I guess my brothers beating up on me growing up has helped a little bit,” he said.

 Now, Hancock is the proverbial older brother and on Monday he will join his teammates in trying to win Louisville’s first national title since 1986.

“He keeps the team together,” Smith said, and there can be little praise higher. Hancock is not the team’s best player nor is he the most famous. It does not matter. He is simply its leader.

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