Lobbyists throw Thunder party for senators

While hundreds of thousands of people will likely be standing in a cool rain to watch Saturday's Thunder Over Louisville, some Kentucky state senators will be dining in style with a riverfront view inside the Muhammad Ali Center.

It's the second year for the event that puts lobbyists elbow to elbow with senators just before they head back to Frankfort for the final two days of the 2008 session, April 14 and 15.

The party is set to begin at 2 p.m., with free parking in the center's garage. There will be hors d'oeuvres during the air show, a children's program and dinner before the fireworks.

Senate President David Williams refused to answer questions about the event, which is expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars that will be paid by more than a dozen companies and lobbying firms.

John Schaaf, general counsel for the Legislative Ethics Commission, said the event is legal. Moreover, he said, the lobbying firms sponsoring the event, and their employers, must state in reports due May 15 how much they spent on legislators.

But Dick Beliles, chairman of Common Cause of Kentucky, said the event and its timing raise questions. He noted that none of the sponsors are human-service providers, some of which received large cuts in the budget the General Assembly passed last week.

"It's the moneyed interests that are going to get a better chance at access," Beliles said. "It gives them too much access … and it's pretty darn obvious that that's what it's for."

Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., said that while the event appears to be legal, the public should know which senators attend and how much lobbying interests paid.

Shea, one of the lobbyists who is sponsoring the event, said he believed that former Republican Party Chairwoman Ellen Williams, now a lobbyist, spearheaded the effort to start the party. She didn't return calls seeking comment.

John Cooper, a lobbyist for the Kentucky Bankers Association, which is one of the sponsors, said he didn't know how much the association will pay. While he attended last year, he said he didn't plan to go this year.

No Senate members reached yesterday by The Courier-Journal said they planned to attend. They are Dan Seum, R-Louisville; Gerald Neal, D-Louisville; Katie Stine, R-Southgate; Ernesto Scorsone, D-Lexington; Brandon Smith, R-Hazard; and Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs.

Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, said he went last year -- and about half of the 38-member Senate attended.

"It was a big spread, lots of food," he said. "Oh, yeah, there was free liquor. … I don't think it was a cash bar."

While it was a nice event, Buford said he won't go this year because it "wasn't my cup of tea. … I wasn't impressed. After about 15 minutes, I did not see the entertainment value."

What's more, Buford said, "about this time of the year, I've seen enough lobbyists for a while."

'Peace picnic' set for Thunder

Members of Louisville's peace community plan a "Peaceful Skies Picnic" on Saturday, featuring kite-making and paper airplanes as an alternative to the Thunder Over Louisville military air show.

A coalition of nearly two dozen local churches and peace-activist groups also plans to pass out literature at the air show, pointing out the expense and destructive power of the military aircraft it features.

The pacifists plan to stand on the Great Lawn, wearing T-shirts that say, "War is no future" and "Non-violence or non-existence."

Coalition spokesman Sam Avery said the activists are not opposed to the Thunder fireworks, civilian aircraft in the air show or to other Kentucky Derby Festival activities. "We are trying to get people to think for themselves about what this (military) machinery really is. They are machines of destruction," he said.

"We will have no banners, make no noise, stop no traffic and make no disturbance," Avery said. "We want to get people who are witnessing the air show to think about what they are looking at."

Kentucky Derby Festival spokeswoman Aimee Boyd said Thunder is meant "to provide something for everybody to enjoy. We are not just promoting the military. But she said the festival respects the right of citizens to protest.

Thunder producer Wayne Hettinger said the air show Saturday will have 93 total aircraft, of which 75 are classified as military planes. The fleet will include one or more F-22s, B-2s, F-4s, F-15/l6/18s, C-130s, and the Air Force Viper West and the Strike Eagle Demonstration Teams. START LINK "This is all equipment that belongs to the taxpayers," END LINK. Hettinger said. "I am trying to provide a chance for them to see what they are paying for."

He said he realizes "there are groups out there who refer to all this as a war machine. But the other side of the coin is that it is a peace machine." Representatives of the military "are putting their lives on the line for us every day," he said.

This will be the second year for the alternative picnic, which last year drew about 200 people and was held at Iroquois Park.

This year it will be from noon to 4 p.m. at the Americana Center soccer field, 4801 Southside Drive.

The picnic, free and open to the public, will offer music and a variety of activities. People should bring their own food but no alcohol.

Participants will be invited to make and fly kites and paper airplanes and to draw chalk art on sidewalks, said organizer Terry Taylor, executive director of Interfaith Paths to Peace.

"There is a sizable immigrant and refugee community in Louisville," Taylor said

"Many of them have experienced the violence that airplanes" can rain down, he said, and find the flyovers "very troubling and scary."

DREAM SAID, "So what if the air show encourages recruitment? Just thank you're lucky stars we don't have a draft. Just think, if that were the case instead hinding behind a computer screen disparging our leaders you just might be in a Marine Corp Boot Camp learning to respect them.