Starting to look like 2009 will be the year of the bailout. Sure, we broke the seal in 2008, but next year is certain to be a gusher.

President Bush will leave $350 billion of the magic $700 billion to President-elect Obama. And the cities and states are arranging Washington D.C. junkets to parade their empty pockets and last year's clothes in front of Congress.

Fully two months before taking office, Obama has already shed any pretense of fiscal conservatism.

Kentucky taxpayers has long-endured the boom-and-bust cycles in government spending. The tail end of this latest one is already awash in red ink.

We know there will be much clamoring for tax increases in Frankfort, but they just don't have the votes.

The watchdogs must be ever vigilant, of course, lest the good old boys and girls work out some kind of deal to produce more photo ops and talk of bipartisan love for themselves, and higher costs for the rest of us.

The key to protecting ourselves is to push hard for every state agency, county, city, library, and school board in Kentucky to document the spending of every single penny on searchable web sites for all to see. The time for fooling around waiting for current technology to be applied to the protection of those of paying the bills is over.