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TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES
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A Supreme Victory for Free Speech (Chuck Muth) – In a 5-4 decision which was only surprising in that four of its members could be so hostile to political free speech, the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations now will be “allowed” to fully participate in our nation’s elections for federal offices. Amen and hallelujah.
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The Next Big Campaign Finance Case (John E. Kramer) – Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations may fund independent political ads without government-imposed limits. Tomorrow a federal appeals court will consider whether individual Americans who join together to fund political ads share that same unrestricted freedom of speech.
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2.5 Cheers for Sue Lowden! (Mark Noonan) – I just read Sue Lowden’s plan for reviving the Nevada and United States economies. All in all, its a good plan. A good plan for, say 1994 or 2002. For 2010, it doesn’t quite capture the current necessities.
Click here to read these stories at the Nevada News & Views site!
SURVEY SAYS!
Which of these should be the MOST important consideration in the GOP primary race to challenge U.S. Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada?
· Nominating the Republican with the best chance to win in November
· Nominating the most philosophically conservative Republican
To cast your vote in today’s online survey, click here!
MUTHS TRUTHS
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Wal-Mart, generally considered the most successful retailer in the world, announced over the weekend that it is cutting 11,200 jobs, about 10 percent of its workforce, at the company’s Sam’s Club stores and will essentially “privatize” many of those jobs to an outside marketing company. It’s also closing 10 stores which are “underperforming.”
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Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is circling up the ol’ firing squad in Hawaii this week, preparing to vote on a resolution calling on the party to withhold support from any Republican who doesn’t meet eight out of ten stated positions on various issues. The Wall Street Journal notes that newly-minted Republican U.S. Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts might not have met that threshold, concluding that “litmus tests are for losers.”
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The decision by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman not to run for governor as an independent this year means the gubernatorial race will come down to a straight up Democrat vs. Republican contest between Harry Reid’s son against either Gov. Jim Gibbons or former federal judge Brian Sandoval or former North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon. And odds are the only way Sandoval loses that primary is if either Gibbons or Montandon drops out, thereby allowing conservative GOP primary voters to coalesce around one candidate.
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Word out of Carson City is that Democrat Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley is torqued over the upcoming special session because Gov. Jim Gibbons is meeting with, get this, elected legislators to discuss possible budget solutions. How dare he?!!!
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According to a well-placed source who requested anonymity, Buckley was overheard in the capital complaining that the governor was working with any and all legislators and not with just the leaders of the Legislature – meaning, particularly, her and Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford. You know….the folks who conspired behind closed doors last year to craft a billion dollars worth of higher taxes. Those leaders. Go figure.
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As I reported on Saturday, Republican GOP U.S. Senate candidate Robin Titus announced yesterday that she was dropping out of the race, having failed to raise anywhere near enough money in 2009 to make her a viable candidate. Titus also exercised her God-given right as a woman to change her mind and now is not endorsing another candidate in the race.
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Meanwhile, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden officially opened her campaign HQ in Vegas last night. A pretty large crowd of supporters, candidates and party VIPs stopped by, including Assemblyman John Hambrick, Republican National Committeeman Bob List, University Regent Mark Alden, Nevada GOP executive director Brent Hussman, former state Sen. Bob Beers, former Clark County Chairmen Bernie Zadrowski and Richard Scotti, David Isbell, Andy Matthews, Ciara Turns, Calanit Atia, Matt Passalacqua, Tibi Ellis, Grant Hewitt, Dave Williams, Paul Workman, Dave McGowan, Nathan Emens, Mark Risman, and a cast of thousands.
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And finally, fellow Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Wiley also christened his new campaign office last evening. It’s located under an I-15 overpass just north of the Spaghetti Bowl. A crowd of three homeless men, Republican gadfly Nathan Taylor and a three-legged dog celebrated the opening over a shared bottle of Mad Dog 20-20, after which they all roasted their weenies over a make-shift fire. Ah, good times.
TARK TALES
We’re starting a new feature here today at Nevada News & Views: Tark Tales.
The level and sheer magnitude of misinformation being put out by Danny Tarkanian’s U.S. Senate campaign over the past few weeks is simply unacceptable. If Danny can beat Sue Lowden straight up by playing it straight, fine. But if he’s going to lie, mislead and just make stuff up….well, I’m not prepared to sit on the sidelines and let him get away with it.
Tark Tales will be my own little “truth detector” on what the Tarkanian campaign puts out from now on. So let’s get the ball rolling….
Last week the Tarkanian campaign suggested that Lowden broke her “no tax pledge” by supporting the $100 per employee business tax as a freshman state senator in 1993. And as usual, the Tarkanian accusation isn’t accurate.
First, the $100 per head employee tax was passed in 1991, before Sue Lowden was ever even elected to the state Senate. So she couldn’t have voted for it even if she wanted to.
Secondly, and as I suspected, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge for state legislators didn’t come into being until two years AFTER Lowden ran for state Senate – so she couldn’t have signed it because it didn’t even exist.
On another matter, Team Tark announced a fundraising golf tournament yesterday, explaining that “All proceeds from this event will go towards increasing Danny’s lead in both the republican primary and his current 14 point lead over Reid.”
Problem is, no one I know has ever heard of any credible poll showing Danny with a 14 point lead, and the invitation doesn’t identify the source of that number.
This sort of thing reminds me of the late 1998 Republican gubernatorial candidate Aaron Russo – a truly unique and generally enjoyable political character. Aaron would regularly spout off incredible polling numbers on the campaign stump, saying things like, “My polling shows I lead Kenny Guinn by 20 points.” And then someone finally asked him the source of his polling numbers in a bar in Elko, to which Russo responded, “I called them myself.”
And finally, Team Tark’s crack media propaganda machine also claimed last week that I run the Nevada Policy Research Institute – which surely must have come as quite a surprise to the employees and financial supporters of NPRI.
Actually, I have nothing to do with that group other than as a fellow conservative ally. My organization is Citizen Outreach. If Danny’s campaign can be this sloppy with facts this simple, one can only imagine how reliable the rest of his accusations are.
OTHER NEWS & VIEWS
From the Chronicles of Whine-ia
Here’s the latest example of just how bad things are for poor, ol’ UNLV workers. Seriously, break out your hanky for this one from Laura Kaprelia [Laura.Kaprelian@unlv.edu] folks. It’s a real tear-jerker.
“On my furlough day January 22, I realized…that since the inception of the first furlough day, I have been consistently depressed and I feel my health has declined. I am not a person who is sick but rarely and that has changed now. I am a very outgoing, positive and energetic person and the impact of one furlough day on my life has been very stressful and has affected the quality of my health and life.”
Imagine how stressed and depressed this little thing would be if she was LAID OFF.
And by the way, how in the world is any mis-education going on over there at UNLV if all their employees are spending all their time writing all these sob story emails to legislators?
Me and My Benz
The Assembly Ways & Means Committee, as Jonathan Humbert of Channel 8 News explains, is a “powerful group (of legislators which) controls spending and a large part of the tax revenue for Nevada.” Its chairman is Assemblyman Morse “Moose” Arberry.
And according to Humbert’s report yesterday, Arberry owes some $2,200 in back property taxes, along with “more than $496,000 in homeowner association dues, foreclosing homes, and sewer and trash liens.”
Now here’s the kicker, the Deadbeat Assemblyman defended himself on camera while “standing beside his Mercedes Benz sedan.” (Hat tip: Dullard Mush)
Yeah, a real champion of the poor, the down-trodden and the disadvantaged he is.
And you wonder why Nevada’s state government is broke?
TUBE TIPS
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Attorney Gerald Glick goes Face to Face with Jon Ralston tonight to discuss hepatitis scare at the Las Vegas endoscopy center. The program airs at 4:00 pm Monday through Friday on KVBC Channel 3 in Las Vegas, as well as NBC affiliates in Reno and Elko. http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/face-face/
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Sam Shad’s guests today on the Nevada Newsmakers program will be Eric Odom, Executive Director, American Liberty Alliance. The program airs on KRNV-TV Channel 4 at 12:30 pm in Reno and on Cox Cable Channel 123 at 4:30 pm and 11:35 pm in Las Vegas. http://www.nevadanewsmakers.com/
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“There’s been speculation about this for a while, and now it’s all but official. Former Congressman JD Hayworth – a staunch conservative during his 12 years in the House – will challenge John McCain for his Arizona Senate seat. This move comes just a few days after Cindy McCain suggested that millions of American supporters of traditional marriage are motivated by hate. In his 12 years in Congress, Hayworth compiled a lifetime rating of 98% from the ACU. The comparable rating for John McCain is 81 %.” – Brian Faughnan, RedState.com, 1/25/10
(Editor’s Note: Hayworth will be the keynote speaker at the Washoe County Lincoln Day Dinner next month)
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