TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

• Deduction Reduction is a Tax Increase (Chuck Muth) – Nevada’s mining industry was expected to pay $55 million this biennium.  A new proposal by Gov. Jim Gibbons to eliminate some business deductions currently allowed would almost double that amount.  Yet the governor claims “That is not a tax increase if you look at it closely. It is merely clarifying the deductions.”  Yeah, and it all depends on what your definition of “is” is, right?

• Nation’s Top Conservatives Declare War against Big Government (Fred Lucas/CNS News) – The nation’s top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va.—a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm—to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement. It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.

• Gibbons Wants Hearing on School Voucher Plan (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – A handful of state lawmakers have tried and failed over the years to establish a voucher plan for Nevada students, giving parents a share of their taxes spent on public education so they can pick a school that best meets the needs of their children.

• Rhode Island School Chief “Pulls a Reagan” (Warner Todd Huston) – I don’t expect this to stick. I fully expect some left-wing, paid off judge to come to the aid of these union thugs. But… in Central Falls, Rhode Island School Superintendent Frances Gallo has fired an entire high school’s worth of teachers and administrators over a labor dispute.

• GOP now Plus 8 in the US Senate (Michael Zahara) – Yet another Democratic seat will go to the GOP; this time in the US Senate and that news will perhaps place an insurmountable challenge to maintaining a majority in that body too as the US House is already gone for Democrats this November. 

Click here to read these stories at the Nevada News & Views site!

MUTH’S TRUTHS 

• CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, begins today here in the nation’s capital – which, unfortunately, is back open for business.  I’ll try to provide you some highlights, but here’s one interesting aspect right from the get-go.

• At last year’s CPAC, the media and Left were declaring the conservative movement dead, dead, dead.  This year, CPAC organizer tell me they’re expecting their largest crowd ever….somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 people.  The conservative movement is dead; long live the conservative movement!

• Tea party activists in Nevada who have been active in the tea party movement for the last year ain’t too happy with the unknown folks who took it upon themselves to use the tea party name to create a Tea Party political party in Nevada.  Here’s one example.  Here’s another.

• According to today’s RJ, “Daniel Burns, (Gov. Gibbons’ communication director….said the governor would support any fees, taxes or revenue increases that are backed by the affected businesses.”  And by doing so, the governor will once again break his written promise to the citizens of Nevada to “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

• Meanwhile, Americans for Tax Reform this morning shot holes through Gibbons’ proposal to tax the Internet in a blog post titled, “Gibbons is fibbin’….again” HERE

• The widow of the Nevada state Senate minority leader who Sue Lowden defeated in 1992 primarily over that senator’s vote to jack up his government pension by 300 percent in 1991, is upset that Lowden used that fact in her recent television commercial.  

• But the claim was 100 percent accurate.  Legislators that year DID try to “enrich themselves” by voting for the pension hike.  Only after public outrage did legislators repeal their sweetheart deal in a special session.  Facts are stubborn things.

• Speaking of Lowden and TV commercials: The rule of thumb in campaigning is that once you go up on TV, you have to stay up.  You can’t start running ads in February, then stop running ads in March and April, and then go back up in May.  If so, you lose all the momentum. 

• But I was told this week that the Lowden campaign is up and staying up, which means she’ll likely continue to build a lead over her opponents who aren’t preparing to go up on TV themselves until after Easter.  But by then it might be too late.

• Fellow Republican challenger John Chachas, however, is expected to go up on TV in the next week of two – which ought to move his polling numbers out of the basement and into contention by the Ides of March.

• And finally, the Clark County GOP finally finished stuffing the ballot boxes or doing whatever it is they were doing and released the results of their straw poll taken of members almost a full month ago. 

• In the U.S. Senate primary race, Sharron Angle received 49 votes, Danny Tarkanian received 48 votes and Sue Lowden received 46 votes. Bill Parson, a favorite among constitutionalists, chalked up 24 votes and John Chachas, who has $2 million to make a move in the race once he becomes fully engaged, pulled in 3 votes.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

• “If the people who officially created the Tea Party party in Nevada are tea party activists, then I’m a Tunisian princess.” – Tea party activist Debbie Landis of Anger is Brewing in Reno

• “When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, (California is) number one. There’s no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on ‘Macbeth’. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of speech. You don’t know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words.” – columnist Burt Prelutsky

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

• Deduction Reduction is a Tax Increase (Chuck Muth) – Nevada’s mining industry was expected to pay $55 million this biennium.  A new proposal by Gov. Jim Gibbons to eliminate some business deductions currently allowed would almost double that amount.  Yet the governor claims “That is not a tax increase if you look at it closely. It is merely clarifying the deductions.”  Yeah, and it all depends on what your definition of “is” is, right?

• Nation’s Top Conservatives Declare War against Big Government (Fred Lucas/CNS News) – The nation’s top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va.—a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm—to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement. It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.

• Gibbons Wants Hearing on School Voucher Plan (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – A handful of state lawmakers have tried and failed over the years to establish a voucher plan for Nevada students, giving parents a share of their taxes spent on public education so they can pick a school that best meets the needs of their children.

• Rhode Island School Chief “Pulls a Reagan” (Warner Todd Huston) – I don’t expect this to stick. I fully expect some left-wing, paid off judge to come to the aid of these union thugs. But… in Central Falls, Rhode Island School Superintendent Frances Gallo has fired an entire high school’s worth of teachers and administrators over a labor dispute.

• GOP now Plus 8 in the US Senate (Michael Zahara) – Yet another Democratic seat will go to the GOP; this time in the US Senate and that news will perhaps place an insurmountable challenge to maintaining a majority in that body too as the US House is already gone for Democrats this November. 

Click here to read these stories at the Nevada News & Views site!

MUTH’S TRUTHS 

• CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, begins today here in the nation’s capital – which, unfortunately, is back open for business.  I’ll try to provide you some highlights, but here’s one interesting aspect right from the get-go.

• At last year’s CPAC, the media and Left were declaring the conservative movement dead, dead, dead.  This year, CPAC organizer tell me they’re expecting their largest crowd ever….somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 people.  The conservative movement is dead; long live the conservative movement!

• Tea party activists in Nevada who have been active in the tea party movement for the last year ain’t too happy with the unknown folks who took it upon themselves to use the tea party name to create a Tea Party political party in Nevada.  Here’s one example.  Here’s another.

• According to today’s RJ, “Daniel Burns, (Gov. Gibbons’ communication director….said the governor would support any fees, taxes or revenue increases that are backed by the affected businesses.”  And by doing so, the governor will once again break his written promise to the citizens of Nevada to “oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

• Meanwhile, Americans for Tax Reform this morning shot holes through Gibbons’ proposal to tax the Internet in a blog post titled, “Gibbons is fibbin’….again” HERE

• The widow of the Nevada state Senate minority leader who Sue Lowden defeated in 1992 primarily over that senator’s vote to jack up his government pension by 300 percent in 1991, is upset that Lowden used that fact in her recent television commercial.  

• But the claim was 100 percent accurate.  Legislators that year DID try to “enrich themselves” by voting for the pension hike.  Only after public outrage did legislators repeal their sweetheart deal in a special session.  Facts are stubborn things.

• Speaking of Lowden and TV commercials: The rule of thumb in campaigning is that once you go up on TV, you have to stay up.  You can’t start running ads in February, then stop running ads in March and April, and then go back up in May.  If so, you lose all the momentum. 

• But I was told this week that the Lowden campaign is up and staying up, which means she’ll likely continue to build a lead over her opponents who aren’t preparing to go up on TV themselves until after Easter.  But by then it might be too late.

• Fellow Republican challenger John Chachas, however, is expected to go up on TV in the next week of two – which ought to move his polling numbers out of the basement and into contention by the Ides of March.

• And finally, the Clark County GOP finally finished stuffing the ballot boxes or doing whatever it is they were doing and released the results of their straw poll taken of members almost a full month ago. 

• In the U.S. Senate primary race, Sharron Angle received 49 votes, Danny Tarkanian received 48 votes and Sue Lowden received 46 votes. Bill Parson, a favorite among constitutionalists, chalked up 24 votes and John Chachas, who has $2 million to make a move in the race once he becomes fully engaged, pulled in 3 votes.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

• “If the people who officially created the Tea Party party in Nevada are tea party activists, then I’m a Tunisian princess.” – Tea party activist Debbie Landis of Anger is Brewing in Reno

• “When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, (California is) number one. There’s no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on ‘Macbeth’. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of speech. You don’t know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words.” – columnist Burt Prelutsky