NoisyRoom.net

By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS HEADLINES

• Did You Hear the One About the Tax “Study” Committee? (Chuck Muth) – Nevada legislators on Monday named 19 people to the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group which will participate in a review of the state’s tax system. And here’s all you need to know about where this group is going….
• Liberals, PEW Slam Gibbons’ Tax Restraint Law (Jim Clark) – Nevada just made another list of “worst’s.” We are one of 10 states courting fiscal disaster according to the Pew Center on the States.
• Pro-Lifers Issue Statement Opposing “Personhood” Initiative (NN&V Staff) – A trio of Nevada pro-life leaders has issued a statement opposing the “Personhood” initiative filed a few weeks ago by other pro-life activists. The statement shows that at least some in the pro-life community recognize that the abortion issue is not just a moral issue in America, but a political one as well.
• The Problem with Our Health-Care Debate (Alex Epstein) – Everyone seems to have a different take on how to solve America’s health-care problem. But notice that every solution offered involves some elaborate new system of government controls.
• Union President a Criminal Lobbyist? (Warner Todd Huston) – Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) have formally requested that acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips launch an investigation into the possibly illegal lobbying activities of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern.

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

SURVEY SAYS!

Do you support President Obama’s decision to move the 9-11 terrorists to New York for a civilian, rather than military trial?

• Yes
• No
• HELL NO!!
• Can’t we all just get along?
• What was the question again?

To cast your vote in today’s online survey, click here!

DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS

As the Ensign Turns – New developments in the John Ensign saga, courtesy of POLITICO, with a Hat Tip to Ralston’s Flash:

The New York Times reported that Ensign and Hampton took an official congressional delegation to Iraq in February 2008 and that Ensign called Hampton’s wife there by telephone. POLITICO has learned that Hampton was brought on the trip, which also went to Afghanistan, despite the fact that he did not have a security clearance — and that Ensign was the only senator not to bring a military adviser on the trip.

After the trip, it became apparent to people who knew both men that they had feuded abroad, sources said. Days later, there was a major confrontation at the Capitol Hill home where Ensign lived with several senators, including Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), another trip attendee.

Ethics experts say the codel — which records show cost more than $10,000 per person — could cause additional ethical problems for Ensign if investigators look at how Ensign used his public office during the affair.

Why won’t Ensign do the honorable thing – not to mention what is in the best interest of both Nevada and the Nevada Republican Party – and resign his U.S. Senate seat instead of subjecting us to the ongoing and never-ended drip-drip-drip of one ethical shoe dropping after another – in addition to sleeping with his best friend’s wife?

Because John Ensign is now, and always has been, all about John Ensign and only John Ensign, that’s why.

Then again, I don’t hear any Republican leaders calling on him to step aside, so it’ll be their own damn fault if Ensign takes their party’s candidates down with him next November.

Governent Worker Layoffs – “Because of further declines in sales tax revenue, the city of Las Vegas will eliminate 20 positions – 19 of them layoffs,” reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal this afternoon. The other employee is being transferred to another position in another department.

1.) It’s about time.
2.) Laying off 19 government workers? That’s all?

Private industry has been shedding non-essential workers for going on two years now. Las Vegas is FINALLY being forced to do the same, but is still going out of its way to protect as many non-essential workers as it possibly can. And the state of Nevada is still protecting all of its non-essential government workers, as well as that 4 percent cost-of-living increase the state couldn’t afford but gave out last year anyway.

When will folks wake up? The government will NEVER shrink itself unless it is FORCED to do so. The only good thing about this lousy economy is that it is doing what Nevada’s elected officials don’t have the will, let alone the stomach, to do on their own: Reduce the size and scope of government to its bare necessities.

It’s almost enough to hope the economy doesn’t recover too soon. Not quite. But almost.

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

• Politico: One-man crusade taking toll on Ensign
• LVRJ: New ads target Titus
• Politico: Biden touts stimulus benefits in Vegas
• Sun: Raggio Defends “Pork” Spending
• LVRJ: Personhood amendment would ban pill RU-486
• Sebelius: Pro-lifers against personhood amendment? What?
• Sun: NEI calls on NRC to proceed with review of Yucca Mountain license
• Dullard Mush: Mark Amodei’s Plaintive Tweet
• LVRJ: Parks jumps into County Commission race
• Ralston: Who says gubernatorial hopeful Brian Sandoval can’t go to the right?
• RGJ: Las Vegas dentist to lead Nevada GOP
• What is a ‘Charlie Crist’ Republican anyway?
• Biz Press: No tax boost is right decision
• NPRI: Nevada’s property tax shaft

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

• “Let’s just say we’re glad we’re getting our brand-new HD television set up this weekend, because next week promises to be a big one in political media. Politico reports today that ABC’s Nightline will finally air its interview next week with Doug Hampton, the former aide to U.S. Sen. John Ensign, with whose wife Ensign had an affair. Nothing like scandal in high definition, huh?” – CityLife editor Steve Sebelius
• “(Ryan) Erwin, the Nevada GOP strategist, said that even though (Sen. John) Ensign continues to suffer ‘another cut every few weeks,’ the question of whether Ensign can survive may depend on whether (Doug) Hampton can continue to provide fresh material. There seems to be no end of it.” – Politico, 11/17/09
• “More government controls, we are told, are necessary to solve problems such as skyrocketing health-insurance prices, lack of competition among insurance companies, the inability of workers to keep their insurance policy when switching jobs, etc. Really? Then why do giants of the computer industry like Google, Microsoft and Apple compete vigorously without a ‘public option? Why do we have such plentiful, affordable food without a government ‘food insurance mandate’?” – Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Center
• “Nevada LIFE and other pro-life groups oppose the Personhood Petition that was recently filed in Nevada. . . . It’s a pro-life Picket’s Charge. The petition and the mass efforts and resources required just to get it on the ballot, have no chance of ending abortion in Nevada or overturning Roe. The petition will be struck down immediately because the United States Supreme Court is pro-abortion and president Obama will make appointments to keep it that way for years.” – Don Nelson, President of Nevada LIFE, 11/17/09