NoisyRoom.net

By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

• Race-Baiters ‘r Us Issues Nevada Legislative “Report Card” (Chuck Muth) – The far-left goofballs over at PLAN (Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada) released a “racial equity” report card yesterday, ostensibly based on how some 18 bills in the last legislative session adversely affected “communities of color.”
• Don’t Let Up! Government Health Care Can Be Stopped! (Rep. John Shadegg) – Today, yet another wave of Tea Party Americans came to the U.S. Capitol to fight a government takeover of health care. Now, the focus is on the Senate.
• Govt Healthcare Will Give Us ALL Pay Cuts (Warner Todd Huston) – If Obamacare should pass many millions will lose their healthcare and will be forced into government healthcare. According to the CBO at least 10 million will lose their insurance in short order. The CBO is likely lowballing the number, too.
• Drip, Drip, Drip of Tax Hikes Killing Job Creation (Lorraine Hunt-Bono) – The year was 1955. A nine story Riviera Hotel opened as the tallest building in Las Vegas. The historic Moulin Rouge debuted as the first racially integrated hotel. Liberace became the highest paid entertainer earning $50,000 a week and my family opened a small pizzeria on Fremont Street.
• 17,900 Retail Jobs Slashed Since 2007 in Nevada (Retail Association of Nevada) – Since peaking in December 2007 at 147,400 positions, retail jobs in Nevada have declined steadily, totaling only 129,500 as of October 2009. The loss of 17,900 positions represents a 12.1-percent decline in retail employment.
• Gibbons Seeks Input from State Employees on Ways to Balance Budget (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – Gov. Jim Gibbons today asked state employees to weigh in on ways to balance the budget after sending a memo to top agency officials seeking even tougher budget cutting scenarios than those outlined earlier this month.
• Governor Seeks Bigger Budget Cutting Scenarios from State Agencies (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – In a sign that the Gibbons administration is concerned Nevada’s fiscal crisis may worsen further before it gets better, a memo to state agency officials sent out today seeks even tougher budget cutting scenarios than those outlined earlier this month.

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

SURVEY SAYS!

Should Senate Republicans pull out all the stops and use every “trick in the book” to block Senate passage of the Democrats’ heath care reform bill?

• Yes
• No

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

MUTHS TRUTHS

Another One Bites the Dust

The “Black Thursday” resignations from the Executive Board of the Clark County Republican Party continue, as Steven Sanson, representing District C on the board, called it quits in a press release late last night.

“The acting Chairman, Bob Ruckman has made personal attacks, false allegations, and has turned or attempted to turn party members against each other,” Sanson wrote. “I would rather work on positive projects that will bring Nevadans together to work to advance the cause of our great state.”

And the beat goes on….

Time for the Biennial Abortion Contortion Contest

OK, at the moment the Nevada GOP has two front-runners in a virtual tie for the right to go up against Harry Reid next year: Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian.

Jon Ralston reported yesterday afternoon in Flash that Lowden “confirmed that she voted in 1990 for that pro-choice referendum” and “also acknowledged she supported Roe v. Wade in the early 1990s…but has become more persuaded over the years that it violates the 10th Amendment.”

For his part, Tarkanian is on the other extreme of the issue, declaring on his campaign website that he opposes making an exception for abortions due to rape.

Meanwhile, Sharron Angle is just sitting out there off the coast, treading water and raising money, waiting for the “right” time to strike.

This is gonna get ugly.

A Tax by Any Other Name Still Smells Like Municipal Waste

In a letter to state employees yesterday asking their input on ways to deal with the never-ending budget crisis, Gov. Jim Gibbons posed the following question:

“I have pledged to not raise taxes. Should Nevada impose a fee on raw municipal waste to promote recycling, create green jobs and renewable energy, and make Nevada less attractive to those states proposing to send us their waste?”

OK, let’s get the easy part out of the way.

Supporting a new tax on raw municipal waste, even if you try to call it a “fee,” would be a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge that Gov. Gibbons made to the people of Nevada when running for governor in 2006. It’s not a gray area. It’s not debatable. But it’s also not something Gov. Gibbons has actually proposed, so let’s cut him a little slack (very little) at this point for raising the possibility.

But the other aspect of this question is interesting. In essence, the governor is suggesting that Nevada serve as a repository for out-of-state waste and charge a hefty premium for the service in order to alleviate our budget crunch.

Now where have I heard that before?

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

• Steve Sebelius asks “What do liberal do now?” that Harry Reid and Barack Obama have so watered down their socialized medicine bill to the point that the far left has little left to cheer.
• Jon Ralston discusses Sue Lowden and the abortion issues in greater detail in his column today.
• The Brian Sandoval for Governor campaign is taking on some criticism….but is defended at the end of the story by a rather unlikely conservative strategist who we all know and….love?
• Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman takes the first step toward a possible gubernatorial run as an independent.
• In a newspaper headline right below “Sun Rises in East Today,” you’ll find this about Las Vegas’ $69 million budget shortfall: “Unions balk at pay cut plan.”
• Mike Zahara is all over CityCenter’s ties to a “Muslim extremist entity.”

TUBE TIPS

Sam Shad’s guests today on the Nevada Newsmakers program: Brian Krolicki, Lieutenant Governor of Nevada. 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.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

• “Are you getting a bonus this year? Most Nevada businesses have had to forgo that luxury just to keep our doors open and our employees at work. . . . The State of Nevada could be facing at least a $50 million dollar general fund deficit for 2010, and still no attention has been given to the amount of money spent on state employee perks that public employee unions insist upon.” – Keystone Corporation, 2/16/09
• “Gov. Jim Gibbons has demonstrated exceptional leadership during his military service, his private-sector life and his political career. These unprecedented economic times require an experienced leader like Gov. Jim Gibbons.” – Former Rep. Barbara Vucanovich (R-Nevada) endorsing Gibbons for re-election yesterday
• “Gov. Jim Gibbons since October has been donating 6 percent of his monthly pay to the Nevada Educational Gift Fund, said Dan Burns, Gibbons’ spokesman. . . . Earlier this year, lawmakers rejected Gibbons’ recommendation to cut state worker salaries by 6 percent…(but) Gibbons stuck to his 6 percent proposal…. Only one lawmaker so far has taken a voluntary pay cut. Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, wrote a check to the state for $526.65, representing a 6 percent pay cut, according to records obtained by the Reno Gazette-Journal.” – Reno Gazette-Journal, 12/16/09
• “(The Brian Sandoval gubernatorial campaign is) focused on what they should be doing right now: Go out and raise money, raise money, raise money. They want a fundraising number so high and insurmountable that Republican supporters will say, ‘You can’t beat Brian Sandoval.’ ” – Chuck Muth, Las Vegas Sun, 12/16/09