By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

• Raggio Slams Tax Opponents as “Extremists,” Says GOP Primaries are Bad (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio said today layoffs of state employees should be a “last resort” as Gov. Jim Gibbons and lawmakers seek ways to balance the Nevada budget. Raggio, R-Reno, made his comments in an interview on the Nevada NewsMakers program.
• Raggio to GOP: Opposition to Me is Extremism (Mark Noonan) – Thus says our very-much-a-minority “leader”: “I think divisive primaries are hurting the Republican Party. We ought to be encouraging unity in the party instead of extremism trying to rip it apart.”
• Raggio Wrong, Gibbons RIGHT! (Todd “Taxpayer” Bailey) – Clearly, what the leadership of the Nevada Legislature did just six months ago was WRONG! Politicians can raise taxes all they want, but if there are NO JOBS, everyone gets fired.
• RINO Raggio raises taxes on Nevadans, faces recall (Kelly Anderson Wright) – Former Nevada Assemblywoman Sharron Angle warned voters that Bill Raggio was a Republican in name only (RINO), when she lost her tough Reno GOP primary battle with him last year.
• Medicaid Funding Shortfall Makes State Budget Picture Even Worse (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – Nevada’s budget woes aren’t only coming from the revenue side, where tax collections for the first quarter of this fiscal year are already off by $53 million.
• Gov. Gibbons Signs Emergency Regs to Implement Real ID Act (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – Gov. Jim Gibbons has signed emergency regulations that will allow the state to meet a Jan. 1 federal deadline so Nevada residents can use their current drivers’ licenses and identification cards to comply with the federal Real ID Act.
• Teachers Union Capitulation Probably Not Good Enough (Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau) – The secretary of the U.S. Department of Education has told the Gibbons Administration the language proposed by the Nevada state teachers union to change a state law to make the state eligible for as much as $170 million in federal school improvement funds is “not optimal.”
• Marijuana Advocates Announce Formation of Ballot Advocacy Group (NN&V Staff) – On Wednesday, Dave Schwartz, manager of the Marijuana Policy Project of Nevada (MPP-NV), announced that he has filed documents with the Nevada Secretary of State establishing a Ballot Advocacy Group to support a ballot initiative to create a legal, regulated market for marijuana for persons 21 years of age or older.

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

SURVEY SAYS!

Do you agree with Nevada state Sen. Bill Raggio that competitive Republican Party primaries are a bad thing?

• Yes
• No

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MUTHS TRUTHS

• Barack Obama accepted his unearned Nobel Peace Prize today, just a week after ordering an additional 30,000 troops to the war in Afghanistan. According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama “said in his acceptance speech that people must accept ‘the hard truth’ that violence cannot be eradicated and nations sometimes must wage war to protect their citizens from evil regimes or terrorist groups.” Very Bush-like, no?
• Samantha Stone, the Reasonable Reporter blogger, camped out at the freezing Costco in Reno yesterday afternoon and learned that Sarah Palin, in town for a book signing, met privately with Gov. Jim Gibbons at around 4 o’clock. “Gibbons spokesman Dan Burns confirmed that Palin spoke with the governor for about 20 minutes,” Stone writes. “Burns does not know what Gibbons discussed with Palin. No other elected officials, candidates, or potential candidates were present, Burns said.” So maybe a “rogue” endorsement is in the works?
• Anjeanette Damon reports that Gov. Jim Gibbons said this week that “layoffs may be necessary to solve a state budget shortfall that grew to $53.3 million in the first three months of the fiscal year.” Actually, layoffs were necessary more than a year ago, but non-essential government workers have been protected by politicians while private sector workers have been laid off by the thousands.
• Jon Ralston reports that on his Face to Face television program yesterday, “state Sen. Randolph Townsend said (Gov. Jim) Gibbons was needlessly causing a panic (with regard to ongoing revenue shortfalls) and Townsend, like Gibbons a Republican, went so far as to call the administration’s approach on the budget ‘absurd.’” Randolph Townsend may be a Republican like Jim Gibbons, but he sure as heck is no fiscal conservative like Jim Gibbons.
• By the way, Sen. Townsend, it was reported this morning that Nevada’s gaming revenues hit a new low in October. So how is taking responsible pre-emptive action “needlessly causing a panic”? Moral of the Story: It’s OK to say the sky is falling or to yell fire in a crowed theater if the sky is actually falling or if there really is a fire in a crowded theater.
• Sen. Bill Raggio said in an interview on Nevada Newsmakers yesterday that layoffs of government employees should be a “last resort.” Of course, just before the last legislative session Sen. Raggio also said tax hikes should be a last resort. He then led the behind-the-scenes efforts to sock Nevada taxpayers with over a billion dollars worth of higher taxes. That ought to give some government workers some sleepless nights.
• Is there anything that can bring the Left and the Right together? Yep. The Real ID Act. A de facto national ID card. The ACLU on the Left opposes it. And civil libertarians on the Right oppose it. Why did Jim Gibbons sign emergency regulations forcing Nevada to comply yesterday? Probably because he voted for it while still in Congress. Bad vote…now compounded.

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

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FAMOUS LAST WORDS

• “Sen. Harry Reid has repeatedly stressed the importance of working weekends and criticized Republicans for a supposed lack of action to pass health care – despite his Party’s 60 vote super-majority in the Senate, which allows him to set the agenda. Now, ABC News reports today that Reid is cancelling the Senate’s business this weekend. Why? So he can fly to New Orleans for a $1000/plate campaign fundraiser for his flailing re-election bid.” – National Republican Senatorial Committee, 12/10/09
• “In Nevada, Mr. Reid has an $8 million war chest and 35 years in office. But he trails one-term GOP state Sen. Sue Lowden 41% to 51% and twice-defeated Republican candidate Danny Tarkanian 42% to 48%, even after a $1 million media blitz. If the primary fight doesn’t splinter conservatives, no amount of money will guarantee that Mr. Reid will remain in the Senate.” – Republican strategist Karl Rove in today’s Wall Street Journal
• “The magic 100,000-voter edge for the Democrats is no more, now at 84,000 after a Clark County purge of voters who have not cast ballots in two consecutive elections.” – Jon Ralston, Flash, 12/9/09
• “We will not lose again. Our goal is to motivate all of those voters who voted during the last election, and outline very clearly that not one of them is better off with a democrat in the White House, Congress, or our State offices. Not one democrat is better off. And we are the party who says no, no to socialism, no to Reids and Titus and no unfair and unbalanced representation resulting in higher taxes or ridiculous legislation.” – Nevada GOP Chairman Chris Comfort, 12/9/09
• “I’ve never had the chance to really talk with Rep. Dean Heller until last week at the opening of the Mandarin Oriental and later at (Chuck) Muth’s Citizen Outreach holiday soiree. Rep. Heller made me laugh and caught me by surprise with his comfort in his own skin; he was relaxed, candid, and very at ease as we talked about a lot of things. He also has a very good staff backing him up and will rise like a rocket when the GOP takes back the US House.” – Democrat blogger Mike Zahara