12/13/09

Safe Deposit Boxes in an Age of Kleptocracies

By: Garry L. Hamilton

44 States face massive funding problems. These problems are estimated to persist until 2011. Where will they get the revenue to continue operating?

For those in Pennsylvania who have lost the contents of their safe deposit boxes I would recommend checking auctions from the seller pastatetreasury on EBay.

Delaware appears to be exceptionally proud of their increased revenues. For examples these quotes come from the State of Delaware Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

From page 10: Key elements of the increase in net assets are as follows:

Total general revenues increased overall $168.1 million (5.1%) with significant increases in tax revenues and interest income. In addition, strong growth in … abandoned property collections, helped offset decreasing personal income tax growth.

From page 14, Other non-tax revenue increased in fiscal 2007 by $66.3 million (16.9%) due to continued strength in abandoned property collections, which grew $39.8 million (12.2%).

So, you have some cash or jewelry or maybe a keepsake (like your grandpa’s antique pistol), and you don’t want to expose it to the risk of burglary, where would you put it…?

Not-so-safe-deposit-boxes.

Is Your Safety Deposit Box a Crime Scene?

updated:

Your Safe Deposit Box is a Crime Scene (Even if There’s No Crime)

So much for the idea that a safe deposit box is a “safe” place to keep your money and valuables.

Let’s be careful out there.

12/13/09

Nevada News & Views – December 13, 2009

By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

Team Tark Pulls Boner, Starts Spinning Tangled Web of Deception (Chuck Muth) – Late yesterday afternoon, political pundit Jon Ralston reported that the Tarkanian for U.S. Senate campaign sent an email out yesterday asking for money. Nothing unusual about that. However….
Assemblyman Goedhart: The Only Legislator to Lead by Example (Chuck Muth) – “Earlier this year, lawmakers rejected Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons’ recommendation to cut state worker salaries by 6 percent, opting instead for 24-day furloughs that will reduce salaries by 4.5 percent for two years,” reports Anjeanette Damon of the Reno Gazette-Journal this morning.
Random Thoughts on Excuses for Not Laying off Government Employees (Chuck Muth) – An excellent Las Vegas Sun story today regarding layoffs of state workers – or, more accurately, the lack of layoffs of government workers – ought to open some eyes; even among many state legislators who usually prefer to remain blind to reality. Here’s the “money quote” from the first paragraph of the story.
Why We Can Never, Ever Trust the Government (Mark Noonan) – From the news: “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.
Massive Failures (Paul Jacob) – How many times, in the last year, have I heard praise for FDR’s banking reforms, even down to the specifics of federal deposit insurance?

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

SURVEY SAYS!

Should Congress get involved in the fight over college football’s BCS (Bowl Championship Series) controversy?

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

MUTHS TRUTHS

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Glenn Cook nicely encapsulates the problem with Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto’s persecution of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki today with this:

“On a corruption scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is former Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny taking huge bribes and being caught on a wiretap begging for cash, this case was a zero. It would put a jury to sleep.”

What he said.

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

Our very own Sen. John Ensign made it on Saturday Night Live last night. Well, sort of. And Nevada’s embarrassment continues…
John McCain, Arizona senator and failed presidential candidate (twice), is up for re-election next year. J.D. Hayworth, former conservative congressman and current Phoenix talk-show host, is mulling a challenge to McCain for Barry Goldwater’s seat in the GOP primary next year. So the McCainiacs have been out doing an underhanded “push-poll” to tar Hayworth. Read all about it HERE

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“If you’re a ‘Reagan Republican,’ as Sen. (Bill) Raggio claims to be, the last thing you want to do in this economy is raise taxes – something Sen. Raggio supported in 2003 and again this year.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial page, 12/13/09
“MGM Mirage has laid off 9,000 employees during the past 18 months. General Motors has cut 13,000 hourly workers during the past year. Nevada government, in contrast, has laid off just 60 employees over the past 18 months.” – David McGrath Schwartz, Las Vegas Sun, 12/13/09

CALENDAR

December 15: Center-right coalition meeting co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and the Nevada Policy Research Institute at 8:30 am. Invitation only.
January 8: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha (we know, a week late – need to let people recover from their New Year’s Eve parties!). Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com
January 19: Center-right coalition meeting co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and the Nevada Policy Research Institute at 8:30 am. Invitation only.
February 5: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha. Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com
February 6: Citizen Outreach’s “Reagan Tribute” in Las Vegas. Details to come.
February 16: Center-right coalition meeting co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and the Nevada Policy Research Institute at 8:30 am. Invitation only.
March 1-12: Candidate Filing Period
March 5: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha (we know, a week late – need to let people recover from their New Year’s Eve parties!). Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com
March 16: Center-right coalition meeting co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and the Nevada Policy Research Institute at 8:30 am. Invitation only.
March 28: Wrestlemania
April 2: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha (we know, a week late – need to let people recover from their New Year’s Eve parties!). Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com
April 20: Center-right coalition meeting co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and the Nevada Policy Research Institute at 8:30 am. Invitation only.
April 24: Republican State Convention in Las Vegas
May 7: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha (we know, a week late – need to let people recover from their New Year’s Eve parties!). Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com
May 12-13: Conservative Leadership Conference in Las Vegas co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and Americans for Tax Reform. Details to follow.
May 18: Center-right coalition meeting co-hosted by Citizen Outreach and the Nevada Policy Research Institute at 8:30 am. Invitation only.
June 8: Primary Election
November 2: General Election

12/13/09

Debating the Public Record

Last week – as we have been doing for six weeks – our campaign sent out emails entitled “Is it Tarkanian Time in Nevada?” The email’s main feature was an article published in the respected Human Events journal in which their Political Editor assesses Danny Tarkanian’s conservative positions on both fiscal and social issues.

Additionally, the Human Events article details the actions of one of our primary challengers at the 1996 Republican National Convention. Now that same primary challenger has attacked the original newspaper report and today her supporter is attacking Danny Tarkanian’s email because it included the Human Events article that sourced it.

Human Events is a respected conservative journal reporting the facts, and it is not the only publication to source this description of events at the 1996 Republican National Convention. The article was also recently cited by the Clark County Political Buzz Examiner.

This is clearly a direct debate between our opponent and the public record (not Human Events, not Danny Tarkanian – or anybody else for that matter).

If – as they have stated – they believe that the Sun reporter misrepresented the facts, they should defend that charge with specific facts of their own and ask for a correction of the original story. Attacking Danny Tarkanian and the sourcing of publications like Human Events and the Examiner misses the mark.

Brian Seitchik
Campaign Manager

—
Paid for and authorized by Tarkanian for Senate
840 South Rancho Drive, Suite 4-614
Las Vegas, NV 89106
www.tark2010.org
[email protected]

12/13/09

Return Fire

From: Chris Muir – Day by Day Cartoon

12/13/09

Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Crime Rate In The World

Hat Tip: Evanie Hansen

YouTube:

When thinking about the mass extermination camps of a holocaust think..

The key to freedom is to be able to have the ability to defend yourself &, if you dont have the tools to do that, then youre going to be at the mercy of whomever wants to put you away.

Guns are deeply rooted within Swiss culture – but the gun crime rate is so low that statistics are not even kept.

The country has a population of six million, but there are estimated to be at least two million publicly-owned firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols.

This is in a very large part due to Switzerland’s unique system of national defence, developed over the centuries.

Instead of a standing, full-time army, the country requires every man to undergo some form of military training for a few days or weeks a year throughout most of their lives.

Between the ages of 21 and 32 men serve as frontline troops. They are given an M-57 assault rifle and 24 rounds of ammunition which they are required to keep at home.

Once discharged, men serve in the Swiss equivalent of the US National Guard, but still have to train occasionally and are given bolt rifles. Women do not have to own firearms, but are encouraged to.

Guns, Crime, and the Swiss

Switzerland and the gun

Crime in Switzerland

12/13/09

Breathless

From: Chris Muir – Day by Day Cartoon

12/13/09

A Citizen’s Guide to Revolution

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit

Yeah baby… Washington, we’re coming for you.

The European Union Times reported:

A new billboard off of Interstate 70 in Missouri provides a short “citizens guide to REVOLUTION of a corrupt government” and issues a call to “PREPARE FOR WAR.”

This billboard replaces one that warned that the socialist “Obama-Nation” is “coming for you.” It’s unclear who the owner of the billboard is, but the first one was the work of a “Missouri businessman.”

While it’s unclear who owns it, the Lafayette County Republican Central Committee seems to endorse it.