12/28/09

Nevada News & Views – December 28, 2009

By: Chuck Muth
Nevada News and Views

TODAY’S NN&V HEADLINES

  • Rally aims to stop Nevada mustang roundups (NN&V Staff) – Wild horse and burro advocates and In Defense of Animals (IDA) are organizing a Wednesday rally in San Francisco.
  • Harry Reid’s Armenian Nightmare (Danny Tarkanian) – My name is Danny Tarkanian and The American Spectator just called me “Harry Reid’s Armenian Nightmare.” I’m writing to ask for your immediate support.
  • ACORN’s Newest Senate Pal (Warner Todd Huston) – The Weekly Standard focused on ACORN’s latest knight in shining armor in the Senate. Though, instead of holding a sword or a lance, this Senator is holding a bucket of the taxpayer’s money to give to ACORN.
  • Left, Right Agree – Rahm’s Gotta Go (NN&V Staff) – The Right and the Left don’t often agree, so when they do, it’s often newsworthy.
  • Voting Records of 90 Blue Dog and Moderate House Democrats (NN&V Staff) – Americans for Limited Government today released the voting records of some 90 Blue Dog and what it dubbed “so-called moderate” House Democrats on what ALG President Bill Wilson called “some of the most controversial votes of 2009.”

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

MUTHS TRUTHS

“Unless Nevadans wish to pay more and receive less, there’s not going to be enough money to go around next year,” writes Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherm Frederick on Sunday. “What to do? Here’s a good prescription: Start with a no-nonsense evaluation of existing government services. Identify the services primary to the life and well-being of Nevadans.”

Talk about strange bedfellows. This is EXACTLY what Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston and I have been saying for, like, forever. I mean, if Jon Ralston, Sherm Frederick and Chuck Muth can all agree on a course of action, shouldn’t the Legislature, you know, take it?

“Then, gather up all of the nest-feathering, job-killing public employee benefits — wildly generous pensions, preposterous side agreements, guaranteed overtime, ward-healing graft and no-work work rules — and eliminate them,” Frederick continued, “resolving from that day forward to only pay a fair day’s government pay for a fair day’s government work. That, I promise you, will solve Nevada’s budget problems.”

OK, that second part is the proverbial devil in the proverbial details. I’m with Sherm on this one, but somehow I think we lost Jon. Still, that’s EXACTLY why the Nevada Legislature needs to HAVE this debate over exactly what constitutes an “essential” service and what doesn’t.

Until you reach that consensus, arguing how to pay for government in Nevada will continue to be an exercise in aggravating futility. We’ll never have enough money to pay for all the government the liberals want and we’ll never cut existing government to the levels conservatives want.

By agreeing to identify and limit government to its core, legitimate functions, the Left and the Right could come to a mutually dissatisfied compromise in the middle. If only our elected leaders would lead us there.

OTHER NEWS & VIEWS

“Speaking of GOP governors who are in deep trouble: Perhaps no statewide official in the country can boast a disapproval higher than Gov. Jim Gibbons’s (R) 82 percent in a June Mason-Dixon poll. The good thing for Republicans is that they probably won’t have him as their nominee next year.

“Former District Court Judge Brian Sandoval is earning rave reviews and polling big leads over Gibbons, and he looks to be on the fast track to facing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) son, Rory, in the general election. Rory Reid’s candidacy is also interesting, because his father will be waging a highly difficult and visible campaign right next to him. Whether the Reid name is an asset or a liability, it will be on the ballot twice.”

The Hill’s “2010’s most compelling governors’ races,” 12/27/09

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

  • “State retail sales were slumping? Raise the sales tax! Layoffs everywhere? Raise the payroll tax, and punish companies for creating new positions! Taxpayers holding onto their cars longer because they can’t afford new ones? Raise the vehicle registration tax! Hotels can’t fill their rooms? Raise the room tax! Then watch as the new revenues come nowhere close to projections, setting the stage for new cutbacks — and new calls for higher taxes.” – Columnist Glenn Cook reminding everyone what the geniuses at the Nevada Legislature did in 2009
  • “The wisest thing to do would be to take advantage of the casinos, which operate like little cities, and let the casinos offer K-12 education for children of the employees, let them go to school where mama works. That is a major beefit. It means that your kids could go to school while you’re working.” – UNLV professor Dave Hickey
  • “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home-state party in Nevada is as closely tied to the unions as Michigan used to be in the days of Walter Reuther, and Reid views the world from that perspective.” – Columnist David Broder warning that the Democrat’s left-leaning policies threaten electoral disaster (Hat tip to Political Diary)
  • “Blowing up an American airliner is an act of war, not a criminal act. Treating (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) as a criminal, reading him his Miranda rights and allowing him to lawyer up means we may have just lost any actionable intelligence and military edge that troops in Afghanistan could have used to capture or kill his co-conspirators. He should be turned over to the military as an enemy combatant so that he can be interrogated.” – Republican CD-3 congressional candidate Rob Lauer

CALENDAR

January 8: First Friday Happy Hour Brewhaha (we know, a week late – need to let people recover from their New Year’s Eve parties!). Among the expected guests: U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Robin Titus. Visit www.FirstFridayNevada.com

12/28/09

Links to Visit – 12/28/09

Miami Herald – Dave Barry’s year in review: 2009 (Hat Tip: Arfin Greebly)

Fox News – Big Brother on Board

Kenneth Timmerman – Israelis Voice Fear That Obama ‘Weak’ on Iran Sanctions

Bookworm Room – Right wing wackos misunderstand peaceful Muslims (I’m being sarcastic)

The Daily Mail – Ben’s walking, talking and working: Wounded Para gets a job with his regiment after amazing recovery (Hat Tip: Bookworm Room)

Brutally Honest – “Only when a family focuses on God can that family become whole” (UPDATED)

Atlas Shrugs – Misunderstander of Islam, Butcher knife on hand, Out on $100 Bail: “He was a Muslim and wanted to start a jihad, or holy war, in Memphis”

Atlas Shrugs – 25 British Muslims in Jet Bomb Plot

Atlas Shrugs – Don’t Answer

Atlas Shrugs – New Rules for Airlines: Is this any way to fight a war?

Atlas Shrugs – IRAN REVOLUTION: MASSIVE PROTESTS, DEATHS REPORTED, CHAOS UPDATE: Bloodiest Day in Iran since June

Friends of Mark Fuhrman – Heaven help up if these folks are actually protecting us! The failed Detroit attack

The Radio Patriot – Tonight’s radio program begins at 8 pm ET – JACK CASHILL joins us

Pam Meister – Family Security Matters – Are We Under an Islamist ‘Tet Offensive’?

Paul Williams – Family Security Matters – Mystery Deepens: Christmas Visit Confirms Finding – Muslim Men Still Missing from Islamberg

The New Editor – Another Great Moment in Public High School Education

Debbie Schlussel – Passengers Likely Right, FBI Lies About Second Man on Second Flight? UPDATE: Man Could Not Answer Why He Wanted to Go to US

The Radio Patriot – Why Would a Saudi Billionaire Pay for Obama’s Harvard Education?

The Radio Patriot – Stepping Back to Look at the BIG Picture

The Radio Patriot – One More Piece to the Puzzle of Obama’s Past

The Radio Patriot – AIRLINE SAFETY – WINDOW DRESSING?

Gateway Pundit – 3 Days Later… Obama Finally Comments on Attempted Detroit Terrorist Bombing

Gateway Pundit – Breaking: Al-Qaeda Takes Responsibility For Detroit Terror Attempt

Gateway Pundit – Lib Reporter Says Protesters Were Asking For It When the Media Labeled Them “Teabaggers”

Gateway Pundit – Flight 253 Terrorist Says There Are More Like Him in Yemen; Dutch Are Looking For Bomber’s Accomplice

Gateway Pundit – Muslim Man Released From Jail After Posting $100 Bond… Threatened to Blow Up Local Stores

Gateway Pundit – Hmm… Israel Calls ALL Ambassadors Home For Special Meeting in Jerusalem

Big Government – Exclusive Audio: Was Bomber Ushered on to Flight 253 Without Papers?

Michelle Malkin – Clown alert: Janet Napolitano says the “system worked;” Update: And now…J-No’s about-(clown)face

Michelle Malkin – Open thread: Obama’s statement on the Christmas Day jihadi attack; Perfunctory, hasty, and bloodless

Michelle Malkin – Corruptocrat Chris Dodd gets his comeuppance

BREITBART – Plane attack a response to U.S. attack on group in Yemen: al Qaeda… Developing…

The Guardian – Detained Americans had nuclear power site map, say Pakistan police

AP – 22 and counting: Mystery fires rattle Houston

Fox News – Task Force Formed to Investigate Suspicious Massachusetts Fires

wcbstv – FBI: Man Flew Into NYC From BWI With Firecracker

Wired – Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’

Time – Obama, family didn’t attend church service Christmas Eve or Day

12/28/09

Financial News Update – 12/28/09

Drunk-Debating Health-Care Reform? (Or … The Shyshtem Worksh!)

Pimco Guru: 10 Percent Stock Drop Ahead

10 Lumps of Coal in the Health Care Bill

The Health Care Fight is Not Over

Lib Reporter Says Protesters Were Asking For It When the Media Labeled Them “Teabaggers”

Of Course. Obama White House Now Say They Prefer the Health Care Bill That Funds Abortion

Why the Tea-Party Movement Matters: ObamaCare Edition

House backers of public insurance option may yield

Oil jumps above $79

Pawlenty Pushes Spending Caps

SurvivalBlog:

Hyperinflationary Depression – No Way of Avoiding Financial Armageddon

An Introspective Look at the Future of America Craig Harris

Real Homes of Genius: Culver City Housing Bubble. Housing Shadow Inventory in Action. Countrywide Bank Owned home versus Duplex on Same Block. Foreclosure Holiday.

Geithner: Tight Lending Threatens US Recovery

Global Food Crisis 2010 Means Financial Armageddon

Bob Chapman: The Credit Crisis is Not Over

Global Markets Face Rising Risk of a 2010 Double-Dip Recession

Fragile U.S. Economy Under Increasing Stress From Escalating Afghanistan War

US Dollar Breakout Means Gold Has Further to Fall

12/28/09

Look what you’ve done!!

Congratulations!! You should be proud of yourself, and you should know just how much we appreciate your support in fighting to take our country back.

The Tea Party Express is gearing up for a huge 2010 and its incredible to see the momentum our great movement has been making to fight back against the corrupt politicians and the attempt to remake the United States into a big-government socialist country where “We The People” are under the thumb of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

You’ve turned out at the Tea Party Express rallies. You’ve made donations to help us fund our movement. You’ve signed petitions, called-emailed-faxed-wrote your members of Congress.

And it’s all working. The polls show Obama, Reid and Pelosi with plummeting levels of support. And even the news media has been taking notice of our efforts. Here are just a few examples of the most recent press mentions for our Tea Party Express effort – and you’ll see that we are a “conservative” organization, and we will take on the Republican Party leadership when they fail the American people and betray their own supposed conservative principles:

As the press accounts made mention above, outside of spending time with our families on Christmas, we’ve otherwise been busy working to gear up the Tea Party Express for 2010.

So after reading some of the news clips above you can decide for yourself – if you want to help us grow this effort even larger and stronger in 2010 than we’d appreciate it if you’d make a contribution to the Tea Party Express.

Or if you prefer, you can mail in a contribution to our finance headquarters:

Our Country Deserves Better PAC
ATTN: Tea Party Express
770 L Street #1020
Sacramento, CA 95814

12/28/09

ALG Releases Voting Records of 90 Blue Dog and Vulnerable House Democrats

From: Americans for Limited Government

Contact: Robert Romano
Phone: (703) 383-0880

“In vote after vote, the Blue Dogs have been all bark and no bite.” – ALG President Bill Wilson

ALG Releases Voting Records of 90 Blue Dog and Moderate House Democrats

December 28th, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government today released the voting records of some 90 Blue Dog and what it dubbed “so-called moderate” House Democrats on what ALG President Bill Wilson called “some of the most controversial votes of 2009.”

“So-called Blue Dog ‘conservative’ Democrats in the House have long touted their caucus as being fiscally-responsible, but what emerges from an analysis of their voting records is a pack of lapdogs who have voted largely in lock-step with their more radical counterparts in House leadership,” said Wilson.

“In vote after vote, the Blue Dogs have been all bark and no bite. Although they had the votes to do so, they have not stopped a single piece of budget-busting legislation in a year that saw the largest budget deficit in American history: $1.4 trillion,” Wilson explained.

“By over a 4 to 1 margin, so-called ‘moderates’ in the House have voted with the bankrupt Pelosi agenda of Big Government,” Wilson added.

The analysis shows 856 Yea votes and 207 Nay votes, which Wilson said “was not enough to stop anything.”

The ALG analysis includes votes on the $789 billion “stimulus”, bankruptcy mortgage “cramdowns,” ACORN funding, a $108 billion International Monetary Fund expansion, the Waxman-Markey carbon emission caps, the $2.1 trillion “public option” health system, the $154 billion assistance program for bankrupt states, and the $290 billion debt limit expansion.

According to the Blue Dogs’ website, “In the 111th Congress, the Coalition intends to continue to make a difference in Congress by forging middle-ground, bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the Country. A top priority will be to refocus Congress on balancing the budget and ridding taxpayers of the burden the debt places on them.”

“By its own measure, the Blue Dog coalition has not succeeded,” Wilson noted. “The House of Representatives this year alone has voted to spend more than $3.6 trillion, to nationalize the health care system, to strangle the nation’s access to energy, and to bankrupt the Treasury—and yet the Blue Dog and so-called ‘moderate’ Democrats have done nothing to stop the profligate financial catastrophe unfolding at the nation’s Capitol,” Wilson said.

Wilson pointed to the record national debt which currently stands at over $12 trillion, as placing an “insurmountable burden on the next generation of Americans.” The total debt is projected to top the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011 at over $14 trillion. By 2020, it will top $20 trillion.

Wilson said that if entitlement spending is not reined in, it will soon half of the entire budget. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), entitlement spending as a percentage of budget outlays will continue to increase over the next decade. In 2019, OMB projects that entitlements spending will stand at $2.482 trillion (45.93 percent of outlays totaling $5.403 trillion).

According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, by 2050 entitlement spending “will consume nearly the entire federal budget.”

“While the nation is going bankrupt, House Blue Dogs and ‘moderate’ Democrats pretend that their support for these terrible pieces of legislation is ‘deficit-neutral.’ They have done nothing to stop the madness, which will only bankrupt the Treasury, destroy the dollar, and saddle American taxpayers without a debt that cannot be paid.”

Attachments:

“Blue Dogs and Moderate Democrats Voting Records, 2009,” Americans for Limited Government.

###

Americans for Limited Government is a non- partisan, nationwide network committed to advancing free market reforms,private property rights and core American liberties. For more information on ALG please call us at 703-383-0880 or visit our website at www.GetLiberty.org.

12/28/09

One More Piece to the Puzzle of Obama’s Past

I find this very interesting indeed… I am reposting from The Radio Patriot in full because this ties so much together about Obama and why he will not release his records…

Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour

From Andrea Shea-King and The Radio Patriot:

Late last night, this piece from American Thinker came over the transom. Though I’m not surprised to learn what you’re about to read, it is one more definitive piece of the puzzle that is Obama’s past. Is it any wonder he bows to the Saudi King? THAT is where he OWES his allegiance, this… our “president”.

Jack Cashill reminds that he had written about this in September 2008. “It indirectly led me to Ayers. The media made the whole story go away and our media did not follow up.”

http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/mansourian_candidate.htm

Jack

Watch the video to see the words coming right out of Percy Sutton’s mouth. Here’s a word out of mine: IMPEACH

———-

From YouTube:

Obama & His Islamic Supremacist Benefactor. In a videotaped interview this year on New Yorks all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Percy Sutton, the former borough president of Manhattan, off-handedly revealed the unusual circumstances about his first encounter with the young Obama. I was introduced to (Obama) by a friend who was raising money for him, Sutton told NY1 city hall reporter Dominic Carter. The friends name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas, Sutton said. He is the principal adviser to one of the worlds richest men. He told me about Obama. Sutton, the founder of Inner City Broadcasting, said al-Mansour contacted him to ask a favor: Would Sutton write a letter in support of Obamas application to Harvard Law School? He wrote to me about him, Sutton recalled. And his introduction was there is a young man that has applied to Harvard. I know that you have a few friends up there because you used to go up there to speak. Would you please write a letter in support of him? Sutton said he acted on his friend al-Mansours advice. I wrote a letter of support of him to my friends at Harvard, saying to them I thought there was a genius that was going to be available and I certainly hoped they would treat him kindly, Sutton told NY1. Sutton did not say why al-Mansour was helping Obama, how he discovered him, or from whom he was raising money on Obamas behalf. A Sutton aide told Newsmax that Sutton, 88, is ailing and is unlikely to do additional TV interviews in the near future. The aide could not provide additional comment for this story.

As it turned out, Obama did attend Harvard Law School after graduating from Columbia University inNew York and doing a stint as a community organizer in Chicago. The New York Times described how transformative his Harvard experience became for the young Obama: He arrived there as an unknown, Afro-wearing community organizer who had spent years searching for his identity; by the time he left, he had his first national news media exposure, a book contract and a shot of confidence from running the most powerful legal journal in the country. The details of Obamas academic performance are well known: At Harvard, Obama rose to academic distinction becoming the editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduating magna cum laude. Less known are the reasons al-Mansour, an activist African-American Muslim, would be a key backer for a young man seeking to attend the most Ivy of the Ivy League law schools. I am not surprised to learn about this, said Niger Innis, spokesman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). It is clear that Barack Obamas ties to the left are familial, generational, and have lasted for several years. Although many Americans have never heard of Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour (his full name), he is well known within the black community as a lawyer, an orthodox Muslim, a black nationalist, an author, an international deal-maker, an educator, and an outspoken enemy of Israel. A graduate of Howard University with a law degree from the University of California, al-Mansour sits on numerous corporate boards, including the Saudi African Bank and Chicago-based LaGray Chemical Co. LaGray, which was formed to do business in Africa, counts former Nigerian President General Abdusalam Abubakar on its advisory board.

From DiscoverTheNetworks:

Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour

Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour is a Muslim lawyer and a black nationalist who made news in 2008 when it was revealed that he had been a patron of Barack Obama and had recommended the latter for admission to Harvard Law School in 1988.

Before becoming a Muslim, al-Mansour in the 1960s was named Don Warden. He was deeply involved in San Francisco Bay Area racial politics as founder of a group called the African American Association. A close personal adviser to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, al-Mansour helped the pair establish the Black Panther Party but later broke with them when they entered coalitions with white radical groups.

In the mid-1970s al-Mansour met Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Tatal, who today is best known for having offered a $10 million donation toward 9/11 relief efforts in 2001 — an offer that was rejected by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani when the prince suggested that the terrorist attacks were an indication that America “should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.” Al-Mansour’s relationship with the prince eventually led to al-Mansour’s hiring as attorney to King Saud. He has since been an adviser to Saudi billionaires who fund the spread of Wahhabi extremism in America.

Al-Mansour is an outspoken hater of the United States, Israel, and white people generally. In recent years he has accused the U.S. of plotting a “genocide” designed “to remove 15 million black people, considered disposable, of no relevance, value or benefit to the American society.” He has told fellow blacks that “whatever you do to [white people], they deserve it, God wants you to do it and that’s when you cut out the nose, cut out the ears, take flesh out of their body, don’t worry because God wants you to do it.” Alleging further that Palestinians in Israel “are being brutalized like savages,” he accuses the Jews of “stealing the land the same way the Christians stole the land from the Indians in America.”

Update: The Radio Patriot – Why Would a Saudi Billionaire Pay for Obama’s Harvard Education?