Word on the street is that Assembly Assistant Minority Leader Lynn “Bug Man” Stewart (R-Las Vegas) is planning to NOT run for re-election this year – which would be GREAT news for conservatives since Stewart has the worst, most-liberal voting record of any Republican in the state Assembly despite falsely running as a conservative year after year.
However… Continue reading »
Last night’s debate. Game-changer? Maybe. Still too early to tell.
But I think last night’s performance by Newt Gingrich – especially in responding to John King’s opening question about his ex-wife’s accusations – is going to take a lot of undecided Republicans and soft Romney supporters and move them from “It’d be great if Gingrich could actually give Mitt a run for his money, but it ain’t gonna happen” to “You know what, the son-of-a-gun might actually be able to pull it off!”
And don’t think Romney’s peeps aren’t sayin’ the same thing this morning. The smell of fear is in the air.
With that said,
Continue reading »
The purpose of National School Choice Week, January 22-28, is to “to shine a spotlight on the need for effective education options for all children.” And nowhere is such exposure needed more than right here in Nevada.
Let’s first consider the latest failed experiment our government has performed on our nation’s children in its ongoing efforts to “fix” education – joining other failed fads such as new math, whole language, multiculturalism, block scheduling, cooperative learning and…I absolutely love this one…“brain-based teaching” (duh).
“For decades, the prevailing wisdom in education was that high self-esteem would lead to high achievement,” reported the Washington Post on January 15. “The theory led to an avalanche of daily affirmations, awards ceremonies and attendance certificates – but few, if any, academic gains. Now, an increasing number of teachers are weaning themselves from what some call empty praise.”
Alas, not everyone got the memo. Continue reading »
Citizen Outreach is joining activist/lawyer Kermitt Waters in a lawsuit against Secretary of State Ross Miller challenging his AB81 election reform bill from the last legislative session (as well as SB 224 from 2005) for “violation of the single subject restriction of Article 4, section 17” of the Nevada Constitution.
Here’s the wording of Article 4, section 17:
“Each law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one subject, and matter, properly connected therewith, which subject shall be briefly expressed in the title…”
AB81 “is 55 pages in length and…is composed of 69 sections and amends, adds or deletes more than 50 separate freestanding NRS Statutes,” reads the complaint. “Even though the Nevada Constitution prohibits legislation that exceeds a single subject, this Bill addresses more than 30 different subjects and amends more than 50 separate statutes.”
AB81, by the way, includes the NRS language change Miller proposed to redefine the meaning of the term “express advocacy” which, of course, is what Miller is using to sue Citizen Outreach for mailers that were mailed out a year before Miller’s unconstitutional law even took effect.
All of which is the latest example of how Ross Miller – the boy who would be governor – is perhaps the worst Secretary of State in Nevada history.
Very interesting, classy and magnanimous tweet from former University Chancellor Jim Rogers today about a Republican elected official…
“In the year I have written 260 twitters, I have tried to be accurate. I have reread each and every one of these twitters and find I would change only one of them. In my analysis of the 13 members of the Board of Regents, I graded each of them. I stand by those grades except for Kevin Page who I gave a C-. I was wrong.
“I should have given him an ‘A’ because I failed to fully understand all of the hard, productive, thoughtful work, total passion and sound thinking of this very smart public servant. (The pay is less than fifty cents an hour.) In the last several months, I have seen him assume a real leadership role in the Higher Education System. He has learned the intricacies of how the eight institution system works and, with very limited financial support, how the system makes a valiant effort to improve the lives of all Nevadans.
“Regent is a part-time job that requires full time effort, perseverance, dedication, thoughtful consideration, along with the ability and character to stand up for what is good for Nevada’s education. Kevin has all of these attributes. I apologize to Kevin for misjudging him.”
I guess what Mr. Rogers wrote about me being born with “somewhat less than half a brain” still stands. Oh, well.
Longtime political activist Kermitt Waters is preparing to put forward a constitutional amendment via a ballot initiative that would dramatically boost taxes on the mining industry and big businesses with revenue over $1 million a month (gaming exempted). And while we’ve heard of such tax hike efforts in the past, Water’s proposal has a kick: It’s not just a pure tax hike.
Indeed, the hike on mining and big business comes with the complete elimination of all property taxes on single family homes!
Another attention-grabbing aspect of Water’s proposal is the fact that the revenue raised from the tax hikes can’t be spent by the Legislature on what the Legislature wants to spend the money on. Continue reading »
When it comes to tax hikes, Jon Ralston is a master of unwavering contradiction.
First, Jon is in favor of raising taxes. Not just broadening the tax base. Raising taxes. He believes the government needs more money to do more things. He is, after all, a card-carrying bleeding-heart liberal. And he loves spending OPM – other people’s money – on what HE thinks is necessary and important.
But in Jon’s Sunday Las Vegas Sun column, he criticizes a proposed AFL-CIO ballot initiative to impose a corporate income tax on Nevada’s small businesses because while the union claims the people should have a say on the issue, Jon says the people have already had their say by electing the members of the Legislature.
“(G)oing to the ballot is the only crucible I can think of that is worse than Carson City,” His Awesomeness wrote. “The capital is the place to have this discussion…”
Two things: Continue reading »
There is only one election taking place in all of Nevada this month. One. And Clark County Republicans forfeited. Read and weep…
Thanks to a successful signature-gathering recall effort against Democrat Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross – a former union boss – there will be a special election conducted in the Ward 6 district on January 31. Now here’s the thing about a recall:
In addition to it being an up-or-down vote on the incumbent, IF someone gathers and submits a sufficient number of signatures – just over 1,000 in this case – their name would also appear on the ballot in a simultaneous special election to replace Ross should he be successfully recalled.
A fellow Democrat and longtime political apparatchik, Byron Goynes, did just that. So his name will be on the recall ballot. And this same opportunity was available to Republicans – who apparently missed a memo and didn’t even know about the race until I wrote about last week. Continue reading »
Liberal activist/”journalist” Jon Ralston threw another of his patented hissy fits today over a candidate who just doesn’t think she is “obligated” appear on his TV show at Jon’s beck and call. The candidate Ralston fried today in his latest Ralston Rant is, not shockingly, a Republican: Nevada State Sen. Barbara Cegavske.
“If you are willing to put your name on the ballot, you should be willing to come on and answer questions about your campaign,” Jon whined. “If you don’t, people should wonder why.”
We don’t wonder why, Jon. We know why. Because you’ve become an insufferable liberal partisan attack dog, that’s why. Continue reading »
State Sen. Barbara Cegavske (R-Las Vegas) is running for the newly-created Fourth Congressional District in southern Nevada. Danny Tarkanian, a fellow Republican, is expected to join that race – which also features at least three other Republicans.
In a pre-emptive shot at Tark on Monday, Cegavske tweeted, “I have won 6-straight elections. Danny has an 0-3 record. Enough said. I am in it to win it.”
Allow me play devil’s advocate here…because that’s not “enough said.”
