Today is the holiday officially known as Independence Day. Not the Fourth of July. Independence Day. As in the day we Americans declared our independence from an over-bearing, hugely expensive government headed by a guy named “George.”
Ah, the more things change…
Posted on July 4th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | No Comments »
According to a June 14, 2008, story appearing in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 41 percent of high school sophomores taking a new 60-question, multiple-choice science test flunked it, even though the “pass” score was set at a relatively low 60 percent by the Board of Education. Richard Vineyard, assistant director for curriculum and a K-12 science consultant for the state Department of Education, told the paper that the “science test questions were developed by Nevada teachers and then edited by a state contractor.”
Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | No Comments »
In campaign training seminars I’ve conducted for candidates over the years, I’ve included a particular communications workshop in which I caution against sending out “I” letters. You see, if you’re asking for votes, your message should be about the VOTERS, not you. THEY should be more important, than you. The message should be about what’s in it for THEM, not the candidate.
Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National, Nevada | 1 Comment »
Just when you thought the small band of wacko Ron Paul supporters - who have been desperately trying to undermine the Nevada GOP convention and elect Paul supporters as delegates to the national convention in Minneapolis this September - couldn’t embarrass themselves (and their candidate) any worse than they already have, these meatheads rise to the occasion and sink to a new low.
Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | 23 Comments »
It’s one of the most hated Supreme Court decisions in decades, and it happened just three years ago. I’m talking about Kelo vs. New London, where a bare majority of the justices decided that it was OK for local governments looking to increase tax revenue to take land from their citizens and give it to a developer.
Posted on June 29th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National, Nevada | 1 Comment »
The special session is over. Taxes weren’t raised. Taxpayers win. The budget was balanced without sucking any more money out of the pockets of Nevadans or Nevada’s tourists. Not that some legislators didn’t try.
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | No Comments »
The special session yesterday could have been wrapped up by dinner time at the latest. The Assembly moved expeditiously to approve the plans painstakingly negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and Democrat Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley. But rookie Minority Leader Steven Horsford - running the show for his caucus for the first time since being elected to fill former Minority Leader Dina Titus’ pumps - gummed up the works.
Late in the afternoon, Horsford hopped on his high horse and went on a mini-rant on the Senate floor, spewing typical liberal pabulum about how the Senate was trying to balance the budget on the backs of school children. At issue was a plan to reduce the amount of money allocated for textbooks, a proposal actually put forward by SCHOOL OFFICIALS themselves who decided the textbooks really weren’t necessary, but teacher raises and administration bureaucrats were.
Assembly Democrats voted to cut the textbook money unanimously earlier in the day - which means Horsford wasn’t just accusing Senate Republicans of balancing the budget on the backs of school children, he was accusing Speaker Barbara Buckley and the entire Assembly Democrat caucus of…balancing the budget on the backs of school children.
After Horsford finished bloviating, a clearly irritated but composed Raggio rose and took the young man to the proverbial woodshed. As the kids would say, he ripped Horsford a new one - but in a professional and respectful way that only Sen. Raggio could. It was a thing of beauty to watch and well worth the price of admission. If I can get a transcript of his remarks I’ll post ‘em here over the next couple of days.
But Raggio wasn’t the only one irritated by Horsford’s shenanigans. As noted above, not only did Horsford accuse Assembly Democrats of balancing the budget on the backs of school children, he darned near undid the bi-partisan deal Buckley had negotiated with Raggio. The Speaker was reportedly none to happy with machinations of the wet-behind-the-ears rookie Senate Minority Leader. This little episode could have long-lasting ramifications for the 2009 regular session of the Legislature.
Final note: Only the experience and people skills of Bill Raggio made it possible to close out this special session in one day. Those who suggest he can be replaced with “any other Republican” are just plain wrong.
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | 1 Comment »
Gov. Gibbons co-Chief-of-Staff Diane Cornwall finally sorta got “cornwalled” herself yesterday.
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | 2 Comments »
A lawyer purportedly representing a constituent in Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio’s (R-Reno) district filed a lawsuit seeking to kick the longtime Republican leader off the ballot, claiming he has exceeded the 12-year term limit passed by voters in 1996. This is a similar suit which has also been filed separately against Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley (D-Las Vegas).
What’s particularly interesting is this paragraph from the lawsuit:
Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada | 5 Comments »
Forget Florida. Move over Ohio. The battleground state for the Oval Office this year could well be Nevada - and that might not be good news for Republicans.
Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National, Nevada | 5 Comments »
