FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR
April’s First Friday Happy Hour in will feature former congressman and anti-ILLEGAL immigration champion Tom Tancredo as our VIP guest speaker. This Friday, April 1st at Stoney’s in Las Vegas from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Free parking, no cover charge and 2-1 drinks. First Friday is co-sponsored by our friends at KXNT 100.5 FM/840 AM, and our program will be moderated by talk-show host Alan Stock. Be there…or be talked about!
The Potty-Mouthed Kid: Tera’s Tike Responds
Y’all remember Tera Burbank. She’s the liberal activist/unemployed construction worker/media heartthrob in Las Vegas who can’t find time to find a job, but finds time to organize protests against Republican Congressman Joe Heck and was busy lobbying for higher taxes in Carson City last week. If you missed the true Tera Burbank story, as opposed to the Associated Press version, click here.
Well, Tera’s 14-year-old daughter has now responded…and wow, what a mouth on this kid!
I’ve hesitated to publish Brooke Burbank’s grammatically-challenged (another fine example of a public school education) rantings because she’s just a kid and I certainly understand and appreciate her desire to defend mommy dearest. But as you’ll see, Brooke falsely accuses me of not publishing “all of the comments” posted on my blog, so she really left me no choice.
WARNING: I’m not kidding; this 14-year-old kid has a potty mouth on her like you wouldn’t believe. If you are offended by strong language, STOP READING NOW. In addition, I am reprinting Brooke’s comments exactly as written – capitalization, punctuation, spelling and grammar in the original.
Brooke Burbank says:
March 23, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Excuse me sir but thats my mom your talking shit about back the hell off I’ve been with her for 14 years and you dare say that about her you dont know jack about her she is sweet and loving. The reason I was failing school was because I have ADHD and John Clark is a selfish jerk who I never cared about. If you are going to post something then get the facts we are not white trash and I will not here and hear you say these about me and my family you tea party bastard. Dont you EVER talk about my family this way again I am 14 years old and I abviously have a problem with your article my family is amazing. Oh and “Mr.X” who ever you are John got that truck before he even met my mom my mom loves coffee her house her family and her politics was a huge mistake making a mockery of all of those things. Goodbye I dont need to waste my time on you anymore.
Brooke Burbank says:
March 23, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Oh and Chuck why dont you show all of the comments instead of just the ones you wanna see afraid that your readers will notce that you are a jack ass??
Brooke Burbank says:
March 23, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Why dont you show all oif your comments?? Are you afraid Chuck that you readers will relize that your a total asshole?
No further comment is necessary…though I will point out to those who haven’t read the original story that John Clark, the “selfish jerk,” is Brooke’s out-of-work step-father.
The Jerk
Last week Sen. Mike Schneider (D-Las Vegas) was the only heartless, brain-dead legislator who voted against allowing young women possessing concealed-carry permits from walking alone to their cars at night in a parking garage at UNR with a properly registered handgun in their purse to use to stop a man also carrying a handgun from brutally raping, and perhaps even murdering, them.
I’ve always considered Schneider to be an unethical liberal jerk. Alas, it appears my opinion has been too high.
Assembly Republicans: The Weakest Link
Gov. Brian Sandoval has been and continues to be a rock in his commitment to balancing Nevada’s budget without raising taxes and fees. And after getting off to a bit of a rocky start, Senate Republicans have been right there with him. No tax hikes. No way. No how.
Assembly Republican leaders; however, are and continue to be, as usual, as dependable as AT&T cellular service.
That said, in light of Assemblyman Ed Goedhart’s “Ten Bears” letter delivered to Democrat leaders on Thursday, I hear Republican Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea has decided to play a little hardball himself.
Indeed, I’m told Goicoechea intends to issue a new set of demands on Monday which he’ll insist must be met before voting to raise taxes. Tax My Meat Pete’s new demands include:
· A case of Turtle Wax
· A Justin Bieber CD
· Two packages of Burpee rutabaga seeds
· Dinner for two at a Sonic Drive-in
· A tube sock filled with quarters
· One bottle of Asti Spumante
· A can of Red Man
· Two nights at the Beatty Motel 6
· An autographed copy of Sharron Angle’s new book
I’m telling ya…this guy knows how to drive a hard bargain!
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Sunrise, Sunset…Either Way it’s a Tax Hike
I’ve heard that Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford - unable to budge even a single Senate Republican from their pledge not to vote to raise taxes - is now trying to cut deals, Harry Reid-style, with some Assembly Republicans, promising them all manner of taxpayer-funded goodies for their districts in return for their votes to extend the 2009 tax hikes.
Horsford’s reportedly telling people he’s happy to dole out a couple hundred-million dollars worth of earmarked pork for targeted Assembly Republicans if that’s the only way to get over a billion dollars worth of new taxes approved – including an extension of the $800 million worth of tax hikes from 2009 which will sunset in June.
Apparently, Horsford thinks a strong bi-partisan vote for higher taxes in the Assembly would put pressure on Senate Republicans to similarly stab Gov. Sandoval in the heart and give him the votes he needs to raise taxes, as well as override a certain gubernatorial veto.
And by the way, make no mistake, ANY vote to extend the sunsetted tax hikes will be a vote to raise taxes. It will NOT be a revenue-neutral vote, no matter how hard some are trying to “spin” it otherwise.
That $800 million-plus worth of tax hikes was sold to taxpayers in 2009 as temporary. They were approved ONLY because they were scheduled to go away in June 2011. Any Republican vote to extend them is a vote to raise taxes and an invitation for a GOP primary challenge next year.
Plain. Simple. Period.
LOOKING FOR A SPEAKER?
Want your organization to get the inside scoop on what will happen next in Nevada politics and public policy? Invite Chuck Muth to be your speaker! Send an email to Chuck to get rates and dates.
Upcoming Engagements
April 13: Republican Townhall Group (Las Vegas, NV)
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ADA’s Slippery Slope to Absurdity
When most people think of the Americans for Disabilities Act, they think of mandatory wheel-chair ramps. But ambulance-chasing trial lawyers don’t think like you and me. They only see ridiculous and absurd ways to make a buck at somebody else’s expense, often taxpayers. Thus this story from Friday’s Baltimore Sun:
“A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Friday that requires the Washington Redskins to make game content broadcast over the FedEx Field public address system accessible to deaf fans through captioning - including song lyrics. . . . The National Association of the Deaf and the Baltimore law firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy filed the suit in 2006 on behalf of three deaf or hard-of-hearing Redskins fans who regularly attend home games.”
When it comes to trial lawyers, I think Shakespeare was correct.
CAMPAIGN & GRASSROOTS TRAINING
Chuck Muth has been a national grassroots training instructor for candidates, campaign managers, conservative activists, party leaders and organization heads for 15 years. Communications, media relations, grassroots organization, blogging, fundraising, you name it. Workshops for 30 minutes, two-hours, full-day and everything in between. Contact Chuck directly to inquire about costs for putting on a custom training seminar for your group or organization.
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Boulder City SLAPPs Its Citizens Around
My friend Paul Jacob of the Citizens in Charge Foundation once was arrested in Oklahoma for defending the right of citizens to petition their government through the initiative process. So when he warned in January that public officials shouldn’t be allowed to “simply throw dissenters into a gulag and govern by decree,” he was speaking with a high degree of moral authority.
But when I discovered that the public officials he was writing about in his column - who had sued their own citizens “regularly and repeatedly” for daring to participate in direct democracy - were right in my own back yard, my jaw dropped. How did I miss this?
Indeed, upon further investigation I confirmed that after the sponsors of four ballot initiatives in Boulder City complied with the signature-gathering requirements as stipulated by Nevada state law to place four initiatives on the ballot last fall, city attorney Dave Olsen - with the approval of the mayor and two elected city council members - “sued the individuals who petitioned to put these proposals on the ballot – personally.”
Making matters worse, not only did the city’s public officials sue the sponsors before the election in an effort to keep the initiatives off the ballot, they sued those same citizens again after three of the four initiatives were approved by the majority of Boulder City citizens last November.
This is beyond outrageous.
These citizens were sued personally for exercising their constitutional right to petition their government for redress. And in case you may have missed that day in U.S. History class, the relevant language in the First Amendment is as follows: “Congress shall make no law…abridging…the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Or as Wikipedia explains: “The right to petition government for redress of grievances is the right to make a complaint to, or seek the assistance of, one's government, without fear of punishment or reprisals.”
Oh, and as everyone who didn’t miss the Civil War-era classes in U.S. History knows, the 14th Amendment extended the federal prohibition to abridging the right of the people to petition the government to state and local governments, as well. That includes, believe it or not…Boulder City.
For most people, the fear of being sued and the concurrent risk to their reputations is almost as frightening as an IRS audit. Suing citizens for exercising their rights will ultimately and inevitably have a “chilling effect” on the sponsors and anyone else in Boulder City who might in the future dare to participate in their own government through the initiative process.
The fact that the city, as Mayor Roger Tobler explains, did not sue the citizens for monetary damages is irrelevant. The lawsuits require the citizens to defend themselves and their reputations in court - which absent pro bono representation could mean thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars in legal fees.
This is a textbook example of a SLAPP suit – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – and Nevada has laws against them. As Mr. Jacob noted in his column, the result of such SLAPP suits, if unchecked, will be “a quiet populace unwilling to risk engagement in the political process, and thus unable to hold government accountable.”
Boulder City’s action in this matter is an affront to our American heritage and sure as Hades isn’t what the Founding Fathers intended. The case is currently working its way to the Nevada Supreme Court where, if there’s any justice, the city’s public officials will be slapped down for their SLAPP suit against their own citizens. So let it be written; so let it be done.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS/POLITICAL CONSULTING
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FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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