Q&A WITH THE HERMANATOR
If you missed seeing and hearing GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain at our First Friday Happy Hour last Friday, you can click here to catch Las Vegas Sun reporter Delen Goldberg’s interesting Q&A with him.
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AMODEI: THE WRONG SIDE OF THE “RIGHT”?
Nevada GOP chief Mark Amodei reportedly entered the CD-2 special election today, but we’ve received no such advisory directly from his campaign. Guess it’s because bloggers and citizen journalists aren’t “credentialed” media; the only media invited to his press conference this morning.
That said, credentialed mainstream media reporters are reporting that Amodei is not backing down from his proposed billion-dollar-plus tax hike in 2003 or his support for budget-busting collective bargaining for state employees.
According to credentialed reporter Anjeanette Damon of the Las Vegas Sun, Amodei’s defense of those decidedly non-conservative positions “is an indication of his strategy to carve out a position for himself in the crowded special election field as the crossover candidate - one who can appeal to both Republicans and Democrats by rejecting a dogmatic philosophy.”
Something tells me that ain’t gonna go over to well with conservative Republican voters…OR win over any big numbers of Democrat voters who smell blood in the water and realize this may be their one and only shot at winning CD-2.
FOLLOW CHUCK ON TWITTER
If you’re not following me on Twitter, you’re missing out on a lot of great “stuff” that doesn’t otherwise make it here in Muth’s Truths. Click here: http://twitter.com/ChuckMuth
KIECKHEFER VS. TOWNSEND VS. REPUBLICANS
Why is freshman state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer the ONLY Republican in the state Senate thinking about voting with the Democrats to subvert the Nevada Constitution by allowing state Treasurer “Calamity” Kate Marshall to lend taxpayer money to favored private corporations?
Well, here’s something we just found out about this morning. Kieckhefer, as you may recall, ran to replace term-limited state Sen. Randolph Townsend. And Townsend, as you may recall, pulled out all the stops to help Kieckhefer win. And guess what? Townsend recently testified in favor of the bill that every other Republican in the state Senate opposes.
Hmmm...interesting.
Will Sen. Kieckhefer side with his benefactor…or with the citizens of Nevada?
I’m told a vote on the bill has been postponed until tomorrow, so if you haven’t contacted Sen. Kieckhefer to voice your opposition to this bill, there’s still time…but not much time to waste. Click here to get additional background information, as well as the senator’s contact information.
LOOKING FOR A SPEAKER?
Want your organization to get the inside scoop on what will happen next in Nevada politics and public policy? Invite me to be your next speaker. Shoot me an email to get rates and dates.
Upcoming Engagements
May 12: Tea Party West (Henderson, NV)
May 24: Southern Hills Republican Women (Henderson, NV)
July 9-10: Conservative Leadership Conference (Las Vegas, NV)
July 11: Pahrump Republican Women (Pahrump, NV)
THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
The sub-headline in a front-page story in Monday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal reads: “Nevada State College could be killed outright or folded into another school.” It’s the latest in an ongoing media effort to highlight all the possible negative effects of budget cuts if approved.
Here’s the thing: Budget cuts are not a Kobayashi Maru.
Fact is, it’s more than possible to implement the necessary budget cuts and NOT close down the Nevada State College or fold it into another school. On the other hand, for many of us, NSC never should have been opened in the first place, so maybe it SHOULD be closed down or folded into another school.
But if folks are bound and determined to keep NSC open, then raising tuition on the folks who use the service is certainly a viable alternative. Consider: The RJ story notes that it will cost $1,800 per semester to attend NSC next year. That’s $3,600 for both semesters of a school year.
Folks, that’s less than what many parents pay to send their kids to a typical private elementary school! And yet I’m supposed to believe that tuition hikes for these college-age adult students would be the end of the world as we know it? Gimme a break.
You could DOUBLE their tuition and it would still be less than what Nevada spends per pupil on grade school students, so quit the whining, suck it up and get back in the classroom.
CAMPAIGN & GRASSROOTS TRAINING
Communications, media relations, grassroots organization, blogging, fundraising and more. Contact me via email to inquire about costs for putting on a custom training seminar for your group or organization.
SUCKING NEVADA TAXPAYERS DRY IN INTERNET PURCHASES
If a Nevadan drives to Bullhead City, Arizona or Wendover, Utah or Truckee, California and buys a book, they do NOT have to pay Nevada sales tax on the purchase. Why should they? The retailer is located in another state and uses that other state’s government services, not Nevada’s.
So riddle me this, Batman. If instead of driving to another state and buying a book, let’s say a Nevadan dials up the ol’ Internet and purchases the book online from a business located in, say, Texas. Should that Nevadan be forced to pay the Nevada sales tax on his or her purchase? Of course not.
But according to the law, Nevadans are technically required to voluntarily remit to the state the sales tax on any and all Internet purchases from out-of-state companies.
And the Retail Association of Nevada (RAN) announced today a $50,000 lobbying/PR campaign to persuade state legislators to change the law to force out-of-state online companies to force you to pay the sales tax to them and then force the out-of-state companies to remit those taxes to the state of Nevada – all at the out-of-state company’s trouble and expense, of course.
And in violation of the U.S. Constitution, to boot.
RAN says its effort to force you to pay a tax you shouldn’t have to pay in the first place is to level the playing field, but that’s hogwash. In-state retailers still enjoy considerable advantages over online retailers - including the ability of customers to drive down to the local Wal-Mart and make a purchase in the span of minutes, not days, and without the added delivery expense.
Nevada brick-and-mortar retailers and RAN should stop whining, suck it up and get back to competing in the marketplace instead of spending $50,000 to suck more money out of the pockets of Nevada’s citizens.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS/POLITICAL CONSULTING
Desert Fox Strategic Communications for political campaigns and government affairs. Click here
TAX HIKE OR BUST!
This Steven Horsford character is a real piece of work.
The Nevada Senate Majority Leader insists on raising taxes this session of the Legislature. Gov. Brian Sandoval insists on NOT raising taxes this legislative session. Sandoval campaigned on not raising taxes and was elected on that campaign promise. Horsford did NOT campaign on a promise to raise taxes $1.2 billion and was NOT elected to raise taxes $1.2 billion.
Now here’s the part that gets me: Horsford is demanding that Sandoval break his campaign promise and characterizes the governor as unwilling to compromise while simultaneously claiming he, Horsford, is open to compromise….as long as taxes are raised.
Excuse me? How is that compromising?
“It’s not my way or the highway,” Horsford says while refusing to entertain a budget without some level of tax hikes. In other words, it IS his way or the highway. Talk about talking with a forked tongue.
In addition, in further criticizing Gov. Sandoval, Horsford said it’s “time to do the job we were elected to do, not just run off of last cycle’s campaign promise.”
Now, how cynical is that? The idea Horsford is embracing here is to either (a) make no campaign promises when you’re running for office, or (b) break them once you get in office if the party you lost to doesn’t like them.
It hasn’t completely sank in yet, but the time is coming when everyone, especially Horsford’s liberal base, will realize that Horsford and Democrat Assembly Speaker John Oceguera have completely botched this legislative session – which for Johnny O is REALLY embarrassing, since in his case dealing with Assembly Republicans is akin to the New York Yankees playing the Bad News Bears.
As the governor says, there is no need for a tax increase….and the Democrats are not going to get one. Period. The sooner they get that through their thick skulls, the sooner the Legislature can wrap up the people’s business and go home before they do any further damage.
FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR!
The next “star-studded, fun-filled, action-packed” First Friday Happy Hour will be on June 3, 2011 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 conservative talk-show host Alan Stock and and KXNT 100.5 FM/840 AM.
REPUBLICANS VOTING BADLY; ANOTHER IN A SERIES
AB 289 would establish new licensing requirements and impose a new Government Regulation Tax on dieticians and nutritionists, as well as create yet another useless state board overseeing dieticians.
This is nothing short of an effort to grow our nanny-state government, “creates a monopoly on nutrition services for dietitians over other nutrition professionals” and is part of a national scheme by the American Dietetic Association which is pushing similar legislation in 40 states.
Despite the fact that the bill is clearly a tax hike – “Requires Two-Thirds Majority Vote” is the very first line at the top of the bill - and was co-sponsored by five of the most liberal Democrats in the Legislature, AB 289 was passed out of the Assembly with eight embarrassing Republican votes: John Ellison, Pete Goicoechea, Tom Grady, Cresent Hardy, Pat Hickey, Kelly Kite, Pete Livermore and Mark Sherwood.
Tell me the difference between Democrats and Republicans again?
CALLING ALL BLOGGERS
Tea Party West and Townhall.com will conduct a training workshop for bloggers this Thursday, May 12, at the Hampton Inn (421 Astair Drive) in Henderson, Nevada from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. “Beyond Blogging: How to Drive Liberals Nuts with Words and Create Real Traffic for Your Blog” will be conducted by John Ransom, Finance Editor and columnist for Town Hall, with some introductory pearl of blogging wisdom from Chuck Muth of Muth’s Truths blogging fame. Click here for more information
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Senator Obama opposed tribunals, renditions, Guantanamo, preventive detention, Predator-drone attacks, the Iraq War, wiretaps, and intercepts -- before President Obama either continued or expanded nearly all of them, in addition to embracing targeted assassinations, new body scanning and patdowns at airports, and a third preemptive war against an oil-exporting Arab Muslim nation -- this one including NATO efforts to kill the Qaddafi family. The only thing more surreal than Barack Obama's radical transformation is the sudden approval of it by the once hysterical Left. In Animal Farm and 1984 fashion, the world we knew in 2006 has simply been airbrushed away.” - Victor Davis Hanson in National Review Online (Hat tip: Political Diary)
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