MUTH'S TRUTHS 10/04/2013

FIRST FRIDAY HAPPY HOUR

This month’s First Friday Happy Hour is TONIGHT, October 4 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm at the Blue Martini in Town Square on the south end of the Strip in Las Vegas.  Our VIP guest-of-honor will be our 2014 Courage under Fire award recipient, Amanda Collins. 

HUGE VICTORY FOR SCHOOL CHOICE…BUT NOT IN NEVADA

A gaggle of school voucher-haters – led by the Arizona School Boards Association and the Arizona teachers union – filed a lawsuit challenging the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program.  Among other things, the voucher haters maintained that the voucher program violated the state’s constitution since the vouchers could be used in religious schools.

Such constitutional prohibitions in state constitutions are generally known as “Blaine Amendments” – and Nevada has one, too.  But the trial court “found the Religion Clause was not violated because the state ‘is not directing where monies are to go,’ so there ‘is no purpose by the State to directly benefit any religious school.’” 

The school voucher haters appealed.

On October 1st the Arizona Court of Appeals struck a huge victory for school choice by soundly rejecting the appeal.

“The ESA is a system of private choice that does not have the effect of advancing religion,” Judge Jon W. Thompson wrote. “Where ESA funds are spent depends solely upon how parents choose to educate their children. Eligible school children may choose to remain in public school, attend a religious school, or a nonreligious private school. … We therefore concur with the trial court that the ESA does not violate the Religion Clause.”

AMEN!

Great for Arizona kids and parents, but yet another sad example of just how inconsequential the first term of Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R&R-Partners) has been.

Much like the tax issue, Sandoval talked a good game on the campaign trail in 2010.  He regularly and often expressed support for school vouchers and promised to pursue them.  Then he got elected.  And has done next to nothing.

Indeed in his first legislative session in 2011, instead of embracing then-Assemblyman Ed Goedhart’s comprehensive school voucher proposal – the Excellence in Education and Increased Opportunities Act (EIEIO), which was fully vetted for constitutionality as it relates to Nevada’s own Religion Clause – Sandoval instead put forward a needless bill to remove Nevada’s Blaine Amendment from the Constitution.

Worse, his bill never received a hearing, let alone a vote.  Yet the governor didn’t raise a peep of protest.

Sandoval came back this year with a complicated and convoluted education tax credit bill - even though Nevada has neither a corporate or personal income tax that you could easily credit – rather than pursuing a true universal school voucher bill. 

And once again the governor did virtually nothing with his gubernatorial soapbox or veto pen to insist on even this modest, pale imitation of school vouchers.  As such, legislative Democrats deep-sixed the proposal and, again, never was heard a discouraged word from the governor.

Nevertheless, you can bet for the next year the Sandoval re-election campaign is gonna be telling us what a fantastic job he’s done for education.  If only it were true.

RALSTON RETORTS!

During the government SLOWdown of non-essential services this week, Nevada Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada) has been setting aside time to personally take phone calls from constituents.  And by personally, I mean actually answering the phone himself in his DC office. 

And for anyone who thought it was just BS, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Steve Sebelius tried ringing up the senator yesterday…and Heller himself answered!

The two exchanged recipes, debated Taste Great vs. Less Filling and discussed Amy Carter’s grade-school paper on global thermo-nuclear war. 

After the call Sebelius tweeted...

“He and I part ways on (ObamaCare), gun background checks and other stuff, but I give props to @SenDeanHeller for answering office phones.” 

He then joked...

“But the real question is, what if somebody calls for a staffer? Does @SenDeanHeller know how to transfer a call?” 

Funny.

But one curmudgeon wasn’t laughing. 

Jon Ralston, Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger, growled about Heller’s office having “induced almost everyone to cover him answering phones in his office,” including Sebelius.  He then began posting a series of tweets ridiculing Heller.  For example:  

"What do you mean why am I answering my own phone instead of doing what a senator is supposed to be doing?”

Um, you mean a senator isn’t supposed to be talking to his constituents and reporters?  What a dick.

And we all know that if it’d been Shelly Berkley instead of Heller taking calls personally and directly, you can bet Ralston would be singing her praises as a true “woman of the people.”  Such transparent hypocrisy.

READERS WRITE

“If you want to have some fun, try background checks on those running the new Nevada health link website.  Wow!  They were in IT at the Nevada PERS operation and have no credentials for running a complex multiagency interactive networked environment. 

“They are a bunch of good ol' boys.  Wouldn't trust them with my grocery money, let alone running a site collecting extremely private information about my health, tax, and financial details.  

“Their escape is they outsourced it to Xerox.  You remember them, don't you?  They lost their leadership in copier technology to the Japanese and Koreans and now run hotel reservation sites for Marriott and others.” – Name withheld

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“He’s a coward!” – Sen. Harry Reid referring to House Speaker John Boehner at a Democrat policy lunch on Tuesday, Politico, 10/4/13.  Ah, how to win friends and influence people!