SILVER STATE CONFIDENTIAL 04/22/2015

OH, JOY…TOP OF ANOTHER BAD LIST From the Associated Press today… President Barack Obama's health care law has had a surprising side effect: In some states, it appears to be enticing more Americans to apply for food stamps, even as the economy improves. New, streamlined application systems built for the health care overhaul are making it easier for people to enroll in government benefit programs, including insurance coverage and food stamps. In most affected states, the enrollment increases were not huge, ranging from 1 percent to 6 percent over two years, according to an Associated Press analysis. The sole exception was Nevada, where enrollment shot up 14 percent. LYING LIARS AND THE LIES THEY TELL If there’s a more pathetic figure in Carson City these days than Assemblyman Pat “The Appeaser” Hickey, I’d love to know who it is. After last year’s stunning GOP takeover of the Assembly, Hickey believed he was a shoo-in to be Speaker for the 2015 session.  Instead, he was ousted from his leadership position by his colleagues thanks in large part to the work of two conservatives who were unafraid of pointing out that the king was wearing no clothes and had no principles… Chuck Muth and Assemblywoman Michele Fiore. Hickey has been kicked to the curb and relegated to behind the back-bench in this legislative session…likely his last.  Which explains why he continues to lash out at those responsible for deposing him in his blog while basking in the glow of lionization by Nevada’s #2 liberal blogger-with-a-taxpayer-subsidized-TV-show, Jon Ralston (D-UI). On Hickey’s blog Wednesday morning, The Man Who Would Not Be King claimed that after an admittedly brash floor rebuke of fellow Assemblywoman Chris “Let’s Make a Deal” Edwards Tuesday night… “Governor Brian Sandoval called the controversial conservative firebrand [Fiore] to the proverbial woodshed (his office) last night for his own late-night version of ‘sit your tuckus down.’” Hickey went on to claim that Fiore has been “sending signals through the Governor’s staff that she would be willing to drop her opposition to any and all taxes in exchange for the passage of her numerous gun bills.” Only… It never happened.  Hickey made it up.  The whole thing. This wasn’t embellishment.  It wasn’t even poetic license.  It was an out-and-out lie. “The governor did not contact me last night,” Fiore wrote to me in an email Wednesday afternoon.  “I did not have a meeting with him last night.  I have never discussed with him supporting SB252 in return for his support on any of my gun bills. I have no idea where Pat Hickey got this information for his blog today, but it is totally fabricated.” Ralston, of course – perpetually in-Fiore-ated by the “conservative firebrand” - bought Hickey’s lies hook, line and sinker.  He got “punked.” Nevertheless, after discovering that Hickey did, in fact, lie about the whole thing, Jonny Boy tried to save face by twit-tweeting that the lying blog post was “satirical.” No it wasn’t.  It was, in Fiore’s words, “a big fat lie.” But that’s not just what Fiore is saying.  It’s what the Governor himself is saying.  Sean Whaley of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweeted the following Wednesday afternoon… “@GovSandoval's office confirms he did not meet with @VoteFiore on Tues after floor session.” Did Hickey really think he could get away with such a giga-whopper? Just as pathetically, Hickey also took after yours truly in the same blog post, referring to me as “the state’s biggest rumor-monger” (though not a maggot!) before going on to spread the rumor that Sen. Harry Reid has funded my efforts to oust RINOs from the Nevada Legislature. Another bare-naked lie. However, to be fair and in the interest of full disclosure, if Sen. Reid ever DID offer me money to fund a conservative candidate against the lyin’, pot-smokin’, draft-dodgin’ Gumby Republican, I’d take it in a heartbeat! With the Assembly this week passing a bill giving more people the authority to have crazy people locked up in a mental institution, Mr. Hickey might want to get back on his meds.  But, um, that’s just a rumor. AX THE TAX NOW! In response to state Senate passage of SB252, the governor’s Gross Receipts Tax 2.0, former Nevada state Sen. Bob Beers - currently a Las Vegas city councilman and only declared GOP candidate for Harry Reid’s U.S. Senate seat – nailed it in a blog post… “Well, we elected them. “A bare majority of liberal Democrats and Republicans (by three), working together to approve the third major tax-and-spend hike for Nevada’s state government in twelve years, managed to coalesce against the people today, passing Governor Sandoval’s repackaged gross receipts tax, which voters rejected with nearly an 80% majority just six months ago. Killing jobs, killing hopes and dreams. “I am confused about what it means to declare membership in the GOP.” What he said. DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS The ACLU’s Tod Story was on the Alan Stock Show this morning and unwittingly destroyed his own argument in favor of letting boys go tinkle in the girls’ bathroom in public schools and vice-versa.  According to Mr. Story, no kid should feel uncomfortable if a member of the biological opposite sex is using the same bathroom because they can enjoy the privacy of an enclosed bathroom stall. Really?  Well, then, um…if that’s the case, why can’t a boy who *thinks* he’s a girl just use a comfortable boys' bathroom stall, as well? Case closed. By the way, if co-ed bathrooms are such a wonderfully tolerant and harmless idea, why do they still have “Men” and “Women” bathrooms in the Legislature itself? Freakin’ hypocrites. *   *   *   *   * A bill sponsored by eight of the ten Democrats in the Nevada State Senate to collect sales taxes on your online purchases from out-of-state companies passed unanimously in the state Senate on Tuesday.  Yes, unanimously.  Meaning every GOP senator voted with every liberal Democrat to sock your online purchases. No wonder Councilman Beers is confused as to what exactly it means to be a Republican. *   *   *   *   * Remember how political consultant Nathan Emens went postal on conservative Assemblywoman Michele Fiore last December for outing him as having aided Democrat Assembly candidate Meghan Smith in her race against Republican Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman?  Well, Emens’ client was indicted for perjury today. Heckuva job, Li’l Nate! RALSTON’S RANTS By issuing a statement on Tuesday declaring Gov. Brian Sandoval’s Gross Receipts Tax 2.0 DOA among conservatives in the Assembly through the Assembly Policy Committee (APC) she chairs, conservative Assemblywoman Michele Fiore once again successfully “in-Fiore-ated” Jon Ralston (D-UI), Nevada’s #2 libeal blogger-with-a-taxpayer-subsidized-TV-show. Ralston, as is his wont, ridiculed the APC by childishly calling it the Assembly PINHEAD Caucus (get it?) and then declared it “irrelevant.” So “irrelevant” that he dedicated the major portion of this Reno Gazette-Journal column on Wednesday to writing about it! When something’s irrelevant, doesn’t that mean you ignore it? NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS Democrat Lucy Flores announces congressional bid – LVRJ Disqualified Assembly candidate indicted on perjury charge – LVRJ Wynn has much to gain by a weakened anti-SLAPP law – Smith Taxi Cartel’s Uber-Propaganda Campaign wins…for Now – Muth NPRI comments on Senate passage of Sandoval’s Gross-Receipts BLT - Lovell Advertising NOW AVAILABLE!  Click here for additional information. FAMOUS LAST WORDS “Starting to hear more and more, despite all of the goodwill, comments about Speaker John Hambrick essentially being a cipher. Sad, but, alas, true.” – Ralston Report, 4/19/15 [“If we’ve lost Ralston…”] HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Silver State Confidential is an email newsletter on Nevada politics, public policy and current events published (usually) daily by Chuck Muth, Nevada's #1 Renegade Conservative and the man voted "Most Likely to Irritate Liberals!"  Click on the link below for subscription information…