When Did the GOP Become a Madhouse? Hint: It's NOT Just Sharron Angle.

It's nice to see more and more of our fellow Nevadans, even (perhaps especially!) Republicans, reject the kind of insane extremism Sharron Angle represents. In fact, I feel quite sorry for my Republican friends, family, and neighbors these days. Think about it. When did their party cease to represent smart conservative thought? And when did this party become "The Party of Batshit Crazy"?



And now, it's going beyond Obtuse Angle. Joe Heck is increasingly toeing the "tea party" line and agreeing with Sharrontology's crazy on eliminating women's reproductive rights, destroying Social Security and Medicare, and denying the federal government has any role in job creation (actually, it does).



The same is happening to Brian Sandoval. In order to beat Jim Gibbons, he's essentially had to become Gibbons... At least policy wise. Even as REPUBLICAN leaders in the legislature have realized we need to talk realistic about the budget and tax policy, Sandoval refuses to acknowledge reality.



And he has no problem flip-flopping! Wherever he goes, he'll have a different answer ready for you.



So when did the party of Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Goldwater get reduced to this? This isn't conservatism. This is MADNESS.

It takes me back to last month, when Former Governor Kenny Guinn so tragically passed away. Would there be room for him in today's Republican Party? Hell, would there be room for Barry Goldwater and his support for LGBTQ equality? Would there be room for Dwight Eisenhower and his support for Social Security and massive federal infrastructure projects? Would there be room for Teddy Roosevelt and his passion to save our planet? Would there be room for Abraham Lincoln and his support for civil rights?

What happened? For the sake of all of us, our entire state, and our entire country, the Republican Party needs to do some more soul searching and ponder whether this "tea party invasion" is really working in their favor.

And Latin@s Want to Vote for Sharrontology?

Now of course, the first sentence is being taken out of context and being misconstrued (again). Oh joy, another "Reid gaffe"! Never mind that he was right.

“Sen. Reid’s contention was simply that he doesn't understand how anyone, Hispanic or otherwise, would vote for Republican candidates because they oppose saving teachers’ jobs, oppose job-creating tax incentives for small businesses, oppose investments in job-creating clean energy projects, and oppose the help for struggling, unemployed Nevadans to put food on the table and stay in their homes,” read the statement.

“Nevadans are suffering in this economy,” the statement continued, shifting to an attack on Republicans over the economy. “Senator Reid was rightly pointing out that Republicans like Sharron Angle who oppose job-creating measures and unemployment benefits, oppose emergency aid to save 1200 Nevada teachers, and who want to wipe out critical programs like Social Security and Medicare, are part of the problem, not part of the solution.”

Reid’s campaign also pointed reporters to research from the campaign on Angle’s “extreme and dangerous agenda for Hispanic Nevadans,” including a report from Las Vegas’s KLAS on complaints from Hispanic media outlets that they have been “shut out” from covering Angle’s campaign.

“Sharron Angle’s extreme and dangerous agenda for Hispanic Nevadans is something she obviously wants to hide, which is why she and her allies will do or say anything to attack Sen. Reid and shift the focus from the intense heat her campaign has been under,” said Reid campaign spokesman José Dante Parra.

So Harry Reid explains his stand on immigration reform, stands with KLAV as they launch their English proficiency program, and meets face to face with Latin@s in the East Side... And this is bad because there's a "gaffe moment"?

And Sharron Angle ignoring Nevada's Latinos and Latinas is fantastic?



And Sharron Angle using xenophobia to try to round up votes is terrific?



Again, we need real solutions, not blind hate. In fact, all that blind hate is hurting Arizona's economy. And think of how something like SB 1070 would destroy our tourism industry, which is still such a huge piece of Nevada's economic puzzle. No wonder why local business leaders opposed Chad Christensen's attempt to bring SB 1070 here...

And no wonder why more and more local business leaders are rejecting Sharrontology's extremism in favor of someone who can actually deliver real results.





Yep, I think the facts speak for themselves... And when putting things into perspective, we can see why more and more Nevadans of all cultural backgrounds are deciding it's not a good idea to throw away everything Harry Reid has done for this state in favor of "teh crazee".

When Did Our Schools Become "Special Interests"?

So Congress finally passes some badly needed aid for states to cover school expenses and Medicaid costs...

House Democrats today passed a bill doling out $26.1 billion to states to help them pay for teachers and emergency workers and to cover growing Medicaid costs. President Obama Tuesday morning hailed Congress for returning to Washington unexpectedly one week into the summer recess. Thanks to two Republican votes from Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine, the measure passed the Senate 61-39 last week.

The House passed the measure 247-161. Democrats and the White House estimate the new spending could save up to 300,000 teachers' jobs across the country. Supporters see it as building on the stimulus program from 2009. But like anything in an election year, the vote set off political nastiness.

It's a ready-made campaign commercial as Democrats plan to hail their own votes as heroic when states are facing massive budget crises. And -- you guessed it -- Republicans will say it's another big-spending government plan.

And the Republicans are already on attack! Look at Sharron Angle and her new wackadoodle BFF on Faux News, blabbering away...



So this is all about "special interests" and "politics"? Tell that to these hard working teachers...



And tell that to the people here in Nevada, in critical need of schools that remain open. Harry Reid has gone to bat for us before to keep Nevada schools open, and he succeeded again this week.



Yes, I know. Sharrontology and her friends still call it "crazy spending", even if it does mean schools remain open. Well, they're just wrong. Remember when I wrote this in March?

[T]he casinos can no longer be counted upon as a "free ride". We can't just expect new casino construction to prop up demand for construction jobs, which props up demand for new housing, which props up demand for housing construction, which props up the rest of Southern Nevada's economy. We may have lucked out in seeing this model work from 1989 to 2007, but all it really did was hide the weaknesses in this shaky economic model that ended up being exposed when "The Great Recession" hit and all the artificial demand for new casinos, new homes, new whatever fell like a row of dominoes. [...]

So again and again, we come back to this dilemma. As long as our education system is broken and as long as we continue to make ourselves overdependent on the casinos and casino-fueled development, Las Vegas will continue to suffer under this radical boom and bust cycle that lives and dies on discretionary consumer spending. Sorry, but this is not how a major metropolitan area with 2 million residents and a state with over 2.7 million residents can survive!

Funny enough, Sharron Angle has bashed Harry Reid for making those now famous calls to the bank to save CityCenter, the 22,000 jobs created there, and the many more thousands of jobs on the Las Vegas Strip. But without the casinos on The Strip, where would we be now? We'd have no economy!

And let's face it, the only way we can survive is if we diversify our state's economy. And here's some more reality for us, businesses look at more than just taxes when making decisions on where to place roots and invest. Businesses want states with good schools and strong infrastructure, as it means a well-educated workforce and a good quality of life for that workforce. So when Harry Reid brings back more and more of our federal tax dollars to make sure our schools stay open, our teachers are doing their jobs, and our kids are learning, it means we still have a life line to a better future for Nevada.



While Sharron Angle is palling around with Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, DC Republican leaders, and the real fat cat corporate "special interests" and toeing the "Tea Party, Inc." line on making federal government as dysfunctional as possible, Nevadans are looking for real solutions. We don't have time for any more of her BS crazy.

NV-03: Dina Titus Comes to Stonewall BBQ, Reminds Us Why She's Awesome

Yes, my dears, that was really Dina Titus talking with us on Saturday at our Elect Equality celebration barbeque on Saturday! Since we all know Stonewall throws the best parties and Team Titus does the best BBQ, we figured it was also a good excuse to party it up in my 'hood here in Henderson. ;-)

No, but seriously, we were so excited to see Dina win Elect Equality, and in turn all the help we'll be receiving from National Stonewall. No one deserves it more than Dina, someone who's never hesitated to stand with Southern Nevada's LGBTQ community whenever we've needed her. And with "Tea Party, Inc." spending their corporate patrons' millions on the anti-equality Republicans running here, it's good to see the grassroots forces for equality come in and make sure we reelect proven allies and heroes like Dina Titus.

Oh, and we had some more special guests there! Derek brought in a live DJ. State Senators David Parks and Joyce Woodhouse came over to party with us. So did Assembly Members Mark Manendo and Paul Aizley.

Not that long ago, we LGBTQ Americans were maligned as "cockroaches" of our society, scum of the earth who respectable people were not to be seen with. It's amazing how far we've come over the years... But we still have much further to go before we reach full equality. That's why it's critical for us not to forget how important this election is, and to remember who our real friends are. These people are our friends and family. These crazy people are not.

NV-03: Is Joe Heck Running Away from Sharrontology?

Did Joe Heck just try to pull the wool over Jon Ralston's eyes? Yes, I know. He wasn't at that "conservative country" concert with Sharron Angle on Saturday... But he was supposed to be.

So is Heck now trying to run away from Obtuse Angle? Well, if he is, he'll have an awfully hard time separating at the hip. Heck, Heck even copycats Angle's wackadoodle rhetoric that Congress should not be helping states create jobs!

Dr. Heck even used the same wording as Angle, “the role of Congress is not to create jobs“, and he also wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare, just as Sharron Angle wants to do. In fact,Dr. Heck took $5000.00 dollars for signing a pledge to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

For more than 200 years, voters in every State have sent their elected officials to DC to help bring money back to their States for all kinds of special projects that create jobs.

There are thousands of special projects across the country and most of them are worthy projects and deserving of our federal dollars, not all special projects are pork.

Because of Nevada’s Democratic delegation of Dina Titus, Shelly Berkley, and Harry Reid, new jobs are being created for Nevada.

Solar plants, wind turbines, and geothermal are all being expanded in our State, and with that expansion comes jobs. A new high speed train system from Southern California to Las Vegas will be built, which will bring more tourists to our State, which will create new jobs. A new VA hospital, more jobs, etc. You get the idea.

None of those special projects could have happened without the help of the federal government and the federal dollars that our elected officials help to secure for those special projects.

And wait, it gets worse. You know how Heck always boasts about being a doctor? Well, guess which "doctors' association" Heck's been associating with? Take a look at the picture below...

Notice something familiar? Yes, it's the same crazy teabagger "doctor" (see who made comment #2 at that link!) front group that Sharrontology visited in San Diego on Saturday! And Heck himself did an AAPS "tea party" last November, hence the above screenshot.

So does Joe Heck agree with Sharrontology's crazy "ideas"? The evidence so far shows just that. Just remember to hire the right lobbyists and funnel money into his campaign.

The medical industry had spent close to $1 billion to fight reforms using attack ads, lobbyists, campaign donations, as well as funding protest rallies in Washington DC and all across our country at Tea Parties. The medical industry created lies such as death panels and the government is taking over health care. And despite all that was against her, Dina Titus who has lots of moxie did what was right by voting in favor of Health Care reforms for her District, her State of Nevada and our Nation. 

State Senator Joe Heck not only wants to repeal all of the above mentioned reforms, he wants to privatize Medicare and Social Security which would be devastating to ALL senior citizens in the United States. 

A few months ago Anthem insurance company which is owned by WellPoint, increased premiums by as much as 39 percent in California (in other States WellPoint increased premiums by as much as 50 percent).

The insurance companies removed tens of thousands from their insurance rolls in California alone because of high costs of care due to age, sex and pre-existing problems, and they did all of this to increase their net profits to satisfy share holders. And Joe Heck wants to put Social Security and Medicare into the hands of those same types of people who will also have to answer to their shareholders.

State Senator Joe Heck does not appear to have the best interests of Nevadan’s in mind when he says he wants to privatize Medicare and Social Security, but he does look like he supports the corporations and their share holders, which is why the special interests have spent $1.3 million on attack ads with a promise to spend even more as we approach Novembers mid-term general election.

Just like Sharrontology, Heck is more than willing to sell out Nevada's best interests for that cold, hard "Tea Party, Inc." cash. And no matter whether he's now trying to convince us he's had a "change of heart", he can't hide this.

From Prop 8 to Sharron Angle's Hate: Can a Gay Progressive Nevadan Still Hope?

(Also at DKos and The Blend)

This week has been a doozy for me. I was up. I was down. I was right. I was wrong. I was elated with joy. I was horrified and filled with fear.

And in the end, I just have to keep on chugging and do what needs to be done to move forward and achieve the full equality we so badly need and fully deserve.

I still have painful memories from 2008.

The yard signs that were stolen from my front yard. The homophobic insults coming from my own family. The belligerent Yes on H8 paid canvassers trying to bully my dad into taking away my civil rights. The "urine yellow" Yes on H8 signs being sprinkled all over my neighborhood by the anti-equality churches. These are my memories from the campaign.

The married couples wondering if their marriages were still "legally valid". The couples that waited too long and missed the chance to get a "limited edition marriage". The kids who were bullied in school before and after the election. These are still memories I have from the first days after Prop H8 passed.

Beating myself up constantly about why I didn't do more to stop this oncoming tragedy. This is the guilt I still have over my failure to do enough to stop Prop H8 from passing.

I still remember the drive home with my dad on the day after the election. (We were actually here in Nevada to help Obama win.) As soon as I heard on the radio that Prop 8 passed in California, I broke into tears... And cried all the way home. For the next two weeks, I was deeply depressed.

Am I sub-human? Are gay couples just inferior to straight couples? How could this happen here? Is this all my fault? These were the questions swirling around my head.

This week, I finally felt some closure. Prop 8 was overturned in federal court... And while marriage equality is still on hold in California, it was nice to see a glimpse of that "liberty and justice for all" I've heard about in this country.

I know we've all been frustrated by what may seem sometimes like a stunning lack of progress on attaining even the most basic of human rights for LGBTQ Americans. I know I have been. But this week, my hope was renewed. For once, the politics of hate and fear and bigotry was trumped by the possibility of a better America, an America that isn't ashamed to treat all her citizens equally.

Yes, I was feeling so great on Wednesday...

Then reality slapped me in the face yet again.

You see, last year I moved to Nevada. Yes, my dears, Nevada. I live smack dab in the middle of Henderson, which feels like the heart of that mythical "Middle America" I heard about when I was safe in the confines of "Left Coast California".

And believe it or not, this crazy lady is actually running for US Senate here.

Among her positions, outlined in answers to 36 yes-or-no questions, [Sharron] Angle would oppose making sexual orientation a protected minority in civil rights laws. In a section on school prayer, she affirms that students and teachers should be able to talk openly about religion in schools, including the right to "publicly acknowledge the Creator." [...]

In the questionnaire, submitted to the Washington-based Government is not God political committee, Angle said she would vote in Congress to prohibit abortion "in all cases," and considers a fetus a person under the Constitution.

The Washington-based group's website says it supports candidates who oppose abortion rights and "stand firmly against the unbiblical welfare state that is destroying the spiritual and economic greatness of our nation."

And if you think that's all, think again. Sharron Angle is supported by "Christian Reconstructionist" religious right extremists who want to impose THE DEATH PENALTY on "homosexual sodomites".

An organization calling itself Vision to America sent out a recent fundraising appeal sponsored by U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) on behalf of Nevada Republican senatorial candidate Sharron Angle. "I have put together a plan to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Nevada Senate race — along with several others like it — to achieve conservative victory. This plan includes running statewide television and radio ads, sending direct mail to targeted voters, and operating phone banks — all geared toward defeating Harry Reid in November."

What is American Vision, and why do they love Sharron Angle? American Vision has a goal: "The goal is to return America to its Biblical foundations “from Genesis to Revelation” (a postmillennial reading of Revelation, which holds that the Second Coming will occur after an era of Christian dominance). American Vision is a non-profit, tax exempt, educational organization. Like many of these groups, DeMar also has a companion organization that can raise money and promote candidates for elected office: Vision to America." [link ...]

The Bible is clear on moral issues that are culture-killers: homosexuality, homosexual marriage, and abortion," says DeMar, who is closely allied with D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries, where he frequently speaks.

While DeMar insists that homosexuals wouldn't be rounded up and systematically executed under a "reconstructed" government, he does believe that the occasional execution of "sodomites" would serve society well, because "the law that requires the death penalty for homosexual acts effectively drives the perversion of homosexuality underground, back into the closet."

Another "long-term goal," he writes elsewhere, should be "the execution of abortionists and parents who hire them." [...]

In 1993, American Vision helped county commissioners in Cobb County, Ga., pass an anti-gay resolution so strongly worded that it sparked a national controversy. Cobb County Commissioner Gordon Wysong spoke at American Vision's annual fundraising banquet the following year, saying of gay people, "We should blame them for every social failure in America." [link]

Frightening enough, right? Wait, it gets worse. Sharron Angle herself openly advocated the complete denial of even the most basic civil rights to LGBTQ Nevadans when she helped found the openly xenophobic Independent American Party of Nevada in the early 1990s. Yep, that's right. She thinks we SHOULD be discriminated against at work, when shopping, when on the bus, when applying for disability benefits, when searching for a place to live, whenever, wherever.

Oh, and Sharron Angle won't even take money from companies that treat their LGBTQ employees fairly and equally. Yep, she's that serious about her homophobia!

So how can someone like this even be taken seriously? How can someone like this earn votes in her run for the United States Senate? What happened here?

It's still saddening to see bigotry used as a "wedge issue" in political campaigns. It broke my heart with Prop 8 in California two years ago, and now it just infuriates me to see Sharron Angle flaunt in my face her hatred of me and my extended queer family.

It just goes to show how much progress we still need to make in this country. It's great to see federal judges like the Honorable Vaughn Walker rule in our favor and rightly decide that we are citizens deserving of equal rights... And then it's terrifying to see Senate candidates like Sharron Angle vow to oppose any and all remedies to wrongful discrimination. Of course, it's safe to say she doesn't agree with Judge Walker's Prop 8 ruling.

OK, I guess I should mention the elephant... No, make that donkey in the room.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not making excuses. And I'm not saying it's wrong for GetEQUAL or any other LGBTQ advocacy group to demand full equality. As a gay person myself, I'm 110% there with you! I'm just saying that Harry Reid is NOT the enemy, but rather a friend who I know wants to do the right thing. Sometimes we need to give him the extra push and "make him do it", as both he and Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday at Netroots Nation. But in the end, it's important to keep building these relationships, holding leaders like Reid and Pelosi accountable when necessary, but also remembering that these are our friends and we don't have to fight against them.

Yes, Harry Reid is my Senator. And yes, I know he's not perfect. But whenever I feel frustrated about why DOMA is still on the books or why ENDA hasn't been passed yet, I remember what's at stake here. I remember the batshit crazy tea-nut queen running against him, and I remember I have no choice but to make sure the tea-nut queen gets nowhere near the US Senate.

Sometimes, change isn't fast. Most often, change isn't easy. But in the end, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was right. Change happens. "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."

That's what gives me hope... Hope that Prop 8 will soon be another sad footnote in our history, one that we will have overcome. It's what gives me hope that one day soon (oh, it should be soon!), Harry Reid and Barack Obama will be able to herd those cats often referred to as "US Senators" and deliver on basic freedom from discrimination in the workplace. It's what gives me hope that homophobic, transphobic extremists like Sharron Angle won't be able to win elections on pure, primal hate.

So I guess the hope is still alive. It's been a long walk to freedom and equality, but I guess we'll soon make it all the way up there.

Sharrontology & Her "Calling from God"

What? You thought it was bad enough that Sharrontology Obtuse Angle believes she's on a "mission from God"? And that she's palling around with extremists who want to impose the death penalty against "homosexual sodomites and abortionists"? And that she thinks people in need of Medicare or unemployment aid are "heathens"?

Well, get a load of this...

When Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a Christian news interviewer this year that “entitlement programs (are) built to make government our God,” she voiced a central tenet of Christian Reconstructionism, according to academics who study the movement.

Christian Reconstructionism is a political-religious movement formed in the 1960s and ’70s that seeks to return American society to the rule of biblical law. Any attempt to expand government beyond the dictates in the Old Testament — for example, by establishing Social Security benefits, education policy or property taxes — turns government into a false idol, reconstructionists believe.

“The problem is that government becomes an idol when it overspills its biblically proscribed boundaries, and people start looking to government for salvation,” said Julie Ingersoll, a religious studies professor at the University of North Florida, in explaining a tenet of Christian Reconstructionism. [...]

Many of Angle’s religious and political beliefs appear to align with the tenets of Christian Reconstructionism. She’s supported eliminating Social Security and Medicare, is a home schooling champion, sees the separation of church and state as an unconstitutional doctrine that was never meant to protect the state from religious belief, and believes public policy should support the traditional family structure as defined in the Bible.

She also helped resurrect the Nevada affiliate of a national party founded by a prominent Christian Reconstructionist and has raised campaign money from reconstructionists.

But Ingersoll said Angle’s comments on government as a false idol come directly from the movement’s founder, R.J. Rushdoony, an orthodox Presbyterian minister.

It's become increasingly clear that Sharron Angle has rather strong ties to the Christian Reconstructionist movement. The late RJ Rushdoony is commonly credited as the intellectual parent of this movement. Now he had some very... Ummm, let's say interesting ideas for this country that now form the basic "platform for change" that Christian Reconstructionists seek.

Rushdoony's most important area of writing, however, was law and politics, as expressed in his small book of popular essays Law & Liberty and discussed in much greater detail in his three-volume, 1,894-page magnum opus, The Institutes of Biblical Law. With a title modeled after Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Rushdoony's Institutes was arguably his most influential work. In the book, he proposed that Old Testament law should be applied to modern society and that there should be a Christian theonomy, a concept developed in his colleague Greg Bahnsen's controversial tome Theonomy and Christian Ethics, which Rushdoony heartily endorsed. In the Institutes, Rushdoony supported the reinstatement of the Mosaic law's penal sanctions. Under such a system, the list of civil crimes which carried a death sentence would include homosexuality, adultery, incest, lying about one's virginity, bestiality, witchcraft, idolatry or apostasy, public blasphemy, false prophesying, kidnapping, rape, and bearing false witness in a capital case. Although supporting the separation of church and state at the national level, Rushdoony understood both institutions as under the rule of God, and thus he conceived secularism as posing endless false antitheses, which his massive work addresses in considerable detail. In short, he sought to cast a vision for the reconstruction of society based on Christian principles.

The book was also critical of democracy. He wrote that "the heresy of democracy has since then worked havoc in church and state ... Christianity and democracy are inevitably enemies." He elsewhere said that "Christianity is completely and radically anti-democratic; it is committed to spiritual aristocracy," and characterized democracy as "the great love of the failures and cowards of life."

No wonder why Sharrontology has embraced such hardcore homophobia, transphobia, and all around xenophobia! This is just plain frightening.

And you know what's even more frightening? Sharrontology's embrace of these "tea party doctors" who want to reject proven science! I'm not even kidding here, Sharrontology is supported by the "Association of American Physicians and Surgeons" teabagger front group, and will be doing a rally with them in San Diego tomorrow. These "tea party doctors" claim President Obama performs "covert hypnosis" on crowds, call Medicare "evil" and "immoral", and claim "there are real grounds for positively denying that HIV causes AIDS."

Why am I getting the feeling we're talking about voodoo doctors here? Remind me not to go to them when I have a fever. I suspect they'd recommend I have leeches suck out the "impure humors" from my body. So does Sharrontology's God tell her to reject real science in favor of this mumbo jumbo? And Obtuse Angle's God wants her to reject Constitutional representative democracy for some hocus-pocus theocracy that would make Iran and Saudi Arabia look "liberated" by comparison?

Now do we have to ask any more why Sharron Angle is unfit to serve in the US Senate? This country was founded on religious freedom, NOT religious extremism. Our Country is governed by The Constitution, not RJ Rushdoony's radical interpretation of The Bible. And for being such a "Constitutional expert", she has no idea what's actually in The Constitution. (Hint, Sharrontology... It's not this theocracy crap!)

Sharrontology Strikes Yet Again, Vowing to Deny Me My Civil Rights

You think that's bad enough? Get a load of this!

Among her positions, outlined in answers to 36 yes-or-no questions, Angle would oppose making sexual orientation a protected minority in civil rights laws. In a section on school prayer, she affirms that students and teachers should be able to talk openly about religion in schools, including the right to "publicly acknowledge the Creator." [...]

In the questionnaire, submitted to the Washington-based Government is not God political committee, Angle said she would vote in Congress to prohibit abortion "in all cases," and considers a fetus a person under the Constitution.

The Washington-based group's website says it supports candidates who oppose abortion rights and "stand firmly against the unbiblical welfare state that is destroying the spiritual and economic greatness of our nation."

So since I'm gay and I'm essentially an atheist, I deserve absolutely NO civil rights according to Sharron Angle. WHAT THE FUCK??!! And apparently if you're a working woman or someone of a different faith or anyone else who doesn't fit into her narrow interpretation of Christian fundamentalism, you're also a "heathen" undeserving of civil rights. For being such a "Strict Constitutionalist", Sharrontology seems rather eager to throw our Constitution out the window and impose some sort of "Christianist Sharia law" on us!

No wonder why Lois Tarkanian, mother of one of Angle's GOP primary opponents, joined other working Nevada moms today in denouncing Sharrontology's extremism.

A Las Vegas city councilwoman, a comedian, a lawyer, a restaurant owner, a Realtor and an executive, along with a handful of other Nevada women, gathered today at a downtown café to send U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle a message: Don't tell us how to live our lives.

The women, all working mothers, came together to pledge their support for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and to speak out against his Republican challenger, who has said that one parent should stay home with children because that is the "acceptable" and "right" thing to do.

Comedian Rita Rudner called Angle's remarks "disturbing" and argued that a woman fulfilled by her job is a better mother.

City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian said she was personally offended by Angle's comments. Tarkanian, a Democrat, is the mother of Republican Danny Tarkanian, who ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary to try to unseat Reid.

Lois Tarkanian, who endorsed Reid on Thursday, said she worked both because she had to -- young basketball coaches don't make a lot of money, she said -- and because she wanted to.

"I was not a better mother when I stayed home full time," Tarkanian said.

Speaker after speaker said many women don't have the luxury of choosing whether to work -- especially in this difficult economy. And women are an integral part of the workforce, they said.

It's become increasingly clear that Sharrontology Obtuse Angle is far too extreme to be allowed anywhere near The United States Senate. She opposes even the most basic civil rights for LGBTQ Americans. She refuses to allow women to make their own reproductive health care decisions. She refuses to allow women to even work outside the home to provide for their families!

Simply put, Sharrontology is far too radical to be any good for Nevada.

Next Steps in Prop H8 Challenge, Our Equality

So yesterday was an amazing day, wasn't it? But hey, it ain't over yet. An appeal was just filed to take the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court that handles all federal suits in the Western region (including California AND Nevada).

And of course, we all know where this will end up. And this morning, The LA Times offered some good news on our chances with The Supremes.

At least some legal experts said his lengthy recitation of the testimony could bolster his ruling during the appeals to come. Higher courts generally defer to trial judges' rulings on factual questions that stem from a trial, although they still could determine that he was wrong on the law.

John Eastman, a conservative scholar who supported Proposition 8, said Walker's analysis and detailed references to trial evidence were likely to persuade Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a swing vote on the high court, to rule in favor of same-sex marriage.

"I think Justice Kennedy is going to side with Judge Walker," said the former dean of Chapman University Law School.

Barry McDonald, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University, said Walker's findings that homosexuality was a biological status instead of a voluntary choice, that children didn't suffer harm when raised by same-sex couples and that Proposition 8 was based primarily on irrational fear of homosexuality were "going to make it more difficult for appellate courts to overturn this court's ruling."

Ultimately, it may all come down to just one person, just one judge who will one day hold the fate of LGBTQ equality in his hands.

Two decisions in the past two decades, however, have effectively reversed Bowers [v. Hardwick, the 1986 decision that upheld state anti-sodomy laws]  and could well impact the gay marriage debate as cases from Massachusetts and now California wind their way through the system.  First, the 1996 decision in Romer v. Evans invalidated Colorado's constitutional Amendment 2, a measure passed by referendum which precluded "all legislative, executive, or judicial action at any level of state or local government designed to protect the status of persons based on their "homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships."

Justice Kennedy's 7-2 majority opinion recalled Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy that the Constitution "neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." (Justice Scalia, citing Bowers, of course dissented.) Citing the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment, Kennedy struck down the Colorado provision and rejected the "special rights' language of its proponents:

The State's principal argument that Amendment 2 puts gays and lesbians in the same position as all other persons by denying them special rights is rejected as implausible...Even if, as the State contends, homosexuals can find protection in laws and policies of general application, Amendment 2 goes well beyond merely depriving them of special rights. It imposes a broad disability upon those persons alone, forbidding them, but no others, to seek specific legal protection from injuries caused by discrimination in a wide range of public and private transactions.

Kennedy, also citing the Equal Protection clause, similarly rejected the notion that the State had a compelling interest or legitimate legislative end in enacting Amendment 2:

In order to reconcile the Fourteenth Amendment's promise that no person shall be denied equal protection with the practical reality that most legislation classifies for one purpose or another, the Court has stated that it will uphold a law that neither burdens a fundamental right nor targets a suspect class so long as the legislative classification bears a rational relation to some independent and legitimate legislative end...Amendment 2 fails, indeed defies, even this conventional inquiry...Amendment 2 cannot be said to be directed to an identifiable legitimate purpose or discrete objective. It is a status-based classification of persons undertaken for its own sake, something the Equal Protection Clause does not permit.

In the 2003 Lawrence v Texas case, the Court in a 6-3 decision invalidated the prosecution of two men under a Texas sodomy statute and reversed Bowers altogether. Again writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy overturned Bowers on both privacy and due process grounds:

Bowers' rationale does not withstand careful analysis. In his dissenting opinion in Bowers Justice Stevens concluded that (1) the fact a State's governing majority has traditionally viewed a particular practice as immoral is not a sufficient reason for upholding a law prohibiting the practice, and (2) individual decisions concerning the intimacies of physical relationships, even when not intended to produce offspring, are a form of "liberty" protected by due process. That analysis should have controlled Bowers, and it controls here. Bowers was not correct when it was decided, is not correct today, and is hereby overruled.

If that language sounds familiar, it should.  Looking at Judge Walker's decision Wednesday in the California Proposition 8 case, Slate's Lithwick noted, "I count--in his opinion today--seven citations to Justice Kennedy's 1996 opinion in Romer v. Evans (striking down an anti-gay Colorado ballot initiative) and eight citations to his 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas (striking down Texas' gay-sodomy law)."

If Justice Anthony Kennedy sides with us, we win. Simple as that. That's why Boies and Olsen have presented arguments that seem to go along with Kennedy's legal reasoning, and why Judge Walker cited so many of Kennedy's opinions yesterday. They know who will be crucial to win over in the coming months.

But for now, we must wait to see what happens next in the Ninth Circuit. This will most certainly drag out through the rest of this year and into the next, and we don't even know yet when marriages will resume in California. But without a doubt, this is great news and new hope for so many of us who have felt hopeless with the otherwise lack of progress on our civil rights in DC.

And this most certainly has implications far beyond the California state line. Even if the case succeeds on a narrow basis that just strikes down Prop H8 in California, this will be the first time ever that a state marriage ban has been struck down on federal constitutional grounds. And even better, Judge Walker's ruling included another precious legal gem.

Under both the Due Process clause and the Equal Protection clause, whether a law is constitutional comes down to whether the state has a good enough reason for it. So, the core of Judge Walker's opinion today is his factual findings - the determinations he made based on the evidence presented to him at trial. Judge Walker's methodical opinion relies on the impressive and authoritative trial testimony of the Perry plaintiffs and their expert witnesses to conclusively refute every argument ever advanced against permitting same-sex couples to marry.

Judge Walker ruled that Proposition 8 and laws like it cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny even under the most forgiving legal standard, the "rational basis" test. But he also held that because it discriminates based on sexual orientation, Proposition 8 should be evaluated under the "strict scrutiny" standard - the highest level of constitutional scrutiny, which applies to laws that discriminate on the basis of race. Discussing the way that the law discriminates based on both sex and sexual orientation, he explained that excluding same-sex couples from marriage is "an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage." And "[t]hat time has passed."

What Shannon Minter from NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights) is saying is that Judge Walker wrote that Prop H8 failed both the "rational basis" test applied to most questions of discrimination, as well as the "strict scrutiny" test typically applied only to questions of the most egregious discrimination. And in this and Walker's conclusion that marriage is a fundamental constitutional right, it will allow for future challenges of other state marriage bans even if the higher courts just take down California's marriage ban with this specific case.

There's a whole lot riding on this, and I'll be keeping a close eye to see if we may finally achieve full equality sooner than I had originally thought. :-)

Mining in Nevada: The Henderson Democratic Club Forum

I have to hand it to the Henderson Democratic Club again... They know how to keep the fireworks going long after the Fourth of July! Last night, they hosted a forum on mining issues. Tim Crowley from Nevada Mining Association (NMA), Pete Dronkers from Environment Nevada, and Mr. Gleaner himself (Hugh Jackson) stepping in for PLAN all came to talk mining and give each of their own unique perspectives of what's wrong and what's right with the state's mining industry.

If we're to believe NMA, mining pays more in taxes than anyone else. "We pay 5% of net proceeds, and we are the only ones to do so," said Tim Crowley. He argued that other businesses only have an effective tax rate of 3.64%, while they have to pay a 5% tax rate on their net proceeds.

Crowley also said, "We don't oppose paying our fair share... It just has to be done in thoughtful way." He explained that NMA supports a broad-based corporate income tax (to be fair, that's even to the left of Steven Horsford!), but "don't single us out... Let's look at everybody."





Funny enough, Hugh Jackson started off in agreement with Tim Crowley on corporate income taxes... Then added, "It's not either/or. We should do both!" Jackson then argued that "all other states & countries have single industry specific taxation" in addition to regular corporate income taxes. He then described how the tax rate on paper may be 5%, but the effective mining tax after deductions is really 0.8%. Apparently, there have even been years when Barrick and Newmont (the two largest mining conglomerates doing business here) have paid ZERO in taxes. "The state general fund got about as much taxes from our great mines [in the last decade] as we did from rental cars," added Jackson. Even as gold prices and Barrick & Newmont profits hit record highs, mining still only paid $48 million this year... And after the mining industry sold $5.7 billion in minerals from Nevada in 2008, they only paid $40 million in net proceeds taxes to the state’s general fund.

So what's the solution on taxes? Is it fair to single out one industry, one industry that is the lifeblood of rural Nevada? But is it fair to give one industry so many tax breaks? What's the fair solution?

I posted some more of last night's forum on my Twitter @atdleft if you're interested. It certainly got me to think more about the state of our state, and where mining should fit in.

LATE BREAKING: Prop H8 Ruled Unconstitutional, But 48 Hour Stay Ordered (No Marriages Yet)

Here's the rundown of what's happened today:

U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker said Proposition 8, passed by voters in November 2008, violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice. His ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Plaintiffs challenge Proposition 8 under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment," the judge wrote. "Each challenge is independently meritorious, as Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation."

Vaughn added: "Plaintiffs seek to have the state recognize their committed relationships, and plaintiffs' relationships are consistent with the core of the history, tradition and practice of marriage in the United States."

Ultimately, the judge concluded that Proposition 8 "fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. … Because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional."

And here's some early analysis from Brian Devine at Calitics:

Judge Walker found that the "strict scrutiny" test applies. As its name implies, this is the most stringent of the three tests that can be used to applying equal protection rights. Under strict scrutiny, the State may not pass a discriminatory law unless it serves a "compelling state interest." Judge Walker found that Prop 8 does not serve a "legitimate interest" (which is the standard for the less rigorous "intermediate scrutiny" that some argue should apply to marriage) much less a compelling interest.

And here's the full decision if you'd like to read along with me:

Prop 8 Ruling FINAL

Here's what I see so far:

- Judge Vaughn Walker has ordered California to (once again) issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples requesting them. This may be halted if the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says so, but so far no stay of Judge Walker's ruling has been ordered.

- The remedies look to be California specific, so don't expect to get married here any time soon.

- However, Judge Walker's reasoning for overturning California's Prop H8 was rather broad. He went right into the 14th Amendment and equal protection. And because he said marriage discrimination does not serve a "compelling state interest", this may very well open the door to future federal law suits challenging other state marriage bans. I doubt Nevada's Question 2, which also specifically targeted LGBTQ families in denying gay & lesbian couples the right to marry, would hold the strict scrutiny test of serving "compelling state interest" any better than Prop H8.

More to come soon as I look through the decision some more...

UPDATE 2:41 PM: Judge Walker has just ordered a 48 hour stay...

ORDER granting [706] Motion to Shorten Time. Plaintiffs, plaintiff-intervenor and defendants are DIRECTED to respond to Doc #705 on or before August 6, 2010. The clerk shall STAY entry of judgment herein until the motion to stay pending appeal has been decided. (vrwlc1, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 8/4/2010)

UPDATE 3:11 PM: So far, it looks like the 48 hour stay is mostly procedural. Still, even if Judge Walker lifts the stay on Friday, we'll have to await what the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals says, as the case is now being appealed to them. They will likely first decide whether or not to stay Judge Walker's ruling pending hearing in their court.

The 9th Circuit has a good track record of supporting LGBTQ equality, so I'm cautiously optimistic the final ruling for them will be good news. However we never know for sure, and they may still issue a stay pending their hearing. We'll probably find out in the coming week what happens next.

So no marriages until Friday, depending on how Judge Walker rules on the motion to suspend the overturning of Prop H8. OK, so we have to wait another two days...

Sharrontology's Holy War... On The Constitution

Is this for real? Is this for real?

We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government. And you’ve just identified the real crux of the problem. I’ve also been endorsed by a PAC out of Washington D.C. and the name of that PAC is Government is not God. And I thought that that was so appropriate because that is really what’s happening in our society and we need to take our country back.

But whose god are we supposed to depend upon? Her god? Or John Ensign's god? Or Jim Gibbons' god? Or Mitch McConnell's god?

And for being Ms. "I ONLY go by The Constitution", how is this Constitutional? I don't remember reading anything about "depending on God for our protection and our provision, not upon government" in Article I, Section 8. In fact, it starts off like this...

The Congress shall have power To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

So what are we supposed to believe, The US Constitution or Sharron Angle's crazy rants?

And I knew that all along when I started praying over a year ago over it. And this just seemed to be the battle that I needed to go to war with. And I need warriors to stand beside me. You know, this is a war of ideology, a war of thoughts and of faith. And we need people to really stand for faith and trust, not hope and change.

This really explains it all. Sharrontology views this election as a "holy war", and all of us who don't agree with her are heathens... And we're all heathens for believing in the Constitution and in government's proper role in providing for the common defense and general welfare. I know Obtuse Angle wouldn't have allowed for this...

“Today’s vote offered a simple choice, we could either stand up for the jobs of teachers, firefighters and police officers by saying yes, or we could have turned our back on them and their families by saying no,” Reid said. “By overcoming this procedural hurdle, we are one step away from ensuring teachers jobs are secure for this school year, that funds are available for Nevadans who rely on Medicaid, and that our state avoids a budget shortfall that could result in more layoffs.”

The Education Jobs Fund provides an extension of Recovery Act funding to help preserve educator jobs. This fund will provide nearly $10 billion, fully offset by spending cuts, and will save an estimated 140,000 jobs. It is projected that Nevada schools will see an additional $83 million to keep educators working. This is fully paid for without cutting President Obama’s Race to the Top program, funding to expand charter schools or for the Teacher Incentive Fund.

More than 160,000 children, parents, seniors, and people with disabilities in Nevada rely on Medicaid funds for quality, affordable medical care. These funds also help states like Nevada retain employees and relieve state funding shortfalls. When passed, this bill will direct an additional $79 million in Medicaid funds to the state.

The Senate just voted to save critical teaching jobs at Nevada schools and keep people in need of health care on Medicaid... But Sharrontology views them as "sinners" because they're depending upon government and not her god. But hey, who needs The Constitution when we can just govern with Sharrontology's interpretation of The Bible?

(Oh, and forget what Jesus said about helping the poor and paying to Caesar what is Caesar's... What, you thought this dirty f*cking hippie didn't know what's in The Bible?)

Sharrontology STILL Spinning Out of Control

This is the new ad Harry Reid is using against Sharron Angle. Unlike that EPIC FAIL of a hit piece I mentioned earlier, this one uses facts, targets the intended voters well, has a clear message, and is owned up to by Reid.

Oh, and did I mention it's all true?

Angle hammered the escrow fund a month ago, declaring that "Government shouldn't be doing that to a private company" and calling it a "slush fund." She then quickly retracted the comment, bluntly stating that she was "incorrect" to call it a slush fund. But that retraction isn't letting her off the hook as far as political attacks are concerned.

Really? Does Sharrontology Obtuse Angle really believe we Nevadans love the idea of letting BP off the hook as The Gulf has become an ecological nightmare, destroying not just the land, but also the livelihood of many thousands of people?

Now wonder why her stunning political collapse continues.

The new Reuters/Ipsos poll of the Nevada Senate race gives Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a narrow lead over his Republican challenger, former state Rep. Sharron Angle -- and a really big lead if turnout were to be higher than currently expected.

The numbers, among likely voters: Reid 48%, Angle 44%. There is no prior Reuters/Ipsos poll for direct comparison. The TPM Poll Averagegives Reid a lead of 45.1%-42.7%.

The kicker: Among the larger pool of registered voters, Reid leads by a phenomenal 52%-36%. So clearly, the job for Dem groups is to mobilize voters for Reid -- and against Angle's right-wing positions.

Yes, it is. If we don't want an absolute lunatic "representing" us, we have to get out and vote... And encourage all our friends, family, and neighbors to do the same! After all, why would we want someone who asks for our vote, then votes against our best interest as she continues raking in the contributions from her "Tea Party, Inc." BFFs?

And she thinks a new campaign spokesperson from the lovely FAILs that were Rudy Giuliani's "Noun, Verb, and 9/11" presidential campaign and Steve Poizner's "forget that I sold myself as a moderate, I'm now a conservative tea partier!" California Gubernatorial campaign will save her? Ay, yay, yay...

Leg Watch: Anonymous Hit Piece... Hits GOoPer in the You-Know-What

(By the way, welcome to Leg Watch! Next time the legislature is in session, I'll keep an eye on important legislation floating around Carson City. But for now, you can stop here to check up on the state legislature campaigns that are sometimes forgotten in the midst of the national campaign at our doorstep... But never dull!)



I first caught this on Saturday, when I was walking a neighborhood less than one mile from me in Green Valley. My Assembly Member, Ellen Spiegel, was the intended victim of this anonymous hit piece... A hit piece likely to have come from her Republican opponent or one of his allies. But whomever is responsible for it, they were too cowardly to own up to it...

And too stupid to do it smartly! For one, this was dropped in front of doors, bundled with ads for taco shops and pizzerias. Basically, it was bundled with "junk mail so crappy, it can't even go in the mailbox" and distributed as such. Usually for a hit piece like this, a campaign targets who they want to see it. I figured this would go to Independents and Republicans, but I found this in front of everyone's door. Do you really think any thinking Democrat would give this the time of day?

And even worse, this hit piece was not even going to all the right homes... As this was also being sent OUT OF DISTRICT! Yes, you heard me right. I saw more of these this morning when walking a neighborhood near Maryland & Pebble... An area FAR outside Assembly District 21! So not only did the perpetrator clumsily agree to send this out with junk ads for tacos and tires, but they couldn't even manage to send it entirely to people in the district!

And worse yet, this hit piece couldn't even get the facts right. Never did Ellen Spiegel vote to double her salary and/or "make taxpayers pay for it". Nope, that vote was actually a consideration of allowing for annual sessions of the legislature... You know, enabling our legislators to actually work for us more! (Plus there were many more things in AJR 6, nothing saying anything about raising lawmakers' salaries.)

So yet again, a group of Nevada Republicans (whoever they may actually be) got dirty... But couldn't be smart about their dirt. It was sent to the wrong houses, likely tossed directly into the garbage bin by many recipients, and contained outright lies that just took a little bit of research to debunk.

And worse yet, this may really backfire on them. Most of the neighbors I've spoken with don't even remember it. (It must have taken all of ten seconds for this to go from doorstep to trash can.) And of the ones that did remember it, they REALLY didn't like it. Again, a campaign needs to be smart when going negative... And this hit piece was anything but smart.

Oh, and by the way, did they really have to stoop so low as to find the most unflattering photo of Ellen they could find? Here's how she really looks.



Fools. I pity them sometimes. And this week, their botched attack on Ellen Spiegel is simply pitiful.

Carson City Reality Check

Is it happening? Is it finally happening?

State Sen. Steven Horsford [D-Las Vegas] has broken the unofficial moratorium on frank talk about Nevada’s finances, acknowledging that additional “revenue” — read: taxes — along with spending cuts will be needed to balance the state budget in 2011.

“There has to be some combination of spending reductions and revenue to balance the budget,” he said. “It should be almost a dollar-for-dollar equation.”

This was bound to happen. Reality must now set in. All the cuts, all the gimmicks, and all the quick fixes can not put our state's fiscal house back in working order again.

And even now, I can still sense some suspension of disbelief. Horsford still thinks we can make $1.5 billion more in cuts. How? What will have to be eliminated?

He said some of the options for reducing spending include cutting the school year, eliminating programs such as health care for more than 20,000 children of the poor and dentures for seniors, and closing two state prisons. [...]

Broadening the tax base is still a priority for Horsford so state government is less dependent on gaming and sales taxes. But he also said he does not support a corporate income tax, which he had advocated in the past, calling it more volatile than he had previously thought.

Oh, I see. So let's eliminate health care for the neediest and slash the school year, too? Instead of recognize the obvious? We're the failed state of cheap!

As long as we refuse to invest what's needed in our schools, our parks, our roads, and all in all our basic infrastructure, we will never succeed as a state. And as long as our state offers a not-so-well-educated workforce and limited community services, those new businesses won't come and we will continue to be stuck, overdependent upon casinos that aren't investing as much in our state as the global gaming sector expands and new opportunities in Macau, Singapore, Eastern Europe, Mexico, and elsewhere outshine what we once had to offer.

Yep, that's the truth, whether we like it or not. We have what may end up being a $3 billion deficit in a $6.8 billion budget. What do we want to do? Wait in line even longer at the DMV as it goes from a 4 day work week to a 1 day work week? Watch our kids become even less prepared for the future as our schools close? See even more homeless people wandering Downtown because they lost their jobs and couldn't find any help afterward?

And do we want to sit by and watch the state collapse due to lack of investment, public or private? No new jobs? No new economic opportunities? No more Nevada?

It's about damned time Horsford says the obvious! But still, I hope he thinks some more about what our state really needs to get back to working order. During the boom years, we could hide our fiscal recklessness because the artificial real estate speculation "boom" was temporarily propping up our unrealistic economy and unrealistic demands (spend on whatever we want, but don't make us pay for it). Well, now our time is up and we either have to kill off our state once and for all, or FINALLY adjust to reality and figure out a way forward that will make Nevada our sustainable (in more ways than one!) home in the 21st century.

And let's face it, the only way we'll ever be able to move forward and find new opportunities is with new revenue to keep our state running. We can't afford any more cuts to vital infrastructure like schools, health care, and transportation.