10 Years Later

It still amazes me as I remember what happened 10 years ago today. A little later, I'll share my experience. And as the day goes on, I'd like to discuss what's happened to our nation in this last decade.

But right now, let's remember the victims and their loved ones... And give those families the respect that they deserve.

Programming Note

Next week, I'll have more coming as summers falls to autumn. I hear tomorrow is a big anniversary. I'll post some thoughts on that.

And as special election madness resumes on Tuesday, I'll cover the results as they come in.

Maybe I should also check in on what Congress is up to?

One Step Closer to Saving Nevada

We're this much closer to preventing the very destruction of the beating economic heart of Nevada.

A divided Nuclear Regulatory Commission has allowed the Obama administration to continue plans to close the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada.

The commission split, 2-2, on whether to uphold or reject a decision by an independent nuclear licensing board, which voted last year to reject the Energy Department's attempt to withdraw its application for Yucca Mountain. The licensing board said the government failed to make a scientific case for why the application should be withdrawn.

Despite the split vote, the NRC said in an order Friday that the licensing board should continue steps to close down Yucca Mountain by the end of the month.

Who wants to plan a vacation in a radioactive wasteland? And who wants to to relocate one's company and open factories in a radioactive wasteland? Yucca Mountain sits atop an active fault line, and dangerous toxic waste would have been tricked through Las Vegas if this had been allowed to open. Remember this when someone claims we'll "lose jobs" over this.

Rather, we're saving Nevada jobs by getting rid of this ridiculous Yucca boondoggle.

"Real Life Concerns" As We "Scrape By"... Or How Obama Finally Gets It

In case you missed it last night...



And here's the full text. And here are some additional facts on "The American Jobs Act".

So what's actually in it? Take a glimpse.

President Obama tonight laid out a $450 billion job creation plan before a joint session of Congress, challenging lawmakers to repeatedly to “pass this jobs bill.” “Regardless of the arguments we’ve had in the past, regardless of the arguments we’ll have in the future, this plan is the right thing to do right now. You should pass it. And I intend to take that message to every corner of this country,” he said.

Obama called for a reduction in the payroll tax, investments in infrastructure, a plan to modernize up to 35,000 schools, as well as tax breaks for new hires and a plan to reform the corporate tax code that currently “stands as a monument to special interest influence in Washington.” Obama emphasized that many of these ideas have, in the past, garnered bipartisan support and he threw in some Republican favorites, such as approving pending free trade agreements.

The Recovery Act was a start in creating badly needed jobs, and this new American Jobs Act has the potential to create 1.9 million jobs and add 2% in GDP growth. This is what we desperately need...

Especially for us in Nevada, as yet another Brookings Institution report found that our lack of public education leads to lack of economic diversification that continues to hinder Nevada's economic recovery. This proposal from President Obama will invest in modernizing public schools, beefing up public works programs, and offering companies real incentives to hire the long-term unemployed.

I hope this is the start of President Obama shifting to a more aggressive and relentless focus on reviving the economy. We all know what the teabaggers want to do. Now, it's up to Democrats to provide a real alternative.

Mitt Romney Used My Community as Backdrop, But He (& His Fellow GO-TEA Hopefuls) Won't Do Anything to Help Us

Earlier this week, Mitt Romney used North Las Vegas as his backdrop as he laid out his "jobs plan". So what is Mitt Romney's "jobs plan", exactly?

“The fundamental problem in today’s economy is that there’s not enough demand,” says David Madland, an economist at the liberal Center for American Progress. In fact, our corporations are sitting on mountains of cash and corporate profits are near record levels, but they’re not hiring because they have no confidence that customers — you and me — feel economically secure enough to make purchases.

This is not some wild-eyed liberal theory. Conservative economists say it too.

“Businesses have responded negatively to the weakness of household demand,” Martin Feldstein, a former chairman of Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, recently wrote.

In other words, companies have the money to hire but aren’t going to because they see consumers who are out of work or nervously hoarding instead of spending.

So what does Romney propose? A cut in the corporate tax rate, naturally.

More corporate tax cuts? Really? Even though corporate tax rates are the lowest they've been in 60 years (lower than they were under "LIB'RUL!!!" Republican Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush, Sr.!), that has done nothing to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Even Romney himself hasn't had any success at implementing his own vision of "no taxes" and "no guv'mint", as Massachusetts government employment grew twice as quickly as private sector jobs while he was Governor.

So what was the whole point of this? It would cost at least $6.5 trillion, so it would drive up the deficit even further without creating any jobs to merit it. So why do this? Has teabagger madness overtaken Romney?

It's funny in a very sick way to see Romney do this in the state that's already tried this very policy prescription... AND FAILED! As I wrote back in May:

For far too long, we have been told to "suck it up" and "celebrate the free market". Look where that has taken us. Even though we have the cheapest state government and one of the lowest tax burdens in the nation, we have the highest unemployment rate in the nation and an economy unraveling due to casinos investing more offshore and the real estate bubble bursting. The Nevada "success story" of the past has been found to be just a mirage, an illusion, a trick.

So now Mitt Romney wants to take our "success" at economic failure, and make it federal policy? It's increasingly clear that "TEA Party Economics" just doesn't work. We've already seen the effects here in Nevada, and Romney's BFFs here have already been getting plenty of heat for it.

So what works? Infrastructure. And thankfully, President Obama and a few members of Congress understand this.



Our infrastructure is becoming woefully inadequate, and this may be a real opportunity for America to finally fix that while also creating jobs.

Back in January 2010, former Federal Communications Commission chairman and current Coalition for Green Capital CEO Reed Hundt spoke at our annual Clean-Tech Investor Summit.

For the past couple of years, Hundt has been working to forward the idea of a national green bank in the U. S. as well as at the state level. His ideas have influenced a host of energy, policy, and business stakeholders, including me.

"To get low cost of capital you can either have the U. S. government guarantee the debt, but no one wants to do that," Hundt explained in a recent phone interview, "or you can set up a public-private bank that has a public-private mission. It seeks to maximize the amount of money invested, not maximize its profit, and it can pursue long-term investments. "

A well-structured infrastructure bank would focus on project deployment, not equity-type investments, via low-cost loans that reward investors via a constant annuity stream (such as the sale of electrons from solar power or savings from energy-efficiency improvements).

And there are even more great ideas for job creation, such as the Jobs21! proposal to create more clean energy jobs throughout the country and reposition America for the 21st century economy.

Compare and contrast this to what we've been seeing from Obama's GOP rivals this week.



What else can I say? And what else do I really have to say?

NV-Sen: When Saving Lives Is "Corrupt"

Is this stupid or is this stupid?

Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley's efforts to influence federal reimbursement rates for dialysis providers and to save a kidney transplant program in her home state of Nevada have raised questions about an appearance of a conflict of interest with her husband's medical practice.

But an ethics watchdog group said Tuesday the efforts are unlikely to generate further investigation because her work helped a large swath of health providers, not just her husband.

Berkley, who is running for the Senate, was the focus of a New York Times report that examined her role in staving off the closure of the state's only kidney transplant center. Her husband, Dr. Larry Lehrner, has a nephrology practice that administers kidney care at the University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Federal regulators had moved three years ago to shut the kidney transplant program because kidney transplants were failing at unusually high rates, but Berkley and other members of Nevada's congressional delegation intervened and succeeded in gaining a reprieve.

The department's closure would have required Nevadans to go out of state for a kidney transplant. “I think going to bat for the hospital, it's really hard for me to see that as a big conflict,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “The concept of closing the only transplant center in the entire state, that seems like a big deal, and it seems like any member of Congress would have to be involved, plus she didn't initiate it, so it just doesn't bother me very much.”

OMG, Shelley Berkley's husband is a doctor! And OMG, Shelley Berkley saved the state's only kidney transplant center! OMG, what a conflict of interest! (snark)

I know "The Grey Lady of Journalism" has been letting its journalistic standards lapse for some time (case in point, Jayson Blair and Judith Miller being allowed to make up their own "facts" as they wrote along), but this may be a new low for The New York Times. In trying to make a big story that could tip our US Senate election, The Times missed some key details of the actual story.

Reacting to the story, Berkley issued a statement accusing the Times of ignoring important contextual elements, such as the fact Nevada’s entire delegation, including then-U.S. Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, both R-Nev., urged regulators to save the transplant center.

Berkley has also been a fierce advocate for funding for treatment of cancer, hepatitis and osteoporosis — a disease she suffers from.

“While The New York Times may not care about the health care needs of my fellow Nevadans, I do,” she said in a written statement. “I will never stop fighting on behalf of my constituents just because my husband is a doctor.” [...]

But political scientist Eric Herzik said Berkley is well positioned to withstand the scrutiny.

“So she happens to be married to a doctor,” he said. “She saved a transplant clinic. If I were her, I would be out there right now spinning it that way. ‘Yes, it was flawed, and I helped fix it.’ ”

I don't always agree with UNR's registered Republican political scientist, but I think both he and The Sun's editorial this morning are onto something. If this is "scandalous", then I want more "scandal", dammit! This is the only kidney transplant program in the state. And if Dean Heller and his DC Republican cohorts now want to claim we would have been better off allowing UMC to close it so Nevada patients in need would be forced to fly out of state to get the health care they need, then I can't wait to see their pretzel twists of "logic".

NV-03: For the Heck of It, Republicans Keep Denying Reality

Apparently, professional radical right whiners are not happy when the truth is told about Joe Heck and what he's doing in Washington. Apparently I'm "embarrassing myself daily for the entire world to watch".

Wait, so telling the truth is now "embarrassing"? Lordy, someone needs to call the WHAAAAAA-MBULENCE!



They're even taking the crybaby act to the local teabagger propaganda rag "newspaper" to whine about "big, bad, unemployed people stalking!!!" poor little rich Joe Heck. OK, so maybe Heck's feelings are hurt when he sits in his hilltop McMansion and staffers notify him of constituents saying not-so-nice things about him.

Well, guess what? Those "big, bad, unemployed people" have lost their jobs, are losing their (far more modest) homes, and are worried about how they'll put food on the family table in the next week. Nevadans are suffering, yet all Heck and his Republican colleagues in Congress want to do is lie about consumer safeguards...

Politicians and business groups often blame excessive regulation and fear of higher taxes for tepid hiring in the economy. However, little evidence of that emerged when McClatchy canvassed a random sample of small business owners across the nation. [...]

McClatchy reached out to owners of small businesses, many of them mom-and-pop operations, to find out whether they indeed were being choked by regulation, whether uncertainty over taxes affected their hiring plans and whether the health care overhaul was helping or hurting their business.

Their response was surprising.

None of the business owners complained about regulation in their particular industries, and most seemed to welcome it. Some pointed to the lack of regulation in mortgage lending as a principal cause of the financial crisis that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-09 and its grim aftermath.

Obsess over teabagger extremist endorsements, attack the Peace Corps (??!!), flirt with eliminating corporate income tax (while demanding that seniors and disabled get Social Security and Medicare cuts), and return from a month long vacation only to keep obstructing and play political games against President Obama.

Did you notice something missing there? For all the pomp and circumstance, where is the action on what matters? Where are the jobs?

They definitely have not surfaced here since Congressional Republicans took over the federal agenda and called for a host of job-killing policies, from union busting to "austerity" budgets to holding the full faith and credit of America hostage. When even a majority of Republicans think President Obama needs to focus more on job creation than budget deficits (overall, 68% of Americans want more focus on jobs while only 30% want more focus on budget cutting), shouldn't Joe Heck and his House GOP colleagues think twice before pushing the same policy agenda that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject?

President Obama has tried desperately to engage Congressional Republicans with multiple offers of compromise, but even he now has to realize that he can't keep trying to negotiate with crazy and expect different results. "Austerity" really is killing our economy and killing off American jobs, but Joe Heck just doesn't want to quit these bad policies. So why should he be surprised when his angry constituents show up outside his office to protest?

NV-03: Po' (Rich Guy) Joe Heck Gets Protested... AGAIN!

Boo hoo.

Videos - Multimedia - www.ktnv.com

And apparently this isn't just happening here.



At least Joe Heck can know he's not alone. When he and other Republican Congresscritters try to spin what's happening now as great accomplishments, they should expect serious blowback from those who are feeling those "accomplishments" right now.

Mitt Romney: The New Sue Lowden?

Was that the turning point for Mitt Romney? Why does this feel so much like deja vu?



Suzy Lowdown can certainly attest to what happens when "foot-in-mouth disease" combines with loathing from "the base" to make a special brew of ballot box poison.

[Texas Governor] Rick Perry has taken the lead nationally, but GOP voters are really starting to catch on with his campaign in key primary states as well. Recently, Perry's stormed to the front in South Carolina and Iowa in multiple surveys, and a Republican poll out Friday shows him at the top in another early state in the GOP nomination process: Nevada.

A Magellan Strategies poll out Friday showed that Perry is the first choice of 29 percent of [Nevada] GOP caucus-goers, followed by former [Massachusetts Governor] Mitt Romney at 24 percent. The survey shows pretty much a two way race: the rest of the field is in single digits, and former contender Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is down to fourth with 6 percent, behind businessman Herman Cain's 7. [...]

Romney had held a solid lead in a Public Policy Polling (D) survey of Nevada during early August, when Perry was just about to officially enter the race. But in the following weeks Perry has clearly built up support at the expense of other candidates, like Bachmann. "Looking at responses by voter subgroup, we find male voters and seniors (voters aged 65 or older) leaning heavily towards Rick Perry," reads the Magellan memo on the Nevada poll. "Among self-identified tea party 'members,' which make up 49% of all respondents, Rick Perry has a 20 point lead over Mitt Romney."

Ruh roh.

Romney was depending on a big Nevada Caucus win as part of his "firewall strategy". Iowa is already turning out to be a real hell in a hand basket situation for him, and South Carolina is increasingly looking as good as gone for poor lil' rich guy Mittens. Romney's whole campaign has been built on him being "inevitable", but his "inevitability" is falling like a house of cards. And all of a sudden, he has nothing else to stand on... Except for his mountains of money, that is.

Again, Sweet Sue can attest to being stood up by "Tea Party, Inc." when the "inevitable", "electable" one gets sidelined by "The Real Deal"... As in real batsh*t crazy. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the teabaggers control today's GOP, and they're not really interested in milquetoast.



Ricky, meet Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrron.



Mittens may have the GOP establishment on his side, but so did Suzy... And look what happened to her. Teabaggers demand purity, and Rick Perry is doing his darndest to give them exactly that... Just like Sharron Angle did.

Of course, voters in the general election will probably respond quite differently, especially since that electorate has been changing dramatically in the last 20 years.

[...T]here is a real danger that Republican leaders and strategists will interpret a strong showing in the midterm election as vindication for a strategy based largely on energizing the Party’s conservative white base. That base is indeed energized. But it is also shrinking due to the steady growth in the size of the nonwhite electorate. By 2020 nonwhites will probably make up over a third of the American electorate.

Unless Republicans can expand their support among nonwhite voters, they will have to win a much larger share of the white vote than they have in any recent presidential election in order to remain competitive. However, increasing the Republican share of the nonwhite vote would require the GOP to move closer to the ideological center on issues such as government services, health care and immigration—a shift that would be certain to arouse intense opposition from conservative pundits and activists. Regardless of what happens in this year’s midterm elections, Republican leaders will soon face a difficult choice between reaching out to nonwhite voters or continuing to cater to their Party’s shrinking base.

Yes, Republicans, keep running further and further to the radical right. This is definitely your ticket to victory (for Democrats).

By the way, Justin explains this even better.

The results of a Magellan Strategies poll has Rick Perry leading Mitt Romney by 5% in the Nevada 2012 Republican Presidential Caucus. With Mitt Romney winning Nevada in 2008 (neighbor to Utah and home to many Mormons), these results are a little surprising. What do these results tell us about Nevada Republicans and their chances of winning in 2012?

In 2010, Nevada Republicans chose Sharron Angle, by popular vote, to run against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Nevada GOP has already shown us that they prefer the extreme to the electable. This poll, a little over a year later, indicates little has changed. No lesson learned.

Harry Reid’s approval ratings in Nevada were much lower than Obama’s ever have been. Yet he was able to defeat Sharron Angle. So if Rick Perry (who probably even scares Sharron Angle a little bit) wins in a Nevada Republican Presidential Caucus, President Obama’s 2012 reelection bid is looking pretty good.

No wonder why President Obama isn't panicking too much over today's toxic political environment.

NV-03: Congressman Refuses to Meet Constituents... So They Do "Town Hall" Without Him

After waiting the entire summer for Joe Heck to meet with constituents and answer the questions we have about what he's doing in Congress, a group of Nevadans decided enough was enough. They mapped out his Dick Cheney like undisclosed hiding location "Congressional Office", and then they paid his office a visit. If anyone still had questions about Heck's willingness to face the voters in his own district, this should answer all of them.



This is where one can find Joe Heck's office.



Oh wait, where is it?! There's no sign at the office complex. And it's smack dab in the midst of so many empty lots and near the most foreclosure ridden neighborhoods of Las Vegas.



And because Joe Heck continues to hide from the public at "Pay-Per-View Congress" private events he claims to be "town halls", these Nevadans had no other choice. They drove all the way here, most from where most of the population of NV-03 actually reside, to send Heck a message.









Linda Overbey is an unemployed union painter. Joe Heck wouldn't listen to her when she attended what was supposed to be a discussion on jobs, so she was at his office last night to say what needed to be said.



Steve Rypka lives in the district, and was even one of the "approved residents" for last Saturday's "Pay-Per-View Congress" event... Except that he was ready to call phony baloney on Heck's fake "jobs plan" that subsidizes the fossil fuel industry while shortchanging Nevadans looking forward to green collar jobs and a brighter clean energy future. And of course, Joe Heck and his staff can't handle a constituent calling them out on their BS!



Dick Collins was also on hand to talk last night. He's been waiting for Heck to tell the truth about Social Security and Medicare, but instead all he's been seeing (along with the rest of us) has been attacking Nevada seniors and disabled by calling Social Security a "pyramid scheme" and voting for Paul Ryan's plan to kill Medicare. Collins was ready to set the record straight on Heck's doublespeak.



And there were even more stories from the constituents who braved the mighty wind and furious heat to stand outside Joe Heck's office after trying to get a hold of him. As the rally was winding down, people were calling his Las Vegas office... And couldn't even leave a voicemail! Not even that was available for the increasing number of angry constituents who have been increasingly frustrated by Heck hiding from the public.

Well, at least we know who Heck won't automatically hide from... But not even his own teabagger base is happy with him any more! But no matter how much he wants to deny it, "Tea Party, Inc." installed Joe Heck into office. And Joe Heck ultimately does what "Tea Party, Inc." tells him to do, even with the rank and file teabagger "grassroots" don't necessarily like it.

That's really the story of NV-03... And it's the same story one can find throughout the country as Republicans who rode "The TEA Party Wave" into office are now ducking underwater in hopes of us forgetting what they've done to wreck our economy and endanger America's middle class. And the only way we can get a happy ending to this story is if we finally put an end to this "TEA Party" madness and reject the craven Republicans who are pandering to them while ignoring the real suffering of all the rest of us.

Coming Later This Week...

I have some surprises for you. Get ready for more fireworks. Summer is about to end, but one more strong political heat wave is on the way. ;-)

Mark Amodei (& Joe Heck) to Nevada: Get Nuked!

This is in his district, and this would hurt his constituents if built... But Mark Amodei doesn't care.

For three decades, firm opposition to any sort of nuclear development for Yucca Mountain has been a rite of passage for any candidate seeking national political office representing Nevada.

But the past few congressional races, Republicans have been bending that rule.

Mark Amodei, candidate for Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District seat, told the editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun on Monday that he would be happy to keep funding the development of the Yucca Mountain project through the Energy Department, with the hope of turning it into a bastion of nuclear research and reprocessing.

“I don’t celebrate every time somebody says it’s funded at zero,” Amodei said. “I support Joe Heck’s efforts. I think there are opportunities to do things out there.”

What he's talking about is Joe Heck's amendment that would have allowed for nuclear reprocessing at Yucca Mountain. They think this is a "win-win" for them in that they can tell us they "don't support Yucca" while giving Republican Congressional leadership "local cover" to continue pushing to open Yucca. They know GOP leadership won't accept anything less than turning Yucca into a nuclear waste dump. And since there isn't enough water in southern Nye County to allow for reprocessing, Heck's proposal simply isn't feasible to begin with.

So really, what Heck and Amodei are doing is nothing more than kabuki theater being put on to allow House Republicans to go forward in dumping tons of nuclear waste across the country here in Nevada and driving it right through Las Vegas. As The Sun noted earlier this month, this is all about the nuclear power industry's demand for more nuclear power plants to be built in America.

Developing Yucca Mountain in any way that involves nuclear power is extremely dangerous... And potentially illegal as well!

With the sole exception of Joe Heck, Nevada's other 3 members of Congress oppose any sort of nuclear development at Yucca. They know just how dangerous this would be for Nevada, as well as for other parts of the country that would be part of the route to Yucca.



So why do Mark Amodei and Joe Heck insist on keeping Yucca Mountain on track to open? Do they really care that little about their own state that they seek to "represent" in Congress?

Want JOBS? Here's How to Get Them. (Thanks, Harry!)

Sen. Harry Reid kicked off the fourth annual clean energy conference today by announcing the inauguration of the first-ever hybrid geothermal and solar plant, combining two of Nevada’s homegrown forms of renewable energy in a single power-generating project.

The plant, which will be situated at the existing Stillwater Geothermal Plant about 75 miles outside of Reno, will generate an additional 24 megawatts of power and create about 150 installation jobs, according to Enel Green Power North America President Francesco Venturini.

Enel Green Power, which is partnering with Nevada-based Bombard Renewable Energy to build the project, already runs the Stillwater geothermal facility.

“Enel Green Power has wisely and successfully married two clean renewable energy resources that Nevada has in vast abundance,” Reid said. “I hope we will see more of these integrated projects.”

Next time you hear anyone question Harry Reid's ability to "bring home the bacon" for Nevada, remember this. Right now, we're paying a hefty price for our addiction to fossil fuels... And that price will only continue to rise as oil and gas resources diminsh.

Shouldn't we instead be putting our own natural advantages to work for us?

Sharrrrrrrrrrrrron Angle: She's Baaaaaaaaaack! (And She's NOT Alone!)

(Also at Daily Kos)



Apparently "Our Lady of Perpetual Campaigning" invaded California on Saturday to sell her books and raise money for her next campaign "meet with real patriots!"

And if that wasn't bad enough, their lousy attempt at Vaudeville comedy got even worse once they returned to Nevada (to torture us yet again!).

The Tea Party Express continued its cross-country tour Sunday with a midday rally in the heart of Nevada that featured about a dozen speakers and musicians focused on "reclaiming America" in the 2012 election.

Headlining the event was Sharron Angle, who lost to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2010. Angle is traveling with the bus tour and is expected to speak at most of the events along the way.

The Elko Daily Free Press reported that Angle told the crowd of about 75 people -- organizers pegged the crowd at closer to 100 people -- that the Republicans will take control of the U.S. Senate after the 2012 elections if people get involved in races around the country.

Tea Party Express communications director Levi Russell said the event was a success, especially considering that it was held on a Sunday.

"It was a small crowd, but enthusiastic," he said.

"We're happy that they came out to hear our message."

Other speakers included Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express co-chair, and Tabitha Hale of the Washington, D.C.-based conservative group FreedomWorks.

There's no word yet on whether Elko saw the same "colorful characters" that emerged in Searchlight last year...



But it does look like their "Tea Party Express" is losing steam on the open road. Now that we're seeing with our own eyes their strategy coming to full fruition as federal government becomes even more chaotic and dysfunctional, they're not seen as innocently as they were last year.

It seems that the Tea Party's governing style, most clearly on display during the debt ceiling fight in Congress, has taken a toll on Americans' view of the movement. Polls have been showing a drop in its approval, and a new AP/GfK poll shows that its unfavorable rating has seen a sharp rise. 46 percent of those surveyed said they have a negative view of the Tea Party movement, versus 28 who say they view it favorability.

The last time the AP conducted a national poll on Americans' favorability of Tea Partiers was in their pre-governing period: throughout 2010 the conservative movement was viewed slightly unfavorably but the splits were close. In June of 2010 it even earned a positive rating, with 33 percent of over 1,000 adults surveyed finding the movement favorable against 30 percent. In the last AP rating, taken Nov. 3-8, 2010, directly after the 2010 election, the split stood at a slim negative rating of 32 percent favorable against 36 unfavorable.

But can "unpopularity" really stop them? Remember when Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrron was pummeled for this?



She herself didn't win here in Nevada, but her "ideas" masquerading as "change" most certainly did win in other parts of the country. Look at how much President Obama and Congress have had to give in to them, and look at what we're getting in return. Economic recovery has been anemic at best, and the still jobless aren't seeing any of it. And when the American people are demanding job creation the most, all we're seeing out of Congress now is endless partisan brinksmanship and attacks on bedrocks of American society, such as Social Security and Medicare, that working class families need the most right now.

And of course, the Republican Presidential Candidates are tossing out all this teabagger nonsense as red meat to an increasingly radical and extreme "base". Watch Rick Perry call Social Security a "ponzi scheme" and a "lie".



How is this different from what Sharrrrrrrrrrrrrrrron said?



For Republicans, extremism has become "the new mainstream". Here in Nevada last year, a slew of powerful Nevada Republicans ran away from Angle as fast as they could. Yet other than a few traditional Republicans like Ben Bernanke chiding their extremism, Rick Perry and his ideological soulmates in Congress are seeing more and more love from that radical "base". And despite what all the rest of us think about their crashing and burning of government, they don't care as long as the teabaggers love it and "Tea Party, Inc." keeps pumping the dirty corporate money into their campaigns.

I saw this for myself last weekend. My Congressman refuses to meet with us, his own constituents, because we're not contributing to his campaign and the Republican Party (even though we pay his and his staffers' salaries!).

And that's why we can't be complacent at all. Public outrage clearly isn't enough to defeat these extremists. They'll probably just buy even more TV and radio air time to try to brainwash voters again "tell their side of the story". Sharron Angle may not be in Congress herself, but her radical ideology is increasingly becoming the policies being debated and implemented in federal government now. If we don't like this, then we have to stop electing her ideological kindred spirits.

"Pay-Per-View Congress" Comes to Nevada

Yet again, the person who claims to be my member of Congress won't get anywhere near me... Nor any of his other constituents who can't pay Republican clubs to ask him questions. Oh yes, that's right. "Pay-Per-View Congress" has come to Nevada with a vengeance, and we have Joe Heck to thank for that!

Don't believe me? Go to 4:32 on this video.



Oh yes, he did it again. And not only that, but his new "human shields" in the Sun City Anthem Republican Club actually called the police on us! Again, see for yourself. And pay close attention at 5:35.



Believe it or not, Henderson Police actually had to calm down the SCA Republicans who were outside trying to pick a fight and get us arrested. Now take a look at the videos again. And look at the photos here. Were the protesters threatening anyone? Were any of them being violent? Google "tea party violence", then compare and contrast the "tea party" preferred course of action with what we've been doing.

No, really. Look at who stood outside today.







Why is Joe Heck afraid of his own constituents? Is he afraid we'll ask him why he's done nothing to bring jobs to Nevada? Is he afraid we'll ask if his campaign contributions from Arch Coal, Exxon Mobil, and Koch Industries have anything to do with Heck voting against renewable energy development that can create badly needed jobs here in Nevada? Is he afraid we'll ask why he likens Social Security to a "pyramid scheme" and keeps voting to dismantle the Medicare that seniors and disabled people in this district desperately need? Is he afraid of anyone asking him who he really serves in Congress?

What's the point of electing a local representative to The US House of Representative if that person refuses to answer any questions from any local constituents who can't give him campaign donations or contribute to the Republican Party? What was the whole point of last year's election if we don't have anyone representing us? Eventually, Joe Heck will have to face "we the people" again and answer some questions... Unless he's already prepared to concede his reelection campaign!

And before I forget, I need to point this out one more time. When a Member of Congress directs his Congressional Office that's funded by us the taxpayers to promote an upcoming event as a "town hall open to the public", that means members of the public should be allowed in. But when that same member keeps hosting these "town halls" at private facilities paid for by private entities that then block the public from seeing our Member of Congress, at the very least it's a very dirty and unethical practice. We Nevadans really deserve better than this.