Las Vegas Gleaner

Run, Sarah, run

Like most leftocrats, upon contemplating the unlikely prospect of a Sarah Palin presidential candidacy, your Gleaner's conclusion is "Ooh. Yes, please." Republicans up and down the ballot from coast to coast would suffer. The chances for Democrats to regain control of the U.S. House and/or pick up seats in the Senate (dare we say a filibuster-proof majority?), however wildly remote, are vastly improved with Palin atop the Republican ticket.

The only downside is Palin's steadily diminishing entertainment value. 

To be sure, when discussed/mocked by others (mercifully brief video clips used only when absolutely necessary), Palin the curiosity continues to amuse.

But Palin the actual person, babbling "pro-America" inanities from her bus tour or in an "interview" on Fox News, is unwatchable to all but the Palindrones. Palin has acquired an uncanny power, perhaps unmatched in contemporary celebrity, to force average people -- or "real Americans," to borrow a Palinism -- to change the channel within seconds. Media overexposure inevitably renders every major presidential candidate annoying. Palin's prolonged presence on a presidential campaign would transcend mere annoyance, subjecting Americans to something more along the lines of a physiological disturbance -- a continuous wave of nausea, or worse, migraines, if you will, washing over America's collective cultural consciousness.

That's gonna leave a mark.

Come to think of it, for teabagging it in 2010, being forced to endure and disgustedly reject Sarah Palin as a major party presidential nominee is exactly the sort of painful humiliation and shameful disgrace American voters deserve.

Your "popular new governor" would like to make you an offer

According to one man's gleaning of Saturday morning's news reports, if Democrats agree to destroy unions AND redistribute your tax dollars to rich people so they can send their rich children to private schools, Jones Vargas government affairs spokesman Brian Sandoval will support public schools and stuff at exactly the same job-killing cheapest-in-the-nation levels he has recklessly preferred for weeks.

Hell, what's the hold-up?

*    *    *

Now please excuse this random discussion of Something That Bugs Your Gleaner: Seemingly about once a week, for analytical color, s'pose, some news story or other invokes the significant political force of Brian Sandoval's popularity -- "the popular new governor," as the R-J phrased it Saturday.

The most recent polling the internet seems to be aware of is a bit more than a month old and had Sandoval's approval rating at 44 percent. Not horrible. As the pollster notes, that's better than some of the nation's other new knucklehead wingnut governors. But the same poll had Harry Reid's approval rating at 43 percent, so will the R-J start calling Reid "the popular Senate Majority Leader"? And according to TPM"s poll tracker, Barack Obama's average approval rating is 51 percent, so by the R-J's metric, Obama must be "the wildly popular Kenyan socialist."

When Sandoval says he "believes" that no new taxes will turn the economy around, the media reports that without asking, "Excuse me, Mr. Dashing Strapping Young Governor, but can you prove that? Do you have any evidence? Or facts?" Despite -- no, especially with the campaign cycle revving up, there is absolutely no reason to expect heightened media curiosity and scrutiny vis-a-vis economic policy.

But when it comes to the media's forte -- interpreting image, the meta-analysis of messaging effectiveness and all the rest of the peripheral horse race horseshit up to and including off-hand references to a politician as "popular"-- you'd think their standards would be more rigorous.

Nevada's leaders rack up yet another stunning achievement

Under Brian Sandoval's initial budget proposal, teachers would be fired, the higher education system would be thrashed, and Nevada's inadequate and underfunded network of social and public health services would be even less accessible and less effective at just the time when economically battered Nevadans need those services most.

Sandoval and his fellow Republicans, including and especially those from hardest-hit Southern Nevada, didn't care.

But while Sandoval has shown he is willing to blithely and often condescendingly disregard the well-being of his constituents and the economic health of his state, the former judge found a Supreme Court decision harder to ignore.

And so he has flip-flopped on his no new taxes shtick -- not because his conscience drove him to protect and promote the public interest, but because a court ruling on prior fiscal gimmickry makes clear that Sandoval's own intellectually bankrupt budget jiggery-pokery wouldn't withstand judicial review.

The court blew a hole in the budget and the Sandoval/Republican flip-flop will do little more than fill that hole. Teachers will still get fired, the higher education system will still get thrashed, and Nevada's inadequate and underfunded network of social and public health services will still be even less accessible and less effective.

Naturally, Democrats are delighted.

"It will be great to work this out together," gushed Democratic Assembly Speaker John Oceguera. "That's what Nevadans want. They want us standing on the steps together announcing an agreement."

That might be what some Nevadans want -- specifically, those Nevadans who, like Oceguera, have spent the last few months hermetically sealed in the perspective-deprived but venality-rich environment that is the Carson City bubble.

But most Nevadans could give a flying fuck whether their state-level hack politicians are standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the steps, campaign photo smiles plastered on their vacuous mugs.

A lot of Nevadans, particularly those who might be expected to vote for candidates hailing from Oceguera's party, want a vibrant education system that will serve as the foundation of individual opportunity and community prosperity. They also want a safety net that not only reflects society's collective obligation to help others, but that also acknowledges the social and economic benefit of doing so.

Just to clarify, Nevadans aren't going to get any of that out of this Legislature, no matter how "great" Oceguera and others in the political-industrial complex think it will be to end the session on time so they can (officially) focus on their top public policy priority: campaign fundraising.

Dean Heller: Truly an American like no other

Your Gleaner could be wrong (happens!). But it appears that with the vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday afternoon, Nevada's very own Dean Heller grasped the distinction of being the only person in America who has voted to kill Medicare in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.

Sigh. It seems like only a a couple election cycles ago that Heller was foisting himself on an unsuspecting public as a sane person, because politicians used to think voters went in for that sort of thing. But that was before Sharron Angle forced him to go full-wingnut.

So it is somehow fitting that also Wednesday, Angle, or whatever wayward relative she's put in charge of her fundraising, came to the same conclusion already reached by everyone else --  her fifteen minutes were up months ago.

Heller's, on the other hand, might just be getting started.

Bold Heck/Heller campaign strategy promises voters horrible old age of poverty and suffering

The innovative Republican budget blueprint, you'll remember, runs up the federal debt, gives the rich some more tax cuts and makes sure that if you are currently under the age of 55 you can look forward to spending all of your retirement savings (assuming you have any) on health insurance until your money runs out (18 months?), after which time you will die in homeless misery.

Whatever else you may say about Republicans, you have to admit they're not afraid to think out of the box.

Alas, more conventional thinkers -- let's call them "voters" -- are thus far skeptical that American greatness will be restored only if fabulous wealth is secured for a tiny few while the rest of humanity is condemned to penniless foraging and the rulings of insurance industry death panels.

And so an evil Democrat has beaten a valiant Republican in an upstate New York congressional district -- a district so Republican that even John McCain (remember him?) won it easily in 2008.

In Nevada in 2008, McCain lost by 12.4 points. Dean Heller and Joe Heck are from Nevada. And both of them voted for the sweeping Republican plan to:

1. balloon the debt by giving tax breaks to a needy Steve Wynn, and;
2. make the rest of us give everything we own to the insurance company when we turn 65.

Your Gleaner freely stipulates that the Republican gift for changing the subject to some fact-free irrelevance must never be underestimated. Still, it is possible that Democrats in Nevada and nationwide can win House and Senate races next year simply by saying "Medicare" over and over again. Convenient, that, since as of this writing, there is no evidence to indicate that Democrats have anything else they're particularly interested in saying.

Alrighty then, that went about as well as could be expected

There are more Democrats than Republicans in the Nevada Legislature. In America, that means Republicans win. So it's semi-official: no new taxes.

The media still must spend a few weeks manufacturing the requisite sturm und drang over the final process by which Sandoval/teabagger supremacy will be confirmed. Will there be a special session? Or two? Perhaps someone somewhere cares.

But in the end, your Nevada Legislature will do nothing meaningful to help anyone escape crushing financial pressures or find a decent job. On the contrary, they'll be throwing people out of work, thank you. There may be very little that Nevada's governor and legislators can do to help the economy, but they can hurt it, by emulating Herbert Hoover at his worst, so they'll do that.

Pining for a semblance of relevance, impotent Democrats are reportedly considering legislation that would put taxes on the ballot, perhaps even as early as this fall. In that event, Brian Sandoval and the right-wingers who have scared him into obedient submission could be counted on to mount a high-profile, forceful and -- most importantly -- well-financed opposition campaign.

Approval of any new taxes at the polls is doubly threatened because gaming, mining and the rest of the industries and interests who claim to support a broadened tax base can be relied on to back a pro-tax campaign with just as much sincerity and commitment as they displayed while promoting sound public policy during the legislative session.

(If the Democrats do go forward with legislation to put taxes before voters this year, the ballot, if possible, should include the constitutional amendment to take mining taxes out of the state constitution. Voters must approve constitutional amendments a couple of times, so the earlier the start the better -- although by the time Nevada taxes mining responsibly, if it ever does, the price of gold will be back down to a nickel-ninety-eight. You see, the state almost certainly has missed it's window of opportunity on the gold bubble. Barrick and Newmont, on the other hand, have taken enough profits from Nevada to diversify through mergers/acquisitions and new projects on other continents, thus lessening Newmont and Barrick's reliance on both gold and Nevada. Strengthening Newmont and Barrick internationally while diminishing Nevada's importance to the industry -- that's the legacy of Nevada mining tax policy in the first decade of the 21st century. But I digress.)

So anyway, the Nevada Legislature has shaped up almost exactly as pretty much everyone expected, and before long a thankful media can move on to handicapping the odds on Sharron Angle, Jon Huntsman and other political horseflesh full-time. As the campaign cycle begins to pick up steam in earnest, Democratic candidates from Obama down will clearly and powerfully explain their party's fundamental ideology: "We're not Republicans." That will be enough for Democratic voters (it always is) as well as more than a few independents, and Democrats will win some races. And then, whether in the majority or the minority, Republicans will rule anyway. So stay tuned to national and local media outlets of choice because you certainly won't want to miss any of the thrills and excitement, I guess.

We know how Nevada will celebrate

Balloons! Next year marks the sesquicentennial of the Morrill Land Grant College Act, the federal legislation that led to the establishment of so many of America's state colleges and universities.

Getting a jump on the commemorations, your Gleaner's latest column in CityLife briefly reviews how that landmark legislation reflected traditional American values, then juxtaposes those values with raging anti-egalitarianism, unbridled wealth polarization and the 21st century popular political movement to eradicate opportunity itself from the face of the earth.

Excerpt? Oh all right.

In addition to common, everyday anti-intellectualism, the assault on the "worth" of humanist studies reflects one of the more alarming, if unstated, assumptions driving the noisy push to slash higher-education budgets generally: Public colleges will produce worker bees, thank you, and the humanities are only for the rich.

Have a nice day.

Jones Vargas vetoes education bill, says Nevadans plenty educated already

In a spirited and condescending veto PDF, Jones Vargas government affairs spokesman Brian Sandoval said an education spending bill "represents a circuitous attempt to secure a tax increase."

No. The bill sought to set education spending levels. The tax increases are detailed in other bills that Sandoval, who also serves as governor, can veto later. There's nothing "circuitous" about it. Pretty straightforward, really.

In his veto letter, Sandoval also explained that "...Nevada's struggling economy must be allowed to fully recover."

Allowed? Allowed? Perhaps with unprecedented clarity, Sandoval has reiterated that his "plan" to turn around Nevada's economy is to do absolutely nothing except the same thing Nevada has always done -- scurry to and fro yelling "no new taxes!" -- and then, you know, wait and see. Indeed, when it comes down to the hard work and responsible policy consideration demanded by the worst and most prolonged economic crisis to befall hapless Nevada in generations, Nevadans can rest assured that Brian Sandoval's commitment to passive inactivity is second to none.

"...All of us would like to have more money to spend," Sandoval said.

All of us? Even Brian Sandoval? This raises (re-raises) an interesting question. While he was running for governor and then even between his election and inauguration when he was making appointments and such, how much personal "money to spend" was Sandoval given by the powerful Jones Vargas lobbying firm and juice brokerage house in exchange for mysterious services that have never been detailed?

Or put another way, how many years would Jones Vargas have to pay the Democrats' proposed margin tax before the total equaled what Sandoval got?

Democrats passed the education spending bill, "with the clear intention of casting opponents as somehow 'anti-education,'" Sandoval concluded.

Again, no. The Democrats passed the bill with the intention of spending more on education than what is preferred by cheap-ass Republicans (and yet the Democratic spending levels would still leave Nevada as one of the cheapest states in the nation). Republicans voted against it, in lockstep. And Sandoval vetoed it. So there is no need for Democrats to cast opponents, including Sandoval, as "anti-education." Sandoval & Co. are big boys and girls. Clearly, convincing the public that they're "anti-education" is exactly the sort of thing they can do all by themselves.

Mining lobbyist declares end of legislative session

The legislative session is done and the teabaggers won, according to a second-tier lobbyist for Barrick Gold Corporation.

For months, the lobbyist has taken to one of the internet's more obscure corners to full-throatedly advocate a broad based business tax.Then when the Democrats unveiled their nice new tax plan, the lobbyist went full pundit and publicly pronounced it dead on arrival. His analysis is a bit vague, but a key component of it seems to hold that Nevada's "progressives" are to blame because they didn't do what mining said.

So is this lobbyist right? Is there no chance the tax package will pass?

Judged by the accuracy of his prior assertions, his prognostication might be the most promising thing that has happened in Nevada for months. For instance, he has continuously contended that "progressives" were not interested in supporting a tax on businesses that currently pay jack because "progressives say it's all fixed if you pass a mining tax." His repeated mischaracterization of Nevada progressives is profoundly, indisputably and, of course, deliberately wrong. So if he asserts that the tax package is dead, maybe there's hope for it.

Then again, broken clock twice a day, etc. What's more, it's safe to assume that his latest "objective analysis" is similarly a deliberate act of misdirection.

By declaring that, dang, the stars just didn't align correctly in the 2011 legislative session, mining lobbyists are rationalizing their failure to lobby legislators to stand up to the Sandoval/NPRI/teabagger axis of weevils. The industry's excuse goes like this:

Gosh, mining would do everything it could to persuade its closest allies in the Legislature to support perhaps the most sensible tax reform package ever proposed by legislative leadership in the history of Nevada. If only other interests -- business, gaming and of course, those misguided progressives -- would get on board. Or if only the tax package would have been proposed earlier. Or if only ... whatever. And Nevada so desperately needs tax reform, too. But with reform dead in the water, it would be unfair to our fine and good legislative friends (and unwise for the industry) to ask them to stop singing the jolly no-new-taxes jingle at this juncture. Oh well, maybe next time!

Early this year before the session started, I had a spirited discussion with another mining lobbyist, the Nevada Mining Association's Tim Crowley, in a parking lot after we both appeared on Ralston's show. Expanding on a suggestion that had come up in the broadcast, I told him that leaders from mining, gambling and other businesses who keep saying they support a business tax needed to work together to form a broad coalition, announce their support for tax reform clearly and publicly and lobby for it forcefully. Crowley flat-out told me that it just wasn't going to happen.

If Crowley's prediction proves true, special interests will point fingers at each other and the Democratic leadership, all saying that they were willing to support reform but everyone else was dragging their feet and, well, it just couldn't come together, so boo hoo. Right now, the biggest obstacle to tax reform isn't Sandoval and the teabaggers, but powerful lobbyists saying the tax package won't pass because powerful lobbyists are saying the tax package won't pass.

Mining has staked out a prominent position in that collective meta-declaration of impotence, and evidently fully expected to do so well before the Legislature convened -- a head start that truly reflects the industry's historic leadership role in Nevada.

Finally, Journalism produces THE definitive summary of contemporary Nevada

I've nothing to add.