Primary Election: It's over but for the laughing and pointing

This is gonna be great! Grab a few brewski’s, put your feet up and get ready for the big show as the full tilt crazy Teanut, Sharron Angle, gets ready to take the country back from her socialist arch nemisis Harry Reid. The race to November has the potential to deliver both drama and laughs aplenty.

Sharron Angle … a bloggers’ dream

Angle, the wacky choice of wingnuts everywhere, has so firmly locked herself into the bedbug corner that she should be easy pickings for Reid. Supposing of course, that the alien pods sown by the Tea Party Express fail to bear the required numbers of clueless, fact hating zombie fruit - and Reid doesn’t stumble.

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Dan Hart's 'Don't bet on Sandoval' just another cheesy front group

Don’t let anybody say that I only walk the talk on a single side of the street. In this case, a former Reid operative is pissing me off with this campaign against Brian Sandoval - the guy who would be Governor Jim ‘Crazy Pants’ Gibbons replacement.

Out of sheer cussedness I think I’d vote for Sandoval, were the election tomorrow. If I could re-register as a Republican temporarily to vote for Sandoval in the Republican primary, I would do it in a heart beat.

Is the Rory Reid campaign listening?

They ought to be.

I don’t like chicken shit front groups. They’re inherently dishonest. They usually represent dishonest people/causes that I don’t like. These front groups - finely tuned by the wingnut ‘right’ - occasionally find their way into good campaigns- like that of Rory Reid.

That’s too bad.

Have you seen the ads against Brian Sandoval?

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Monday Musings: May 3, 2010

“Ironically, that reversal of the New Deal regulations that had operated successfully for 60 years, the Glass-Steagall Act, was referenced by Blankfein in his Tuesday testimony explaining how Goldman and other firms spun out of control.

When asked by Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., how Goldman had morphed from a traditional investment bank backing sound business ventures to a market gambler in fanciful products, Blankfein attributed it, somewhat forlornly, to “a change in the sociology of the business that took place over the last 15 to 20 years.” He added, “I’m not sure that it was precipitated by the fall of Glass-Steagall or it caused Glass-Steagall to fall. …” 

Of course there was nothing inevitable about the fall of Glass-Steagall in 1999, since it was the result of decades of lobbying by the financial industry. That change was followed by the total deregulation of financial derivatives by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which Rubin had pushed and which President Clinton signed into law.” Robert Scheer column, ‘What a Piece of Crap’

Yes, there was nothing ‘inevitable’ about the fall of Glass-Steagall - beyond what you would expect from nearly 20 years of brainwashing that said any and all government regulation is bad, bad, bad … for business.

Starting with the GOM (Grand Old Man) of the GOP, Ronald Reagan and his witless jokes about government, leading through the Clinton years and ending with Bush, all the hard fought and hard won regulatory gains meant to protect ‘We the People’ were shredded and tossed. The country has been thoroughly sold on the idea that government is necessarily bad, unions are unnecessary and that the only thing that needs to be BIG is the military-industrial complex.

You’re looking at the wreckage of this ‘thinking’ in the Wall Street mess, the toxic oil sludge that is about to flow inexorably across the sensitive wetlands and valuable fishing grounds of Louisiana - thanks to BP and a Tea Party chant of ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’- and miners dying in one lousy, unsafe mine after another.

So far as I can see, very few business below the dizzying heights of Goldman Sachs, are doing very well sans the government regulatory environment of old.

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Friday Fish Wrap: April 9, 2010

Yikes, what a day. Everything I did at work took six times longer than it should have. I needed a bit of restorative clothes shopping after work. And then a glass of wine.

Ugh. And I have to work from home over the weekend. The good news is that I think it’ll be worth it.

Long story.

Well, the suspense over a retirement at SCOTUS is over, and Justice John Paul Stevens (age 90) has announced that he’ll be going away. The short list over at the White House, filed after the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation, can be resurrected.

Stevens, the oldest serving member of the court, didn’t move to the left so much as the rest of the court - activists all - moved like a sharp thunk of the Pacific tectonic plate to the right.

8.0 on the Richter scale.

Justice John Paul Stevens was a centrist of the old school, who found allies in conservative camps - those who could still see the full spectrum ( call it the light of day ) of political and constitutional thought undiminished by the hard right, strict interpretation of guys like Scalia. A rational, reasonable centrist in this day and age, by comparison, is a ‘liberal’. Sigh.

Here’s the short list: Judge Diane Wood ( Appeals Court), Elena Kagan (Obama’s Solicitor General), and Judge Merrick Garland ( D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals).

The question: will Obama want a concensus nominee that is an easy confirmation, or a strong voice in the wilderness for Liberals? Slipping another liberal into the court won’t exactly be a barn burner in that it won’t change the usual 5-4 split that we’ve seen.

Maven’s call:

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Miss Paul Krugman and you miss a lot

Life has been a bit too hectic lately, and I’ve not been availing myself of my bedtime Kindle reading of economist Paul Krugman’s excellent “Conscience of a Liberal”. When I don’t keep up with Krugman, I’m missing a lot of great information … and it’s not just him (although I love the gently snarky tone of his writing) but the references to other economists - who are not in the mainstream.

During the battle over health care reform, I got to depend on Krugman’s excellent analysis to keep me on track in regard to the economics of the whole thing.

I digress.

Tonight, I checked in via Kindle Reader, and scrolling down through recent posts got waylaid by the following:

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Monday Musings: March 29, 2010

Today was simply the most awesome day of skiing that I’ve had in years. I am a happy woman, and learned something useful.

Mt. Rose, where I have a season pass, is where I normally ski. It’s economical and close. Mt. Rose doesn’t have the most terrain or the fanciest of posh hotels, bistros, high end trinket shops and such. It’s a basic locals place.

The skiing at Mt. Rose can be very challenging however.

I’ve really worked at my skiing this year, and sometimes bemoaned how hard it was at Mt. Rose. So today, we went to Northstar. Very Euro, very Vail, very big, and very expensive. It has a huge area of beautiful runs.

I’ve never skied better. Because, compared to Mt. Rose, Northstar is easy. It’s a nice intermediate ski area for skiers who don’t particularly want to be challenged.

I’ll go back to Mt. Rose and be glad to be there. I’ll know that when I ski well there, it’s because I’m good and not because I’ve been fooled by fancy.

Sort of like life.

Now the Tea Party folks, and Republican pols are backing away from simply hating health care reform legislation on it’s face as health, care and reform. Now, it’s about taxes. I get it. Tea Partiers and the GOP don’t like taxes.

It just occurred to me that had the GOP not been on such an irresponsible spending spree over the last decade, launched two horribly expensive and unnecessary wars abroad, gutted regulation over the financial services industry leading to near collapse of state and local governments - leaving them to tax their way out of the very deep hole - had they not done this, there would probably not be a bunch of tax increases looming everywhere we look.

The Tea Party bunch needs to look in the goddamn mirror.

In the ever shrinking Reno Gazette-Journal op-ed page, there was a letter the editor by a local nitwit. This person was blown away - I mean REALLY BLOWN AWAY - having met America’s craziest Governor, Jim Gibbons of Nevada in WalMart.

Whoa! The Guv in WalMart!

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Gibbons and Burns:Go shopping for a clue on health care reform

In response to suggestions that the Federal Government might actually have the right to insist that all Americans will get health insurance coverage - per the mandate of the new legislation - America’s craziest governor, Jim Gibbons, plans to join 13 other contestants (states) in suing the Federal Government.

“The federal government has no right to tell state residents that they have to go out and buy something,” said Dan Burns, Gibbons’ spokesman.

Oh, but Dan, this is how it works! Don’t you remember,  just two weeks after September 11th, we were all encouraged to go shopping by our Most Delusional Leader?

Here’s the difference between then and now: health insurance is actually better for you than, say, a $150 premium jeans, a big screen television or even a trip to Disney World.

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Friday Fish Wrap: February 26, 2010

Updated on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 00:12 by mavenandmeddler

No matter the extent of the healthcare drama inside the faraway beltway, we in Nevada have more drama than we need right here at home. In so many ways it’s the national story writ very small and nasty.

We have an crazy, embattled Republican Governor - trailing a laundry list of tawdry divorce, women and grope stories like toilet paper from his shoe - blocking damn near anything a desperate legislature suggests to mitigate the effects of an $880 million deficit.

Nevada is unique in many ways. One of them is our stubborn grip on a bi-annual legislature. Back in the day - like the 1800’s when there were few folks here and they were spread thin - it was no easy trick to mosey in to Carson City to legislate and commiserate.

You’d think this woulda’ changed with the advent of new-fangled airplanes and interstate highways, but no.

So, the Governor has called them into Special Session - a five day marathon intended to plug the gap. If this sounds impossible to you, welcome to my life in Nevada.

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Hey, Jim! How's the "no new tax" thingy gonna work for us?

“He wants to share his ideology with the citizens. He will make all of his proposals known in the days ahead,” said Governor Jim Gibbons press secretary, Dan Burns.

No, no Dan. Thanks, gaaack, but I don’t need any more of Jim’s, urp, Tea Party ideology.

A dose of reality and critical thinking might be better as we slide down the rat hole to bankruptcy. Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons did another amazing impersonation of this man:

Delusional and deranged.

First things first:

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Monday Musings: February 8, 2010

Updated on Monday, February 8, 2010 at 08:11 by mavenandmeddler

Watching the Sunday morning round of political shows, I listened to Alan Greenspan deliver his whiskered old dogma that lowering taxes would certainly help bring the economy out of its funk. Then, an ad came up for the woman who would like to replace Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, Sue Lowden.

Sue is an all American success story.

Family from the old sod that came to American to work in the coal mines. Sue bused tables in New Jersey to take the runner up place at the Miss America pagent, and fly off with Bob Hope on a USO tour.

Or something like that. It’s the same old political ad.

Her plan for success in Nevada: lowering taxes.

I wish it were that easy. Simple cause and effect.

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Monday Musings: December 28, 2009

The kids left for home in the Bay Area early this morning, and we’ve spent the day picking up, putting away and trying to use up leftovers from parties and dinners. I really do feel like after several days of non-stop eating,  I could easily never eat again. Maybe just tea and the occasional bowl of cereal. Ugh. But we really had a wonderful time together.

I emailed foster dog Mom, Joy, about ‘Slick’. It’s a no go. I was wiping tears away while writing the email. But here’s the deal, I’m sad because he’s so damn perfect … the perfect dog for me/us … except that he doesn’t cotton to cats and isn’t likely to change.

Joy said that he’d be relentless with Ladybird and we just can’t do that to her. We both adore that furry neck warmer.

That said, I’m mounting a campaign to get Slick adopted by the right person/s who don’t have a cat. I will post additional information - Joy was incredibly forthcoming with me about him - so that hopefully the word gets out. This very special guy deserves a wonderful home for the new year.

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Cat fight erupts between guv and mayor over lies ... damned lies.

This is a total scream. I love to see true believers fighting amongst themselves. Our esteemed mayor, Bob Cashell, who is rumored to be entertaining thoughts of a gubenatorial bid, has accused our not-so-esteemed guv of being “a liar”. This is paydirt for bloggers.

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Killing the messenger: Jim Rogers

The very public brawl between Chancellor Jim Rogers and Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons has finally boiled over, and it does appear that the two cannot possibly continue to work together in any meaningful or constructive manner. The entire festering boil was brought to a head the other day when Chancellor Rogers gave voice to his frustrations on the Op-Ed pages of the Nevada Appeal.

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Gov. Jim Gibbons to teach other new governors how it's done?

Well, now there’s a scary thought, especially for the new governors.

The guy who got caught out during his campaign with a cocktail waitress, got thrown out of the Governors’ Mansion by his soon-to-be ex-wife ( now he’s trying to get her thrown out), got caught in a couple of really sketchy deals with land taxes and political contributions …. he’s giving advice.

Even this mornings’ Reno Gazette-Journal, that great monument to “print the press release” journalism sounded a bit incredulous. I wish I could have been a fly on what remains of the newsroom wall and catch the jokes flying.

Political advice from Jim Gibbons would be rather like getting career advice from Brittany Spears, right?

Yes, that’s our boy mugging in the back row amidst a lot of women on a 2005 cruise. What a guy!

Couldn’t the Governors’ staff have simply said that he/the State of Nevada was hosting a gathering of new governors and let it go at that? I mean, I’ve managed to step on my own lip as a public spokesperson but these people are supposedly smarter than I am, with fancy degrees.

I’m not, I say, not making judgements about his judgement …. or lack of. Again, my own bar has been set rather low at times over my 55 years …like everytime I forget that I’m a little woman and don’t process alcohol as effeciently as the big boys do. But I don’t have handlers.

My guess is that his handlers are overpaid for what he’s getting in return.

Here’s my advice for the visiting governors: “Run like hell, Bambi !” You’re odds are better down on the casino floor.

maven