No Surprise in Nevada

In Nevada, Clinton is up by 6 points. 46 to 40. pic.twitter.com/PD0ykXgLyk

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 16, 2016

Nevada has picked the winner of every presidential election since 1964. It appears to be doing it again this year.

Stick a Fork in Nevada

It's cooked to a crisp, as unemployment has shot up to 13 percent, with Vegas being at 13.8 and northern Nevada at 13.5.

The state might just as well be annexed to some other state, for it is dead on the vine.

The Education Wars: Nevada's Deteriorating Education System

Local parents are worried about looming state cuts to education funding.

There will be teacher layoffs, whether or not they are "early" (read forced) retirements or outright age discrimination of older teachers by throwing them out on bogus charges.

From the article:

As Washoe County school officials unveiled strategic reform plans today, parents were curious about the impact of anticipated massive state budget cuts for education.

The community forum was among a trio of events related to budget cuts, including a rally by about two dozen teachers and testimony at a hearing in Carson City and a town hall meeting at the University of Nevada, Reno, against a backdrop of Republican Gov. Jim Gibbon’s call for up to 22 percent in cuts to higher, secondary and elementary education.

The Economy

Nevada's unemployment rate continues to go through the roof.

The state is dying on the vine.

There will always be a market for crackpots, however.

At Least Nevada is Not Number One

in this survey, but it will do for now:

Leadership Problems: 10

The extramarital affair recently acknowledged by Republican Sen. John Ensign hardly compares to the tabloid richness of GOP Gov. Jim Gibbons' one term. Even state Republicans acknowledge that Gibbons has been an unmitigated disaster -- and it actually began before he won office in 2006, with allegations that he had touched a woman inappropriately outside a restaurant. He was also dogged by questions about his dealings with a defense contractor when he was a U.S. House member.

Gibbons later underwent a nasty divorce, which prompted the news that the governor had used a state phone to send more than 800 texts in six weeks to a married woman who was not his wife.

"Gibbons is perhaps the worst governor in Nevada history and a national joke," Nevada political analyst Jon Ralston wrote in a recent Las Vegas Sun column that half-jokingly compares Sanford favorably to Gibbons. The Nevada governor, Ralston added, "also has made all manner of ludicrous appointments, some of which were rescinded, and has not forged any relationships with legislators, creating a vacuum in the executive branch that has impeded policy on various levels."

Coming from Ralston, that's high praise indeed.

Nevada has pretty tough competition. It's more crooked and dysfunctional than Illinois, but not quite on the level with New York.

Give it time...

And speaking of dysfunctional, some asshole or assholes vandalized the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign.

Campaign Notes

This is why Biden should have been the nominee and not Obama. He also noted McCain's campaign has no room to talk.
_____

Because the rurals in Nevada are likely to go McCain in a big way and Clark County will likely go to Obama, Washoe County is seen as the major battleground in the state.

That may be so, but as far as I am concerned, McCain has the clear advantage here.
_____

Campaign Notes

It's pure fantasy to believe Obama has a chance in hell of winning the Silver State given it is still conservative in most of it and that it borders on Arizona.

Miscellaneous News.

Nope, Nevada is not the western version of the Bermuda Triangle.
_____

Jimbo Eruptions.

Gibbons' education proposals are met with great acclaim.

Presidential Notes.

Nevada Republicans are looking at holding an early caucus.
_____

Senator McCain jumps into the fray just in time to jump out.
_____

You bet your ass Republicans are smiling.

Hell, they own the media, and the media are trying to shove two unelectables down our throats, hoping against hope Democrats will be stupid to bypass John Edwards and pick somebody who cannot win.

It's obvious what they are doing, and why the fuck Clinton and Obama don't get the hell out of the way instead of playing right into the Republicans' hands is a mystery.

Well, with Clinton it's her husband hoping to do a George Wallace, and with Obama, I guess it's all his outsized ego, so I guess it's not so mysterious after all.
_____

Presidential Notes II.

I guess some of the candidates did come to the watch party at the Nevada Appeal following the forum. So I kinda screwed up by passing it up.

But I wouldn't have been able to come anyway, for I had to be at work because of the testing and such.

Anyhow, I agree with this editorial that the forum was a big success.
_____

The candidates--at least the ones who gave a shit enough about unions and Nevadans to bother to show up--hit on Bush over Iraq and talked about health care, among many issues From what I have read, it appears people "on the ground" liked Richardson, Biden, Edwards, and Dodd the best. (Lisa J. Tolda, Reno Gazette-Journal)

Presidential Notes.

Well, the candidates--except Obama, who idiotically decided to campaign in Iowa thinking he didn't have to show up here in Nevada--showed up in Carson City for the first presidential forum of the 2008 election. I think it was a success, and each of the candidates made his or her case very well.

I am watching my tape of the forum. I think we have a very fine slate of candidates. Obama made a big mistake neglecting this event, but then I think he is wildly overrated and is nothing but a media flash in the pan.

The candidates did their best in the spin room without spinning out of control.

These reactions are interesting, but I am not surprised people on the ground like Dodd, Biden, and Richardson.

Nevada legislators give their spin.

The union members of AFSCME, who were lucky to actually see the candidates in person, were impressed with the Democratic slate.

John Edwards refused to talk about prostitution in Nevada, no doubt more concerned about prostitution in Washington.

He did mention Iraq, however.

I Just Returned

from the Washoe County Democratic Party fundraiser featuring Senator Joseph Biden. About 125 tickets were sold for the event, and it appeared close to that number were at the Garage bar at the Grand Sierra Resort to hear him speak. There were lots of local media around, too, to cover the event.

Biden will be in town for the next couple days, until after Wednesday's debate in Carson City. Before he spoke and answered a few questions, mostly relating to foreign policy, he met and shook hands with just about everybody who attended, including yours truly. He has a very firm handshake, almost a bone crusher handshake, and my right hand was aching for a few minutes afterwards. He also had several staff with him as well as his sister and her husband around to keep their eyes on him.

Anyway, after he mingled around with the crowd, he took the stage to talk a few minutes about why he thinks he should be president of the United States. In short, he believes he has the experience it takes to handle both the foreign policy and domestic policy problems facing this country thanks to the mess our dictator has made.

Before talking about the issues, he said he would donate $1,000 to the Washoe County Democratic Party towards the purchase of the new sign (which will cost over $4,000). The reason, he said, is he wants to see Nevada turn blue, and he believes it can. Then he told some stories about when he was first elected to the Senate back in 1972. At the time he was elected, he wasn't quite 30 years old, and he had been the fifth-youngest person ever elected to that body. However, he nearly gave up the seat when his first wife and three children were in a bad car wreck when they had gone Christmas shopping that year. Tragically his wife and baby daughter died. That was almost the end of his career, but Senator Mike Mansfield encouraged him to stay on and suggested that he commute from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington in order to be able to spend time with his family. He raised his two sons by himself until he remarried almost thirty years ago. Thirty-four years after being sworn in as senator, Biden still commutes by train every day to and from his home to Washington. The point being, of course, that Biden understands the problems facing this country because he has experienced similar problems in his own life.

The same is true when he suffered from cranial aneuryisms twenty years ago. They almost cost him his life, but he was fortunate enough to have great medical care through Walter Reed Hospital and also superior health insurance. He estimated his health problems cost "well over $800,000." If he hadn't had insurance, he noted, his wife and family would have been wiped out financially. But 46 million people, he said, don't have what he had, and he wants to change that situation.

But Biden mostly talked about foreign policy. He said this administration has left this country in a very deep hole. The middle class have been more uncertain about their future the past fifty years, and they need somebody who can deal with the problems facing this country, including in the area of foreign policy. It is going to be a very difficult decade ahead. He believes people are looking for somebody who can restore this country's values and direction, certainly reverse the mess that has happened the past six years. In Iraq the president took us into a war unnecessarily, without a sufficient number of troops and without the equipment necessary to fight the war. He took us to war without any plan at all. Biden has laid out a plan for over a year, but our dictator's lack of a plan has cost us "dearly." The price of our dictator's "folly has been excessive." The war must end, Biden said. He had a lot of experience in the Balkans, and he and former president Clinton butted heads over this issue. Biden argued that we needed to go to war over the Balkans, and Clinton eventually agreed to do so. Biden saw a lot of the problems firsthand. He said he learned there was a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things. As we know, it didn't cost one American life and the country has been more united, unlike this disaster in the Middle East. Biden said the problem is you need "a political solution to stop the sectarian violence."

For over a year, Biden wanted to put a political solution to the Iraq mess. But other people trying to resolve the problem haven't answered the question "what next." What do we leave behind there? Do we leave behind chaos? We are told we have to continue the escalation of this war or else we have to leave now and hope something good will follow. But what we need to do is make sure we don't have a situation where the problem metasticizes into a civil war. He is concerned about Iran as well. His plan has gotten a lot of support over the past several months. His plan is on the web called "planforiran.com." He talked about separating the factions and giving them "breathing room." He talked about them having control over their daily lives.

At the same time, you have to draw down American forces--now. The reason is we have to make them understand we cannot be their "cops." They have to make some hard political decisions. We also have to make Iraq the "world's problem" and not just our problem. He would have the U.N. Security involved with Germany and several Muslim nations all join in an international conference to agree to a federal system in Iraq. Iraq is sectarian, not a democracy. There is no way a strong central government can be sustained. His arrangement is doable. The last thing the parties want in this situation is to metasticize into a civil war. There is a way but not the president's escalation. The president claims that those in Congress who criticize his actions are embolding the enemy, but Biden believes it is Bush's failed policies that are embolding the enemy.

Biden concluded he believes this country needs somebody who has the depth of experience in foreign policy and somebody who understands what they are going through. People know we need a national energy policy and must reverse global warming. But people doubt whether Washington politicians can understand what they are going through such as paying their bills, filling their gas tanks, and so forth. That's when Biden talked about his own personal experiences, some of which I mentioned earlier in this post, to illustrate how he understands what people are going through.

Biden said this is the single most exciting time to run for president since 1932. The president can literally turn this country and world around. It is not "hyperbole." It is reality. Other leaders are scared to death of the lack of vision in this country. It is time to lead with our values as well as with our military. He stressed voters aren't stupid; they are smart. They didn't elect our dictator the first time, and we underestimated the hold 9/11 had in 2004 (Biden didn't mention the obvious fraud in THAT election). He is running for president because he believes this is the dawning of a new century if we have the courage to lead. This country seems to bounce back after great tragedy. He saw a country ready to react after 9/11, but it wasn't called to react. Biden wondered how it would have been had JFK been president at the time of 9/11. It would have been a far cry from what happened under Bush. The Democratic Party shouldn't be timid, it shouldn't be afraid to challenge the American people. They are ready, they are in control.

Biden answered a few questions from the audience, including questions about Iran, Afghanistan, what he would do about Bush and Cheney (he said he wants to move on and not deal with the past because he would spend all of his first term trying to deal with the messes of the previous adminstration), and so forth.

I took some still pictures of the event, and I will post those up within the next couple of days if they turn out.

Presidential Notes II.

Wednesday's debate in Carson City will be broadcast live on C-SPAN at noon Pacific, and at 3:00 EST.

I will not attend the debate. If I cannot see the candidates in person and get a chance to meet with them, there is no point being there at all. Watching a big-screen television at the local newspaper doesn't cut it when I can watch the debate at my place of work and tape it at home to watch later.

There will be a debate in August in Reno. I will try and get there and hopefully all of the candidates will still be running at that point.

I will blog my reflections on the debate Wednesday after I return home from work.

Jimbo Eruptions.

Could the newly-inaugurated Dipshit actually wind up being Nevada's shortest-serving governor?

Federal authorities confirmed Thursday that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons is being investigated for failing to properly report gifts or payments from a software company that was awarded secret military contracts when he was in Congress.The newly elected Republican governor denied any wrongdoing and told The Associated Press that “they can look as deeply as they need to and I encourage them to do so, but there would have been absolutely no influence.”

A federal law enforcement official confirmed the FBI probe. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said the inquiry is focusing on what role Gibbons played in awarding military contracts to eTreppid Technologies LLC in Reno and whether he received any gifts in exchange.

Phantom continues to capture the interest of northern Nevadans. (AP)