Temp for America Didn't Win This Time

The two million bucks Nevada's governor Brian Sandoval had earmarked for Teach for America will instead be used for the Millenium Scholarship fund.

There are already some TFAs in the Clark County School District, but that money would have increased the privatizer outfit's presence more.

Gardner added the governor agreed with Assembly lawmakers early Tuesday to dedicate the $2 million for the Millennium Scholarship fund instead of Teach for America, a nationwide program that trains and sends recent college graduates to teach in low-income schools.

Two other education bills passed the Legislature on Tuesday.

One would aim to reduce class sizes in K-12 schools and the other would set up a new oversight scheme for the state's charter schools. They both passed.

Too bad Oregon doesn't take note and put through a class-size reduction program.

There are primary classes locally that have 25 to 30 students, FAR more than they should have.

News, Etc.

It appears Nevada governor Brian Sandoval is just like Jim Gibbons, only more photogenic.

He's really way in over his head. At least one of the comments following the article suggests Nevada should revoke its charter and become a territory of the United States. The situation is dire if not completely hopeless there.
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Ohio workers have been given the shaft by the nutjobs in the state senate.

What else did voters expect when they put these extremists in?

Snip:

After the bill passed the senate Wednesday, the president of the AFL-CIO in Ohio issued a statement treating the measure as though it were already law, even though it must still be introduced in the House. AFL-CIO head Tim Burga called the bill’s senate passage “a sad day for Ohio’s middle class.” He made no mention of further demonstrations against the bill, much less strikes in opposition to its passage.

The unions are far more fearful that serious resistance to the bill—including the possibility of a general strike—could emerge, than they are of losing their role in the contract negotiation process. With a large working class that has been hard hit by the decline of heavy industry—auto, steel, and tire production—there is enormous social anger in this state of 11.5 million, whose economy is larger than that of Sweden.

News, Etc.

Former Nevada state senator Bill Raggio hit it on the head about his own party's need to move away from the "radical right."  I would interpret that as including Sharron Angle in that equation.
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A 17-year-old Nebraska wingnut with ambitions to attend the ultra-rightwing Patrick Henry University and pollute the judiciary and political worlds won the Miss America pageant held in Sin City, Nevada.  The person who should have won, Alyse Eady of Arkansas, was first runner-up.  Many people agree with me Eady was far more deserving:



Unlike most ventriloquists, you can't even tell Eady is "throwing her voice."  It is difficult to pull that off.

But judges love Barbie doll wingnuts better than somebody who really does have talent.  While I believe beauty contests are outdated and send the wrong message to young women, Eady did get robbed.
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The Legacy of Sharron Angle

Good grief.

It takes a nutter legislator to not even detect a bit of irony in his anti-government or "limited government" nonsense.

Nevada once again becomes a national laughingstock.

National Laughingstock Department

Once again Nevada politicians don't have to try very hard to put themselves up to national ridicule. This time it isn't Gibbons or Ensign or Angle, but a Democrat who is so concerned about the pronunciation of the state he wants to put forward a resolution which would declare the incorrect pronunciation often used by easterners as "acceptable."

Meanwhile, the state is dying economically, with unemployment continuing to go through the roof.

News and Commentary Briefs

A judge has dismissed charges against Nevada Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki.
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Tiger Woods' popularity continues to go south.
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Are liberals useless.

Well, if you call Obama a "liberal," then of course they would be useless, but Obama has never been one. I don't see much being accomplished by the so-called "progressives" or "leftists."
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If you have committed a crime decades ago and have long since paid your dues, it doesn't matter to the employer how good you might be now--more and more employers are telling ex-cons to take a hike.
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Rory Reid Speech

October 15, 2009, at the California Building at Idlewild Park in Reno, Nevada.

Part 1:




Part 2:

Nevada's Political Campaigns

have become just a wee bit more complicated thanks to John Ensign's antics:

In recent days, after the New York Times reported on Ensign's efforts to silence his mistress' husband, Doug Hampton, the Senate ethics committee launched an investigation and talk surfaced of a possible FBI inquiry.

Ensign has said he won't resign, and Nevada's GOP is widely considered too emasculated to push him out. Regardless of what voters think -- Ensign's approval rating in August was a dismal 30% -- they can't weigh in until 2012.

So instead Ensign has, for a time, become a player in two of next year's highest-profile races.

Nevada's political elite -- including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat -- is struggling with whether to stand by its man. Last week alone, liberals castigated Reid for staying out of the Ensign fray and one of Reid's potential challengers, Sue Lowden, for defending him.

As long as Ensign's woes keep making headlines, candidates will be asked to comment on his travails. In a state with fewer residents than Orange County and only a few major campaign donors, there are risks to either embracing or ignoring the onetime GOP golden boy.

Nevada has turned into (more) of a shithole, both economically and politically.

Jimbo Eruptions

It's all over for Jimbo as Brian Sandoval will most likely be the next governor of Nevada.

The state GOP must have put a LOT of pressure on Sandoval to quit his job as judge to run for the governorship.

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.

Nevada Politics

It seems a possible opponent for Harry Reid in 2010 is in legal hot water.

The AP version is here. A snip:

The first-term lieutenant governor said Tuesday there’s no basis for the indictment. He says he was targeted for political reasons by Masto — and that Reid was involved. Both Masto and Reid are Democrats. A spokesman for Reid has denied any role in Masto’s move against Krolicki.

The indictments were based in part on a 2007 audit that found budget controls were bypassed in the $3.7 billion Nevada College Savings Program. Krolicki has disputed the report’s findings, saying auditors were “simply wrong.”

Krolicki disclosed late last month that he was told by Masto’s office that an indictment would be sought. Masto said at that point that she couldn’t comment. Her notice to Krolicki cited a law making it a felony for any misappropriation or falsification of government accounts by a public officer.

You can read the gory details from the indictment here.

Local Stuff

How can Nevada officials be "shocked" by the shitty economy?
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Of course taxes will have to be raised, but Jimbo doesn't seem to have any other "solutions" other than "no taxes," regardless of the reality of the situation.
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Something smells rotten regarding the Nevada State Prison.

Jimbo Eruptions.

But, but, but...nobody liked Dina Titus, so who cares whether Jimbo is disengaged?

He doesn't bother to work regular hours because he is so depressed over the mounting scandals and controversies.

Gibbons, who declined to comment for this story, is in the office less frequently these days. In the early months of his administration, which began Jan. 1, 2007, he was in the office by 7:30 each weekday morning and stayed late. Now he arrives at the office in mid-morning, if at all.

Citing state law, the governor’s office refused to release Gibbons’ schedule. But his schedule of public appearances has not been robust. From Jan. 1 to March 15 of this year, the governor made 38 public appearances, including for such things as Board of Examiners meetings, Republican functions and the National Governors Association convention in Washington, D.C.

Jimbo Eruptions.

While Jimbo's fingers were extremely nimble, his brain went out to lunch.
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Some Democrats agree with me old Gibbons is calling a special session of the legislature merely to distract attention away from his messy divorce.
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Meanwhile, his approval ratings are down to Nixonian levels.

This is good:

Coker said Gibbons' personal problems could be costing him anywhere from 10 to 15 percentage points. He said governors in other states who don't have highly publicized personal problems but do have budget crises due to bad economies tend to have approval ratings in the low to mid-30s.

Coker also said he has seen governors in other states with ratings worse than Gibbons, including some “in the 10 to 15 percent range – but most of them were under indictment.”

It's early yet for Jimbo. But he probably wishes he'd never run for the job.

He may have been better off being a worthless representative in Congress and living far, far, far away from Dawn than being back in Nevada and becoming a national laughingstock.

Gibbons is trying hard to be the Big Brown of America's governors:

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research pollster Brad Coker can't say absolutely that Gibbons has the worst job approval rating among all governors, but of the 20 to 25 states Coker polls in regularly, Gibbons' 21 percent approval rating is the lowest, he said.

Jimbo Eruptions.

Jimbo tries to take the public's mind off of his scandals by calling a special legislative session.

Jimbo Eruptions.

Who could imagine Brian Krolicki being forced out of office before the dipshit governor?

Jimbo Eruptions.

It's kind of misleading the title of this post, for this isn't about old Dipshit at all.

This is about the man who "would" be governor.