Shelley's Censorship Squad; Rep. Berkley Uses Her Office to Silence Political Opposition

Last week, Nevada Democrat Congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Shelley Berkley attempted to make political hay out of the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke kerfuffle by trying to tie her opponent, Sen. Dean Heller, to Limbaugh. When that naked display of political opportunism didn't work, she showed her disregard for the rights she has sworn to defend.

Thursday, Berkley started a petition to tell Clear Channel Communications to cancel Limbaugh's show. Let's see, a representative of the government attempting to influence a broadcaster's programming. I think there's a word for that. Ah, yes: censorship.

The Reno Gazette-Journal excoriated her for the move. Yet, when confronted with opposition to her attempt to use her office to silence her political opponents, Berkley not only didn't back down, she doubled down. In an appearance in Reno she not only defended her attempt to silence Limbaugh but claimed political speech deserves even less protection than other forms.

Berkley drew a distinction between Maher and Limbaugh, saying one is an entertainer and the other is tantamount to a Republican operative.

“If you cross Rush Limbaugh and you’re a Republican office holder, then you have to crawl over and kiss his ring,” Berkley said. “There’s a big difference between what is being said by Bill Maher and his humor, although I don’t find that funny, and what Rush Limbaugh does, who pretty much calls the shots in the Republican Party.”

Yes, you read that right. Berkley is asserting the right to restrict the speech of her political opponents because they are her political opponents. That buzzing sound you hear is the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves.

Even after that was reported, Berkley's campaign tweeted,

Help us keep the pressure on @ClearChannel to cancel Rush Limbaugh -- can you kick in $5 today? ow.ly/9DFhB

— Shelley Berkley (@Berkley4Senate) March 14, 2012

The link in that tweet goes not to her petition but to a donate page on her Senate campaign website. She's no longer asking people to pressure Clear Channel by adding their names to a petition. She's asking them to pressure Clear Channel by making her more powerful and able to wield even more influence over the media company! Such an implied threat is absolutely chilling.

If a private citizen wished to put up a petition to pressure Clear Channel to drop Rush, that would simply be a matter of that person exercising their own right to free speech. I may not agree with their decision but would not question their absolute right to do so.

But Berkley is in an entirely different position. Only the government can be a censor and she is a representative of the government. She is using the power of her office to "pressure" Clear Channel to change its programming, to censor Clear Channel. In fact, she is using this controversy to lobby for even more power to "pressure" them.

We have far more to fear from power-hungry politicians who don't recognize their limits than we do from any entertainer or radio personality. That Congresswoman Berkley refuses to recognize that proves she is unfit for any office.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tony Katz for including a link on AllPatriotsMedia's Quick Six.

And thanks to Michelle Malkin for a link in today's newsletter. If you're not a subscriber you should be.

RJ Endorses Beers

The Review-Journal endorsed Bob Beers for City Council. The R-J's endorsement ofBeers is less-surprising than that of the Las Vegas Firefighters Union. (Note: Las Vegas firefighters were not implicated in the abuse of sick leave and overtime scandals that Clark County firefighters engaged in.)

An email sent by Beers supporter Ron Futrell contains this statement from the union president,

"Mr. Beers is an advocate for limiting spending," firefighters union local 1285 President Dean Fletcher said. "That's what we need at the local level. We need somebody there to look at the finances of the city.["]

Would that all public employee unions had that attitude.

Good News on the Local Jobs Front

Though the rates still remain far above the national levels, unemployment rates in Nevada and the Las Vegas Valley fell in January compared to December and compared to the previous January.

Replace bad teachers with robots

The fact is, we have too many teachers and too many employees working in education. Teacher training and certification have no correlation with student achievement (at best) and (at worst) can be used to keep effective professionals out of the classroom.

Only in a backward and ineffective economic sector would you see more resources being used (money and labor) to produce the same results. Education is one of those ineffective (and expensive) sectors of the economy.

Disruptive technology will not only help identify good teachers and make great teachers even better, disruptive education technology will also replace bad teachers with robots and web applications.

And yes, the teacher unions are fighting any technology that can be used to replace human employees (ie replace expensive, ineffective and bad employees).

Education reform updates from around the U.S

A girl in Rochester New York is pushed out of two public schools for writing an essay that blamed bad teaching on white teachers wanting to keep black students on the plantation. To be fair, its not being white that results in bad education for minority students, it is the edublob that doesn't want competition or innovation and spends every waking moment trying to make it impossible to fire bad teachers and hire good ones.

Yet another empirical study shows school choice works and improves student achievement. My count maybe off but it is something like 11 out of 12 random assignment studies on school choice show students benefit (higher test scores / higher graduation rates / lower incarceration rates / increased likelihood of attending college).  The science is clear...very clear... yet politics, led by the teacher union, and followed by the Democrat party, continues to stand in the way of meaningful reform (note: a vocal and growing minority within the Democrat party now advocates for school choice!)

My friend and mentor, Dr. Mathew Ladner, published his Report Card on American Education. Read it and be a little worried.

The Friedman Foundation published their 2012 ABC's of School Choice book, showing that 2011 was an amazing year for the growth in school choice programs.

The Law? Pshaw! We Make the Law

Nevada's Legislature meets just once every two years, for 120 days, to make laws. At least that's what the state Constitution says. The reality is far different.

Can't pass a law while the Legislature is in session? No problem, pass it during the interim between sessions.

During the 2011 Legislature, Secretary of State Ross Miller introduced a bill that would strip the ability of limited-liability companies and corporations to qualify for a home-based business exemption to the state's $200 business license fee. The bill did not pass. However, a legislative subcommittee stacked with Democrats plans to repeal the exemption later this week.

Who cares what the law says when you make the laws, right?

Obama Campaign to Dems: No Money for You

Politico reports the White House is telling the Democrat Congressional and Senate campaign committees that the Obama campaign will not be giving them money. It will also be limiting the events the President, Vice President and members of the administration make on behalf of these groups and their candidates.

It was a stark admission from a presidential campaign once expected to rake in as much as $1 billion of just how closely it is watching its own bottom line.

Is it a sign of a weak economy, a weak candidate or something else?

Never Give Up And Never Let Them Shut You Up

One day leftists are celebrating the death of a conservative activist. The next day, literally, they are in high dudgeon because a radio host said something mean about a liberal activist.

Welcome to the world of modern politics.

On Thursday, conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly. For many on the left, even the occasion of Breitbart’s death was not enough to temper, or silence, their hatred for him. Friday, liberals engaged in a coordinated attack upon conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for comments he made about left-wing activist Sandra Flake.

The left’s seeming inconsistency can be explained by one simple fact. They are not trying to convince people who disagree with them, they are trying to shut those people up. And there is no one so obscure to be unworthy of the effort to silence them.

Breitbart understood this.

The left’s concern for “civility” in political discourse, for example, is little more than an effort to silence the opposition, as is their jihad against Fox News and conservative talk radio. They’re all for freedom of the press as long as they get to decide who’s the press.

The mainstream media are accomplices (often willingly) in this effort.

Conservatives who stray even the slightest from a very narrow band of acceptable discourse are dismissed as “loons” or worse by the MSM. There is no event that is so tragic or horrific as to render it an inappropriate avenue for leftists to take a shot at conservatives and even the most foul-mouthed and vicious are taken seriously by the media.

It’s perfectly acceptable, and not hyperbolic, for leftists to claim that conservatives want to get rid of government and turn the U.S. into Somalia. But they erupt in outrage when conservatives use analogous rhetoric.

As Ben Howe and others have pointed out, liberal commentator Ed Schultz has used the exact same word to describe conservative commentator Laura Ingraham as Limbaugh used to describe Fluke. Ingraham is a conservative political activist, which makes her a legitimate target (in the eyes of the left). Other leftist commentators have called other conservative women much worse.

Fluke is not some innocent bystander who was unwittingly swept up into the public eye by events beyond her control. (Not that that matters to the left when they want to bash a conservative, anyway. Joe the Plumber, anyone?) Nor is she merely a “college student” as the media and left-wing activists (redundant, I know) are trying to portray her.

She is a liberal activist who willingly injected herself in the middle of a political storm. There is even evidence she enrolled at Georgetown with the intent of creating controversy over the very issue that started this whole thing.

But don’t expect the left (or media) to highlight that aspect of the story. Not when they, to this day, continue to misrepresent Breitbart’s purpose with releasing the Shirley Sherrod video, even though he stated it in the original post that contained the video.

While I don’t believe the mere fact of being a political activist or politician should make someone fair game for personal attacks or insults, it certainly is enough for the left when the subject is a conservative. Especially a conservative woman or minority.

Breitbart himself was a frequent subject of attacks from the left. Yet he never gave in. He was constantly retweeting insults from leftists. That is why he was so admired on the right, so hated on the left and so effective – he was fearless and he never backed down. He recognized what the left and the media were doing and he fought it with every ounce of his being.

I didn’t know Andrew Breitbart but I know many people who knew did, some quite well. Though I saw him speak at several different events, I spoke with him only once – in the airport returning from Washington after BlogCon2010. But I admired him greatly. All of us on the right should take lessons from him.

Are We There Yet?

Far from it, if you're talking about anyone having enough delegates to wrap up the Republican Presidential nomination. Saul Anuzis has the official delegate count so far and the leader, Mitt Romney, has less than 10% of what is needed to win.

Think Tank Offers Solutions 2013

From NPRI:

NPRI is very excited to announce the release of Solutions 2013: A Sourcebook for Nevada Policymakers. Solutions 2013 contains information, research and recommendations on 39 different policy areas and is the most comprehensive guide available on the issues facing Nevadans.

This 88-page book will become the go-to reference for policymakers, candidates and concerned citizens on issues ranging from taxes to education, from energy to labor, from economic development to higher education.

Chock-full of tasty, free-market goodness.

RIP Andrew Breitbart

The conservative firebrand has died at 43. He was a fearless supporter of liberty.

UPDATE: The Franklin Center has posted a great tribute video.

(BUMPED)

Goliath Crushes David as SNWA Brushes Aside Small Biz in Favor of Gamers, Unions

If there were any doubts who really runs the show in Southern Nevada, they were dispelled yesterday as the Southern Nevada Water Authority chose the interests of unions and gamers over those of small business in deciding which method to use in implementing its upcoming rate increase. The SNWA board voted unanimously to adopt the option that pushes the brunt of the rate increase onto the small- and medium-sized businesses.

Several representatives of small business concerns plead their case at yesterday’s hearing. But by the time the vote took place there was less suspense about the outcome than in Hugo Chavez’s last election.

The alternative called Option 1 would have allocated the rate increase based upon consumption – the more water a family or business used, the greater their share of the increase. Option 2 used a meter-size based formula and limited the increase on residential consumers and large users, such as hotels and golf courses, leaving small- and mid-sized businesses to absorb the rest, raising their rates by exorbitant amounts.

The first speaker at the meeting was AFL-CIO’s Danny Thompson, who expressed his support for Option 2. A few other union representatives also advocated in favor of Option 2.

When developer Tom Thomas revealed that his discussions led him to believe that only Options 2 and 3 were on the table, one could legitimately feel that the outcome had already been determined. Testimony by the Nevada Resort Association’s (aka Big Gaming) Virginia Valentine in favor of Option 2 meant the unions and the gamers, the two most powerful interests in Clark County, supported that option. At that point the only doubt that remained was if any of the board members would dissent.

None did.

The board members appeared to listen to those testifying. They certainly reacted to the gentleman who lashed out in a verbal assault upon SNWA President Pat Mulroy. But the many small business representatives who appeared had no effect on the final decision.

Even the disclosure by commercial realtor Rod Martin that the SNWA’s most recent budget indicated the Authority did not anticipate any rate increases did not sway the board. The SNWA has been running on reserves since just after the start of the recession and has known for quite some time it would be implementing a rate increase. Most local business owners were informed of it only within the last few weeks.

Ron Smith, Chairman of the Nevada Restaurant Association, pleaded with the board not to place any greater burden on the valley’s eateries. These businesses run on very slim margins and “there is a limit to what menu prices can bear,” stated Smith. Many are struggling just to get by in the current climate and “this increase could be their tipping point.”

Suzette LaGrange, Senior Vice President of Industrial Properties for Collier’s International, was concerned that, while the SNWA has data comparing local residential water rates with those of other municipalities in the West, the SNWA has performed “no competitive survey for commercial rates.” She also criticized the last-minute nature of the discussion, stating that most businesses have been aware of this for only the last thirty days. She requested a delay in implementation of the increase to allow the business community to analyze this increase and better plan for it.

Ironically, the small business community found itself allied with the Sierra Club, whose Launce Rake expressed support for Option 1 as a means to encourage conservation. Politics certainly does make for strange bedfellows.

But even this alliance was not enough to overcome the Gamer-Union Axis, around which most Nevada politics revolves.

Who Says There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

Patrick Coolican has an excellent column about the SNWA rate increase detailing the controversy and some of the political maneuvering involved.

See what’s going on here? The water authority, led by general manager and skilled political player Patricia Mulroy, has formed an unstoppable coalition to push the plan through the water authority board, which is made up of elected officials. The board will vote on the proposal Wednesday.

Who do elected officials listen to? All those homeowners — voters — who like their subsidized lunch, and the Strip, which funds political campaigns and pays an army of lobbyists, some of them former politicians.

The only objection I have to Coolican is the contention that growth does not pay for growth. In this case it undoubtedly did not but that doesn't mean it couldn't.

That failure has more to do with the manner in which the SNWA tried to use growth to pay. Growth was not only expected to pay for growth but to subsidize current operating expenditures. Over half of the SNWA's revenues at the height of the boom were from connection fees from new developments. In addition, the SNWA did a fair amount of betting on the come - making future plans on the expectation of future revenues generated by growth.

Growth can pay for growth. But making decisions about capital expenditures on the assumption that growth will continue at the same or greater rates in perpetuity is folly.