Is the Sun Even Trying Anymore?

A misleading headline over a piece whose central statement is a blatant falsehood – that’s what we find on the Las Vegas Sun editorial page today.

Today the Sun printed a letter to the editor it headlined “Nevada hardly spends too much on education”. The problem with the headline? Other than declaring he used to be a Clark County School District teacher the author of the letter doesn’t mention Nevada.

Furthermore, the writer’s central premise is contained in the statement, “When we compare our public education spending with other industrialized nations in the world we habitually find ourselves at the bottom of the rating.” This claim is absolutely false.

Every single study I’ve seen, including this one, reveals the United States is either at or very near the top in K-12 spending among industrialized nations. Our higher ed spending is by far greater than any other nation. This holds true even when considered as a percentage of GDP.

While the Sun cannot be held responsible for the hundreds(?) of letters it receives every day, it certainly is responsible for the content of the few of those it chooses to print. It is very unlikely that such an easily refutable statement of fact that supported a conservative position would make it past the Sun’s editors and into the paper. But some things are just too good to check. The headline is 100% the responsibility of the Sun. It was written by their editors.

While, by definition, the editorial page of a newspaper is supposed to express opinion, a paper’s editorial page editors have a responsibility not to print libelous or false statements. With this letter, the Sun fails this very low standard.

Newsflash: Harry Reid Is Clueless On Social Security. Still. Yes, Believe It!

Nevada's Senior Senator responds to an earlier blog post by Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Thomas Mitchell with a letter to the editor the R-J published this morning. Reid discusses the Social Security Trust Fund and its $2.5 trillion in assets.

To claim that these are "mere IOU's" that are subject to default is to argue that the U.S. government would treat China better than our own seniors. That may be Mr. Mitchell's preference, but it will not happen, and it shouldn't. Not only because it would be grossly unfair to the millions of working Americans who have contributed to the fund, but because defaulting on a legal obligation could undermine our nation's financial standing, substantially increase interest costs, and weaken our economic future.

Reforming Social Security would help to reduce the liabilities owed by the federal government, which is what the bonds in the Trust Fund represent. Yet Reid opposes reform that would reduce these liabilities. He has also opposed even modest spending restraint.

Apparently, judging by such opposition and this LTE, his preference is to stiff our foreign creditors rather than embrace reforms that might reduce the future obligations of the U.S. Either that, or Reid must believe that the ability of the U.S. to incur debt is infinite - that we can continue to make unlimited promises without consequence.

Otherwise, he would not oppose reforms to Social Security that would help extend its solvency, which Congress provided for when it reserved for itself "[t]he right to alter, amend, or repeal any provision" of the Social Security Act.

The only reform he has expressed support for is raising the earnings limit. Far from fixing Social Security, this would simply make the problem worse. This would merely mask the impact of over-spending by diverting more Social Security revenue to Congress to devote to current spending and it would increase, not reduce, future Social Security liabilities.

Reid is content to play politics with this issue by ignoring the problems brought about by over-spending and smearing those who are truly concerned about the consequences of increasing federal government liabilities. By demonizing his opponents and frightening seniors into believing his opponents want to steal their Social Security benefits while ignoring the impending crisis himself, it is Reid who shamelessly employs scare tactics.

Lowly Female Staffer Wronged by The Man, ProgressNow NV Stands Up for The Man!

The self-proclaimed defenders of the downtrodden prove themselves to be anything but.

You may remember the story of "Joan", the former staffer for conservative Nevada Assemblyman Ed Goedhart. "Joan", like all legislative attaches, was employed by the Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB) and not the representative in whose office she worked. She was fired by the LCB for forwarding an email that instructed legislators in how to avoid those annoying calls from the constituents for whom they work by diverting those calls to the legislative switchboard.

Despite the fact that this email is both outrageous and falls nowhere near the standard for which legislative emails are confidential and that the person who received the forwarded email and published it, Citizen Outreach President Chuck Muth, swore an affidavit that "Joan" was not the person who had sent it to him, "Joan" was not rehired. As a means of righting this wrong Muth hired "Joan" as a consultant for his organization. (Full disclosure: I am the Executive Director of the Nevada Business Coalition, a project of Citizen Outreach but neither NBC nor I were a part of any of the events described in this email.)

What was the response to this injustice from one of Nevada's most prominent left-wing activist groups? To put politics aside and stand up for a wronged worker? To defend a lowly female staffer who had been victimized by the system?

Well, not exactly. Last week ProgressNow NV filed a complaint with the Nevada Secretary of State against Muth and Citizen Outreach. In addition, they sent out the fundraising email below.

"Koch Brothers"? "Tea Party worker"? Gotta make sure to include the latest liberal bogeymen. Who cares if they're not true. Never let the truth stand in the way of the pursuit of The Truth.

Actually, it would be easier to identify everything in the letter that was true, rather than trying to correct the falsehoods. "Today we filed our complaint" is true. Other than that...

With the left it's all about politics - right and left rather than right and wrong. If you're on their side there is no injustice that cannot be forgiven. When it comes time to stand up for someone who's been wronged by The Man, ProgressNow NV stands up for The Man.

Text of ProgressNow NV's fundraising email:

One of the biggest obstacles for progressives in Nevada is Chuck Muth – a right-wing activist who pushes no new tax pledges thanks to his support from the Koch Brothers.

He runs a PAC which funds several lobbyists and has his own Nevada News Bureau which frequently repeats, reposts and “reports” studies by the right-wing think tank, NPRI.

We often go up against him on radio or television shows, but today we are taking the battle to a new level. This morning we filed a fund-raising complaint with the Secretary of State against Muth and the recipient of Muth’s recent calls for donations – Assemblyman Ed Goedhart.

Simply put, legislators are prohibited from receiving donations during a legislative session. It’s spelled out clearly in state law.

Yet Muth recently raised money to put a fired Tea Party worker for Goedhart back on the job after she’d been fired. He did this very publicly and when she returned to work we decided we couldn’t let Muth get away with this illegal activity.

We’re fighting hard every day to rapidly refute those who stand in the way of progress. And this legislative session, Muth is a pillar of the conservative push to protect billion dollar mining and big business corporations from having to pay their fair share.

Today we filed our complaint and we’ll see it through to the end.

These battles require constant vigilance of what the well-funded corporate crowd is up to. We’re up to the task, but we need your help.

Help us fight back against Muth and the entire anti-worker infrastructure he’s organized. Together we can take on those who stand in the way of progress.

Please give $25, or whatever you can, to help us push back against this illegal nonsense. It’s one thing for Muth to hold a pledge over a legislator’s head. It’s quite another to funnel illegal money to one.

Help us fight this today.

Yours in progress,

Erin Neff
Executive Director
ProgressNow Nevada

Way to stand up to The Man!

Future "Leaders" of the Republican Party?

This week, a video surfaced on the Texas College Republicans Facebook page, of the newly-elected state chairman of the organization, Charlie McCaslin, endorsing College Republican National Committee chairman candidate Alex Schriver. The video was put up by an Alex Schriver supporter. The Texas College Republicans were proud of this endorsement, and Alex Schriver and his team were ecstatic about having the endorsement of the 30 College Republican chapters in Texas.

What the video showed, however, was a clearly intoxicated McCaslin giving an offensive endorsement of Schriver, including recalling hooking up with a girl on a desk, and calling Schriver’s opponents “nerds and fags.” The full unedited video also shows McCaslin say they’re going to “one-up them so hard on Monday, they’re gonna be recovering from pain in their asses for the next week.”

Again, this video was put on Facebook by an Alex Schriver supporter.

And this video feeds into every false stereotype of Republicans out there, from the southerner, to the sexist, to the homophobic bigot, etc.

Now this was a private event, but it ceased to be private when it was put on a Facebook page for the world to see. And the worst part?

Alex Schriver toasted Charlie McCaslin when he was finished embarrassing himself, by yelling “TO CHARLIE!”

See, Alex Schriver might be a great guy, but he has proven he is a bad leader. Schriver had no problem with what was said on that video, either at the time, or in the days following. It was not until his opponent issued a press release and put the video on his website, that Schriver felt the need to apologize.

Furthermore, while the apology contained all the usual tributes to disappointing family and friends, it did not urge Charlie McCaslin to resign for bringing shame on the Texas College Republicans, and the College Republican name. It was as weak of an apology as I’ve ever seen.

People naturally have a tendency to be sorry, only when they get caught. And when it comes to our political leaders, we should expect more.

The College Republicans are an integral part of the Republican Party, and they represent the future of the GOP. And as a Republican, and a College Republican, I expect more from the future leaders of my Party. McCaslin’s actions have given Democrats ammunition to use against Republicans for a long time to come, and Schriver’s tacit endorsement is simply unacceptable coming from someone who wants to lead the CRNC into the 2012 election.

Can you imagine if this happened in Summer 2012, while Alex Schriver was chairman of the College Republican National Committee?

That brings me to Mike Esteve.

Mike Esteve is the State Chairman of the Maryland Federation of College Republicans. He, like me, is an openly gay Republican. Like me, I am sure he faces enormous criticism from the Gay Left and all liberals for being a traitor, among other things. Yet every day he represents a growing segment of the GOP, and represents them well within the Republican Party in his state.

Today, he issued a statement via Facebook in which he stands by Alex Schriver. At first, I thought this was a poor attempt at an April Fools’ joke, but I was wrong.

Mike Esteve actually believes that those who condemn Alex Schriver and Charlie McCaslin publicly are the ones damaging the image of the College Republicans and Republican Party. He said as much when he called into my radio show, Zombie Nation (podcast will be up shortly), last night.

If Mike Esteve had his way, we would simply sweep this under the rug and “quietly taken it to the appropriate persons, ensuring that [the video] was removed.”

Is that how we want to build the future of the Republican Party? By sweeping these things under the rug? Should we wait until Congressmen must resign, because they were sending shirtless pictures of themselves to women on Craig’s List? Should we wait until the scandal is much larger, and a Governor is taking trips to Argentina on the taxpayers dime to “clear his mind” with his soul mate, who isn’t his wife?

This is completely unacceptable, and Mike Esteve has lost my respect as a Republican, a gay Republican, and a College Republican.

He believes this is nothing more than campaign tactics, but this is about leadership. This is about Schriver’s ability to lead the largest grassroots Republican organization in the country into the 2012 election. This is about Schriver’s ability to unite Republicans, gay and straight, male and female, black, white and Hispanic, under ONE unified banner to take on the liberal agenda of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. This is about Schriver’s ability to raise money, from donors that don’t want to hear about banging chicks on a desk! This is about Shriver’s ability to overcome the false stereotypes placed on Republicans by liberals, who believe we are all old, white, racist, sexist, bigots.

This video clearly shows Alex Schriver can no longer do these things. And Mike Esteve’s defense of this video, and suggestion that we simply ignore it, shows that the future of the Republican Party will not be strong until we stop putting politics first.

That is the problem with politics.

We must remember the difference between right and wrong. Charlie McCaslin in Texas understood this, and resigned. He realized he could not effectively lead 30 chapters of College Republicans in Texas with this hanging over his head.

Alex Schriver has yet to realize the same.

And today, Mike Esteve has given gay Republicans all over America a bad name.

Demand better. I know I do.