* Participating in the post-election Veterans Day Parade in Las Vegas (the second largest in the nation): Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, the members of the Las Vegas City Council, and Rep. Joe Heck. That’s it. Not a single state legislator. Not a single county commissioner. Not a single other elected official, including the governor. What an insult to our veterans. Embarrassing and outrageous at the same time.
* Congratulations to Las Vegan/Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper for winning the National League’s “Rookie of the Year” award this year.
* Congratulations, also, to Las Vegas’ own Dylan Kwasniewski…who won this year’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship last weekend in Phoenix. Dylan…who hasn’t even turned 18 yet…was one of our First Friday Happy Hour guests-of-honor last fall.
* Does anyone believe that had the CIA’s David Patreaus affair come to light three days BEFORE the election rather than three days AFTER the election that things might have gone a little differently for Obama? I’m just saying.
* The two most under-reported developments in last week’s election: Passage of VOTER-APPROVED gay marriage initiatives in two states, as well as marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington state. We have now passed the point of no return on both. You don’t have to like it, but it is what it is. Republicans are on the wrong side of history with these two issues.
* You know, after mulling last week’s election results, I’m starting to re-evaluate my opposition to term limits for Congress, and might even be open to half-term limits for RINOs. If you’re a Republican who runs as a conservative…and then halfway through your term it’s demonstrated that you were elected under false pretenses…you’re booted out of office.
* Have you ever noticed that “temporary” tax hikes almost always become permanent, but “permanent” spending cuts almost always are temporary?
* Conservative commentator Bill Kristol suggested yesterday that Republicans should be open to raising taxes on rich people because they generally support Democrats anyway. But that ignores the fact that this nation has a spending problem. So if you really want to soak the rich, then do it by simultaneously reducing taxes on the middle class so that the proposal is “revenue neutral.” That’s not what Obama and the D’s want. They want to raise taxes on the rich so they can spend more. Republicans would be crazy to fall for this trick.
* Not only does the GOP have a “Hispanic problem” to deal with, but it does have a “rich party” problem to deal with. It can’t become the “blue collar” party. We already have a labor party campaigning under the banner of the Democrat Party for that. But the GOP could shift the perception that it’s the Big Business/Wall Street party to the small business and entrepreneur party if it’d start rooting out corporate welfare. Good luck with that.
* As the GOP likes to play the “heir apparent” game from one presidential cycle to the next, does that mean Paul Ryan is next in line and presumptive Republican presidential nominee in 2016?
* Manu Raju of Politico reports that Sen. Rand Paul, son of former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, isn’t prepared to concede the 2016 GOP nomination to Paul Ryan. “He’ll push to loosen marijuana penalties, legalize undocumented immigrants and pursue a less aggressive American foreign policy,” Raju writes. “In the wake of Obama’s reelection and ahead of a possible 2016 White House bid of his own, the Kentucky Republican plans to mix his hard-line tea party conservatism with more moderate policies that could woo younger voters and minorities largely absent from the GOP coalition.”
* Geoff Lawrence of the Nevada Policy Research Institute penned an EXCELLENT column on Monday pointing out how much more it costs to build public works projects in Nevada thanks to our state’s union welfare program known as the “prevailing wage” law. According to Lawrence’s study, this sop to organized labor cost Nevada’s taxpayers about $1 billion in higher costs than would have been the case if free-market wages had been paid.
In other words, if we just got rid of this asinine law, there’d have been NO NEED for the Sandoval Tax Hike of 2011. Or the Sandoval-Roberson Tax Hike of 2013. So why aren’t Republicans pushing for repeal of this law instead of violating their party’s platform and pushing for tax hikes?
