Blog round up suckas!!! 12/29

I love my progressive blogging community, I really do, and you should too. Check out some blog entires from this week, and add their blogs to your readers and bookmarks!

Andrew "Nerdrock" Davey at the Nevada Progressive breaks down 2012.it will be an extremely important election year for Nevada. Control of our state senate hangs in balance as well as Harry Reid's status as Senate Majority Leader.

Is it 2012 Yet?

Since hardly anything could be accomplished in Congress as our own Legislature kept kicking the can further down the road, focus turned quickly to the big election year that will begin in just 5 days in the snowy fields of Iowa. And back here in Nevada, the G-O-TEA is in full panic mode after the last R-J/8 News/UNLV poll delivered plenty of holiday cheer for President Obama and Shelley Berkley.

Desert Beacon's blog is the kind of blog other blogs aspire to be when they grow up. Her blog about the tax situation in Nevada is another example of her ability to throw out all the platitudes and partisan bullshit and get right to the point:

Nevada Tackles the T-Word

If we move beyond the No-Tax, or The We Want Something For Nothing, Crowd the questions might be focused more productively on how Nevada taxes can be structured to raise revenue while relieving the burden on small independent businesses and families. The big box retailers have been successful beating back attempts to tax their operations, and the resulting modified business tax reflects a win for the giant national franchises and a relative loss (or greater burden for) smaller independently owned businesses.

The Gleaner has long been my favorite blogger, but he is becoming more cynical and more critical of the Democratic party than any GOP operative, but he does make good points (especially the one about Harry Reid not having the need to "meddle" if the state party would take a Wellstonian approach to politics). The most amazing news for our dear Gleaner: his punchy progressive commentary is now available few times a week on My News 3's "The Agenda". He called Dean Heller "His Accidency" hahahaha.

Gleaner still has his City Life gig, check out The Year That Wasn't, his "counter-factual narratives of things that might have been."

Assemblyman and minority whip Mark Sherwood--who is extremely strange and has hilariously taken on a one-man jihad against Chuck Muth--has decided not to run again. It's funny when redistricting makes your district a little more Democratic and suddenly you discover the policies you think will help Nevada won't even get you reelected in your own district. Nevada State Employee Focus has the scoop on Sherwood retirement, as well as the Assemblyman's drag name.

The next blogger is not from Nevada, but her blog is a must read. Joy Reid writes for the Miami Herald, blogs, is the managing editor of thegrio.com and an MSNBC contributor. Her blog is pointed at Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald, but all you idealistic Ron Paul supporters need to read it. You wanna support Paul? You're accountable for everything he's about, not just the stuff you agree with:

his racist newsletter business and opposition to civil rights legislation, his desire to outlaw abortion, his extreme gun nuttery, or his belief that not only was World War II not worth fighting just to save a few (million) Jews, that the civil war wasn’t worth the lives it cost, when Abe Lincoln could have just bailed out the slave owners by having the federal government buy up the 4 million slaves still in shackles as of 1865 … thus saving 600,000 lives. He has yet to weigh in on Paul’s apparent heebie jeebies over people who, like Greenwald, are gay, including not wanting to use their bathrooms or shake their hands, and freaking out when he thinks one is coming onto him.

Happy reading :)

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Laura

Brian Sandoval's trained dogs

My mom used to cover the cops beat for our local paper. I was in elementary school at the time and she would drag me to many different ceremonial police activities. One of the most festive events was the graduating class of the police K9 unit.

German shepherds who were trained to perform were paraded in front of the adoring public and given their diplomas. The crowd would “ooh” and “aww” and clap as the dogs were taken through a few training exercises to show off to the crowd.

I thought the whole thing was sad.



These dogs were so convinced that they had no role in life but to do whatever their trainers said, they’d whine and squirm while anxiously waiting for the next command. Some would even pee on the floor in anticipation for the next order.


Legislative Republicans remind of those dogs.

Some are eager to please, like Senator Michael Roberson who yelps “GOV REC!” whenever asked about the budget. Or Mark Sherwood, who when given the challenge of thinking for himself and providing his opinion for all who are upset with cuts to education, simply replies “WE DON’T CARE! *ROO-ROO-ROOH*”

If anyone gets out of line, if someone wants to tax groceries to raise revenue or admits the truth that we must raise our almost non-existent taxes to meet our budgetary needs and keep the state running, if Governor Sandoval’s persistent phone banking of the Republican caucus (the other thing he does when he’s not reading to children), there’s always someone who will yank that choke chain. Sending the wounded legislator, whimpering and broken, back to their caucus. Eagerly awaiting their next chance to prove how well they've been trained.

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Laura