Vote Gibbons Out! Jim Gibbons is America's Worst Governor!

Governor Continues Principled Non-Governance

Lot's of fun quotes as Governor Jim Gibbons carries forward his principled plan of full day napping minimal governance.

The Nevada higher education system has done little if anything to develop additional sources of revenue. This failure is not because of lack of efforts. The reason is that Nevada has never believed in higher education and therefore never saw the importance of investing substantial seed funds.

With a governor who refused to lift a financial hand to save the System from extinction, with a legislature faced with an impossible burden of having to solve every problem with a two-thirds vote to override the vetoes of this most dangerous man, a businessman in another state looking into Nevada would have good cause to believe that solving every problem in Nevada is such a monumental task that one would rather live and do business in other more progressive communities. (Jim Rogers' last memo as Chancellor via Fox5)

Ah, yes. Jim Gibbons: the most dangerous game.

And Jimbo catches more collateral damage from the Ensign snogging:

Jim Gibbons (R) struggles to reach double digits after winning a campaign marked by a cocktail waitress's accusation that he tried to force himself on her in a parking garage.

"These things don't end quickly," said Robert Uithoven, who managed the Gibbons campaign. In Carson City, Gibbons's poor political performance was reinforced by a spectacularly tendentious divorce from his wife of 22 years, who for a while had the governor's mansion to herself.

"Isn't that ironic?" said Sig Rogich, a longtime Republican consultant. "In the land of quickie divorce, this is the longest one I can remember and it's the governor's."(WaPo--via Ralston Flashything)

Ah, the Washington Post. Only you could catch Uithoven in a lie--by quoting puppet master and Gibbons-election co-conspirator Siggy Rogich.

And then there's the lady who runs Nevada's AmeriCorps who learned that the Guv didn't come up with any matching funds for a grant that would have brought $7.5 million to the state:

"At this point, we're not sure what went wrong," Lecker-Pomaville said Monday, adding that without the matching dollars "we would be the first state in the country to lose our federal funding for AmeriCorps."(AP)

Oh, Ms. Lecker-Pomaville, you tried to promote volunteerism in the state of Gibbers, who has learned never offer a helping hand to anyone.

One Phil Mattera, who works for a government transparency group, apparently has never met a Gibbons-spokester before. Just check out his reaction to a Gube-spokester trying to spin the fact that the state's website about recovery funds is worse than American-Somoa's:

Asked about the critiques, Mendy Elliott, Gov. Gibbons’ deputy chief of staff and overseer of all things stimulus in Nevada, said, “I can’t disagree ... that our Web site is deficient.”

In an initial conversation, Elliott blamed the state of the state’s site on a lack of time, as officials had been so busy with the Legislature. The four-month session ended June 1. But Mattera said other states have held legislative sessions in recent months and still developed more comprehensive, user-friendly sites.

“I don’t think we’ve heard this excuse before,” he said. (Sun)

Oh, Mendy, Mendy, Mendy. The right response is that the empty website reflects the guv's philosophy of minimalist government, hence Nevada has no state government to oversee.

Woah! Mendy's the state Stimulus Czarina, too!

In Nevada, where President Barack Obama made a major speech touting the achievements of the stimulus plan, the state's share of stimulus money is "very deficient", said Nevada's stimulus czar Mendy Elliott. "We are certainly grateful for the help that we received but the fact of the matter is ... there should have been some thoughtfulness." (WSJ)

Oh, that mean old Obama! Forcing the Gube to take all that stimulus funding! How thoughtless of him!

Just a suggestion, though. Nobody call her "stimulus czar" in the Gube's presence, okay? I mean, you'd just be asking for trouble.

Finally, something Gibbons knows something about: he says sex scandals don't get in the way of his daily nap principled non-governance. (Fox5)

This just in: Gibbons denies he ever fondled a ferret. (Fox5)

Oh, come on. I wrote "fondled" didn't I? What verb would you have used?

The Reno-Gazette Journal Should Hire Mazzeo's Lawyer Gøøblets

• Chrissy Mazzeo's lawyers have more luck getting phone records out of the Gube than the Reno-Gazette Journal did with those e-mails. (RJ) So, what to expect? 347 text messages to Siggy on Midnight Jim's infamous Night Out? 137 calls to then-Sheriff Bill Young's cell? 1,349 billable minutes to 1-900-BEATUPAMILF?
• Say didn't the "Gibbons Incident" used to be a "Scandal"? I wonder what tower of journalistic jello caved to Gibbons to make that name change?
• State Archives, now open for about 10 minutes a week thanks to Gibbons, will display Guv's self-inking veto stamp. (Sun) Two years from now, when the Archives close permanently due to lack of funding, it will be thrown in the trash to be discovered 10,000 years in the future, wrapped in Dan Burns' skeletal fist, by aliens who will identify it as an anal stimulation device. Okay, I'm just sorta guessing about that last part. The aliens part, not the stuff about Dan Burns' skeletal fist.
• Hmm. I wonder how often the Gube did that self-inking stuff alone in the office, after hours, blackberry in hand?
• Gibbons, in a desperate attempt to garner some media attention and appear relevant to Nevada 11-percenters, fires up the state Global Warming Denial office to waste state funds on a report about gasoline prices that a 10-minute call to one of the local universities would have produced--back when Nevada had local universities, that is. (Sun)
• Gube-rival attacks venerable North Las Vegas icon is cynical attempt to look family-friendly after supporting myriads of taverns, dollar-loan centers, and casinos.
• Hey, give me a break! The Palomino Club is as close to a "venerable icon" as Nor'Town gets.
• Oh, yeah. Even constitutionally-denied Schwarzenegger has a better chance of becoming Prez than the current Gube of Nevada. (NPR)

Gropers Only Party, The Sequel

Gropers Only Party

Click the pic for a closeup.

Ensign Affair Suffers From Gibbons-Fatigue

So concludes NPR:

If some Nevadans are taking Ensign's affair as just another routine disappointment, it may be because they've already had practice dealing with the scandals of their Republican governor, Jim Gibbons.

Let's see: He's survived a couple of corruption investigations. He's involved in a messy divorce from his wife, Dawn; her divorce papers allege multiple infidelities. He's being sued by a cocktail waitress for allegedly sexually assaulting her in a parking lot.

You get the idea.

Unfortunately, we do. Except they left out the bit about sleeping through the last legislative session and hiring staff off the Legal Defense Slush Fund contributers' list. But, other than that, we get it, we get it.

Is That Your Promise Keeper, Or Are You Just Glad to See Me?

• "You know you’re at a low point when the only person willing to stand beside you in your time of marital and political strife is Jim Gibbons, the beleaguered Nevada governor who was once accused of assaulting a cocktail waitress, is in the middle of an ugly divorce and has approval ratings below the freezing temperature of water." (Sun) Um, I'd 've said helium.
• "Meanwhile, Nevada's Republican "Luv Guv," Jim Gibbons, couldn't be on a more prolonged hard-luck streak. He's in the divorce from hell with the first lady, who for a time holed herself up in the Governor's Mansion; his staff regularly jumps ship; and rumor has it that the governor's dog has obtained a restraining order." (Mr. Sherm of the RJ) Oh! THAT'S what's been dogging the Gube! Hard luck! Not incompetence, narcissism, laziness, concupiscence, and a rape fetish! Good thing Mr. Fredricks cleared that up. You know, I could have sworn the Guv initiated that divorce, that HE was the one holed up in the Gube manse while avoiding all contact with the Legislature, that HE was disinterested in doing his job, and that HE was losing staff because he hired incompetent corrupt cronies in the first place. Nothing worse than hard luck of your own making.
• What better way to start a pointless campaign than with a pointless campaign stunt? In Gunseltown, too, the most pointless of places.(RJ)
• Huh. Who knew. That SAGE commission still meets, and even the Gube thinks they're stupid. (RJ)
• Heh. Governor-in-the-headlights look. (CityBlog)
  

Why Does Dean Heller Hate Our Troops?

In case you missed it, Dean Heller (R-Pinko), along with a gaggle of Republicans, voted against funding our brave troops out fighting the Global War on Whatever the Global War is a Global War on.

Man, I waited so long for this, after listening to years of Republicans justifying unfettered defense budgets funding such important defense projects such as how to waterboard without leaving marks and eTreppid software that works great as long as you got some guy behind a curtain pressing the spacebar at the opportune moment.

So, stand back. Here it comes.

Leaders need to stand up with our military. Every politician who voted against this funding request is sending strong messages to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, their families at home, to Saddam Hussein and his supporters, Islamic terrorists, the international community and to their fellow Americans. The message was not one of support or encouragement – it was one of abandonment and cowardice.

Dean Heller is telling the troops that you are on your own. While we may pay politically correct homage to "supporting our troops," the reality is we don't. We aren't going to provide the funds necessary to continue caring for you in the field. What's more, we don't approve of what you have accomplished thus far. Your mission in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a failure, and that would make you failures.

America has the best-trained, most professional, most well-educated military in the world. But Dean Heller wants only to hear the myths of the soldier-as-victim or the soldier-as-brutalizer or soldier-as-indentured servant by cutting their funding.

I cannot help but put myself in the place of our brave soldiers who are fighting the war on terrorism, while the new generation of Jane Fonda's - people like Dean Heller- deride their efforts. Further, I know that such efforts to break our resolve in Iraq are also used to inspire the insurgents to continue their assault against the elected Iraqi government, the Iraqi people, and our soldiers. While I respect their right to free speech, I also have the obligation to exercise my right to free speech when I believe that their words harm our soldiers.

So, why, O, why is it that Dean Heller hates America so much and wants to abandon our troops?

Call Dean the traitor today and ask him why he hates the troops!

202-225-6155 (D.C. Office)

775-686-5760 (Reno Office)

702-255-1651 (Vegas Office)

Tell him, if he hates our country so much, why doesn't he move to Iran? Tell him, his positions on war funding would make perfect sense, if say an Iranian mullah or Iraqi insurgent held them.

-- O crap. I think I channeled Gibbers and "borrowed" some of that. But, hey, I support our troops and I won't apologize for that. Anti-war votes by Dean Heller and other Republicans in Congress hurt troop morale.

O crap...

Best Quotes From Ensigngate

In my humble, twisted opinion.

From a comment on TPMmuckraker:

I can't imagine anyone fucking this guy. Eeeewww.

Tho, not everybody had that opinion:

Is John Ensign a bisexual swinger?

Inquiring minds want to know...

To which an inquiring mind responded:

god, i hope so. lol.

Then there's this:

Christian politicians and evangelical leaders commonly follow an unspoken rule not to meet behind closed doors with women staff members or travel alone with them. The Rev. Billy Graham, for example, has famously refused to be alone in a room with any woman except his wife since he married her in the 1940s.

Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.), a Christian conservative, insists a male staff member is present whenever he meets with a woman, his spokesman said. John Ensign, who is running for senate in Nevada will not be alone in a car with a woman. (WaPo)

Out Gibberin' The Gibbers

Oh, I don't mean the junior Senator from Nevada, who's imitation of Nevada's first groper has certainly been entertaining. Who can't enjoy myriads of newspaper reports all ending up pretty much the same: with a reminder that Nevada is the state with the gropey guv?

Now, Ensign has admitted to an indiscretion similar to accusations dogging Gibbons, who's embroiled in a messy divorce and ranks among Nevada's least popular politicians. (LAT)

One difference, tho. Ensign seems to have consummated his affairs, while Gibbers' victims tend to fight him off.

No, I mean the loony toons running against the Guv for the privilege of representing that 11% who think Nevada should be 100% privatized--policed by mining hired goons and educated by blackjack dealers, I'm guessing.

The Republican gube-wannabes, Joe Heck and Mike Montandon, were spotted the other day protesting Gibbons' non-vote for the visitors' tax and for not negotiating more with the Legislature. No, the problem isn't that Gibbers didn't spend more time with the Legos shoring up health care or education. Nope, he should have spent more time negotiating to keep the puny tax hikes' down:

Montandon accused Gibbons of failing to build enough of an alliance in the Legislature to prevent the tax increase.

"Do you remain true to your (no-tax) pledge when you know full well that your veto can be overriden?" Montandon asked. "Just standing on no new taxes isn't enough. He had to come up with a plan and he had to sell that plan to both the citizens and the Legislature. He wasn't able to do so."  (AP)

So, the Republican primary scramble will be a fight over who's the least no-new-taxiest. Such a seductive platform!

Meanwhile, the Lahotan pape was upset for the Gube's dawdlin' over his new pick for Adjutant General for the Guard:

Nevada's 28th adjutant general left her post on Saturday. Maj. Gen. Cindy Kirkland spent the last four years of her 31-year career as the state's top military leader, yet Gov. Jim Gibbons decided to replace her without explanation and without a successor before Saturday.

The governor has known about the expiration of Kirkland's term for some time, yet he procrastinated in naming a successor until Tuesday, three days after the ceremony. It is no secret within the Nevada National Guard that Gibbons wanted someone else in the top spot as far back as 2006 after he was elected governor. That is his prerogative, but Gibbons' recent decisions have not been decisive from a Nevada Air Guard pilot hailed as a war hero during Desert Storm. (LVN)

"War hero"? Gibbons makes a mollusk look decisive.

Hey look, a few rats seem to smell a sinking ship. (Sun,RGJ) Josh Hick's departure will leave the banking lobbyist Mendy Elliot running the Gube's office. Now the folks who gave us our mini-Depression are running the state. Mmm. That's good government!

Las Vegas Sun Makes a Big Mistake

I have heard that Mike Trask, the reporter at the Las Vegas Sun whose beat was the 'burbs, and that includes Nor'Town, was laid off from that paper.

It probably has something to do with the Sun's difficulties with the online version, or so the Review Journal would gleefully have it.

That's really bad news for Nor'Town since coverage of our city's doings is always considered secondary to Sou'Town and Clark County in the local papes.

We shouldn't let the paper get away with it. Why not write a note to the publisher Brian Greenspun, and let him know he's made a big mistake.

Greenspun owes us Nor'Townies. After all, he owns a big chunk of us and our new mayor. (RJ,S&Gs)

So tell Brian he should reconsider laying off Mike Trask.

Man, this is awful. Who else am I supposed to make fun of over at the Sun?

Cross posted from Nor'Town. Can't you tell?