#NVSen: Dean Heller’s First TV Ad Focuses on Making Congress Work for Nevada

by Steve Foley on June 15, 2012

New Posts

(Las Vegas, NV) – Today Dean Heller’s campaign announced the release of its first ad, “Job.” The ad features “No Budget, No Pay,” just one of several measures Dean Heller has pushed in Congress to rein in out of control spending, reduce the debt and force Washington to treat taxpayers’ dollars responsibly.

Since Dean Heller introduced “No Budget, No Pay” in July 2011, the legislation has been championed by Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate, received a Senate hearing and embraced by national nonpartisan organizations.

The ad will begin running on Sunday, June 17, 2012, the beginning of a statewide ad buy that includes Reno, Elko, and Las Vegas.

Background

Congress has not passed a budget in more than three years. This has led to a more than a $15 trillion federal debt that is stifling job growth, creating uncertainty that prevents businesses from hiring and burdening future generations.

On July 28, 2011, Dean Heller first introduced “No Budget, No Pay” legislation. This bill requires Congress to pass a concurrent budget by the start of the fiscal year in order to get paid.

After Dean Heller introduced the bill in the Senate (S. 1981), Democratic Representative Jim Cooper introduced counterpart legislation in the House of Representatives (H.R. 3643).

Dean’s legislation has ten Senate cosponsors and has been embraced by the nonpartisan group No Labels as part of its Make Congress Work initiative.

The legislation received a hearing in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on March 14, 2012.

Reason TV: How TV’s ‘Dallas’ Won the Cold War

by Steve Foley on June 15, 2012

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The oil-and-sex soaked TV show Dallas is back on the small screen. The unapologetically odious J.R., the unappealingly ethical Bobby and the uncontrollaby alcoholic Sue Ellen are all back, along with a new crew of young, hardbodied hotties to pull in viewers who have yet to start pulling in Social Security checks.

During its original run from 1978 to 1991, Dallas was an international cultural phenomenon with ratings higher than late-’70s interest rates. It was the most or second-most watched show in the United States for half a decade, showing up in ABBA songs and Ozzy Osbourne videos, and spinning off the megahit Knots Landing.

But Dallas’ greatest impact ultimately wasn’t in these United States but in communist Romania, where it helped topple the brutal Ceausescu regime.

Dallas was the last Western show allowed during the nightmarish 1980s because President Nicolae Ceausescu thought it showcased all that was wrong with capitalism. In fact, the show provided a luxuriant alternative to a communism that was forcing people to wait more than a decade to buy the most rattletrap communist-produced cars.

“I think we were directly or indirectly responsible for the fall of the [communism],” Larry Hagman told the Associated Press a decade ago. “They would see the wealthy Ewings and say, ‘Hey, we don’t have all this stuff.’”

After the dictator and his wife were shot on Christmas Eve 1989, the pilot episode of Dallas—with a previously censored sex scene spliced back in—was one of the first foreign shows broadcast on liberated Romanian TV.

The impact of Dallas on global worldviews reminds us that “vulgar” popular culture is every bit as important as chin-stroking political discourse in fomenting real social change.

Throwaway cultural products influence far-flung societies in ways that are impossible for anyone, even dictators, to predict or control.

That lesson is more relevant than ever in a world where movies, TV shows, and music cross borders with impunity and the free West engages the semi-free East, whether in China or Iran. If the United States is interested in spreading American values and institutions, TV shows may go a lot further than armored personnel carriers.

Like Mikhail Gorbachev, poodle haircuts, and Members Only jackets, Dallas didn’t long survive the post–Cold War world it helped create. But like an uncontainable gusher in a Texas oil field, the original series left us far richer than we ever dreamed possible.

See more at Reason TV

How Will The EPA’s New Utility Rules Affect California?

by Steve Foley on June 15, 2012

New Posts

The U.S. Senate will soon hold what is likely to be the most important energy vote this year: an up-or-down vote on Senator Inhofe’s resolution (S.J.Res. 37) to overturn the EPA’s onerous Utility MACT rule. This may be Congress’ last chance to stand up to the EPA and stop this rule, the most expensive power regulation in American history.

Finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in February, Utility MACT has the stated goal of reducing mercury emissions at U.S. power plants. However, the real aim is to fulfill the President’s promise that under his administration, “if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can – it’s just that it will bankrupt them.” It’s a senseless approach that will force power plants to close across the country, cause electricity prices to spike by an average of 12% nationwide, and cost the economy well over a million jobs.

Dems Want To Limit First Amendment

by Steve Foley on June 15, 2012

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Senior Democrats Say They ‘Have A Clear Agenda’ To ‘Amend The Constitution.’ ‘Speech… To Be Fully Regulated’

REPORT: If ‘Re-Election Happens, Mr. Obama Will Stop At Almost Nothing’

“On David Axelrod’s New York City itinerary for Monday: to meet privately with potential donors to a ‘super PAC’ supporting President Obama’s re-election, then publicly declare that if that re-election happens, Mr. Obama will stop at almost nothing to undo the ruling that made super PACs possible.” (“Axelrod Floats Amendment To Stem Campaign Spending,” The New York Times’ “The Caucus,” 6/12/12)

· DAVID AXELROD: “I hope that one of the things we can do, when we win this election, is use whatever tools are available, up to and including a Constitutional amendment, to turn this back.” (“Axelrod Floats Amendment To Stem Campaign Spending,” The New York Times’ “The Caucus,” 6/12/12)

‘Such An Amendment Has Already Been Proposed’

“…such an amendment has already been proposed by a group of Democratic senators, led by Jeff Merkley of Oregon.” (“Axelrod Floats Amendment To Stem Campaign Spending,” The New York Times’ “The Caucus,” 6/12/12)

Sen. Schumer: ‘The First Amendment Is Not Absolute’

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “The First Amendment is not absolute… This constitutional amendment is a moral, political and substantive imperative.” (Sen. Schumer, Remarks At Citizens United Summit, 4/19/12)

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ): “The Tea Party Republicans in Washington… They don’t deserve the freedoms that are in the Constitution!” (“Dem. Senator’s Shocking Comment: Tea Partiers ‘Don’t Deserve The Freedoms That Are In The Constitution,’” The Blaze, 3/25/11)

SEN. TOM UDALL (D-NM): “This is the core issue. All the things we believe in are not going to get done unless we face down the Supreme Court. They have taken this over. And what we’re doing with this constitutional amendment is we’re saying to them: ‘No longer. You aren’t in charge of this anymore.’” (Sen. Udall, Remarks At Citizens United Summit, 4/19/12)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): “My good friend, Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, has offered a constitutional amendment… ultimately, this is what we are fighting for.” (Sen. Sanders, Remarks At Citizens United Summit, 4/19/12)

House Dems: ‘Amend The Constitution To Rid It Of This,’ ‘All Of The Speech… To Be Fully Regulated’

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): “We have a clear agenda in this regard. Disclose, reform the system, reducing the role of money in campaigns, and amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money going to campaigns.” (Rep. Pelosi, Press Conference, 4/19/12)

REP. TED DEUTCH (D-FL): “Last November, I introduced a constitutional amendment to make clear that corporations aren’t people, money is not a protected form of speech.” (Rep. Edwards, Remarks At Citizens United Summit, 4/19/12)

REP. DONNA EDWARDS (D-MD): “And so the question is not whether we should amend the Constitution. … The question is whether we will have the leadership in the House of Representatives, in the United States Senate… what it would do is it would say, all of the speech in which — whether it’s corporations or — or campaign committees and others engage in would be able to be fully regulated under the authority of the Congress…” (Rep. Edwards, Remarks At Citizens United Summit, 4/19/12)

REP. KEITH ELLISON (D-MN): “Ultimately, though, Congress needs to authority to enact meaningful campaign finance reform, and that’s only going to come if we amend the Constitution and overturn Citizens United. … The fact is, is that, look, money is not speech.” (Rep. Ellison, Remarks At Citizens United Summit, 4/19/12)

#NVSen: Shelley Berkley Hearts (And Desperately Needs) Barack

by Steve Foley on June 15, 2012

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While most Democrat candidates are running away from president Obama, embattled Congresswoman Berkley, is fully embracing the failed policies she helped initiate!

From Slate:

As soon as President Obama finished his speech on the big stakes in the 2012 election in Ohio this afternoon, his re-election campaign began blasting out emails with endorsements from elected officials across the country. One that caught my attention was from Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley, who’s trying to take out Republican Senator Dean Heller in November:

Today, President Obama laid out the clear choice Nevada voters have in this upcoming election. While the President and I share the same long-held commitment to building an economy that prioritizes the middle-class by creating good paying jobs that can’t be shipped overseas, making college more affordable, keeping families in their homes, protecting Medicare and Social Security, and delivering for our veterans, our opponents’ priorities couldn’t be different.

Instead of looking out for the middle-class, Republicans like Senator Dean Heller and Mitt Romney continue to do things the Washington way – going to bat for Wall Street corporations, protecting taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies that don’t need taxpayer handouts, and standing up for private insurance company bureaucrats who want to turn Medicare over to private insurance companies. I look forward to working with President Obama in the months and years ahead to build an economy that works for all middle-class Nevada families – not just the special interests and Wall Street millionaires.

It’s a safe bet that we won’t get statements like this one from many (or perhaps even any) other Democratic Senate contenders. For many of them, the president is a toxic figure to be avoided, their campaign strategy built on the assumption that they will outpoll Obama among white voters and run ahead of him in November. This applies to Senator Jon Tester in Montana, Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri, and Democratic candidates like Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Heidi Heidkamp in North Dakota.

Vizio Notebook and Thin + Light computers launch with class

by Candice Lanier on June 15, 2012

Tech & Science

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SlashGear -

This week Vizio has come out swinging with several new models for their soon to be rather popular computing lineup with a couple of all-in-one models and no less than three notebooks. What you’ll see here are the 15-inch Notebook, the 14-inch Thin + Light, and the 15-inch Thin + Light – each of these starting at a rather agreeable $898 USD. These notebooks come with Ivy Bridge and even though they could technically be classified as ultrabooks, Vizio is opting for their own “Thin-and-Light” nomenclature. More

Even as Facebook goes public and nears 1 billion users, Google+ still has a chance to become a major contender if it simply plays to its own strengths.