First Principles

Today, of course, we here in northern Nevada were lucky enough to be in the path of an annular solar eclipse.  If you’re really into the science of it, here’s a great article.  Since I’m not as smart as Ethan Siegel, though (which is why I blog about politics instead of astrophysics), I’ll just share some pretty cool pictures (if I do say so) I shot of the event from my back yard.

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There was a lot of news today about the continuing implosion of the State GOP.  The Clark County (Vegas) Central Committee voted to condemn the RNC chair for (gasp!) supporting the (yes, “the”) Republican Presidential candidate, erroneously claiming rules were violated.  Outside conservative organizations like Americans for Prosperity are overtly announcing themselves as alternatives to sane Republicans looking to invest their time and money to actually elect Republicans.  And the RNC/Romney Campaign very obviously deliberately leaked their plans today to completely bypass the state party.

In one more blow, I learned today that Reno attorney David O’Mara, who has contributed his legal services to the State party since 2004, sent a letter to the state party informing them that he would no longer make himself or his firm available to the State GOP.  O’Mara successfully defended the state party against a pointless lawsuit from a few Ron Paul supporters in 2008, and often provided his legal acumen to the party at little or no cost.  He was “on call” for the party, even when another general counsel had been appointed.  Not only is he a great lawyer, but he has a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge about the party itself, local political players, and the state’s legal culture.

McDonald and Company might be able to replace the legal services IF they can find the money to do it, but that would, of course, take tens of thousands of dollars away from other things the party might want to spend money on (like rent and staff and voter registration efforts).  But election law is an area very few Nevada attorneys are experienced with, and finding someone with those skills who are also sympathetic to the Ron Paul campaign personality cult would probably be a pretty tough job.  And you can’t replace the experience and knowledge O’Mara has, no matter how much money you spend. Not anytime soon, anyway.

I wonder – did the Ron Paul goofballs who “took over” the party and “overthrew the Establishment” understand that this is what they were throwing away? I get the urge to shake things up, but you still have a mission to accomplish.  How many other David O’Maras did they drive away?  Who did they think they were going to get to replace the lawyers and secretaries and fundraisers and accountants and PR people and donors they drove out as being “too Establishment”?

~~~

The implosion of the state party is happening faster and furiouser that I thought possible.  And in a way, this is giving me cause for hope.

Either this is a goose being cooked in a pan or a phoenix rising from the ashes. Either one is a potential symbol for the State GOP - let's hope we pick the right interpretation.

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Today on Nevada Newsmakers we had a spirited discussion about the unemployment rate, with a claim that the number of jobs has actually been increasing under President Obama.  (You can see the full panel discussion here – it was much feistier than usual!)  I threw out some rough approximation of stats during the debate (you never know what’s going to come up), but thought they were worth following up with in some detail here.

Our unemployment rate is officially dropping, but the economy isn’t adding enough jobs to keep up with new entrants into the workforce – a net loss.  It’s only because so many potential productive workers are just dropping out of the economy altogether that the math works out for the administration.  The bottom line from the Washington Post?

If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.

The Washington Post gives some demographic excuses for this, but even they have to admit that it’s bad for the economy.  And it’s not what President Obama and his supporters are claiming – they’re claiming the jobs picture is getting better and the economy more productive, when neither claim is accurate.

Ed Morrissey has a great roundup on this issue in The Financial Times as well, with more stats and charts.  Here’s the guts of it, though.

But what about the claim that this is all a result of public sector layoffs (Aiieee!!!  Scary Austerity!!!)?

[Read more →]

Ron Paul supporters in Nevada had their crowning achievement this weekend – they “took over” the state party.  It took them four years of planning, coordination, and subterfuge, but they won a smashing victory over the weekend by sticking it to “The Establishment”.

And in doing so, they (at best) did nothing.  At worst, they immeasurably damaged the cause of liberty in this state, and indeed, perhaps the entire nation.

~~~

Some commentators, like the Reno Gazette-Journal’s editorial today, have risably claimed that the Ron Paul contingent “understands the dynamics of party politics better than the party rank and file”.  But this is simply untrue, because the Paul people forgot the underlying purpose of the party in the first place.  What they did was the equivalent of singing a song in a foreign language you don’t know – you can learn to mimic the sounds perfectly, but that doesn’t mean you understand the meaning of the lyrics.

Ron Paul state campaign chair Carl Bunce proudly says that his people are "driving the car" now that they've caught it. Does he know they're driving it off the cliff?

Let’s review.  The purpose of a political party is to help candidates from that party win elections.  Period.  If you can’t influence election outcomes, you are irrelevant in politics and policy debates.  Party members, committees, and delegates don’t set tax rates, ratify treaties, confirm judges, pass or repeal regulations, produce budgets, select cabinet appointments, or in any other way directly control the actual policies which govern our everyday lives and our economic futures.

The only way a party influences actual policy is if it influences elections.  The only way for a party to do that is to have power and influence over who runs and who can get elected.  Traditionally, parties do that by raising money for candidates, and by making themselves indispensable to the actual job of winning an election via volunteers, influence, credibility, and resources like walk lists, voter rolls, and precinct maps.

The Ron Paul Revolutionaries, however have shown a remarkable INability to accomplish any of the things that influences candidates.  Consider: [Read more →]

The goal of my last post on the Ron Paul Campaign’s exhortations to lie, cheat, and steal was to shine as bright a light as possible on their dishonorable and ultimately self destructive tactics.  I’m not alone amongst principled conservatives – Ned Barnett in particular has been doing yeoman’s work in ferreting out the hypocrisy of these perpetually aggrieved, self-entitled, ends-justify-the-means thugs.  I’m glad to say those efforts seem to have been successful, and judging from my comments section explosion, there are a lot of upset Paul fans out there who are spending a lot of time trying to intimidate me into silence while unintentionally helping make my point.

You could argue that the Paul campaign’s delegate strategy is odious and unethical, but that at least they’re “playing by the rules.”  (Paul supporters are the first to scream bloody murder if another candidate plays the insider rules to their advantage, but when the Paul folks do it they’re JUST like the Founding Fathers (cue eye roll here).)

But then I saw this article from Ray Hagar, in which the Paul Campaign (not some random supporter, the state campaign chair) all but announced they would be ignoring even that fig leaf of legitimacy.

[Read more →]

So there we were, watching a nice PSA on how not to judge or bully our fellow high school kids (or maybe it was Terminator: 90210), and BAM!

Sigh.

Remember, folks. We borrowed money from China to pay the people who put this together, edited it, and cleared it for the airwaves. Maybe next time we can just recycle some old School House Rock – we seem to need to go back to some basics…

I’m sure similar attention to detail will be applied when these folks fully take over our health care system.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I made that same spelling error so often in law school that I finally set up a custom auto-correct to fix it.  But then, I probably would have spell checked my notes if I was going to, like, put them on TV or something…)

I recently received an E-mail from a disaffected Ron Paul supporter that Nevada Paul Campaign Chair Carl Bunce recently sent out to his supporters.  The long and the short of it is that it’s a battle plan which encourages Paul folks to lie to pollsters to “fool” the Romney campaign, in order to make it easier to shock-’n'-awe their way to a Ron Paul National Convention slate.  It’s full of paranoia about information control (Hah!  Fail!) and secrecy, with a nice dab of Personality Cult for Doctor Paul.

Well, secret’s out, you dishonest goofballs.  Everyone knows your game.

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Party That Allegedly Opposes Unethical Payoffs to Political Cronies With Taxpayer Dollars Elects Unethical Tax-dollar Wasting Crony “Capitalist” to Lead Party

Taken in the kindest possible light, new GOP Chair Michael McDonald’s past and current “property development” activities proves that he’s all for government-forced redistribution of wealth.  A more honest assessment would be that he’s all about brazenly using positions of political power to enrich himself and/or his friends at taxpayer expense to the tune of millions of dollars.

Either way, he’s EVERYTHING the Tea Party Movement – and conservatism generally – is supposed to be against.  And yet he was elected supposedly as the tea party, anti-establishment, “true conservative” option to chair the Nevada Republican Party.  How did this happen?

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A few months ago, I was seriously considering Newt Gingrich for my caucus vote.  But then he came out with his absurd and dangerous suggestion that the political branches of government have the power to haul federal judges before boards of inquiry, and that they be subject to impeachment if we don’t like their legal analyses.  I wrote a post excoriating the former Speaker for that position.  And ultimately that, coupled with his petulant breakdowns after a series of primary/caucus losses and his attack on Romney’s wealth from the left, was pretty much the end of any serious consideration from me of Newt.

Fast forward to now, when President Obama is picking a very public fight with Supreme Court before they even render a decision on Obamacare.  It’s clear how right I was to be so hard on Gingrich.  [Read more →]

My friend Elizabeth Crum shared a press release the other day from the “Ron Paul Nevada Team,” bragging about their continuing “takeover” of the state Republican party.  I have to ask – what’s their point?

Fortunately, like all would-be-tyrants, they’re pretty open about it:

“Republicans understand Ron Paul is the only candidate who can challenge status quo candidate Mitt Romney, defeat Obama, and Restore America Now.  Proof of this is ordinary citizens including first-time political activists investing their time to become the delegates required to win Dr. Paul the GOP nomination,” [said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse] Mr. Benton.

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Without further ado, let’s trace out the rest of the badassiest bracket!

Sweet Sixteen

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (5) Wichita State Shockers

The Shockers had a great run, but dirty-minded chutzpah can only take you so far.  You can’t out-dirty-mind the devil, after all. [Read more →]

The badass wheat is starting to be separated from the lame-ass chaff – but who will be the badassiest of them all?

South Region

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (8) Iowa State Cyclones

A fire manipulating Cajun Imp is pretty badass, but one of the most destructive and unpredictable forces of nature might give MVSU a run for their demonic money.  But that damn bird sitting on top saps too much badassity – it would be like putting a clown nose on Darth Vader.

The (5) Wichita State Shockers over the (13) New Mexico State Aggies

Gun or lasso, the Aggies just can’t overcome the ongoing ballsiness of Wichita’s state’s filthy minded nickname.  [Read more →]

It’s March Madness time once again, and again we here at First Principles are committed to providing you the best sports analysis anywhere.

Oh, wait.  This is a political blog.  And I’m a terrible sports fan – a “low information” sports fan, if you will.  Which is why I like to base my predictions on the most important factor possible – the badassitude of each team’s mascot.

“Badassity” is a determination borne of many factors.  “Who would win in a fight” matters, but isn’t the end-all.  I give significant consideration to uniqueness, history, and logo/costume design.  (Not all “Bulldogs” are created equal, as you will see.)  I also rely on the time honored judicial rule of stare decisis, which means precedent from previous years will generally be controlling.

(In case you’re curious, here’s 2011, 2009, and 2008.  Don’t ask about 2010…)

So without further ado, here’s the first two rounds!

The First (Play-In) Round

The (16) Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils over the (16) Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

This first game is a great illustration of one of the most badass mascots I’ve ever seen against one of the stupidest, most ridiculous, least badass mascots EVER.

Western Kentucky calls themselves the Hilltoppers because they’re on top of a hill.  That’s stupid enough, but then that big red blob they haul out cements them in the basement of badassity.  MVSU could have gotten a bye here, and they would have struggled more to prove their badassity in this game.

[Read more →]

This weekend I attended the Washoe County Republican Convention, and I have to say it was the smoothest, best organized one I’ve ever been to yet.  Once again Dave Buell, the Washoe Party Chair, proved he knows how to plan, build a great team, and put on a tremendous event.  The turnout was phenomenal – nearly 1,000 delegates were in attendance (which delayed the start – the one scheduling “problem” that’s awfully nice to have).

Virtually every state-level Republican elected official was in attendance and spoke, along with a really quality slate of candidates for open or Democratically held seats.  They were unified and optimistic – it’s clear they did not fail to learn what made them successful (even in the minority) this last legislative session.  I have never seen the county party so directly engaged with our local elected officials, and vice versa.

[Read more →]

This weekend provided some fantastic planetary skywatching, and just for fun, I thought I’d share some attempts at astro-photography.  All credit goes to my wife, whose Christmas present to me gave my inner nerd (who am I kidding – it’s not that “inner”) a better way to enjoy the night sky.  There are three planets clearly visible right now in the evening sky, and I managed to get pictures of them all.  I’ll save the best for the end of the post.

Venus

I love this, because you can see how Venus goes through phases like the moon as it rounds the sun.  It’s getting closer to us, and as it does, it will get thinner and thinner. The pictures on the right (made with the software that came with my telescope) are how the planets actually appear at this time and location if I had a somewhat more powerful telescope.

Mars

Mars is very obviously red to the naked eye, and looked far redder through my eyepiece than my camera picked up.  My camera is just a little aged point-and-click Canon I pointed through the eyepiece of the telescope.  But in spite of that, I was really happy with how some of these turned out.

Jupiter and Friends

This is the one that really got me excited, although it was hard to keep the camera and the telescope simultaneously in focus, while the object is constantly moving in the eyepiece due to the rotation of Earth.  But here they are!

I could actually see all four Galilean moons quite clearly, but it was hard to capture them with the camera.  Here’s what you’re looking at (oriented slightly differently):

There are much fancier pictures out there of the wonders of our solar system, but there is nothing quite like seeing it with your own eyes in real life.  And it’s amazing that I got to see all of these worlds in a single night, just in my own back yard.

What a wonderful thing, that we get to live our lives in such a wondrous universe.  I can’t wait until the kids get old enough to geek out with me…

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Glenn Reynolds often likes to remind his readers of this Robert Heinlein quote, and rightfully so.  I thought of it a few days ago when a reader sent me this blog post from Exxon Mobil’s website.

Some in Washington would have you believe that because companies like ExxonMobil are profitable, we are “taking from” the U.S. economy, rather than contributing to it.

But the facts prove otherwise. [Read more →]

I tweeted out this Big Journalism story on the trap Republicans were falling into on this whole birth control mandate issue, with the added commentary, “Focus, people.  Focus.”  It drew several questions and comments both on Twitter and Facebook that I felt were worth discussing. The issue is an important one, but it is important for reasons that 90% of the conversation on the topic is missing.

[Read more →]

So today Judge Russell dismissed NPRI’s separation of powers lawsuit, saying that because the allegedly offending Senator had quit his Executive Branch job, there was no longer a conflict, and the case was moot.

Last week I said this about it:

Will NPRI’s separation of powers lawsuit continue forward?  There are clearly grounds for moving forward, even if the original defendant is no longer directly impacted, and eventually, a sitting legislator will be found that can be sued without the issue being moot.  Best to decide the issue now.

The really interesting twist in this will be the Leslie/Brower race, if the District Court moves forward with the case and if it gets to the Supreme Court before the 2013 session.  The Supreme Court could conceivably be in the position of effectively deciding the balance of power in the state Senate.

I wonder if for that reason, the District Court will punt and declare the issue moot, leaving the question for a time when the Supremes wouldn’t be so open to accusations of partisan bias no matter which way they decided the case.

I had a professor in law school who required us to analyze cases in a number of different ways on exams and try to predict the outcome of those cases based on all sorts of factors.  One of those factors was the external politics of the time the case was decided.  It was incredibly valuable to be forced to think beyond the black letter law.

Whether political concerns informed Judge Russell’s reasoning in this particular case is unknown and unknowable.  But it’s worth remembering that judges are politicians too, and they therefore cannot be blind to political ramifications of big decisions.  It’s one of the reasons the Founders were wise to have federal judges appointed.

HORATIO

I saw him once; he was a goodly king.

HAMLET

He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

Whenever someone of consequence to me shuffles off their mortal coil, this exchange from Hamlet always resonates with me.  And so it did with Bill Raggio, the undisputed master of Nevada Politics for generations.

~~~

I never had occasion to work with Senator Raggio on anything, as I had with many other legislators.  Indeed, I only ever had one conversation with him, when I was running for the Assembly, and I knocked on his door.  He answered his own door, which for some reason surprised me – what was I expecting, a butler?  (Maybe I was.)  He seemed happy to see someone doing it the old fashioned way, I think, and he graciously listened to my pitch.

So it’s easy for me, a relatively recent Nevada transplant, to see Raggio as Horatio saw Hamlet’s father – a king, or some kind of force of nature that always has been and always would be.

But such a view is unfair, and does the man and his deeds – both good and ill – no justice.  And if we don’t remember the man he was truly, to learn the real lessons from his actual legacy instead of some caricature of one, lionized or demonized, then we will have dishonored him tremendously.

~~~

Mike Chamberlain has the most complete roundup possible of various reactions from around the state, which speak to the impact that he had on every one of us in some way or another.  It’s interesting to read them, particularly as someone who wasn’t here during the bulk of Raggio’s career.

There can be no question that Raggio is more responsible for the state of the State of Nevada than any other human being, both the good and the bad.  But whatever he did, and whatever the eventual consequences, there can be no honest dispute that he did it with a deep love for the state he helped govern.

I’m left to wonder -  did he truly understand the seismic changes that came in the last five years?  Did he see them coming?  Could he?

Will we?

~~~

We live in a vastly different time from the one Raggio embodied so completely, which makes it even easier to see him simply as a political king from the dusty pages of a history book – a goodly king to most of us, perhaps, but a two dimensional one.  What a shame it would be if we were so foolish as to not see so much more.

For he was a man, with capabilities and limits and skills and ambitions and mistakes and talents.  He enjoyed tremendous successes and suffered failures.  He had foresight and blind spots, just as we all do.  He gave use shoulders to stand on, and an enormous legacy to study and gain from.  He’s given us lessons and warnings, both in word and deed.  He had the courage to thrust himself into public life, not content to sit on the sidelines of his own community and history.  He was a man, but because he worked hard and loved what he did and the state in which he did it and the people he did it with, he became a great man.

We shall not look upon his like again.

I only got home last night in time to see the second half of the Presidential debate.  I didn’t hear anything unexpected, although overall I thought it was substantive and good.  Will it matter?  Who can say.  But here are my thoughts.

~~~

The most compelling thing to me was in the part I missed, but I heard the exchange on the radio this morning.  Mitt Romney hit Rick Santorum for increasing the debt, and Rick Santorum responded that he never voted to raise taxes.

But Rick Santorum was wrong.  By voting to extend the debt ceiling without any compensatory spending cuts, he DID vote to raise taxes.  [Read more →]