Barbwire by Barbano: Let It Bleed

AB 171 is an elephant trap

The following was sent on Feb. 25 to those participating in the sometimes heated exchange among Nevada liberals about this bill. Everyone seems to have missed the obvious. — AB

Dear Folks:

I printed a short item about this in Sunday's Tribune and invited comments. I had neither the space nor the research time to consider it extensively.

Looking at what you have written, I think there is an additional consideration that you may all be missing. Please note that the while the sponsors are bipartisan, they are mostly Democrats.

AB171
Introduced on: Feb 23, 2007

By: (Bolded name indicates primary sponsorship)
Koivisto, Claborn, Smith, Anderson, Bobzien, Buckley, Carpenter, Conklin, Gansert, Goicoechea, Grady, Hogan, Horne, Kirkpatrick, Leslie, McClain, Parks, Parnell, Womack

Provides for the revocation of a state business license for a violation of federal law prohibiting the hiring or employment of unauthorized aliens. (Bill Draft Request No. 32-537)

I think this is an inelegant subterfuge. Democratic incumbents can assert in next year's campaign literature that they tried their best to enact legislation to please even the most gung ho xenophobe. Then, those dastardly (fill in the blank: soft on immigration types, bigbiz Republicans in the assembly or senate, little green men from Mars, all of the above) whomevers stopped its passage. (We always need a place to foist blame.)

So the Dems get on record as being tough on immigration by sponsoring a bill which will never go anywhere, especially if the bigbiz types in the senate get their hands on it.

The Donkeykong players have thus built political cover from those who can damage them (all of whom think Bill O'Reilly and Lou Dobbs were separated at birth) while taking a little harmless heat from us commies who will always love them despite their faults.

Demonstrating once again why Democrats lose, they apparently never bothered to inform their ever-forgiving base that this was the deal.

With this bill, our practical D's have shown us what it feels like to be black and taken for granted.

Maybe our friends thought we'd figure it out since it is both out of character and quite transparent. Or maybe we are as dumb as some take us for.

I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew

ps: I wonder if they have considered what will happen if the Republicans call their bluff?

The Molly Ivins Hall of Flames
BARBWIRE 2-4-2007

Some of Molly Ivins' greatest hits

Reno war protestors march in memory of Molly
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
February 7, 2007

A group of Reno anti-war activists took the late newspaper columnist Molly Ivins' final words to heart and put them into action Tuesday.
"We're doing this for Molly," said Paula McDonough, who organized the Molly Ivins Pots 'n' Pan Brigade that protested the war in Iraq outside the Bruce Thompson Federal Building in downtown Reno. "We're doing this because Molly asked us to."...

REQUIRED READINGS

Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007; (not available online for several months, if at all). I love it when heavy hitters validate what I've been saying for years in the tiny Sparks Tribune.

Barlett, Donald L. and Steele, James B.; America: What Went Wrong? (1992); America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? (1994); America: Who Stole the Dream? (1996) ; Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate. For additional comments on the work of the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning team, use the NevadaLabor.com search engine and sweep for "Barlett."

Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy:
Propaganda in the US and Australia

The Orwell Diversion by Alex Carey
Excerpted from the book available below

ORDER Taking the Risk Out of Democracy
Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
Edited by Andrew Lohrey
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
University of Illinois Press

By one conservative estimate, the corporate right has spent about $3 billion over the past three decades manufacturing public opinion to suit big business goals. Lapham's number covered the early 1970's to the present day. Alex Carey noted that by 1948, anti- New Deal corporate propaganda expenditures had already reached $100 million per year, not adjusted for inflation, for advertising alone. (Carey, ibid; page 79)

Adjusted for inflation, that 1948 $100 million becomes $801,659,751.04 in 2005 dollars.

Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa
As Wal-Mart struggles to rebut growing criticism, it has discovered a reliable ally: conservative research groups.
New York Times 9-8-2006; Free registration may be required