BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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A fiery journey down glory road
Expanded from the 1-22-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune
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Everybody knows the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.    Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost.    Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.    That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

— Leonard Cohen

HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award Barbwire.TV Watch NevadaLabor.com for show times. Help us get the word out. Support the project at http://resurge.tv#donate SUING FOR SCHOOLS Updated 8-30-2011 Now rerunning on Carson-Dayton 226 Additional programs on Boulder City cable. Go to bcnv.org and then go to the BCTV link. If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions — new power to the people on the public airwaves The program premiers were available to every television set in the region because of a high-mileage media hybrid. The shows appeared on both commercial and community stations. The non-corporate entity produced the events, commercial TV greatly expanded distribution. Thus began an ongoing series of sane public interest programs which generate both entertaining heat and more than a little light. Please spread the word and consider contributing to the cause online at ReSurge.TV. You may also take the public option known as the U.S. Postal Service and send a check or money order to ReSurge.TV, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510. Your contribution will help fund the distribution as well as ongoing efforts at developing new media, including a regional, non-corporate community radio station and the return of community television to Reno-Sparks-Washoe. You are present at the creation of what I hope can become a new media model where the programming accurately reflects what's happening on the ground and the media impact is powerful enough to forcefully pass the message upward. Thanks. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Click here for selected on-demand re-runs from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Barbwire.TV archives Barbwire.TV: 15-year overnight success Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008 The Barbwire's Greatest Hits Highlights from radio days mp3 file HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award

God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water. The fire next time. — [From the old spiritual Mary Don't You Weep from which James Baldwin got the title of his 1963 bestseller, The Fire Next Time.]

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So Vice-President Joe Biden came to Reno and was greeted by the fires of Gahenna apparently started by a crazy old man. [1]

Anybody know if Ron Paul was in town?

I was heartened by the small cadre of liberal protestors who showed up at the rich kids high school.

Joseph Biden is a good man who would make a great president. Unfortunately, he serves as number two banana to the first black president who governs as a moderate Republican white guy — apparently in an attempt to prove that he is not the first black president (an accolade to which Bill Clinton assiduously aspired).

I took some serious heat for supporting the renegades at the gate: "As a northwest Reno liberal, I do not intend to picket Vice-President Biden. I think he gets the message without being subjected to picketing. We need to go after those idiots in South Carolina who are filling the airways with their message of hate sometimes disguised as 'Christian.'"

I'm not only a liberal but also an old follytician. If more than four decades in harness have taught me anything, it's that political leaders only respond to pressure.

Worse than loving the one they're with, they often vote according to the last thing they've heard.

Second only to money, heat rules. The flames brought by local dissidents before frigid fire [1] flushed out Galena High sent the right message to the wayward Obama administration.

Well done on a windy day.

FALLEN HEROES DEPT. Nevada lost some honorable men over the past few weeks. I am proud to say I knew them.

JUDGE BOB PERRY, 1943-2011. About 30 years ago, I got a phone call from a young lawyer who had noticed my advocacy on behalf of the mentally disabled. He offered to represent those too weak to defend themselves. On that day, I became a Bob Perry fan for life.

Washoe District Judge Robert Perry died after a long battle with cancer. More than 500 attended his Jan. 13 memorial service at UNR.

Former Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Bob Rose told the best story. In the early 1970's when Rose served as Washoe County district attorney, he hired Perry who had not yet resided in Nevada long enough to take the bar exam. So Rose made him an investigator, a job for which he had no qualifications other than being a very impressive guy.

An automatic overachiever, former Marine Perry bought himself a .357 magnum which he carried on a drug bust where he was ordered to act strictly as an observer.

That was cool until the perps burned rubber and aimed straight for the pick'emup truck where observer Perry sat observing.

He got off three errant rounds.

"I was was greeted at my office by my chief investigator," Rose remembered. "That's never a good sign."

His observer's activities could have brought disciplinary action, but news of Perry's ballistic prowess had already spread like wildfire throughout law enforcement. Reno had its own Dirty Harry.

Bob Perry was home for life.

DR. ROBERT GORRELL, 1914-2011. Former UNR English Prof. Gorrell died last Christmas Day. He and his late colleague Charlton Laird authored a textbook which became standard issue at universities across the nation. He is best remembered locally for his delightful and longrunning Reno Gazette-Journal column on the quirks and nuances of the language. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, at the UNR student union.

JOHN HANIFAN, 1933-2012. The 14-year Churchill County Commissioner was a rarity in Fallon: a popular Democrat. I knew John as a soft-spoken natural leader who engendered confidence in all who met him.

DON BOUMA, 1945-2011, business agent representing workers at Teamsters Union Local 533. Don left his position in order to care for his wife of almost 50 years who preceded him in death. An admirable man who led an admirable life. Watch NevadaLabor.com for his family's announcement of a memorial service.

RECOVERING AT RENOWN. According to both Democrat and Republican informants, Tribune columnist and PR historian Harry Spencer is on the mend at the Renown recovery center on Mill Street in Reno. Wish him well.

DID WE PLAY IN PEORIA? Go to NevadaLabor.com to check out Barbwire special editions that appeared in the Reno Gazette-Journal and Fresno Bee over MLK weekend. They add additional dimensions to last week's Tribune installment.

The only hate mail I got came from an RGJ reader purportedly named Scott at the perhaps indicative e-mail address of <drinkpal2005@yahoo.com>. Mr. Drinkpal wrote that the "NAACP is a racist organization and César Chávez was a Communist. You're the biggest racist on the forum."

He doesn't get any points for originality.

Feel free to write him and please send me a copy.

FOOTBALL FUTILITY. A secret settlement has apparently muzzled all parties, but that won't stop wags from calling the alleged perp Ben Rapistberger.

SUPPORT THE NEVADA CITIZEN TV PROJECT, a non-corporate environment for a new channel. Go to ReSurge.TV or contact me.

If the kids can occupy Wall Street, we can occupy our small fair share of the publicly owned television spectrum.

Help give the gift of non-corporate TV to your community. We are making progress toward returning a citizens channel to these parts. Your support is both needed and appreciated. Thank you.

Be well. Raise hell.
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[1] This refers to a huge range fire which broke out in the proximity of Galena High School at the time Biden was addressing students. It consumed 1,377 acres, destroyed 20 homes, caused one human and a bunch of animal deaths.
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Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Economist: This is a true depression Elliott Parker Guest Editorial / Las Vegas Sun / 11-27-2011 POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced. HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries: Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo The plight of the paper pushers The great recession made bashing public workers a national sport Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011 Bury the Bad News with Rose-colored Reporting How urgent can economic troubles be if leaders say things are getting better? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011 Fact-free nation: Inside the lie machine Mother Jones Magazine May-June 2011 / Cover story and in-depth analysis Bill Moyers: Welcome to the Plutocracy Money fights hard and it fights dirty Speech delivered at Boston University on 29 Oct. 2010 Part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Cabellyup.com From clear-cut forests to dirty Gulfstream waters, this land belongs to old BP TOLJASO LONG TIME AGO BP/ARCO: The greasy root of our evils Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune 9-10-2006 The awful truth — Read it and weep, fellow suckers Labor Day 2009: Rise of the Vampire Corpobots Expanded from the 9-6-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Angry Americans and Freudian fraud Using war to market cigarettes Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune BARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing Barbwire 8-14-2005 Donate to the cable ratepayer legal defense fund at our PayPal-enabled ReSurge.TV Consumer War Room Phillips, Kevin; Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know Harper's Magazine; May 2008; page 43 Phillips has authored numerous books on history and politics over the past 40 years. His most recent, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, was published by Viking on April 15, 2008. NAOMI WOLF: Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today. Alternet 5-20-2007 Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007. 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. 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      SEE ALSO: Lapham, Lewis H.; Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A Brief History; Harper's Magazine cover article; September, 2004, page 32.      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.       BARBWIRE: Labor Day '94: People vs. corporate con job, 9-4-94 Chilling forecasts from Alex Carey       BARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97 A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchy The sands of time do not cloud the long memories of the sheiks of Araby Barbwire 9-10-2006       Rinfret, Pierre A.; Peace is Bullish; Look magazine, 5-31-1966

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Copyright © 1982-2012 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.

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