Wednesday, November 30, 2005

First on the No-New-Tax Issue

I am the first of all Nevada State Legislative candidates to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. I signed it willingly and sincerely. By taking a leadership position on an important issue, one can change the course of politics. Leadership IS influence and I have forced my competitors to move to a more conservative track.

My challenge to the hopefuls running for Nevada Assembly District 26 has moved them to take a more conservative position than they had previously occupied. I am glad to see that the race for Assembly 26 is having a positive conservative influence on candidates throughout the state. I truly believe that voters in Nevada and especially in my district just want to be left alone. Individuals should keep more of their money in their pockets and the government at every level needs to realize that. In 2003 we endured a tax increase of well over $800,000,000. That is $800 MILLION DOLLARS! I just wanted to everyone to realize how many zeros there are in the biggest tax increase in Nevada history. In the last legislative session there was a declared surplus of well over $600 million. I have heard some sources report (with no objections) that the surplus was really well over $800 million. About $300 million was rebated to the taxpayers and another $300 million was put away in a "Rainy Day Fund". You know why the state government doesn't want it known that the surplus was $800 million right? Because it is patently obvious that the tax increase of 2003 was UNNECESSARY.

I signed The Pledge and posted it on my website for all to see to illustrate the commitment I have to the people of Assembly District 26 and all of Nevada. One can only hope that other candidates are taking The Pledge because of their core values and not just to curry favor with the voters to get into office and then change their tune. It is a positive sign for candidates to sign The Pledge because if they ever DO vote for a tax increase or fail to fight against one, there is ample reason for constituents to boot that assemblyman out of office. When it comes to more candidates following me on making commitments not to raise taxes, I say, "Come on in the water's fine!"

Besides committing not to raise taxes, I have also committed publicly to propose the repeal of two bad laws for every new bill I introduce. I am dedicated to fighting for less government regulation. We have a law factory in Carson City. We must restrict its production as much as possible. I will do my best to keep legislative sessions limited to 120 days every other year. As Will Rogers said, "The only time a man's life, liberty, and property are safe is when Congress is NOT in session." I will continue to repeat that quote. I have always been wary of candidates that tell the people about what legislation they are going to get passed to create more laws. I want fewer laws not more. I want to get rid of as many bad laws as possible. I was asked recently what I considered a bad law. I didn't need to hesitate before answering that a bad law to me is any law that restricts or regulates individuals beyond what the U.S. and Nevada Constitutions permit. There are PLENTY of bad laws to choose from. There is not a scarcity of laws that should face the ax.

Governments create laws to restrict people. Constitutions restrict governments. We must always remember that every publicly elected person must swear an oath to support and defend the state and national Constitutions against all enemies foreign and domestic. I took that oath as a U.S. Army officer and still stand by my oath. The voters of District 26 and the State of Nevada can be assured that I will uphold my oath as an Assemblyman.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

THE WONDERFUL NO-NEW-TAX WORLD OF DISNEY

November 23, 2005

NEVADA NEWS & VIEWS
by Chuck Muth www.chuckmuth.com

Pledging to never vote for new and higher taxes of hard working Nevada families, conservative Republican candidate Richard Disney signed the Americans for Tax Reform "No-New-Taxes Pledge" and encouraged his opponents to do the same yesterday. Two other candidates (so far) are also running for the Assembly District 26 seat in Washoe County: Mike Dillon and Ty Cobb.

In a challenge to all declared candidates in the race, Disney called for the end of new taxes in Nevada and encouraged all Republicans to step up to the test. In addition to signing the pledge, Disney supports the principals of limited government and vowed to introduce bills to repeal two bad laws for every new bill he introduces.

Hoo-hah! So let it be written; so let it be done.

Richard Disney served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. His service includes Operation Promote Liberty in Panama and Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. Now a Reno-based businessman, he is running for the assembly seat currently held by Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) who is not seeking re-election, opting instead for a run for the 2nd congressional district seat which is being vacated by Rep. Jim Gibbons (R) who is running for the governor's seat which is being vacated by Gov. Kenny Guinn (R), who is term-limited.

Hard to keep track of the players without a scorecard, isn't it?

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Beware of "Harry Reid Republicans"

There is more and more frustration among conservatives as we keep voting Republicans into office but the Republicans keep spending more and more of the taxpayers' money. It is no wonder that it is difficult to get people motivated to vote. People keep voting for people they think will take a stand only to be disappointed again and again. Few candidates have the temerity to stand up for what the constituents want. Many candidates and representatives have completely lost their resolve to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I am one of those disappointed Republicans. Here in Nevada, I have heard candidates tout Republican endorsers for their campaigns that also endorsed Sen. Harry Reid! One candidate proudly stood up in a room full of Republicans and proclaimed that he was endorsed by the leader of the Republicans-for-Harry-Reid Campaign. That is not an endorsement I would ever seek, much less announce it to the public!

Some people say that we have to "go along to get along." That hasn't done anything to slow the increased taxes and spending of a growing government. I do not know of any government in history that willingly shrank. We must be vigilant in restricting government growth on both ends. We must tie the purse strings and limit the governments ability to tax us. On the other end, we must make it very difficult for governments to increase spending. The great leaders in history are not the ones who just tried to get along with the powers that be or go along with the crowd. The great leaders in history are the ones that bucked trends and made a difference or sacrificed a great deal trying.

I think it is sad when the accepted "normal" state of our government is to treat the money in your pockets and mine as public property! As if by keeping the money that we earn is somehow infringing on someone else's rights. Ronald Reagan said, "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." Governments create laws that limit people, constitutions limit governments. A government is a necessary thing, but it must be limited. Without constitutional restraints, a government has no accountability and will grow unchecked, as fast and far as it can.

Now it seems that many Republicans are being lulled by the promise of friendship and the promise of good treatment by Big Media into sounding remarkably like their Democrat opponents. The Democrats, especially of late, have really been putting the "mean" in mean spiritedness. If you are a Republican who compromises on conservetive values then you become the Democrat's best friend.

I say that we have to stand strongly for what is right and identify Republicans who hurt our position by compromising our principles and core values. We must identify them for what they are...Harry Reid Republicans!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Nevada Independent Conservatives Endorse Disney

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

NICPAC Endorsement

Fellow Conservatives,
As you already know, NICPAC was founded to help promote true conservatives into Nevada government.

In a Republican realm where RINO's are increasing in numbers, we feel it is time that we make a stand and begin a campaign of passion and honesty that will expose those who do not stand for our core beliefs, and push those who do into positions of leadership across our great state.

Finding the right candidates for these positions is not an easy task, however we do it very quickly and with few questions asked.

We are constantly on the look out for red flags and move on them almost instantly.

Over the past few weeks we have been carefully watching candidates for Assembly 26 and have found that Richard Disney is by far the most fiscally conservative candidate for the position in our State Assembly.

We feel that Richard Disney runs on almost the exact same energy as Sharron Angle and he boldly states that he wishes to pick up where Sharron Angle is leaving off.

Richard Disney does not dance around a single question and will tell you exactly what he wants you to hear, not what you want him to say.

An official letter of endorsement had been mailed to Richard Disney and a Press Release is in the works. Please be on the lookout for this information.

Warm Regards,

Eric Odom

How to Lose a War

The following is an email from the front lines in Iraq that I received just hours ago from my good friend Major Randy Judd who is the Executive Officer of an Armor Battalion in Iraq with about 500 men. Message and the article he posted to his email follow:

Family and Friends,

I don’t send out political rhetoric often. I feel strongly that Mr. Peters is on target with this article and currently I’m close enough to the War to know what truth on the ground is.

We can win this fight if we just have the patience and political will to see it through.

Worth the read and worth forwarding.

Thanks for listening and Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Randy

MAJ RANDY JUDD
XO, TF 2-34 ARMOR
BA'QUBAH, IRAQ
---------------------------------------
New York Post
November 21, 2005

How to Lose a War
By Ralph Peters

QUIT. It's that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.
Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can't win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we've made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Forget about the consequences. Disregard the immediate encouragement to the terrorists and insurgents to keep killing every American soldier they can. Ignore what would happen in Iraq — and the region — if we bail out. And don't mention how a U.S. surrender would turn al Qaeda into an Islamic superpower, the champ who knocked out Uncle Sam in the third round.

Forget about our dead soldiers, whose sacrifice is nothing but a political club for Democrats to wave in front of the media. After all, one way to create the kind of disaffection in the ranks that the Dems' leaders yearn to see is to tell our troops on the battlefield that they're risking their lives for nothing, we're throwing the game.

Forget that our combat veterans are re-enlisting at remarkable rates — knowing they'll have to leave their families and go back to war again. Ignore the progress on the ground, the squeezing of the insurgency's last strongholds into the badlands on the Syrian border. Blow off the successive Iraqi elections and the astonishing cooperation we've seen between age-old enemies as they struggle to form a decent government.

Just set a time-table for our troops to come home and show the world that America is an unreliable ally with no stomach for a fight, no matter the stakes involved. Tell the world that deserting the South Vietnamese and fleeing from Somalia weren't anomalies — that's what Americans do.

While we're at it, let's just print up recruiting posters for the terrorists, informing the youth of the Middle East that Americans are cowards who can be attacked with impunity.

Whatever you do, don't talk about any possible consequences. Focus on the moment — and the next round of U.S. elections. Just make political points. After all, those dead American soldiers and Marines don't matter — they didn't go to Ivy League schools. (Besides, most would've voted Republican had they lived.)

America's security? Hah! As long as the upcoming elections show Democratic gains, let the terrorist threat explode. So what if hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners might die in a regional war? So what if violent fundamentalism gets a shot of steroids? So what if we make Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the most successful Arab of the past 500 years?

For God's sake, don't talk about democracy in the Middle East. After all, democracy wasn't much fun for the Dems in 2000 or 2004. Why support it overseas, when it's been so disappointing at home?

Human rights? Oh, dear. Human rights are for rich white people who live in Malibu. Unless you can use the issue to whack Republicans. Otherwise, brown, black or yellow people can die by the millions. Dean, Reid & Pelosi, LLC, won't say, "Boo!"

You've got to understand, my fellow citizens: None of this matters. And you don't matter, either. All that matters is scoring political points. Let the world burn. Let the massacres run on. Let the terrorists acquire WMD. Just give the Bush administration a big black eye and we'll call that a win.

The irresponsibility of the Democrats on Capitol Hill is breathtaking. (How can an honorable man such as Joe Lieberman stay in that party?) Not one of the critics of our efforts in Iraq — not one — has described his or her vision for Iraq and the Middle East in the wake of a troop withdrawal. Not one has offered any analysis of what the terrorists would gain and what they might do. Not one has shown respect for our war dead by arguing that we must put aside our partisan differences and win.

There's plenty I don't like about the Bush administration. Its domestic policies disgust me, and the Bushies got plenty wrong in Iraq. But at least they'll fight. The Dems are ready to betray our troops, our allies and our country's future security for a few House seats.

Surrender is never a winning strategy.
Yes, we've been told lies about Iraq — by Dems and their media groupies. About conditions on the ground. About our troops. About what's at stake. About the consequences of running away from the great struggle of our time. About the continuing threat from terrorism. And about the consequences for you and your family.

What do the Democrats fear? An American success in Iraq. They need us to fail, and they're going to make us fail, no matter the cost. They need to declare defeat before the 2006 mid-term elections and ensure a real debacle before 2008 — a bloody mess they'll blame on Bush, even though they made it themselves.

We won't even talk about the effect quitting while we're winning in Iraq might have on the go-to-war calculations of other powers that might want to challenge us in the future. Let's just be good Democrats and prove that Osama bin Laden was right all along: Americans have no stomach for a fight.

As for the 2,000-plus dead American troops about whom the lefties are so awfully concerned? As soon as we abandon Iraq, they'll forget about our casualties quicker than an amnesiac forgets how much small-change he had in his pocket.

If we run away from our enemies overseas, our enemies will make their way to us. Quit Iraq, and far more than 2,000 Americans are going to die.

And they won't all be conservatives.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Petition to save the job of a H.S. history teacher who dared to teach about the Founding Fathers

Source: Citizen Outreach Petition (11-3-05) www.citizenoutreach.com

The Carson City (NV) school district says 11th-grade history teachers should start teaching American history at the Civil War period and move forward. But one experienced, award-winning teacher is standing up to this History-Lite policy and is insisting on teaching about our nation's colonial and Founding eras. And he might lose his job over it. Citizen Outreach is asking people to sign an online petition to save his job.

Meet Joe Enge.

Joe is an award-winning, 15-year veteran history teacher in Carson City who has, among other things, written two history textbooks and served on the 1997 task force which drew up Nevada’s history standards. But according to school district administrators, he’s a “bad” teacher.

You see, Joe has this crazy idea that American history should include our colonial period, as well as the Revolutionary War period. You know, where the Founding Fathers fought for independence from England and wrote the greatest governing document the world has ever known - the United States Constitution. You know, that period of time which gave us patriot heroes such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Tom Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, John Paul Jones, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Hancock.

And Joe has REALLY ticked off the local school district bureaucrats and the education establishment.

You see, unbeknownst to most parents in Carson City, the school district believes that high school American history should start with the Civil War era, not the days of America’s Founding. Indeed, the curriculum forced on history teachers at Carson High School ignores pre-Civil War history completely - other than a little optional “refresher” at the beginning of the school year or if you’re in an Advanced Placement class.

Joe Enge has fought the district’s History-Lite curriculum for the past three years by teaching ALL of his students ALL of America’s history, starting with the colonial period (remember the Pilgrims?).

In addition, Joe believes...get this...that the teacher should teach and the students should learn. He embraces and practices the “traditional” teacher-centered method of education, as opposed to the fashionable student-centered “discovery learning” method currently all the rage in San Francisco and Portland. What a trouble-maker.

So the school district wants to get rid of him.

Joe’s supervisors - including Carson High’s principal, Fred Perdomo - have given Joe unsatisfactory evaluations in retaliation for his refusal to teach a Founding-free version of American history. And although Joe’s a “tenured” teacher, three such bad evaluations would be grounds for running this maverick out of town on a rail (students would have to read Revolutionary War-era history to know just what this phrase means). So Joe challenged the administrative evaluations; however, the Carson City School District Superintendent, Mary Pierszynski, sided with the principal. Big surprise there.

Last month as part of a mediation effort, Ms. Pierszynski offered to buy Joe off by paying him one year’s salary if he’d quit. And considering the pure hell this one-man fight has put his family through, Joe actually considered it. But at the last minute, Pierszynski withdrew her offer, and now the dispute is moving to binding arbitration. Which means if Pierszynski’s ruling backing Perdomo’s evaluations stands, this Fulbright Scholar and Madison Fellowship award-winner will likely be tossed out on his kiester - and his Carson High students will finally be taught that American history began when Lincoln freed the slaves.

Of course, the teacher’s union could always ride in and defend this experienced, professional classroom educator. Yeah, right. Fat chance. You see, Joe has chosen not to join the teacher’s union, so these “principled” defenders of teaching professionals are more than happy to see the guy thrown to the wolves.

This entire episode is an outrage. Joe Enge is the kind of teacher we should WANT educating our kids. He loves history. He knows history. And he’s darned good at teaching history. Indeed, Enge’s spirit of resistance to this great injustice would make our Founding Fathers - who the Carson City School District would prefer to pretend never existed - proud. Especially Thomas Jefferson who (not that Carson City high school students would know it) once said, “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

It’s time for Superintendent Pierszynski, Principal Perdomo and the entire Carson City education establishment to call off the dogs and let professional American history teacher Joe Enge do what he’s been trained to do and has been successfully doing for 15 long years: TEACH AMERICAN HISTORY. The FULL American history, not the district’s “Reader’s Digest” version.

Please help keep American history IN ITS ENTIRETY alive at Carson High School by signing this petition urging the Carson City School District to allow Joe Enge to do what he’s been trained to do: Teach ALL of American history.

Chuck Muth
President
Citizen Outreach

Let Joe Enge meet Fox News where he wants

On November 21st, 2005 I sent the following fax to Principal Fred Perdomo at fax number: 775-283-1790 listed as the main fax on the Carson City High School website. I urge all who see this to contact Mr. Perdomo as well.

Dear Mr. Perdomo,

Your battle against Joe Enge is getting childish when you restrict the freedom of the press by blocking them from conducting their interview with Mr. Enge in his high school classroom.

I do not agree with your view of denying Joe Enge from teaching key elements of our nation's history to 11th graders. Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it and you are facilitating future generations of Carson City High School graduates who are not equipped to avoid historical pitfalls.

I urge you to reconsider letting Fox News and any other members of the press conduct interviews in any public place including a PUBLIC high school.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments using the contact info below.

Sincerely,

Richard Disney

775-321-9651 voice
775-201-0706 fax

richard@richarddisney.com email
www.richarddisney.com website
www.richarddisney.blogspot.com blog

Mailing address:
1620 Robb Dr, #C176
Reno, NV 89523

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Tale of Two Cows

A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his.

A DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you.

A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor. Then you covet it.

A REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So?

A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour.

A FASCIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and sells you the milk. You join the underground and start a campaign of sabotage which ultimately blows up the cows.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.

"Not Yours to Give"

Col. David Crockett

US Representative from Tennessee

One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:

"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.

We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I never heard that the government was in arrears to him.

"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

Bloggers having impact in Nevada

Bloggers poised to be players on state's campaign landscape

Anjeanette Damon (adamon@rgj.com) RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL November 20, 2005

Nevada has been blogged.

Just ask Chancellor Jim Rogers, who still might be a Republican, or U.S. Sen. John Ensign, who still might have a political bombshell to drop on a would-be opponent.

Already players on the national stage, political bloggers have arrived in the Silver State and are poised to alter Nevada's campaign landscape.

Nevada's nascent blogosphere recently revealed the past drug use of potential U.S. Senate candidate Jack Carter and instigated a controversy that compelled Rogers to become nonpartisan.

Blogs are Internet journals that offer a running commentary on the issues of the day, with writers combing other blogs, mainstream media and other sources for nuggets often overlooked by the established press. Beyond that, they offer an instantaneous forum for political debate.

It's a citizen punditry that already is breaking news in Nevada and shaping debates in some of the state's key races.

"Local political blogs have a lot of potential to shape politics in Nevada and be influential in the same way that national blogs have been influential," said Donica Mensing, a journalism professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "They can set up buzz about candidates, skewer campaigns, hold figures accountable."

Among those in Nevada's budding blogosphere are former and current journalists, an anonymous aspiring novelist and a credit underwriter.

The Las Vegas Gleaner, http://www.lasvegasgleaner.com/, is a liberal blog launched this summer by Hugh Jackson, former editor of a weekly newspaper, and has quickly become a must-read in political circles.

Las Vegas columnist Jon Ralston, who hosts a television talk show and writes a daily political newsletter, recently joined the blogosphere and Las Vegas City Life editor Steve Sebelius takes daily pokes at the political establishment on his blog.

Those who run campaigns are waiting to see how local bloggers will change things in Nevada politics.

"We just really don't know at this point," said Kirsten Searer, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party. "Most of these blogs are just sheer entertainment. They are really funny and are insightful as well.

"The beauty of bloggers is they have an audience of the right people. If they break news, then insiders in politics and mainstream media are likely to pick it up."

Nationally, bloggers have become the veritable fifth estate of government, acting as a check on presidents, Congress and the press. They have brought down a television news anchor and two Senate leaders.

In 2002, liberal bloggers ensured the nation took notice of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's pro-segregationist comments, creating such a maelstrom that Lott was forced to step down from his leadership post.

Political impact

Last year, bloggers were given some credit with helping to defeat former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota by scrutinizing his record and championing his opponent.

Chuck Muth, a Carson City-based conservative political consultant, hopes the same can be done in the Silver State when Daschle's successor, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is up for re-election in five years.

"Setting it up is easy and cheap," he said. "All you need is a good writer who has a fundamental interest in politics."

The governor's race already is a favorite topic for Nevada bloggers.

Jackson regularly harpoons the three Republican candidates. He champions Democratic candidate state Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and castigates her opponent, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, as too conservative for the Democratic primary. He regularly refers to him as the "Democrat."

Early in the campaign, when Rogers made news as a possible Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, Jackson was the first to report Rogers' contributions to federal Democratic candidates.

Within days, the state's largest newspapers were pushing the story forward. Within two weeks, Rogers, who had been a Republican for 30 years, switched to nonpartisan.

Daily visits to the Las Vegas Gleaner grow each week. In August, an average of 80 people visited each week. Last week, the average was 182.

"The more people who are looking at this stuff the better," Jackson said. "Inasmuch as me or anybody else can contribute to the sum total of human knowledge with regards to candidates, that is the ideal way that we can contribute to the debate."

Blogs ignored by some

Gibson's press secretary Greg Bortolin said he reads Jackson's blog "with a chuckle."

"I'm not discounting the blogs because people do read them and they do influence people," Bortolin said. "But at the end of the day, television and the mainstream media have a far greater reach. I just don't see a blog as something I have to deal with."

Titus's campaign manager disagrees.

"Blogs have proven to be very relevant in this race," he said. "The folks that blog tend to be intelligent Nevadans. They are savvy and understand the issues confronting this state."

Since 1999, Gibbons has been the subject of an entire blog devoted to pillorying his record. Run by an anonymous writer, http://www.votegibbonsout.com/ has almost daily posts criticizing Gibbons' votes, press releases and appearances.

Last month, the writer took a break from Gibbons-bashing to reveal that Jack Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, who is considering a Senate run in Nevada, was kicked out of the Navy for using marijuana and LSD.

The story quickly made national news.

Gibbons' campaign manager, Robert Uithoven, said he isn't worried that Vote Gibbons Out will hurt his candidate.

"It didn't play a role in the previous election and I don't see it playing a role in this one," he said.

At present, the Nevada blogosphere tips toward liberals, but conservatives are hoping to change that soon.

"Nevada conservatives are a little behind the curve," Muth said.

Eric Odom, a Reno college student, has created the Nevada Independent Conservative Political Action Committee, which has a blog at: www.nvconservatives.blogspot.com.

And Mark Noonan, a 40-year-old underwriter from Las Vegas, who already has a national following as a writer for Blogs for Bush and GOP Bloggers, is gearing up to launch Battleborn Politics by the first of the year.

"I'm a conservative Republican," he said. "This will not be a balanced blog. I will give the other side their due, but I'm here to support my side."

Jackson's Gleaner sports a similar disclaimer: "Neither objectivity nor balance are priorities. Accuracy and honesty are."

Thursday, November 17, 2005

My Core Issues

My core issues are:

LOWER TAXES: I will not vote for a tax increase. I have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge (www.atr.org) and proudly posted it on my website www.richarddisney.com . I stand by my pledge. We must lower taxes and restrict government spending!

LESS GOVERNMENT REGULATION: I will propose the REPEAL of two laws for every new bill I bring to the floor. Will Rogers said, "The only time a man's life, liberty and property are safe is when Congress is NOT in session." I think that applies to our State Assembly as well.

FAMILY VALUES: I have been married to the same beautiful wife for 13 years. I have one beautiful daughter. I want what is best for families!

My Job Interview to the Voter

I am interviewing with you the voter to accept me as your representative in the Nevada State Assembly. I am posting here questions I have been asked during real job interviews and my answers:

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT

What would you consider to be the greatest accomplishment of your life and why?

I consider the greatest accomplishment of my life as being a successful Artillery Logistics Battery Commander in the United States Army. I chose to pursue command because of the leadership opportunity the position presented and to test myself with that level of responsibility. Upon accepting the privilege of command, I set specific goals for the unit and myself. I wanted to tie this diverse organization into a tight coherent team that all members could be proud of. I wanted to have a unit that soldiers outside the unit would want to be a part of more than their own. I wanted to make the soldiers' family members part of the team. I wanted to have fun. I had to overcome a lot of preconceived notions that the unit I took command of was a unit where soldiers were sent when they failed elsewhere in the battalion. To reach my goals, I made it clear to soldiers that loyalty goes down the chain of command as well as up, that I would fight for them and protect them to the best of my ability; I made issues affecting evaluations, awards and pay, my top priority. I planned a battery trip to a large local amusement park in Germany and used battery family support group funds and fund raisers so that it was free to soldiers and family members. I conducted very candid sensing sessions with the lowest ranking soldiers to evaluate my progress. I established an 'open hallway' policy which encouraged soldiers of all ranks to approach me any time in or out of the office to ask questions or make comments. While other batteries had problems every weekend with domestic disturbances and soldiers getting in trouble, the incidents in my unit were nearly non-existent. I knew I had accomplished my goal when soldiers from other batteries in the battalion began to approach me about joining my unit or for help with problems.