BARBWIRE
by
ANDREW BARBANO
Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream


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"If voting mattered, they wouldn't let us do it."Travus T. Hipp, 1982

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Hope you and yours enjoyed enthralling Thanksgibleting and
Happy High Holly Days

2014 MAKES A SIX-PACK—>BARBWIRE SCORES
SIXTH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD

Barbwire Silver Anniversary 1988-2013 —>Now we go for gold
Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

   
    Thought you were a friend of mine
Thought you were my buddy
    I found out a short while ago
Your thoughts were dark and muddy

    You scare me half to death my friend
with the things you say and do
    So I'm goin' to heaven in a flash of fire
with or without you

    Hey! Goin' to heaven in a flash of fire
with or without you


    Easy come, easy go
Some call me Easy Money
    Sometimes life is full of laughs
Sometimes it ain't funny

    You may think that I'm a fool
and sometimes that is true
    But I'm goin' to heaven in a flash of fire
with or without you

    Hey! Goin' to heaven in a flash of fire
with or without you


    Some can dance, some can sing
Some can play the fiddle
    I've been left, I've been right
I've been down the middle

    You don't have to see my side
or share my point of view
    Cause I'm goin' to heaven in a flash of fire
with or without you

    Hey! Goin' to heaven in a flash of fire

with or without you

— Recorded by Hoyt Axton a long time ago
Written by Hoyt Axton (1938-1999) and Catherine Smith

Dastardly dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-30-2014 Sparks Tribune


WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Support Don Dondero next

SIX PACK!
Barbwire wins sixth Nevada Press Association award

We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series

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
Reruns 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 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


Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Any Law & Order TV junkie knows that someone's past is pretty much off limits at trial.

Sparks killer Wayne Burgarello, who iced a man for trespassing, has a lawyer who makes ambulance chasers look reputable.

Knowing she can't use it in court, Theresa Ristenpart alleged for media consumption that the deceased was once accused — repeat: accused — of a major crime and that his girlfriend, also badly wounded in Burgarello's empty rental, was conspiring to steal stuff.

Ristenpart also revealed that the deceased may have possessed a (gasp!) deadly flashlight.

Stand by for Stand Your Ground, Sparks style.

CHASE THAT AMBULANCE. "Heavy Hitter" TV lawyer Glenn Lerner and his buds are in deep water down on the bayou over legal shenanigans and insider conflicts of interest in British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon cases.

No less than former federal judge and FBI director Louis Freeh issued a scathing report and it looks like a Louisiana jurist is going to hit the shysters hard.

They stand to lose the millions they hoped to scam from the $20 billion BP settlement fund.

Criminal charges remain possible. Details at DoctorLawyerWatch.com/

CHASING YOUR TAIL. Several people have asked me why new Reno City Attorney Karl Hall fired longtime deputy Jack Campbell as one of his first official acts.

Campbell should apply in Sparks where City Attorney Chet Adams' personnel mismanagement style, a bad case of insinuating himself, has cost taxpayers tons of money.

Barbwire spies also report that Mr. Campbell also reputedly developed a habit of regularly demanding to pre-empt judges, costing taxpayers $450 per filing and irritating the blackrobes.

THREE DOLLAR BILL. I had a very dietary Christmas, one ginger snap and two cups of coffee before rushing an ailing neighbor to the Renown ER. All-nighters are a way of life for me, but It's been decades since I did one at the most expensive hotel in town.

The delightful medical staff almost made me forget for whom they work.

I got jolted back to reality when I went to pick up my car in the frosty Friday morning light.

I brought their store perhaps ten grand in business and very possibly much more.

But they don't validate parking. Everybody pays three bucks (save for probably doctors and lobbyists).

The Octopus abides, as does the Barbwire.

I chalked it up to the expense of promoting unionizing to Renown workers.

GETTING EVEN. Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Gomorrah South, was assigned the worst office in the legislative building in 2013, next to the water closets where every flush drowned out dignity.

It was revenge for Hambrick's assistance in defeating Democratic colleague Marcus Conklin, earmarked to have become speaker.

Hambrick hisself is now fronting as token speaker for pseudo-defrocked Ira Hansen, R-Sparks.

The identity of the unfortunate soul who gets the waterworks next year will tell some tales about who's doing what, with which and to whom.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

ONLINE EXTRAS...

COMING SOON: Déjà vu all over again — Fear and Favor in the Newsroom, a bad dream from the '90s (Barbwire 12-10-1997 and 2-15-1998 and 2-22-1998) came back to Sparks on Dec. 17 with the showing of Shadows of Liberty. Stay tuned.

TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY: FEEL UP YOUR FIRE METER. The Reno Gazette-Journal did big spreads on three consecutive Sundays (Sept. 14, Sept. 21 and Sept. 28) on NV Energy smart meter fires. Welcome aboard. Barbwire readers were two years ahead on the fire meter issue. (Touch a Smart Meter, Go to Jail — 11 October 2012)

[UPDATES: THE NEVADA FIRE MARSHALL'S INVESTIGATION concluded "don't worry, be happy." I'm still worried and will continue fondling NVE's precious equipment. In its Sunday 21 Dec. 2014 front page headline major story, the Reno Gazette-Journal published results of the NVEnergy-commissioned "don't worry, be happy" echo study. Spoonfed stenography means never having to say you're sorry.]

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

A thousand thanks to those who already responded and keep sending show suggestions.

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
                              — Jimmy Breslin

  Stay tuned.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important. We've got a lot of work to do.

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

 






Andrew Barbano is a 46-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 and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ 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 Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Smoking Guns...
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

The ever-expanding Ira Hansen Archive of an anachronism

Breaking Bad 5: Machine Gun Michele and the good ole boys
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-16-2014 Sparks Tribune

BREAKING BAD
Walter White and some other white guy
Who's,,,
...Who?

Breaking Bad 4: Ira and his ammosexuals flip us the finger
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-9-2014 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-11-2014

Breaking Bad 3: Ira, the guv and the dragonslayers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-2-2014 Sparks Tribune

Breaking Bad Part Deux: Ira blames the Tribune
Barbwire by Barbano / Submitted for publication 11-21-2014 / Expanded from the 11-25-2014 Daily Sparks Tribune
On 11-24-1874, barbed wire was patented.

Follytix '15: From Topless Campaign to Breaking Bad
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-28 and 11-18-2014 Sparks Tribune
BREAKING BAD 11-23-2014—>Hansen resigns as Nevada State Assembly Speaker

Voting, gloating, loathing and scapegoating
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-11-2014 Sparks Tribune

If you voted early, this will make you regret it
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-4-2014 Sparks Tribune

Virginia City's next scary sexy Hollywood movie
Virginia City 911: Sexy Sheriffing in Old ConforteLand
Barbwire by Barbano / Special Nevada Day Edition 10-31-2014, Updated 11-1 and 11-3-2014

Follytix '14: Year of the Topless Campaign
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-28-2014 Sparks Tribune, Updated 10-31-2014

Words from God on Nevada ballots and Ebola
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-21-2014 Sparks Tribune


Happy 150th Birthday, Ms. Nevada
Nevada Day Required Reading
The Lady in the Red Dress
The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983
The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Sparks Tribune 10-31-2013 and previously

The Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on display in Reno thru Nov. 2

GAO Study: Voter ID laws cut turnout by blacks, young
By Alan Fram / Associated Press 10-8-2014

Barbwire: Nevada not really a state
No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya
Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune

Cheap thrills: Sex banned in Gomorrah South
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-14-2014 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-15-2014

True confessions from the back of the bus
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-7-2014 Sparks Tribune

We don't need no education: Leaks R Us
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-30-2014 Sparks Tribune

Taxpayers taken for Teslacide demo ride
Heavy demands for services & infrastructure but no money for them: Los Angeles Times debunks booster claims

Can megaresorts scam Tesla-style freebies?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-23-2014 Sparks Tribune

St. Elon, Lord Pedro and Gov. Veto El Obtúsè
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-16-2014 Sparks Tribune
9-23 CRYSTAL BALL UPDATE: The above column accurately predicted Martinez's departure one week in advance

Tinkle-down economics: testing Tesla's testes
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-9-2014 Sparks Tribune

Labor Day 2014: Red, white and screwed
Silver State Lining: Nevada union membership 10th-highest in the nation
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-28-2014

Union decline and rising inequality in two charts
by Colin Gordon
Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012
Labor Day: State of the Unions
By Mark Robison / Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 9-1-2013

The above graph was used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud.

WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES
The Barbwire Labor Day column
Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012


We Don't Need No Education
The continuing Barbwire series

Barbwire: Nevada not really a state
No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya
Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune

Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor
BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013

State of Health
National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US?
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013

...and more ammo yet

IMF Head Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She’s Right.
By Erika Eichelberger / Mother Jones/BillMoyers.com 5-30-2014
“The behavior of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally…since the crisis.
The industry still prizes short-term profit.”

The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune

The Post-dated Recession
By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011



Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest

2013-14: BARBWIRE SCORES SIXTH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD

BRONZE 2014
Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake / 4-18-2013

The 2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon / 5-30-2013

The politics of media ga-ga boosterism / 3-20-2014

2012: WE WON —> BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION GOMORRAH SOUTH CONFAB—> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO NPA HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Support legendary photographer Don Dondero next

2010 GOLD 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

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





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


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Copyright © 1982-2014 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 46-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 moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

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