BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

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Don't register your drunken relatives
Apathy is never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-4-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune

Voter registration closes shortly and responsible citizens encourage it.

Whadda they know?

Nationally, about three in four of those eligible to register actually do.

About six in 10 (and often fewer) bother to show up.

So decisions get made by roughly four in 10 (60 percent of 75 percent) of those eligible, about half of whom are on the winning side of any race.

So every vote you cast on the prevailing side actually represents about five citizens, including yourself.

The lower the participation, the higher the power of your default proxy.

Given that U.S. voters are so susceptible to TV spots and rumors spread by the likes of Lush Rambo, why encourage more of the dunderheads to cast know-nothing ballots?

Unless you think your no-account brother-in-law has significantly smartened and/or sobered up, why encourage him?

Even if you get him to stagger into the polls, do you have much faith that he can remember how to vote right?

I didn't think so.

You can vote on behalf of him and three others.

I take such responsibility seriously and like to imagine whom I’m replacing, or at least cancelling out.

So please exercise the franchise carefully, including to whom you recommend it.

That drunken brother-in-law has bitten us in the ass too often.

Buy him a six-pack and leave him on the beach.

BALLOT BOX GUN CONTROL. Major parties are mailing absentee ballot applications, the idea being that catching your adherents early will get them to vote straight ticket.

Bad idea for Donkeyites.

Republicans are much more likely to march as commanded.

George Deukmejian won the California governorship in 1982 over Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley due to a brilliant GOP absentee/straight ticket strategy.

Bradley won on election day, but absentees carried it for retro George.

When asked if Democrats should do likewise next time, a consultant responded "you give my people a gun like that and they'll shoot you with it."

TUBING. I'll participate on Sam Shad's Nevada Newsmakers pundit panel today at 12:30 p.m. on Reno's KRNV TV-4, NBC for northern Nevada, simulcast on KENV TV-10 in Elko.

Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Ray Hagar co-hosts.

Principal victims will be Washoe District Judge Scott Freeman and his opponent, former Washoe County District Attorney Cal Dunlap.

Other commentators include lobbyist Michael Hackett and rare GOP Latina Ellie Lopez-Bowlin.

Charter cable victims may view the first rebroadcast at 9:30 p.m. on channel 3 throughout northwestern Nevada.

The full statewide radio-tv-online schedule will be linked to the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com.

TOLJASO DEPT. I predicted moonhowlers would use the phony recent Washoe and Clark graduation rate increases to justify education cuts.

Sen. Greg Brower, R-Reno, did just that on the Sept. 28 edition of my colleague in columny Jon Ralston's TV show.

See "We Don't Need No Education" at NevadaLabor.com.

HIE THEE TO MY MAILING LIST. About half a dozen major news stories have originated in this column either in print or online over the past several weeks.

If you're into non-corporate filtered news, sign up, then please consider the following...

SUPPORT THE NEVADA CITIZEN TV PROJECT to re-establish a sorely needed non-corporate community channel in these parts.

In-depth investigation, discussion and analysis can only come from such an entity.

I defy you to find all of the above (and most of what's hereinbelow) elsewhere either in depth or in context.

I've been doing this awhile.

You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.

This is important.

Thank you.

Be well. Raise hell.

____________

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... Please don't cook or eat the books ITALIAN STEREOTYPE VALIDATED: Aiazzi and DiLoreto almost throw blows Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-27-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The flipside from an old fry cook Legit media stenographers fail to pop the corporate welfare question Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-20-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune A great week for scandals School district master chefs continue cooking the books Tenth in a continuing series on the collapsing future of Nevada education Teachers' business tax petitions hit Nevada streets while Chicago teachers do likewise Damning inspection report brings union call to oust Reno VA hospital leadership State ignores voter registration lawsuit until the day after this column printed I defy you to find all of the following elsewhere either in depth or in context. NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER: New community TV channel Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-13-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune Humongously updated on 9-14, 9-15 and 9-17-2012 Life and Death at the Reno Veterans Hospital American Federation of Government Employees Local 2152/AFL-CIO Press Release Union Executive Summary of Inspection Report Office of the Medical Inspector Report All Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf ) documents 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 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 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. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Followed by a moon shadow TRAVUS T. HIPP, 1937-2012 ADIÓS, COMPADRE — Our friend Travus, 75, passed away peacefully between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. PDT on 18 May 2012 at his home in Silver City, Nevada. The sun is in eclipse as I write this at 6:30 p.m. on May 20. CHANGE OF VENUE (5-22-2012) — Adiós in Silver City, Nevada, Saturday, May 26, 2012 —> Updated 5-27-2012 — > The auld church where Travus lived and died proved too small for the expected multitude, so gathering, gnoshing and remembering commenced at the Silver City Community Center, 385 High Street, at 10:00 a.m. PDT. The graveside memorial service began at High Noon. Travus was buried next to his rock star companion Lynne Hughes, a short walk away. My remembrance of Lynne from the 3-21-1993 Daily Sparks Tribune has been linked to Travus' formal obituary at this website. All memories accepted for permanent posting hereat. Stay tuned for pictures and stories of the appropriately rainy day. Thanks for all your kind words. Keep up the good work and the good fight. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Barbano Barbano remembers the artist Reno Gazette-Journal 5-25-2012 NEW — Travus' life story and obituary Travus' last column in the 5-20 Daily Sparks Tribune Debra K. Reid photo / Sparks Tribune Jan. 4, 2009 Travus T. Hipp & Tales of Nevada's Futures Passed Expanded from the 6-3-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune      At bottom, he was an artist who used his voice to soar and slice, a tenor for the tenor of our times. Many of his mourning California listeners talk about the vocal spells he wove, how he soundly organized the noise of daily life into music that entertained, engaged, enlightened, educated, enthralled and occasionally enflamed. [From the saga of Travus T. Hipp and contributions by The Barbwire to the May 25 Reno Gazette-Journal and May 26, 2012, Daily Sparks Tribune.] POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary including random samplings of the wisdom of Travus T. Hipp 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 Economist: This is a true depression Elliott Parker Guest Editorial / Las Vegas Sun / 11-27-2011 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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