BARBWIRE
by
ANDREW BARBANO

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Aug. 2012-Aug. 2013: the Barbwire's Silver Anniversary Year
Barbwire by Barbano moved to the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.


   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.

Everybody knows the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows.

— Leonard Cohen

Power politics & prescient predictions
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-10-2013 Daily Sparks Tribune



HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award

BIG NEWS FROM THE 9-22-2012 NPA CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH

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 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

BIG NEWS FROM THE 9-22-2012 NPA CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH

Only fools make predictions about follytix.

So let's get foolish.

Even the most optimistic dreamers never make book on anything good coming out of the Nevada Legislature.

During fat years, a few crumbs fall off the table to tantalize the deprived.

During lean years, those groveling on the floor are left to chew on the carpet.

When it's time to cut, Nevada makes the least among us suffer the most.

The physically and mentally disabled are always the first hit and last helped.

The state mental health system has never recovered from the depredations of 1991.

Years ago, Sen. Joe Neal, D-N. Las Vegas (1972-2004), told me that former Gov. Mike O'Callaghan (D, 1971-79) "lived to see his two greatest achievements undone by his successors."

Those accomplishments improved the lot of the mentally ill and the injured worker.

Their deprivation continues.

Where has the National Rifle Association been?

Since they apparently know that psychiatric care is the one effective preventative to gun violence, why haven't they been lobbying for better mental health care and funding?

Will we see the awesome NRA in Carson City next month making common cause with the politically weak social service lobbies?

Anybody taking bets?

Politicians only react to pressure.

My virgin voyage in clinging to the ledge came 40 years ago.

A couple of old lobbyists who had elected, corrupted and betrayed a lot of politicians gave me some timeless advice.

   1. Keep your own counsel — the modern version of "loose lips sink ships."

Now with most every lobbyist and lawmaker able to tweet from the john, backstabbing rumors spread at the speed of light.

  2. Never underestimate the power of being able to use people's names. This was uttered in the context of a powerful lawmaker who was also a news director and filed daily reports from his office.

He thus enjoyed had consummate clout. (Clout is the principal reason to support the return of a Reno-Sparks community TV station. See Barbwire.TV)

  3. When lining up votes, get legislators (and lobbyists) to say "you have my commitment" or statements to that effect.

Don't just say thanks after hearing weasel words like "I'll consider it" or "I really like that."

Push.

Politics does not reward the shy.

"Commit" means they have given their word.

Those who break commitments soon rue the day as their pet projects curiously die hard deaths.

So does 2013 offer any hope for education or the least among us?

Most probably not.

But I predict here's what you will see: Surprising and deadly serious challenges to both term limits and longtime union-busting laws, among many others.

And not necessarily from lawmakers.

Stay tuned to The Barbwire for more.

VOTE FOR THE LUCKY 13, the most powerful Nevadans of 2013. Send nominations to <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

Last year's rogues gallery will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

WEB EXTRAS

SUPPORT THE DONALD. Kudos for the kind words about Don Dondero (1920-2003) as we ramp up the campaign to install the photographic superstar in the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

LET'S GET IT ON. E-me to get on the Barbwire News bulletin list for information not filtered through corporate lenses.

I broke a bushel of major stories last year.

More soon.

Feliz año nuevo.

Be well. Raise hell.

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-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...

John F. Kennedy's 2013 inaugural address
Excerpted from the original full text from 12-29-1991 (.pdf)
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-22-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune

JFK, Jr.: Hope dies hard and yet springs eternal
Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 7-25-1999

Your better life today had President Kennedy lived
Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 12-28-1997


We Don't Need No Education
The continuing series



...and more ammo...

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


Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest
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





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


NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac
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Copyright © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-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 the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
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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