President Barack Obama

Organizing for America (OFA) has officially landed in Nevada. Organizing for America is dedicated to forwarding President Obama’s agenda through grassroots action, and to creating a progressive, grassroots movement in the State of Nevada.

In order to best serve Nevada, OFA will visit cities throughout the state to re-engage and mobilize the grassroots movement in support of President Obama.

For Organizing for America to succeed, we need to hear from you – your effort and commitment are the backbone of this movement, and your input will help guide our action in Nevada. [Read more →]

The Nevada Active Conservatives of Las Vegas, a Meetup group, will protest against Nevada Senator Harry Reid today in Las Vegas.

There will be a protest against Sen. Harry Reid in front of the Caesar’s Palace Coliseum along South Las Vegas Blvd. [Read more →]

The Clark County Democratic Black Caucus is holding a meeting May 18, 2009 in Las Vegas. [Facebook]

You are invited to join members of the Clark County community to discuss the grassroots support of a City and County Diversity Plan empowering minority, women owned, and local small businesses. For years many in the community have been discussing the lack of diversity participation within our State. Therefore, a grassroots movement has begun. Community organizations, businesses, associations, and citizens are coming together to preview an award winning diversity “model” that includes the full participation of all citizens, creates jobs, training, mentoring/protege programs, small business development and reinvestment, while empowering community programs that provide much needed services. We want your input and suggestions to make this plan the best that it can be.

A note to our African-American brothers and sisters here in Nye County. You are welcome to join the Pahrump Valley Democratic Party Meetup. Look it over. It is a progressive group.

Just read a tweet from Paul Reeves which, in turn, provided me a link to the Sonoma Press Democrat in California.

Looks like Sonoma is far ahead of Nye County. Property owners in Sonoma County will be able to borrow money from their county government for energy-efficient improvements, the pay it back in installments on their tax bills over 20 years at 7% interest. The loans will be for things such as solar panels, double-paned windows voltaic units, solar thermal devices, tankless water heaters, attic and wall insulation. Water efficient technologies to conserve water (i.e., low-flush toilets) are also eligible.

Their program will create energy improvements, jobs and kick their economy into gear. People can apply for loans this coming Wednesday.

More than half of homeowners found it “motivating” to participate, along with an equal number of commercial property owners.

Property owners will also be eligible for additional rebates, as well as state or federal tax credits once they make the improvements.

The energy-saving measures are intended to help achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and cut water consumption during the drought.

Shouldn’t Nye County Commissioners be taking a look at the Sonoma County program?

More information is at www.sonomacountyenergy.org.

The Pahrump Valley Democratic Party Meetup will be celebrating it’s "One Year Birthday" on May 4th at 6:30 PM at Rubalcaba’s Taco Shop. The theme is "Cinco de Mayo" and there will be chips, dips, salsa, and lot’s of time to network and meet your fellow democrat’s.
A big THANK YOU to all the members that come out on a regular basis to support the Meetup and those that stay in-touch on-line. You won’t want to miss out on being the first to hear about the plans of the Nye County Democratic Central Committee and how you can help turn Nevada BLUE in 2010!
The momentum for change is building up speed and your help and participation is needed now! See you at the party!
(Please RSVP your intention to attend or not so that we can have enough food available for everyone.)

Paul Reeves, a resident of Pahrump, active member of the Pahrump Valley Democratic Party Meetup, has announced his candidacy for election to the House of Representatives from Nevada’s Congressional District #2.

You can learn about Reeves on the Democracy for America website. His biographical information on that site discloses the following:

Background:

I was born in Detroit, but my family was from small towns in Michigan. My father was in the military, so I grew up living and moving around the country. When I left home, I continued to be a wander, until I moved to Nevada and put down roots here.
I currently work behind the scenes on concert tours, which takes me around the country (and the world) working with union members and everyday Americans, building difficult and complex projects on tight schedule. I spend my free time on outdoor actives such hiking, photography, and sky diving, and as a volunteer and activist in local political issues.

Goals:

I am running, because I was asked to by members of my community. I was not looking for the job, but the job came looking for me. America no longer has time for “business as usual” in politics. There are too many critical issues that require long term solutions that need to be implemented now. Quick fixes are not acceptable any more.
So, my goals are to participate in creating long-term solutions for economic diversity and stability, banking regulation, energy efficiency and independence, global warming and climate change, and quality of life issues such as health care and education.

Issues:

The Economy, Energy, and Education. These three issues are intrinsically linked, and critical to both Nevada and the nation. Developing green jobs and alternative energy will put us firmly back in place as global leaders, but we need a strong and proactive educational system (from pre-school through grad school) to promote research into those high-tech fields and create a workforce that can fill those jobs.

Grassroots Support:

Grassroots organizing is a critical component of my campaign. This is a “bottom-up” effort that originated here in the local community. My selection as a candidate was based on my involvement in grassroots efforts both on local issues and the Obama campaign. Currently, we are building the campaign as a grassroots project: rather than relying only on the traditional campaign tools of public, speaking, and debate, we are training a network of volunteers to go out and act as activists in their communities.
This is starting now, in a campaign office run out of my home office until we have the funding for a proper one. The first big push will be to train volunteers to go out and educate others in their communities about available resources for mortgage assistance. Nevada leads the nation in both mortgage foreclosures and foreclosure assistance scams. Using the grassroots principles of networking, voter education, and providing access to good information will be a key strategy for working on this problem.
Many candidates makes promises about what they are going to do after they get elected — it is my intention to lead by example and take progressive action on important issues before I get the job.

DFA Values:

As mentioned above, the entire campaign is based on grassroots action. This really is a bottom-up effort. None of us are political professionals (yet), and we are putting this together in what little spare time we have between our day jobs.
As far as fiscal responsibility goes, we haven’t spent a single cent of anyone else’s money yet. Up to this point everything has been about activism and networking. When we do begin taking campaign contributions, we will be proactive about disclosing campaign finances and educating voters about the available resources to check on both myself and other political candidates.

Persons interested in Mr. Reeves campaign can access the Democracy for America site to learn more and add their support for his candidacy.

So far as I know the only other Democratic candidate or potential candidate for Congressional District #4 is Cindy Olivas Trigg. The Republican incumbent is Dean Heller.

Heller defeated University of Nevada Regent and Democratic candidate Jill Derby in last November’s general election by 5 percent [1]. Heller lost Washoe County, home to Reno and by far the largest county in the district (it casts more than 70 percent of the district’s vote). However, he won most of the rural areas of the district by margins of 2-to-1 or more, allowing him to win the district by 12,600 votes. Heller was almost certainly helped by the presence of Gibbons atop the ballot; Gibbons carried the 2nd by a landslide margin in his successful gubernatorial bid. [Wikipedia]

Nevada’s second Congressional District is geographically huge. The last Presidential election resulted in significant gains in Democratic voter registration gains on the Republican Party. According to the figures of the Nevada Secretary of State, the picture of “active” (active=people that actually vote) voter registration in District #2 is as follows, as of March 2009:

It is obvious that there are more people in District #2 registered as Republicans than as Democrats. In fact there are 22,522 more registered as Republicans than Democrats, and that doesn’t take into account the numbers registered in the remaining parties.

Any Democrat has a steep hill to climb to win an election in District #2. It will take a lot of money, time
, and support for a Democrat to succeed.

Indeed, it will take significant effort to win the Democratic Primary since Reeves will have to defeat Cindy Trigg to reach the General ballot. Neither will be able to gain the support of the Nevada State Democratic Party or any of the County Parties active support during the primary election since they are required to remain neutral until a Democratic nominee is selected in the Primary election.

I’m unaware that Dean Heller has any opposition within the Republican Party, thus he will get a free ride into the General election, meaning he has to spend no time, money or effort during the Primary phase of the election, while both Trigg and Reese.

It takes a lot of guts and stamina to run for an elective office, particularly in an area the size of Congressional District #2.

Photo: University of California, Berkley, Marian Diamond, a legendary lecturer. Kathrin Miller for TIME

This week’s Time magazine has an interesting article called Logging On to the Ivy League.

What is this all about?

Well, it seems that some in the education profession are using the Internet to provide educational lectures by esteemed persons from all over.

Ms. Diamond, pictured above, is just one of a host of others, whose video lectures are posted on line for all of us to to see and listen to. Go take a look at Academic Earth and see for yourself.

The subjects on Academic Earth include Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Religion.

These are true Ivy League Universities putting these things on the Internet. University of California-Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. According to Time it is all

part of a growing movement by academic institutions worldwide to open their once exclusive halls to all who want to peek inside. Whether you’d like to learn algebra from a mathematician at MIT, watch how to make crawfish étouffée from an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America or study blues guitar with a professor at Berklee College of Music, you can do it all in front of your computer, courtesy of other people’s money.

It isn’t just Academic Earth either. YouTube is doing the same sort of thing as well. Take a look at YouTube Edu. Run a search on YouTube Edu for any subject you like and you’ll likely find it covered. You can learn about Mathematics, Music, Cooking, etc all while sitting at your computer—and for free.

The possibilities of all this and the use of it presents a whole new view of educational thinking.

It is commonly known that Nevada doesn’t rate well, nationally, in it’s education stature. Nevada, in my view, is a cheapskate state. The people of Nevada wants to have tourists pay for Nevada’s needs rather than themselves. Witness the recent “Tea Party” celebrations.

And the hassle between Governor “No New Taxes” Gibbons and the Education community in Nevada about cutting the education budget even more.

Perhaps it would be fruitful to open up our minds and think about taking a whole new approach to education.

Why wouldn’t it be possible to present all college courses, Universities and Community Colleges, online so that students can attend class via their computers and participate in the classes via accompanying “chat rooms” or the like in asking questions and getting answers from their teachers, just like they would if they were personally present in the classroom? Imagine the money that would save Nevada, or all states of the union for that matter.

Think about how many more students could attend college then!

Even high school classes could be held the same way. Elementary grades are a possibility as well.

More than 170 schools offer content free to the public on Apple’s iTunes U, which originated in 2004 as a way for colleges to distribute content privately to their own students.

Even Columbia University is using iTunes for teachers.

Actually, education via the Internet is really global. Professor Diamond’s lectures and courses have been attended by students in England and Egypt. What if all the great Universities of the world were online? Wouldn’t that be something.

While I’m thinking about it why can’t other meetings be held online. For example Nye County Commissioner meetings, meetings of the Pahrump Town Board, the Nye County School Board, etc.

Why can’t the Nye County Democratic Party lead the way to these kinds of innovations. In fact they could hold their own monthly meetings online, don’t you think?

Please join us for our next monthly meeting. Apr 6 Mon 6:30 PM

Where? Rubalcaba’s Taco Shop – 270 Dahlia St Pahrump, NV 89048

A formal invitation is extended to all the candidates that willing ran for a leadership position on the Nye County Central Committee. Please come to the Meetup so that we can formally thank you.

Their willingness to be a candidate needs to be celebrated. All democrats, no matter how they describe their affiliation, are also encouraged to attend. Each and every one of us should extend our hand to these people and give our personal ‘THANKS’ for stepping forward.

Those individuals that will be honored are: Bonnie Swadling, Don Rust, David Bennett, Cynthia ‘CJ’ Ross, Fran Rust, Laurayne Murray, Brian Nelson, and Joyce Smith-Call.

We all owe you our commitment to help you in anyway to bring unity, strength, wisdom, fairness, and heart to the Nye County Democratic Central Committee of Nye County.

Election of a new Central Committee is just a beginning. What then? We’ll talk about that and any other subject those that attend want to address.

· How can lines of communication be established to achieve a dialogue between all 9,400+ Nye County Democrats and the new Central Committee?

· What steps are necessary to bring a united base together with a committed leadership?

· What should be done about establishing an ongoing program for funding our efforts?

· What steps should the new Central Committee take in securing "Precinct Captains" in each precinct in Nye County?

Tuesday, to me, means a new beginning and the casting off of past. The Change that Senator Obama has promised since the day he announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He has continued that theme of Change throughout his campaign and did so right here in Pahrump at Rosemary Clark Middle School.

Today I watched Meet the Press on NBC. The guests of the program, moderated by Dick Gregory, were Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff; NBC’s Tom Brokaw, The New York Times’ David Brooks, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, PBS’s Tavis Smiley and NBC’s Chuck Todd.

I was particularly impressed with the discussion of panel Gregory had today.

Ms. Goodwin sees this inauguration as a "moment of high drama":

Well, you know, the most important thing I think now is that all inaugurals have a certain emotion connected to them.  It’s a sacred renewal for our country.  You feel like America can change suddenly because there’s a new president there.  But this one has an even more special moment.  There’s the high drama of the fact that we’re in crises, so it’s one of those inaugurals that’s likely to be remembered.  There’s the fact that it’s the first African-American being elected as a president.

Which will be so much bigger even than I think we know, when that moment takes place.  And there’s the fact that he’s got literary capabilities.  Very few inaugurals are remembered when you think about the speeches, except for the terrible ones like Harding.  Mencken said they–it was so horrible that it was glorious.  So all those things together make it possible that this is going to be the most exciting in our memory.  JFK is exciting after the fact because of the literary moment and because of Camelot that, that came after it.  But I’m not sure at the moment that you had people all over the country, as is going to be happening here, in, in little living rooms, in diners, in bars watching this, taking the day as a sacred day.

By the way, you can read the inaugural speech of President Harding here.

Tom Brokaw sees it this way:

Well, I think more than anytime than I can remember in all the years I’ve been doing this, the country is paying attention.  The phrase I’ve been using, "The nerve endings of the country are exposed." And now, after the election and given the magnitude of the problems that we’re facing, even Republicans are cheering him on.  They want this to work and they’re willing to set aside, you know, a lot of what we’ve been through for the last eight years and beyond that in terms of the ideological food fights.  And they’re saying, "Look, we’ve got to get through this together." There is going to be some pain.  The economic conditions, the objective reality is they’re very, very difficult.  And you can’t even find a model that fits, in our lifetime, for what we’re facing now.  And what we’ve learned in the last four months, just when we think we’ve gotten to higher ground we go off the cliff again.  And I think that has meant for the country not just a crisis of confidence, but sheer terror on the lot of a lot of people, and with good reason.

Tavis Smiley said:

He (referring to Martin Luther King) would have been 80 to see the inauguration of the first African-American president.

And you can’t escape that.  What a, what a, what a 48-hour run it’s going to be, celebrating the person who I regard as the greatest American we’ve ever produced, my own assessment, Dr. King; and then Mr. Obama’s inauguration the next day.  There have been so many King-Obama comparisons as, as evidenced by your question.  I think, though, it’s important to state that Obama’s election is a down payment on King’s dream, it is not the fulfillment of King’s dream, and that’s a crucial, I think, and critical distinction we have to make.  A significant down payment to be sure, and King would certainly be celebrating this moment.  But the closest thing in King’s lifetime to this Obama moment was the election of the first black mayor of a major American city, Carl Stokes in Cleveland.  King went to Cleveland and, if I can paraphrase it this way, talked about this notion of black faces in high places.  And while that’s something to celebrate, there is work to be done and we have got to keep the focus on the issues.  And where Mr. Obama is concerned, while black America and all of America will certainly celebrate this, because King is, again, not just a black leader, he’s the best of what America is all about.

But while we celebrate this moment, we have to also, I think–back to Doris’ point, and what this speech is going to bring–I’m looking for how Mr. Obama’s going to challenge us to invest, to spend this, what I call an engagement dividend.  The public clearly has been engaged here.  How do we spend that dividend?  How do we use that surplus to advance the cause of America?  So I want to hear what he has to say about how all of us are going to be included in this progress, in this process of moving America forward.

Smiley’s reference to the inauguration of President Obama as being a "down payment" on Dr. King’s dream it seems to me as significant. I hadn’t thought of it that way before. I’ve certainly thought that the election of Obama as President was connected to King’s civil rights efforts. But I suspect Smiley is right. It is only a down payment, much more to be done lies ahead.

A clip of a comment President-elect Obama made yesterday was played in which he said:

While our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not.  What’s required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed.  What’s required is a new Declaration of Independence not just in our nation, but in our own lives; independence from ideology and small thinking, independence from prejudice and bigotry, independence from selfishness, an appeal not to our easy instincts, but to o
ur better angels.

David Brooks, a conservative, was circumspect when he was asked by Gregory, "What is this moment about?":

In 1961 there was a book written by Daniel Bell called "The End of Ideology," we’re going to move beyond the brutalizing politics of the ’50s, McCarthy era and all that.

And it was, it was a very popular book.  Then the ’60s happened, we had 30 years of ideology, of pulverizing politics.  Barack Obama, born in 1961, I think really sees himself moving beyond the politics that really grabbed this in the ’60s and never let go.  And the way that plays out practically is a stimulus package that’s going to run up the deficit in the next couple of years, but then in 2010 I think he’s seriously committed to tackling entitlement reform:  Medicare, Social Security.  That’s where we all sacrifice.  The pension benefits, the health care benefits, we are going to have to sacrifice.  And if he can do that, if he can put the country on a fiscal balance after the current explosion, then he really will be a great president.  And I think he’s already thinking in that arc.

Tavis Smiley observed:

But I want, I want to go to Doris’ point here about, about Lincoln.  I don’t know if–you’re the historian, not me, you may disagree with this.  But in my study of history, great presidents aren’t born, great presidents are made.  I want, as we all do–to Tom’s point earlier about even Republicans cheering for Mr. Obama to succeed; 58 percent of Republicans, David, who supported McCain, are–want Obama to do well, and they’re, they’re excited about what, what this, what this next four years will mean.  So the country wants him to do well.  That said, while we want him to be a great president–and Doris makes it very clear he has all the requisite talent to become a great president–because they’re made and not born, presidents, I think, have to be pushed into their greatness.

…There’s got to be a Frederick Douglass in this equation if you’re going to have an Abraham Lincoln.  And if Obama is going to be a great president, he’s got to be pushed, held accountable, supported.  We can’t abandon our post now…

Throughout the Meet the Press program I kept thinking about what Obama has said repeatedly. He won’t be able to effect the Change we all want without our help. He has emphasized that need for ordinary Americans to help him. He didn’t ask for just Democrats, or Republicans, or just Caucasians, Blacks, Asians, Indians to help him. He asked for all of us to help. He reiterated that "we" and "us" theme today when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial.

There is no greater power in the United States than the American people united together pushing for Change. As Obama indicated no obstacle can prevent that Change when millions of voices call for it and insist upon it.

That brings me to the reason why I even make this blog posting. We, here in Pahrump and Nye County, need to help Obama succeed. We cannot ignore his call for our assistance.

One of the ways we can come together and join in that "crusade" that President Obama has initiated is to join up with the Pahrump Valley Democratic Meetup in an effort to "push" for and support the change, as Smiley noted. We must be accountable too. We each owe it to our descendants.