Citizens of Pahrump will be treated to a free showing of Michael Moore’s new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.

Capitalism: A Love Story is a 2009 American documentary film directed, written by and starring Michael Moore. The film centers on the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and the recovery stimulus, while putting forward an indictment of the current economic order in the United States and capitalism in general.

Topics covered include Wall Street‘s “casino mentality”, for-profit prisons, Goldman Sachs‘ influence in Washington, DC, the poverty-level wages of many airline pilots, the large wave of home foreclosures, and the consequences of “runaway greed.”

The film also features a religious component where Moore examines whether or not capitalism is a sin and if Jesus would be a capitalist.

When and where is it showing for free in Pahrump?

The film runs for 127 minutes. I’ve seen it twice. I can tell you that if you are into politics at all you will find the film enlightening and it will hold your undivided attention. Be sure to go to the bathroom before the film starts.

A tip of my hat to Val Von Holt and Margery Kay Hanson for putting all this together.

Type:

Education – Workshop

Date:

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Time:

8:30am – 12:00pm

Location:

1210 S Valley View Blvd, STE 114

Description

The Nevada State Democratic Party and The Clark County Democratic Party invite you to a Fundraising and Communications Workshop. Whether you’re a candidate, an officer or activist in a club, caucus, or committee, please join us for this valuable FREE workshop featuring experts Amy Ayoub and Dan Hart.
WHEN: Saturday, March 20, 2010, 9 a.m. to noon. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m.
WHERE: NSDP Headquarters, Conference Room, 1210 S Valley Blvd, Suite 114, Las Vegas, NV 89102
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Political Fundraising: Success Secrets You Need to Know
It’s All About the Money
Successful fundraising can be the difference between a winning campaign and a losing effort. Here is your chance to learn the secrets of successful fundraising from Nevada’s top political fundraiser and certified World Class Speaking coach, Amy Ayoub. Since opening her firm in 1998, Ayoub’s proven techniques and strategies have raised more than $100 million for her political and charitable clients.
In this exclusive and one-of-a-kind forum, prospective Democratic candidates and their staff members will:
* Conquer the Fear of Asking for Money
* Learn the Secrets to Successful Call Time
* Master Proper Prospect Identification
* Discover When and How to Hold a Profitable Event
* Develop a Plan of Action
This workshop is designed for candidates, campaign staff and volunteers responsible for raising ANY amount of money.
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Ask and You Shall Receive
Are you overwhelmed at the thought of using internet-fundraising for your campaign?
Have you ever thought: I need the financial support of my friends and family but I don’t have enough hours in the day to call them. Would an email work? Where do I begin? I don’t even have a website.
Erica Norris, political fundraiser and marketing coach, will help you understand how to put the internet to work for you. You will learn to:
* Create an Engaging Website
* Build an Active Online Community
* 5 Steps to Successful Online Solicitations
—————————————————————
Communicating (On Your Terms) With the Political Press
When interacting with the press during political operations what you say and how you say it can make the difference between success and failure.
Join Dan Hart, well-known political operative and sought-after political commentator, as you learn how to face this challenge and turn it to your advantage.
You will become skilled at:
* Understanding the nature and motivations of press people
* Being consistently ON message
* Answering tough questions
* Handling a crisis
Please RSVP at rsvp@nvdems.com, and call 702-737-VOTE for more information.

Greetings,

On Saturday, April 10, 2010 the Nye County Democratic Party will be holding its Jefferson-Jackson Dinner at the Nevada Treasure Resort in Pahrump.  The evening begins at 7:00 pm.  Our speakers will be; Senator Harry Reid, Congresswomen Berkley and Titus, State Treasurer Marshall and State Controller Kim Wallin.  We will also have candidates for office speaking.

Tickets are:  $40.00 each/$70.00 per couple/$300.00 per table.  You may call me at 775-910-3494 to order tickets or you may send a check to:  1201 S. Hwy 160, Suite 105, Pahrump, NV 89048.  If you would like the tickets mailed to you, please enclose a SASE otherwise you may pick them up at the door. 

We need to get an accurate count for dinner for the caterer, so please contact me as soon as possible if you will be coming.

We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Kathleen L. Bienenstein,

Chair, Nye County Jefferson-Jackson Dinner Committee

Last Sunday I attended the Pahrump Town Hall Meeting at the Pahrump Nugget. Over 200 people attended, 50 of whom arose and spoke about the current health care system, the formation of that system being considered in Congress, or their personal experiences with the health care system.

Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign were invited to attend along with Congressman Dean Heller. Likewise invited were Congresswomen Shelly Berkley and Dina Titus though neither represents Pahrump. None attended or sent a representative. Only two of them even acknowledged their invitations.

Five chairs were set in front of the audience with their pictures appended to represent the Nevada’s Congressional Delegation.

A number of cameras recorded the event.

Dan Schinhofen, my fellow columnist in this newspaper, put the affair together. His idea, and a good one I thought, was to video the event and send copies of the video to each member of the Congressional Delegation. Since none of the Delegation had held their own Town Hall Meeting in Pahrump, or anywhere else in Nye County, residents of Pahrump was afforded no opportunity to discuss health care reform with any of their elected representatives in Congress. To his credit, Dan is seeing that the Delegation will hear from Pahrump whether they like it or not.

I doubt they will like it.

The reaction of the audience upon learning none of the elected Congressional members would attend or be represented by a member of their staff was negative. It was as though the audience felt they were being ignored. I could not escape the feeling that members of the audience can be expected to reciprocate by ignoring the Delegation on their next election day.

Having watched other Town Hall Meetings across the nation on TV I was not sure what to expect from the Pahrump audience. I was billed as being the Progressive liberal, Dan as the Conservative–opposite bookends of the political spectrum. And we are. We both were co-hosts of the event.

Though the event was not a political rally I could not help but scan the audience to see if I could identify any Democrats. Out of the 200+, I saw eight I could recognize.

The audience was well behaved. No banner waving, no orchestrated demonstrations. No AR15’s or handguns in view. As each spoke their allotted two minutes, the audience quietly and respectfully listened to each.

I saw the entire event as a classic example of grassroots democracy in action. The audience was attentive and engaged. I commend them for that.

The comments were a wide-ranging smorgasbord of views held by those that spoke. It displayed the intensity and seriousness with which they viewed the state of the current health care system and of their views of proposed reforms.

One man told of an experience with his wife who experienced cardiac emergency. He took her to Desert View hospital, learned there was no cardiologist to attend her. She had to be taken by helicopter to Desert Springs hospital in Las Vegas. He related the helicopter transport cost $16-18,000 and her stay at the Las Vegas cost another $26,000.

Two others shared their experiences in Canada’s health care system with ill loved ones in which they were told to take them home to die peacefully.

Distrust of government seemed to me to be the common theme throughout the audience. Fear of “socialized medicine,” intercession of government bureaucrats between patients and their doctors, inability of government to conduct any program successfully.

Only two of the number of bills wending their way through Congress were mentioned–HR 3200 and HR 676. Several speakers would refer to “the bill” without identifying which bill they were speaking. One of the problems, it seems to me to be prevalent, is that there has yet to be a single bill to arise for the public to address. There are several more, each from multiple Senate and House Committees. For example, the S 703 bill was not mentioned Sunday.

Until all the pending bills are digested into a single bill, it is almost impossible to evaluate the impact of health care reform.

The final item I would like to mention here is about the influence of special interest money on Congress’ treatment of healthcare reform.

I am nagged by the thought that perhaps one of the reasons, if not the reason, none of the Nevada Congressional Delegation appeared is that the actual constituents of the delegation is the health care insurance companies who feed so much money to members of Congress. Congress seems to be controlled and directed by those corporate interests, rather than ordinary citizens such as attended the Pahrump Town Hall Meeting. Perhaps that 200+ were forgotten the day after election.

Update: September 3, 2009. The Pahrump Valley Times stories about the Town Hall Meeting. Emotions vivid at health care forum and Obama proposal compared with Canadian health system.

Yesterday, August 24, the conservatives and progressives of Pahrump met outside the Town Office of Pahrump while the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met inside with Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo.

I was told that the conservative demonstrators outnumbered the progressives 3-1.

I didn’t see see any firearms nor fights. I could hear some loud arguing going on, but other than that there was no breach of the peace observed. I saw no cops. The two groups kept a respectable separation from each other.

The conservative group obviously doesn’t like Harry Reid or healthcare reform.

[Read more →]

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will be in Pahrump Monday, spokesman Justin Barasky announced this week.

Reid will meet with local officials, Barasky said, but disclosed only that he will meet with the Nye County Sheriff’s Department. Reid will be available for questions by the media for a halfhour Monday afternoon.

The senator’s office will also be hosting a conference call next Friday on health care reform. Nevadans who want to phone in their comments must first log onto http://reid.senate.gov/.

Reid’s office expects 50,000 Nevadans may call in to comment on the hotly-debated plan by the Obama administration. [Pahrump Valley Times]

Democrats are being asked to rally and demonstrate in support of Senator Reid and healthcare reform to counter the demonstrating Tea Baggers.

Prepare your signs to carry in support of Senator Reid and healthcare reform. Contact Margery Behrens at (775) 910-9159 or via e-mail at margerykaybehrens@msn.com and let her know you intend to participate in the counter-demonstration. You may want to wear an Obama T-shirt or other clothing showing your support for President Obama, Senator Reid and healthcare reform at the demonstration. It is recommended you be on your best behavior at the demonstration. Show the Tea Baggers you are mature, intelligent adults capable of expressing your support in a peaceable manner. Don’t forget some bottled water and a hat to ward off the sun.

Now is the time for all good Democrats to come to the aid of their party.

Show your support for a Clean Energy Plan

Let our elected officials know we need green jobs.

Host: Nevada State Democratic Party

Type: Meetings – Informational Meeting

Date: Monday, August 10, 2009

Time: 8:30am – 10:00am

Location: Steps of the Cox Pavilion of the UNLV campus

Street: UNLV campus at Tropicana and Swenson

City/Town: Las Vegas, NV

View Map

Email: kirsten@nvgreenvote.org

Description

Friends,

Last year, Americans voted overwhelmingly for change, including an energy policy for the 21st Century.

Members of Congress are working to jumpstart our economy and create new, green jobs in Nevada by passing a historic Clean Energy Plan. Unfortunately, big oil and gas companies are using scare tactics to stall this work and are organizing a protest Monday against any sensible reform to our nation’s outdated energy policy.

PLEASE JOIN US — Monday, August 10, at 8:30 a.m. on the steps of the Cox Pavilion of the UNLV campus — to let our elected officials know we need green jobs and a Clean Energy Plan now! It’s important that we show our support for a Clean Energy Plan.

Join other Nevadans to send a public “thank you” to Sen. Harry Reid for the work he is doing to support a Clean Energy Plan in Congress and call on other senators to vote in favor of jobs that can’t be exported overseas. Sen. Reid recognizes that we must harness Nevada’s vast solar, wind and geothermal energy potential to stabilize our energy costs and create much-needed jobs!

Free parking is available in the Cox Pavilion parking lot on the UNLV campus at Swenson and Tropicana. For more information, please go to www.rebuildnevada.org. To RSVP, please email kirsten@nvgreenvote.org.

The GOP is not letting any grass grow under it’s feet. It is busily identifying freshman and sophomore members of Congress it will target and seek to oust from their elected office. [Blue Jersey]

One of those targeted by the GOP is Representative Dina Titus who represents Nevada’s Congressional District #3. Titus isn’t alone, there are 70 on the targeted list. Republicans are working together in their grassroots organizations. The following statement from the GOP says:

Hi friends, Below you will find a list of 70 districts that the NRCC is targeting this cycle. As Chairman Sessions stated earlier this week at a pen and pad briefing, “There are people proactively coming to us. We are doing far less recruiting and more catching.” With that said we have the opportunity to focus on many more districts and some unusual districts that haven’t been targeted in a long time. We are very excited about our prospects in 2010 and look forward to having your support! If you have questions about a particular district please shoot me a note.

Here in Nye County, Nevada in Congressional District #2. The only grassroots endeavor I am aware of that is working to unseat Republican incumbent Dean Heller (ProjectVoteSmart) is the national Organizing for America organization. I’ve heard of no such local grassroot effort being mounted by the Nye County Democratic Party.

Cindy Trigg, a Democrat, in Northern Nevada had announced she was a candidate for District #2, but dropped out about a month later.

Paul Reeves, of Pahrump, announced he is a Democratic candidate for District #2 last Monday, August 3 at an event sponsored by the Pahrump Chapter of Democracy for America.

Jack Schofield, of Las Vegas, has indicated he is also a Democratic candidate for District #2, and is expected to publicly announce his candidacy soon.

So far as I know both Reeves and Schofield are running on their own without encouragement or assistance of the Nevada State Democratic Party or the Nye County or Clark County Democratic Parties. Nor have I heard of any recruitment efforts by the state or local Democratic organizations to find a competent, viable and electable candidate to run against Dean Heller.

Heller, being the incumbent, has the full GOP organization behind him. Makes it very lonely and difficult for a Democratic Candidate.