Sharron Angle’s Flip Flops

Created: July 8th, 2010 | Written By: Amy Adler

Flip flops are all the rage in summertime and I realize that it’s July and the height of flip flop season but the flip flopping being committed by Tea Party candidate for Senate Sharron Angle is outrageous. Yesterday during a stint on KXNT, a predominantly conservative talk radio station in Las Vegas, a caller asked “what she thought of the $20 Billion ‘Slush Fund’ and whether or not government should be able to do that to a private company.”

Angle’s response: “Well the short answer is no, government shouldn’t be doing that to a private company. And I think you named it. Clearly, it’s a slush fund.” She goes on to accuse the EPA of being a “taxing, fining agency” instead of a regulatory agency. Mind you, this is coming from a woman who posted on her primary campaign website that she wants to get rid of government regulatory agencies including the EPA. Unfortunately, the Angle campaign took down her most controversial/ hilarious views and is now threatening the Reid campaign with legal action if they bring up the content that was pulled from the site.

So which is it, Sharron? Are we regulating or deregulating? You can’t have it both ways. You yourself said that a gap in regulation led to BP committing criminal and unlawful acts, however if you get rid of the EPA and discourage regulation how can we prevent history from repeating itself?

Later, Angle retracted her characterization of the relief funds from BP as a “slush fund” on her website,

There’s been some confusion this morning regarding my position on BP and the oil spill.

Having had some time to think about it, the caller and I shouldn’t have used the term “slush fund”; that was incorrect.

My position is that the creation of this fund to compensate victims was an important first step– BP caused this disaster and they should pay for it. But there are multiple parties at fault here and there should be a thorough investigation. We need to look into the actions, (or inactions) of the Administration and why the regulatory agency in charge of oversight was asleep at the wheel while BP was cutting corners. Every party involved should be held fully accountable.

Sharron Angle’s flip flopping knows no bounds. In front of the loyal right-wing, Tea Party friendly media she feels as though she can take her radical views as far as she wants, but when faced with the gravity of her words in mixed company she backs away from them faster than LeBron James backed away from Cleveland (Run, LeBron! They’re pissed!). It’s evident from her online backtracking and retractions that Sharron Angle cannot stand by her words. Is this the kind of leadership that we want for Nevada?

The only flip flops I’m into this summer are the ones on my feet.

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Sharron’s Angle on Jobs

Created: July 2nd, 2010 | Written By: Amy Adler

Jobs. In 2010 you either have a few or none at all. We live in the recession era, people’s career fast tracks of 5 years ago are now dusty and abandoned dirt roads. The issue of employment is a sensitive one for the state of Nevada which according to the Wall Street Journal, surpassed Michigan to claim the number one spot in unemployment rate earlier last week with a whopping 14%. I graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas a year and some change ago and after a month of coming up empty on the job front I moved back home to the east coast. I was lucky, most Nevadans don’t have the luxury of leaving town to find employment and as long as the tourist industry is struggling under the weight of a fallen economy employment rates will not rebound for quite some time.

According to Sharron Angle our unemployment rate has nothing to do with industry slow down from the recession, but rather it’s because of unemployment benefits offered by the government, benefits that Senator Reid supported (dun dun DUN!). In a video posted by the Reid Campaign, Angle tells a reporter that the unemployment system has “spoiled” our citizens, that American’s don’t do jobs like cleaning toilets and washing dishes. I don’t know anyone who is unemployed and feeling “spoiled” at the moment. Unemployment benefits exist so that if an employee is terminated by no fault of their own they can receive enough assistance to survive until they are gainfully employed once more. If no benefits were in place, workers who were laid off would end up losing everything in a matter of weeks.

On another occasion, Angle expressly said that as Senator it would not be her job to create jobs in Nevada, that it was the duty of the Lieutenant Governor and other state officials to create a hospitable environment for businesses. So her idea is to get rid of unemployment benefits as well as commit to doing nothing to spur job growth within her own state… wait, what?

Let me get this straight: she blames Senator Reid for the high unemployment rate and the high foreclosure rate but yet says once she’s in office those things will be none of her concern. I’m not sure if that is a good course of action to take if you want to get elected to the US Senate. People want to hear that the person that they want to vote for is going to go to bat for them and protect them both from private industry AND the possibility of an overbearing government. People want ideas and solutions to their problems, not “Tough luck. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

When she was interviewed earlier this week on Jon Ralston’s Face to Face, Angle said “It is the job of the US Senator to create a climate that will be conducive for creating jobs which means lowering taxes and deregulation.” I think this perfectly encapsulates the one-track-mindedness of the tea party candidates in this election. The job of a US Senator is to represent their constituents in the halls of Congress. Their constituents have multifaceted concern, only a small percentage of those has to do with government regulation of private industry. Regulation isn’t the problem, it’s the solution. Private industry simply cannot be expected to act out of anything but concern for their own bottom line. If a company can save $1 per product they make by dumping a ton of toxic chemicals into the environment, they would do so in a heartbeat, without regard for the common good. Tea partiers have one and only concern and that is taxation/ government control. They don’t have ideas for issues like education or healthcare, they don’t even have a consistent ideology. The one thing that remains consistent is their opposition to all things progressive.

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Kentucky Round Up #1

Created: June 30th, 2010 | Written By: David Katz

This is going to be the first of what will hopefully be a weekly update and review of the 2010 Kentucky senate seat campaign. Being that I just recently started following the campaigns, I will be quite quick.

• Rand Paul launched a 24 hourish (the drive seemed to go closer to 30 hours) fundraiser drive called Moneyblast to coincide with the end of the political fiscal quarter.  His campaign claims that they broke over 138 000.
• Jack Conway has been quiet on twitter over the past week, while Rand Paul has cranked up the volume, tweeting more than 10 times about his Moneyblast
• Rand Paul sent out a rather cryptic tweet this morning, asking “where is Jack [Conway we assume]?? Stay Tuned…” it could be something interesting to watch
• Last week the Louisville-Courier Journal reported that Rand Paul basically made up is own ophthalmology organization.  While he claims to be a board certified ophthalmologist, apparently, what he didn’t say was that in fact he was the board.  A great story that made the Colbert Report

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Full Sharron Angle Interview

Created: June 29th, 2010 | Written By: David Katz

Here is the full interview of Sharron Angle on a local interview, it is a must watch. I am sure Amy will be writing a piece on this ASAP

EDIT
In the last 30 seconds of the second segment, Jon Ralston asked Angle if she supports a senate bill giving billions of dollars of government money to small businesses to encourage job growth. She said yes, than he told her it was a Harry Reid bill…

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Sharron Angle LOLZ

Created: June 18th, 2010 | Written By: Amy Adler

My spidey senses are tingling, the LOLZ are strong in this one. I have a feeling that this will be the first in a series of LOLZ from Sharron Angle.

Sharron Angle was plucked from obscurity 10 days ago when she defeated Sue Lowden in the Nevada Republican primary election for Senate. She will go head to head with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November. The information about Angle came gushing through the flood gates moments after she clinched her nomination. Her views on things such as Social Security and Prohibition (wait, that’s an issue?) are as archaic as they are disconnected and frightening.

This week, Angle held a “Retirement Party” for Senator Reid at Stoney’s in Las Vegas. There she was interviewed by Nathan Baca from KLAS Channel 8 News who asked her to elaborate on her views on Social Security reform. She answered along her talking points talking about “saving” Social Security by taking a free market approach. When the logic of putting Social Security into the stock market in light of the recent volatility Angle fired back at Baca, “Now, you’re putting words into my mouth from Harry Reid. I want you to be very clear on this. I’m here to save Social Security… Harry Reid is here to bankrupt Social Security.”

When pressed further on other issues that she enumerated on her own website, Angle turned and walked away from Baca. A campaign representative later called Baca an “idiot.”

I feel like I need to help the Angle campaign out a little on this one. Nathan Baca is what we call a “reporter,” which is defined as “a person employed to gather and report news, as for a newspaper, wire service, or television station.” A reporter may also be known as a “journalist.” An “idiot” is defined as an utterly foolish or senseless person. Baca is just doing his job, he’s doing a good job of it too. If you want this campaign to go well for you, you may want to distance yourself from being the second definition and be nicer to the first.

Til next time, I’ll be looking forward to more LOLZ.

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