As Carlos Mencia might say: "Re-TARD-ed!!"
That’s what a Ralston Enterprises, LLC, Flushpoint was the other day. Ralston was giggling over a report in the Nevada Appeal about Assembly Bill 142. Among other provisions, the bill will require that Nevada lawmakers and lobbyists undergo ethics training.
Ralston goes apoplectic and pukes up the canard "ethics can’t be taught" as his main objection to the training.
Now, what the training will consist of is stuff like how to fill out campaign finance forms and guidance about what sort of gifts need to be reported. In other words, useful, practical stuff for legislative newbies. And all quite easily taught as is professional ethics training in all sorts of disciplines such as doctoring, lawyering, and, oh yes, journalism. Will the training make an evil legislator or lobbyist good? Probably not. Will it help men and women of good will deal with the gift reporting that the state of Nevada requires? Sure.
Don’t believe me? Then have a gander at the reasons why Craig Walton, chief sage of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, thinks ethics can be taught.
Sure, AB 142 has several flaws in it. But as the bill gets picked over, some reasonable version of ethics training should be preserved.
Quick, somebody sign up the Governor for a refresher! Uh. Oh. Too late.
And if you aren’t listening in to the meetings of the Assembly Elections, Procedures, Ethics, and Constitutional Amendments Committee or the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections then you’re missing the entertainment phenomenon of the season. No, not "Heroes"–I mean the Janine Hansen Show!
Perennial Independent American Party candidate and boss of the Nevada Chapter of Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum (don’t ask), Janine Hansen commutes to the Legislature from Elko on Tuesday and Thursday’s to comment on ethics legislation and laws affecting signature gathering. Mainly she says she favors the spirit of a piece of legislation but then claims it violates the first amendment somehow. One highlight took place after a long rant in the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee about how Mrs. Hansen had suffered political intimidation from her enemies. Chairperson Cegavske asked Mrs. Hansen if she had her CCW. For all you bleeding-heart, crime-lovin’ lefties, that’s a Carrying Concealed Weapons Permit, or more correctly, a Concealed Firearms Permit (CFP). Mrs. Hansen assured us that she did.
Via Blue Sagebrush we learn that Mrs. Hansen is actually thinking of becoming civilly disobedient over AB 142. Watch out Raggio, she’s packing!
Anyways, as long as the MSM keeps a twittering and a giggling about ethics reform, the only person who’ll be showing up to comment on the bills is Janine Hansen. You’d think that folks who rant about bundling and crappy campaign finance laws would be screaming on a daily basis for change.
But, what was I thinking! Ethics can’t be taught!–not to the LLCs over in the MSM at any rate.
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