Freedom of expression.  Freedom of worship.  Freedom from want.  Freedom from fear.  Honest Government.

Elko County and the State of Nevada have become dynamic forces in the nation’s economy and have an opportunity to change the course of the nation.

The Elko County Democratic Party is committed to guaranteeing a good quality of life for everyone through programs that provide and protect adequate health care, adequate wages, clean air and water, and the preservation of an environment free of high-level nuclear waste. Democrats are concerned with the plight of seniors, educating and inspiring all people, and eradicating discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Democrats support programs that preserve the resources and economic growth of Elko County and other vast rural areas of Nevada.

We are the Elko County Democratic Party. The fight starts here.

Why does America rank first among industrialized countries in nuclear weapons capabilities and expenditures but ranks last in providing health insurance for all children?

Where did we go wrong?  Or is it wrong?

Nevada Democrats poised to help select next presidential nominee

The National Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee ecommended on Saturday, July 22, 2006 that Nevada be the second state in the nation to cast votes in the race for the next Democratic nominee, holding our statewide caucus just after the crucial Iowa caucus.

The full body of the Democratic National Committee voted on August 19 to award Nevada the second in the nation caucus to be held on January 19, 2008

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, was one of several Nevadans who made presentations to the DNC committee that recommended which states should hold an early caucus or early primary.

“Nevada has been a battleground state for some time, but nothing we have seen will rival the national spotlight to be shined on our state in next few years,” Horsford said.

“Nevada will now have a crucial vote in choosing our next Democratic presidential candidate. This means the Democrats vying to be our next president will debate the issues most important to Nevada and all of the West – such as water, immigration and planning for growth. Nevada Democrats can expect to shake hands with the people running for president and get to know their positions on the issues.

“We are honored to be among the first voters in the nation to choose the Democratic candidate who will lead our nation into a New Direction.”

Who ever heard of a nice piece of elephant??

The much anticipated report from The Iraq Study Group has been released. According to the New York Times:

Saying that “the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating,” a bipartisan commission today urged stepped-up diplomatic and political efforts to stabilize that country, coupled with a shift in the mission of the American military to allow the United States to “begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly.”This could allow all United States combat brigades “not necessary for force protection” to be out of Iraq by the first quarter of 2008, the Iraq Study Group’s report said.

The panel studying the war in Iraq presented its findings this morning to President Bush, who said he would take their ideas “very seriously” and act on them “in a timely fashion,” and then to Congressional leaders.

The report, by a 10-member commission headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d and former Representative Lee Hamilton of Indiana, urges a commitment by the United States to work with Iran, Syria and other nations to bring stability to the region.

“We do not recommend a stay-the-course solution,” Mr. Baker said pointedly at a question-answer session accompanying the report’s release. “In our opinion, that is no longer viable.” Those remarks were sure to be interpreted, at least by administration critics, as a rebuke to President Bush.

The Report echoes what the American people said last month when they went to the polls: It is time for a new direction in Iraq. It is the clear that the President must be willing to change the course, and not just “stay the course” when it comes to dealing with Iraq.

Governor Dean:

“In the past, President Bush and his Administration have refused to acknowledge the facts on the ground in Iraq and turned a deaf ear to the advice of our military leaders on the ground. Democrats have long been calling for many of the proposals made in this report, including a phased redeployment of our troops and placing more pressure on the Iraqi government to take responsibility for its own security. “”This report presents yet another opportunity for President Bush to change course in Iraq. The American people have made it clear and our brave troops deserve a new direction in Iraq. As the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, I hope that with the release of this report the President will take action to change course in Iraq.”

Yet, in the days before the report was released, the President had already dismissed what he anticipated to be a report contrary to his “stay the course” “strategy”:

“We’ll be in Iraq until the job is complete, at the request of a sovereign government elected by the people,'’ Bush said. “I know there is a lot of speculation that these reports mean that there is going to be some sort of graceful exit out of Iraq…This business about graceful exit just has no realism to it at all,'’ Bush said.

It’s comments like that which lead me to question the President’s idea of reality. And then, there’s Tony Snow, the President’s spokesperson, saying at a Press Briefing that the White House will “study” the study. Yet when asked the following question:

QUESTION: On the evaluation of the report, it says the following, the co-chairs say the following, stay the course is no longer viable, the current approach is not working. The situation is grave and deteriorating. Chairman Hamilton says he is not sure whether the situation can be turned around — Can this report be seen as anything other than a rejection of this president’s handling of the war?

His answer?

SNOW: Absolutely.

Absolutely? Sounds less like “studying” the report and more like the same old spin.

Our hopes and prayers are with Senator Tim Johnson and his family. We wish Senator Johnson a speedy recovery and the very best of well wishes for him and his family during this Holiday Season.

Get well soon Tim!!!!

The following is an open letter to the people of Elko County regarding the recent visit by President George W. Bush

Elko County has become a critical location within the realm of politics of late. Just within the last few months we have had a visit from former President Jimmy Carter, and now the sitting President, George W. Bush. These were not the first presidents to come to Elko County: William McKinley breezed through in 1901; Herbert Hoover made his final campaign broadcast as president from a railroad car in Elko 1932; President Roosevelt spoke in Carlin in 1938 during his whistle stop tour.

However, historical significance aside, the recent visit to Elko by President George W. Bush is a far cry from the whistle stop tours of old. The GOP is in trouble, and a desperate President Bush is now endeavoring to heal the fading GOP’s control of a “do nothing Congress,” one failed policy after another, and their continued dwindling support throughout the Country. Yet all we heard from President Bush on this trip was the same old rhetoric. Scare tactics that the “terrorists win and America loses” if Democrats were to take control of Congress, and his continued support for doing more of the same.

The facts are that the Bush Administration’s failed policies toward Iraq are causing serious consequences: The tragic death of 105 U.S. service men in Iraq during the month of October alone, at least 119 Iraqi Policemen killed during October, the reported deaths of approximately 655,000 * innocent Iraqi men, women and children since the start of the war, what the servicemen on the ground are calling an all out civil war, and no end in sight. But President Bush just proclaimed that the war in Iraq was going “fantastic!”

Still, while President Bush has “cut and run” from his “stay the course” verbiage, his sentiment remains the same. President Bush made it very clear in a speech just a few days ago that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who never served in the military) shall remain in control of his now sinking ship we call the Iraqi War for at least another two years, ignoring the pleas and cries for his replacement by even other Republicans and several retired Generals. Can our Country and our service men afford such a delusional act?

We, the Elko County Democratic Party say NO! No more needless deaths while we stay the course in a war that is not working and does not make sense. No - to privatizing your social security funds. No - to “no child left behind,” which doesn’t work and is destroying school systems throughout our Country. No - to ignoring our own Country’s border security. No - to the continued erosion of our civil rights. No – to the war on the middle class. No - to just more of the same.

We Elkonians are as patriotic as they come. We all believe in true moral and ethical values. We are intelligent individuals that can look at a situation and see when it’s not working. This Republican Party, and its administration, does not represent our values as a community.

A vote for John Ensign is a vote for blindly following this administration and their failed polices and a vote for MORE OF THE SAME.

A vote for Dean Heller is a vote for privatizing social security and a vote for MORE OF THE SAME.

A vote for Jim Gibbons is a vote for hypocrisy, questionable values and a vote for MORE OF THE SAME.

We don’t need more of the same… we need change.

Consider the fact that there are alternatives to more of the same. Our current Democratic candidates are good and honest individuals that truly live by, both in public and private life, our same Elkonian values. Like you, they believe that change is necessary. And, like Senator Harry Reid, who has served this community and this State faithfully for many years, they all will defend our way of life here in Elko, Nevada and also protect and defend our State and Country as a whole.

Vote for change. Vote Democratic.

Sincerely,

The Elko County Democratic Central Committee

www.elkocountydemocrats.org

* - Johns Hopkins/MIT study published in The Lancet International Journal of Medicine The Lancet is one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world.

The following is a letter to the Editor of the Elko Daily Free Press that was printed on December 27, 2006. It was entitled “Partisanship No. 1 obstacle“

I am writing in response to David Leahy’s December 7^th letter entitled “Democrats dividing our nation.” While I am certain that Mr. Leahy had the best of intentions, I am afraid he has fallen victim to the very divisional forces and misrepresentations of which he wrote. In fact, the hypocritical premises of this letter on so many fronts are so misguided from the bigger picture that I felt I had to write this retort.

I will be the first to admit that people in general can be flawed, for lack of a better term, in the supposed facts they embrace. To adapt a line from a movie that sums it up to a large degree: “Fifteen hundred years ago everyone knew the world was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago everyone knew the Earth was flat…” In 2000 we all knew we elected a fiscal conservative with George W. Bush. Four years ago most of America knew that invading Iraq was a good idea and that there would be weapons of mass destruction found. “Imagine what we’ll know tomorrow.”

Most of Mr. Leahy’s letter is so black and white and filled with such generalizations that it is almost laughable. And while I would personally fight to the death for Mr. Leahy to have the right to express his opinion and the right for the Free Press to print his opinion, it occurs to me that if no one speaks out against such opinions, the typed word of such rhetoric is actually taken to a large extent as truth.

The Democratic Party and its individual members, do not in any way hold the exclusive rights, nor have they in any way cornered the market, with regards to stating fiction. I truly believe that all people can misquote, mistakenly embrace an ill-fact, and in some case out right mislead. I certainly know that I have seen this on both sides of the political isle throughout my life. Our job as citizens is to not blindly embrace the facts of one party over the other, but to explore all evidence for the truth. I assure you that neither side has the exclusivity on it. As any divorce Judge can tell you there are indeed three sides to almost every issue – his side, her side, and then the truth… which always seems to be somewhere in the middle. This is no different.

Further, Mr. Leahy’s accusations that the Democrats stole any recent elections will undoubtedly brings back some horrible memories to many of Florida during the election of 2000, Ohio during 2004 and what many believed was a serious breach of American law and bordered on a Republican/Carl Rove conspiracy. However, rather than digress into similar rhetoric, let’s just call this what it is: Mr. Leahy’s letter is a partisan stab at embracing a nonexistent division of our nation.

The undisputable facts, Mr. Leahy, are these: Your letter does not “preach to the choir.” To preach to the choir is to infer that we all agree with you. We do not, sir. Elko County does indeed hold over 9000 registered active Republicans, but it also holds over 4000 registered active Democrats and over 4000 registered active Independents. I believe that many of them, from all the above stated parties, would disagree with you and perhaps take offense to your letter. I know I did.

Bi-partisanship should be Elko County’s road forward, not casting stones like sore losers. We Elkonians live in a Country that now holds an elected Congress and Senate that are controlled by the Democrats. This is not a nation divided at all. The country spoke VERY loudly as to what it wanted… and they got it. What Mr. Leahy needs to do now is to embrace his lemon tree and make lemonade. We, as a county, have such a wonderful opportunity here that it should not be ignored. Our Governor elect has strong ties to Elko and the Elko County Republican Party. The strongest Senator in the entire nation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has strong ties to Elko and the Elko County Democratic Party. What we should be doing as a community is pressuring our local parties to work together to bring home the proverbial bacon for Elko County.

We as Elkonians agree on more than we disagree. We all support our troops, even if some question the war. We all agree that the local mining companies are an asset to our community, even if some are also seeking a balance with the environment. . We all want our rights, our families and our way of life to be protected and ensured. The vast majority of the Elko County Democratic party are members of the NRA or gun supporters, so I would say that most of us agree on that issue. In this I believe I may be preaching to the choir: We all wish to see Elko County continue to prosper.

No, our great nation is not being divided by the Democrats; it is being divided by people from both parties who seek partisanship. I humbly submit for the reader’s consideration that we, as a community, call for unity and bi-partisanship among our national leaders as well as from our local parties. For if World history can teach us anything it is that more positive events happen if we all work together. As such, Elko County can grow stronger if we embrace all the assets of all our community and refrain from casting stones.

Kristian Forland
Elko

(AP Photo/Chad Lundquist – John Edwards holds and kisses 7 month old Aunia Rose Forland of Elko, Nevada)

We made the trip to Reno to listen to John Edwards. He was fantastic!! His intelligence, charisma and youthful energy oozed from every sentence he spoke. I liked him!

I spoke to him briefly after the the Town Hall meeting, and asked him if he would come to Elko and met the folks up here… he smiled that ever so charming John Edwards’ smile and looking me right in the eye and said that he would like that very much.
I know that I won’t be the first to say it, but he does remind you of JFK. He thinks, he says what he means, and he tells the truth, even when doing so may be seriously unpopular.

Regardless of the count of the Reno Gazette-Journal, there was easily 2000-2500 people in attendance. A great turn out for an event that all thought would draw only 500 people total!!!

The Reno Gazette-Journal said this:

ANJEANETTE DAMON
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 12/30/2006

Paying homage to Nevada’s new status as an early caucus state in the 2008 presidential race, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards challenged voters gathered in a Reno convention hall Friday to act now to change America.

Edwards echoed the message he has been delivering this week in a presidential kickoff tour of early primary states that his will be a “grass-roots campaign.”

“We will never change this country without you,” he said. “We want you to help us figure out what needs to be done in this country because there is so much that needs to be done. We cannot stay home and wait for the next election.”

Edwards is the first declared presidential candidate to visit Northern Nevada, managing to attract a holiday crowd of more than 1,000 people to his “townhall meeting” at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino.

After a short speech declaring his opposition to the Iraq war and calling on America to resume its position as a moral leader in the world, Edwards spent about 40 minutes answering questions from the audience.

Responding to questions, Edwards said:

· He would not sacrifice priorities such as universal health care, fighting poverty and reducing the country’s reliance on foreign oil for eliminating the national deficit.

· He supports allowing illegal immigrants “to earn their way to citizenship” after paying a fine and learning English.

· Same-sex couples in civil unions should enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples.

· He leans against implementing a gasoline tax as a way to curb reliance on foreign oil because it is a regressive tax that would burden the poor and middle class.

He also expressed regret for his vote in support of the Iraq war and said he rejects the idea of preemptive war.

Edwards, 53, is a former one-term senator from North Carolina who built personal wealth as a trial lawyer after growing up in a blue collar family in a tiny mill town.

Edwards comes to Nevada with a fairly established base of support. He is well known as Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s running mate in his failed 2004 bid for the presidency.

Edwards also has been courting the state’s significant labor union interests, visiting the state earlier this year to stump for the union-backed minimum wage increase initiative.

But Edwards’ past support of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository might hurt him in Nevada, analysts said. In 2002, Edwards voted in the Senate against Gov. Kenny Guinn’s attempt to veto the project.

In 2004, when Kerry campaigned heavily against the project, Edwards told U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley that he would defer to Kerry’s position on the project, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In explaining his Yucca Mountain votes to reporters after the event, Edwards came dangerously close to repeating Kerry’s fatal 2004 blunder of “I actually did vote for the $87 billion (for the Iraq War) before I voted against it.”

“You should know actually I had two votes on Yucca Mountain a long time ago,” Edwards said. “What happened was a I voted against Yucca Mountain, and then there was a second vote. And the second vote, we had an issue in North Carolina where they were going to start storing nuclear waste in North Carolina unless we had some other place for the nuclear waste.”

Edwards said the Yucca Mountain project doesn’t make sense from a “national perspective” and would not support the project if elected president.

Speaking to the crowd Edwards said: “In my view, and it is not a new position for me, but my view is that Yucca Mountain does not work. Period.”

Jane Grossman, a management consultant from Reno, left the rally with a new admiration for Edwards.

“I’m still leaning toward Barack Obama if he runs, but I’ve become a John Edwards fan,” she said. “I was very impressed. He was smart. He seems like he has a ton of integrity.”

Edwards’ visit is the first in what is expected to be a parade of 2008 presidential hopefuls to Northern Nevada. So far, Nevada’s status as an early caucus state has drawn candidates to campaign only in Clark County.

Edwards campaigned in Northern Nevada in October for state Sen. Dina Titus, as did Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

Some pundits have suggested candidates will pay scant attention to most of the state in order to focus on Clark County, home to 71 percent of registered Democrats.

But Democratic strategist Dan Hart of Las Vegas said concentrating solely on Clark County may prove to be a folly.

“If that is the conventional wisdom and everybody is going by that, then they will divide up those votes in Clark County,” Hart said. “That means Washoe is fertile ground.”

Many in the crowd were excited to don their new role as critical players in the presidential nomination process.

“It’s time for Nevada to have a spot on the national stage,” said Mary Harcinske, a Reno nurse.

While Senator Edwards may not be the Democratic pick to run for the White House, as only time can tell, I would have to say that I think if he is, he’ll do right by us and lead this Country in a far better direction that our current leader.

I drove home today to Elko mixing and matching possible presidential and vice-presidential candidates, and I do like John Edwards being in the mix….

I really look forward to meeting the rest of the candidates and seeing how they all come across and how I end up ranking them. It should be fun and interesting.