Yes, we are paraphrasing just a bit in that headline. In fact, there was no comma in the original line from the attorney general’s office between the phrase “get out” and “bitches.” We take editorial license sometimes.

Anyway, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, apparently fed up with every other district attorney in Nevada basically disregarding her opinion that Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury and a host of other elected officials have hit term limits adopted in 1996, has asked the state Supreme Court to resolve the issue.

We’re glad: It was destined to end up there anyway, and Cortez Masto’s move just speeds the process. Now we’ll see if the high court interprets term limits or, as it should, strikes them down entirely on constitutional grounds.

Here’s Madam AG’s news release on the subject:

ATTORNEY GENERAL MASTO PETITIONS SUPREME COURT IN TERM LIMIT CHALLENGES

Carson City, NV - Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto today petitioned the Nevada Supreme Court in an effort to resolve the term limit challenges facing many candidates for public office throughout the state.

In 1996, Nevadans approved a constitutional amendment limiting the terms of service for certain public officers to twelve years.

Article 15, Section 3 of the Nevada Constitution states, “No person may be elected to any state office or local governing body who has served in that office, or at the expiration of his current term if he is so serving will have served, 12 years or more, unless the permissible number of terms or duration of service is otherwise specified in this Constitution.”

“The will of the voters is clear from the results of two general elections,” Attorney General Masto wrote in her brief.

“The voters added term limits to Nevada’s Constitution to restrict the service of officials to twelve years.  While the service of Nevada’s devoted officials must be applauded, the voters’ will must be faithfully enforced.

The candidates and the voters who may elect them need to know with certainty that candidates will not be barred by the Constitution from serving additional terms of service,” Masto wrote.

The formal filing with the Supreme Court today was an Emergency Petition for Writ of Mandamus on behalf of Secretary of State Ross Miller compelling respondents Dan Burk, Registrar of Voters for Washoe County; Harvard L. Lomax, Registrar of Voters for Clark County; and Kelly G. Helton, Churchill County Clerk to perform their ministerial duty by excluding from their respective ballots the names of certain candidates who are precluded by the Nevada Constitution from serving additional terms of service.

In an affidavit submitted with the court filing, Secretary of State Miller stated that the ballots for the primary and general elections must be prepared in a sufficient amount of time prior to the election dates of August 12, 2008, and November 4, 2008, in order to have the ballots finalized for the voting machines and for the mailing of absentee and sample ballots.

They’re not going down without a fight! Bob “Sheldon Adelson” Seale and Steve “Las Vegas Sands Inc.” Martin have announced they’re appealing Secretary of State Ross Miller’s ruling, which can be summed up thusly: If you don’t follow the rules, we’re not counting your stupid petitions. We are, of course, paraphrasing for brevity’s sake.

One side benefit to the ruling is that the monumentally bad idea of siphoning off room tax money from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and giving it to education, or education, roads and public safety, may not happen. (Ditto with the move to require a two-thirds vote to raise taxes proposed by initiatives.)

The LVCVA idea is simply a pet project of Sheldon Adelson, the owner of the Venetian and the Sands Convention Center who wants to cause his government competitors a little pain by stealing their money. The two-thirds idea is just a way to insulate casinos from ever getting taxed again, since that’s just about the only entity around that two-thirds of the voters would sock it to, given half a chance.

Here’s the news release, brought to you — like so many other wonderful things — by the Rogich Communications Group:

Seale and Martin Appeal Secretary of State’s Ruling on Number of Certified Signatures of Three Petitions

Former Constitutional Officers vow to fight Secretary’s harmful ruling

(Carson City, NV) – Today, former State Controller Steve Martin and former State Treasurer Bob Seale released the following statement in response to Secretary of State Ross Miller’s decision to side with special interests and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Nevada voters.  Democratic, Republican and Independent voters from all 17 Nevada counties exercised their constitutional right to petition their government, urging that we prioritize state spending, address our fiscal needs, and at the same time, make it more difficult to increase taxes on hardworking families.

“Once again, the Secretary of State has either demonstrated a complete ignorance of the law or a reckless disregard for Nevada voters.  Secretary Miller is paid by the taxpayers of Nevada to serve as our state’s top elections officer.  In that role, he oversees the petition process and therefore produces a specific guidebook for our citizens to follow if they wish to exercise their right to petition state government.  The citizens expect and deserve that the information they receive from their top elections officer to be accurate, trustworthy and lawful.  Unfortunately, Secretary Miller’s lack of competency has prevented him from faithfully performing the duties of the office that Nevada voters elected him to fill honestly, competently and fairly.

“The Secretary, even today, utilizes a guide for the citizens to petition their government that has two different forms and even gives two different dates in which signatures are due.  Instead of working for the people of this state, he continues to play a game of “guess which form”.  Secretary Miller and his staff are either utterly incompetent or intentionally plotting with special interests to stick it to the very people who elected him to serve.

Both Seale and Martin submitted a letter of appeal to the Secretary of State yesterday.  Both Martin and Seale vow to stand up for the people of this state who have made it clear that they want more funding for education, infrastructure and public safety and they want it without raising taxes.

Every available option will be considered to protect the people of this state from having one elected official and his favorite special interests count more than the will of Nevada voters.

Now, we’re not saying that Miller is competent or anything, but the ultimate guide to petitions is the constitution and the NRS, which you’d think somebody would check. Still, if the guidebook was wrong, and the petitioners relied on it to their detriment, wethinks there may be a case. Can’t wait to see what the state Supremes have to say.

We forgot on Monday to credit the Review-Journal’s Jane Ann Morrison for a legitimate scoop over the weekend: The city of Las Vegas, after first dismissing the concerns of historians that $3,600 markers implanted into Fremont Street were flat-ass wrong, has reversed course and fixed its mistake.

As Morrison notes, the plaques were replaced “quietly,” no doubt to keep the issue from surfacing again and sparking criticism. Like this. Or this.

It’s good that the city finally came clean, even if it did cost taxpayers $7,000. (That figure is suspicious, too, given the original plagues were $3,600 each, and three would cost more than $10,000….)

Anyway, at least we all know that the historical markers upon which we spill cheap booze from a plastic football will be accurate.

Former University Medical Center CEO Lacy Thomas — currently under indictment for steering lucrative no-work contracts to his Chicago pals to the tune of $10 million — is broke. How do we know he’s broke? Because he’s asking for money on — where else? — the Internet. Specifically at a blog titled ConsiderOurSource. Here’s a a plea attributed to Thomas on a post dated March 5:

A MESSAGE FROM LACY !!!!!

Thanks for agreeing to help in coming to my aid. The bank account is located at Bank of America (any branch) and the account is under the name Lacy Thomas (checks should be made payable to this name). I am so strapped for cash right now and I have to pay a bail bondsman over $50,000 in less than a month. I am asking (begging actually) that you solicit all you and I know to help me out.

I cannot begin to express how much I appreciate this. Let me know if you need anything else. I will keep you posted on progress. Hopefully, that won’t be me telling you that I had to surrender my freedom and go sit in jail.

If convicted, Thomas faces 10 to 70 years in prison.

Well, it looks like it’s all over for U.S. Sen. John Ensign. He’s quoted in the Review-Journal today talking about possibly running for vice chairman of the Republican conference, or maybe not running for anything at all, once his term as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee is over.

Of course, between then and now is one hell of a political  shellacking, as Democrats grab seats from their hapless, War Party colleagues, all on poor Ensign’s watch. Even Ensign admits it would be “a great night” if he only loses three or four seats. (Hint: He’s going to lose more than that.)
What happened to Ensign? How did he go from the well-tanned, well-coiffed, low-handicap rock star who was talked about as a potential vice president of the United States to … well, what he is today? This was the next Dan Quayle we were talking about here people, only admittedly with less charm.

Now, Ensign says he might run for the No. 2 conference spot? Or nothing? “I’m going to look at my options,” he moped to the R-J.

It’s really just sad. You know, can we get somebody to sit with Ensign for the next few days, somebody with nothing really important to do? How about Mike Slanker, the political guru who will lose big come November, but still get paid? We really don’t think Ensign should be by himself right now…

A colleague sent this our way, and we wanted to pass it on. Not only does it cut to the heart of the fable that Republican John McCain is a “moderate,” it also shows that it’s not just on war that McCain seeks to continue the legacy of George W. Bush.

Oh, before you go, one thing: Keep in mind that Bill Kristol, in addition to being a cheerleader for an unjust and unnecessary war, is also extremely sloppy with his facts.

Meet one of McCain’s new press people.

But, really, aren't all wedding cakes, well, you know?

First Massachusetts, then California, then New York … and now, Athens, the birthplace of, perhaps not coincidentally, democracy, wrestling and gayness. From a story today in the International Herald Tribune:

Defying threats of prosecution and mounting public wrath, the mayor of a remote Greek island Tuesday performed the first same-sex marriages in the country, wedding two men and two women.

The civil ceremonies, held at sunrise in the nondescript town hall of Tilos, a tiny island in the eastern Aegean, defied statements by a senior Greek prosecutor last week that such unions were illegal.

“It’s done now,” the mayor, Anastassios Aliferis, said in an interview by telephone. “The unions have been registered and the licenses have been issued. It’s a historic moment.”

Besides this little swatch of awesome, it also reminds me of an instant solution to the state budget crisis: Legalize gay marriage in Nevada, declare the Paris hotel-casino the new seat of state government, and watch the pink dollars make those economic woes disappear in a cloud of utter fabulosity.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama today gathered enough delegates to clinch the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, according to the Associated Press tally of delegates. And despite an earlier AP report that said rival U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton would concede the nomination this evening, a top Clinton campaign official says that’s not so.

And that makes us realize Clinton would have been the perfect candidate … in 2000.

Unlike ex-Vice President Al Gore, Clinton would never have given in when the Republicans did their best to screw up efforts to fully count all the votes in the disputed Florida election. She wouldn’t have given up despite recounts that showed Bush still winning. She’d have pushed to get every single vote counted.

And when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a halt to counting, unconscionably and blatantly turning its back on ever knowing the true outcome of the Florida vote and illegally awarding the election to George W. Bush, Clinton would still have not stopped fighting. She’d have petitioned for rehearing, demanding recounting, hell, she would have counted the ballots herself, one by one, until the bitter end.

Gore put the good of the country ahead of his own interests, although with that ruling, he didn’t really have much choice. But Clinton? She’d still be fighting, using every trick — clean and dirty — in the book.

We don’t know if she’ll suspend her campaign, endorse Obama, or what. We just wish she’d been running eight years ago, instead of now. Because we all know that the selection of Bush has led to economic inequality, violations of the Constitution and international agreements, degradation of the environment, and, worst of all, the deaths of more than 4,000 of our fellow citizens in an unjust and unnecessary war.

Change is nigh, unless the Democrats screw it up again.

Maybe we could have Gore speak to Clinton?