Live from Las Vegas

Is Hillary laying the foundations?

2005-01-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

Sen. Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives

Seems like a smart thing to do if you're planning to run for president. Wouldn't it be something if Hillary won the White House in 2008? Just think: in the space of 20 years, we could have a father/son presidency and a husband/wife presidency! I hope Hillary runs; I think she's more electable than Kerry, who might well pursue the nomination again. As a practical matter, if Hillary's in the White House, Bill will be too, so we'll get the best of their combined brainpower. If you liked the policies of the first Clinton administration, you're almost guaranteed to like the possibilities of a second Clinton administration. I would imagine that Chelsea will enter the political arena too someday. Or maybe not -- after seeing what her parents have gone through in the glare of the spotlight, maybe she has no interest. After all, if she stays out of politics, she'll be able to live very comfortably -- she's already making six figures -- and the press attention on her will fade over time.

13 women could have been spared

2005-01-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

Ohio Serial Rapist Given 68 Years

Robert Patton Jr. raped 37 women over 16 years.

Patton, 42, was arrested in June after a DNA sample that had been in storage for two and a half years was tested and entered into a database. The sample had been taken in 2001 when he was serving time for burglary and other offenses. Because of federal funding shortages, it was not immediately tested.
Thirteen women were attacked after the sample was collected but before it was catalogued in 2004.

13 women were victimized for no reason. Actually, there was a reason, just not a good one. The reason was that the Bush administration (and its allies in Congress) made it a priority to give billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, while neglecting to fund DNA testing to get violent criminals off the streets. God only knows how many other crimes have been committed in the last three years by people who would have been collared sooner if their DNA had been tested in a timely manner. How could the priorities of our national leaders be so misplaced? These are the people who claim to be so dedicated to keeping Americans safe?

Anti-abortion candidate for DNC chairman

2005-01-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

Anti-abortion Roemer joins race for top Dems job

Roemer lashes out in DNC chairman race

I don't think Tim Roemer should be excluded from consideration just because he's anti-abortion. We shouldn't send the message that pro-lifers are unwelcome in the Democratic Party. Hell, our Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, is pro-life.

Is military service a political liability?

2005-01-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

Mark Shields (one of the finest political columnists in America) made a striking point in his January 8 column:

The 2004 presidential election was the fourth in a row won by the candidate who had avoided serving in his generation's war when the loser, as a young man, had actually gone to serve in the theater of combat where Americans were dying.

A special kind of evil

2005-01-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Cambodia, Where Sex Traffickers Are King

Absolutely sickening. It amazes me that so many men around the world are so depraved that they'll violate a teenage girl. (Not that it's ever right to hire a prostitute, but it's especially despicable when the victim is so young.)

We need to do all we can to fight sex trafficking, and to fight the trade in hard drugs that supports it (by keeping prostitutes addicted and uniquely vulnerable). This is a moral imperative of the highest order. The abuse of women around the world is a disgrace for all humanity. Molestation of young boys, of course, is equally reprehensible.

Flood photos

2005-01-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

The pictures of the recent southern-Nevada flooding are terrible. The scene in Overton is hard to believe.

George Knapp on fair elections

2005-01-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

Election reform shouldn't be a partisan concern

An impressive column by Knapp, particularly seeing as how it's so ambitious: it veers from the Ukrainian elections to Washington to Ohio and finally back home to Nevada. I'm afraid that I expect voting shenanigans to continue, however. Democrats have little incentive to tamper with the voting process; they know that the more people who vote (and the more votes that are counted), the better they generally do. That leaves the Republicans...

Also in this week's Mercury: Geoff Schumacher delivers an entirely appropriate rant about Governor Guinn's proposed $300 payoff... I mean, tax rebate. I completely agree with Schumacher, even though I'm glad the Packers got whupped. The rebate proposal is manifestly unfair, a handout that overwhelmingly benefits those who are driving new cars and those well-heeled enough to have several vehicles. (See John L. Smith's Tuesday column for more on this.) The appropriate response would be to use the money to patch some of the many holes in state infrastructure and services, and then to scale back the parts of the last tax increase that produced this windfall.

Thoughts on some of today's Drudge Report stories

2005-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

AIDS Problem Growing in Russia

The worldwide AIDS situation just horrifies me. If we don't get a handle on the HIV epidemic (hopefully through a cure, or at least a vaccine), the consequences will be earth-shattering. Think of all the children who are growing up as orphans because of AIDS. These are going to be some seriously messed-up adults in twenty years. Already, we see all kinds of problems with children adopted from abroad. Many of these children were raised in orphanages without proper social interaction or mental stimulation, and they are permanently impaired as a result. Meanwhile, the U.S. government (at the behest of conservatives) refuses to fund or promote realistic family-planning and sex-education programs, here and around the world. I agree that abstinence and monogamy are the best solutions, but we need to face reality. The upheavals that AIDS could cause are shocking. We need to try and leave our children a better world.

Benign Nazi occupation?
Soccer fascism
The spirit of Hitler and Mussolini lives on. It's sickening that, after the death and devastation of World War II, there are still so many Europeans who are drawn to fascism. These people only worship one god: pure, brute force.

Harry, what were you thinking? He's an early contender for this year's bad-taste awards.

No justice for chickens The employees should have been prosecuted, even if the penalties were light and mostly symbolic. A message needs to be sent that animal cruelty is unacceptable, even in a slaughterhouse. What kind of sick freak gets off on torturing animals, anyway?

No WMD When the Iraq war began, I idly wondered if the CIA might secretly plant a stash of chemical weapons in Iraq for our troops to find (assuming that no genuine Iraqi WMD were found). Some cops allegedly carry "throwaway" guns to plant on dead suspects; I almost wondered if the CIA might manufacture some "throwaway WMD". I guess my imagination got a little carried away.

Don King says, "Show me the money" How the hell did Don King get off with just four years for beating a man to death? I'm amazed that anyone still does business with this man.

Promising signs in the Middle East

2005-01-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

Mahmoud Abbas' overwhelming election victory is an auspicious start to the post-Arafat era. (See also the USAToday story.) I'm also relieved to see that the Israeli disengagement plan is still on track.

Educated opinions

2005-01-09T17:35:00.000-08:00

Today's Las Vegas Sun opinion page is excellent. The pros and cons of the proposed auto-registration rebate are thoughtfully considered. The less-weighty subject that follows, discussing how gift cards lose value over time, is also worth reading. It's outrageous that companies penalize people for not redeeming their gift cards right away. What a scam! It absolutely should be illegal.

Am I a flaming liberal?

2005-01-09T16:37:00.000-08:00

Many conservatives would call me a liberal, and plenty of liberals would call me too conservative. That's a good sign, if you ask me, because on most issues, I think the truth is in the middle.

Here are some issues where I share some ground with conservatives:

1) Law and order -- I don't have much sympathy for criminals, especially violent ones. The people in society who play by the rules need to be protected from those in society who don't. I support severe penalties for predators who make decent people fear for their safety.

2) National defense -- I believe we need to analyze the kinds of missions we're likely to ask our military forces to perform, and then we need to obtain the equipment that will allow our troops to perform those missions with a minimum number of casualties. It sickens me to see American soldiers in Iraq dying because of a shortage of body armor and armored vehicles.

3) The value of work -- I believe we should adopt sweeping measures to get the homeless off the streets, to bring medical attention to the sick, and to provide treatment for the mentally ill. The purpose, though, is not simply humanitarian. I want America to have a healthy, well-educated, highly-skilled work force. I want to rehabilitate the down-and-out in order to enable them to be functioning, productive members of society. Otherwise, in the long run, we won't be able to compete with Europe, Japan, China and India.

4) Incentives for achievement -- As the years go by, more and more of our national wealth is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and it makes me worry about the future of this country. At the same time, I realize that, for most people, the desire for personal excellence is not a sufficient motivation to excel. In general, people need the lure of wealth, fancy possessions, prestige and status. I don't believe in a national program of "share and share alike". I think that a safety net should be provided, and that it's okay for government policies (e.g., the tax code) to broadly aim at some degree of redistribution of wealth. But inequities have always existed and will always exist. The United States needs to be a country where people can reasonably believe that if they work hard, work smart, and play by the rules, they'll get rich. Do I hope I'm rich someday? You bet! But I will never lose my empathy with the poor.

5) Tough love -- The safety net doesn't have to coddle the people at the bottom. When I say that even the poorest U.S. citizens should have shelter, I'm not talking about private apartments or homes. I'm thinking more along the lines of gymnasiums, or big tents, even. Someplace where the winter temperature won't drop below about 60 degrees, and where the summer temperature won't climb above, say, about 90. And when I say that they should be provided food, I'm definitely not talking about anything fancy. I'm talking about bread, corn, rice, and potatoes, with a fruit or vegetable every couple days. I'm talking about water to drink, with an occasional glass of milk or fruit juice. I think there should be communal showers so they can keep clean and at least rinse out their clothing. What I have in mind is, frankly, more spartan than most jails. But at least it would enable people to survive, so that a better day might come. Preventive health care should be emphasized to try to keep the indigent out of our emergency rooms. Job-training and back-to-work programs should be stressed heavily.

6) Religion in public life -- I think that the drive to secularize our society can easily go too far. We have historically been a religious nation. Religion can be honored without forcing a particular doctrine on people. I certainly think the words "under God" should be kept in the Pledge of Allegiance. (If a kid doesn't want to say those words, that's fine.) Also, I have no problem at all with communities putting up Nativity scenes in public places at Christmas time. There's no point trying to hide the reason why December 25 is a holiday.

7) Border control -- In this day and age, we need to know who's entering our country; not just from the south, but from the north, too. (Don't forget: the man who wanted to pull off the millennium bombings entered the U.S. from Canada.) With modern technology, it would be easier and cheaper than ever to secure our borders. Unfortunately, the political will is lacking, among both Republicans and Democrats.

Nevada's next first family?

2005-01-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

Dawn Gibbons considers run for Congress

In a couple years, Representative Jim Gibbons may very well be the Governor of Nevada. No surprise there. The surprise (to me at least) is that his wife might occupy his seat in the U.S. Congress!

Will we care for the mentally ill?

2005-01-08T15:16:00.000-08:00

Mental health agency seeks big budget

I hope they get every dollar of it. It would be a wise investment in southern Nevada's quality of life.

City addresses homeless problem

2005-01-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

City sets sights on housing for homeless

Hopefully, this new initiative will go well. The Las Vegas Rescue Mission (which my Dad helped found) is actively involved, which is a promising sign.

Car registration tax rebate

2005-01-08T14:53:00.000-08:00

Governor Kenny Guinn has apparently been won over to Bob Beers' idea for a car registration rebate.

Future Governor Titus brought up some good points, as usual:
State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said even if the state fills the rainy day fund and replaces missing federal monies, "you've got to do something for mental health and education in that budget." She also worried that "this little check doesn't divert people from the property tax cap, which is a bigger and more critical issue to solve."

Pundit for hire

2005-01-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

"The Bush administration paid pundit Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote its education policies to black audiences..."

You've got to be kidding me. How pathetic. Can you imagine the uproar if the Clinton administration had been caught channeling funds to Eleanor Clift or Margaret Carlson?

An amusing side note: Williams was a former aide to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

1/11/05:

Good for Steve Sebelius; he's all over this one in today's column, Question authority

Oscar Goodman's ethical woes

2005-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Steve Sebelius wrote a good column on Mayor Goodman in Thursday's R-J. It certainly does seem like the state Ethics Commission had an open-and-shut case. And amazingly, their finding last May didn't deter Goodman's son Ross from entering into another questionable deal.

1/14/05:
Goodman does have some very admirable qualities, however, as Sebelius acknowledges in the closing segment of this column.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid

2005-01-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

It certainly is interesting having one of Nevada's own as a top leader in the Democratic Party. One of our local newspapers, Las Vegas CityLife, ran a good article on Harry Reid this week, entitled "The art of compromise". They also ran a small article on Reid's son, County Commissioner Rory Reid.

Jewish control of the media?

2005-01-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

I just read an interesting article entitled "Jewish Media Stranglehold?" on the website of The Nation magazine. The article starts out by relating part of a conversation between President Nixon and Reverend Billy Graham found on Nixon's White House tapes:

Graham and Nixon are heard agreeing that left-wing Jews dominate the news media. The Reverend then warns: "The [Jewish media] stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain." He confides to Nixon that his Jewish acquaintances and colleagues--mentioning A.M. Rosenthal, then executive editor of the New York Times--don't know his true feelings.

"A lot of the Jews are great friends of mine, they swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I'm friendly with Israel," Graham tells Nixon. "But they don't know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country."

Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. offered this harsh assessment: "He (Graham) just showed that he was the pious hypocrite that we all knew that he was anyway."

Near the end of the article, however, is a quote from political columnist Walter Shapiro:

"This is in no way a defense of Billy Graham, but people in the Oval Office have a historic inability to say what they think, and agree with whatever the President of the United States is saying. That is something to bear in mind always in dealing with the Nixon tapes."

Historian Renata Adler adds:

"I think it's silly to take this private conversation and draw any conclusions--about the situation that year, about the anti-Semitism. Sometimes they mean it for ten seconds, sometimes they mean it for their whole life. The only significance is that Nixon and Graham didn't conduct their public life anti-Semitically."

I have always had a high opinion of Billy Graham, so, frankly, I welcome any informed opinion that lets him off the hook a little. Still, his remarks are dismaying. Anti-Semitism is something I just can't relate to. Partly because it's clearly ludicrous to denigrate an entire ethnic group, and partly because some of the finest human beings I've known have been Jews.

One small item in the article got my attention: Marvin Kalb (formerly of CBS) got on Nixon's enemies list, one result being that he was audited by the IRS every year. The same thing happened to my Dad (a onetime Republican Party county chairman) after he wrote a letter to Nixon objecting to the President's economic policies.

Why Kerry lost

2005-01-04T17:10:00.000-08:00

An article in Newsweek looks at what hurt Kerry, and at his chances in '08.

I think that if Hillary goes up against Kerry in the 2008 primaries, Kerry will have a very rough time winning the nomination again. I know it's awfully early to predict, but I think the '08 nomination is Clinton's if she wants it.

Here's an image from the 2004 Democratic convention that I hope will not be repeated in '08: Al Sharpton, standing directly behind Kerry on the podium as Kerry waved to the crowd following his acceptance speech. As Lawrence O'Donnell points out, the Democratic Party needs to distance itself from Sharpton. Acting as if Sharpton (a convicted tax cheat who appeared on a 1983 FBI videotape discussing a cocaine deal) is a realistic presidential aspirant is absolutely ridiculous.

Help wanted

2005-01-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

Great news! Jane Ann Morrison has found the perfect job for Nevada's many disgraced public "servants".

Tsunami

2005-01-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

A good column by John L. Smith today about the devastating tsunami in Asia.

Legalize the weed

2005-01-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

My opinion on legalization of marijuana is simple: Legalize it, regulate it, tax it (as heavily as tobacco, if not more so), and use the tax revenue to fund education and treatment programs for the real scourges: hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth and ecstasy. I hope the new marijuana initiative here in Nevada becomes law, and possession of up to an ounce is decriminalized.

Nevada Week in Review

2005-01-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

Watching the two year-end Nevada Week in Review shows, I was disappointed that Launce Rake and Kirsten Searer didn't get more time to voice their opinions. After all, we always get opportunities to read and hear the opinions of the other two NWR guests, Steve Sebelius and the ubiquitous Jon Ralston. Rake and Searer, though, are "just" reporters, so it's sort of a special treat to get to hear them offer their personal thoughts on issues. I think the Sun ought to pony up some dough and have each of them (especially Rake) write a column at least once a week.

I'm sorry to see that Sebelius' weekly column, Democracy In Peril, will no longer be found in the Las Vegas Mercury. It isn't entirely surprising; I've wondered sometimes how a free newspaper could afford two high-profile local columnists (Sebelius and the excellent George Knapp, who will - thankfully - remain). Now I know the answer: it can't. But at least we'll still have Sebelius in the RJ. He also periodically guest-hosts NWR, though he doesn't seem very comfortable adapting himself to Mitch Fox's format. (I think Emily Richmond of the Sun would be better suited to fill in.) In any case, when Mitch is off, he should hand the reins to a print journalist; we all see enough of TV journalists as it is.

When the Strip went dark

2005-01-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

The images of Strip hotels like the Flamingo and the Palms, dark for more than an hour at the dawn of the new year, are just eerie. That sure put a damper on the festivities.

Las Vegas: a short story

2005-01-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

John L. Smith's column from Sunday's R-J is an amusing synopsis of Vegas history.

It seems to me like the Vegas centennial should really be celebrated in 2011. After all, the city was incorporated in 1911; 1905 was just when the lots were auctioned off. I can't help but suspect that the centennial celebration has been bumped up because Oscar Mayor wants it to happen on his watch.

Nanny abuses baby

2005-01-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Saturday: Henderson nanny faces felony charges in shaking of baby

It's hard to comprehend how anyone could abuse an infant. There's no reason to get angry when a baby cries. After all, the only upsetting thing about a baby's cries is the fact that the baby's unhappy. I don't know how a baby could arouse any negative, hurtful instinct in a person. How could anyone not want to protect and care for a baby? They're the most precious of God's gifts in this world.