Photo from Las Vegas Review-Journal
This morning, on my usual travel to work (cut short, because I had a fever today), I listened to the local right-wing station KXNT's morning show. The host, Alan Stock--who has engaged in a few online arguments with yours truly--was on a tear about comments made by Barack Obama regarding Las Vegas. The quote at issue, "You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime," was read on air by Stock. He was outraged, because there have been cancellations at the hotels by TARP recipients wishing to avoid bad press.
This sucks for Vegas business owners, I do not doubt that. And my business is dependent upon those same hotels. But Obama was right. And the key part of the sentence was "on the taxpayers' dime." Ordinarily, right-wingers are all about taxes, even dimes. But any chance to attack a Democrat, particularly the President, is usually seized by hosts like Stock.
Mayor Oscar Goodman has gotten in on the act, demanding an apology from the President. Which is a little over the top. As is the manner in which Goodman is portrayed on KXNT. Seldom is the distinction made between The Strip and Las Vegas when they feature "the happiest Mayor in the world." The Strip, you see, is not in Las Vegas, it is in Paradise Township.
A lot of people don't realize that when they visit Las Vegas, most do not venture into the city at all, unless they go downtown, or visit people who live there. Las Vegas' boundary line is at Sahara, and the city sits to the north and west of most of the popular "Las Vegas" hotels and casinos. It may be a small point, but I've often heard the on-air hosts of KXNT asking the Mayor questions about areas he has no jurisdiction over. And they Mayor doesn't seem anxious to correct them.
[Excerpt]
Las Vegas Mayor to Obama: 'Your Comments are Harmful' to the City
ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: In a two-page letter to President Obama, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman backed off statements made Tuesday that he would like an apology for comments made by the president earlier in the week about Las Vegas. . .
Read more at: ABC News
I remember Oscar Goodman when he was a criminal lawyer representing associates of the Mafia in the criminal courts, both state and Federal, of New Jersey and Philadelphia. Apparently Mr. Goodman still has trouble understanding the motives and intentions of people and of making sound judgments before he speaks.
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