Note from the Weekly mailroom: We've been so wrapped up in the Olypmics—Greece is lovely this time of year—that we forgot there is some election thingie going on. That is, until we TiVo'd the sizzling badminton competition so we could check the paper's in-box. Yowch! Many, many letters! It's like, Bush this, Kerry that, yap, yap, yap! You'd almost think this one mattered. (Not as much as beach volleyball!) So let's just run a quick selection of your political spew and call it a letters page—the four-man rowing is about to come on.
As a proud Las Vegas citizen and proud American, I am just sickened by the most recent attacks against Senator Kerry regarding his service in Vietnam.
Even further, I am sickened by the fact that the Swift Boat Veterans group is apparently being funded by deep pockets in the George Bush and Karl Rove support chest.
I sincerely hope that the local media here in Las Vegas do not drop the ball on this issue. As Las Vegans, we look to our media sources to seek right from wrong, and to expose duplicity when we see it.
I hope that President Bush does the right thing and apologize for the sickening advertisements that his supporters have funded.
These tactics may have worked in 2000 against Senator McCain, but they will not work again in 2004.
It is easy to understand why a conservative person would have voted for George W. Bush in 2000. It is also understandable and appropriate that we all rallied to the president in time of national crisis.
But has the existing atmosphere of permanent crisis forced conservatives to temper their convictions?
Do they really feel safer because we made getting Saddam more important than getting Osama?
Do they not question the wisdom of the war on Iraq, how it has been managed, or what it is now costing us, economically, politically and spiritually?
Was there no conservative angst over the handcuffing and stonewalling of the 9/11 Commission, whose very existence George Bush tried to prevent?
Do any conservative voters share the distress of Republican governors over the effect an un-funded No Child Left Behind Act is having on our schools and our children?
Do conservative voters care who really wrote and are profiting from Mr. Cheney's energy and environmental policies?
Do they realize who is and who is not benefiting from the Bush "tax relief," and condone the debt we are leaving our children?
Do they honestly believe that the American Dream is available to all of our children, even if health care is not?
Being conservative means you believe in traditional values.
Do the answers to these questions reflect traditional values?
The Bush campaign ads accuse Kerry of "flip-flopping"—purely on the basis that Kerry believed Bush and voted with him when Bush represented that he needed the backing of Congress to enforce the inspection program in Iraq, and that without a war resolution, Hussein would not permit the inspections. It's also true that Kerry voted against an $87 billion budget for Iraq.
We should backtrack a little. Congress originally approved Bush's $78.5 billion war and reconstruction budget. Time passed, during which billions of dollars of Iraqi oil revenue vanished without trace, and very little money was spent on sanitation, health or water in Iraq; Halliburton cannot account for billions of dollars worth of military equipment and has been accused of overcharging for everything from meals to gasoline, and the whole situation is deteriorating due to poor or nonexistent planning.
Bush then asked for an additional $87 billion. Realizing that taxpayers' money was either being flushed down the toilet or misused by Halliburton and other Bush-affiliated contractors, Kerry obviously balked at the idea of handing over more of our money.
I don't call that flip-flopping—I call it conscientious accountability.
It's no secret that in the last four years, the Bush administration has eliminated major protections designed to keep Americans safe at home and work.
George Bush is taking away the right to overtime pay from up to six million Americans, including nurses, cooks, clerical workers, and nursery-school teachers. [
Don't forget journalism middle-managers!—Ed.] George Bush allowed dirty power plants to expand without controlling their emissions. George Bush endangered pregnant workers when he stopped regulating exposure to the chemicals used in the manufacturing of semiconductors.
George Bush reduced protections for mine workers and eliminated rules to protect workers from tuberculosis. George Bush gutted health and safety protections in response to pressure from top donors and corporate lobbyists. For example, David Lauriski, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, removed protections for coal workers that he originally sought when he was serving as an executive of a mining company. Chemical industry executives donated more than $1.5 million to Bush's 2000 campaign and were rewarded with looser regulations that boosted corporate profits but put pregnant workers at greater risk.
I encourage everyone to get out and vote this year. Whatever your stance is on these issues, your vote does count and is important.
In December 2004, the nostalgic Trolley Stop Casino, on Third and Ogden, will open as the fabulous Celebrity Las Vegas, Downtown's first gay-oriented nightclub. After being refused a location at Neonopolis, both owner Don Troxel and general manager Dwight Key will offer Las Vegas a touch of class in the form of an alternative-lifestyle venue that's long over due in the Downtown area. The first architectural draft of the site can be seen at www.celebrityvegas.com.
I predict that Celebrity Las Vegas will be such a success, and draw so many tourists from the Fremont Street Experience, that they will be forced to copy Troxel's drag-bar idea and open gay oriented nightclubs for themselves, in order to compete.
Now that September 11, 2004, is upon us and numerous national warnings about the next terrorist attack have already been given (Las Vegas being a possible next target), I would like to point out just how vulnerable we in the Downtown area of Las Vegas really are (in fact, we're sitting ducks).
Below is a hypothetical account of a terrorist attack on the Fremont Street Experience:
Let's say that as soon as the light show starts, some maniac puts a remote-controlled explosive device in one or more of the one and a half-inch-thick concrete trash cans. During the light show, he steps out of range and out of sight and detonates the explosive(s), sending fragments of flying concrete for hundreds of feet in all directions.
The death toll would be in the hundreds and Fremont Street itself would be closed down for weeks while an investigation took place.
Note to the FBI: I said this was a hypothetical terrorist attack, so don't come after my ass if it really happens. It's not my fault; we're sitting ducks.
Editor's note: Another sensible reason to avoid the Fremont Street Experience.