I Called Harry Reid's Office. AGAIN. Let's See How They Respond.

Did you see this today? I did... And I did something.

If Nancy Pelosi is willing to stop with the "Chicken Little" games and forge a game plan for finishing health care reform, then there's still hope. Now we just have to convince Harry Reid to ignore the naysayers and move forward.

At this point it seems the best option is for the House to pass what the Senate passed last month, then finish it off with both chambers of Congress moving forward with a reconciliation bill including things like the public option that most Americans want. Nancy Pelosi gets this, so we just need for Reid and Obama to get it as well.

I don't know what's in Obama's head right now, but judging from the phone call I just had with one of Reid's Las Vegas staffers he's open to it. The staffer was very friendly with me and appreciated my call of support and my urge for Reid to keep moving forward on health care, so long as he includes the public option and the Medicare buy-in, and uses reconciliation to do it if necessary.

So if you can, please call Harry Reid's office and tell them this:

Americans need real reform and access to affordable healthcare. We can move in the right direction with RECONCILIATION.

What can we pass through reconciliation? The public option. The Medicare expansion. The Medicaid expansion.

And what about the Senate bill as it currently stands? It might not pass the House because of the excise tax on Cadillac Plans, and over 190 House members are against this tax. It's why we need to PUSH for reconciliation to let Democrats know that we support it, and will back them to the hilt on real health care reform.

Let's wipe the grin off those Republicans' faces by showing them that Democrats CAN and WILL go for RECONCILIATION.

We'll deliver your message, loud and clear, to Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid in D.C.!

Harry Reid's Offices to Call

Carson City
600 East William Street, #302
Carson City, NV 89701
Phone: 775-882-7343 / Fax: 775-883-1980

Las Vegas
Lloyd D. George Building
333 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Suite 8016
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: 702-388-5020 / Fax: 702-388-5030

Reno
Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse and Federal Building
400 South Virginia Street, Suite 902
Reno, NV 89501
Phone: 775-686-5750 / Fax: 775-686-5757

Rural Nevada Outreach Contact
Matt Tuma
Phone: 775-686-5750 / Fax: 775-686-5757

Washington
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542 / Fax: 202-224-7327
Toll Free for Nevadans: 1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343) -Restricted to calls originating from area codes 775 and 702

The only thing I differ on is that the Senate bill doesn't need to be scrapped. The House can pass it, so long as a companion reconciliation bill with the public option and Medicare buy-in is done ASAP. Of course, I also wouldn't mind scrapping the Senate bill altogether if it means we'll only see good reforms (like the new insurance regulations and Medicare/Medicaid expansions) without the HMO & PhRMA bailouts. I'm just saying that as long as we either see health care done, done right, and done soon with things that people actually want, we can turn these lemons into good lemonade that people will appreciate. :-)

Corporate $tate$ of America? SCOTUS Opens the Door

Thanks, Supremes! Just when we need the big multinationals to finally take control of everything...

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.

The court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. The decision almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns and threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.

We're fucked. From Justice Stevens' dissent (full decision PDF here):

In the context of election to public office, the distinction between corporate and human speakers is significant.Although they make enormous contributions to our society,
corporations are not actually members of it. They cannot vote or run for office. Because they may be managed and controlled by nonresidents, their interests mayconflict in fundamental respects with the interests ofeligible voters. The financial resources, legal structure,and instrumental orientation of corporations raise legitimate concerns about their role in the electoral process. Our lawmakers have a compelling constitutional basis, if not also a democratic duty, to take measures designed to guard against the potentially deleterious effects of corporate spending in local and national races.

Wonderful. So the big corporate interests can stop pretending and just buy politicians outright? I guess this just means all the rest of the country will soon be looking like Nevada?

Yep, we're fucked. After all, who would want sensible clean money reforms when we can become a corporate aristocracy!

NV-Sen: Krook-licki Back In? Johnny Mac Wants Him Back In?

Oh, noezzz! Harry Reid must be crying in a corner over this... Perhaps crying because he's laughing so hard?

Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki is now strongly considering a run for the U.S. Senate this year against Sen. Harry Reid, he told the Sun today.

"There are serious people making compelling arguments to me both in the state and out of the state to reconsider the Harry Reid race, and based on that pressure and those conversations I am indeed looking at it," Krolicki said.

Republicans in Washington are displeased with the current crop of candidates taking on Reid, which includes former state Sen. Sue Lowden, former UNLV basketball star Danny Tarkanian and former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle. [...]

Krolicki said Sen. John McCain, whose Nevada presidential campaign he chaired, had reached out to him in the past week.

"It's hard not to consider this when you have people like John McCain asking you to," Krolicki said. [...]

If he is the preferred candidate of Republicans in Washington, he could see a quick cash infusion and pressure on other candidates to bow out.

Obviously, Republicans still don't get it. First off, the only way "Senator Centerfold" was able to snatch the MA-Sen election win was because he distanced himself from "the establishment". And come on, what could possibly be more "establishment" than John McCain and McCain Campaign Chair Brian Krook-licki?

And secondly, just because a judge of questionable repute dismisses the corruption case (while leaving the door wide open for a retrial with a stronger indictment) doesn't mean there's no corruption to be found. Oh yes, I'm sure Team Reid is (re)starting the oppo research should Krook-licki decide to jump back in this race... Which he still may not if wiser heads (the few left in the Nevada GOP) prevail.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the "conventional wisdom" is that Krook-licki has so much mojo and we're supposed to be running scared. YEAH. RIGHT! If this is the best the GOoPers have, then I'm not feeling too scared right now. As I said this morning, as long as Reid delivers the goods he'll be reelected.

And if GOoPers screw up by forsaking their "grassroots", ignoring their wishes, kicking other candidates out of what's supposed to be a fairly contested primary, and forcing Krook-licki upon them, it may backfire on them in ways they won't like in November. After all, Suzy Lowdown already knows an awful lot about that.

F-bleau: Well Ain't This Interesting, Carl Icahn Takes It After All

OK, back to the important news of the day. Carl Icahn is back, and he wants another Strip casino.

Carl Icahn is expected to take over ownership of the bankrupt Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort after two potential competitors vying to buy the property failed to submit qualifying bids as of a 5 p.m. deadline Friday.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami, where Fontainebleau filed for bankruptcy protection last year, is expected to conduct a hearing Jan. 27 to approve the sale of the Las Vegas Strip property to Icahn, who bid $156.2 million for it last year. [...]

Icahn could not be reached for comment. In a court filing, attorneys for Examiner Jeff Truitt said Truitt received two "submissions" for Fontainebleau on the bid deadline. The filing didn't identify the parties that made the submissions.

"However, for various reasons, including that neither of the submissions were accompanied by either the requisite deposit or satisfactory evidence of the financial ability to close a sale transaction, the examiner has determined that the submissions are not qualified bids," the court filing said. "Accordingly, the only qualified bid received by the examiner is the Icahn Nevada Gaming Acquisition LLC bid. Based on the foregoing and in accordance with the bidding procedures, there will be no auction for the assets."

San Francisco real estate investor Luke Brugnara is also trying to bid on F-bleau, but it doesn't look like the court wants him anywhere near this property. Lesson learned, kids... Don't come to a cash game begging for credit.

And what exactly will become of F-bleau once Icahn does take control as now expected? No one knows for sure, except everyone seems to agree this means the finished project most likely won't completely resemble what original developer Jeffrey Soffer had planned for it.



And not that long ago, Liz Benston read the tea leaves and offered a strong possibility for Fontainebleau's future.

With lower and middle classes flocking to Las Vegas during boom years, Stratosphere [Icahn's last big Vegas purchase] was in the right place at the right time.

Perhaps Icahn wants to create a mid-market resort out of Fontainebleau — a strategy that might appeal to bargain-hunting tourists soured on fancy hotels. The property might complement the nine casinos Icahn is acquiring as part of Tropicana Entertainment, which includes the MontBleu resort in Stateline, Tropicana Express in Laughlin and Tropicana resort in Atlantic City. (The Tropicana in Las Vegas, acquired by another buyer out of bankruptcy, wasn’t part of the deal.)

Or perhaps Icahn is bluffing.

In one sense, he has shown his hand. Icahn has gone where other investors have feared to tread — making a fortune on the business missteps of others. [...]

While $156 million sounds like a steal, it might still be too much for others — without Icahn’s knack for timing — to stomach.

This may make sense, as it seems The North Strip (or at least everything north of Wynncore) is destined (or doomed, depending on one's point of view) to remain a lower-end "Vegas experience". There's still a possibility Icahn may not do anything but let it rot a la Echelon for a couple year, but judging by Icahn's past Vegas moves it seems more likely he'll finish F-bleau, but not in the uber-high-end manner that Soffer and his Miami buddies had intended. Instead, he may spend less than the $1.5 billion that Penn National Gaming suggested was needed to finish the project (as Soffer had intended) and open F-bleau (Or is it "New Tropicana"? Or "Stardust Reborn"?) as a more mid-range or bargain casino.

Who knows? Maybe we're all wrong? Or maybe Carl Icahn has a few more tricks up his sleeve that he doesn't yet want to show us?

So What Really Happened Yesterday? And What Does This Mean for Nevada?

Let the "crystal ball visions" roll! Of course, Jon Ralston has to chime in:

So the president’s [approval] numbers here, by some measures, are significantly weaker than they are in Massachusetts, which means even bigger trouble for the Democrats. Add in what I have called the reverse symbiosis of the two Reids on the ticket and the potential vortex that creates for the entire Democratic slate, and it’s no wonder they feel like they are looking into a wave building as if they were on the deck of the Poseidon.

Yikes. So we're doomed. 2010 will make 1994 look like a gentle nudge? Not so fast, says this Daily Kos blogger who slipped a little "inside information" (his mom is a Boston "machine" operative) last night that puts Ralston's theory of "Obama = Political Poison" into doubt.

As the race went on, she (mom) asked around as to why she hadn't been called out to phone bank, check lists of registered voters, etc, for the campaign as usual. She was told "we're not backing anyone" by "someone on the committee" (she is not telling me what committee because this blogging thing is making her uneasy).

[Boston Mayor Tom] Menino never backed her publicly ("Don't name names!" says mom. "Everyone knows he's the mayor!" I say). He never backed her secretly either, the machine was not turned out for Coakley.

"Nobody likes her" says mom. What she means is, Coakley had no friends in politics. The Democrats in Massachusetts let this happen because - "I don't know" says mom.

Maybe they weren't about to let Western Mass manipulate them. Maybe it all comes down to nothing more than who is friends with whom.

All Scott Brown did was see an opportunity and turn it to his advantage.

There is no deeper national implication. This is not a death knell for the Democratic party or Obama. This is a story of a domestic spat between "parochial divisions" in Massachsetts.

The proverbial house divided among itself, fell.

Now this would be like... Like... Oh jeez, I guess this means I have to mention Titus v. Gibson 2006. No really, I can't think of a better comparison here.

So is it this simple? Was Massachusetts just plagued with a divided party? BTD at Talk Left says "not so fast", Obama can't be let off the hook.

I've said this forever - election[s] are first and foremost, a referendum on the governing party. A lot of people have spent they year whistling past the graveyard of poor polling by Dems, because the GOP polled even worse. I hope that form of denial is now dead and buried for good.

This referendum manifests itself in 3 ways - the motivation of Republican voters, the motivation of Democratic voters and the motivation of casual voters. In Presidential election years, the casual voters play a very important role in the referendum. In off year elections, much less so. the enthusiasm levels of Republican and Democratic voters is paramount.

Republican voters are extremely motivated. There is little Dems can do to stop this. That is why moving right for 2010 is a fool's errand. But Dems can motivate Dem voters - by fighting for Dem values. Will that be enough to stave off defeat in 2010? I do not know, but I know it is the only viable option that Dems have now.

So I guess BTD is concurring with what I said last night. While it may be true that "machine politicking" doomed Martha Coakley from the day she won the primary, there's no way we can just look at the MA-Sen race in a vacuum and avoid mentioning President Obama and national Democrats giving the base little reason to feel enthusiastic. But as I also said last night, there's still time to change course and give Democrats good reason to get out and vote.

Oh yes, and did I mention the Republicans aren't exactly looking perfect either?

Despite pledging to run positive campaigns, the two leading Republicans fighting for the chance to take on Sen. Harry Reid in November have turned their guns on each other, taking shots in a back-and-forth that portends an ugly primary season.

Danny Tarkanian, a lawyer and former UNLV basketball star, has launched a series of attacks on Sue Lowden, a former state senator and one-time chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party, in what’s shaping up as a fight for the title of true conservative.

She has responded in kind.

Political observers say the sniping could hurt the eventual Republican nominee because it represents the type of deep partisanship and political maneuvering that turns off independents, a critical bloc of voters that could determine the outcome of the general election.

Moreover, the fighting has a clear political beneficiary: Reid. While the Senate majority leader faces low approval ratings and trails in public opinion polls, a damaged and vulnerable Republican nominee could temper the political atmosphere.

As David Damore, a UNLV political scientist, put it: “This has to be sweet music to Harry Reid’s ears.”

Indeed, it is. And so is Ralston's final word.

I can think of no atmospherics here that help the Democrats — except one. The best thing the Democrats have going here is the Republican Party.

The GOP has no money, quirky (charitable description alert) leadership and internecine warfare. To wit:

The state Democratic Party raised $1.1 million last year — 10 times what the state GOP amassed. While Reid the Elder has a tight grip on the Democratic Party, GOP boss Chris Comfort appears as much enamored with his reflection in the mirror as with the prospect of victories in November. And the purity tests being imposed in many GOP primaries, including the one against Reid, also may have the Republicans sipping weak tea by November.

Some of this can be ameliorated by outside assistance — money, sane people. But if the Democrats hang on here in November, it may have less to do with what they were able to accomplish than what the Republicans here botched.

Mostly agreed... Except for that last part on lack of accomplishments. Again, there's still time for Democrats to fire up the base before it's too late. That was the mistake made in Massachusetts, and this is the mistake that we can avoid in Nevada.

So what happened? It was a combination of things. Massachusetts Democrats spent too much time infighting and not enough time organizing. Martha Coakley ran a lousy campaign. President Obama's "triangulating" and capitulating to the corporate right have demoralized the base. And if Nevada Democrats can learn these lessons, organize early & well, and work in Washington & Carson City to give us good reasons to get out and vote, we won't have to be afraid of November.

Earth to Harry Reid: Change. Course. NOW!

Yeah... Massachusetts just turned a little redder tonight. Ted Kennedy is rolling in his grave. Democrats blew it... AGAIN! All of a sudden, "hope" and "change" are getting lost in tea bags.

I'm sure Rahm Emmanuel and all the other lying, cheating, corporatist hacks that have turned President Obama's mandate into trash will try to make this teaching moment into a "let's strengthen the Blue Dog hand to make ourselves look more like Republicans!" moment, but that's absolutely WRONG.

Former Nevada Netroots Maven (and still one of my fave progressive bloggers) Taylor Marsh explained this perfectly over the weekend:

Obama and the Democrats are trying to cram through a health care bill that many feel will come back to haunt us all. Like JoeBeets, many other Democrats are against this action, but we’re being asked to hold our nose and support what’s going on, as if health care is the only problem with the current leadership. It isn’t.

There will always be a group of Democrats who will chide people who have had enough of Democratic promises on the altar of selling out, saying that more time is required, Republicans are worse. What these people ignore is that if you never say enough is enough it’s very unlikely you’ll ever get real change, because politicians only take you seriously when you make them hurt.

The “they have nowhere else to go” theory of Democratic Party allegiance is wrong on multiple levels. Starting with the reality that if people can’t tell Democratic politicians and their policies from what’s coming from the right, as Democrats sell out women’s civil rights, while ignoring equality for gays and lesbians, including when these people are willing to die for their country, then it makes little difference who’s in office anymore. Especially when Democrats are as cozy with Wall Street as Republicans.

To be taken seriously you have to play rough. [...] But I wouldn’t count on ["nose holding"] working beyond 2010.

And she's making some more good points now. And hey, doesn't Taylor make more sense than these idiots?



Oh yes, and props to what Digby says.

Ok. Eight or nine months ago the villagers were all saying that the Republicans were eating at each other and that it wasn't very smart. And the Republicans told them to go to hell, Fox News started the tea party movement and the right wing media in general launched what seemed like a lunatic campaign to demonize Barack Obama as a socialist. All that seems to be working pretty well for them at the moment, so [Politico hack Mike] Allen's admonishment doesn't make a lot of sense.

In fact, the only lesson to be learned is to not listen to anything the village media says. Ever. The Republicans learned that a long time ago. The Democrats need to learn it too.

If I could have a word with Harry Reid right now, I'd say this. Tomorrow is another day. There's no reason to worry about the early and faulty political obituaries now... If Democrats shape up NOW, stop giving into DLC/Blue Dog/corporatist bullshit, stop coddling Wall Street fat cats, and start working for we the people ASAP!

Get the damned health care bill done, then stop talking about any more corporate bailouts and start spending that TARP money on job creation. Stop bribing ConservaDems to vote for craptastic HMO/PhRMA bailouts and coal/oil/nuke/fossil fuel giveaways, and start reasserting majority rule to get real progress made on issues like health care and climate change that people still care about. And finally, just shut out whatever White House fools that have ruined President Obama's "political capital" and pay attention to Peter Daou.

The case by progressives that Democrats are undermining themselves with faux-bipartisanship and tepid policies gets much closer to the heart of the problem. I've written a number of posts arguing that it's all a matter of values and ethics. In essence: when you fail to govern based on a morally sound, well-articulated, solidly-grounded set of ideals, you look weak. All the legislative wins in the world won't change that. People gravitate to people who exude moral authority. The vast majority of voters lack the detailed policy knowledge that would enable them to make an accurate assessment of policy differences, but they do have a visceral sense of when a candidate or an elected official believes in something and fights for it. It's why campaigns are laden with moral arguments; politicians ask to be elected because they'll "do the right thing." The right thing in the current administration's case was to be the anti-Bush, nothing more, nothing less. The ethical antidote to a radical administration. It was both politically smart and morally right. And it worked wonders for Democrats as the entire subtext of the 2008 campaign. [...]

Progressive bloggers have been jumping up and down, yelling at their Democratic leaders that the path of compromise and pragmatism only goes so far. The limit is when you start compromising away your core values.

I sincerely hope that's the lesson learned today.

Will someone please forward this to Harry Reid and cc this to Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and whoever replaces that dumbass Tim Kaine at the DNC (please, fire him!)?

Today's Very Special Witnesses in the Prop H8 Trial

While the rest of us are following a special election way out east and ongoing political turbulence here in Nevada, something very interesting is going on in California. On Day 6 of the federal Prop H8 trial, witnesses being called to the stand will include UMass Economics Professor M.V. Lee Badgett and "de-gay-ification" survivor Ryan Kendall. Oh yeah, and this guy will also be testifying.



Yes, Jerry Sanders is the Mayor of San Diego. Yes, he's been elected as a Republican. And yes, he now supports marriage equality.

Karen Ocamb explains some more:

I confess, I had never really heard of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders until his name came up in conjunction with a city council resolution to have the city attorney file an amicus brief in support of the marriage equality case. I confess, too, that once I heard he was a major law enforcement Republican in that very conservative city, I didn’t hold out much hope for him agreeing to the brief – especially since he was up for re-election.

Slap my wrist and shame on me for stereotyping before investigating.

Jerry Sanders gave a news conference that surprised the hell out of the LGBT community – tearfully telling how he had to support marriage equality because he didn’t want anything less for his lesbian daughter and her girlfriend. We panted for that video which we re-played and re-played – some of us wondering with tears streaming down our faces – if our fathers would put their careers on the line to stand up for us.

He did put his career on the line and he did lose a great amount of support from his own political party, but he's gained the respect and admiration of so many equality activists who appreciate him coming around. It will be interesting at the very least to hear what he says on the stand.

Of course, it will also be interesting to hear Professor Badgett detail the legal and financial discrimination we LGBTQ folk still face without civil marriage equality, as well as Mr. Kendall to describe the emotional and physical torture he had to endure because of a few misguided people who thought they could "save" him by "changing" him. All in all, today looks to be a riveting day in the courtroom and I'll link to the coverage of the Prop H8 trial later today.

A Message from the President

I know I've disagreed with him at times, but he's right about today. The stakes are quite high, and health care is on the line. If you can take some time to call today, please do so.

Andrew --

Right now, the polls are open to elect a new senator to the seat that my friend Ted Kennedy held for 47 years.

The choice could not be more stark, and the result could not be of greater consequence -- for Massachusetts or the nation.

The Bay State can send progressive champion Martha Coakley to Washington to fight for everything we believe in -- health reform, getting all of our money back from Wall Street, and holding corporate interests accountable.

Or the Senate can get one more person already walking in lockstep with Washington Republicans.

The polls are still open, the choice has not been made, and you still have a crucial role to playby calling voters in Massachusetts. In a low-turnout special election like this one, every single voter counts.

Please call Massachusetts voters today.

Opponents of change and progress have been pouring money and resources into the Commonwealth -- they want to keep things just as they are.

The most important thing you can do to stand up to them is call voters and urge them to get out to vote for the leader we need representing Massachusetts.

In a race as close as this one, no matter how many voters you call, you could tip the balance.

So please make sure you do everything you can today. Click here to start calling voters in Massachusetts right away:

http://ma.barackobama.com/CallMA

If you were fired up in the last election, I need you more fired up in this election.

Thanks for everything you've done, and for your efforts in this final push,

President Barack Obama

Martin Luther King, Jr... Nearly 50 Years Later

Of course, we remember this...



But do we remember this?



Simon Balto explains this at LA Progressive.

King’s willingness to embrace changes and evolutions in his political and moral thought, the global lens through which he viewed the problems of the poor and oppressed, and the tenacity with which he inserted justice and morality into American political and social discourses serve as powerful, yet often overlooked, components of his legacy. Without question, the traditional rendering of King—the one that will be recalled this MLK Day in schools, churches, community forums and political rallies across the country—is important, poignant, and powerful.

Yet, at best, it’s only half the story, and it disingenuously smoothes the rough edges of both King’s politics and American social, political, and racial history. Today, when we commemorate King solely through lenses of national triumph and racial conciliation, and portray, for example, Barack Obama’s electoral success as the ultimate realization of the Reverend’s dream, we do so only by carefully selecting from both King’s personal and American national history.

In a modern context that devalues dissent and rubber-stamps it as unpatriotic and irrational, it’s important to remember that King wasn’t always considered the hero that we now commemorate, and much of that had to do with his contemporaries’ discomfort with his jarring criticisms of American society. In our reimaginings of 1960s America today, the collective forgetting of both the radical elements of King’s politics and society’s general animosity toward them is perhaps explained by the fact that many of those problems that he critiqued have only worsened since his murder; and if there’s one thing that most American political and social discourses don’t make much room for, it’s our national mistakes and flaws.

Though it’s easy to celebrate the accomplishments that King saw through to some sort of tangible completion, it is less comfortable to reckon with those that he couldn’t fix and that remain unrepaired. The wealth gap in the United States is more staggering than ever. The commitment of budgetary resources to military and defense spending dwarfs—and worse, robs from—spending on human welfare and social justice. The reactionary invasions leading to the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Iran? Pakistan? Yemen?) are proof of the persistence of militarist and imperialist American impulses. And despite claims of postracialism, we have plenty of daily reminders that racism still exists, even if, scientifically speaking, race does not.

Yep, yep, yep. It's easy to just embrace the contemporary caricature of MLK as a "civil rights icon", and just as easy to forget all of what this person and so many social justice activists of the movement were working for.

He spoke out against the war in Vietnam. He fought alongside union organizers. And of course, he paved the way for friends like Bayard Rustin to later build on earlier civil rights advances to push for LGBTQ equality.



And of course as we start this new decade, we have to ask just how much progress we've really made in the last 50 years. Sure, Barack Obama is now President. That isn't something to lightly dismiss. Still, there's so much that's yet to be done.

Racial inequality persists even to this day. Economic injustice still plagues this country. Discrimination against women and LGBTQ people still hurts us.

Yes, we've seen plenty of progress. However, there is also still so much work to be done.

So We Want "Economic Diversity" Now? How About Building the Infrastructure to Actually Make It Happen?

Wow. Just wow. So now they get it?

In trying to hash out the lessons learned from the collapse of the economy, 70 of Southern Nevada’s business leaders, academics and politicians returned to a suggestion that has been around for years: Diversify the local economy.

It was nowhere near a revelation. But during good times, it was easy to let the status quo continue, so the region relied heavily on gaming, tourism and growth-fueled industries such as construction and real estate. Having all the local economy’s eggs in one basket is the main reason Southern Nevada is in a deeper hole than the rest of the nation — and is expected to take longer to climb out.

So when the Lied Institute of Real Estate Studies at UNLV gathered the opinions and observations of community leaders for its “What Happened? What’s Next? Can We Hit the Reset Button?” report, one consensus was a hope that maybe things got bad enough this time that everyone would finally recognize that economic diversification is crucial.

The problem is that it will take more spending to get there. For one thing, economic diversification will require a greater investment in K-12 and higher education, says John Restrepo, principal of Restrepo Consulting Group, who gave presentations on the economy during the series of round-table discussions that were the basis for the report.

Why education? Because Las Vegas must do more to improve the quality of the workforce to get more businesses — and a greater variety of businesses — to set up shop here, Restrepo said.

Well, duh! Of course, we need a better public education system. We absolutely need economic diversification... But do these people really get it?

Somer Hollingsworth, president of the Nevada Development Authority, a nonprofit group that helps lure businesses to the region, agrees that more needs to be done to diversify the economy.

He said there has been little money to compete against states that provide incentives to lure companies and pay for marketing campaigns, thus getting the word out about advantages of moving to the state. Nevada could take advantage of tax woes in states such as California and New Jersey and possibly hire someone based in California to help lure companies, he said.

“You have got to put that message out there and let people know about it,” Hollingsworth said. “We have never put an emphasis on diversification (as a state).”

Oh yes, like I really trust these knuckleheads with a plan for economic diversification. Yeah, how did that "flash mob dance" on Hollywood Blvd. go?



When will they learn that we won't achieve economic stability until we build the kind of infrastructure that supports more than just the typical low-wage casino jobs, 24-hour call centers, and oversized garbage dumps? Thanks to an egregiously regressive tax structure, we can't properly fund basic services, like education, health care, and transportation, necessary to build a stable state that will lure more businesses to come and stay in Nevada. This regressive system that "soaks the poor", coddles the super-rich, and fails to adequately fund our government may have fueled the artificial "boom" that precariously propped up before it collapsed like a house of cards.

I'm sure our wonderful "Luv-Guv" won't like this, but someone needs to step forward, speak the truth, and present a real plan for real economic stability. And yes, this means starting with a sensible tax plan that gives our state the ability to properly fund the education, health care, and other public infrastructure that will make businesses want to move to Nevada. Just don't expect NDA to organize a "flash mob dance" in Hollywood for it.

MA-Sen: Stop the GOP Obstructionism. Save Health Care Reform. Make Ted Kennedy Proud... And Make Harry Reid's Job Easier!

Will Massachusetts really elect this crazy teabagger to the US Senate? To the seat formerly occupied by Teddy Kennedy?







Oh gawd, I hope not! And hey, there's something we can do in the next 36 hours to prevent this from happening.



So what are you waiting for? Call voters NOW!

You know this is what the extreme right teabagger crazies want to do to our own Harry Reid and Dina Titus. We know we'll have to work our hardest to protect them this year... And we can get a good head start by making sure Massachusetts stays blue this year.

Las Vegas: Then & Now

I thought you'd like a trip down Memory Lane... Especially if this Memory Lane happens to be our beloved Las Vegas Strip! :-D

Crazy Fun Video Night Open Thread Is BACK for 2010!!!!

OK, it's just been far too long since we last did this. Let the good times roll, bitchez! Tonight's YouTube gobs of fun were stolen from Everything Is Terrible and dlisted. :-D

LATE BREAKING: No Cameras Allowed for Prop H8 Federal Trial

Sorry, kids, that I've gotten to this story so late. It seems we've all been so consumed with the faux Harry Reid "nothingness scandal" that it's been hard to focus on the real news of the day. But anyway, the Prop H8 trial is underway in federal court. If successful, this will mean Prop H8 will be overturned and marriage equality will be restored in California... As well as in the rest of the country, as all the state level marriage bans will likely be overturned as well (including our Question 2) if Prop H8 is struck down!

So obviously, much is at stake. This is why there was a strong push to televise this trial. Judge Vaughn Walker ultimately ruled against televising the trial live, but instead issued his own "compromise" allowing for a delayed posting on YouTube...

However even this was too much for the pro-Prop H8 forces, so they even challenged this all the way to the US Supreme Court. And unfortunately, it looks like they've succeeded in preventing the public from seeing the Prop H8 trial for themselves. Karen Ocamb, the very distinguished journalist and blogger on all things LGBTQ, has more on this late breaking development.

But in the mean time, I'm frankly disappointed that the conservative majority on SCOTUS has disenfranchised the people yet again. However one feels on Prop H8 and marriage equality, it should be a given that the people have a right to know what our courts are doing about our civil rights. And without any type of video being allowed, it will be that much harder to do so.

Station Casinos: Rethinking Nightclub Concept, Fighting off Creditors' Law Suit... Still a Hot Mess

OK, so overall Vegas news is looking better these days. Casino winnings are rebounding off their lows. More visitors are returning. Both airline and auto travel are on the rise again.

So why is Station Casinos still in the sh*tter? Well for one, they're still in bankruptcy court... And the creditors are trying to start a law suit over the 2007 stock buyback sweetheart deal leveraged buyout that took the company private and consolidated power with the new generation of Fertittas running it.

Attorneys for two members of Las Vegas’ Fertitta family moved Tuesday to block a threatened creditors’ lawsuit in the Station Casinos Inc. bankruptcy case.

Attorneys for Station Chairman and Chief Executive Frank Fertitta III and his brother, Station shareholder Lorenzo Fertitta, filed court papers opposing a request by Station’s Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors that the committee be allowed to prosecute fraudulent transfer and other claims.

The committee is asking Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive in Reno for permission to pursue those claims against the Fertittas and their partner in the 2007 leveraged buyout of Station, Los Angeles investment company Colony Capital LLC. A Jan. 25 hearing is set on the request.

The unsecured creditors committee, which represents creditors including bondholders owed $2.3 billion, last month said 2007’s $8.8 billion buyout saddled the company with excessive debt, dooming the company to failure while enriching the Fertittas, insiders and merger bankers with hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for stock and buyout fees.

The creditors, with their claims of fraudulent transfers and breach of fiduciary duty, hope to recover the funds at issue from the Fertittas, Colony Capital and banks involved in the buyout.

Donde los yikes! And if that isn't bad enough, Deutsche Bank is joining with the creditors to try to block Station from paying almost $1 million in "advisory fees" (WSJ, subscription required)... Or is it "hush money" that was used to try to prevent those lenders from pursuing a full investigation?

No wonder why Station is in so much trouble. And if that isn't bad enough, their whole strategy to conquer the off-Strip nightlife scene looks to be blowing up in their faces.

Two nightclubs at Station Casinos properties have closed their doors for different reasons that officials are emphasizing have nothing to do with the company’s bankruptcy filing.

Cherry, the Red Rock Resort club that opened its doors when the property debuted in April 2006, and Stoney’s North Forty, a country music club at Santa Fe Station, are making way for new attractions.

Station spokeswoman Lori Nelson said a special nightlife entertainment division of the company is evaluating what would be developed in the Cherry space. The company already has announced that it is opening Revolver, a new bar and nightclub in the Stoney’s location at Santa Fe Station. [...]

“The two decisions (to close the nightclubs) were made for different reasons,” [Station spokesperson Lori] Nelson said. “Cherry simply reached the end of its life cycle and for Stoney’s, it was a mutual decision to part ways.”

Rande Gerber, owner and operator of the Midnight Oil chain of bars and lounges, developed Cherry. In early 2007, Station assumed control of the nightclub and brought in promoters and consultants to create nightlife events at the club.

Nightlife industry experts say Cherry operators attempted to cater to both locals and visitors off the Strip, but as Red Rock became predominantly a locals property, it lost market share.

“We are exploring new concepts for that space that will complement our other entertainment offerings that locals enjoy,” Nelson said.

No timeline has been set for developing a new attraction, but Nelson said the company is considering nightclub, ultralounge and bar concepts.

So this has nothing to do with Station's bankruptcy? Uh-huh, and I'm the most conservative Republican you'll ever meet. (That's supposed to be snark, bitchez!)

Really, this is just a part of the Fertitta's larger failure in letting hubris and greed get in the way of making good business decisions. Red Rock tried too hard to snatch the kinds of tourists that usually favor Hard Rock. Aliante cost way too much and was placed way too far away from the rest of civilization. Resort fees were piled too high, and other bilking schemes just turned off those locals and value-oriented tourists that were buttering the Fertittas' proverbial bread.

And of course, we can't forget that infamous 2007 leveraged buyout that may have temporarily enriched the Fertittas and their few lucky friends... But ultimately caused the downfall that's led to this disastrous bankruptcy brouhaha.

Basically, Station Casinos needs to do more than just rethink its nightlife ventures. It needs to rethink the entire way it does business... And fast, before Deutsche Bank, the unsecured creditors, Boyd Gaming, Isle of Capri, and/or someone else emerges like a vulture to gobble up the remains of a dead company.