Does Rory really need just one name?
To the editor:
Elvis! Liza! Engelbert! Cher! Madonna! Rory!
Rory? When did Clark County Commissioner and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rory Reid become a one-name star?
Of course, if my last name were Reid, I surely would be running from it this election year.
DANIEL S. MAXIME
Las Vegas
Group politics
To the editor:
Columns such as Jane Ann Morrison's Monday piece just annoy me ("Head of Asian American Group gets politicians' attention").
If Mike Vaswani was really about unity, like this column mentions several times, he wouldn't be advocating for special appointments and positions for various "minority" community members of the Asian-American persuasion. As soon as you start advocating for any such hypenated-American group, you send a message that this group is somehow more deserving of attention or consideration over another group. This is the mind-set of those who support affirmative action.
I thought we were all Americans, with common needs, goals and rights, who embrace the American culture through assimilation and hard work. Now that is unity. Nobody's nationality or culture should take precedence over another's.
It offends me that Rory Reid and Brian Sandoval are clamoring for the endorsement of this group, when they should be offering a message that appeals to all of us as Americans living in Nevada.
DIANA ORROCK
LAS VEGAS
Right-wing agenda
To the editor:
You've got to wonder at the motives of the Review-Journal editorial board. Is the idea to raise the curtain on a new generation of conservative Republicans in public office or simply to do everything possible to make the president look bad?
Considering the Jim Day illustration of President Obama as a peanut-head, which accompanied dinosaur Patrick Buchanan's unique criticism, -- "Though green shoots have appeared in the economy, Americans no longer believe it" -- and Publisher Sherman Frederick's protracted catalog of Mr. Obama shortcomings, one would guess the latter because there are no right-wing messiahs on the political horizon.
Mr. Frederick lists several specific failings, among them:
-- The economy. For what reason does Mr. Frederick not point out that most reputable economists believe that, without the stimulus, the recession would have evolved to a full-blown depression?
-- The Gulf oil spill. What exactly could have and can be done that hasn't already been attempted? If Mr. Frederick wants to play the blame game, he should begin with deregulation policies, near and dear to Republican hearts such as Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
-- Eating steak dinners and playing golf. Would the electorate, fickle by nature, be content if President Obama ate McDonald's burgers and went bowling instead?
-- Gitmo closing. Was the president aware at the time promises were made to close it, that there would be such stiff resistance to accepting reassigned prisoners in their state facilities?
And finally, the question of questions: Why is it that Mr. Frederick and other conservative voices are never heard criticizing the ongoing perpetual failures, astronomical costs, and deaths of U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is it because American voters believe that the missions there are just, or because they were authored by the darlings of the right, President Bush and his close adviser, Vice President Dick Cheney?
John Esperian
Las Vegas
GOP vitriol
To the editor:
I don't get to Las Vegas very often, but I was in town last weekend on business. I picked up the Review-Journal and was shocked by its anti-President Obama vitriol. Publisher Sherman Frederick in particular ("Incompetence catches Obama," Sunday) lashes out at the president with such a biased interpretation of contemporary events that one is left speechless.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal was fired because he didn't follow orders. He apparently didn't understand civilian control of the military, a critical principle in our democracy.
President Obama rose to the occasion with the BP oil spill and held this irresponsible foreign corporation responsible for the destruction of our Gulf coast.
And President Obama does occasionally eat steak and play golf, but he is on the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week working to intelligently solve problems (national and international) caused primarily by an irresponsible past conservative Republican administration.
I am pleased for Mr. Frederick and his family that his cancer problem is resolved. But he needs to be more thoughtful and less toxic as he thinks about what real leadership is. President Obama represents a way for us to get to the future without destroying our country and its institutions. He's being impeded by people such as Mr. Frederick.
Eugene T. Paslov
Carson City
Meter made
To the editor:
As reported in Tuesday's Review-Journal, Baltimore is the latest government to have seen the light and put a halt to unaffordable smart meter programs. But NV Energy is looking for approval to implement a $300 million project to replace Southern Nevada's electric meters. The main purpose: to help us monitor our power use.
Some of the cost will be paid for with federal stimulus money, but most of it will be charged to our electric bills. Two-hundred million dollars spread over a half-million homes works out to about $400 per household. I'll bet most of us would rather keep the $400 and adjust our own thermostats.
The stimulus money is a lousy trade, and the Public Utilities Commission needs to say no to this boondoggle.
Tom Keller
Henderson
