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And she just said so on the House floor:
Mr. Speaker, I'm mad and I'm not going to take it anymore.
I've had enough of my colleagues bashing my district, my hometown, and the community I love, Las Vegas.
I've sat back as Las Vegas has been maligned, insulted, and lied about for the sole purpose of making political points.
I've been waiting for common sense to prevail. But I'm here to say that this nonsense, the bashing and lies about Las Vegas have got to end and they have got to end now.
It started with Senator McConnell's misguided attack on the stimulus bill by singling out a mob museum in Las Vegas as an earmark in the stimulus package.
There's only a couple of things wrong with that, there never was an earmark in the stimulus bill -- there are none -- and there certainly wasn’t one for a mob museum, there was never a mention of it in the stimulus package. The lies continue.
Then we found out about the Mag-lev train, countless republicans have misrepresented the $8 billion included in the stimulus bill as being an earmark for the Las Vegas-Anaheim Mag-lev route.
The only problem is even after it was pointed out that there is no earmark, that Las Vegas and California are going to have to compete with other projects, that this has been a project that's been in the works for 20 years and that it will bring thousands of visitors to the Las Vegas area and to the Southern California area, the lies continue.
The latest one was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. He repeated the lie in his televised response to the President's remarks to Congress, claiming the bill included funding for a magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disneyland.
And then it goes one worse. Trent franks just mentioned there's a Mag-lev going from Disneyland to the Moonlight Bunny brothel. Now I grew up in Las Vegas and I've never heard of the Moonlight Bunny brothel, but I guarantee the Mag-lev train is not going there.
The latest whipping boy is in the omnibus bill -- Sustainable Las Vegas.
Just yesterday, Senator McCain took to the floor of the Senate to attack sustainable Las Vegas. What does sustainable Las Vegas mean? He yelled. Let me enlighten the senator, it's a University of Nevada education and research program on energy supply, water supply and air quality issues that are very important for the desert southwest for cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix and Tucson. But he knows that.
So why is it different than the hundreds of other programs given out to other universities in the United States? Including universities in Arizona? Because it has Las Vegas in its name.
And let me tell you about my hometown of Las Vegas -- it's a community of families looking for a better life; it's a community of schools and churches and mosques, a community of small businesses, working people and beautiful hotels.
That brings me to the most egregious affront to Las Vegas. Stop bad mouthing Las Vegas and stop telling businesses and major companies to stay away from Vegas.
You are hurting our economy, you're forcing major layoffs of employees in the hotel industry. Hundreds-of-thousands of Nevadans depend on the tourism and convention business for their livelihood.
Las Vegas has long been a city where serious business is conducted, where small and large conventions can be accommodated. When it comes to business meetings, Las Vegas is the best city on the planet. You still get the best bang for your buck. Great hotels, great convention facilities, great restaurants, great transportation and a great price.
When you bad mouth Las Vegas, you are hurting our major industry, you're hurting your fellow citizens by taking away their livelihood. You are taking food out of their children's mouths.
Las Vegas is having a very tough time right now. High mortgage foreclosure rate, high unemployment, high bankruptcy rate. We are hurting. Every attack on Las Vegas by my colleagues is a knife in the heart of my city.
So I implore my colleagues, stop bashing Las Vegas. Find some other whipping boy. We've had enough, we're not going to take it anymore. I yield back the balance of my time.
"He repeated the lie in his televised response to the President's remarks to Congress, claiming the bill included funding for a magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disneyland."
The Sun staff needs to get on the same page on this one.
One day the Sun is talking about the "stimulus" funding for a Disneyland train and the next day it is calling people liars for saying the funding exist for a "stimulus" Disneyland train.
For example, a Sun writer wrote, "Similarly, the much-ridiculed $8 billion for high-speed rail that could help develop a proposed line between Las Vegas and Disneyland could bring additional jobs to the state."
I guess the Sun is calling itself a lair.
nance,
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar...
Joe
Nance, the Sun is a lair for hard-working reporters and editors. Perhaps you meant liar. Which isn't what the Sun said. And beyond that, this quoted a Shelley Berkley speech. The Sun didn't deliver the speech. Berkley did.
As for the whole idea of a "Disneyland train," that has been discussed and explained to death, but those who believe that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are the Revealed Word usually don't know what is really happening, anyway.
It is a lair of liars, perhaps.
Yes, the Sun has called people liars for essentially saying the same thing one of its is reporters wrote in a story.
I think they went overboard on pulling out the "liar" gun.
So I am cool that the "stimulus" bill had no such funds for the so-called Disneyland to Las Vegas train.
It just proves again why the all powerful Reid has failed Nevada again. We are ranked in the bottom of per capita of gettings tax dollars returned back to the state. We are ranked in the bottom of per capita of getting funds from the "stimulus" plan.
The all powerful Reid can not even get his pet project train in the bill...will sort of....depends on day of the week it is.
So, Nance, if he gets it in the bill, you and Sherm Frederick and other members of the hallelujah chorus will say it's pork, it's evil, Reid's evil, blah blah blah. If it isn't in the bill, then Reid can't deliver pork, Reid's evil, blah blah blah. If you want to attack or disagree with Reid, fine. But look in the mirror before you do.
I agree with the previous writer....Senator Reid has failed Nevada. Representative Berkley can get "mad" all she wants. Truth is her party is running this place into the ground. Really, who cares about her throwing a fit on the floor. If she really cared about us she and the great Senator Reid would govern responsibly. We need change alright, a change of representatives in Congress.
Dare I say, Michael, that Nance, Sherm & Co. want to have their pork and eat it too?
jfnance32, how did your conservative ideology do in the the '08 election? Who is your voice for the RNC now? Oxycotton Rush? Who is your voice for Nevada? Bankruptcy Muth?....No wonder why this country and State turned blue, your ideas are antiquated, like your party....when you speak, it is to a wall...good luck...lol
Go outside and play, bringtherain, the adults are talking here.
Carrie, glad you could join the conversation. Care to come off your high horse and add something to it?
I've said it before and I will say it again. Las Vegas is dust!! It's over! Las Vegas should be shuttered and forgotten about.
Las Vegas has produced so much evil over the years and it shows in it's police department to it's drunken mayor.
The greed that Las Vegas showed in helping the Indian tribes get casinos ruined it. Las Vegas should have fought the out of state gaming and should escort Mr. Wynn out of town for his Asian Adventures.
Don't blame Obama for what's happening here, blame the casino "brass" for their greed. Las Vegas was a great place at one time but with the home prices soaring and the point system that was put in place for the pit really hurt.
Las Vegas has or should I say, is "in the process" of committing suicide.
It's sad that when you go up to a bar in a casino to get a beer or cocktail the bartenders are all over you to "max bet". You know what? I don't always like to "max bet" and they make me feel uncomfortable. Sadly, the bartender doesn't get a tip more times than not because the casino took it.
I can justify losing $500 if I get a dinner for two and all my drinks compt. But I can't justify it anymore.
Good bye Las Vegas, you will be missed for a little while. Maybe just long enough to make me realize what a sad, sick place we live in.
Well, this town is a above ground cess-pool. Why should other states plunk down their hard earned money to provide for Nevada's selfish acts. Did Nevada not say that the States that produce Nuclear waste can keep it, its their problem. What a bunch of dopes. Are you talking to the other 40 something states that do have nuclear waste and send millions of tourists there a year to spend their hard earned money on your garbage. After-all, Nevada is a big wasteland and now Las Vegas can become one with the desert again, cuz this is a rotten place and very uneducated as well.
John86zz, people like you make me laugh. You clearly have more gambling experience than myself and I've lived here all my life.
Why don't you and the writer below you just LEAVE?
Thank you, Representative Berkley, for your words, but I'm sure you know that we are back in the era of the "Diatribe" when the nation turned against Las Vegas. We will survive this as we have in the past, and all the whiny, Vegas-hating leeches who came here either running or chasing, so let them run and eventually, we'll get back to the "Electric Togetherness" that made this a great community in the 1970s.
The slut on Fox News said the train was to connect to Brothels.
Vegas really is a scumpit. Funny that people get offended by the truth!
Bring the Rain, Jame P Raza - I completely agree with you and so do most of the people who live and work here. Guess thats why so many of us have moved here and why we voted for Obama.
The negative posters here are the same tired, no idea critics year after year. but its nice to see new voices to speak up against the whiners.
Good job Rep Berkley. Keep it up
For the record, the Moonlight Bunny Ranch is up North by Reno. We have Sherry's Ranch 60 miles east of Las Vegas in Parump ( Nye County ) and in no way would any rail be built out that way, if from California. I wish people would look at a map. As far as Capitol Hill bashing Las Vegas, it needs to stop.
While I agree with most of what Rolston wrote, I want to see people actually address the problems with this city and there are a lot that have been around for years. And by solution I don't mean lamenting the loss of yesterday's good times, I mean forward thinking about how unsustainable a gaming economy is in 2009 and onward. I mean how economically unsustainable an undereducated population is. All the talk about Maglev trains brothels and earmark BS is detracting from meaningful conversation about real solutions for a town that is sinking fast, and sucks right now. Don't get upset because all the people that moved here are miserable because they expected more from a major American city. They should have expected more and so should you. That 1950's "love it or leave it" mentality is juvenile. Criticism is good. Any entity that can't withstand a little criticism is usually either quickly falling apart internally or undergoing extreme change. Let's work towards the later.