Mayor Oscar Goodman is correct that President Obama should not have singled out Las Vegas in his recent criticism of wasteful spending of stimulus money.
Though stimulus money should not be spent on frivolousness such as conventions or business perks, the mention of only one city where such get together's occur was improper. Goodman used as an example that the President did not mention Orlando, D.C., or Chicago. He only mentioned Las Vegas, and for that, I agree with the mayor that this city deserves an apology.
Also, Senator Reid's request for funding of the super speed train between Southern California and Las Vegas is not "pork."
Such a train will relieve a large percentage of traffic on the overcrowded I-15, create jobs in its construction, and bring back jobs to Las Vegas.
The only thing Senator Reid did not earmark is that American citizens should be the only persons hired to work on the super speed train project, and hired to service the increase in Vegas visitors the train will supply.
The Little Train That Couldn't
INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
March 17, 2003
The German government has spent several decades along with billions of dollars developing and testing a super speed train called the Transrapid. The magnetically levitated train was conceived by Westinghouse/AEG Germany and has traveled tens of thousands of miles safely at speeds of up to 350 miles per hour on an oval test track built over fields and through the forests of Bavaria. The diminutive train is designed to ride on a magnetic field just a half-inch above its elevated guideway being pulled along by magnets imbedded in the track ahead. Since there are no wheels with their inherent friction, the only obstacle to achieving even greater speeds is the aerodynamic drag of the wind on the streamlined fuselage.
FULL COLUMN:
Steve Miller, is a former Las Vegas City Councilman. In 1991, the readers of the Las Vegas Review Journal voted him the “Most Effective Public Official” in Southern Nevada. Miller writes internationally syndicated columns on organized crime and political corruption for Rick Porrello’s AmericanMafia.com.
