Richard Disney

This is another Harry Reid moment of “open mouth, insert foot.” When Harry Reid says that “coal makes us sick”, he is not tuned into reality. Electrical power from coal and transportation from oil based products have improved the lives of Americans and the world enormously.

Also, without ample amounts of electricity and gasoline driven engines, Las Vegas would still be about the same size as Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada. Maybe that is how Senator Reid prefers it.

Article follows:

Hat Tip: Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey

When the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal calls Harry Reid a “YouTube sensation”, they don’t mean it as a compliment. Given that the city runs on a tremendous amount of coal-based electricity and depends on oil-based transportation to bring gamblers and tourists to the desert oasis, they find Reid’s latest comments sickening in their own right. Far from making the world sick, the industrialization spurred by fossil fuels has made the world and its residents healthier than ever:

By Thursday afternoon, the video clip had close to 400,000 hits on YouTube. Like an “American Idol” reject who has no idea he can’t sing, Sen. Reid serves up speechification that crashes and burns in spectacular fashion.

Doesn’t the Democratic Party have its own Simon Cowell, someone with enough common sense to cut off the Slipup from Searchlight before he finds all new ways to embarrass his home state?

Funny thing about coal and oil. Before they began transforming Americans’ everyday lives by providing electricity and transport that didn’t require a horse, average citizens trudged though life with mouths half-full of teeth, fortunate to live past age 40. Far from making us sick, they’ve powered advances that have extended the country’s collective life expectancy to about 80, helped eliminate hard-core poverty and made us the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet.

Today, coal still provides half the country’s electricity — power that allows Las Vegas air conditioners to run 24 hours per day during the soul-searing heat of July, power that lets partygoers enjoy the city’s luxuries at all times. And how did they — and the foodstuffs they ate for breakfast — get to this otherwise uninhabitable tourist outpost? They drove or flew here on a tank of fossil fuel.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Las Vegas Review-Journal: Been to Vegas lately, Harry?

Tags: harryreid, searchlight nevada, las vegas, nevada, senator reid, energy, coal, gasoline, oil, electricity, solar power, slip up

Audio Link

I appeared on the KUNR Nevada Newsline radio show on June 27th, 2008. At times the debate gets somewhat contentious between myself and former Nevada Assemblywoman Vivian Freeman. Contentious means that it is interesting.

Not only do we discuss the Special Session of the Nevada Legislature but by listening to this broadcast you can hear a distinct comparison between an individualist philosophy of self-reliance and a philosophy of reliance on government.

From the KUNR website:

RENO, NV (2008-06-27) On this edition of Nevada Newsline, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons has called a special legislative session to address a 250 million dollar shortfall in the state budget.

Just ahead, host Brian Bahouth takes your calls for a discussion about the special session that is just getting underway in Carson City. Our guests are former Nevada lawmaker, Democrat Vivian Freeman and one-time Assembly Candidate, local businessman and political blogger, Republican Richard Disney.

Also this hour, some Nevada Republicans will be holding another state convention in Reno this weekend, they say, to conclude unfinished business from the first state convention that ended in mayhem back in April. The state Republican party does not sanction this weekend’s gathering, but organizers say delegates chosen this weekend will be going to the national convention in September. We’ll be taking your calls for a conversation with long time Republican leader Mike Weber. Enjoy the show.

kunr NewsRoom

Tags: kunr, richard disney, vivian freeman, nevada legislature, special session, brian bahouth, republican, democrat, nevada republicans, convention,

June 15, 2008NV Poll: McCain By a Nose
Posted by TOM BEVAN

New Mason-Dixon poll in the key battleground state of Nevada (June 9-11, 625 LV, MoE +/-4.0%) shows McCain leading Obama by just two points:McCain 44Obama 42Undecided 14In the only other recent survey in Nevada - a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted on May 20 - McCain led Obama by six points, 46-40.

NV Poll: McCain By a Nose - Real Clear Politics - Elections 2008 - TIME

Tags: mccain, obama, poll results, nevada, election 2008, two points, 2

It is a shame that government officials at all levels cannot see that lowering gasoline taxes would help every American where it counts most…in the pocketbook! Story follows:

 

Sun Jun 15, 8:44 AM ET SAN DIEGO - If there’s pain at the pump in the U.S., Mexico may just have a remedy. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in San Diego retails for an average price of $4.61 a gallon. A few miles south, in Tijuana, it’s about $2.54 — even less if you pay in pesos.ADVERTISEMENTMore and more people appear to be taking advantage of the lower price.”I used to buy exclusively in the U.S. before gas started really going up,” said Patrick Garcia, a drama teacher at an elementary school in San Diego who lives in Tijuana. “Since then, I’ve been buying all my gas in Tijuana.”The lower prices mean a U.S. motorist could save almost $54 filling up a two-year-old Ford F150 pickup with a 26-gallon fuel tank in Mexico.The differential in diesel is even greater, selling at $5.04 a gallon in San Diego County and $2.20 in Tijuana.Paul Covarrubias, 26, who lives in Chula Vista and works in construction in San Diego, crosses the border each week just to refuel his dual-cab Ford F-250 pickup.”I fill it up with diesel in Tijuana for $60,” he said. “It would be almost twice that in San Diego.”Gas is cheaper in Mexico because of a government subsidy intended to keep inflationary forces in check.Still, international gas-buying trips don’t make sense for everyone. The wait getting back into the U.S. at the border in Tijuana frequently takes longer than two hours and cars can burn about a gallon of gas for each hour they idle.

San Diego drivers appreciate Mexico’s cheap gas - Yahoo! News

Tags: cheapgas, mexico, tijuana, san diego, gas under 3 dollars

Hat Tip: Bob Beers

June 12th, 2008

Image via WikipediaLake
Powell - a huge Colorado River reservoir upstream from Las Vegas - has
risen 30 feet over the past three months. It’s now almost 60% capacity
and rising, with the reservoirs above it now at 80% capacity.

Here’s a website with more Colorado River water data than even I am comfortable crunching.

Tags: bobbeers, water, nevada, good water year

Hat Tip: First Friday Collective

Chaos over Ron Paul cuts short the Nevada State Republican Convention held in Reno, Nevada.

Read more at the Reno Gazette Journal.

Nevada Assemblyman Ty Cobb Jr. was elected in the very conservative District 26 by claiming to be a staunch conservative. By endorsing Senator John McCain in his candidacy for President, Ty Cobb is not sustaining a conservative reputation. Senator McCain has been on the Democrat side of many debates including amnesty for illegal aliens, not sustaining the Bush tax cuts and the “Gang of 14″ in the U.S. Senate. The action that proves John McCain is not conservative was initiating and promoting for the McCain-Feingold legislation which is among the most blatantly unconstitutional legislation ever passed.

Ty Cobb was once my opponent during the District 26 primary election which he won handily. I have supported him on some occasions such as when he cast the only vote against the Democrat Nevada Assembly Speaker in 2007.

One must judge people, not by their words but by their actions. Unfortunately, Ty Cobb’s actions in endorsing Senator John McCain and hosting a wine-tasting event for him here in Reno, Nevada, indicate a willingness to disregard the First Amendment to the Constitution just as when Cobb took a position against ballot initiatives during his District 26 Assembly campaign.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is as follows (emphasis mine):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

What part of “Congress shall make no law” does John McCain not understand? And does Ty Cobb Jr. understand that endorsing McCain does not make one appear to be conservative?

Hat Tip: Faultline USA

The Wussification of America has to stop somewhere. The Wussification has gone so far that it is now anathema to hate enemies that are trying to kill you and those you love during time of war.

I will probably be criticized for even posting this perspective by people who prefer the United States to be weak. Whether you accept it or not, our Jihadist enemies hate the United States and all Americans. To win, we must vehemently hate our enemies back. We didn’t start this war, but we better damn well be willing to finish it on our terms. We defeated the Germans and the Japanese by executing total war and brutally pounding anyone fighting us or supporting our enemies into submission. As the saying goes, “War is Hell”. The agony of war is merely prolonged or postponed when we try to fight war in a relatively antiseptic fashion.

The overwhelming use of force and rapid victory in modern warfare is even more important now than in past eras. The longer a war takes for the United States to win, the more it tears the country apart. Unfortunately, a growing number of people within the United States who directly benefit from a U.S. victory are actively working toward U.S. defeat. Free people cannot remain free if they lose the will to fight for that freedom. We are teetering on the edge of a time when close to half of the American voting population thinks that nothing is worth fighting for; not even the very freedom and prosperity they enjoy.

During World War Two a healthy national hatred of our enemies was considered patriotic and contributed to winning that war in less than five years. Now it seems dificult and controversial to even drum up a strong national dislike for the Jihadis who make no secret of their hatred for any infidel, especially if that infidel happens to be American. I have said since just after the 9/11 attacks that we need to fight this war “World War 2 style” and part of that is hating Jihadis and everything they stand for.

Hat Tip: Inside Nevada Politics

Senator John Ensign (R-NV) gave a chunk of coal to Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) as a humorous lead-in to the coming battle over whether coal fired power plants should be built in Nevada.

Senator Reid is kowtowing to his enviro-collectivist task masters to prevent the building and operation of coal fired power plants in Nevada. One thing to always remember is that the ultimate goal of the modern environmentalist movement is to stop the motor of the industrialized world through ignorance and paranoia about things like Global Warming.

To deny Nevadans and other Americans inexpensive electricity using one of the most plentiful energy sources in North America is extremely misguided. I guess Senator Reid does not only want to be known for declaring the defeat of U.S. Forces in Iraq, he also wants to declare the defeat of the U.S. economy.