Our City is now poor...SO LET US BUILD A NEW CITY HALL!

L.E. Fant's twin Grand Daughter Astrid

born extremely prematurely together with her sister

under a single payer health care system. She has enjoyed

first class care, as has her sister Goldie.

Total out of pocket expenses, to date, for the births,

months of neo -natal ICU, surgeries, prescriptions

and home care amount to approximately FIFTY DOLLARS!!!

Compare that experience to that of a friend who just gave birth to a wonderful and healthy daughter. Even with "good insurance" she had out of pocket expenses approximately 100 times more for a single birth-not twins with extreme difficulties due to extreme premature births.

L.E.'s friend now cannot stay with her new born daughter as she desires-SHE HAS TO GO BACK TO WORK OR LOSE HER FAMILY'S HEALTH INSURANCE.

TO BUY INSURANCE FOR HER YOUNG FAMILY IS PROHIBITIVE AS THE COST IS OVER $1,200 PER MONTH.

Whereas, in the case of Astrid and Goldie their parents may enjoy time with their children as their government has mandated four weeks annual leave with full pay and many public holidays which are also paid-for all. Also not forgetting mandated paid maternity leave and other benefits which together make for a far less stressful time for new parents. All this makes for a good quality of life which L.E. conjectures may well be better than ours in Las Vegas where the archaic so-called "right to work" labor law exists along with many other measures which exist to the detriment of workers.

It appears that meaningful health care reform is unlikely for us lucky folks in the richest country in the world because we have been provided much advertising (using our health care Dollars) to prolong our existing system whereby Insurance corporations-not medical providers run our health care.

Senate majority leader HARRY REID has put his foot in his mouth by making comments regarding then candidate Obama. His comments were, at best, in extremely poor taste. One must wonder whether power has influenced Senator Reid negatively as it has many others in high places.

Our State now has both federal Senators appearing tarnished. Maybe it is time that they were gone.

OUR CITY IS SUFFERING AS REVENUES ARE DOWN.

Workers are being asked to take large pay cuts.

One wonders whether our City officials have considered raising franchise fees on corporations such as COX COMMUNICATIONS, our monopolistic cable provider and who likely pays a tiny fee for use of our taxpayer facilities. Does Nevada Power and Southwest Gas pay a reasonable franchise fee to us? Do telephone companies pay fees for using our infrastructure?

Is it a good idea to build a new City Hall under the existing economic conditions?

Las Vegas Beer, Las Vegas Motels, Las Vegas Politics.

Good Food Here!! Recommended by L.E.
Another close to downtown Motel
A downtown motel adjacent to Fremont Experience. [Note sign "Your Future Starts Here"].

LAS VEGAS BEER DRINKERS:

As L.E. pointed out yesterday Miller and Coors, whilst advertising themselves as more American than apple pie, are actually owned by foreign interests.

As L.E. also noted yesterday, the iconic Chrysler building is likely to be purchased by an Arab sovereign fund.

The latest American icon likely to be taken over by foreign interests is BUDWEISER. A Belgium company (owner of Becks among others)is attempting to take over Bud in order to obtain a world market share of approximately 25%.

Does this matter? Should lawmakers step in to stop the sale?

LAS VEGAS MEANINGFUL POLITICAL COMMENT FOR SAD DEMOCRATS, JADED REPUBLICANS & THOSE OF US WHO HOPE FOR A BETTER UNITED STATES.

2008 Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader discusses a remark (regarding not running) made to him by a fellow alumnus at a recent Princeton reunion.

"I was at my Princeton reunion the other day, and a young alumnus came up to me - he was very kind - and he said "You know, I really like what you're doing - I like what you did - but please don't run."
I said "Do you realize what you are saying?"
And he said "Yes, I said please don't run."
I said "You're telling me not to use my First Amendment rights of speech, assembly, and petition inside the electoral arena. You're telling me to shut up. Are you aware of what you're saying?"
He said "I understand, I understand, I like what you're doing, but please don't run."
So I went through and I said "Well, would you tell those voters instead of trying to determine which one was worse between the Democrats and the Whigs, the two major parties in the 19th century, and instead cut out and voted for the Liberty Party, which was the anti-slavery party - would you say to those candidates, 'Don't run'?" And he sort of paused. And I said "How about the people who refused to go least-worst between the Republicans and Democrats on women's suffrage? Would you tell those candidates 'don't run'? What do you say to that?"
And he paused.
And I took it up to date and I said "Would you tell Buchanan not to run?"
And he said "I understand what you are saying, but please don't run."
And I said "You know, unwittingly, you are engaging in a politically bigoted statement. Because you can oppose, and you can support, any candidates you want. But when you are saying to someone 'don't run' you are saying to someone 'do not speak, do not petition, do not assemble inside the electoral arena.'"
Now I'm saying this because I'm sure you've had these conversations with people. Look at the word spoiler. Spoiler is a contemptuous word of political bigotry. They do not accuse George W. Bush of being the spoiler in 2000, and last I heard he got more votes than I did, vis-a-vis Al Gore. It's only the independent and third parties that are called spoilers.
And think of the hubris here - these two parties have spoiled our elections, they've spoiled our government, they've spoiled our politics - and to have the temerity to say to someone who wants to reform the process that they are spoilers - they have no sense of humor - I mean, how do you satire satire?" [EMPHASIS ADDED].

L.E. Fant of Las Vegas wishes all a pleasant weekend and may the price of gasoline lower itself by a Dollar or more.

It may not be too late for Las Vegas. New Artist.

Do not click on images to enlarge unless you desire to see larger images!

L.E. Fant of Las Vegas is helping a "starving local artist" achieve his dreams, L.E. Fant, therefore, provides the following:

First public display of Stephen Winter art is here and only with L.E. Fant of Las Vegas!!

Above are two of the first series of Winter's 2008 artworks which are soon to be auctioned on E Bay.

Winter's color palette is designed to evoke emotion. Color is all in his work.

L.E. Fant's superior readers may be first to own one of these paintings as they shall be first to be apprised of when the sale will occur!

POLITICAL MESSAGE (again), Lesser of two evils is not a sound voting strategy!

How do you get people to vote against their own self interest?
That's the trick!
One way is to make people believe in a dream.
That's what all of the mainstream politicians are doing - feeding that dream.
Obama is feeding a dream - a dream of change and renewal.
He's feeding a dream that the conditions that surround us - Iraq, the economy, the racial divide, the class divide in this country - that they are magically going to go away by voting for this centrist Democrat.
That is nonsense, of course.
Obama is not proposing any structural changes.
McCain is feeding us the dream, the fantasy of power and control.
That somehow the military might of the U.S. will prevail across the globe.
These are fantasies that are being fed by the politicians.
They are not so much lies, as delusions.
But we will have brought it on ourselves by supporting these politicians.
By ignoring any candidate or any ideas that might conflict with those dreams.
The Obama moment is a feel good moment.
It makes us feel good.
But the programs Obama is proposing - up and down and all around - are the same centrist Democratic positions.
The same people are going to be running the show.
All of the corporations are rapidly switching their contributions to the Democrats.
These are the words of the American novelist Russell Banks.

Shift the power from the few to the many.
Free our government of corporate domination.
Restore the sovereignty of an engaged people.
Don't fall for the trick.

Shift the power.
Feed the living, breathing people-powered alternative.

http://www.votenader.org/

Have a pleasant and safe weekend all you superior readers.

STILL NO RETURN CALL FROM HEALTH CARE PROVIDER FOR L.E. (since Tuesday) with advice regarding possibly dangerously elevated blood pressure.

This is extremely tiresome and vexating for L.E.