The Friday Roundup

It’s the Friday roundup, where we at Various Things & Stuff jam a whole bunch o’ bloggin’ into a single post, for your reading pleasure. Check out what’s going down:

• It seems Yahoo provided information that helped the Chinese government put a reporter, Shi Tao, in jail for 10 years for sending allegedly secret information from his e-mail account. So much for privacy, eh?

The company put out this statement, quoted in the Sun: “Just like any other global company, Yahoo must ensure that its local country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and customs of the country in which they are based.”

Oh, right, and since China’s laws and customs include strict anti-freedom provisions, Yahoo simply must comply. It probably also doesn’t hurt that the company invested $1 billion for a 40 percent stake in China’s biggest Internet company, does it?

Time for a good old all-American boycott, since these bastards seem to care about only one thing: money. Who’s with us?

• State Sen. Bob Beers isn’t saying uncle yet in his quest to get a temporary repeal of the state’s 17.65-cent gasoline tax. Beers floated the idea thinking that Gov. Kenny Guinn would jump, call a special session and triple the length of time the tax would be suspended, kind of like the way Guinn offered triple the auto-tax rebate Beers suggested during this year’s Legislature.

And while Guinn did his usual — I’ll call a special session if everybody wants one — Beers’ effort backfired, because apparently nobody wants a repeal. Beers pledges to meet with Guinn to discuss his plan, which is sure to fill Guinn with thoughts of taking a long, tropical vacation. But only if there’s a consensus on exactly where he should go. Can anybody in legislative leadership help?

• President Bush nominated a nuclear power industry executive to head the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, another cumbersome, bureaucratic step required for turning all of America over to big corporations.

Edward “Ward” Sproat’s previous claim to fame was in suing the very government that now employs him, for failing to take out the nuclear garbage owned by Pennsylvania’s Exelon-owned plants. In that lawsuit, the Energy Department agreed to pay Exelon for the company’s trouble. Welcome to the DOE, Ward. Great to have you here.

• Speaking of Bush, it turns out that his Federal Emergency Management Agency knows next to nothing about emergencies or management. (That sound you hear is all of New Orleans replying, “no shit!”) Top leaders, including Director Michael Brown, are political appointees, and because of a exodus of employees since Sept. 11, 2001, three of 10 chiefs are serving in acting capacities, as well as nine of 10 regional directors. (Some say employees left when FEMA was put under the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.)

Vice President Dick Cheney who finally headed down South to check out the damage from Hurricane Katrina for himself, opined that “we’re always trying to strike the right balance” between political appointees and “career professionals that [sic] fill the jobs underneath them.” (Unfortunately, by “career professionals” he apparently means Bush-Cheney campaign career professionals.)

Meanwhile, our own U.S. Sen. Harry Reid is shocked and appalled that Bush intends to distribute the vast majority of the $51.8 billion in newly approved disaster relief through FEMA. “After everything that has happened, is there anyone — anyone — who believes that we should continue to let the money go to FEMA and be distributed by them?” Reid asked in the Review-Journal. Well, there’s one person, senator: The president!

Reid’s probably just complaining because he’s part of the reality-based community,. We’ve seen this week from Bush (not to mention his mom, who said refugees in Houston were making out pretty well, what with all the government relief) that the extended first family has no such limitations.

• Oh, they indicted that political action committee down in Texas that was founded by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. It turns out nefariously plotting to pump corporate donations into Texas elections, thus gaining a majority in the statehouse, in order to draw a Republican-friendly redistricting plan, to gain five seats for the GOP in Congress, and ensure DeLay’s continued success, is illegal.

What is this, Russia? (DeLay, by the way, remains majority leader with the moral and financial support of our very own U.S. Rep. Jon Porter.)

That’s all for this week. See you Monday.

Just what is going on at Las Vegas City Hall?

Mayor Oscar Goodman went into Ominous Oscar mode at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, even going so far as to threaten the jobs of some unspecified city workers doing unspecified things.

Here’s how he Las Vegas Sun’s quoted him: “There have been some undercurrents, that there’s some discontent, some issues that have bothered people, and I don’t want to see that anymore,” Goodman declared. “And I’m going on the record now that as we ratify … that if in fact there is any kind of discord which is inappropriate or activity that’s not consistent with the best interest of the city, we can de-ratify.”

The natural question occurs: What in the hell is he talking about? Unfortunately, by the time Sun reporter Dan Kulin caught up to him, Ominous Oscar had been replaced with Oblivious Oscar.

There are “no problems,” at City Hall, Oblivious Oscar said, contradicting his earlier remarks. And then, amazingly, he said this: “I don’t want to be accused of intimidating anyone or coercing anyone. I want to kill this in the bud.” (Ouch! Ominous Oscar is back! These guys do wardrobe changes fast, baby.)

So there are problems, then? We hate to say it, but by threatening someone’s job at a public meeting — which Goodman clearly did — he’s unquestionably engaging in intimidation and coercion.

If only we knew what the problem was. It’s got to be serious, because Goodman uttered not a single peep of protest when his former “chief of staff” Stephanie Boixo was throwing her weight around City Hall. Unlike the mayor, we at Various Things and Stuff won’t make vague allegations. Here are the specifics:

• Boixo ordered city workers crews to work overtime to film, edit, produce, and distribute a video news release of a mayoral gin party, all of which used city time, equipment and materials for a demonstrably non-city purpose.

• Boixo ordered a large number of videotapes of mayoral appearances on national television programs, which ended up in an ego closet in Goodman’s 10th floor office at City Hall. The bill for tapes wholly unrelated to city business exceeded $1,000.

• Boixo engaged in her own campaign of intimidation and coercion, directing employees who did not work for her (and, in some cases, outranked her) to perform public-relations duties for the mayor. When she suspected some of those employees of disloyalty, she tried to cut off their access to Goodman.

Boixo later married Eric Goodman, one of the mayor’s sons, and was forced by city rules to depart Goodman’s employ at City Hall, to the manifest delight of some city employees.

So, logic dictates that if Goodman is upset at somebody’s behavior, it certainly must have been worse than that of his rampaging ex-“chief of staff,” right?

Oh, wait, we forgot something: Logic also dictates that Goodman could be pissed because people are doing something he doesn’t like. And that could include saying not-so-nice things about Goodman, who wants everyone’s love and adoration, or else. So maybe it’s that.

In any case, Goodman should put up or shut up: Issuing blanket threats against unnamed persons for unnamed reasons is the stuff of cowardice, not leadership. If somebody’s done something legitimately wrong, deal with it. If somebody has some contrary opinions, tough. This is politics, not junior high.

Oh, wait…