You know what offends George Harris? (Oh, sorry: Harris is a Republican party operative who has an almost unbroken record of failures in Nevada politics.)

Anyway, you know what offends him? Racism, that’s what!

Harris is quoted in John L. Smith’s column in the Review-Journal today, objecting to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s alleged refusal to consider putting a qualified Muslim in his cabinet.

(Apparently, Romney told would-be Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Mansoor Ijaz at a Henderson fundraiser that he’d not consider Muslims for national security positions. Romney denies making the remark, but he’s made so many remarks on both sides of all issues that we’re pretty sure dude said it.)

Anyway, Ijaz is a friend of Harris, so Harris asked Romney at a Lawry’s luncheon if he’d appoint a qualified Muslim to his cabinet. Romney replied: "Probably not."

"I was angry because it was such a dumb answer," Harris said. He walked away from the lunch, writes Smith, "believing a Romney administration would mean ‘Muslims need not apply.’"

Oh, snap! Watch out, Romney! You’ve got Nevada’s answer to Al Sharpton on your ass now!

The only thing is this: Harris is the publisher of an obscure journal known as Liberty Watch, which features the most openly and virulently racist columnist in all of Las Vegas, one Kenric Ward. Ward, writing from 92.7 percent white Vero Beach, Fla., has written sadly about the outcome of the Civil War, repeatedly hammered Mexican immigrants and fondly wished for the South to rise again.

So if Harris is so angered by Romney’s refusal to even consider putting a Muslim in his cabinet, why the hell does he continue to publish Ward’s racist rants? Free speech? Oh, that’s right, we forgot: Harris is also a huge ACLU crusader, too!

Or maybe he’s just a pathetic loser who found the one sympathetic ear in all of Las Vegas journalism who would paint him as somebody who actually cares about discrimination, and who wouldn’t bring up the Ward issue.

Yeah, that’s it.

Yesterday, we brought you the nice farewell statement proffered by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid in the wake of the retirement of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott. It was full of praise, and Reid said Lott was a "true friend" the most "pleasant" of senators and was a "distinguished public servant."

So what gives with U.S. Sen. John Ensign’s lame two-liner, e-mailed just moments ago from the National Republican Senatorial Committee — which Ensign runs — a full news cycle after Lott confirmed he was stepping down? Check it:

"Senator Lott has served the people of Mississippi honorably for over 30 years and his dedication to the Senate and this nation will be sorely missed. We are confident that voters in Mississippi will continue Senator Lott’s legacy and we will work closely with Governor [Haley] Barbour and state officials to provide any necessary support."

Is it just us, or are we not feeling the love? Only one line for Lott, when Reid had whole, wet-kiss-laden paragraphs? Or was it that Lott was a little too close to Reid for Ensign’s comfort? Reid is — as the Review-Journal editorial page suggested today in one of its most nutty remarks ever — the mouthpiece for the "hyperleftist wing" of the Democratic Party. (Hell, who knew the party even had an "hyperleftist wing"?)

Could it be Ensign is upset that Republican senators are dropping like flies, felled by scandal and the realization that their party is in deep shit come 2008? Or that the people he wants to retire because they allegedly committed sexual misconduct (Larry Craig) are acting like the people he doesn’t want to retire even though they allegedly committed sexual misconduct (David Vitter)?

Poor Ensign. We wonder what they’ll be saying about him in statements when he comes up empty on Election Day a year from now?

UPDATE: Although we received the e-mail from the NRSC at 3:17 p.m. today, it was actually sent at 9:35 a.m. yesterday. (We at Various Things & Stuff are saddled with the venerable Lotus Notes e-mail program, which is not exactly a popular choice for, say, communications companies. Even so, we’re not entirely sure the problem is on our end. We just have to remember that, until we finally hook up that iPhone we got for our recent birthday and go totally digital, our usual mantra applies: Trust no e-mail.)

UPDATE 2: See what we mean?

Gov. Jim Gibbons record of appointments is pretty dismal. He kicks the only McCarran International Airport rep off the state’s Homeland Security commission, but appoints the lawyer for a bankrupt subprime lender to oversee mortgages in Nevada. We once joked that he’d probably put Dr. Jack Kevorkian on the state’s Commission on Aging, but now we wonder if that’s so much of a joke.

Why? We’ll let fellow bloggers (and newsbreakers) Myrna the Minx and Hugh Jackson tell you all about how education activist Joe Enge got himself appointed … wait for it, wait for it … deputy director of the Nevada State Office of Energy.

You read that right: Energy. Not education.

It would be funny if it was a sitcom, but none of us actually wanted to live under the governor from that one show Benson.

We’ve scanned the paper so you don’t have to, people, which is really a much more difficult task than you can possibly imagine. But we do it to come up with Quick Hits! Here we go!

• Hey, Gov. Jim Gibbons. We found $105,000 that you can put toward cutting the state budget! It’s squirreled away in the Clark County budget, under the heading "discretionary spending." We’re totally sure the commissioners would be willing to give up their $15,000 (per commissioner, per year) slush fund. Right, commissioners? Or do you think that luaus for seniors should come before, say, child welfare?
  
• "I love it and this is kind of my way of giving back to my community," says Commissioner Larry Weekly of his slush fund. Please, commissioner. Your noble service is quite enough, thank you very much. We have no need of even more taxpayer money tossed at our feet. No, seriously, we insist.
  
• Partners is lawmaking: U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and Larry Craig, R-Men’s Room. Hey, they both share a distaste for reforming the Mining Law of 1872. Why can’t we give it just a little more time to work, people? It’s only been law for 135 years!
  
• Partners in lawmaking, separated by sorrow. U.S. Sens. Reid and Trent Lott, who announced his resignation today. We’re not really sad, but Reid is, saying in a statement: "Senator Lott has been a true friend, consistently reaching across the aisle to serve the interests of the people of Mississippi and to help me serve the interests of the people of Nevada.  He and I have also served proudly together as leaders, ensuring that the Senate serves the nation’s interests.  Senator Lott is one of the strongest defenders of the institution of the Senate and one of the most pleasant senators I have ever worked with. I am proud to have worked side-by-side with such a distinguished public servant as Trent Lott and I wish him well as he leaves the Senate." (emphasis added)
• Quotable, Part I: "It’s (the Taser) certainly a safe device to use to bring someone into compliance." — Dr. Joe Heck, medical adviser to Metro Police and a state senator in his part time.
  
• Quotable, Part II: "The bodies keep piling up." — Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, on the number of people who have died in Nevada after being shot with a Taser.
  
• So the police camera at 15th and Fremont streets is cutting down on crime? But crime has moved six blocks away, to 21st Street? No problem: Just put a camera there, too. Oh, hell, let’s skip the Christmas rush and put police cameras at EVERY intersection in town. That will cut down on crime, right? So what are we waiting for, Metro? Oh, that’s right: We’re going to need another bond issue to buy all that stuff. Well, let’s get to work.
  
• State Sen. Warren Hardy loves people. No, really, you can’t tell from this story, but he does. Sure, it might look like he uses his position in state government to advance the private interests of the organization he heads for $210,000 per year, the Associated Builders and Contractors, but that glosses over his essential humanitarianism. And conduct that might appear on the surface to be a rather clear-cut ethics violation really is nothing more than what Nevadans know simply as "government." Plus, he loves people.
  
• Where is Review-Journal political reporter Molly Ball’s favorite pizza place? Click here for another installment in the R-J’s long-running autobiographical series "Molly Ball Trivia for Those Who Love Molly Ball, And Don’t We All?" 

So apparently Gov. Jim Gibbons saw a recent uptick in the number of people who think he’s doing a good job, i.e. the mentally retarded. According to a poll in the Reno Gazette-Journal reported by our friend and colleague, Anjeanette Damon, 40 percent of people approve of Gibbons’ job performance.

That’s right: 40 percent. If it was an academic test, he’d get an "F." If it were a line of 10 people, four would say Gibbons was good. If it was a house, we’d only be looking at a foundation and a couple walls.

And, by contrast, 45 percent of people disapprove of Gibbons’ job approval. And whenever more people don’t like you than do like you, it’s not a good thing. (By the way, that also applies to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, who was liked by 39 percent and disliked by 49 percent, or almost half the people surveyed. Ouch, baby.)

So, the extent to which Gibbons should be happy about approval ratings that have stayed between the high 20s and 40 percent is questionable. And the fact is, his nearly unbroken string of political pooch screws isn’t likely to end, if past performance is any indication. So we’re talking The Base here, people. They’d like Gibbons even if he tried to assault a drunken cocktail waitress. You know, hypothetically speaking.

Then again, according to Damon’s blog, 57 percent of the people say Yucca Mountain will be a big factor in their vote for president, so you know this survey has to be wrong.

If you’re anything like us, you’re still recovering from that holiday meal (nothing cures the turkey hangover like more turkey, people!). So we’ll keep it semi-brief today:

The good: The Las Vegas City Council is taking a step in the right direction by giving council members raises. (They won’t take effect until the next round of elections, in 2009 and 2011, when council members will start making $69,247 and the mayor will bring down $120,000 for full-time work.)

Now it’s time to recognize that just being on the City Council is a full-time job, and reward that work accordingly. This is especially true in a state with a part-time, every-other-year Legislature. Good council members put in full time hours, and they should be paid for them. (The bad ones do, too, we suppose.)

Nevada’s government-phobia, fed by the cadre of extreme right-wingers out there who get aid and comfort from the Review-Journal’s editorial page, need to lighten up. The government closest to the people is usually the most responsive, and we should make leading that government a job that regular people can afford to do, full-time. So, good work, City Council.

Also good: New Hampshire setting it’s presidential primary for Jan. 8, giving Democrats plenty of time to campaign in the Silver State, especially since they’ve promised to ignore Michigan’s taking cuts and holding a contest Jan. 15. Republicans are screwed, however, since the must-win South Carolina Republican primary is on the same day as Nevada’s caucus, Jan. 19. Where do you think those candidates will campaign? Then again, Republicans are pretty much screwed in every way in 2008, right?

The bad: So people are upset that the Olympic Garden is getting $50,000 to improve its sign? Don’t blame the venerable OG, people. Blame the city of Las Vegas, which started up the Visual Improvement Program to induce property owners to spruce up the exteriors of their downtown businesses to make the place look less shithole-ish. Clearly, there’s money to burn downtown, right? If the answer is no, then this small-business version of corporate welfare should never have been started in the first place.

Also bad: The regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada will vote on a proposal that would require the system to disclose how many professors have accepted work outside the university, but not who or for whom they are working. In other words, we have a tiny piece of full disclosure without … what’s that word? … oh, yes, actual disclosure.

Credit the Las Vegas Sun for investigating the issue of outside employment, and being stymied by bureaucrats who refused to release conflict-of-interest forms, only to learn that most people didn’t bother even filing the forms. The so-called "reform" would at least disclose to university leaders who is doing outside work.

This policy is clearly inadequate. Who could support such a ridiculous, meaningless half-step? Oh, that’s right: Regents Ron Knecht and Jason Geddes. We’ll see who else when it comes up for a vote next week.

The ugly: Gov. Jim Gibbons‘ call for 8 percent — rather than 5 percent — cuts in some state budgets, due to declining revenues. What’s really ugly is the fact that not only will Gibbons not consider backing off his no-tax pledge, but he also seems unwilling to tap the state’s rainy day fund until at least February 2009. (To do so before that would require a special session of the Legislature.)

Hey, what’s that outside? Oh, that’s right: Rain. A whole hell of a lot of it.

We found this story from today’s Las Vegas Sun very interesting, and not just because it reveals that MGM Mirage was the lone sticking point in discussing a potential increase in the gross gambling tax with the Nevada State Education Association. (When MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni says he wants to discuss reforming the state’s entire tax policy, we suppose that comes with a footnote: Except for us, that is! We’re maxed out!)

No, what struck us was the fact that the teachers union seemed to be negotiating with casino companies before filing its initiative in the first place. A person could look at that in two ways:

Way No. 1: The union was trying to extort casinos. Either they come to the table with higher taxes, or we’ll put higher taxes before voters and into the constitution, where we know it will pass.

Way No. 2: The union was trying a last-ditch effort to get cooperation from casinos. We don’t want to circulate a petition, and wait until 2011 to see this money. We want to see it now. Can we work something out?

(Our view: It was probably a little of both.)

And, also tellingly, casinos seemed to be willing to talk, including Station, Boyd and Harrah’s. But MGM Mirage, owner of some of the nicest places on the Strip, including the Mandalay Bay and Bellagio, was the only one to say no.

"Everyone we met with agreed we had a problem with education funding. No one has been able to provide an alternative," said Lynn Warne, president of the NSEA.

Actually, that’s not technically true: Lanni (and before him, others like ex-Mandalay Bay Vice President Mike Sloan and Nevada Resort Association President Bill Bible) have suggested an alternative. They want a broad-based business tax levied on the gross receipts of banks, homebuilders, car dealers, retail stores and other businesses, which pay nothing now.

Here’s the problem: That alternative won’t fly. First, you’d have to get two-thirds of the Legislature to agree, and those votes unfortunately aren’t there. Second, you’d have to get past a gubernatorial veto, which would surely come. And third, a tax like that in law could be altered by the Legislature at any time, and wouldn’t be as stable a funding source as a guaranteed constitutional income stream. It’s what Harrah’s Vice President Jan Jones meant when she said, "Speaking as a concerned Nevadan, we also have to address the political reality."

We’re sure the teachers union wouldn’t mind where the money came from. If a gross receipts tax could be passed, educators wouldn’t reject the higher salaries, and they probably recognize the inherent fairness of that approach. But they also know that, on the ballot, a casino tax is a lot more popular than a business tax.

Meanwhile, we understand the casino industry’s reluctance to be singled out again and again, because that only invites more people to propose more taxes. It happened in 2003: Casinos offered up a 0.5 percent increase in the top tier of the gross gambling tax, so long as it was part of a package with the business types to come under a gross receipts tax. Business escaped, but casinos didn’t.

Thus, the MGM hard stance.

We’ve long favored a gross receipts tax, and we think it would have been better if the teachers had somehow been able to include that. By the same token, however, we see no practical way that could have been done under the state’s current leadership. You can’t blame either side, really. As one teachers union rep said: "It’s a fucked situation."

That’s one thing we can all agree on.

Not exactly breaking news, we know. But former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is charging in a new book that he was deliberately misled by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney when he was told that top White House officials knew nothing about the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

We can’t wait for April 21, when McClellan’s book — titled WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong with Washington — comes out.

On TV, he plays a dorky, somewhat obnoxious, interruption-prone pundit possessed of a tremendous sense of righteousness. In real life, however, Tucker Carlson loves the whores.

Or at least that’s the story that emerged from my colleague Anjeanette Damon’s blog earlier today, when the eagle-eyed Reno reporter caught Carlson emerging from a limo with Northern Nevada whoremaster Dennis Hof and a couple of his working girls.

Hof was on hand to support Republican presidential contender Ron Paul, who, as Damon insightfully notes, is probably not a big fan of prostitution himself. But what the hell? Their money spends the same as everybody else’s, right? And it’s not like he’s taking cash from, say, Rudy Giuliani or something.

Anyway, buried in the post is this gem:

Paul’s campaign was surprised to see Hof, flanked by two prostitutes, emerge from a limousine outside of Lawlor Events Center this morning. They arrived with MSNBC journalist Tucker Carlton, who has been traveling with Paul for a piece he’s writing for the New Republic. …

"Dennis Hof is a good friend of mine, so when we got to Nevada I decided to call him up and see if he wanted to come check this guy [Paul] out," Carlson said.

Oh, we’re sure you are good friends with Dennis Hof, Mr. Conservative Pundit. Gee, how could they have met, we wonder? Oh, that’s right: Tucker Carlson loves the whores!

(Note: Nothing in this post should be taken as disrespect for the hard-working women who toil in our state’s legal brothels. They do a brave and noble public service and we at Various Things & Stuff firmly believe in free choice. In fact, CityLife accepts advertising from legal brothels, and successfully sued the state for the right to carry such advertising. Props once more to our capable lawyers, Allen Lichtenstein and Lee Rowland of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.)

Now despite the fact that the Reno Gazette Journal obtained photographic proof of Carlson standing with a brothel worker (see link above), we admit that we don’t have actual evidence of unholy congress occurring between the ex-Crossfire host and a hooker. But c’mon, people: Good friends with Dennis Hof? Riding around in limos with him and his girls? A Republican? What more do you need to tell you dude’s a freak?

You know, if Albert Einstein were still around, we’d totally ask him how Gov. Jim Gibbons fits in with his whole general theory of relativity thing. Because while light, gravity and even time aren’t constants in the universe, Gibbons’ ability to pull a political pooch screw most certainly is.

Consider: Gibbons comes out with dire predictions of state revenues, and asks department heads to propose cuts to their budgets. (We don’t know what they said, because the governor, backed by his lawyer, is claiming some phantom deliberative process privilege. The Reno Gazette Journal is suing him over the matter, and good for them. New Republican Assembly Minority Leader Heidi Gansert had this to say: "When the time comes that he makes the cuts, he will give the documents to us." Sure, madam minority leader. After all, you’re only a legislator. What business is the state budget of yours?)

Anyway, Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid refused to make cuts in child welfare programs, saying lives are quite literally on the line. (And good for him, too!) The governor continued to talk about the need for cuts, since he’s absolutely refused to raise taxes.

Gibbons held a summit in Carson City, where Reid once more plead for child welfare to be exempt, the way prisons and public safety budgets are. Gibbons said he would "minimize any impact," on the service, according to the Las Vegas Sun. But afterwards, reporter David McGrath Schwartz wrote, "Gibbons, pressed about child welfare by a gaggle of reporters after the formal hearings, again repeated that no decision is final and would not rule out cuts to child services."

But get this: Less than one week later, Gibbons totally acted surprised when asked about cuts to child welfare. Cuts? What cuts?

"I thought it was understood they would be spared from cuts," said Gibbons.

Well, no, it wasn’t, governor. And you know why? Because you said it wasn’t.

Now, if Gibbons intended to exempt child welfare from the beginning, why not just say so, and avoid all the problems that come when it looks like you’re going to cut funding for kids but keep feeding jailbirds three squares a day? Or, if Reid’s arguments made the difference, why not say so at the summit, and toss a little credit his way?

Instead, Gibbons blithely invented a new reality one day, and acted as if he wasn’t intending from the start to be a total dick when it comes to child funding. And, once more, he looks like a guy for whom politics is a brand new job instead of his primary occupation for more than a decade. 

Gibbons is going to hold child welfare budgets harmless, isn’t he? We only ask because the very next day, Gibbons’ budget director, Andrew Clinger, told the Review-Journal there weren’t blanket exemptions to cuts.

"We have already exempted 47 percent of the budget," he said. "There may be some things we can cut that won’t harm children."

There sure are: How about Gibbons philosophical underpinnings that prevent him from considering a way to bring real stability to state government finance? We could sure do without those.

In the meantime, Gibbons ability to screw up politically remains more consistent than the atomic clock, which at present isn’t counting down nearly fast enough to midnight on Dec. 31, 2010.

You’d think there would be nothing left to write about the Democratic presidential debate that took place at UNLV on Thursday. The national media were here, and the thing was broadcast live on CNN. Yet in all the coverage, there were a couple things missing.

The ridiculous

Nobody, to our knowledge, pointed out that Connecticut U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd was wrong when he declared that presidents take an oath to protect and defend the country from enemies foreign and domestic. The president takes no such oath! For the record, the president’s oath of office is prescribed in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution:

"I [insert name here] do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

 

That’s it, people.

Now there is an oath that mentions enemies, foreign and domestic. Where is that, again? Oh, here it is:

"I [insert name here] do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; that that I will well and faithfully discharge the dutiesof the office on which I am about to enter."

 

(Note: The phrase, "so help me God," is typically added at the end of these oaths, but is not officially prescribed.)

So which oath was Dodd talking about? It’s the oath given to federal officers, members of the military, and, perhaps most telling, the vice president. Was Dodd trying to signal something to somebody, we wonder?

The sublime

Regular readers know we’re big supporters of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, and we think everybody saw why during that debate. While other candidates bickered and argued among themselves, Biden delivered clear, intelligent and thoughtful answers to questions. He lightened the mood when appropriate. And he showed why he was the best candidate on that stage to be nominated for the presidency.

Biden had it right when he said that people don’t care about whether U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or former U.S. Sen. John Edwards was right in their squabbles or not. They don’t care if she said something last week slightly different than this week, or if he couldn’t give a straight answer to a question after he said straight answers are what people want. They care about who can do the job! And Biden can most definitely do the job. (How many of those senators have been on the phone with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf trying to negotiate for democracy, for example?)

But did we hear about Biden’s qualifications? Or anybody’s, for that matter? Not even. The debate coverage focused almost exclusively on Clinton’s supposed rebound and putting Obama and Edwards in their place. Whether national or local, reporters never seemed to stop to ask the key question: What did this debate tell us about who should be the Democratic nominee to be president? Instead, it told us about what the reporters thought of the players, their exits and entrances and many parts. (Oh, and the diamonds or pearls question, which CNN engineered.)

It’s only when you’re listening for substance, or at least as much substance as can be garnered from a format where yes or no answers are demanded, that you realized most of what we saw was sound and fury, signifying nothing. Seriously, people, how do stories about who raised how much money, or who is moving staff to and from a particular state, or how many times a candidate has visited a particular state, tell us about who should be president and why? Answer: They don’t. It’s time to move away from the trivial, and get to the serious, because it’s a serious decision.

Check out the debate again, if you’d like. The New York Times has the video and the transcript. Read it again and tell us if you don’t think — on substance, now, not style — Biden didn’t clean the floor with his opponents. And tell us why he shouldn’t be the next president. Because after seeing the debate and reading the coverage, we sure as hell can’t figure that out.

We’re back from the California wine country, readers, and yes, we did imbibe quite a bit of the fruit of the vine last week. But we understand a thing or two happened in our absence, so let’s get caught up, shall we?

• Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was endorsed by both nutty televangelist Pat Robertson and former Nevada Gov. Robert List, who also endorses dumping nuclear waste in the Silver State. Most surprising is the fact that Giuliani is actually telling people he was endorsed by Robertson and List. You’d think a strategic thinker who singlehandedly saved New York from 9/11 would know better.
  
• "This country has never, ever, I believe, gotten in trouble by exaggerating a threat. We’ve gotten ourselves more into trouble when we underestimate a threat," Giuliani told the Keystone Corp., which by the way is a shadowy Nevada right-wing political group and not a North Carolina real estate concern. Apparently, nobody has told Giuliani about the Alien & Sedition Acts, the suspension of habeus corpus during the Civil War, the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II or the Patriot Act.
  
• "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." — former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We just thought it needed to be said. Again.
  
• The state of Nevada fights the good fight, and ends up losing millions in taxpayer money. Which, you know, might come in handy given the fact that we’re facing a big budget shortfall. Next time, call Ed Bernstein, not the AG.
  
• The state and the Clark County district attorney’s office have to pay the American Civil Liberties Union’s attorney’s fees in that case involving advertising for brothels. (We at Various Things & Stuff were a plaintiff in that case, for full disclosure.) Well, that’s what they get for defending an obviously unconstitutional law. (And good thing they didn’t call Ed Bernstein.)
  
• President George W. Bush formally nominated ex-Assemblyman Greg Brower to be Nevada’s newest U.S. attorney, which reminded us that U.S. Sen. John Ensign never did get fired U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden’s reputation restored, did he? Oh, well, just add it to the list of things that Ensign has never, and will never, accomplish, right along with "winning Senate seats" and "passing good laws."
  
• Clark County — unbelievably — is set to bless the incurable, obscene, unethical and outrageous conflict of interest presented by California attorney Scott W. Gordon. (Gordon represents Clark County in an ongoing legal tussle with Republic Services over cleanup of the shuttered Sunrise Landfill. And he also represents Republic Services in California, a conflict he claims he disclosed to the county in 2000 but which nonetheless took many by surprise.) Instead of following Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani’s very sensible suggestion to fire Gordon immediately, the county’s looking to waive his conflict and allow him to keep representing taxpayers! Oh, man, is it ever time to call Ed Bernstein!
  

UPDATE: The county put off blessing the incurable, obscene, unethical and outrageous conflict of interest presented by California attorney Scott W. Gordon, in order to get a legal opinion from the State Bar of California. Why, you ask, is the county not filing an ethics complaint with the State Bar of California instead, given that nobody knew about Gordon’s conflicts until recently? That’s a good question. Another good question is why the county didn’t hire a pit-bull attorney here in town, since we’ve heard there are a few. And yet another good question is how do we really know there are such things as tachyons, but now we’re getting off the subject.

We at Various Things & Stuff aren’t actually members of the Writers Guild of America, so technically, we’re not on strike. We totally empathize with our brothers and sisters in the writerly community, however, and wish them success on the picket line. Go Writers Guild of America!

Readers, we’ve just been informed by the Mysterious People Who Run the Blogs that we’ll be changing servers sometime in the next couple of days.

Our own Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added his voice to the chorus of those opposing President George W. Bush’s nomination of former federal judge Michael Mukasey to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Here’s Reid’s statement on the matter:

"I was profoundly disturbed by statements Judge Michael Mukasey made during his confirmation hearings concerning executive power, and about the legality of the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique. As a result, I cannot in good conscience vote to approve his nomination to be attorney general of the United States.
 
"I do not believe this is a difficult or complex legal question; waterboarding is illegal under current law. After World War II, the U.S. prosecuted and convicted Japanese soldiers for engaging in this practice. Senators [John] McCain, [Lindsey] Graham and [John] Warner – who have served as leaders in the U.S. Senate on this issue, recently issued a detailed legal analysis unambiguously concluding that waterboarding ‘represents a clear violation of U.S. law,’ that Congress has repeatedly outlawed. Further, former and sitting Judge Advocates Generals [sic] agree that waterboarding is illegal. On Friday, in a letter to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, several prominent former Judge Advocate Generals [sic] declared unequivocally: ‘Waterboarding is inhumane, it is torture, and it is illegal… Waterboarding detainees amounts to illegal torture in all circumstances.’
 
"I respect Judge Mukasey and believe he is an intelligent, capable man.  If he is confirmed, I believe he will take steps to depoliticize the Department of Justice and to help restore the integrity and credibility that was so lacking under his predecessor, Attorney General Gonzales. However, given our recent history, it is of crucial importance that our next attorney general be able to stand up to the president and for the rule of law. Because I am not confident that Judge Mukasey will, I will oppose his nomination."