Readers, things are getting busy around here, and we don’t mean local elected officials burning up that series of tubes that we know as the Internet. No, there’s a bunch of fun stuff going on that we’ll unfortunately miss, since we’ll be out of town. (But don’t cry for us, Argentina. We’ll be in wonderful Napa Valley on our honeymoon!)

But for those of you who are stuck in Las Vegas, check out the following:

Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m., Northwest Community Church, 7310 Smoke Ranch Road, Suite K: The Las Vegas Steering Committee of the Human Rights Campaign and the Northwest Community Church will team up to present a public discussion on faith and how their congregations can embrace the gay community. Panelists scheduled to appear include Rabbi Felipe Goodman of Temple Beth Sholom, the Rev. Kent Belmore of Christ Church Episcopal, the Rev. David Gillentine of the Metropolitan Community Church, Deb Hillgartner of the Unitarian Universalist Church and Pastor David Krueger-Duncan of the Northwest Community Church. The discussion will be moderated by my colleague Erin Neff of the Review-Journal.

Nov. 14, 7 p.m., Doc Rando Recital Hall, Beam Music Center on the UNLV Campus: The Black Mountain Institute will sponsor a lecture titled "The (Failed?) State of American Politics: An Election-Year Assessment." State Sen. Dina Titus (also a UNLV political science professor) will moderate the discussion, with panelists Aaron Brown, the former CNN anchor; Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker; and George Packer, New Yorker staff writer and Iraq correspondent.

Oh, and if your brain can handle some extra intellectualism, drop by the Moyer Student Union building’s Room 208A at noon Nov. 14 to hear the Cities of Asylum Las Vegas resident writer, Monorio Ravanipour. She’ll discuss her adjustment to living in America as part of UNLV’s International Education Week.

Nov. 15, 5 p.m., Thomas & Mack Center: CNN and the Nevada Democratic Party will sponsor a debate among Democratic contenders for president. It’s one of only six debates officially sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, and will be hosted by CNN’s own Wolf Blitzer. We, of course, are totally unbiased when we announce that Delaware U.S. Sen. Joe Biden will win the contest handily. (Did we write that out loud?)

Nov. 15, 6 p.m., Paris hotel-casino: The Clark County Democratic Party will host its annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, with a cocktail hour and big-screen televisions to watch the presidential debate on CNN that will be taking place that very moment at UNLV. Tickets are $125 for members, $175 for non-members. Personally, we think the best way to enjoy a presidential debate is with a cocktail in hand. Hell, maybe the candidates should be drinking, too!

UPDATE: According to the county party, every single Democratic presidential candidate has agreed — following the UNLV debate — to attend the Jefferson Jackson dinner and speak to the assembled masses, all of whom should be good and toasted by then. We expect some serious audience participation, if you know what we mean.

It’s an action-packed week, we tell you. We don’t know how we’ll get by without it. Oh, yes, we do! Wine, baby. Lots of delicious California wine. Enjoy!

Normally, we just delete the 10,321 news releases we get on a daily basis that we know we’re not going to use. But today, one caught our eye: A big coffee chain boasting about besting a lot of other coffee chains. We thought it illustrative of the coffee capitalist mindset in Las Vegas.

Take a gander:

THE COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF® STANDING STRONG IN LAS VEGAS
SINCE FIRST OPENING IN 2002 AS OTHERS FALL BY THE WAY SIDE.
Las Vegas Coffee Wars

LAS VEGAS—November 5, 2007—The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®—America’s oldest and largest privately-held retail specialty coffee and tea company—remains strong after five years in the Las Vegas market.

Operated in Las Vegas by Las Vegas Coffee Investors, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® currently offers residents and visitors their signature coffee, tea and Ice Blended® drinks at 14 locations throughout the city and surrounding areas.

The company’s first Las Vegas store opened in May 2002 at the Palms Casino Resort and has proven to stand out among competitors. The President of Las Vegas Coffee Investors Phil Patent accredits this success to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® products’ “highest quality bean” resulting in the “best coffee on the planet. When we entered the coffee arena, the only other player was Starbucks”.

Since 2002, other chains like Jitters® have come and gone, Saxbys® a new comer in the market already closed one, The Coffee Beanery® and It’s A Grind® have open and closed almost all of their locations. In fact, It’s A Grind® initially announced that 27 new locations would open in Las Vegas within five years. However, currently only five locations exist in the city that never sleeps. Much of the same demise occurred for The Coffee Beanery® despite their expansion plans. Today, The Coffee Beanery® only has one location left in Las Vegas.

What is unique about The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® it is a locally owned franchise, not a franchise with individual owners. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® is “Simply the Best” which is demonstrated by being small enough to care and be responsive to their guests’ requests and large enough to be selective on site locations and team members. According to Patent, “We do not skimp on our products and we deliver our guests handcrafted customized drinks!”

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® entered the Las Vegas market five years ago and has created an enormous following. “The support from this city has been overwhelming, with each of our locations seeing an average of 4,000 guests per week. We could not have predicted numbers like that when we opened our first shop five years ago,” says Phil Patent of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® achievements. “It has us very excited about what the next five years will bring!”

What is in store next for the coffee lovers of Las Vegas? Patent reveals the company’s plan to expand The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® locations even further. By the year 2012, a totalof 28 stores has been projected in the Las Vegas area, double what currently stands now.

In addition to providing residents and guests with outstanding beverages, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® stands out among competitors by helping the community. Las Vegas Coffee Investors and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf®’s Las Vegas stores have been, and will continue to be, involved with a range of local charitable initiatives, benefiting local non-profit organizations and individuals. Some of these have included MADD, MDA, Toni Tanase Foundation, American Heart Association, HELP of Southern Nevada, and the American Heart Institute, among others.

We do our best to give back to this community that has taken such great care of us,” Patent said. “We’re committed to reaching out to those in need in our community, and that is one thing about us that will never change. I’m personally very proud of what we’ve been able to do to help positive causes on a local level—not only financially, but also by raising awareness and by encouraging other local businesses to get involved with making our city, and the world, a better place.”

Yes, by driving out other coffee chains, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf® has sure made our world a better place. We feel so happy and warm inside, just knowing that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf® is around to make our city, and the world, a better place. And we’ll be thinking about the chain’s ambitious reach (all the way to 28 stores!) when we stop in at one of the 240 Starbucks locations currently operating in the state of Nevada.

Wait, did we say 240? Well, ain’t that a bitch? Just when you think you’ve won the coffee wars, there’s another giant chain that comes along and steals the show.

Think you’ve read all there is to read? Oh, no, you haven’t! How about some Quick Hits?

• Former mob lawyer Oscar Goodman, honored by a federal law enforcement group? Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith called that a "long shot" and Goodman a "gazillion-to-one underdog" to snag props from federal cops, "…the people who doggedly pursued Goodman and his mob clients for 30 years." And Smith was right! It was a long shot! That’s because the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation is not run by people who doggedly pursued Goodman and his clients. Rather, it’s a private foundation run by businessmen (most in real estate) who offer scholarships and honor cops and federal agents killed in the line of duty. One even has a local connection.
  
• The House Friday passed an 8 percent royalty on new hard-rock mining operations, and a 4 percent royalty on existing ones. The money raised will be used to clean up old mines. How does environmentalist U.S. Sen. Harry Reid stand on this pro-environment proposal? Against it, of course! He instead proposes a smaller royalty, say 1 or 2 percent, under the "Nevada formula." You know, the one that lets mines sometimes skip out on paying anything at all. Oh, Reid’s so green, we just can’t stand it!
  
• What? Al From, the founder and CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, tells the Las Vegas Sun that "If all we do is what the interest groups [read -- liberal bloggers] want, we end up with a candidate like [Walter] Mondale."
  
• This just in! Mondale endorses From’s favorite candidate, Hillary Clinton!
  
• Even more incredibly, From tells our colleague Jon Ralston that the centrist, DLC-backed approach [read -- like Republicans, only slightly less dickish] is "the only way to keep your soul … if you demagogue and play to their [voters'] fears, I don’t consider that saving their soul." Wow: Politics as a way to save souls? The DLC has just moved to the far Christian right, too!
  
• The Ralston column reminds us of an old quote: "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" For the DLC, the answer is an address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
  

Once again, our Reno-loving colleague Anjeanette Damon has a scoop, and it’s this: Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio isn’t going to attend Gov. Jim Gibbons summit on potential cuts to the state budget on Wednesday.

So what gives? Has Raggio given up hope that Gibbons can see reason? (Did Raggio ever believe that Gibbons could see reason to begin with? If so, that’s so totally adorable. But wrong.) Or is he resigned that cuts will be made, and doesn’t want to be a part of it? Or does he just hate chicken salad? (Apparently, that’s the governor’s favorite, as reported today by the Las Vegas Sun in a story we can’t seem to find online.)

You may have missed this item in Sunday’s Review-Journal business section, but everybody should take a moment to read the remarks of one J. Terrence Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage. It seems he’s encouraging Gov. Jim Gibbons to abandon his campaign promise not to raise taxes.

"Any economist will tell you that it’s bad government to rely on one industry," Lanni says. (He’s referring to a pair of proposed ballot initiatives that could raise the top tier of the casino tax, to somewhere ranging from 9.75 percent to as much as 18 or 20 percent.)

And again: "I think the governor should withdraw that [no taxes] position because that’s not necessarily sound government policy. It’s just not sound fiscal policy to tax one industry and put all your eggs in one basket. You’re banking our education system on the health of one industry and if there is a downturn, you have serious problems."

You know, Lanni’s right. It is bad fiscal policy to just tax gaming. It is stupid to rely on one tourism dependent industry to fund state government. We are screwed when it comes to an economic downturn. And Lanni deserves credit for saying so, something he’s been doing since at least 2003.

You know what else Lanni deserves credit for doing? Electing the anti-tax ideologue Gibbons in the first place! For somebody who’s smart enough to run a huge, multi-billion casino industry, Lanni sure made one of the stupidest calls of his career in the 2006 election.

Because you see, Lanni didn’t just give more than $100,000 to Gibbons out of MGM Mirage coffers. He didn’t just throw fundraisers for Gibbons in The Mansion, the super-sweet exclusive area of the MGM Grand. He didn’t just encourage all of his contractors to donate to Gibbons. He didn’t just send the signal to other segments of the industry that Gibbons was the best guy for the job. 

He gave only to Gibbons.

That’s right: Departing from past practice, Lanni didn’t hedge his bets and toss some money to Democratic state Sen. Dina Titus, who pretty much everybody can now see would have made a better governor. Not a dime. Not a penny.

So when Lanni now surveys the landscape and sees a pair of initiatives targeting him, and woefully bleats that Gibbons should abandon his pledge and tax other people before the pitchfork-and-torch-wielding electorate votes to tax his sorry ass, he’s got only himself and his ridiculously short-sighted decision to blame.

Because it’s not like Gibbons hid his aversion to taxes on the campaign trail. No, he was pretty open about it. In fact, it was the only real campaign promise that he ever made. And now, Gibbons is doing something amazing in politics: He’s sticking to his guns. Sure, it’s a stupid promise that’s hurting the state, as Gibbons has opted to cut the budget instead of looking for a more stable tax system that would better withstand downturns. But the guy made a promise, and he’s not throwing it to the wind. In a bizarre sort of way, he ought to get some credit for that.

(And don’t think for a second that if he abandoned his anti-tax stance — the way pundits like us at Various Things and Stuff think he should, for the good of Nevada — we would hesitate for a nanosecond to immediately call him a flip-flopper.)

But even if Gibbons didn’t get his message through to Lanni, Titus definitely made it clear that Gibbons no-tax pledge could come back to hurt the gambling industry. And so it has. She’s too polite and politically astute to say "I told you so, jerkoff" out loud, however.

But we’re not. So when Lanni looks for somebody to blame for the mess he’s in, he shouldn’t look at Titus. He shouldn’t look at Gibbons, either, because Gibbons is doing exactly what he said he’d do.

He should look in the damn mirror and tell himself that it’s his responsibility next time to elect somebody who isn’t a throwback ideologue with a bumper-sticker philosophy that’s a real bitch when it comes to actually governing in reality.

And then he should start thinking about what he’s going to tell his shareholders when they ask why that governor he bought isn’t doing anything to keep the taxman from their door. We’re thinking that might come up.

We just don’t get it.

We’ve had nearly seven years of President George W. Bush, whose "election" in 2000 was most likely invalid. (Read all about it here before you call or write in to bitch.) During that time, we’ve seen:

• Cherry-picked intelligence (at best) and outright lies (at worst) used to justify an unjustifiable war on a country that never attacked us.
  
• An incompetent, bungled occupation of a nation, which could have been (and, in fact, was) easily foreseen by the White House.
  
• Crimes against the Constitution, specifically warrantless wiretapping (in violation of the Fourth Amendment), illegal detentions (in violation of the Fifth Amendment), and the abandonment of treaties to which the United States is a signatory (in violation of Article 6).
  
• Torture — a notoriously unreliable method of extracting information — practiced by authorities with the consent of the president, who has subsequently lied to the American people about whether it is practiced.
  
• Rendition of certain terrorist suspects to countries that also practice torture, for the purpose of evading U.S. law.
  
• Government incompetence, to the extent that an entire U.S. city fell victim to a natural disaster right under the nose of federal authorities, with lethal consequences.
  
• The diminution of the image, reputation and respect of the United States around the world.
  
• An economic scheme that has seen the most well-off receive relief from the federal government while the most needy (people on Medicare, students, minimum-wage workers, sick children) are ignored.
  
• An abortive attempt to privatize Social Security.
  

And the list could go on.

We just don’t get it.