Many Nevadans depend on cowboy festival Re: “Dems rush to save cowboy poetry and other boondoggles,” editorial, March 10
I got a good laugh out of your editorial decrying Harry Reid for trying to defend a cowboy poetry festival in his state. I am certain this refers to the Western Folklife Association gathering held annually in Elko, a place that Lowell Thomas once called “the last cowtown.”
Well, Elko — the only town of any real size in northern Nevada — is a cowtown no longer. Its stores, restaurants and motels count on the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, as it is known, for much of their annual income.
What is so amusing to someone like me, who has actually been to Elko, is that the population is overwhelmingly conservative Republicans. But if the Gathering disappears, folks are going to be pretty angry, and their target won’t be Harry Reid.
Jack Purdy
Baltimore
Obama leads the nation, but in the wrong direction
Re: “Democrats: Obama ‘failed to lead’ on budget talks,” March 9
Two Democratic senators expressed disappointment with President Obama “failing to lead” in resolving the nation’s fiscal crisis. Obama is leading, but he’s leading the country into bankruptcy.
The president continues to spend at an unsustainable rate and on unnecessary and inappropriate organizations such as National Public Radio, despite NPR’s president saying that federal funding is unnecessary and expressing extreme bias toward Christians. Obama also wants to continue funding Planned Parenthood even though that organization was shown to be willing to support sex-trafficking of young girls.
A government report recently showed that billions are being wasted through duplication of projects, but Obama is ignoring the report and continuing the waste.
John Naughton
Silver Spring
Obamacare should be fast-tracked to Supreme Court
Re: “Obamacare ranks with Prohibition, 55 mph speed limit,” editorial March 9
Why is Article 3, Section 2, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution not the vehicle by which to fast-track Obamacare to the U.S. Supreme Court?
It states: “In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.” Seems straightforward and unambiguous to me as a layman.
I have posed the same question via e-mail to many of the governors and attorneys general of the states that filed the lawsuit on which Judge Vinson ruled, getting back only the usual form letter thanking me for my inquiry.
As your editorial concluded, “Obamacare should go before the nation’s highest tribunal, and the sooner that happens, the better it will be for everybody concerned.” Somebody needs to knock the dust off the Constitution.
Louis Goodwin Jr.
Cordova, Tenn.
