Mayor Oscar Goodman is on tv right now trying to explain that Obama, when he said that businessmen should not be going to Vegas on taxpayer’s money, actually confused people and made them think they should not go to Vegas at all, and it is a firm reminder that no matter how hard they try, Republicans are not the only ones pushing idiocy.
Also, is the color on my tv going, or was Mayor Goodman’s nose blue?
JenJen
Obviously, what we’re all supposed to get here is that Obama hates Vegas. Quite the zinger.
Zuzu's Petals
I heard he’s also looking for an apology from Obama.
I’ll bet Lear Jet Inc. also wants an apology from Obama – and Congress! – for criticizing all those companies spending bailout money on their products.
Laura W
If the front flap of Fineman’s hair was orange on your teevee, it’s fine.
Stuck
Me hearts Rachel Maddow:)
gbear
Well I think the lesson here is that if you or I were personally staying in a luxury hotel in Las Vegas using taxpayer money, we should possibly reconsider. Maybe Goodman thinks that’s what everyone is doing…
Personally, I’ve never gone anywhere more exotic than Bemidji using taxpayer money, but then I work for the state govt and had to go visit a project.
Update: the most exotic thing about Bemidji is that the Dunn Brother’s coffee shop has free internet access. That plus you can currently by-pass downtown by driving on Lake Bemidji
Stuck
I don’t know what this thread is about.
Litlebritdifrnt
OT ( but I am sure John will appreciate this) best military recruitment ad EVAH! Royal Marines Ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f8mG4KvqMw&feature=related Dammnit I was in the Navy and I would want to join the Royal Marines after that ad, but they don’t accept women (quite rightly) so I am done.
jenniebee
Usually, the maxim is that No Publicity is Bad Publicity. Las Vegas is a special case in that in the case of Las Vegas, it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between good and bad publicity.
ronathan richardson
Ah, Oscar Goodman, the kind of thug who threatens to beat Bob Herbert with a baseball bat. I’m anticipating a coming libertarian argument that legalizing prostitution will cure the recession.
Zifnab25
Vegas needs bailouts too.
Stuck
And I just heard Barney Frank come out of the closet and say the "liberal" word on national teevee. Oh noes, Are we in a backward time loopety loop. Where IS Superman anyways?
gbear
Ahh, my hero. (swoons)
joe from Lowell
Zuzu’s Petals,
You jest.
If there weren’t libertarians, we’d have to invent them.
joe from Lowell
You know what I don’t want to hear from the Mayor Las Vegas?
Whining about jokes. You’re the Mayor of Las Vegas fer chrissakes!
Stuck
@gbear:
I said it in a thread the other day. Barney ought to be the permanent TV dem congresscritter for teevee. He’s the only one who knows how to talk like dems aren’t afraid of their own shadows. The rest should stfu and listen and learn.
cleek
dude, did you just get poached ??
maxbaer (not the original)
I’ve heard the expression blue nose, but I don’t think the mayor of Las Vegas would be one.
Laura W
@Stuck: Hey now…Claire McCaskill has her game face on a lot lately too.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I liked this one better.
the other Steve
If I’m staying in Vegas on the taxpayer dime it’ll be mandalay bay not the luxor.
Zifnab25
@ronathan richardson: Well, we’ve been chanting "tax weed" around here for about as long as I can remember. This is a fairly libertarian-minded crowd of blog readers in that respect.
Brick Oven Bill
Oscar Goodman. Now this is a Mayor. He tells the fourth grade class that if he were stranded on a desert island, he would like to bring Bombay gin and a showgirl. But Oscar cannot help Las Vegas. I agree with the President, Las Vegas sucks.
If you want to go to Nevada, here are the two places to go, Elko and Ely. I recommend Stockmans in Elko and Hotel Nevada in Ely.
If you stay at Hotel Nevada, ask for the John Schneider room. It is an extra ten bucks ($45 total) but you get glasses of wine upon arrival. I have signed my name to the long list of guests in that room. They have a really good restaurant off the casino, so you can just stay in the hotel. There is a special that is something like 2 T-Bone steaks, and six beers, for twenty bucks.
Go to Garnet Hill in the morning, and you can find lots of garnets in a very beautiful setting.
In Elko, the place to eat is The Star, across from Stockmans, where you should stay and gamble. This is, no kidding, the best meal I think I have ever eaten. It is around twenty bucks. While you are waiting, try a Pican.
Stuck
@Laura W:
I basically like Claire, but she’s a Blue Dog Dem moderate. They get paid to compromise simply for the sake of compromising, And I am not against compromise when it’s done sensibly, and not just for appearance sake. When she says the word "liberal" on TV then I’ll clap.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
I agree it was dead cool, I have been youtubing all of them and they are brilliant to be honest, who ever came up with that ad campaign is worthy of praise to be honest, it is stellar. It made ME want to join the Royal Marines…..
Zifnab25
@Brick Oven Bill: Oh my god, please stop wanking all over the boards. No one fucking cares.
Comrade Kevin
Next up, BOB’s reviews of Jackpot, West Wendover and Laughlin.
Brick Oven Bill
My guess Zifnab, is that you could use the cool mountain air of Garnet Hill, crawling along the hillside with a rock hammer, prospecting for beautiful garnets. This is a deeply fulfilling physical activity, that you can bring a date along to, which emits no greenhouse gases. Ely is much better than Las Vegas.
Stop being a ninny.
There is nothing recommended in Laughlin, West Wendover, or Jackpot, other than amateurs from out of state. Ely and Elko are populated with ranchers and miners. These are the places to go.
That Anonymous Guy
"Ely and Elko are populated with ranchers and miners."
How can you bring up Ely and Elko without mentioning hookers? Both are home to a couple of legal brothels, if memory serves correctly. Now there’s a unique tourism draw.
That Anonymous Guy
And yes, John, Mayor Goodman’s nose WAS blue. The dude has a $100,000 endorsement deal with Bombay Sapphire, and is usually sauced by noon on most work days.
Once, while speaking to a group of fourth graders, Goodman was asked what he’d want if he was stranded on a desert island and could have only one thing.
Goodman told the kid he’d like a bottle of gin.
pseudonymous in nc
jenniebee wins the thread.
Oscar Goodman is good for what he’s good for, which is selling Vegas on television, and one thing Vegas is good for is the deductible junket.
I bet they have an injunction out on BoB.
Brick Oven Bill
I don’t pay for it, but have worked in the vicinity of the business.
They are independent contractors, used to make a very good living, and give a percentage to the house. Prices are way, way down. Last datapoint, down 80%.
Zuzu's Petals
@joe from Lowell:
Oh my word.
Zuzu's Petals
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Ah, but they do accept gays, correct? In which case Americans might learn something from those ads.
TheHatOnMyCat
BOB googles Nevada and cuts and pastes his great discoveries here!
BOB goes to Nevada so you don’t have to.
Brick Oven Bill
Hon, I know Nevada.
TheHatOnMyCat
Maybe, but I know spoof, sweetheart.
Rome Again
I’m sorry BOB but after having been a Vegas resident for nine years, you can keep Ely and Elko. I’ll go back to Vegas anytime.
You go ahead and stay in your rancher paradise while I eat the prime rib specials and check out all the Cirque shows.
Rome Again
Umm BOB? TZ is my honey, not yours. Sorry, you’re not his type.
Brick Oven Bill
But I did have a memorable night in Black Canyon City, back in 2005. There was an evening in a joint to the east of I-17, that was named after some large rodent. We talked construction back then when we were all geniuses. I cannot remember the name of that rodent.
Rome Again
@Brick Oven Bill:
I don’t think business is as bad as you say. The Pussycat in Winnemucca is currently renovating and expanding.
TheHatOnMyCat
Was it the Rat’s Ass?
The one nobody gives about your google wanderings?
Brick Oven Bill
This is because the dollar is disintegrating and the suppression of gold is failing Rome Again. The American West has a bright future.
Gold; Nevada
Shale Oil; Utah, Wyoming, Colorado
The professions need to hang in there.
Stuck
LOL. You know some people here think your crazy BoB. Me, I think you just swallowed a dictionary and had the notion to spoof.
That Anonymous Guy
Cirque’s going strong, but they cancel Frank Marino’s drag show at the Riviera. Is this really a Vegas we want to live in?
Rome Again
La Cage was getting too old anyway, everyone has seen it more than enough times. I was in the audience on New Years Eve 1994/95 (while I was six months pregnant – that’s how I remember the year so well).
I also knew a stagehand who worked on that show. He died a short time after I met him. He’s been deceased for about fifteen years now.
El Cid
Since when did Balloon-Juice become the new repository for Letters from a Nut?
OriGuy
Pretty soon all of the shows on the Strip will run by Cirque du Soleil. It’s a French-Canadian plot to take over the USA, starting with Las Vegas. They’ve got the Beatles, they’ve got Criss Angel, pretty soon they’ll have The Amazing Johnathan.
They’ll put him in Spandex.
It won’t be pretty.
Glocksman
Jeezus, am I the only one who saw the Mayor’s name and thought of Oscar Goldman?
I’m really showing my age here.
Further showing my age, when I lucked out and managed to score a Close Up foundation trip to Washington DC back in 1985, the tour guide pointed at one of the Congressional office buildings and said ‘That’s where Oscar Goldman’s office is, and the window zeroed in on was actually that of a restroom’.
I don’t know if it’s true, but it was a funny anecdote nonetheless.
Steeplejack
I can’t help it, but when I read BOB’s stuff I hear John Candy as Mayor Tommy Shanks from SCTV. It helps a little.
Also this is a test of the quoting facilities.
Sasquatch
Oscar Goodman… Wasn’t he Colonel Steve Austin’s boss?
DMG
BOB – here’s the thing. If I want to hang out with ranchers & miners, I’ll just stay in Arizona.
Rome Again
@OriGuy:
French-Canadians must be very entertaining people. I have no problem with that.