Harry Reid’s latest hypocritical lecture

To the editor:

So, Sen. Harry Reid doesn’t think Danny Tarkanian is qualified to serve in the House of Representatives because Mr. Tarkanian may be facing bankruptcy, and that would be “embarrassing” for Nevadans (Tuesday Review-Journal)?

I don’t think Sen. Reid knows what it is like to be embarrassed. If he were ever to look back at some of the wild and unsubstantiated accusations he has made when somebody told him something, he would hide his face and never again appear in public. There isn’t a lot that comes out of his mouth that is believable.

The leader of the U.S. Senate, which hasn’t passed a budget in 3½ years, is helping to push the country over a fiscal cliff, and he feels he is qualified to lecture Mr. Tarkanian about personal financial responsibility? Of course, the past financial indiscretions of Steven Horsford, Mr. Tarkanian’s opponent, can be overlooked because he is a Democrat.

I’m a Nevadan and I am embarrassed, not because of Danny Tarkanian, but because I am represented in the U.S. Senate by a man who has proved himself over and over again to be one of the biggest hypocrites I have ever seen.

Bill Dirkse

Las Vegas

Tabloid fodder

To the editor:

I agree 100 percent with Friday’s letter by Christopher Gerst about the Sun City Summerlin hoarder.

So sad. That’s just the way I felt when I saw the story on the front page – the only column I ever saw by Jane Ann Morrison on the front page of the Review-Journal.

Shame on you, Ms. Morrison. I used to enjoy your columns.

Maybe we missed her reason for writing a “news story” so hurtful and detailed about a man clearly suffering. She may be angling for a job on the National Enquirer.

PAULA M. WATSON

LAS VEGAS

Speaking of hypocrites

To the editor:

I’d like to respond to Cecilia Aldana, who was featured in the Review-Journal Oct. 11 for her efforts recruiting the Hispanic vote for Republicans.

Ms. Aldana admitted that she got amnesty during President Reagan’s administration, yet she promotes a party that opposes the Dream Act. So she got amnesty, but she is OK with young immigrants not getting the Dream Act?

Additionally, she owns a business that handles billing and administration for Guadalupe Health Clinics, which mostly support and serve uninsured, low-income and undocumented Latinos, most of whom are only able to pay their medical bills with government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare – programs her party wants to eliminate.

In fact, the Republican agenda does not support any programs that serve this demographic. Talk about being out of touch.

Michelle Booth

Las Vegas

Ignorant of science

To the editor:

One charitable thing can be said regarding the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology: the Republican-led committee mirrors the general public when it comes to American ignorance regarding science.

We have among this brain trust multiple climate change deniers, an adult man who doesn’t quite get that whole sperm-meets-egg thing when a rape occurs, and now a medical doctor who distrusts our collective knowledge regarding evolution, embryology and the Big Bang (“Congressman calls evolution lie from ‘pit of hell,’ ” Oct. 7).

What does it mean for a medical doctor to include the discipline of embryology among his list of “lies straight from the pit of hell”? Does he think there’s a divine Jello-mold in there? The good Dr. Paul Broun earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1967 and his medical degree in 1971. Perhaps it is time for the House to require members of the science committee to take some refresher courses.

WILLIAM R. FOUTS

LAS VEGAS

Jobless math

To the editor:

The Labor Department said the nation’s unemployment rate slid to 7.8 percent last month, but employers added only 114,000 jobs in September. Although job growth in the third quarter did come from a surge in the number of people taking part-time jobs because full-time jobs were not available, the government’s rate drop in September is at least misleading.

In September, 2.5 million people who had said they wanted to work and had searched for a job within the past year were not counted as unemployed, because they had not officially looked for work in the past month. An additional 3.3 million people say they want a job, but they haven’t officially looked in more than a year, which also excludes them from the government’s unemployed totals. By any measure, there are millions of people who want to work but aren’t formally counted among the Labor Department’s unemployed.

Of those counted by the Labor Department as unemployed, 4.8 million people have been seeking work for more than six months. Unemployed workers are more likely to stop looking than find a job. Fewer than one in five officially jobless workers found any job last month, illustrating the poor prospects for the Labor Department’s counted 12 million unemployed workers.

For those who prefer to believe the Labor Department’s unemployment rate, please recognize that this number is based upon a smaller and more volatile survey than the main payroll figures. Keith Hall, who served as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2008 until 2012, said in an Oct. 5 Wall Street Journal interview that the significant improvement in the unemployment rate may reflect normal statistical errors in the sampling process.

DON AHNGER

HENDERSON