Posted on 01/16/2007 9:35:04 AM PST by Hildy
BULLHEAD CITY - It's not often that the discussion of a TV show is placed on the Bullhead City Council agenda in the form of a public hearing, but that's what's in store for tonight's meeting.
The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the council chamber at City Hall. The very last item on the agenda is discussion and possible action regarding the Fox News Channel program “Hannity's America” which aired Jan. 7.
A segment of the program featured a story on the proposed second bridge between Bullhead City and Laughlin, charging that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) would benefit financially from the new bridge.
That accusation has officials on both sides of the river worried that such publicity could impede efforts to get more federal and state funding to build the bridge.
Bullhead City Mayor Diane Vick saw the program. “I felt it was very inappropriate,” she said. “In fact (the next morning) I sent an e-mail to Mr. Hannity explaining to him that he did not have the facts, that it was entirely wrong and I ended it with saying something to the effect of ‘Shame on you, Mr. Hannity ... what you accuse the far left of doing you are now doing' ... “
Vick said she was a fan of the nightly program Hannity & Colmes on the Fox News Channel “ ... and I was actually hoping that we would receive a response because I do know that (Council member) Larry Sinagoga sent an e-mail. The City Manager sent an e-mail,” she said, “and I was really hoping we'd have some kind of response by now but we have not as far as I know.”
Fox bills itself as “Fair and Balanced,” Vick said. “It was not fair and it was not balanced.”
Vick asked how Reid could benefit financially “ ... when we haven't even picked out a site.”
In other council business, a public hearing will address possible approval to transfer $3.6 million from the General Fund Contingency to complete the East/West Corridor project.
There will be a discussion during a public hearing to consider forming a Youth Advisory Commission, to highlight the concerns of the city's young people regarding certain issues that come before the council.
Quarterly reports will be given by Mike Conner, president and CEO of the Bullhead Area Chamber of Commerce and Richard Adams, Bullhead Regional Economic Development Authority director.
Bullhead City Hall is located at 1255 Marina Blvd.
I'm saying report the truth. The bridge was being talked about for a long time. It didn't come out of Harry Reid's imagination.
How was your 15 minutes of fame?
Then pay for it yourself.
Hannity has been known to stretch things. But don't blame it on Fox News in general. I doubt seriously if Roger Ailes personally approved the reporting.
I don't even know what that is supposed to mean. My point was not about the pork, which I have been against from day one. I let everyone here know about it when it first happened and said it was wrong for any local projects to be in that bill. So why can't they report it like that? Why do they have to report it like politicians are stuffing their pockets with imaginary projects. I don't like any news media lying about something to back up their agenda. Fox News is guilty on that end.
Reid also stands to directly benefit financially from the bridge, since he owns land on the other side. The Dems had no problem saying that Denny Hastert was going to benefit from Illinois Highway dollars. So this is just a dose of their own medicine.
As others have said, if the bridge is that vital, states can come up with the funding.
I agree with you 100%. It was the way it was reported that was wrong. That's all I'm saying.
If it is so wonderful why pay with federal dollars?
Why bury it in the bottom of a must pass bill?
Fox News isn't the only one reporting this angle:
Will the pork stop here? Reid pledges change, but he pushed funding that may benefit him.
By Chuck Neubauer and Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writers November 13, 2006
WASHINGTON — Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vows to make reform of congressional earmarks a priority of his tenure, arguing that members need to be more transparent when they load pet projects for their districts into federal spending bills.
But last year's huge $286-billion federal transportation bill included a little-noticed slice of pork pushed by Reid that provided benefits not only for the casino town of Laughlin, Nev., but also, possibly, for the senator himself.
Reid called funding for construction of a bridge over the Colorado River, among other projects, "incredibly good news for Nevada" in a news release after passage of the 2005 transportation bill. He didn't mention, though, that just across the river in Arizona, he owns 160 acres of land several miles from proposed bridge sites and that the bridge could add value to his real estate investment.
-snip-
But some Bullhead City property owners and local officials say a new bridge will undoubtedly hike land values in an already-booming commuter town, where speculators are snapping up undeveloped land for housing developments and other projects. Experts on congressional spending say Reid's earmark provides yet another sign of the need for reform.
And there is the issue in a nutshell. Regardless of what FNC or anybody else says, these people really start to sweat when the $$$$ is threatened.
During the Hannity piece, they showed a reporter driving the highway to the "gridlocked" bridge during "rush hour". It appeared almost deserted. Maybe a relief bridge could help on Sunday afternoon to accomodate the tourists crossing from AZ to the NV casinos, but other than that, there doesn't appear to be any great need.
No,,,,It was Hannity.....
He is always over the top on a lot of issues, and FOX is not responsible for his flawed analysis, any more than CNN. This is how Hannity gets his audience.
Let Hannity explain himself.
"Stop it all then."
AMEN!!! AMEN!!!Stopping all pork barrel spending is fine with me as well. I live in Tucson Arizona and we just spent 32 million dollars on a bridge that rips the undercarriage off your car when you go over it. The schmucks that built it used a little 2 foot wide pile of asphalt to ramp cars up and down onto the bridge. Put another way. The bridge is 4-6 inches higher than the pavement leading up to it. Hitting the bridge at 40 miles an hour will jar the teeth right out of your head and scare the sh*t out of you. 32 million dollars? Please. I think I've had my fill of bridges. As with the NEA's (both of them), Post Office, BATF, DEA and all other bureaucratic sinkholes I'm tired of having my money removed from my possession when I have no say in how it's spent.
Defend our borders and nation. After than leave all spending to local and state governments.
JMHO
Supposedly the camera was there during "rush hour" and it did show a nearly empty bridge.
Here in NM some of us are fighting the same battle of our tax dollars being spent unwisely -- Bill Richardson is spending 390 million plus for a railroad to do what the adjacent interstate does. The interstate is clogged at times but instead of widening the four-lane highway built in the 1960's with a speed limit of 65-75 mph, he's spending big bucks for the RR that maybe a couple of thousand or so will use each day and they still have to transfer to buses to get to their destination and will take longer than driving by car, even with "gridlock". Special projects for special people paid for by all of us.
I have said this before. WE ALL FEED AT THE GOVERNMENT TROUTH. Those so-called conservatives that want their wallets and no government involvement don't really want that. They really want what "they" determine to be fair expenditures of tax dollars.
"Build it yourself..."
It may be apocryphal but I was told that the first bridge was paid for by Don Laughlin. True or not?
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