Nevada’s Slippery Progressive Slope

Senator Harry Reid is congratulating the NBA for banning Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling for life. Sterling was caught in an audio recording making racist comments about blacks.

Now he says it’s time for the NFL’s Washington Redskins to change their name. He’s accusing Redskins owner Daniel Snyder of hiding behind tradition in retaining his team’s name.

The senator says it’s time for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to follow the NBA’s lead and rid his league of bigotry and racism. Meanwhile, Reid claims Nevada has 22 tribes and that the only tradition behind the Redskins’ name was one of racism.

Reid knows a thing or two about racism. In January 2010, Reid had to apologize after he privately described then-candidate Barack Obama during the presidential campaign as a black candidate who could be successful thanks in part to his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

Recently, Reid called Southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy a racist following the release of a video taken during an outdoor church service purporting to show Bundy making disparaging remarks about ‘the Negro.’

“Today, Bundy revealed himself to be a hateful racist,” Reid stated. “But by denigrating people who work hard and play by the rules while he mooches off public land he also revealed himself to be a hypocrite…”

Reid has proven himself to be both a hypocrite and a racist. On August 10, 2010, Reid commented to reporters, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay? Do I need to say more?”

Reid also slandered Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Bill Magwood in August 2012 saying Magwood is “one of the most unethical, prevaricating, incompetent people I’ve dealt with,” and calling Magwood a “treacherous, miserable liar,” “a first-class rat” and a “sh-t stirrer.”

Magwood is Black.

And speaking of Bundy, Nevada Senator Dean Heller now says the rancher should pay the Bureau of Land management more than $1 million in grazing fees the agency says he owes. The BLM claims the cattle are trespassing on fragile Gold Butte habitat set aside for the endangered desert tortoise, and that Bundy owes $1.1 million in fees and penalties since 1993.

“I am very quick in calling American citizens ‘patriots,’” Heller said in an interview, “Maybe in this case, too quick.”

Heller added: “I want to make it very clear that I never called Bundy a patriot.”

But earlier this month in a joint Las Vegas TV interview with Reid and Heller, the Republican senator defended Bundy’s supporters against Reid’s charges that they were acting like terrorists.

“What Senator Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots, “he said during the April 18 televised interview. “We have a very different view on this.”

Following the flap over Bundy’s comments, and before the full video had been released, Heller sought to distance himself saying through a spokesman he “completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.”

Heller’s comments come as the U.S. Capitol Police continue to look into threats made to Reid, which the senior Senator has ‘hinted’ and the press has ‘helped cultivate,” came from supporters of Bundy. Authorities refuse to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Since then, Congressman Steven Horsford has raised concerns that an “armed militia” of Bundy’s supporters have set up checkpoints to decide whether individuals live in the region before allowing them to pass. He has called on local police to investigate.

Finally, former Federal Judge and first time Governor, Brian Sandoval sat down for an interview with Sam Shad, the host of ‘Nevada Newsmakers.’ where part of the conversation turned to the Cliven Bundy standoff.

“I didn’t want any shots to be fired,” Sandoval told Shad. “I didn’t want anybody to get hurt, I didn’t want any innocent by standers to get hurt, so that’s why I was very aggressive in terms of getting folks to stand down.”

The first time Governor added, “As I said, any type of loss of life is not worth a cow.”

Sandoval said locals are worried after seeing several militia groups in the area.

“So that’s the part where I rely upon on Sheriff (Doug) Gillespie,” Sandoval continued. “I know that he’s monitoring the situation. We continue to have conversations, we talked yesterday the law enforcement memorial about what was going on out there and I trust in his judgment.”

When asked if Gillespie plans on trying to move militia groups out of the area, the Governor said, “No, and even if he had said that, I wouldn’t share that with you, because certainly that’s a conversation between the two of us. I just know that he is monitoring the situation and he’s very aware of what’s going on out there.”