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Gahdafi is not practicing socialism.  He's a ruthless dictator.  Socialism spreads the wealth, it doesn't put it all in one bank account.  Please don't allow your guests to misuse inflammatory terms.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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One of the key elements in the debate about privatizing liquor sales is this.  Alcohol in general, costs the American taxpayers a ton of money.  Money from the effects of drunk drivers, domestic violence, general violence, alcoholism, lost time at work...and on and on.  These costs are not covered by the sale price of a beer or a mixed drink.  Alcohol possesses the same economically dysfunctional characteristics as tobacco.  Liquor should be taxed at a higher rate to capture these costs or every American who does not drink to excess will continue to subsidize those who do. 

If the State of Oregon is adding over a hundred million dollars in "profits" to the state treasury, I say keep state control of the booze.  But tax it higher to properly fund the true costs of alcohol.  If we privatize it, the private sector, looking for unjustifiably higher profits, will simply scream "no new taxes" in order to maintain their un-earned largesse.

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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One other point, if Non-Indian gaming gets a toe-hold in Oregon, it will grow from one community to another.  With the recent U.S. Supeme Court ruling that "corporations are people too," the gaming industry's bull-horn will be impossible to stop. 

In Nevada, where I lived and reported on the gaming industry for a Carson City newspaper, I wrote first hand of gaming's damaging effects on the economic growth, social fabric and overall quality of Nevada life.  Many companies and corporations will not locate to Nevada which internationally proclaims it's "24 hour lifestyle."  Gaming is, after all, the second "oldest profession," the first of which gaming quietly promotes in the background.

Not only that, the gaming industry completely dominates the political currents that drive local and state government.  In Nevada, gaming donates mountains of campaign cash to both Republican and Democratic candidate. "Heads gaming wins, tails gaming wins." The result is that gaming is not taxed at anything near what it should be paying to compensate for the huge societal dysfunctions it inflicts...on families, on the non-gaming work-place, law enforcement, the courts and prison system.  This powerfully coercive political power has enforced it's political and economic will to the absurd extent that Nevada, with a state budget that is OVER 50% IN THE RED, continues to be run by those, in both parties, who continue to proclaim, NO NEW TAXES (including on gaming, OF COURSE!) 

Gaming is a clear and present danger to Oregon.  It is a predatory greedy beast.  Just walk around any Native American gaming operation in Oregon.  It's the same as in Nevada...miles of slot machines where "losers-in-waiting" are locked in the mesmorizing sight and sound of machines that separate them from their wallets.  These gambling palaces are not built on winners!

There is no amount of "alleged benefits" that justifies casino gambling in Oregon.  These nice looking men in their expensive suits tout construction jobs and tax revenues to the state along with promises to be "community minded."  It's all hogwash.  Gaming is more than the camel's nose under our tent.  Oregon will be ripped apart by the vicious snout of an economically devastating Tyrannosaurus Rex.

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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Another point.  With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that "corporations are people too..." cash-swollen gaming interests will be able to literally FLOOD the newspapers, the airwaves and the internet with their message that gaming is all positive with few negatives. Whoever creates the first non-Indian gaming operation will want to create another, then another, and another.  Once it starts, the gaming industry's unrestrained bull-horn will be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to stop.

In Nevada, where I lived for 23 years, and reported on the gaming industry, I watched and wrote first hand about gaming, its profits (for the elite few), its damage to communities and it's gargantuan influence on the political currents in the state.  Gaming is so in control in Nevada because it donates dump-trucks of campaign cash on BOTH Republican and Democratic candidates. "Heads gaming wins, tails gaming wins."  Gaming offers soooo much money that NO ONE is immune.  By the way, those who are elected to state office and the legislature refuse to tax gaming at even a reasonable level.  Nevada is 50% in the red on next fiscal year's budget, while they run out of money to cover the cost of the current one.

Property crime, including burglaries, fraud, theft, embezzlement, any way to feed local gaming addictions are sky high in Nevada.  People you know all your life as upright, law abiding citizens fall prey to gaming's easy hook and then its strangling addictive grip over their minds and their lives.  Walk around any casino, Native or otherwise, and pay close attention to the mindless hypnotic trance most players are under as the casino separates them from their hard-earned cash.  Those huge gaming palaces are not built from winners.

This is not just any camel's nose coming in under our tent.  It is the devastating snout of an economically devastating  Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Vote NO!

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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There is no amount of money that any casino industry will agree to spend that will compensate for the degradation of the living environment in which it derives its hundred of millions of dollars when it finally evolves into full blown gaming.

Gaming is a disease upon the economy and the social fabric on which it preys.  It makes a few people unbelievably rich at the expense of the communities around them.  It is indeed a parasitic animal that takes in far more than it puts out.  95% of casino workers are not family wage workers.

I lived in Nevada for 23 years.  I've seen the devastation gaming inflicts on a people.  If gaming was a good way to raise money, Nevada would not be 50% upside down on its state budget.

Gaming is just another addiction problem with a smiling face.

Gaming is a nuclear-tipped camel's nose.

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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