The real reason Bush wanted Harriet Miers

He wanted an ace in the hole when his own case comes up ...

Casinos are for suckers

The Seneca Nation of Indians is on track to build a third casino. After the two in Niagara Falls, NY and Salamanca, NY, now they are unfortunately poised to build in our fair city of Buffalo, NY. This means land will be transferred to the Nation in perpetuity, they'll build a shiny gambling hall, and rake in the hard-earned dollars of my bad-at-math neighbors.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has to approve the land transfer, so Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County is running a letter-writing campaign to the good Secretary in an effort to persuade her to disapprove the application. Here's my letter.

October 27, 2005

Gale Norton, Secretary
Department of the Interior
1849 C St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20240

By facsimile: 202-208-5320

Dear Secretary Norton,

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the siting of a Gambling Casino operated by the Seneca Nation of Indians in the City of Buffalo or the County of Erie in the State of New York. Such a venue would degrade the quality of life and damage the economy in our struggling city by siphoning cash out of our area.

The promised jobs and economic stimulus to be gained from such a venture have historically proven to be vaporous. They never materialize to the extent promised, and areas surrounding casinos suffer. Many localities have even suffered a net economic loss after factoring in law enforcement and other costs not borne by the casino.

This will especially be true here and now. Buffalo will never attract gamblers from away, because of the proximity of the casinos in Niagara Falls and at Turning Stone. It will be strictly for locals. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and we have never been given the opportunity to say so.

In addition, transferring land to the Seneca Nation of Indians from within the existing boundaries of the City of Buffalo will jam a bone down our throat forever. These lands have not been proven to be part of aboriginal Seneca lands. There is no reason to give them title now.

I urge you in no uncertain terms to disapprove the Seneca Nation of Indians application to transfer land to the Nation for purposes of operating a casino.

Sincerely,

November 2, 2005 is the deadline, so if you see this before then, fax a letter with your name and address expressing opposition. Maybe, just maybe, she'll consider our position.

Untrustworthy

There seems to be a fair bit of good news out of Washington these days. Impending indictments, Davis-Bacon wage law restoration, etc.

I don't trust it.

I won't feel safe until the One True Party is out of power and Bush is back in Crawford forever (or in jail) and Cheney is back under whatever Wyoming rock he crawled out from. They are too tricky, too underhanded, and they still have 30-40% support, enough to cause plenty of trouble. How much support did Saddam have? Could not have been much more, and look what a nice guy he was.

Another Reason for Universal Healthcare

Auto makers would rather set up in Canada than the US, because health care costs are covered by the government. Wal-Mart does not insure many of their workers:

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Seems like Harry and Louise aren't doing so well, anymore.

The Criminalization of Politics

One of the White House / Republican talking points about the impending (one hopes) indictments in the Valerie Plame leak investigation is the term "criminalization of politics." Crooks and Liars has a link to Bill Maher, who compiled some Fox footage of some, well, crooks and liars spouting the phrase. The idea is to get it out there to discredit the whole investigation.

Well, geez Louise, when you've got criminals playing politics, or politicians committing crimes, what do you expect?