Comment Archives: Stories: Opinion
Re: “Danehy”
Fee simple title to their lands? What? And watch the federal government's sanctioned criminal organized crime cabal go to Native Americans? After all the rigamarole Congress and the Courts have had to do backpedaling to "fix" the Indian Removal Act and Jackson's insurgency? Sure, makes sense on paper Lee, but it'll never happen... it could, but nobody gives a damn about the silent minority that lives on The Rez. Nobody ever goes to The Rez except to the BIA casinos anyway, and those don't look too shabby. I guess that's also part of the legacy of genocide. I guess I'm guilty too. Shame on me. :( Um... diet coke please.
Re: “Danehy”
BIA tribes are not sovereign nations according to Majority opinion handed down in Cherokee vs. Georgia. The Tohono O'odham have been herded around the state like livestock. We flooded their original REZ. The BIA is solely responsible for the 90 percent unemployment astronomical rate of disease including 8 X the national rate for such diseases as diabetes and TB. They have 90 percent unemployment and a rate of alcoholism approaching the unemployment, which is likely a root cause the massive rate for that disease. Genocide is now and always has been the BIA Indian policy. These figures suggest that the Country is well on its way to eradicating the Indian. Shame on the leadership in Arizona for not fight to halt the genocide and giving the tribes fee simple title to their ancestral lands.
Re: “Danehy”
Overall, the Tohono O'odham Nation prevailed. They lost a lot of cultural land due to appease the general public of the state of Arizona. We didn't say anything to that, afterall, it directly benefited us as taxpayers. We give them some "shut-up" money to leave us alone in our air-conditioned homes and businesses. They take the money and purchase 135 acres in Glendale to make up for "Our" comforts related to the American dream. They go and decided to build a casino in the middle of Phoenix; their old ancestral from the Hohokam period... yep; sounds like Karma to me and yes... it is their land from times past.
Re: “Danehy”
Do people understand that in pre-IGRA Cabazon, the fed ruled that Indians retained (they didn't "win") their right to conduct poker and bingo games and that they don't need to abide by state laws except for hours and wager limits? How, pre-IGRA, can the federal government, express that their wards have this liberty but that non-Indians do not? Answer: they didn't. It's just never been tested. Lots came out of Cabazon, lots of regulations in IGRA, new federal commissions, more BIA power, more Indian "sovereignty", and lots of case law. Case after case in state after state non-Indian citizens have sought the same equal protection of the law in the case of Class III gaming (slot machines at race tracks, for example). These efforts fall flat because of the principle "government-to-government" relationship that exists between the State and the tribes seeking lucrative Class III gaming compacts as authorized by Congress through IGRA. But this government-to-government relationship concept was hatched "post-Cabazon". Sure, there is a government-to-government relationship between the feds and the tribes too, one more closely tied than the gaming that binds states and tribes. But the tribal relationship is sub-sovereign to the United States Congress, and the Cabazon relationship was that of guardian-to-ward more so than that of fed to tribe. Just look at how "dad" let slide the obvious OCCA and RICO infractions pre-IGRA, and how papa Sam just told the State of California not to worry about the application of federal laws. This is the federal government working against its own states and citizenry to favor the rights of indians to promote gambling. Syndicate. Cabal. Fed. Impressment.
But in Arizona and other states similarly situated, the exclusive grant of Class II professional poker without a shred of doubt infringes on my rights as a US Citizen and proud Arizonan to demand equal protection of the law and operate my own professional (with a compensated dealer, and in a commercial operation) poker room outside of Indian Country.
I agree with Kentop though. People should research and investigate and form their own opinions about what is going on and why in the Arizona Poker War. The Indians already fought it and won, and it took 'em 18 years. Off-rez cardrooms are now in their 8th year of open, public "storefront" locations. 50 have come and gone that I'm aware of, and about 20 are operating in the Valley of the Sun today.
Re: “Danehy”
The NIGC was created by Congress to keep it's BIA crime syndicate in check with some of the fastest regulations Congress every passed after Cabazon. Prior to IGRA, which created the NIGC under the Interior Department in 1987, the illicit BIA cabal was in the habit of approving unlawful gambling contracts between BIA tribes and non-Indian parties. A syndicate can be defined as a loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities. A cabal can be defined as conspiratorial group of plotters or intriguers. The BIA was born as a political quid-pro quo and without Congressional consent. It was later empowered by Jackson in his 1831 insurgency over Cherokee vs. Georgia and the illegal Indian Removal Act. I'm not sure how you can not consider the NIGC as part of the federal criminal cabal/syndicate that has continued impressments of their wards and pupilage (some say slaves) to provide outlawed gambling that we don't want in our own backyards. I think I'll go have a diet coke now and play some online poker.
Re: “Danehy”
And Kentop, let's not blur the line too much between "gambling" playing Class II games like bingo or poker versus gambling playing Class III games like slots, blackjack, and the lottery.
Re: “Danehy”
The problem I have with poker in Arizona is that the Governor signed away the rights and liberties of every citizen to conduct professional card games in their home or business and just handed it to the 22 tribes (17 of which have signed the conspiratorial Poker Memorandum of Understanding). Would you believe me if I told you that California's 88 cardrooms generated $880 million is state revenue last year? That's $10M in taxable revenue per cardroom!
Do you think that the Compacts and the Poker MoUs generate $200,000 per year for the Arizona Benefits Fund, or $20M of the $90M slush fund that the ADoG administers? Don't you think we would need to know that information in order to judge the benefit, or detriment, to the State and its citizens thanks to the Poker MoU exclusivity for the tribes?
Would you believe me if I told you that not even the Governor, who signed the illicit Poker MoU with the director of the ADoG and a tribal representative, doesn't even get to know how much benefit the State gets by allowing a legal monopoly on the international sport of poker to only be played in BIA Indian Country?
If we are going to worry about infiltration of organized crime, look up the OCCA and RICO and can someone please tell me how the heck CA vs. Cabazon in 1987 managed to rule that tribes retained their right to high stakes poker, with the federal court even acknowledging OCCA and RICO laws that prohibit it by telling the State to mind it's own business about the application and process of federal laws?
And like crazy Judge and convict-at-large Lee, don't even get me started on the other atrocities that the BIA has visited upon our native american domestic dependent nations with faux-sovereignty. You can't have a state within a state. You can't have a country within a state either. It's unconstitutional. The first thing the Indians gave up when they touched the pen was their sovereignty, and they gave it to the president, who later gave it to Congress.
This fit is shucked up. But what can we do?
We need a civil and social association of adults with common interests in a primary mission to create awareness, educate, and enact change in public policies regarding the international sport of poker in Arizona, as well as nationally address the genocidal policies and continued violation of constitutional trust responsibilities and impressments of our Native American brothers and sisters through unconstitutional gaming Compacts, by the continued exploitation of this most impoverished, invisible group of Americans for the past several centuries.
Re: “Danehy”
Disregard Kentop's hyperbole about the NIGC having no teeth. Look no further for their pearly whites than here: http://www.nigc.gov/Portals/0/NIGC%20Uploa…
In this document, the NIGC stepped out of it's role as a regulator and into the role of promoter of Indian gaming when it went heads-up against the Attorney General of the State of Arizona's earlier formal opinion on tribal cardrooms, the latter of which came at the request of the director of the "Arizona" department of gaming that was trying to shut down the BIA cardrooms.
Re: “Danehy”
Wait long enough, and you get responses like Harold Lee's. Suffice it to say, there is no syndicate or cabal. The NIGC is not even under the jurisdiction of the justice department, as TaxPayer said. It reports to the department of the interior, which is why it has no teeth.
Responders to articles, such as myself, rant endlessly upon foundless asumptions, never hearing other opinions, and never conceding a point. Please block out the noise, listen to both sides, and make your own opinion.
Re: “Danehy”
The Indian Gaming Association is no different than any other outlawed crime syndicate or cabal. This sub agency of the government is merely one more crime cartel with nothing to distinguish it from the drug cartel, other than the type of felony being perpetrated on the public. BIA casinos pay no revenue taxes and does not submit to police oversight, from taxpayer funded police agents. In fact, the Arizona gambling cartel pay their own enforcers (the misnamed Arizona Department of Gaming) to coerce poker players and VFW halls, while guarding the exclusive interests of the BIA’s felonious monopoly over gambling and the international sport of poker.
Tribal casinos are not "Indian". The BIA reservations are simply criminal sanctuaries that are being operated by paid government bureaucrats. Their criminal behavior has left taxpayers indebted for billions of dollars in damages, from legal actions due to the BIA pilfering the tribal trust. They are guilty of ripping off the poverty ridden tribes they claim to be protecting. This is happening despite the Supreme Court having nixed the 1988 congressional mandate that the Arizona gambling cartel continues to hide behind.
Arizona leadership could not be more obtuse. BIA casinos do not pay local taxes; yet, they dump gambling addicts on the community, while siphoning off business and revenue taxes from local entertainment venues. Don’t think for a moment you have nothing to fear from the addicts and drunk drivers the BIA casinos slough off on local communities. Join the pokerplayerarmy.org drive. Free the Native Tribes --- REPEAL THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT.
Re: “Danehy”
Hooray for the O'Odham nation. The law is clear....they have the right to be compensated for land lost to flooding by federal dams. Their plan to build on land near Glendale's stadium and entertainment complex is shrewd. If the same plan were being pushed by some Snottsdale group of investors, it would be viewed as a display of business acumen. Neanderthal Congressman Trent Franks and Go-nowhere oppose it? That in itself is reason to like the idea.
Re: “Editor's Note”
Nice use of semicolon blown by misplaced apostrophe--I gather you're not in editorial, @Monkey? Oh, wait ....
Re: “Editor's Note”
@Monkey: Love that your IP address originates from TNI, however. At least when I criticize your organization, I sign my name.
Re: “Editor's Note”
@Monkey: Wasn't planning on it. But I will take your anonymous, poorly formatted suggestion under advisement.
Re: “Editor's Note”
The CEO of Wick resigned today; when are you tendering your's?
Re: “Gargulinski”
... should a guy who ended up with a severed arm in his Jeep through no fault of his own ...
I submit had "Sam" been in the right frame of mind (thus, not drunk like the others and/or so-called "normal") he would not have "freaked out" and driven away, thrown the severed arm away and lied to police.
I submit that "Sam" was similarly intoxicated as the two others ... because usually those are the ones who cowardly flee an accident lest they be charged with intoxication as well ... just sayin'.
There are so many holes in this one particular account of this well-documented story that an obscenely drunk person driving in a Jeep could have driven through them and not hit an edge. Why was this even published? Are there any editors at the Weakly who read these things before they are published???
Re: “Gargulinski”
Anyone who can throw a human arm in a dumpster is scum, period, point blank, jdsmith. He isnt the only one who has committed a crime and had to endure the consequences (myself included). Thats life. The disheartening part of it all is that he STILL doesn't take any responsibility for his own actions, showing he still hasnt learned his lesson. Probably because of the teeny slap on the wrist he received.
Re: “Danehy”
The indian tribes gave Abramoff buckets of money to bribe congressmen. At least four dozen congressmen from both sides of the aisle voted in their favor during that time. It was bribe money plain and simple, paid by the tribes to buy influence in congress. It worked. Before Abramoff, the indian tribes had their own lobbyists, who were much less effective than straight out bribing congressmen through Abramoff's lobbying firm. Casinos are still easy targets for organized crime. I don't mean that they could be taken over by an italian "costa nostra". I mean that the indian tribes could create their own internal crime syndicates. That's the nature of casinos. Federal oversight of indian casinos by the NIGC works about as well as any other neglected government department manned by a skeleton crew and managed by a chairman, or currently, a chairwoman. The commission has no teeth. But it's not federal oversight I'm talking about, though, it's state and local oversight, of which there is very little. Back in 1988 the indian regulatory gaming act actually excluded states from regulating casinos. So the states hands are tied. I stand by my first post, it's a much more complicated issue than Danehy thinks, and it doesn't have anything to do with gettin' back at the round-eyes.
Re: “Gargulinski”
Sam got to a safe location away from the incident where he was assulted by Mr. Choke and threatened with his life by Mr. V and called police as soon as possible. What Sam called in was wrong and a crime. Its called false police report. Prove that Sam knew a mans arm was severed at the time off the incident. If Sam would have in fact not been human and had not been affected to react to seeing an arm, maybe he would have waited for police instead of "Freaking Out".
So if that was the case, who would be at fault? Would Mr. Choke come under more fire as he did in the civil lawsuit of being responsible? Would Mr V have been disgraced as a drunk who faced an uncertain fate on his military record for such stunt devil acts? Mr Choke is free and clear, Mr V was given a medical discharge with benefits for a drunken act of his own doing. No one told Mr. V to jump on the side of a moving vehicle.
I think what the article is trying to portrait is that when does a consequence ever end? The answer is never. Even after sentencing and beyond the sentence itself. Some say, "till justice is served..". Well as citizens we entrust upon the judicial system to determine that, but understand the sentence isn't the only punishment a criminal receives. This idea of "just desserts" is arbitrary, as it goes on to hunt the lives of criminals to the point where the criminal can become the victim as well. Even in crimes less severe or committed as a juvenile.
I think Sam has paid for this mistake and will continue to pay for the actions of not only his, but of all three involved in this case. Rightfully so?
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Re: “Editor's Note”
".....I generally enjoy Beyoncé's music. I agree with Kanye that "Single Ladies" was a superior video to whatever it was that Taylor Swift did or ever has done....."
You're sick Gibson. Suppose Michael Vick's your favorite sports personality also?