Egoism
Individualism
Sovereignty
Splendor

(These ideas are explicated in this sloppy manifesto)

 
BetterVegas: Casino California II

A different take on Tribal gaming from the Los Angeles Times:

Tribes also retain some of the most effective lobbyists in town. As their power has grown, they have blocked expansion attempts by other gambling enterprises, such as racetrack operators and card rooms. Racetracks, for example, covet slot machines — and the tribes routinely have kept such efforts bottled up.

"With the kind of money they have, they can defeat anything they see as an incursion," said John Van de Kamp, former California attorney general, a Democrat who now represents horse-racing interests.

When Van de Kamp left politics a decade ago, oil companies, the insurance industry, trial lawyers and a few other interests were major players.

Now, Native American tribes are among the most powerful forces in the Capitol.

"Everything else pales by comparison to what the Indians can put together," Van de Kamp said.

posted by Greg Swann at 9:52 PM

 
Islam watch: Spies everywhere...

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer way back on Oct. 20, 2001:

[Capt. James Yee, a West Point graduate and a convert to Islam,] recently wrote a piece for Fort Lewis' newspaper, the Northwest Guardian, titled "Islam, what is there to fear?"

"I wanted to address some of the reasons why people in the United States are having a difficult time distinguishing between the religion of Islam and the actions almost everyone witnessed on Sept. 11 by some Muslims," Yee said.

What is there to fear? How about this, from today's Washington Times:

An Islamic U.S. Army chaplain, who counseled al Qaida prisoners at Guantanamo Bay naval base, has been charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying.

A law-enforcement source told the Washington Times that Capt. James Yee, a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was arrested earlier this month by the FBI in Jacksonville, Fla., as he arrived on a military charter flight from Guantanamo.

Agents confiscated classified documents in his possession and interrogated him for two days in Jacksonville. Yee was transferred to a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., where two Army lawyers were assigned to his defense, the Times reported.

The U.S. Army has charged Yee with sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage and failure to obey a general order. The more serious charge of treason, which under the Uniform Code of Military Justice could be punished by a maximum life sentence, is being considered.

It was not known what country or organization is suspected of receiving information from Yee.

Sources said the "highest levels" of government made the decision to arrest Yee, who had been under surveillance for some time.

We are what we do, not what we say we do. This is a simple lesson some Americans seem entirely unable to learn.
posted by Greg Swann at 1:16 PM

 
BetterVegas: Casino California

"The gaming market is going to continue to grow and California will be, one day, the largest gaming market in the world."

So says Kevin Kelley, president of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He was talking about a failed bid by Hard Rock to manage an Indian casino near San Diego. In the short-run, he's probably already wrong about "the largest gaming market in the world". I expect that China already holds that title, and will for a long, long time. And in the long-run, I think California's future in the gaming industry will depend more on companies like Hard Rock--and Caesar's Palace's Park Place Entertainment (which won that particular bid), Harrah's Entertainment and Station Casinos--than it will on the Tribes. In the long-run, which may not be very long at all, I expect California to legislate some form of legal, non-Tribal Las Vegas-style gaming.

The immediate reason for this is the state's fiscal crisis resulting from the insane energy policies pursued by soon-to-be-ex-Governor Gray Davis. California needs massive amounts of new tax revenue, and it has already taxed itself to death. But there is another factor, one never found far from an easy buck: Rotarian Socialism. "Why should the Tribes get all that dough?," the Rotarians whisper to their friends and brothers-in-law in the statehouse. This is a matter of concern for casino-operating Indian Tribes nationwide, and it is the reason why the Tribes of California are making massive campaign contributions to every soon-to-be-next-Governor they can get next to.

That battle is already lost, I'm afraid. The demand for legal (and illegal) gambling in California is huge. Consider this list of Indian casinos in the San Diego area. That's just Indian casinos. No horse tracks. No dog tracks. No card rooms, those strange semi-casinos unique to California. The site Hard Rock lost, the site that Park Place will develop as a Caesar's Palace-themed property, will have a casino floor of 100,000 square feet. Two acres. The same size as the casino floor at the Mirage in Las Vegas. Except that the hotel at the Mirage has 3,000 rooms and this San Diego Little-Caesar's will have 500 rooms. Clearly, the expectation is that the rest of the traffic on that two acre casino floor will be drive-in business. Here's an easy prediction: Within a year of the Grand Opening, Park Place will announce plans to expand. The casino, not the hotel.

The demand for gambling in California--and elsewhere--cannot be abated from Indian reservations--the worst and least accessible land our Rotarian Socialist forebears could stick the Tribes with. A Rotarian Socialist hybrid solution has been to try to build fake mini-reservations on leased land in viable locations, but this will not get anywhere. Companies like Park Place Entertainment don't hate Indian casino operating contracts, since they reap their management fees while socializing the capital risk to the Tribes. ("Socialize the risk!" is the manic mantra of certain segments of American business.) But the profits from direct ownership are so huge--along with the tax yields--that there is no chance that the gaming companies and the Rotarian Socialists and legislators of California will let the Tribes keep this business in the long-run.

Whether California will be "the largest gaming market in the world" is open to question. But Tribal gaming in California is already a threat to Nevada--especially to Laughlin and Reno. Ponder what a city like San Diego, already a premier resort-destination, could do to Las Vegas, if California were to make semi-free-market gambling legal...
posted by Greg Swann at 10:08 AM

 
BetterVegas: Build a better Vegas...



The rectangle defined by the freeways in the map above is basically downtown Phoenix. The Northeast and Northwest corners are more or less seedy residential housing and seedier retail stores. The Southwest corner is light to heavy industry, fairly grungy. The Southeast corner is devoted to servicing SkyHarbor Airport, which is just east of 24th Street. The railroad runs across the Southern portion of the map, and the sorrounding area is influenced accordingly. There in the upper middle section of the map, just South of that little red square, is the intersection of Washington and Central, the commercial heart of the city. This is where the skyscrapers and the Convention Center and the stadia are.

What's interesting about this rectangle, surrounded by freeways and infested with extreme infrastructure, is that there are virtually no registered voters residing within it. The poor will always be with us, but not so much on Election Day. There are pockets of Yuppie Urban Pioneers, but they're mainly situated north of the I-10 Freeway. But that rectangle is largely filled with commercial real estate of various sorts: Office buildings, parking garages, hotels and stadia, theaters, rail yards, warehouses, trucking depots, tank farms, power substations, etc. And the beautiful thing about commercial real estate is that people tend not to care when it is put to a more productive use.

What am I getting at? Arizona is even more schizophrenic about gaming than is Las Vegas, if that were possible. We sprout Indian casinos in rashes, but we try very hard not to notice. In the last election, the dog and pony shows tried to level the regulatory playing field, but instead Arizona voters gave the Tribes an even better sweetheart deal. We have gaming growing out our ears--and hordes of Zonies racing off to Las Vegas and Laughlin, NV, every weekend--but we very studiously refuse to look beyond our noses.

This will change, I expect. Due to a spectacularly stupid piece of legislation that inadvertently paid for half the cost of very high-end vehicles for anyone prosperous enough to buy the other half (I am not making this up!), Arizona is about half-a-billion dollars in debt. This is nothing compared to the debt load California is carrying, but it is still a ton of money. Casino gaming is not the only way to buy down this debt, but it is the only way that won't cripple the state's existing tax base. (And, no, I am no endorsing taxes, but this is how things are and will be done here and elsewhere.)

And then there is that rectangle, mostly devoid of voters but amazingly well-serviced by power and bandwidth and water and transportation. Roughly eight square miles, just over 5,000 acres. If that little region were to be designated as a Free Gaming Zone, the change would transform the city in due course, and eat Las Vegas alive.

Schizophrenia aside, the more serious mental ailment of the Las Vegans is denial. San Diego is a very successful resort destination without gaming. Phoenix is a very successful resort destination without gaming. Before gaming legislation passed in Nevada, Las Vegas was a watering stop on the railroad. Las Vegas promotes its shows, its golf, its restaurants, its spectacles and that damn nuissance of a dam, but the truth is Las Vegas would be nothing without gaming. Unlike Phoenix, unlike San Diego, there is no reason to go there that is not rooted, ultimately, in gambling.

But Phoenix is already an immensely successful resort destination. Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States, and, even if despite itself, it can manage rapid change and growth. The rectangle defined by the freeways on the map is the heart of a great big city. A Phoenix with Nevada-style gaming, even if only on those 5,000 acres, would be a force to contend with. First by keeping Arizona gaming dollars within the state. Second by giving the resorts the added-value of gaming--without going anywhere near the resort properties themselves. Third by giving gamblers world-wide a destination that can deliver the product, a city that is not constantly thrashing from the seizures of spastic growth. And fourth by creating many thousands of taxable jobs delivering taxable goods and services on ever-more-taxable real estate. We can all join together in the hatred of taxes, but it is the quest for tax revenue that will bring this change about.

Bottom line: Arizona needs the money. And Arizonans like to gamble, so long as they can export that vice elsewhere, to Nevada or to the Tribes. Defining Downtown Phoenix as a Free Gaming Zone solves both problems.

Would Las Vegas be able to compete against a BetterVegas in the Sonoran? That would be a fun show to watch...
posted by Greg Swann at 10:55 PM

 
BetterVegas: Fool's paradise?

The Global Gaming Exposition is concluding today in Las Vegas, and if you skim the Las Vegas Review-Journal starting Sunday, you'll glean all the gritty details. Yesterday there was a confab of casino number-crunchers, and what I think is an interesting argument came out of it:

The CFOs weren't worried about the effect of California tribal casinos on their Strip properties, although less developed markets in Laughlin and near the border between the states could suffer, they said.

Examples of their bravado included [Mandalay Resort Group President and CFO Glenn] Schaeffer, who implicitly referred to the new NBC television drama "Las Vegas," in which he has a small recurring role.

"NBC probably won't put a show on its fall lineup called 'Indian Casino,' " he cracked.

Murren said the California tribes enjoy a competitive advantage in some ways -- he called it "obviously an unfair playing field" -- but he was nonetheless confident about the Strip's ability to compete.

"The intellectual capital of Las Vegas will still beat the snot out of anything in California," Murren said. "It's a phenomenon, what's happening in California. I'm happy for 'em, but I like our chances better."

This is not horribly wrong, but I think it is horribly short-sighted. Surely, for now, Indian casinos don't represent a threat to Las Vegas, but newer properties such as Barona Valley in San Diego are aimed right at Sin City. What's worse, California is carrying kazillions in deficits along with long-term energy futures contracts bought at the top of the market. How long before California and Arizona decide to compete with Las Vegas for all those resort, casino and entertainment dollars--and all the jobs that go with them?

Not long, according to a different set of gaming executives:

The spread of gambling is the best hope Nevada-based operators and slot machine manufacturers have to boost revenues and profitability in the next few years, they said during the expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

And this is clearly right, from the point of view of the sharholders of gaming issues. Not so right for the Mandalay Resort Group, which is almost exclusively invested in Las Vegas. Amazingly right for Harrah's Entertainment, which is very profitably invested practically everywhere.

The future of gaming is very bright, if only because politicians need more money to steal. The future of Las Vegas is another matter. The remark about "intellectual capital" is funny, since Las Vegas is practically British in its inability to deliver the product at retail. But the better argument--installed base--is not very sturdy, either. Gaming in Nevada became legal in 1931, not yet 75 years ago. The oldest bird still alive on the Strip, the Flamingo, is only 57 years old. And the Mirage, the first of the SuperCasinos, is only fourteen years old. If California or Arizona, or both, were to make gaming legal, how much business could they take from Las Vegas in fourteen years?

I have a lot of thoughts on this general subject, and I'm going to explore them in detail, in time, as my time permits. In due course I may take it to a separate weblog, just because there is so much ground to cover.

For now, consider this: People think the word 'gaming' is just Vegas schizophrenia (about which more later), a euphemism to avoid the word 'gambling'. The truth is this: Gambling is what your're doing when you throw the dice. Gaming is what I'm doing when I hand you those dice, in exchange for your money. Gambling is a sure loss, while gaming is an assured win. If you really, really hate California Baby-Boomer Lexus-Driving Yuppie Scum--buy gaming stock issues. Their money will become your money. And living well on their money is the best revenge of all...
posted by Greg Swann at 9:07 AM

 
Tony Snow: Why we fight...

This is Tony Snow's parting comment from yesterday's Fox News Sunday:

Two years ago we rediscovered ourselves -- our decency, strength, resilience, our resolve. But we knew even then the feeling wouldn't last.

Searing grief would give way to pain, which would melt into a permanent ache. Pettiness would crowd out nobility, the sense of urgency would drain away, leaving us to contemplate daily concerns.

Yet we also knew -- and this is critical -- that a time would come when we would have to show our mettle. Well, folks: That time has arrived.

It may seem tempting to go wobbly on the war against terror -- to relax since Al Qaeda hasn't hit U.S. soil in two years.

It may seem frightening to toil in isolation -- enduring jeers from the indispensable French, while American soldiers dodge bullets in Tikrit. But we can't wish evil away any more than we can wave a wand and liberate those living beneath the boot of despotism.

These things require hard work and heroic persistence. American forces and the American people have done unthinkable things in two years: We became the first nation to win a war in Afghanistan; Saddam fell in three weeks -- and, oh yes, we absorbed economic losses of more than a trillion dollars without plunging into depression.

So enough of the defeatism and the politically-inspired malaise. The war on terror is, as everyone says, a war we cannot afford to lose. And it's one we will not lose. Remember that.

posted by Greg Swann at 8:04 AM

 
Johnny Cash, certified phenomenon



The Man in Black made the cover of Time and all he had to do was die. The articles are halfway decent, even so. There's this from an interview in July:

When my wife died, I booked myself into the studio just to work, to occupy myself. So I started recording all these things that I found, songs that people had sent me. I got a potful of them. That's what I'm gonna be doing for a while.

The main article cites fifty tunes recorded since June Carter died in May.

Overall, the piece is over-written where it's not completely overwrought, as here:

His songs played like confessions on a deathbed or death row, but he delivered them with the plangent stoicism of a world-class poker player dealt a bum hand.

The lightning bug owns nothing of lightning, after all, but we don't need the lightning bug to tell us that. Listen instead to Johnny Cash covering Nick Cave on The Mercy Seat, which I'm quoting in full because it is so horrifyingly perfect:

The Mercy Seat

by Nick Cave

It all began when they took me from my home and put me on Death Row,
a crime for which I’m totally innocent, you know.

I began to warm and chill to objects and their fields,
a ragged cup, a twisted mop, the face of Jesus in my soup,
those sinister dinner deals, the meal trolley's wicked wheels,
a hooked bone rising from my food, and all things either good or ungood.

And the mercy seat is waiting, and I think my head is burning,
and in a way I'm yearning to be done with all this weighing of the truth.
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway I told the truth, and I'm not afraid to die.

I hear stories from the chamber, Christ was born into a manger,
and like some ragged stranger he died upon the cross.
Might I say it seems so fitting in its way,
he was a carpenter by trade, or at least that's what I'm told.

My kill-hand's tatooed E.V.I.L. across it's brother's fist.
That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.

In Heaven His throne is made of gold, the arc of his Testament is stowed,
a throne from which I'm told all history does unfold.
It's made of wood and wire, and my body is on fire
and God is never far away.

Into the mercy seat I climb, my head is shaved, my head is wired,
and like a moth that tries to enter the bright eye,
I go shuffling out of life, just to hide in death a while,
and anyway I never lied.

And the mercy seat is waiting, and I think my head is burning,
and in a way I'm yearning to be done with all this weighing of the truth.
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway I told the truth, and I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is burning, and I think my head is glowing,
and in a way I'm hoping to be done with all this twisting of the truth.
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway there was no proof, and I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is glowing, and I think my head is smoking,
and in a way I'm hoping to be done with all these looks of disbelief.
A life for a life, and a truth for a truth,
and I’ve got nothing left to lose, and I’m not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is smoking, and I think my head is melting,
and in a way that’s helping to be done with all this twisting of the truth.
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,
and anyway I told the truth, but I’m afraid I told a lie.

The Johnny Cash rendering of this song does everything Dead Man Walking did not do, and there is nothing Time can do to mend, amend, explain, dismiss or decry this. This is everything that art can be and should be. This is perfection, complete and full and finished. And there may be one or two more like this in those fifty new recordings...
posted by Greg Swann at 10:59 PM

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