My view of the world

According to the NYT, the founder of the BetOnSports gambling Web site, Stephen Kaplan, was arrested late Wednesday in the Dominican Republic, the United States attorney in St. Louis, Catherine Hanaway, said on Friday.

Kaplan, 48, is personally charged with 20 felony violations of federal laws including: the Wire Act, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Conspiracy, interstate transportation of gambling paraphernalia, interference with the administration of Internal Revenue laws and tax evasion.

It’s getting harder and harder to find a place that won’t reflexively cooperate with the neighborhood bully. Foreign aide is, after all, a very big stick.

When they started arresting people as they entered the US, I thought it was rather underhanded, but now they are going after anyone involved in an online gaming business, without regard for international borders.
This begs the questions: When did we become the world’s policeman and why don’t these pissant, backwater countries show just a little backbone?
Are they so afraid and so dependent on foreign money that they can’t even protect their citizens and visitors from that collection of holier than thou evangelicals sitting in DC, with King George at the helm?

Also in the article was this: In Geneva on Friday, at the World Trade Organization, a compliance panel ruled that the United States had failed to change its ban on Internet betting to comply with a W.T.O. ruling that said the legislation unfairly aims at offshore casinos.

Washington has yet to say if it will appeal the panel’s findings. A final ruling upholding Antigua’s claims would allow the twin-island nation to seek trade sanctions on the United States for its failure to comply.
You know, it’s really hard to issue an official sounding statement while you can’t breathe, because you’re laughing too hard.

To avoid the penalties, the United States government would have to either permit Americans to gamble over foreign-based sites or eliminate exceptions for off-track betting on horses, including wagers over the Internet, as permitted under the 1978 Interstate Horseracing Act.
Translation: T’ain’t happening. Prohibition lasted for years while the self righteous, sanctimonious, religious hypocrites, tried to save us from ourselves. And these horse racing guys had the good sense to bribe the politicians early.

Don’t expect anything but kangaroo courts, and grandstanding for the press. It will take years to get this mess before the supreme court.
In the mean time people in other countries will be considered criminals for violation of a US law that contracdicts the laws of their own countries.

If another country tried to do to our citizens what we are doing to theirs, King George would be on national TV, threatening to send in the Marines.
But, you see, our law takes precedents over anybody else’s, because “God is on our side”, not to mention that we’ve got the money and the firepower.

Meanwhile back at the farm:
Online gaming continues, people find new ways to win or lose their money, and the rest of the world is just a little more afraid of us.

Combating the Internet gambling industry, which rakes in an estimated $12 billion annually, proved high on the Bush administration’s agenda this year. A controversial measure that criminalizes transferring funds related to most forms of Internet gambling received President Bush’s signature in October, albeit in a seemingly unlikely place: a massive port security bill.
They had to hide their nefarious scheme inside another bill, because they knew it would never stand up if exposed to the light of day.

On closer examination, I have decided that Babs has a plan.
This loan thing is simply something that she started, and because of a combination of a refusal by lenders like Koster’s and Dollar Loan Centers to be reasonable, and Babs’ tendancy towards vindictiveness, has not been thought through, but has been pushed forward.

It has however, become a useful tool for Babs and her agenda.
According to sources in the Senate, this bill will probably not pass, but since her real agenda has to do with all day kindergarten and money for the school district, AB478 will make great leverage. It becomes a matter of, I’ll give a little here if you’ll give a lot there.(we are after all talking about Babs.)
As a side note:
I happen to agree with her education agenda, we need better education in this state, and education costs money.

She sent an email to a lobbiest saying she was willing to negotiate on AB478, but, she never showed for the appointment. Even the lobbiest agreed that in this case she wasn’t being deceitfull, she was just too busy.
So I suppose it’s not carved in stone, but we still have to see what her amendment(s) is/are.
This is the part in politics where the bill passes committee and is then changed and goes back to committee gets rubber stamped and is sent on to the floor, without any real debate, as if there was any real debate to begin with.
In politics, things are never the way they seem.

This is a list of sponsers for this bill:
Buckley , Anderson , Oceguera , Conklin , Leslie , Carpenter , Denis , Gerhardt , Grady , Hardy , Hogan , Kirkpatrick , Koivisto , Mabey , Manendo , McClain , Munford , Parks , Parnell , Pierce , Smith , Amodei , Coffin , Titus.
The names in bold are the primary sponsers, the others are there as supporting this bill. Which means it will pass the assembly and the only hope, not much, but some, is in the Senate.

As I see it, Ms Buckley sees herself as St. George slaying the dragon, while I see her as Tomás de Torquemada “saving” the non-Catholics by way of the Inquisition.
She is going to save these poor peasants from themselves no matter what it costs them. She seems to have no concept of finding what’s broken and fixing it. Instead she lashes out, and decides that she knows what needs to be done, even if it puts the very people she thinks she’s defending in a completely untenable position.
Rather than allowing people with less than perfect credit access to installment loans, whereby they pay both principle and interest and have the loan paid off by the end of the term, she sees the abuses in the system. Her response to the situation is instead of trying to repair the problem, to eliminate the possibility of those consumers ever being able to get out of the mess they’re in.
Leaving only the banks to do installment lending and the people who need the money the most, out in the cold.

The way the system works is that those who sponsered the bill talk first, then their supporters, and any opponents come up last.
I found out something interesting, Babs is pissed about balloon payments, and yet she’s forcing people into a position where they will have to make a balloon payment.

Dear old Babs ran roughshod over anybody who dared to have an opinion that didn’t agree with hers, but reports have it that she’s not very popular in the Senate, so there’s hope.

I have attached a link to a pdf file of the bill on “high interest loans” as it will be presented to the committee.
Remember that she says she has an amendment she will present later.

Something that someone pointed out to me is that among others, pawnbrokers are exempt unless they do defered deposit, title loans, and others types of loans, but somewhere in there it just exempts them, we may have misread something, but this sounds like your typical bill, it says two different things and everyone gets to wait for an opinion from the state AG’s office.
(Did you know that such opinions are just opinions, and hold no weight under law, nor can the AG be held responsible for bad opinions, in spite of the fact that this is how many laws are interperted.)

Ok, I reread the bill, it seems that a pawnbroker can’t do high interest loans under his pawnbroker’s license, but they can apply for a 604 and operate under the same roof. (Strange, I didn’t think a pawnbroker could do any kind of unsecured loan under a pawnbroker’s license.)
Sometimes these things are not as confusing as they seem. All you need to do is follow one aspect at a time, thankfully Adobe has a search function, and when you’re finished, you’ll still be confused, but on a smaller number of subjects.
One thing that bothers me is the military provision, this includes people in the reserves and their families, how is the lender to know if these people are in the reserves or the guard? People lie, and there’s no way that I know of to check. It sounds to me like a another way to screw the lender.
Not that it matters, a bill that was recently passed on the federal level prevents anyone from charging more than 36apr to members of the military or their families.

Let me start out by saying that I work for an installment lender and that these opinions are my own and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers or fellow employees. (I guess that’s a good enough disclaimer)

As much as I hate to agree with John Ralston, he called newly installed Speaker of the Assembly Barbara Buckley “first vulture” in addition to being the first female speaker.
“She is unlike anyone we’ve seen in a long time. She’s an ideolog and has an agenda. She is one of the smartest, ruthless, vindictive politicians I have seen.”

Last session, the Honorable Ms. Buckley pushed a bill through in the last two weeks of the session, when nobody had time to read it, not even the sponsers, that forced companies doing title loans to limit them to 6 months, with no possibility of extentions. When the time is up the company either reposseses the vehicle or writes it off.
This bill was written mostly by people like check-city who do payday loans with no collateral.
This year she’s got a bill coming before commitee that will take everybody who charges more than 40apr and put them into a special high interest category, and force anyone who takes vehicle titles as collateral back to the repo or write off situation, and payday loans would be limited to a fixed number of renewals with no possibility of refinancing.
Instead of allowing them to offer installment loans over a fixed period of months. Under the definition of installment loan, the borrower makes monthly payments consisting of both interest and principle, thereby paying the loan off within the term of the contract, with no penalty for an early payoff.
The 40apr apparently includes any and all other charges. The reason I use the word “apparently” is because Ms Buckley spoke with a lobbyist and told them that the bill coming before committee was not what she wanted and that she had an ammendment she would introduce later.
(Sneaky bitch ain’t she. She will get something through commitee and then change it at will. Ya just gotta love those politicians.)

I have no doubt that Ms Buckly meant well when this started but it appears to have turned into a personal vendetta.
Some of the companies that do unsecured loans are taking advantage of a flaw in the system, and giving installment loans that are not really installment loans, instead of fixing the flaw Ms Buckley is throwing a hissy fit and trying to destroy the entire industry.
Companies that do unsecured loans sometimes charge as much as 900apr and I agree that they need to be reined in, but the way she’s going about it will cause more harm that good.
If a person has less than great credit, you know the banks won’t touch them, but companies willing to take on high risk clients can help them.
If a person is in a bind and has less than great credit, but has the title to a good vehicle, or a good job, the banks don’t care. So where is this person going to get the money they need?

When I get hold of a copy of the bill she introduced I’ll post it.

I just finished reading some well placed paranoia over on the Las Vegas Business and Politics blog when I came across this article in the Review Journal:
Daniel Bogden’s chief deputy, Steve Myhre, who was first assistant U.S. attorney in Las Vegas, “has declined to be acting USA due to his pending casework,” according to an undated chart that listed seven U.S. attorneys who were removed on Dec. 7 and the status of their replacements.

Bogden had served 17 years as a federal prosecutor in Reno and Las Vegas, and it took them 17 years to decide this guy was no good at his job.
Nope, no politics here.

Steve Myhre is currently the acting US Attorney until his replacement can be found, it turns out that as number two he was automatically given the job whether he wanted it or not.
As the state’s Republican senator, John Ensign is interviewing replacements for Bogden. Ensign said he did not know when he would have recommendations ready for White House officials to review.
The worthy senator from Nevada, has discovered a minor glitch in the process of choosing candidates, there are few, if any volunteers, because whoever it is, they will undoubtedly be fired as soon as we have a new administration.
Ensign said White House officials warned him not to send Bogden’s name for reappointment after he threatened to do so.
Come-on Johnny-boy, hold a press conference and do it, we know you’re W’s yes man, but show some backbone for once, these guys are going to be gone in a year and a half anyway.

As an interesting side note:
Evidently, Bogden has been offered a job as an immigration judge.
Harry Reid, had this to say about the offer:
Bogden “was jerked around, then insulted by the suggestion he would be an immigration judge,” Reid said. “That would be demeaning to a man of that caliber.”
Reid later said he knew “wonderful people” who are immigration judges but “usually the people who take those are people who are relatively inexperienced in the law.”
Don’t look now Harry, but your elitism is showing.

Since March 5, today is Mar. 19, the North Las Vegas police department has issued around 50 $190 tickets to middle and high school students for j-walking.
Not a single warning is on record and the city of NLV says this is in the name of safety.

A spokesman for the city says it’s because the students are in the habit of blocking traffic and fighting.
OK, why are the cops targeting individuals instead of the groups?
The reason is simple, money, if they get a kid for j-walking it’s a simple ticket, it’s just wham, bam, thank you maam,…next, but if they go after groups, first they have to catch them, and then they have to actually arrest and charge them.
Tickets do nothing to resolve the basic issues of discipline, respect and enough common sense not to play in traffic.
Those problems go back to parenting and school discipline, or the lack there of.

But between home and school, never fear, Buford T. Justice lives, and as long as there’s a problem, he’s there to make a buck.

In case nobody noticed, I just got back from Laughlin.
I spent three days and two nights in a place that looked like an upscale geriatrics ward, but, in retrospect, I enjoyed my stay.

I left my laptop home and I’m too cheap to pay 30 cents a minute, with a $3.00 minimum, to check my email.
I also left my Nikon D70, with it’s assortment of lenses, home, instead I carried a 5mp HP with a single 128meg card, that I dropped in my pocket.
I even left the small notepad that I intended to take with me, sitting on the table, that was a mistake, but hotels provide you with a few sheets of paper and a pen, so I used that.

I got up around 6 or 6:30, bought a cup of coffee, then I wandered outside and spent a few minutes drinking my coffee and just staring at the river or watching the ducks, and then went out for breakfast.
I met up with everybody right after my afternoon nap (I miss my afternoon nap) and had supper.

The camera served as an excuse to explore and read the signs that I normally ignore, like Jaeger(yuk) shots $4.50, I’ve known people who drank Jaeger, I am most assuredly NOT one of them, but I never thought of it as enough of a draw to make posters.

I met a number of people who were down from Canada or from the mid-west, most of whom had been retired for a while, they were friendly and upbeat and glad to be far away from the last winter storm.
And if you’re worried about being a trifle too rotund for that new swim suit, take a look at the pool, and you’ll realize that nobody cares.

I used to travel a great deal, but I had forgotten why, sometimes it was business, but mostly it was to escape.
The first day I was annoyed with the apparent labor shortage, and therefore slow service, but, when I was in Europe I found that the service tended to be slower than I would have liked, so I was forced to learn to relax, and sip my coffee.
Once I got back into that mind set, it got me, if not better, at least friendlier service, especially when there was nothing that could be done to speed things up anyway.

This enforced time off, away from computers, cow-orkers, and the people I see everyday, probably did more good than all the “good drugs” in the world.
The weather was perfect, the bugs were at a minimum, in spite of a warning to keep your room window closed because of the sphinx moth migration, and I’m glad I went.
Three days in the off-season, in the middle of the week, felt good, but after the boat ride, (take the one hour to Davis Dam, unless you have an uncontrollable urge to spend six hours on the jet boat tour.) and walking up and down the river several times, it was time to go home.

The reason to go to Laughlin.

The reason not to go to Laughlin.

The Edgewater_poker_room, taken about 7am.
In the middle of the week, about 7pm they had trouble filling a 2-6 Holdem seat.
The other joints had more tables, but eveybody I saw was playing too tight to make it anything but a time killer.
Someone noticed Mcdonalds in the background.
There’s one in the Edgewater, there’s one in the outlet mall across the street, one in Harrah’s and at least one across the riveer in Bullhead City.
I’m sure I missed at least one more.

In case you’re curious what happened to Vegas Vic. He’s over the Pioneer in Laughlin

The Regency Casino. They bill them selves as Laughlin’s smallest and hardest to find casino.

This is the entrance to the Golden Nugget Laughlin.

Once you get past this, on the right is a place called Tarzan’s, they also have a Joe’s Crab Shack.

There are a number of river tours, ranging from the river taxi at $4 per person to a six hour jetboat tour at $58 per person.

You’ll notice that the paddlewheel is just painted on.

The Turtles are playing Laughlin.

This is a picture from the Turtles website, taken with Joan Jet.
She’s not playing Laughlin, but I like the picture. I think this is what it looks like when you’re older than dirt and still trying to play “20.”
Except for the old dude, who just looks tired.

Wayne Newton is going to be playing in an outdoor amphetheater, of course a child could throw a rock across it.
How the mighty have fallen.

Just some shots of the trip down and back, for those of you who’ve never driven through our “scenic” desert landscape.
In the summertime the temperature will be around 120+ during the day, so cars will overheat, and it’s a long ways between gas stations.

The turn at Railroad Pass.

Just outside Searchlight, where the road goes from 2 lanes to 1 lane. here you need patience, because this is where you get passed by old ladies in walkers.

And this is beautiful downtown Searchlight

The first view of laughlin.
Can you imagine crossing this on foot?

This is Golden Valley, outside of Kingman.
It looked to me like the only industry in that part of the world is selling realestate.

Near the sign that says “next services 75 miles.” And yet people are living all over out here.

The view or lack there of, from the hill just as you enter Henderson.
There really are mountains out there.
And we’re breathing this.