Free Republic

Most polls show that the Republicans will make gains in the House and Senate against the Democratic Party. For example, Dick Morris believes that “the Democratic Party is facing the biggest defeat in midterm elections in the past 110 years, perhaps surpassing the modern record of a 74-seat gain set in 1922″. But that does not measure the true variable of interest: the extent to which the grassroots political uprising can make changes to the structure of the system. Changing the structure of the system is an action some on the Left call treasonous. But the Left itself has worked...

Trying to appease another well-heeled political enemy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held a closed-door meeting last week with representatives of 68 California Indian tribes, offering to negotiate new gambling compacts. The Republican governor fielded questions from tribal leaders -- some who operate casinos and others who want to -- in a hotel conference room across the street from the Capitol. Schwarzenegger apologized for not meeting personally with the members of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association earlier to discuss the scope of gambling in the state, which is home to 56 Indian casinos. "He said he was open to negotiating with...

Powerful gaming tribes' "control" of the Legislature is behind lawmakers' opposition to recent tribal-casino agreements negotiated by his administration, Gov. Schwarzenegger said Tuesday. "What has happened is that every time we come to agreement on a compact, we have the big tribes lobby up here and they control the legislators," Schwarzenegger said. The governor spoke during an afternoon of interviews with Capitol reporters for The Press-Enterprise and other newspapers. He touted his "year of reform" agenda on the November special-election ballot. Campaigning for office in 2003 with a promise to extract a "fair share" of tribal-casino revenue for the state,...

Sometime this week, HR418 - Real ID Act of 2005 will be riding on a must pass spending bill to the Senate. One of the concerns of the bill is the requirement that states must join the Driver License Agreement (DLA) - PDF Document. The DLA will link the state DMV databases between all the US states & Territories, Canada and Mexico. The devil in the details is located on page 4, item 11 defining jurisdiction. What this means is your most personal information like Social Security Number will be available anywhere in North America including the corrupt Mexican cop....

Hearing probes casino snafus Billion in transportation funds delayed by bad Indian gaming compacts SACRAMENTO — The state and racetracks are in a legal standoff with about a billion dollars in transportation funding caught in limbo until somebody blinks, lawmakers heard Wednesday. The state Senate Governmental Organization Committee was probing how much money the state can expect from Indian gaming compacts, but few clear answers were to be found. Compacts the governor signed last year withfive tribes were supposed to create two income streams. In one stream, those tribes were going to pay the state $100 million per year for...

Nearly six months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced five new deals with gambling tribes to share more of their revenue with the state, California still has little of that money to show for it. The governor said in June that the renegotiated agreements, or compacts, would give the state $1 billion for transportation this year, plus an estimated $150 million to $200 million each year and $2 million more for poor and non-gambling tribes in the state. Thus far, the state does not have the $1 billion and is estimated to receive about $10 million in slot fees. The money...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office warned two Riverside County Indian tribes that they were violating state gambling compacts by operating games that look and play like slot machines. Peter Siggins, the governor's legal affairs secretary, wrote in Nov. 4 letters to the Morongo and Pechanga bands that their video lottery terminals were "virtually indistinguishable from slot machines" and unauthorized under the gambling deals. Even if they were permitted, he argued, the number currently in use would increase the tribes' total gaming devices beyond the legal maximum. He accused the Morongo tribe of operating at least 225 of the...

More than 200 California Indians, claiming they've been banished from their tribes by greedy or power-mad tribal leaders, on Wednesday asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to halt compact negotiations with gambling tribes until they establish independent tribal courts to deal with membership disputes. California Indians For Justice, a coalition of 14 tribes, converged on the north steps of the Capitol to protest a wave of disenrollments they say is cutting the hearts out of Indian people. In recent years, several thousand California Indians have been kicked out of their tribes or denied official membership, often because they challenged the ruling faction,...

Indian Tribes Wary of Calif. Casino Deals American Indian Tribes Wary of Giving More Casino Profits to California PALM SPRINGS, Calif. Jan. 15 — American Indian tribal leaders said they are skeptical about sharing more gaming profits with the state and criticized a ballot initiative that would permit slot machines at race tracks and card clubs. The chairman of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association said Wednesday that tribes are willing to negotiate with the state but noted more than 60 of them already have a 20-year compact that allows them to operate casinos and mandates revenue payments. "Our relation...

<p>LOS ANGELES(AP) - It's been three years since tribal-state agreements ushered in casino-style gambling in California, and since then Indian casinos have become an industry generating $5 billion a year.</p> <p>With key portions of the agreements up for renegotiation, tribes and state officials are gearing up for high-stakes bargaining that could determine the shape of one of the state's fastest-growing and richest industries for years to come.</p>