VansOpinion - SENATOR SCHIMEK GAMBLING ON VOTERS BEING STUPID

For several years now, State Senator DiAnna Schimek has tried to sneak her hidden agenda associated with gambling in Nebraska through the legislature. She was never able to get a "Bill" passed to put the matter of a constitutional amendment to a vote of the people before this year. Since she is running unopposed (darn it) for re-election, she has become even more feisty and frankly, more dishonest. The story - the hidden agenda - that DiAnna has been hiding will no longer avoid publication in vansopinion.com. This go-around, to get Lady Di off of their butts and to avoid more nagging than she gives her lobbyist hubby Herb, a number of "gutless wonders" in the legislature did what "gutless wonders" always do, they deferred making a decision themselves on a controversial issue and put the matter on the ballot. Now, here is the story behind the stories

Most of our Moms, in our early years referred to telling lies as telling "stories." Now, as adults and registered voters, let's turn the "stories" we are being told around and call them what they are - LIES!

First, let's put the rest the matter of the Creighton professor's claim that gambling did not increase crime in Las Vegas. That folks IS A LIE!! Here's how I know.

The State of Nevada has no law schools. A dear (now deceased) friend and former neighbor of mine, attorney Bill Gilmore who was stricken with polio in his early teen age years and who was obliged to walk with fore-arm crutches all of his adult life, decided that the climate of Las Vegas would be better for him "to get around" do to the lack of winter ice there. Bill found that to be admitted to practice law in Nevada, he would have to do what amounted to an internship for one year in a Nevada law office before qualifying to take the bar examination in that state. Even though Gilmore had been a practicing attorney in Nebraska for twenty or more years, he still had to follow the prescribed route to be admitted to the Nevada Bar.

Less than a year into the internship, Bill returned to Nebraska and said he wanted no part of Las Vegas! According to him, there were, at the time (around 15 years ago) 1,400 crimes of violence per month in Las Vegas and the county attorney's office there had over 100 lawyers employed in it. Bill told us that a great fraction of the crimes were "Parking Lot Muggings" and since the "mugged" were for the most part tourists who did not want to stay around for the prosecution of the "muggers", many of the cases were never filed.

Could it be that DiAnna's crony, the Creighton "authority on gambling" had "some of the cards missing out of her deck"? You be the judge! The cases which are not filed don't count in the phony statistics which we are being fed by the senator's story teller.

Many have asked over the last five years why a Lincoln senator has been so interested in legalizing the small illegal casino operated by the Indians in north central Nebraska and the senators having districts much closer to the reservations haven't shown nearly as much interest in gambling, if indeed any at all! The story is a bit complicated, but try to follow along.

Years ago, the Ponca Indian Tribe divided and that portion which is now the Northern Ponca Tribe dissolved itself and went out of business. Some enterprising folks in Colorado - all lawyers I believe - found that bucks could be made (no pun intended) by rejuvenating the Northern Ponca Tribe for the purpose of real estate acquisition and housing development. Since the Northern Ponca Tribe had no reservation, through a series of maneuvers, the lawyers managed to get federal law changed to the extent that the Northern Poncas could acquire land in any of twelve Nebraska counties plus a few counties in South Dakota and Iowa and the land would take on the legal posture of "reservation" land. Put that aside for the moment.

Federal law provides that in any state which has Class III gambling (table games, slot machines, etc.) Indian Tribes can have such gaming on their "sovereign reservations", but that the tribe would have to negotiate the numbers and amounts of gaming tables and devices with "the state" in which they would be placed. Now here is the catch, not even super-pious Mike Johanns, our governor and the legislature, CANNOT UNREASONABLY WITHHOLD the Indians from having as many casinos as the tribe would please on their "reservation."

The twelve Nebraska counties in which the Northern Ponca Tribe can acquire land and build casinos on such, just happens to include, among others, those counties in which Lincoln, Omaha, North Platte, Fremont, Columbus, Norfolk and several other of our larger cities reside. By now, you should be starting to get some of the picture.

It's rather funny to note that the Northern Ponca Indian Tribe owns nearly a city block within a short walk of the governor's mansion. Mike and Steff could take a stroll south and wager a roll or two of quarters probably without even being noticed if ANY OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS LEGALIZING GAMBLING PASSES!

Here is the real reason DiAnna Schimek has made it her life goal to get Class III gambling legalized in Nebraska! The master plan involves putting forth the proposition that a huge hunk of the proceeds from the pocketbooks and wallets of the players should be diverted to "state aid to education." While DiAnna is not the "sharpest knife in the drawer" she is "IN BED WITH" (figuratively and literally) with the number one lobbyist for the Nebraska State Education Association (the teacher's union) who is very successful in getting "bills" passed.

If one were to take a look at the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure's web page and note which state senators have been bought or at least rented by the N.S.E.A., you might discover why it is you are seeing some of them in TV commercials just before election day.

I sure wish Paul Harvey who graduated from Tulsa Central High School, in Tulsa, Oklahoma a few years before me was here to say at this point - "AND NOW YOU KNOW....THE REST OF THE STORY."

Be safe, now sorry, VOTE NO ON ALL OF THE GAMBLING ISSUES. Just for the heck of it, if you live in her district, since she is unopposed this go around, just don't vote for anyone in that legislative district.

Listen up my Catholic friends, Senator DiAnna Schimek's sponsored shenanigans will play hell with your church's bingo revenue and also, by the way, she is endorsed by PLANNED PARENTHOOD the PRO-ABORTION GANG. A little revenge might send a message. .