RE:
http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=6C28E23E-1550-46AB-AF80216815082234
Governor signs ban on lottery TouchPlay machines
by O.Kay Henderson
Governor Tom Vilsack signed the ban on the Iowa Lottery's
TouchPlay machines into law today. That means businesses will
have 45 days to pull the plug on the machines. But House Speaker
Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, says legislative
leaders arel meeting with the state's attorney general to see if
there's some way to help the businesses that will lose big they
haven't yet earned enough to pay for the machines.
"Legislators have some concern and some sympathy for those
folks (who) invested when they were enticed to do so by the
Lottery," Rants says. "We don't want to see people lose money
on that deal." Rants predicts lawmakers will not act to ensure
"future profits" for TouchPlay owners or distributors, but will
try to act to "mitigate losses" for small businesses that bought
the machines.
For the last several month, Iowans (and visitors to the state) have
been ENJOYING the Iowa Lottery's new "touch-play" games. The machines
are pretty much identical to the slot machines found in Nevada and casinos
wherever they exist, even though they go by that different name here in
Iowa.
They abound by the thousands, statewide, in such small businesses
as convenience stores, laundromats, etc. They've provided enjoyment to
countless tens of thousands of people, have revitalized hundreds of
previously marginally-successful businesses, and have proven to be an
excellent new revenue source for the state, to the tune of about an
additional five million dollars per month.
Then, while Gov. Vilsack was on a trip to India, a moronic majority
of Iowa's legislators got a wild hair and decided to BAN the machines.
(Both houses of Iowa's legislature have Republican majorities -- so it
figures. the RRR-Cult-infested Republican Party HATES personal liberties,
or the very notion that people could possibly be enjoying something.
Personal pleasure is ANATHEMA to RRR cultists.)
However -- Gov. Vilsack happens to be a *Democrat.*
And Democrats USUALLY side *with* personal liberties, and generally
are NOT control-freakish busybodies.
Let's hope that Vilsack never runs for President and wins.
If he were to replace Bush, we'd simply be replacing one repressive
dolt with another repressive dolt.
The fact that not all Democrats are sensible and intelligent has just
been borne out by thus ludicrous demonstration of control-freakism by
BOTH the Democratic Iowa legislators who voted for the ban, and by
Gov. Vilsack, who COULD have sensibly *vetoed* the hateful and
moronic legislation, but *signed* it instead.
What a collection of horse's asses!
TOURISTS: Fill up with gas just BEFORE crossing Iowa, and then
don't spend ANY of your vacation dollars here. Iowa's hateful govern-
ment doesn't deserve ANY of your support.
-- Craig Chilton, Waterloo, Iowa <xanadu222_@mchsi.com>
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