Hey kids! Mojo here! I need your help! I have several ideas for slogans for my reelection campaign! But it's hard to choose just one! Here are some possibilities:
Manchin 2008 - You know you just can't help yourself
Manchin 2008 - Because it's too soon to redecorate
Manchin 2008 - You ain't seen nothin' yet, so give me another chance
Manchin 2008 - What else am I supposed to do until Byrd's gone?
Manchin 2008 - Somebody's gotta fly the state plane
Manchin 2008 - Still hopin' for business
Manchin 2008 - Because the Senate seats are taken
Manchin 2008 - Several cousins still need jobs
Just pick your favorite, or send me some ideas of your own! Let me hear from you real soon, k?
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New for 2007-08
RepublicanGazette
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Submissions welcome
The Republican Gazette welcomes Emails to the Editor and press releases. All submitted items must include the name and contact information for the author of the article, and all articles will only be published with the author's name included. Thank you for reading and participating in The Republican Gazette, another of West Virginia's most biased publications.
All opinions are those of The Republican Gazette and its editor, Gary Abernathy, except letters or commentary signed by others, and do not reflect the views of anyone else, including clients of Abernathy Strategies.
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On Fred, Hiram, Danny & other great people
I have been listening to all of the talk about table games for a long time now. All I have been hearing is about the money table games will bring in. I have not heard much at all about the bad side of gambling expansion; and there is a bad side; believe me; there is a a bad side.
During the 2001 legislative session the former governor of South Carolina spoke to our whole state legislative body about the bad side of gambling expansion. South Carolina legalized video poker machines there for a while in the late 1990's and the five machine roadside shacks dotted the landscape just like they do here now. Soon after the machines were legalized there the state government realized that they had made a huge mistake. They repealed the law and got rid of the machines; the machines gravitated north to our state.
The social cost of gambling expansion far out weighed the money being taken in. He told our entire state legislature at the Capitol building in 2001 that for every gambling dollar taken in there would be three dollars of social costs incurred due to gambling addiction. Our legislators didn't listen and did what Gov. Bob Wise asked them to do; they passed the gray machine bill.
The point I want to make in this article is that people who have grown up and not been around somebody who has had a problem with an addiction such as with alcohol or gambling don' t realize how devastating it can be. If a person has grown up and had plenty to eat and new clothes to wear every day that person knows nothing about what an addicts family members have to endure.
An addict's familiy members have far less
food, clothing, and educational opportunities than other families. It can devastate the person who is addicted but the addiction will also change the lives of this person's family members. If this addicted person has children the quality of life of these children will be greatly reduced. The money that this addicted person blows on gambling should be spent on food and clothing and shelter for his/her children.
I was raised in a family where addictions did just that; it reduced the quality of life of our whole family and put great pressure on my mother to stretch pennies to try to raise six children. When I hear a politician say that we need the money that gambling expansion would bring in it tells me that this person is willing to turn his/her head and pretend that gambling expansion will not affect the gamblers and their families in a bad way.
I have heard several horror stories about gambling addiction lately. My friend had a used car lot for years. He doesn't anymore; he became addicted to video poker machines and lost his business. Another fellow I know told me about his friend who is addicted to online poker and he blows his grocery and rent money on poker; he has a wife and kids who are suffering because of this addiction. A person that I went to high school with got addicted to betting on horses at Charlestown and lost his wife, house, kids, and his dignity.
Stopping gambling expansion is very important to me. I don't want my children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren to become addicted to gambling.
Doug Butts
Gerrardstown WV
Gambling addiction takes a toll on families
---Email to the Editor---
News and notes...
A new Rasmussen poll shows Fred Thompson moving to the top of the pack in the GOP presidential race, squeezing past Rudy Guiliani by one percentage point. Pretty telling for someone who has yet to formally announce...
...In regard to Hiram Lewis, let me make one thing clear --it he can run a straightforward, non-gimmicky campaign, and manages to win the GOP nomination for Attorney General -- yes, it's a big "if" -- I would support him in every possible way next November. We desperately need a change in that office...
...State Sen. John Yoder has an interesting take on the table games defeat in Jefferson County. Sen. Vic Sprouse has it posted on his blog...
...Today's Charleston Gazette reports that Charleston mayor and super Republican Danny Jones has about $60,000 left over from his recent campaign, making him my new best friend. Now that I think about it, what the heck's wrong with surveillance cameras, anyway? Note to the state GOP: Can we send the mayor a nice letter with a politely worded request?
...Along those lines, I want to give a big shout-out to Theresa Waxman, the state GOP's treasurer, who spends countless volunteer hours keeping the party's finances straight and working hard to report them accurately. Thank you, Theresa. You deserve a medal...
...The state GOP's executive committee meeting and fundraising event coming up July 14 in Huntington is shaping up as a big event, and Chairman Doug McKinney will have some exciting additional details to announce soon.
