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Zirkle Stakes His Position on Gambling Boats and Money Laundering

Tony Zirkle, Republican candidate for the 2nd District Congressional Race, will hold a press conference on Wednesday, January 7, 2004 at 1:30 p.m. in the northeast corner of the County-City Building, 1st Floor, 227 W. Jefferson St., South Bend, Indiana.

At this conference, Tony will announce his plan to close a loophole for what may be the easiest way for drug dealers to launder their money–gambling boats. Besides successfully prosecuting the only illegal gambling case taken to a jury in St. Joseph County in recent memory, Tony has also prosecuted drug dealers in 3 of the 5 largest counties in Indiana-Elkhart, Lake and St. Joseph Counties. In Lake Co., Tony served as the on-call deputy for the entire Lake Co. Drug Task Force and in St. Joseph Co., Tony served for several months as the lead major drug dealing prosecutor. Through his experience and extensive inside contacts with law enforcement officers as well as with drug dealers themselves, Tony has gained an insight into this important issue. He believes that the war on drugs will continue to be a trench warfare unless we instill better mechanisms for drying up the profit potential.

Your presence is welcome.

Respectfully,

It's the Kids, Smartie Campaign Committee

Supplemental Press Release: Zirkle Stakes his Position on Gambling and Drug Dealers' Money Laundering

At his press conference today at 1:30 p.m. in South Bend, Tony Zirkle will further begin to develop his campaign theme which is "Centrist Economics, Disciplined Liberty." He will focus on one of the social issues he will seek to inject into the political debate: undisciplined gambling and drug dealer money laundering.

1. The Wisdom of the Ages

For centuries, Western civilization has rejected mass public promoted gambling; however, in this last generation of ours, we have abandoned the accumulated wisdom of the past. Before we continue further down this path to ever increasing gambling establishments, Tony believes it is time we engage in a public debate so that we can adequately judge the benefits and risks of continuing on the same course.

2. The wars of terror and culture-a connection?

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently stated that our nation is in the midst of this cultural war. President Bush has declared a war on terror. Let us first ask this question, "Is the war on terror completely disconnected from the cultural war?" Can we win a war on terror that is coming from an extremist form of a philosophy that has fought a trench warfare with the west for the last 1400 years by military might alone? Is ever increasing gambling part of this cultural war?

Let us not forget the words of former Republican President Eisenhower who stated that there is only one peace, a peace for all time. He then noted that peace has three (3) imperative: moral (social), economic, and military. Today, Tony wishes to begin focusing on General Eisenhower's 1st imperative: the social one.

President Eisenhower stated that in his day, as in ours, we are competing for the hearts and minds and trust of the nations of the world. What we do and how we act affects this question of whether we will win this competition. The actions that we take at home and the entertainment we produce and export will speak louder than our words abroad. On this social imperative point, there is constructive work for all of us.

3. Winning the hearts of Muslims

For instance, we are now seeking to win the hearts and minds of much of the Muslim world. Besides North Korea calling us "moral lepers," Iran is calling us the "great Satan." If we continue to further surrender the cultural war and develop and promote a hedonistic, epicurean navel gazing society, we will not win the hearts and minds of the Muslims and our actions will only provide fuel for the hate of misguided charismatic terrorists in the Islamic community.

Tony has some degree of experience in understanding the Muslim perspective. Besides his 2 economics and law degrees, Tony also has a B.A. in religion and is only 2 tests from completing his Masters in Divinity seminary degree. He has spent a great deal of time studying the connections between history and religion. Additionally, he has roomed with a Pakistani Muslim at Georgetown, was ancillarily involved in a Middle East terrorist incident while serving in the military as a Midshipman at the U.S. Navel Academy and was nearly knifed by a Turk in Instanbul who was calling him a Christian until a Turk friend of his intervened.

We have recently heard terrorist chatter that Las Vegas is now a target. Should we be surprised? 1.3 billion Muslims subscribe the Koran which teaches:

2:219 "They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: ‘In them is great sin, and some profit, for men: but the sin is greater than the profit.' They ask how much they are to spend; Say: ‘What is beyond your needs.' Thus doth God make clear to you His signs." and

5:90-91 "O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, ... are an abomination, -of Satan's handiwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper. Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling and hinder you from the remembrance of God, and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?"

While many U.S. Americans would not accept the inspirational value of the Koranic texts above, we should all agree that gambling does have its negative consequences. Gambling is an addiction for many. Even the Hoosier Lottery is currently paying money to advertize about getting help for this addiction.

4. Tony's Proposal

There is a difference between private liberty and public, in-your-face, profiteering promotion. We should debate and agree to some reasonable restrictions on the further proliferation of gambling with the goal in mind to reduce its prevalence.

First, let us cease all advertising on television, radio and highway billboards. Our government was instituted to promote the general welfare, not mass misery through gambling and debt addiction.

Second, we can gradually move to remove all private industry from the gambling business through a 25 year plan to gradually exercise eminent domain over gambling boats and other enterprises. We can at least initially exempt non-profits.

From his experience as a prosecutor, Tony has learned that organized crime garners its profits primarily from three areas: gambling, porn and drugs. Reducing private profits from gambling will provide benefits in lower crime that is funded by highly organized syndicates.

5. The Money Laundering Connection

Drug dealers launder there money at gambling boats. It is perhaps the easiest way to launder money known to law enforcement. A drug dealer will, for example, cash in with $10,000, play one game or pull one lever and then cash out. It's that simple.

A basic solution would be to provide different tokens for cashing in that can not be used to reconvert to cash. If you do not use your initial tokens, you will lose them. Therefore, the only way money could be laundered is if the individual actually won games. Furthermore, with a gradual government take over of gambling operations, the employees will be better trained to spot suspicious activities and will not have the incentive to turn their heads in the name of further profits.

6. Negative Externalities

Gambling has been promised as a solution to some of our budget woes; however, even with the increased gambling revenues, state budgets are at some of their worst positions in history. Perhaps with every dollar we raise in taxes through gambling, we lose in many other areas in our social system. For example, one of the top 2 or 3 reasons why people do not pay their child support is because they claim they lost it all at the boat.

Gambling is a regressive tax that disproportionately affects the poor and leads to further personal debt. Personal debt is now the highest in our nations history, with an average of $19,000 for each family. Debt and financial problems have been cited as one, if not the, leading cause of divorce, which is now at a 50% rate in our society. Studies have also shown that children of single parent homes are far more likely to commit crimes that lead to prison time. Taxes have to be raised to pay for the incarceration of what is now 2.2 million individuals.

In order to reduce some of the harmful effects of debt, Tony is proposing a $5,000 tax credit to anyone (with a joint income of under $100,000) who marries single parent as of January 2004 of a child under 12 and remains a parent to that child until the age of 21. If the individual files for divorce, the tax credit must be refunded. The individual will also have to agree not to use the money to purchase a diamond ring, the profits of which are often used to fund wars in Africa through the use of these "blood diamonds."

The debate on gambling needs to be started now.

Your presence is welcome at this press conference.