Casino Lobbying and the pro-anti-casino-coalition

I've placed a link to this article.

Summary - high-placed lobbyist for two Indian casinos donates money to conversative environment group and to Christian Coalition to target new Indian casinos while steering them away from his clients in an effort to derail a potential rival, the Jena indians.

Christian Coalition
Meanwhile, Abramoff opened a second front to bring outside pressure on Interior against the Jenas.

He looked to Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader who operated several consulting companies. Reed has acknowledged receiving as much as $4 million from Abramoff and his associate, Scanlon, to organize grass-roots anti-gambling campaigns in Louisiana and Texas. The money came from casino-rich Indian tribes, including the Coushattas, but Reed said that although he knew of Abramoff's connection to the tribes, he did not know until media accounts surfaced last summer that his fees came from gambling proceeds.

Reed then turned to Dobson to marshal his vast network of evangelicals, Abramoff's e-mails show.

Abramoff wrote to Scanlon in a Feb. 20, 2002, e-mail that Dobson would make radio ads against gambling. Reed "may finally have scored for us! Dobson goes up on the radio on this next week!" He suggested giving Reed $60,000 for the ads to run in Louisiana and Texas. "We'll then play it in the WH [White House] and Interior," he told Scanlon.

And they wonder why we are cynical. I want to wash my eyes after reading the article.

The fun thing about this is that someone leaked all of these e-mails to the Washington Post.

Can anyone say "Casinogate"?

Oh, and the FBI is investigating.

It also appears the Jena indians hired their own high-powered lobbyists and got support from their own Republican senators to match forces with Abramoffs hired guns.

Wow, this is like a modern-day episode of "Deadwood". Of course, in "Deadwood", at least one crooked politician got his throat cut.

So in spite of the war, terrorists, neocons, theocons and queers getting married, it's business as usual. Isn't that comforting? :rolleyes:

richlevy wrote:

Oh, and the FBI is investigating.

Why? Sounds like a straightforward case of bought & paid-for lobbying to me. Nothing to see here.. move along....

They may as well. I mean, congress is policing steroids in baseball. We may as well go for broke.

I think I may move somewhere where they have a king or queen or something. Monaco's nice this time of year.....

I'm waiting for the judiciary to step in (again) on that baseball thing if they try too much.

On the Daily Show last night, Jon Stewart showed a clip of one of the committee members quoting a rule that said they could investigate anything they wanted.

Stewart (paraphrased): Anything? You can investigate anything? And you choose baseball?

It's that attitude and that quote that is going to get them hammered by the SCOTUS. They tried that nonsense with gun control in school zones using the premise of it impacting interstate commerce and the court said no.

My question is, who gave the House Government Reform Committee the right to oversee drug use by employees of privately owned organizations? They have no law-enforcement power, anyway.

Is this something to do with the fact that baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws?

Um, nobody.

Where's Radar anyway?

mrnoodle wrote:

Isthis something to do with the fact that baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws?

Only in that the exemption is a useful weapon to get baseball to do as its told.

It is WIDELY rumored here in NC that the reason there is no gambling (lottery even) is because the "powers that be" are getting kickbacks from the people running numbers.

That's good. Not the bribing, but the lack of gambling. Gambling does no good to society as a whole. The losers outnumber the winners, and always will.

Right Glatt, lets outlaw everything people might abuse like gambling, booze, drugs, guns, rights, free time, children, peanut butter......... :rolleyes:

What are you thoughts on pyramid schemes then, should they be legal? I think organized, state-sanctioned gambling is worse than pyramid schemes.

I'm not against a friendly bet between private individuals, or even an office pool. I'm talking about casinos, slots, and lotteries, where the house/government always wins in the long run. A local economy may be stimuated, but it's at the expense of the greater community.

Isn't the idea of a state lottery that a portion of those funds (a cetrain percentage) goes to things like schools, roads, etc for the state?

Yeah. So it's a tax. On the stupid people. Hardly fair.

I kind of like the idea of taxing stupid people.

We wouldn't need any other taxes.

glatt wrote:

Yeah. So it's a tax. On the stupid people. Hardly fair.

??A tax on stupid people? So all people who buy a lottery ticket are stupid?

OnyxCougar wrote:

??A tax on stupid people? So all people who buy a lottery ticket are stupid?

I admit it was an overgeneralization. Buying a lottery ticket is a stupid act. I've probably purchased $5 of lottery tickets in my life. It is stupid of me to have done that.

buying a lottery ticket isn't stupid at all. buying lottery tickets in place of paying the mortgage, buying food, or funding your retirement is stupid. i enjoy buying an occasional ticket. it isn't any different than hitting the roullette wheel. i probably won't walk away with anything, but it is the anticipation and the possibility that make it worthwhile. besides, i've pissed away a buck in much worse ways.