Nevermore

Once upon an April cheery, a casino knocked, and somewhat leery,
I checked the 'net for clues as to what might be in store,
And then, with my heart beating, drove to the 'Boro for a meeting,
And hoped this proposal would be fleeting, ever fleeting at our door.
But a lawyer at that meeting claimed there was no use in pleading,
The deal was done - and nothing more.

The Town must now approve a contract, the State negotiate a compact,
As per some governmental regulations that you can't ignore.
It's all right there in writing, and therefore no sense fighting,
But those words – they were inciting, inciting some to war.
For quality of life they would be fighting even if it did come down to war
Over this 'done deal' and nothing more.

Then came another meeting, where a Tribal leader was entreating
The people to support his great casino and furthermore,
If you didn't, you were racist - even though these claims were baseless,
But to me this was a tasteless, really graceless show of what's in store
When you let these tasteless tactics open up the door,
To a casino - nothing more.

It was just around this time, they started stealing all our signs.
But rather than accept that all was over, I decided to explore
And learned so many facts along my travels, this done-deal did sure unravel
Though we were silenced by the gavel, a gavel choosing to ignore
Our voices pleading and imploring, to hear those facts you can't ignore
About a casino - nothing more.

Our home values will get lower, local business even slower,
We'll see more crime and traffic and addiction - yet they still assure
That seven million will suffice, and make us all think twice
And heck, casinos are so nice, super duper nice (that and other horse manure)
But that's how many voters were enticed, and the truth was made obscure
By casino money - nothing more.

Some town Selectmen seemed hellbent, on raising a big tent
While threats and orange t-shirts were handed out to those unsure
And on a July day fairly steaming, flying monkeys filled the air with screaming,
And so ended three short months of scheming, scheming just to lure
The despondent and the beaming to approve an agreement and endure
A pro-casino circus – nothing more.

But supporters weren't home free, thanks to an article known as three,
The non-binding referendum some since have chosen to ignore.
Or the chief who declared himself the winner, then turned out to be a sinner
The Governor, a mere beginner, a beginner who should have thought before
Feeding the State a three-casino dinner, which became a thankless chore
He should never mention more.

Since then I've weathered many seasons, and collected many reasons,
Why bingo halls and casinos and done deals are not so sure,
So please don't speak of mitigation, or count on initial reservations,
While there are twenty-five mile limitations, and limitations otherwise galore,
Or neglect grassroots determination, which allows me fully to assure
That a casino will be coming, never, never, nevermore.

Somebody's Got Some 'Splainin' to do...

Ok. A few blog posts ago I linked to a terriffic Sean Murphy article which stated (emphasis mine)

After the April land auction, Healey and the town’s board of selectmen, meeting in secret, got down to negotiating an agreement with the Mashpee Wampanoag and their backers.

And here I was, probably like you, thinking there was absolutely nothing to do about it. But then, I read this from yesterday's MetroWest Daily News,

Two recent Open Meeting Law decisions show how this important legal tool can make town government more transparent, although the decisions aren't always clear cut.

In Milford, the selectmen were ordered by the Worcester district attorney's office to turn over minutes of an executive session held in July with a Colorado real estate developer considering Milford as the site for a resort casino.

After Worcester County Assistant DA David A. Tiberii found the selectmen violated "both the letter and the spirit" of the state Open Meeting Law by meeting behind closed doors to hear from the developer, the selectmen quickly complied and released the minutes, as ordered.

There are a handful of specific reasons why a town board or committee can close out the public and press. The Milford selectmen had cited one exemption that says a town board can close the doors to "consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property if an open discussion" might be detrimental to he negotiating position of the governmental body with a person, firm or corporation. In other words, the law says a board can have a private discussion among board members, but meeting with the man with whom the board might eventually be negotiating for the sale of town-owned land is exactly the opposite of what the exemption is for. If you're playing poker with another person, you don't show him your hand, then expect to successfully bluff.

It doesn't take legal fine print to know the meeting was a bad idea. Casinos are a hot-button issue in Massachusetts, and citizens should be justifiably outraged that elected officials would meet in secret with a casino operator - and even consider selling town land to make it possible - without a thorough public airing of the idea.

So maybe some nice concerned Middleboro citizen should look into that.

The League of Women Voters provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the law and what you can do you if believe it's been violated.

Because we're still scratching our heads about what was happening at all those secret meetings and executive sessions back in 2007 leading up to and following the casino chronicles. And look, thanks to Milford, which didn't even get to the Intergovernmental Agreement stage - we have precident! Their Board had to turn over the minutes.

So anyway, I go look up the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law for more information and come across this awesome site, which - lo and behold - offers on it's front page an example of selected case law. And you'll never guess what the case is.

District Attorney for the Plymouth District v. Board of Selectmen of Middleborough, 395 Mass. 629, 481 NE2d 1128 (1985) The Board could not hold executive sessions for purposes other than those enumerated in MGL chapter 39, sec. 29B.

Sure, this case is from 1985 but still - you just can't make this stuff up.

Just the Tip of the Teepee

Detroit businessman Herbert Strather, who at the time was the primary outside investor in the casino deal, worried in a letter to the tribe that his team would be unable to work with (casino skeptic and candidate for tribal chairwoman Paula) Peters.

McDermott found a way to scuttle her bid.

From "In the seat of Wampanoags' power"
Boston Globe, October 26, 2008

Ok, Strather, we know. But who's this McDermott guy?

Turns out William A. McDermott, Jr. is yet another doughy middle-aged non-Indian at the wheel of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, steering it towards a casino future.

According to the article, McDermott

is not a member of the tribe, nor even a Native American. But the heavy-set, glad-handing Dorchester political operative is arguably the single most powerful figure in the fractured Mashpee Wampanoag government.

He wrote the Mashpee Wampanoag constitution. He engineered the defeat of a hostile tribal council candidate. He even helped banish dissenters from the annual powwow.

And above all, he is using political skills honed in the wards of Boston and Chelsea to keep the tribal government functioning during its quest for a $1 billion resort casino in Middleborough.

OK, let's see if we can keep count here. A guy from Detroit, with some help from a currently incarcerated lobbyist from D.C., aided by a selectman from New York, upon the advice of a lawyer from the Skokie, for the ultimate benefit of a couple of investors from South Africa, under the guise of helping secure a sound financial future for a middle class tribe from Cape Cod, manipulated by a State election specialist from Dorchester wants to bring class III gambling to the Bay State, in the form of the world's largest Indian casino in Middleboro, Massachusetts.

Do I have that right?

Interestingly, one of the commentors to the on-line version of this story states

I have no problem with casinos in the Commonwealth, but I have a big problem with people like Wolman and Kerzner coming into the Commonwealth to masquerade as "successful businessmen," manipulate the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, and perpetrate a massive political fraud on our state and federal government.

Well that's the thing isn't it? Because when casinos enter the picture - when they become part of your State's financial infrastructure - you may as well have schemers like McDermott, and not visionaries like John Adams pen your constitution.

I live in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, a town of 27,000 people, chartered at the very dawn of our nation back in 1656 and which apparently is getting zero say in the decision whether or not to site the world's largest casino directly on our border. In fact, it looks like that decision is being made by everyone but us. By people with not only no historic ties to the land, but with no ties at all to the region. The region that I, and a half million of my closest neighbors call home.

And so if, through an unimagined labyrinth of good intentions, bad legislation and unrestrained avarice, a casino is built in the Southeastern part of our State, in addition to the Mashpee Wampanoag constitution, Mr. McDermott may as well have written the Massachusetts constitution as well.

The Little Economic Engine that Couldn't - Part I

I was going to publish another blog today, but instead I'd like to echo my lovely friend Bumpkin, whose blog this morning revealed enlightening comments from a former mayor of Ledyard, CT, which as you know is home to Foxwoods Mega Casino and Resort.

Because this reminded me that I have a copy of a May 2007 letter from Nicholas Mullane, Current First Selectman of the town of North Stonington, CT - which is the town next door to Ledyard. Mr. Mullane was selectman before, during and after the building of Foxwoods. This is what he has to say:

Casinos don't sleep, you can expect a similar situation to Fenway Park, 35,000 - 50,000 people twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days per year. Increased traffic will impact your Fire, Ambulance and Police Services, not only will the major roads be impacted but the secondary roads, because of the diversion of the local people, casino patrons, and the casino staff. Even your Highway Department will have additional work with more wear and tear on your road infrastructure.

The local money will be diverted from the normal business purchases to the casino for everything from restaurants, refrigerators, automobiles, mortgages, and even college educations.

Furthermore...

Gambling problems will affect the way local and municipal businesses operate. Your quality of life and the way of life that you have today will change completely. Your gas stations and donut shops will flourish...

I dunno. This doesn't exactly sound like the robust iron-horse rivet-popping economic engine some people seem to think it will be.

The following items are from a bullet list of casino impacts that Mullane also put together...

• Increased traffic through Town, 8,800 to over 25,000 vehicles per day.
• Increased traffic on Town's secondary roads.
• With increased traffic comes litter, traffic violations and accidents
• Closed two houses of prostitution, one with immigration violations
• Now have one pornography Super Store and a Smoke Shop
• Started with one Trooper, to Two Troopers, now to Three troopers with an added $50,000 budgeted for overtime services.
• This area has the highest DUI/DWI rates in the State of Connecticut
• This area has the highest Gamblers Anonymous Rate in the State of Connecticut
• Embezzlement rates have increased due to gambling problems 2 to 3 times what they were prior to the opening of casinos.
• Higher 911 Dispatching fees due to increased traffic calls
• Had to implement an Incentive Program to retain volunteers
• Highway Department has suffered a loss of efficiency due to constant high traffic volumes at various Town/State intersections and Town Roads.
• Property tax were devaluation on all residential property along Rte. 2
• No economic development in sight with traffic volumes and competition of Casino businesses.
• Tribe has maximized commercial development on it's Reservation

Remember folks - this is the town NEXT DOOR TO FOXWOODS. Not the host community. This is what Bridgewater, Carver, Lakeville, Halifax, Plympton and Raynham will face. And, oh yes, Middleboro, too.

Someone had tried reading Mullane's letter at the May 2007 meet-and-greet (aka dog-and- pony show) with the not-as-yet disgraced former Mashpee Wampanoag chairman Glenn Marshall - whereupon Marshall loudly declared that Mullane was a racist.

Well, naturally.

Mr. Mullane prophetically ends his letter by saying,

I wish your community well, it is a very complex far reaching impact that is difficult to explain and much more difficult to understand.

What isn't difficult for some of us to understand is that the only real 'economic engine' a casino will be for our region is the type that leaves us for last, dragging us down it's own track while tossing whatever 'mitigation' we can beg for into our powerless outstretched hands.

And now, doesn't that really make us the caboose?

From the Wikipedia definition of Caboose:

Of all the implements of railroading, none has had more nicknames than the caboose. Many are of American or Canadian origin and seek to describe the vehicle or its occupants in derisive ways. Often heard amongst crews was "crummy" (as in a crummy place to live, not elegant, often too hot or too cold, and perhaps not especially clean), "clown wagon," "hack," "waycar," "dog house," "go cart," "glory wagon," "monkey wagon" (a term that indirectly insulted the principal functionary who rode therein, no doubt coined by an engineer), "brain box" (the conductor was supposedly the brains of the train, as opposed to the "hogger" or engineer, who was presumed to be pigheaded), "palace," "buggy" (Boston & Maine/Maine Central), "van" (Eastern and Central Canada, usage possibly derived from the UK term for the caboose), and "cabin." There were others as well, some too profane to appear in print.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

In a 2007 auction presided over by Middleboro Town Manager Jack Healey, the gavel dropped on a selling price of $1,765,000 for 120 acres of land that went to casino developer Herb Strather. This amounts to $14,708 per acre.

This past week, it was revealed that two separate casino promoters have offered $20,000,000 for 81 acres abutting the Narragansett Indians tribal land in Charlestown. This amounts to $246,913 per acre.

If Middleboro had negotiated this same amount per acre for the casino project land, it would total $29,629,560 - which might have come close to helping to mitigate the impact of Jack Healey's lifetime pension.

It is impossible for me to think about Former Middleboro Town Manager Jack Healey without being reminded of Barney Frank or Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Three mumbling, unlikely leaders of men.

How is it that, in the decades since Nixon lost a debate for failure to tan, and in our own era of botox and bleached teeth, these Elmer Fudd warriors found not only acceptance, but success?

I would learn that, decades ago, Healey was blowing into Middleboro just as I was packing my bags and leaving it for good. In 2007, as I was returning to follow the casino chronicles, Healey was emptying his desk and planning for his retirement party. I'd somehow managed to miss Jack's entire career as Middleboro's man-in-charge, and yet, the repercussions of one of his last acts would rock the entire region, polarize the the State, and thrust me personally into a battle I could never have imagined.

Back then some folks considered Jack a hero. They shook his hand, offering both admiration and gratitude for his magnanimous parting gift of an Indian casino. For these people Jack had personally opened the heavens and caused it to rain shiny new firetrucks.

For others Jack was a villain. Back room meetings, suspiciously timed auctions, and that memo which began, "Casino anyone?"

According to this Commonwealth Magazine article by Sean Murphy,

...the casino developers were already in discussions with Healey and other town officials, and that the talks had predated the auction.

Despite soulful denials of participating in any monkey business, Healey's obvious behind-the-scenes machinations didn't exactly foster trust with some residents. And certainly not with me.

Locals seemed delighted to share gossip about Jack Healey which revealed a creativity for self-enrichment. But I never got the time to become familiar with this side of Jack because after dropping the casino bomb on all of us, Healey banked his plane into the clouds and disappeared. Or, as my friend Frank prefers, "went on the lam."

In fact, after his retirement gala, Healey sitings became rarer than red bellied cooters and were sources of much speculation and intrigue.

Until recently. Chatter places an increasingly visible Jack Healey at Town Hall these days. And, not long ago, the Board of Selectmen appointed him as their alternate liaison to SRPEDD because Mr. Spataro, the official liaison from the Board had such a poor record of making the meetings.

But this begs the question - why Jack Healey? Why do some people still seem to trust him to be Middleboro's go-to guy? It seems to me that the last thing Middleboro would want to do, especially in this economy, is to let Jack Healey stick his finger into any more pies.

Because remember, after dropping that casino bomb Jack crashed the plane then jettisoned the cockpit wearing a golden parachute.

Not only was his salary for his last year on the job $142,500, but he'll now collect a pension of $102,700 per year for the rest of his life and an additional $15,000 per year for health care - all courtesy of the good folks of Middleboro. Go shake his hand.

In that same Commonwealth Magazine article, Healey attempts to justify a casino:

...as 2007 began, Healey painted a dire picture of the state of affairs in Middleborough. Residents would have to pay higher property taxes or accept deep cuts in basic services. Police, firefighter, and teacher layoffs were certain. The town was on the ledge, ready to jump. As Healey told a regional section of the Boston Sunday Globe in January, “There are no more rabbits to pull out of the hat.”

Well, hadn't Healey killed a few of those 'wabbits' himself with his exorbitant pension? How many people do you know who have lifetime pensions? Pensions larger than most people's salaries? And hadn't he successfully dug Middleboro into a bigger rabbit hole by not fully considering the value of the land, or a mega casino's eventual costs and impacts to the town - issues which would have certainly become apparent with less attempts at secrecy and more public input.

So I ask you, does Middleboro really need more of Jack Healey and his peculiar and expensive form of influence? And will he really be protecting the town's interest at SRPEDD - or just sitting at the table quietly cooking up creative ways to parlay this new role into a private revenue stream? Isn't this assignment sort of like asking a former Enron executive to audit your company's books?

Hey here's a thought, there was a Mr. Cederholm on the Casino Resort Advisory Committee (CRAC) who he seemed to understand roads and highways and infrastructure. And I recall a Mr. Cassady, sitting behind me at the BIA hearings, who demonstrated more than a passing knowledge of the roadways around the casino project. And I am aquainted with a certain Mr. Solimini, a civic-minded engineer who has been involved with the regional commuter rail expansion meetings.

So, there you have three qualified, community-minded folks who might be able to fill Spataro's empty chair, and probably others too - none of whom who have personally soaked the town of Middleboro for millions of dollars.

But, if you just can't resist that silver tongue and those Hollywood good looks, you might just want to get out your checkbook now.

THIMK

When I was a little kid one of my sisters had a paperweight on her desk with the word "THINK" on it - something you might expect to see on a paperweight, except, if you looked a little closer at the tall skinny close-together letters, you realized that it didn't spell "THINK" at all - it spelled "THIMK" - with an 'M'. Reminding anyone who bothered to take a closer look, that to truly "THINK" requires some effort.

Recently, if you've been looking closely, you'll notice blogs and blog posts by some of your favorite bloggers have been disappearing from blog rolls and replaced with 'selected' blog posts.

I refer to this is phenomenon as 'cherry picking' - meaning that someone is filtering out what they think you don't want to see, presumably sparing you the effort of clicking your mouse one or two more times or freeing you from reading something potentially off-topic.

I have been assured that this is being done in the name of relevance. Therefore, if a blog post isn't relevant to the casino issue, it will not show up.

But upon even closer inspection, you'll notice that my last blog post, Six Degrees of a Casino is missing - and that post is certainly relevant, don't you thimk? I mean, it even mentions the word 'casino' four times, including in the title, not to mention those hot button words 'Middleboro' and 'investors', and even includes an embeded video titled 'SixDegreesofaCasino'.

Now, I do the odd bit of web programming myself, and so I know that even a computer program designed to sniff out posts about Middleboro casino and filter out non-casino posts would have easily slapped a seal of approval on this one. And yet, despite the fact that this post spurred a discussion that would ultimately garner 32 comments, it somehow didn't pass someone's (or something's) smell test.

So how come Bumpkin's blog about blogs got through the censors? It also mentioned 'casino' four times - but never mentioned 'Middleboro' or 'investors' at all.

Now please don't go blaming Bumpkin, since he insists it's not him doing the cherry picking - it's that darn computer program. Which just brings me back to why my last post didn't show up.

Let me tell you where I'm coming from.

I blog about casinos. Mostly about the Middleboro casino, but I do venture out to the State and National arenas on occassion. I'm one of the original anti-casino bloggers. In fact, it was my idea to add blogs to the CasinoFacts.org web site - a concept I've defended against pro and anti-casino folks alike.

I blog solely about casinos, their impacts and the people who love them. Even when I blog about blogging, the posts are peppered with references to a casino. When I do offer a rare political opinion, it comes down to how I think that it might effect our chance of getting a casino in Middleboro. I've blogged for almost a year and a half. I've blogged when you've been listening and I've blogged when you weren't. It sometimes takes a week or more of work to produce a single blog post. I've rarely produced a blog in under four hours - and that's the writing component only - not the background research, video production, graphics, links, etc.

I am a founding member of CasinoFacts.org, the first member from a surrounding community, sat on the board of directors for a year, and am a current member of the Board of CasinoFreeMass. I've attended last summers selectman's meetings, pre-CRAC meetings, and still attend Regional Task Force meetings. I've gone around to different towns to discuss casinos. You might even say I have my finger on the pulse of the issue since I'm the one who compared Glenn Marshall to a date rapist a month before it was revealed that he was a convicted date rapist and who correctly predicted Mr. Bond would show up at a Mass Highway meeting to see if he could work a casino into it. I've spoken at the Massachusetts State House about casinos. And just last month my videos were played for a national audience at the Stop Predatory Gambling conference.

As for my Six Degrees of a Casino post, I'd spent an awful lot of time doing the research for that, even taking a trek down to the old Middleboro Library, in order to present the facts about an issue that has been discussed almost as long as I've been involved in fighting casinos.

So I guess my question is, if that one post, and even my entire blog isn't 'relevant' to fighting casinos, then what exactly is?

What I'm hoping is, that whatever screening device is being used to cherry pick my blog isn't wearing Bond goggles. I mean, I know there's some people in Middleboro who think we shouldn't be looking too closely at Bond... "we've got to heal the wounds"... "let's move on"... "focus on the investors not the small town guys"...etc.

But this is the thing - the anti-casino movement isn't only about Middleboro. It's never been. From that first meeting of CasinoFacts.org to the Regional Task Force on Casino Impacts, people from the surrounding communities have been involved. And people who live outside of Middleboro, folks who've had no vote and no voice in the matter of a casino, well they still deserve to know about the people who are promoting the casino project that will effect them even if it makes some folks in Middleboro uncomfortable.

So I really hope it's not that.

Bloggers, unlike reporters and columnists, don't make a salary. The payment for our work, for our tenacity, is readership. To know that people are hearing the message, the whole message, and that they're learning more, or thimking perhaps differently about something, and having conversations or taking action they might not otherwise.

Bloggers come in all shapes, sizes, ages, genders, philosophies, and poltical persuasions. And to me, the fact that we can all still agree on one thing - that we oppose a Middleboro casino - just makes the message stronger.

Blogging is, and has been, one of the most effective tools in the grassroots activists arsenal. Which is why Stop Predatory Gambling lists becoming a blogger as one the four best ways to take action.

My fellow bloggers and I, as well as our families, have paid a price for taking that action. My children have been dragged onto on-line forums and message boards, I've had to report a threat to the police, we've been threatened with lawsuits and liens, have been lied about, misrepresented and bullied. And everything in between. And it's taken a toll - apparently all so a person or some computer program to decide which of our posts is relevant.

Folks, if the motivation for bloggers to continue blogging is the knowledge that our blogs are being read and that they're making a difference, then where's the motivation to continue making the effort, taking the time, and putting ourselves and our familes through hell knowing that some of our hard work is going to end up on the cutting room floor?

Now, perhaps my recent blog post Six Degrees of a Casino was cherry picked into no man's land in error, and that the blog screening program, it's programmer, or possibly even an individual screener never had anything but good intentions. Which might explain why the road to hell is paved with them.

The calendar says it's currently 2008 - and in 2008 most people grasp the concept that a blog is an opinion piece and an on-going journal. News sites, community sites, political sites - blogs are everywhere, and they're not going away. It's time to stop worrying about what people might think and just let them think. People may indeed go to to a web site looking for certain information, but they click on blogs looking for something else, and can manage to do so with the tacit understanding that it neither guarantees relevance or implies endorsement.

The fact that most of my readers oppose a Middleboro casino is obvious proof that they don't need to ask the Wizard for a brain. And I for one trust them to be able to go a web site, click a link which takes them to the front page of my whole entire blog and be able to make their own decisions as to whether a post is relevant to them or not.

Thimk about it.

Six Degrees of a Casino

Is he or isn't he? It's become a local parlor game.

Is NYC native and Middleboro selectman Adam Bond a casino industry plant, or simply the perfect storm of skills, ego, timing, and a certain je ne sais quoi that captivates some folks while repelling others?

Well, I know this might come as a surprise, but for the most part, I've tended toward the perfect storm camp. That being said, I've also been offered numerous compelling reasons to look into it. So I finally did.

Several hundred web sites and conversations later, I've distilled the bulk of what I've learned into this video. You decide.



Food for thought?

I'm not sure. As you can see, evidence linking Bond to a casino conspiracy is circumstantial at best - at least on paper. Though obviously, not all relationships and conversations are recorded - or public. Nor can I deny a certain number of little red flags which popped up here and there, which I don't mention.

So perhaps the question still remains. Or, perhaps for you, it's been answered. Or, maybe, the question itself is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Or not...

But one thing that has become clear having mulled the question over since last summer, and after everything I've learned reading publicly available information, is that the Michigan connection to off-reservation Indian Casinos - reservation shopping at it's most blatant - is not a myth.

Michigan investors have been, and are, willing to nurture these projects for a long time (the Port Huron ordeal is in it's 15th year), and to bully and intimidate anyone in their way, while the of price of influence has become just another cost of doing business.

Unfortunately, the willingness, even eagerness, to subvert the rights of local residents in towns and cities across this country, all in the name of green lighting land into trust is no longer a secret - or surprise - to us.

Nor is the determination of citizens from one coast of this counry to the other, to fight it.

Everyone's Entitled to Their Opinion

From The National Indian Gaming web site's Indian Land Opinions page:

Indian tribes may only game on Indian lands that are eligible for gaming under the IGRA. Such lands must meet the definition of “Indian lands” at 25 U.S.C. § 2703, which requires that the land be within the limits of a tribe’s reservation, be held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the tribe or its member(s), or that the land be subject to restrictions against alienation by the United States for the benefit of the tribe or its member(s). Additionally, the tribe must have jurisdiction and exercise governmental powers over the gaming site.

The IGRA, 25 U.S.C. § 2719, contains a general prohibition against gaming on lands acquired into trust after October 17, 1988 (the date the IGRA was enacted into law). Tribes may game on such after-acquired trust land if the land meets one of the exceptions laid out in § 2719. Indian lands opinions are issued by either the Commission or the Department of the Interior, Division of Indian Affairs, Office of the Solicitor in accordance with their Memorandum of Agreement.

Click here to view the Indian lands advisory opinions issued by the NIGC and the Department of the Interior on whether a tribe may game on certain lands and the fact that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe isn't on it.

Raise Your Hand

Want to find out where the candidates stand on casinos?

Ask.

Go here. Sign in as guest. Take the quiz or not. In the upper right corner, click 'Submit a Question' choose 'Economy' as a subject. In 255 words or less, submit your question.

This is mine:

Casinos are proliferating in residential communities. Democratic governors are pushing casinos as revenue generators to pay for pet projects, while Senator McCain wrote the much abused Indian Gaming act. How do the candidates feel about casinos?

This is an excellent opportunity for folks on both sides of the casino debate to ask where the candidates stand on it. The more people who ask, the more likely the question will be raised an upcoming debate.

Questions must be submitted by October 2nd.

Toss the Dice...

Being pretty well occupied at the Stop Predatory Gambling Conference all weekend, I didn't get the chance to see this fascinating read 'till just now.

But I can tell you that the conference offered two terrific speakers discussing the abuses caused by IGRA - which John McCain helped write.

Despite 20 years in which to witness the debacle which is the outcome of the Indian Gaming Act (...which he helped write...) and which has allowed mega gambling casinos to proliferate in residential communites, next to homes, schools and places of worship, and 20 years in which to act - we're all still waiting for Senator McCain to step up and fix it. Or better yet, throw it out and start over.

IGRA was so badly written that it negates states rights and requires arduous amounts of litigation for even the smallest local gains. (And by 'gains' I refer to maintaining current quality of life.) Meanwhile, wealthy casino interests are free to line pockets and influence people through contributions, lobbying and the well-funded rebranding of gambling - to the point where using casinos to fund budget shortfalls has started to sound downright acceptable to many - from John Q. Public to the elected official under mandated pressure to balance a budget.

Oh the wonder of it all.

Meanwhile, Senator Obama, has spoken against gambling and has accepted less gambling contributions than McCain, but apparently... has been adopted by Native Americans.

Obama told those gathered that he intended to acknowledge the "tragic history" of Native Americans over the past three centuries. They "never asked for much, only what was promised by the treaty obligations of their forebears," he said, promising to honor those treaties.

This is enough to make anyone living with the threat (or actuality) of an Indian casino in their community nervous. We are called racists at every turn in efforts to discredit our valid arguments. We still read 'fact filled' articles which claim the Mashpee Wampanoags met the Pilgrims. And we are accutely aware that "what was promised by the treaty obligations of the forebears" has somehow, in the 20th and 21st centuries been translated as unbridled casino development.

Native Americans rightly deserve and have a lot of sympathy across this country for abuses in the past - but turning our country into Gambling Nation is like trying to turn two wrongs into a right.

Meanwhile... in the conservative corner, we have Governor Palin touting her husband's Native Alaskan heritage, while still receiving criticism from constiuents for not doing enough for them. What's that going mean for Native Americans or IGRA reform if she were ever called in to carry on?

And... in the liberal corner, we find that Joe Biden's son Hunter once worked for the On-Line gambling industry - one of the most predatory and unregulated forms of gambling in existence today - though he a.) is not his dad and b.) has since quit. But why? Did Dad ask him to because he knows it's wrong - or a bad political move. I'd love to know.

In the end, I guess we all want to know which candidate will do the most for us personally, our nation as a whole, and the causes we want to see get the attention we feel they deserve.

Forget the earmarks and the pork and the international community for a moment. Which candidate will take a pass on all that gambling money? Who's really going to come out for the little guy?

In real life, things are much more complicated.

The truth also is that not all Native Americans favor Indian gaming or casinos. Just like other Americans. Many Native Americans and even Mashpee Wampaonag tribal members oppose casinos. Many tribal members across this country believe they can do better for their nations than building an econonmy based on gambling. And many Native American tribal members still live in poverty even with a Tribal casino. Where is their voice? Well, I suspect it's right up there on the importance list with mine.

Because those same excessive gambling profits which have the uncanny power to sway elected officials - well they do the same for Tribal leadership.

Indian gaming accounts for a third of the gambling revenue in this country. And that's a lot of influence. In fact, at least one tribe is so wealthy, that they've become the not-necessarily-indian off-reservation casino-investors who once gave them a foot up into the industry.

I have read McCain's testimony at 2006 hearings on off-reservation gamging and witnessed recent changes in regulations which make it more difficult to engage in Indian Casino development.

But not surprisingly, since he is not involved in Indian Gaming regulation or legislation, I haven't heard anything from Obama regarding IGRA.

Though, according to a January 2008 story in the LA Times,

"Barak Obama has warned about the dangers of gambling – that it carries a “moral and social cost” that could “devastate” poor communities. As a state senator in Illinois, he at times opposed plans to expand gambling, worrying that it could be especially harmful to low-income people."

But does this mean he's OK with letting casinos rise out of cornfields, swamps, and forests in and around the neighborhoods that form the not-quite-as-poor-but-definitely-not-affluent communities across America? Sort of more on the lines of our own Governor Patrick, willing to sacrifice the some for the good of the plenty?

We do know that McCain is an active gambler with much involvement in the issue but with a poor history regulating it, while Obama, a pastime poker player with no history with IGRA, and perhaps no interest in understanding it, is an unknown. If elected, will Indian casinos continue to march profligately across this country and into our neighborhoods for another 20 years due to sympathy and neglect?

Which candidate will finally bring an end reservation shopping? And which one of them will stop casino investors from having their way with the place I call home?

One does sound better than the other, but could neglect the issue allowing it to exacerbate. The other isn't my kind of guy, but at least he shows some interest in 'reform'. Heck, as far as I can tell, it's a crap shoot.

Because who really knows who'll do the most to reform IGRA?

I sure don't.

But I'd really like to. A lot of Americans would love to hear the candidates discuss this issue. And I suspect they would also love to witness a declaration of, or better yet, an era of... wait for it... real change.

But (excuse the pun) I won't bet on it any time soon.

All Hands

I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.

~Jewish Proverb

On Saturday there will be at least four people, maybe more, who really wanted to be at the Stop Predatory Gambling conference in DC this weekend, and would have gone - but who couldn't - because they'd already volunteered to help out with some incredibly important anti-casino jobs on Saturday, one of which is a yard sale.

I know it's going to be raining on Saturday. Ok... more like pouring. All right, sure - downpouring. Just all the more reason I hope you'll all make the effort to get out there and show these hardworking, dedicated folks some support. They've done so much throughout the year to keep a casino out of Middleboro and the South Shore. And they're still going.

Thanks, guys. You know you always have my support. Let's save all those weekend buckets of water for the Wicked Witch.

The Secret Life of Monkeys

A 2005 Duke University study found that macaque monkeys preferred to follow a "risker" target, which gave them varying amounts of juice, over a "safe" one, which always gave the same - they just like gambling. Intriguingly, the monkeys preferred the riskier target even when it gave them consistently less juice than the same one, and continued to choose the riskier target in the face of diminishing returns when a single large one was still in memory.

- From Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling by David G. Schwartz

This explains much.

Not the least of which is why some primates, most notably the Middleboro Board of Selectmen and Friends continue to support, embrace, champion and believe in the continuing long shot of a casino in their midst.

Keep on reachin' for that rainbow Middleboro Board and Friends.

...I mean macaques.

Avert Thine Eyes

In the course of my research on another subject, I stumbled across an interesting Boston Magazine blog post from last year which attempted to explain why casino investors didn't do background checks on Tribal leaders before partnering with them. It also features this classic quote from Mashpee Wampanoag spokesman and cheery Kool-Aid cocktail waitress, Scott Ferson.

“Trading Cove did extensive background checks on the investor group. And that’s appropriate,” Ferson said. “But not the tribe, which I think would be wholly inappropriate.” The reason, says Ferson, is that the tribe is no average business partner: It’s a sovereign government, with its own elected head of state."

Yeah, because one sovereign country would have no vested interest in knowing whether another sovereign country is oh say, stockpiling nuclear or biologicial weapons, or assembling troops on the border, or participating in genocide.

That never happens.

And it's nobody's business if a small tribe with a penchant for pointy weapons and whose previous chairman and the guy who signed the Intergovernmental Agreement with Middleboro is a lying rapist who wants to operate an industry reknowned for it's ability to corrupt on an essentially gated community potentially servicing upwards of 50,000 people a day on the borders of Bridgewater, Halifax and Carver.

Yes, please avert your eyes.

And as far greater scruitiny concerned... Scott learned that the hard way on a trip to Mashpee,

“A tribe council member had what I think would be the reaction of the tribe,” he says. “If an investor came to them and said ‘We’d like to do a background check on you,’ one said, ‘I’d tell them to go to hell.”

Well, I feel completely reassured, how about you?

Besides, this is all just dust under the carpet, er... yesterday's news anyway.

Instead of continuing to put investors or tribe and town officials under the microscope, people should focus on the truly despicable and dangerous players in all this - anti-casino bloggers who can't stop digging up dirt, er... leave poor innocent casino supporters alone.

Group hug everyone!

Realty Check

It's one of the first questions you ask when you hear someone wants to build a casino somewhere near you.

What's it going to do to my property value?

Sure, some people can pretend a casino is a desirable thing, but the fact remains, few people really want to live near one. Especially if they moved somewhere for the trees and the quiet and the fresh air.

In North Stonington, CT, the town next door to Ledyard, home to the Foxwoods ever-expanding mega casino...

Residential homes on main road or alternate roads leading to casinos tend to decrease in value 10 percent. Making it harder to sell and reducing the tax basis for the area.

- Source: Casino Impacts on North Stonington; Prepared by North Stonington Board of Selectmen; Nicholas H. Mullane, II; William N. Peterson; John M. Turner. Amended December 24, 2001

In Preston, another abutting town...

The impact traffic increase has had on home values in Preston is dramatic. A recent revaluation of properties in Preston as shown home values for properties within a quarter mile of a state road are as much as (20 %) twenty percent lower than a similar home that is not close t the traffic of the casino. The financial impact for Preston homeowners is approximately $6,000,000.00.

- Source:Casino Related Impacts on Preston, CT; prepared by: Preston Board of Selectman; Robert Congdon, First Selectman; Gerald Grabarek, Selectman; Thomas Maurer, Selectman: December 18, 2001.

And those are the towns next door to a casino town. The Bridgwaters, the Halifaxs, the Carvers and the Lakevilles.

After a friend in Lakeville recently had his No Casino sign stolen for the second time, an unexpected explanation was offered. It seems that in Middleboro realtors are reqired to disclose to prospective buyers the fact that a casino may be coming to town. Ah, but not so in surrounding towns.

Could those glaring red No Casino signs have been disappearing due to their tendency to break the unpleasant news to uninformed house hunters? I do recall at the BIA hearing a realtor from Lakeville assuring us that property values would be fine. Just fine.

I've heard Middleboro realtors explain that, initially, property values will sink as a result of a casino, but then casino managers will cause a demand for the larger homes and values will rebound.

Gosh, considering the population around Middleboro is about 9 times that of Ledyard, I suspect that would take a lot of casino managers.

Of course, as far as I'm concerned (and to paraphrase Charlton Heston) a casino manager can buy my house when he pries it out of my cold, dead hands.

Gladys goes to Washington!

Some of you might remember when Mrs. Kravitz went to Washington last year. Well, she's going back and this time she wants you to join her.

That's because this year will be something special. This year is the kickoff of a new grassroots organization:

Stop Predatory Gambling.org

One of the four cornerstones of StopPredatoryGambling.org is the reform of IGRA.

Over the last year and a half many of us have personally witnessed how abuses of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act can effect our homes and quality of life, and influenced our elected officials.

The conference, which starts at 1:30 Friday afternoon, will take place at Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, MD just outside of Washington, DC. Special room rates are available for those who register early.

"The event is the start of a national effort to awaken America’s conscience about what is predatory gambling, what it means for our democracy and the impact it has on the families and businesses in our communities."

For lots more information, please click here.

Please join me at the conference. Let's show our support!

Revision Revised

The removal of this blog seemed to be fairly innocuous from my point of view, but if others are bothered by its removal, I am not bothered by republishing it. A simple phone call to me would have accomplished the same purpose. Enjoy the apparently slow news day. By the way, if anyone has a copy of the blog to Shawn, please e-mail a copy and I also will restore that blog post.

-- Adam Bond, Coffee Talk Blog, Sept. 15, 2008

The missing posts (at least one of them) have returned...

The Company apparently gave Adam the green light to put the Hendricks posts back up.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Funny, though. I wonder why he just doesn't take down all his blog posts several days after posting them?

As far as picking up the phone... yeah sure... and end up as the subject of an 800 post topix thread? Or find a rabbit simmering in a soup pot on the stove? No thanks, darling... I'll pass.

This Day in Revisionist History

If you delete something... a blog entry, a comment, etc. - does that mean it never happened?

I bring this up because some posts have disappeared from Middleboro Selectman Adam Bond's blog, Coffee Talk. One referred to his recent public outrage about the Mashpee Wamapanoag's letter to the Governor requesting they commence casino compact negotiations while leaving Middleboro out in the cold, and another was a weird sort of personal (aka public) "everything's ok now, but don't let it happen again or I'll scratch your eyes out" letter to Tribal chief Sean Hendricks.

Both posts seem to have vanished.

Fortunately, Media Nation blogged about the first, and I blogged the second for posterity.

Belicose Bumpkin, Carl's Quotes and Carverchick blogged about it, too.

So why take down the posts on his own blog?

Is Bond trying to rewrite history - or just his own history?

This all comes on the heels of hearing that Bond's latest radio program has been offering a kinder gentler form of Bondage.

I respect the fact that blogs are an individual form of expression, and you can do whatever you want with them, including removing your own posts when it suits you.

That being said, I personally think it's a cop out. If someone says it, it's been said. You can't erase it in real life. So deal with it. Stand by it.

The blogosphere ain't for sissies.

To me, the removal of those posts on Adam's blogs is an admission that they were as goofy and as weird as most of us thought they were. Like many of them have been.

Now it's being suggested that Bond is attempting to change his image. If so, this is in keeping with his modus operandi: Condemn the people who criticize your actions. Intimidate them if necessary. Erase any words that might come back to haunt you. And proclaim it's all in the name of "unity".

But, no matter how much Bond, or anyone else, tries to rewrite the history of these casino chronicles, no matter how many memories fade, or feelings mellow, or spin is spun, and regardless of how many folks will eventually swallow his call for 'unity' - anyone in search of the actual truth can always visit good old Gladys Kravitz and see for themselves what really happened, and decide for themselves if this "image change" is for real, or just more lipstick on a Yorkie.

But hey, you know that's why I'm here.

Middleboro Buys New Fire Truck with Casino Money!

Actually, this vehicle belongs to Patriots running back Laurence "Kool-Aid" Maroney.

Thanks to Frank "The Kasino Killa" Dunphy for the photos!

Shrunken Heads

By far, my children's favorite attraction on our recent trip to New York City was the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Odditorim in Times Square.

Robert Ripley, in case you didn't know, was an aficionado of shrunken heads. He'd amassed a huge collection of them during the course of his life - an interesting subset of which were here on display in Times Square. In fact, inside the glass case in front of me hung the tiny shrunken heads of three children - two toddlers and an infant.

While my own kids were off enjoying the 6 legged cow and grooving on the Titanic artifacts, I studied the informational placards next to the heads. And that's how I learned that collecting shrunken heads began as a religious activity on the part some Tribes in the Amazon basin. By taking the head of an enemy and shrinking it in a special process with magical herbs, one could, in essence, possess their soul.

Amazonian warriors began to realize that the more heads they collected, the more powerful and cooler they could be around the Amazonian Basin.

And then the rest of the world found out.

In came the collectors - like Ripley - who couldn't get enough of the oddities (especially in the era before Youtube and reality shows.)

Now there was even more reason for the Amazon Tribes to harvest their neighbor's noggins. Wealth. Good old supply and demand.

And so, as things have a way of doing when power and money and coolness are involved, matters got out of hand. So many heads began to roll, in fact, that a sort of arms race began. Eventually, even children's heads had a price on them. The rationale? A preemptive strike.

It was an industry.

And it was all completely, culturally acceptable...

...Until the modern world, horrified by this self-perpetuating gruesome war without end, eventually enacted severe laws outlawing the trade.

And so there I was, in the bowels of the Odditorium, reading up on shrunken heads, when it occurred to me that this peculiar phenomenon of the past wasn't entirely unlike the casino craze sweeping our country today.

A phenomenon of "Sin City" outposts, in search of population centers and highway access, cropping up amidst our homes and businesses, our schools and places of worship under the guise of harmless entertainment and vital revenue streams.

And it's all become so... acceptable, even desirable, to some. It's become cool. It's the Rat Pack. It's the televised World Poker Championship. It's the Wonder of It All, it's Wonderland, it's wonderful.

In other words, it's marketing.

And the gambling industry's enormous wealth buys power.

Which is why a lot of people believe it's only a matter of time before the onward march of predatory gambling will make the entire world part of it's empire.

But it won't. Because gambling, like the practice of collecting shrunken heads, has a shelf life. Eventually the pendulum swings the other way. It's starting to swing now.

Gambling, has always been around and always will be. Over the course of history it's more predatory forms have been pushed into the shadows, or the fringe or the desert. Invariably it makes the effort to go mainstream. And just as invariably, there is a backlash.

Like countless generations throughout history, people all over this country are realizing the costs, both human and monetary. Evidence is mounting. Tax rates aren't going down while families are getting hurt. And investors, not voters, appear to hold the cards. And no one likes that.

It's just not worth it.

I peered into a glass display case where a shrunken head, it's eyes and mouth sewn shut, was mounted on a small pole. He was a real person once.

All these heads belonged to real people, real human beings, caught up in a tragic fad, their lives reduced to an acceptable economic commodity - now merely leftover cultural "oddities" from a unrecognizable generation gathering dust in an overpriced tourist trap.

Collateral damage from a bygone era and another quest for wealth and power and coolness.

No one today would put the heads of recently dead people in display cases for the world to gawk at. So, what makes some human tragedy so... acceptable. And is anything acceptable as long as we brand it appropriately? Do our homes and our way of life matter less if the world percieves our corner of the world only as a 'destination'?

I've heard it said more than once, and I really believe it's true, that the more people understand about predatory gambling, the more they become opposed to it. And in the continuing battle to expand gambling in our country, I do believe that eventually wiser heads, and not shrunken ones will prevail.

But only if we Americans remember to keep our eyes and mouths open - well before someone tries to sew them shut.

Between the Lines

When I read Adam Bond's second public letter in a single week to Mashpee Wampanonag tribal leader Sean Hendricks, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Jerry Springer Show - you know - the show where people air their personal differences in front of a live audience and sometimes end up throwing chairs.

Submitted for your approval, I present my deconstructed Jerry Springer interpretation of Adam's carefully constructed "Dear Sean" letter:

Oh no you ditn't, Sean.

Oh no you ditn't. I ain't just nobody, yo. I'm the mother of your casino. I'm the keeper of your crib, that's who I am. It's all about the respect, baby. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. And that ain't no one-way street.

That's why I got the pre-nup, yo - I knew your sorry ass would take off the second things got bad. After all I done for you, I knew you'd still swing the door in my face and head uptown, takin' care of your business somewhere else ...gettin' all over the TV, making me look like a chump.

You think you're something? You ain't all that. I even got anti-casino crying my tears over this. That's right. Who you think you with, anyway? I'm all over AM radio, yo. That's right. I got the Enterprise on speed dial. That's who I am. You need me more than I need you, baby. And don't you never forget it.

So when you get it in your mind to go steppin' out on me again, Sean, you know you best pick up that phone - this time, next time and everytime else - if you ever wanna get anywhere near that casino again. You feel me?

Still Your Boo,
The A-Bomb

I'm happy to report that no chairs were thrown during the course of this episode.