Casino Stories

Until this morning, I would have sworn that the newspaper columns about the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s pursuit of a gambling license were written by the same people who produce 99.9% of the technical books and articles out there (my favorite author Jesse Liberty being the most distinguished exception to that rule).
In other words, the articles have been confusing, contradictory and abominably written.
Finally, though, the Boston Herald’s Casey Ross laid it all down in clear, understandable English.
Thank you, Mr. Ross.
Here are the facts:
There are three proposals on the table.
First, the tribe can bid for a license under the governor’s three-casino plan. The Legislature would have to approve this.
Second: the tribe is pursuing a separate agreement with the governor to allow “unlimited casino gaming”, i.e., slots and gaming tables, at the Middleboro site, in exchange for labor and environmental concessions, revenue sharing with the state, and payment for infrastructure upgrades and other costs. The Legislature would have to approve this agreement.
Finally, the tribe can seek approval from the Dept. of the Interior to put the Middleboro casino site in federal trust, a process that could take a year or more. According to Mr. Ross’s article, this would be a “Class II gaming facility with modified slot machines and limited table games”. In this case, though, the tribe wouldn’t need the Mass. legislature’s approval, and they wouldn’t have to pay for infrastructure upgrades, share revenue with the state, etc.
Got it?

Sometimes, It Takes Very Little

There was snow on the ground when I got up at 4:30. A little while later, it was sleeting, about an hour ago it was raining, and now (8:17 am) it’s not doing much of anything.
I was ecstatic for myself – it’s Saturday and thus, was not required to venture forth – but not envying Peter, who had to drive his entire family to Boston for a conference this morning.

Fun with Numbers

One wonders if the upcoming Rezko trial and its potential impact on Obama’s Teflon-coated campaign isn’t the driving force behind all the babble about “change”, “healing souls”, etc.
Put another way, is Obama motivated by a guilty conscience, or is his campaign really proof that innocents can triumph in a land of political wolves?
For example, there have been a lot of numerical manipulations around the proportion of the Obama campaign that has been funded from small contributors.
People have practically been standing on their heads, slicing the numbers to the point of absurdity, to prove that Barack Obama isn’t in the pockets of the rich because “most”/”the majority”/”all” (see the Washington Post, huffingtonpost.com, etc.) of his donations have been in small amounts.
The reality is that only about 1/3 of Obama’s total contributions have come from small donors, those in the $200 and under category.
This info is readily available from the FEC, which has posted totals through January 31 for all of the candidates.
This is not to say that either the Clinton or McCain campaigns are exemplary in this regard (15.5% and 24.8%, respectively). The difference is that they haven’t made this statistic a litmus test for ideological purity.
In fact, no one has done as well as Ron Paul in the area of attracting donations from the hoi polloi: over 62% of Paul’s coffers came from people contributing $200 or less.
Clinton
$200 and Under $18,660,346 15.54%
$200.01 – $499 $4,876,808 4.06%
$500 – $999 $6,790,257 5.66%
$1000 – $1999 $20,013,590 16.67%
$2000 and Over $69,717,042 58.07%
Obama
$200 and Under $47,323,742 33.85%
$200.01 – $499 $10,452,546 7.48%
$500 – $999 $11,440,957 8.18%
$1000 – $1999 $21,130,641 15.11%
$2000 and Over $49,472,185 35.38%
McCain
$200 and Under $12,255,455 24.78%
$200.01 – $499 $2,595,721 5.25%
$500 – $999 $4,292,476 8.68%
$1000 – $1999 $8,648,735 17.49%
$2000 and Over $21,657,862 43.80%
Paul
$200 and Under $20,480,336 62.89%
$200.01 – $499 $2,456,663 7.54%
$500 – $999 $3,482,780 10.69%
$1000 – $1999 $3,164,245 9.72%
$2000 and Over $2,981,117 9.15%

It Takes a Village Idiot

As I’ve said before, unless blackmail is involved, I don’t understand the Clintons’ loyalty to their campaign strategists.
At a time when the campaign is desperate for funds, last week’s buzz about wasteful spending, like the $500 a night rooms at the Bellagio, was bad enough.
But why Senator Clinton was advised to make a “shame on you” public fuss about the Obama campaign’s claims that she’s supported NAFTA in the past is more than embarrassing, it’s farcical.
Senator Clinton might do well to stop tilting at windmills and take a closer look at the company she keeps and their impact on her relationships with old friends.
For example, the Teamsters union had been Clinton supporters for some time, having gone on public record stating same less than a year ago.
Last week, they endorsed Barack Obama.
Could it be that the Clinton campaign made a big mistake in ignoring Jim Hoffa when he expressed concern that her chief strategist, Mark Penn, heads a public relations firm that assisted Cintas in its anti-union activities.
It’s starting to feel like Hillary Clinton’s campaign has become a halfway house for the idiots lost by her fabled villages.

The Better Part of Valor

The company I work for has remarkably generous employee benefits, so it’s an anomaly that it doesn’t offer telecommuting as an alternative work arrangement.
My department recently moved, so my commute is now a 76 mile round trip: about an hour each way under normal circumstances.
There was a snow storm yesterday which was predicted to include ice and sleet. With some trepidation, then, I emailed my boss about working at home; fortunately, he agreed that was a good idea.
From the way the storm looked as the day progressed, I wasn’t sure if I’d wimped out for nothing. We had a few snow squalls but no sleet, just rain, and only one momentary power loss.
Notwithstanding the seemingly mild conditions in this immediate vicinity, today’s local paper reported a serious crash less than 10 minutes away, and numerous fender-benders between here and the office.
Just as well to have stayed put.

Stepped In It

So, Michelle Obama – with her Princeton and Harvard education, $1 million+ house and $300k+ job – is “for the first time in (her) adult lifetime, … really proud of (her) country.”
Given that the nation’s economy is teetering on the brink, one could hardly have scripted a more witless, cruel, insensitive, sophomoric remark for the privileged wife of a Presidential candidate to utter.
Michelle Obama makes Teresa Heinz Kerry look like Mother Jones.
In comparison, Bill Clinton’s controversial remark about Jesse Jackson is about as minor a blunder as a clearing of the throat.
Maybe master media manipulator David Axelrod isn’t such a genius after all.

Smells Just as Bad

I’ve been wondering what media manipulator is behind the Obama campaign, and it turns out to be the same one that orchestrated another campaign pitting a youngish African-American man against a wonkish white female candidate: Chicago consultant David Axelrod.
That’s right, Axelrod was Deval Patrick’s media consultant.
Axelrod shares what is becoming one of the distinguishing characteristics of the senator from Illinois’ campaign: memory lapses on the part of high-visibility supporters concerning kindnesses and favors which the Clintons have done for them in the past.
As recalled last year in the New York Times, Hillary Clinton spoke at a fundraiser for the Axelrod family’s favorite charity, the CURE foundation, in January 1999. The date is significant because it was the start of Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
Not only did Hillary Clinton speak on behalf of the foundation, she was instrumental in persuading the NIH to convene a conference on finding a cure for epilepsy. In the words of David Axelrod’s wife, Susan, it was “one of the most important things anyone has done for epilepsy.”
And now, as succinctly noted in the Times article, “David Axelrod is … dedicated to derailing this woman’s career.”
That kind of back-stabbing disloyalty may be the foundation of Obama’s hope, change and unity message, but it sure smells like old-time politics to me.