Saturday, June 26, 2010

Stealing the Silver While the Titanic Sinks

There were three types of people on the Titanic on that fateful night in 1912 when the “unsinkable” great ship slipped into the dark, icy waters; those who tried to save others, those who raced to save themselves, and those who tried to steal the silver before heading for the life boats.
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Today, as America sinks further into economic depression, a rash of unpopular, career politicians from both parties are using their final months in office to grab as much in cash and prizes as they can possibly carry to the lifeboats.
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In the “good old days” a high level politician like Connecticut Senator Thomas Dodd (Chris Dodd’s father) would simply pilfer their campaign funds and sail off into the sunset, a whole lot richer. With a little luck, any corruption whispers (or even convictions) would disappear over time and the “respected public representative” could eventually expect to have a school, park or even a stadium named after him.
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While Senator Chris Dodd followed in his father’s footsteps into political prominence, the way to play the game today has changed. Why risk reputation and potential pesky legal complications by stealing when, with a little advanced planning, you can repay political and financial allies with public funds and create cushy, lucrative board positions for your retirement (and the rest of your family) in the process?
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Dodd has excelled at this type of advanced planning. Whether he is repaying hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from AIG bigwigs, buying pardons for disgraced business partners, or providing “favorable environments” for mortgage companies like Countrywide, Dodd hasn’t been shy in insuring that he gets a lot of personal bang for tax payer’s bucks.
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Now that his personal ship is sinking, Dodd is quickly grabbing up whatever loot he can and tying up loose ends in some impressively complex, cyclical schemes that both pay off political backers and create crony jobs and future board, lobbyist, and consultant positions for himself.
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One of the most interesting schemes came to light (in part) this week, when Dodd political backers, The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, landed a much decried $54 million preferred loan. Mainstream media reported the loan was to be used to build a tribal library and community center, on the tax payer dime. But the headlines only gave part of the story.
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Under Obama’s “stimulus” package, the US Department of Agriculture was allotted $168 million to fund rural development programs across the country. Designed to provide loans to farming and mining communities of under 20,000 residents, with the means to fund employment and regeneration projects, the preferred loans were to be awarded only when other means of financing were unavailable.
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It was therefore a shock to find that one of the most profitable gambling companies on the planet, one which cleared over $1.3 billion in profits last year alone, had the audacity to apply for and had incredibly been awarded, over 1/3rd of ALL of the USDA Rural Development program funds. But thanks to the lobbying efforts of Chris Dodd and his former aide, Charles Burnell (the current Chief of Staff for the tribe) The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority was awarded not the $54 million reported, but a total of $74 million from the USDA program and over $2 billion from other “stimulus” programs combined.
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So, what project could be so beneficial to a small community to warrant 1/3rd of the national budget for rural development? Surely it would be a project of far reaching economic significance, creating thousands of sustainable jobs for the region, right? Well… The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority will use the money to build a $54 million tribal executive office building, complete with a gym and library to be used by the tribal elders and the 300 tribal government employees who are already housed down the road at the tribes Crow Hill facilities.
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The latest $54 million award comes on the heals of a previous $20 million awarded to fund the temporary jobs of 100 construction and plumbing union workers who had been contracted to the building project before it was put on hold. All in, this $74 million dollars will be used to build a replacement office building for one of the most successful and profitable gambling companies in the world; a company that already benefits from preferential treatment by both the state and federal governments due to Native American Indian sovereignty and just happens to be a major contributor to….Chris Dodd.
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I appreciate that I don’t have a degree in mathematics, but I fail to see how spending $54 million to replace an office building that houses 300 people is a good financial bet. I have to guess that there are probably construction companies that could do the job for a little less than $200,000.00 per construction worker. Actually, why do the 1,700 recognized members of the Mohegan tribe NEED 300 employees to manage their affairs? All of this seems like a rather shady situation and certainly a bad return on investment to me. And apparently the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority agree, otherwise they would fund their own office building.
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To add insult to tax payer injury, the entire office building plan had been shelved and was no longer considered to be a desirable project by the tribe. According to Lynn Malerba who was the chairwoman for the Mohegan Tribal Council, “Our preference would have been to stop the project, but the USDA financing was available now.” Malerba has since been rewarded with promotion to Chief For Life of the Mohegan tribe.
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Chris Dodd, when asked why he would push for such a ridiculous use of tax payer money explained that the project would create 1,300 jobs. The USDA, when pressed for justification of such an abuse of their funds and bastardization of their purpose responded that the project would create 1,270 permanent, tribal jobs. However, when these figures were queried of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, Malerba clarified that they project would create only 114 permanent jobs. Whether the USDA and Dodd had been misinformed or had simply fudged the numbers to fit their agenda or cover their own backsides is currently unclear.
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What is clear however is that while The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority members claim to “need” stimulus money to build their office, they don’t seem to need any help in funding their new $600 million casino just up the road in Palmer, Massachusetts or to cover the $50 million proposed state license fee to secure the gambling rights. Just last week the state Senate unveiled its plan to establish gambling regions in Massachusetts. The new state divisions would mean that the Mohegan Casino would be the only party bidding on the Western Massachusetts region, assuring that they are in effect, the only gambling operation in the area. It would also protect their Connecticut casino from having competition in its own backyard.
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It is also clear that those whom this office building would benefit are not members of the groups that the USDA money was intended to assist. Aside from the $1.3 billion in 2009 profits that the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority reaped, each individual member of the tribe receives $30,000 annually in profit sharing. They also benefit substantially by virtue of their ethnic status. Since Obama’s “stimulus” came into effect, the 564 recognized tribes have shared in over $2 billion in federal cash and prizes.
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This is not to insinuate that all tribes benefit in the same way. While 300 of the 564 recognized tribes own casinos, only 20 generate enough income to support their tribe. In fact, most tribes are struggling with desperate poverty and associated social, medical, and employment issues. So this tax payer funded 2.8% interest, 30-year loan for an executive office building to benefit one of the wealthiest casino owners in the world should be a huge insult, not only to tax payers in general, but specifically to the Indian community.
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So what’s going on here? Of the 145 projects in 37 states that applied for funding through the USDA Rural Development loan program, why would the Federal Government deem a wealthy casino group seeking to build an office building not only deserving of funding, but deserving of the majority of the available funding?
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Like so many questions concerning the activities and motivations of the Obama administration, the answer to this question exposes yet another effort to by-pass the Constitution in order to change fundamental American values and rights and move us one giant step closer to socialism, a borderless country, and a New World Order.
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Doubt it? Call me a reactionary Right-Winger? Maybe, but the real question isn’t why did the Mohegan’s get millions, but instead, what do the Mohegan Indian payout, the Tohono O’odham Indian Tribe on the Arizona/Mexico border, blanket illegal immigration amnesty, $400 billion missing from the Federal coffers, and Obama’s campaign pledge to issue reparations to blacks all have in common? And who besides Dodd is running for the silver as the Titanic heads for the iceberg?

More tomorrow in:

Part 2 – Obama Holds the Indian Nations Hostage

Alexandrea Merrell

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