Tag Archives: Politics

Word of warning from new AC mayor

November 13, 2008 1:29 pm

As Atlantic City continues its own Year of the Four Emperors, its fourth mayor in a year has just been sworn in. New mayor Lorenzo Langford used his swearing in not to talk about the effect of the weakened economy on the city’s biggest industry or other weighty issues, but instead took a hard line against schemers. From the AC Press:

Langford welcomed the partnership of those previous viewed as rivals, but issued caution to those still seeking his demise. "Plot and plan against me if you will," he said. "But remember there is a God in heaven plotting and planning against you."

New Atlantic City mayor welcomes partners, cautions rivals.

If Oscar Goodman is the “happiest mayor on the planet,” does that make Langford “the most paranoid mayor on the planet?” I like how there’s no longer even a pretense of serving the people of Atlantic City: it’s all just about getting power and holding on to it.

And the idea that God will take a personal interest in Atlantic City politics is a whimsical notion at best. For crying out loud, the governor probably has better things to do that get mired in the goings-on down there, so what makes you think that the creator of the universe will intervene?

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Lucky chips on campaign trail

June 24, 2008 11:10 am

Guess what, it’s the 21st century, and one of the guys running for president collects good luck charms. From The Swamp:

The Obama campaign plays Las Vegas today, staging another “Change That Works for You” rally.

En route, the presidential candidate was asked what lucky charms work for him.

Curious about items that Obama had fished out of his pocket during a question and answer session with bakery workers in New Mexico on Monday, a reporter asked the senator how many lucky charms he carries with him.

Obama said he cannot carry the complete collection on the road.

“I try to select a number on any given day,” Obama said.

Obama’s lucky poker chip

Lucky charms, huh? I wonder if he has an astrologer working on his schedule.

I know this is probably tongue-in-cheek, but it strikes me as a little goofy. I don’t know that a presidential candidate fishing through his pockets really does it for me. I just picture him pulling out a button, then a bus pass, and finally a rabbit’s foot.

Plus, it’s just so typical of today’s political candidates that he doesn’t have just one lucky charm, he’s got a whole drawer full of them that he can mix and match to suit his constituency of the day. It seems that we’re producing public figures who are passionately committed to not making decisions about anything. Sure, it’s a trivial thing, but doesn’t the minutiae of your daily life say a lot about your character? It’s like Hillary Clinton not being able to give an answer, even a sardonic one, to the legendary question of diamonds or pearls (you’ll have to scroll way, way down to see the original).

I’m not saying that we want political candidates to have rigid, dogmatic personalities, but they should be able to take a public stand on something.

I still think that some sort of poker game should be part of a bigger series of challenges that all candidates have to face, like a drug test, intelligence and reasoning assessment, and detailed, thoughtful responses to a series of policy questions. If we’re going to turn politics into entertainment, can’t it at least be…entertaining?

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Posted in gambling & cultureTagged , , ,

Poker protest

March 18, 2008 11:49 am

Part of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick’s proposed casino bill makes betting online a crime. Some thing that’s hypocritical, others that it’s just a blatant attempt to stifle potential competition. In any event, now that we’ve got some Harvard Law students on the case, it’s getting interesting. From the Boston Herald:

A card-playing Harvard Law professor and his poker-crazy students will stage a protest today outside the State House rallying against Gov. Deval Patrick’s casino plan.

But while most opponents, ranging from church leaders to social activists, will be warning of the perils of expanded gambling, the Harvard group will be arguing there is not nearly enough.

In particular, the newly formed Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society is targeting a provision in the governor’s bill that Massachusetts residents caught gambling online would face up to two years in jail and a fine of as much as $25,000.

Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, an avid player who formed the Harvard poker society, plans to testify today at a State House hearing on Patrick’s casino bill. The Harvard group contends that as many as 400,000 Massachusetts residents play poker online.

Poker’s hot at Harvard – BostonHerald.com

I’m the first to say that UIGEA and the proposed bill are unjust, but they are pretty low on my scale of current global injustices. Suffice it to say that the plight of online poker players doesn’t keep me up at nights. On the other hand, reversing UIGEA is something that a small group of interested parties could actually accomplish, whereas there are no quick fixes to the big problems facing the world today. So maybe it’s a good thing for people to devote some energy to.

I don’t think I’m being sarcastic here, but I’m not completely sure.

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Less corrupt? Not likely

February 27, 2008 4:39 pm

I don’t usually like to quote myself, but it’s been a while since I’ve done this interview, so I actually forgot what I said, and was amused to see that it actually made it in print. It’s in an article about a potential Chicago casino that’s pretty good. From NEWCITYCHICAGO.COM: Street Smart Chicago“>New City Chicago:

“To think a state-run casino would be less corrupt is laughable,” says David Schwartz, Ph.D., author of “Roll The Bones: The History of Gambling.” Corruption and gambling are no strangers, even around here. In 1999 a casino project in Rosemont was scrubbed because a few made men were investors. Ironically, the idea of taking casino ownership out of the private sector and moving into the citys hand is to rid the industry of corruption.
NEWCITYCHICAGO.COM: Street Smart Chicago

You can probably tell that I don’t have a blind faith in big government. Later in the article, I self-consciously reference “fiscal discipline,” knowing that I sound like a guy running in a Republican Congressional primary.

Being born and raised in Atlantic City at a time when 3 out of 4 (or it might have been 4 out of 5) mayors ended up in jail, let’s say that I’m skeptical of the notion that elected and appointed government officials are, ipso facto, above reproach.

I think I found the idea that a government-owned casino would somehow be corruption free in the land of “vote early, vote often” particularly whimsical at the time. Some people don’t learn much from history, do they?

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Comments that don’t stay in Vegas

February 21, 2008 3:39 pm

You might have heard about Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s wife staying at Hooters Las Vegas the night of the Taylor/Pavlik fight. Browsing the comments at SF Gate, I thought one of them really put the whole story in perspective:

I think I’d be more worried that the Huckabees’ want to get in the White House and don’t have any juice to get a better hotel room? hahahahaa…

Huckabee’s wife takes a breather at a Vegas fight, rests at Hooters

Maybe we should cancel one of the debates and instead give each of the candidates a challenge: they’ve got one hour to get the best comped room in Vegas they can. After all, we want a candidate with ingenuity, charm, and connections, and trying to get a room here, particularly on a fight weekend, requires all three. If we combine this with the drug and intelligence/aptitude tests I’ve advocated before, we’d get a much better idea of who we’re voting for. I mean, would you want someone to be the leader of the free world if they couldn’t do better themselves into the Riviera?

On a related note (by which I mean that this is completely unrelated), I have further evidence that Vegas is, in fact, part of the mirror universe: I got more feedback and attention for the only harsh review I’ve ever given a book than I have for all the other’s I’ve done, combined. Being optimistic, understanding, and supportive=labor in obscurity. Being mean=instantly engage readers. Maybe the behavior control technician was right, after all.

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Posted in life in vegasTagged , , ,

Drug testing for candidates

February 6, 2008 12:40 pm

There’s a proposal floating around–at the state level–to drug test candidates for public office. I say, this is long overdue. From WLTX (South Carolina):

People filing for public office would also have to submit to drug testing under a proposal pitched by a state senator.

Senate Republican Leader Harvey Peeler filed his bill a day after news broke that former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel had been indicted on a federal cocaine conspiracy charge.

The June indictment came just six months after the Republican Charleston real estate developer took office.

Ravenel pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and faces up to 20 years in prison. But his plea agreement calls for a reduced sentence because Ravenel has helped prosecutors with their investigation.

wltx.com | Bill Would Require Drug Tests for Candidates

The way I see it, if people have to take drug tests to get hired in fields with far less responsibility than public office, it is hypocritical not to require elected officials to pee into cups along with the rest of us. I’d make this mandatory for all elected offices, particularly at the national level. If I had to pass a drug test to get a job giving people directions to the bathrooms and buses at the Trump Taj Mahal, it’s unfathomable that the person who has their finger on the nuclear button doesn’t.

But I wouldn’t stop there. Many jobs require applicants to take a battery of aptitude and personality tests. I say candidates should have to do this as a sort of truth in advertising. You say you’ve got the smarts to engineer a better tomorrow for America? Well, the voters have a right to see what they’re working with.

The danger, I think, is that candidates would sandbag the intelligence tests, knowing that nobody like a know-it-all and hoping that they could get elected simply on their earnest, aw-shucks enthusiasm. Still, at least we’d have something to go on instead of soundbites.

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Fish-talking (potential) first lady

December 1, 2006 9:29 am

Yesteday, Iowa governor Tom Vlisack announced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Anyone who was reading back in my Casino [ptz] days then will remember the controversy that Vilsack’s wife unleashed when she accused South Jerseyeans of talking like fish:

“The only way I can speak like residents of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania is to let my jaw drop an inch and talk with my lips in an `O’ like a fish. I’d rather learn to speak Polish.”
Don’t youse knock NJ

Sure, she said that 12 years ago, but it’s still funny. I’m not saying she’s wrong–I know exactly the accent she’s talking about. I’m just saying that it’s funny that someone in public life was so exasperated by the characteristic speech patterns of a region that she made an issue of it.

It’s also amusing that she was careful to exclude western PA, but lumped all of New Jersey into the Philly accent area of influence. As the informative Wikipedia article Philadelphia Accent notes, this is a mistake–it is only us South Jerseyans who talk like fish (i.e., front some of their vowels, as a linguist might say). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch The Wire–anyone who talks “Baltimorese” sounds, to me, like home (it’s always great to hear Lt. Mello, the real-life Jay Landsman, talk).

I’m surprised that Michelle Malkin hasn’t mentioned fishtalk-gate, at least in passing–she went to Holy Spirit High School, which is in beautiful Absecon, NJ (right in the heart of fish-talking South Jersey). Funny note: Spirit is the traditional rival of Atlantic City High School, my alma mater, which I attended at about the same time (she might have been a senior when I was a freshman).

While I’m reliving the past, let me say that I always considered ACHS the better school, but take a look at their Wikipedia pages:

Holy Spirit High School: detailed information about the school’s legacy of academic and athletic excellence, a list of notable alums

Atlantic City High School: a note that the school exists

And not even anything about the Old High School. I’m just added a link that to that Casino Connection article, so maybe that’ll help people expand the entry a little. I know we’ve got to have some famous alumni.

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White house carpet obsession

March 7, 2006 6:35 pm

For me, taking pictures of casino carpet and posting them on this site has been a mixed blessing. On one hand, I’ve gotten to share something I find oddly humorous with thousands of people I’ve never met. On the other, I keep getting calls from people who want to actually buy the carpet. (I wonder if people who post pictures of porn have the same problem?) Anyway, it turns out that I’m not the only one who’s spent some time thinking about the symbolism of carpet. From the Washington Post:

Nothing says power like the Oval Office. The paintings of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The bust of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The desk used by both Roosevelts.

And then there’s the rug. Don’t forget the rug. President Bush never does.

For whatever reason, Bush seems fixated on his rug. Virtually all visitors to the Oval Office find him regaling them about how it was chosen and what it represents. Turns out, he always says, the first decision any president makes is what carpet he wants in his office. As a take-charge leader, he then explains, he of course made a command decision — he delegated the decision to Laura Bush, who chose a yellow sunbeam design.

Elizabeth Vargas, the ABC News anchor, was the latest to get the treatment. She went by last week to interview Bush before his trip to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Sure enough, she wasn’t in the room but a minute or two before he started telling her about the carpet.

“You know an interesting story about the rug?” he asked. “Laura designed the rug.”

“She did?” Vargas said.

“Yeah, she did. Presidents are able to pick their own rugs or design their own rugs.”

Bush went on: “The interesting thing about this rug and why I like it in here is ’cause I told Laura one thing. I said, ‘Look, I can’t pick the colors and all that. But make it say ‘optimistic person.’ ”

Bush Weaves Rug Story Into Many an Occasion

Apparently, Russian pres Vladimir Putin really liked the rug, too, and Bush talks about it. I wonder if casino CFOs do that when they make presentation to investors.

if any White House staffers or interns want to send me a shot of the Oval Office carpet, I’ll definitely post it here. I think people are curious.

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Posted in haphazard worldTagged , ,

Ode to W.

December 6, 2005 3:42 pm

No, this isn’t a glowing review of Wynn Las Vegas–it’s a rare foray from me away from gambling and into the realm of politics.

It turns out that a poem indirectly praising US president George W. Bush has been discovered and eliminated from a Pakistani textbook. From the Guardian:

Penned by an anonymous writer, The Leader embarrassed education officials in the country after it found its way into an English textbook for 16-year-olds.

The revelation is likely to embarrass Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf, who has been criticised at home for taking what has been perceived to be a pro-American stance in supporting the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror.

An official working with the Pakistan Education ministry told the Times of India: “We have decided to delete the poem from the book, published by the National Book Foundation, and prescribed for federal board students.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Veiled ode to George Bush deleted from Pakistani textbooks

Now, because I know you all want to read it, here’s the poem:

The leader

Patient and steady with all he must bear,

Ready to accept every challenge with care,

Easy in manner, yet solid as steel,

Strong in his faith, refreshingly real,

Isn’t afraid to propose what is bold,

Doesn’t conform to the usual mold,

Eyes that have foresight, for hindsight wont do

Never back down when he sees what is true

Tells it all straight, and means it all too

Going forward and knowing he’s right

Even when doubted for why he would fight.

Over and over he makes his case clear

Reaching to touch the ones who won’t hear

Growing in strength, he won’t be unnerved

Ever assuring he’ll stand by his word

Wanting the world to join his firm stand.

Bracing for war, but praying for peace

Using his power so evil will cease:

So much a leader and worthy of trust,

Here stands a man who will do what he must

In case you didn’t figure it out already, the first letter of each line spells out “President George W. Bush.”
This got me thinking how cool it would be if, before his public addresses, the president–whoever it happens to be at the time–said some sort of inspirational rhyme. Sort of like Green Lantern:

In brightest day, in darkest night
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!

Maybe the president would have higher approval ratings if he had a poem like that.

Of course, the poem only means something if you’ve got an omnipotent (besides yellow) power ring to back it up, so maybe it wouldn’t help all that much.

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T-shirt fun at political rallies

November 1, 2004 11:44 am

This past week, for some reason I’ve had every elected Democrat in the state call me at home, begging me to get out and vote for John Kerry. This is curious because I’m registered as a non-partisan and have never donated money to either political party. Yet, for some reason, Kerry’s having all of his friends call me and millions of others to reassure us that he really really likes us and needs his vote. One live volunteer, who interrupted me while working on my “Crime and Criminals” entry for the Encyclopedia of American Urban History, went so far as to tell me exactly where to vote and ask if I needed a ride. Now that’s service. I do need a ride to the airport this Thursday, but apparently the Kerry campaign won’t help me with that.

I would say that the barrage of well-meaning Democratic phone calls has driven me irrevocably into the Republican camp, but I’ve had the exact opposite problem there. The GOP hasn’t seen fit to break off one call to me to ask how I’m doing and to encourage me to vote. Honestly, I don’t know which is worse. And, as I told John Kerry in the weird dream I had last week, I’m not telling anyone how I’m voting anyway. Usually when people discuss politics they just want re-affirmation of their own indignant principles, so I’ve learned that it’s best just to smile and nod.

The t-shirt fun comes from this story I got from ABC News via Drudge. Its sad but true, wearing t-shirts for the other party will get you crowded off TV at campaign events:


ABC News conducted a bipartisan experiment in which producers and volunteers went to rallies for each candidate wearing the other party’s T-shirt, and found that each campaign had its own methods of preventing the shirts from being seen.

“We’ve reached a sad state of affairs when a T-shirt is that offensive,” said Yale professor Robert Post, a specialist in First Amendment law. “It tells me that these are photo opportunities, and not about dialogue.”

The rules were to behave exactly the same at each rally, to be polite participants and to leave when asked. The ABC News team obtained tickets for all of the events attended � tickets for Kerry events can be attained from the official campaign Web site and tickets for Bush events from local Republican party or campaign offices.

At an Oct. 21 Kerry rally in Minneapolis, ABC news producers were surrounded and followed by a team of dancing Kerry campaign workers with large signs, effectively obstructing the Bush-Cheney T-shirts from the view of the national press.

“My job tonight was to run interference so that we didn’t have any negative situation on our hands,” said a female Kerry campaign volunteer. “Our job was to stand in front of them and make sure that, number one, that press had access to Kerry stuff and not necessarily Bush.”

The Bush campaign was even more aggressive in its response to the opposing party’s T-shirts.

When ABC News volunteers Matt Walter and Sherrie Varpula tried to attend an Oct. 23 Bush rally at Space Coast Stadium in Melbourne, Fla., they were told by event volunteers the Kerry-Edwards T-shirts they were wearing would cause them not to be admitted.

Campaigns Rally Against Wrong T-Shirts

This is just fantastic, isn’t it? The candidates can’t articulate lucid plans to deal with problems like terrorism, environmental degradation (or the nuclear waste dump planned for Yuuca Mt), or even the economy, but their people are Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to getting unfriendly t-shirts off the air.

Here’s the problem with politics today: all style, no substance.

But please, don’t tell me how “bitterly divided” the country is today. We could go back to the 19th century, when voter turnout was much higher, and most urban electioneering was done by gangs of shoulder hitters. Election violence and even rioting was common. So, comparatively speaking, this campaign has been pretty civil.

That’s all you’ll hear from me about the election, unless an electoral college deadlock forces me to revive the idea of election by lottery.

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