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| VictoryLand |
Life in postmodern Alabama is filled with irony. For proof, consider two major news stories that broke last week.
On Wednesday, allies of former Governor Bob Riley protested a liquor-license application for the VictoryLand casino in Macon County. The protest, led by Attorney General Luther Strange, is a continuation of Riley's crusade against non-Indian gaming in Alabama, an issue that dominated the last two years of his administration. Strange essentially argued against the license on moral grounds, claiming that VictoryLand is a disreptuable organization because it uses electronic-bingo machines that the AG considers to be illegal slot machines.
On Thursday, we broke a story here at Legal Schnauzer about a messy extramarital affair involving Homewood attorney Rob Riley and Alabama lobbyist Liberty Duke. Rob Riley, of course, is Bob Riley's son and has played a central role in his father's rise to political power. In fact, it could be argued that Bob Riley never would have made it into public office without his son's behind-the-scenes machinations as a campaign manager, fund-raiser, and adviser.
On one day, we have long-time associates of the Riley family arguing that VictoryLand is not the sort of "reputable" organization that merits a license under the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC). In his protest letter, Strange claims that VictoryLand's "reputation is clouded" and then alleges that the facility and its owner, Milton McGregor, have a "sordid past."
The next day, we learn that Rob Riley, a married father of four who is a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church, had an affair that led to a number of personal and political complications. Does that mean Rob Riley's reputation is "clouded"? Does it mean he has a "sordid past"? A reasonable person could conclude that the answer is yes.
A reasonable person also could conclude that last week's ABC hearing was a farce. Bill Britt, of the Alabama Political Reporter, apparently came to that conclusion in a piece titled "Fair Hearing Or Show Trial For VictoryLand ABC License?" Reports Britt:
The hearing came down to a few simple questions, “Are the machines legal? Can bingo played on anything other than paper cards to be considered bingo according to Alabama law?” The argument present by the AG’s office, said that anything other than paper was not legal. An argument, that would seem to suggest, that the world of bingo had stopped turning in the 1950s, that eBook, eMail and that the universe of smart phones, computers and a software based society did not exist.
ABC hearings are supposed to follow the standard rules of civil procedure. But Britt reports that the proceeding veered wildly off course:
During testimony before the commission, . . . the AG’s office presented pictures of machines that were nothing like the ones at VictoryLand, and still the ABC Chairman allow the evidence to be placed into the record. One former member of the judiciary, who would not comment with attribution said, “It was the worse case of evidentiary admission I have ever seen.”
Britt also noted that the ABC panel did not seem impartial, peppering VictoryLand attorney Joe Espy with questions while giving the AG's representatives mostly a free pass. When the full-day hearing was completed, Britt writes, it seemed a final decision--expected in about two weeks--would have little to do with ABC rules and regulations:
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| Liberty Duke |
Both sides put on brave faces concerning the case they had presented, but it would be difficult, if not impossible, to guess what was on the minds of the hearing commission. One thing seemed to be clear for most of the standing room only crowd gathered at the ABC hearing, this trial was about Milton McGregor and not necessarily about the law.
Britt was not the only reporter who seemed to notice the one-sided nature of the proceeding. Wrote Sebastian Kitchen, of the Montgomery Advertiser:
Espy and state Sen. Billy Beasley have questioned why the attorney general is fighting the liquor license at VictoryLand, but is not questioning those at the three casinos operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. Espy also questioned why Strange’s office has not contested the liquor license for Greenetrack in west Alabama, which he said unlike VictoryLand is not competition for the Poarch Creek casinos.
Kitchen also spotlighted Espy's contentions that VictoryLand, contrary to Strange's protest letter, has a history of operating within the law. (Strange's protest letter, and Victoryland's response, can be read at the end of this post.)
Espy said the casino had a license for years before closing in 2010 and that there were never any issues, and said the attorney general protesting a liquor license is unprecedented. He said the attorney general does not have the legal authority to contest the license and is usurping the ABC Board and local elected officials, who have argued the establishment is legal.
What has changed to bring VictoryLand's liquor license into question? Nothing of substance, it appears. It's just that a faction of the Alabama Republican Party seems hell-bent on following Bob Riley's wishes, even though he no longer is in power. Those same Republicans also seem determined to ignore the sordid activities that have been going on right under their noses.
A quick check of Rob Riley's extramarital affair with Liberty Duke will bring those activities to light. It also might teach the self-righteous Riley crowd that perhaps, to borrow a phrase from the New Testament, they should deal with the logs in their own eyes before pointing fingers at specks in the eyes of others.
Protest letter from Attorney General Luther Strange
VictoryLand's response to Strange's protest
(To be continued)
33 comments:
You are so right I attended that hearing. It was not about issuing a license to Victoryland it was the continued assination of Mr. McGregor. To deny a license to Victoryland and allow the other casinos to keep their license will clearly show they are only out to further destroy McGregor.
Apparently Luther Strange has a sordid past as well. His affair with a married woman lead to a nasty divorce. This woman now works for RSLC...the same RSLC that funneled $100K from the Poarch Creek Indians directly into (you guessed it) Luther Strange's 2010 campaign. It has been mentioned that Bob Riley got much more than that from the Mississippi Choctaw gambling group. Not to ignore that Riley slipped Strange $7.9 million on his last day in office to "continue the fight on gambling and to protect his family". Think about that statement. Great article LS.
I am working on a review of the book, "On Excellence."
In the interim LS I've posted at www.theartof12.blogspot.com
The corruption was and is the result of many years of planning.
These so called "Republicans" are the cloth alright of an Old Testament ideology: hell, fire and brimstone.
The new Treasury Secretary that got handed the baton by Tim F. Geithner is a criminal and well polished to finish the job on US, and the southern corruption is not going to end because the filth of sub-humans gets lots of offshore monies to continue being nothing but zombies for the BLOB.
I, too, was at the hearing, and one reason we had an overflow crowd is that many of us figured it was going to be a railroad job against Mr. McGregor and VLand. We were right.
Ah . . . can't beat the smell of GOP hypocrisy on a Monday morning.
You're reporting on the Rob Riley/Liberty Duke affair is the talk of Montgomery. I can tell you for sure that it has gotten people's attention.
Luther Strange filed the complaint, but he didn't bother to appear at the hearing? Sounds like he didn't want to take questions.
The funny thing.. I had a friend that wanted to get married at Dawson Memorial and the pastor who is creepy to me anyway would not marry her because she had been married before. I guess they let the BIG NAMED DEACONS LAY UP WITH others outside of marriage and that is accepted. But if have been married before you can count out being married there. Or a few years back you could.
Anon at 9:39--
Wow, that is still going on in this day and age? I'm familiar with that pastor, but forget his name. Isn't it Gary something? I would suggest Pastor Gary take a look at his own flock, including at least one deacon, before pointing fingers at those who have been divorced.
Big Luther doesn't want to take questions because he doesn't have any honest answers. His "protest letter" is a laundry list of false and misleading accusations. McGregor's lawyer tore it to shreds.
If I were the Rileys, I would make sure my own house is clean before charging others with keeping a dirty house. I guess that's not the way they operate.
I wonder how many members of the ABC Board have received political favors from the Riley machine.
Why was this hearing held if Luther Strange didn't bother to show? In a court hearing, if a key party doesn't appear, there is a finding against him, and everybody goes home.
Maybe Big Luther had to ride an extra large Harley Davidson to Alaska.
Apparently the ABC rules for the protest hearing state that the Protestor must be present. Joe Espy made that clear and the ABC Board responded that this hearing will be more relaxed and they would allow the hearing to proceed. I was there. They allowed AG evidence into record that did not even apply to Victoryland or the machines at that facility. I can only imagine the threats or offered benefits the AGs office has presented to the ABC Board to deny the license. Bill Britt captured the essence of the hearing very well.
Molli:
Thanks for sharing. I feel certain Joe Espy knows the rules. In fact, I'm guessing he cited the precise rule to the panel. Based on that, there should have been no hearing, and the finding should have been for VictoryLand. In fact, under the law, VictoryLand should have its liquor license right now.
I've been hearing about Rob Riley's affair for 3-4 years, but could never get any specifics about it and had never heard of Liberty Duke. Thanks so much for filling in the blanks on this story.
You are correct that Bob Riley would never have sniffed public office without Rob's shenanigans in the background.
Luther never shows up in a public forum unless he choses who participants.
It sounds like Luther intentionally helped set the date to conflict with the DA's meeting in Bham.
Molli's comment above is profoundly important. It's like the rule on summary judgment: When one party responds according to law and provides material evidence--and the other party does not appear or present material evidence--the finding must be for party No. 1. It's evidence is uncontroverted, and summary judgment must be granted in their favor.
It's real simple law, and the ruling on this ABC hearing should have been simple, too.
Anybody know about the background of Joe Adams, the guy who apparently ran the hearing?
Records show that the ABC board has found VictoryLand's reputation to be perfectly fine for 29 years. Why would it suddenly be a problem now?
Isn't it amazing how these high profile affairs are so protected by the media?
Bingo corruption is a huge plague in this state. The most obvious may be in Jefferson County. Arthur Green, the district attorney of the Bessemer Cut-off Division, has a business partner, Robert White, who owned a bingo parlor in Bessemer, The Anchor Club. All of the bingo parlors in Alabama were shut down a couple of years ago, including parts of Jefferson County. Bessemer Cut-off bingo houses remained in operation due to lack of enforcement by this DA. The AG's office finally forced the closure of Bessemer's. I would like to hear more about Arthur Green and his other conflicts of interests.
In his protest letter, Strange claims thatVictoryLand's "reputation is clouded" and then alleges that the facility and its owner, Milton McGregor, have a "sordid past."
*
It looks as if Luther Strange is using the Freudian psychological defense mechanism.
FYI: "Continuity of Government" and the Republicans are about doing whatever to whoever and whomever, to hold onto power ..
"... President Bush spent the night before 9/11 at a resort on Longboat Key, an island right next to Sarasota where he planned to visit an elementary school on the next morning. Longboat Key Fire Marshall Carroll Mooneyhan was a further witness of the possible assassination attempt. He said that at about 6 a.m. on September 11th a van with self-proclaimed reporters of middle eastern descent had pulled up at Bush´s resort, stating they had a “poolside” interview with the president. The men asked for a special Secret Service agent by name but where turned away by the guards ...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-911-plan-cheney-rumsfeld-and-the-continuity-of-government/5320879
~Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush Jr. ~A coup was attempted on George BUT foiled and so he read the book about a pet goat as a real NOT informed!
AND CONTINUING THE COG, ALABAMA THINKS SO,
but Iceland not ~
"... Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar GRIMMSON was interviewed over the weekend (26./27.01.2013) at the World Economic Forum in Davos on why Iceland has enjoyed such a strong recovery after it’s complete financial collapse in 2008, while the rest of the Western world struggles with a recovery that has no clothes.
.. Grimsson gave a famous reply to the financial MSM reporter, stating that Iceland’s recovery was due to the following primary reason:
„… We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the poor, and we didn’t introduce austerity measures like you’re seeing here in Europe. …“
.. When asked whether Iceland’s policy of letting the banks fail would have worked in the rest of Europe, Grimsson replied:
„… Why are the banks considered to be the holy churches of the modern economy? Why are private banks not like airlines and tele-communication companies and allowed to go bankrupt if they have been run in an irresponsible way? The theory that you have to bail-out banks is a theory that you allow bankers enjoy for their own profit their success, and then let ordinary people bear their failure through taxes and austerity. People in enlightened democracies are not going to accept that in the long run. …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51-Jfh6ADH0
If people remember the Russian lottery Rob Riley who is against gambling was one of the first ones to get on board. His daddy Bob Riley was so terrified people would find out he was involved in any type of gambling.
Roger, You are one brave soul!! Now you've done it....you've gone and "gotten too close to the families"! Watch your back, and keep on exposing this sorry bunch of hypocrites.
Alabama was and is, an intentional easy prey for Goldman Sachs and the criminals that call themselves "bankers," look at the culture of vulgarity and corruption in all your writings LS!
Begin with the fact that there are no banks, but certainly the casinos pay!
“... When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it....” ~Frederic Bastiat
"... How America’s biggest banks took part in a nationwide bid-rigging conspiracy – until they were caught on tape (June 21, 2012).
.. Four banks that took part in the scam (UBS, Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo) paid $673 million in restitution after agreeing to cooperate in the government’s case. (Bank of America even entered the Justice Department’s leniency program, which is tantamount to admitting that it committed felonies.) Since that settlement involves only four of the firms implicated in the scam (a list that includes Goldman, Transamerica and AIG, as well as banks in Scotland, France, Germany and the Netherlands), and since settlements in Wall Street cases tend to represent only a tiny fraction of the actual damages (Chase paid just $75 million for its role in the bribe-and-payola scandal that saddled Jefferson County, Alabama, with more than $3 billion in sewer debt), it’s safe to assume that Wall Street skimmed untold billions in the bid-rigging scam. The UBS settlement alone, for instance, involved 100 different bond deals, worth a total of $16 billion, over four years.
.. In the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama, we learned that Goldman Sachs accepted a $3 million bribe from J.P. Morgan Chase to permit Chase to serve as the sole provider of toxic swap deals to the rubes running metropolitan Birmingham – “an open-and-shut case of anti-competitive behavior,” as one former regulator described it.
The ‘Crony Capitalist Blowout’ By Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers and Company (12 January 2013).
The so called government and legal system in Alabama is a shadow gov and mighty proud of how they are immune to the real laws.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=QU8tZZzRWdM
The US new world order gov video teaching all we people who pay the public servants to protect and of course obey [NOT] the U.S. Constitution's laws ..
yes, jeffrey spruill ..
*It looks as if ~ is using the Freudian psychological defense mechanism.
Log Cabin Republicans
1090 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 850
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info@logcabin.org
Mission and Objectives
We stand for the proposition that all of us are created equal - worthy of the same rights to freedom, liberty, and equality.
Log Cabin works to build a stronger, more inclusive Republican Party by promoting the core values of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets and a strong national defense while advocating for the freedom and equality of gay and lesbian Americans. We emphasize that these principles and the moral values on which they stand are consistent with the pursuit of equal treatment under the law for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans.
The mission of the Log Cabin Republicans shall be advanced at the local, state, and federal level. Our organization's strength comes from our grassroots chapters all around the nation. Coordinating strategy with the national office, these chapters create a powerful force for transforming the Republican Party.
We are loyal Republicans working for change within the party. Through education and action, we demonstrate that gay and lesbian Republicans can, in a spirit of solidarity and integrity, contribute substantially to building and sustaining a majority Republican Party and a great nation.
This effort will help secure full equality for LGBT Americans. Furthermore, it will create a stronger, larger, and more unified GOP, leading to the election of more fair-minded Republican candidates to public office at all levels of government.
http://www.logcabin.org/site/c.nsKSL7PMLpF/b.5468093/k.BE4C/Home.htm
The Emergency Committee for Israel (Emergency Committee for Israel) has stealthily organized a campaign against the appointment of Chuck Hagel as U.S. Secretariat of Defense.
This association is a magnet for neo-conservatives who are reluctant to come to terms with AIPAC’s decline and intend to apply new methods of influence. Its members have played a crucial role in Benjamin Netanyahu’s support of the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidential election, Mitt Romney.
They created Americans for a Strong Defense which has been putting out a series of anti-Hagel television ads. They have also roped in gay right organizations who suspect Hagel of homophobia. Thus, Log Cabin, which comprises Republican Party gays, has purchased advertising pages in the New York Times and the Washington Post, blasting his positions on gay rights, Israel and Iran.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article177259.html
"... South Africa is a microcosm of what America could become, unless it returns to the principles that made it great. If American institutions continue to subordinate their raison d'être to politically dictated egalitarianism, reclaiming them from the deforming clutches of state-enforced tribalism will become harder and harder.
.. In the interstices of this polemic, the reader will find my story and the story of those I love and had to leave behind. Above all, this tome is a labor of love to my homelands, old and new.
For syndication rights to http://BarelyABlog.com or http://IlanaMercer.com, contact ilana@ilanamercer.com. Read more @ http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=604#ixzz2JJSfBtQF
Roger, Today I can not speak if they are still not allowing the divorced to marry in the church but 8 years ago they were NOT.. The father was so upset. They had been members of the church for tons of years and that did not matter. He still would not marry them. I think they went to another church.
Big Luther may be tall, but he is short on both intestinal fortitude, finesse, and public speaking. There was no question that he would not show up for the hearing which was first scheduled for the 9th of January. He asked for a rescheduling for the 23rd, stating that he wasn't ready. Really???? A no-show is a show of desperation. Rileys are still yanking his chain, and it looks like someone else, a SHE, has been, too!
Can we ever expect the law to be in this state again? Alabama has just become pathetic! Keep up the good work LS and be safe!
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