Sometimes things get so hypocritical in politics that you can’t figure out where the cycle of hypocrisy begins or ends. Deceiver.com has an interesting article wonderfully titled “Alabama Anti-Gambling Task-Force Chief Wins Jackpot, Resigns. Then Things Get Weird.”
It seems that David Barber, the head of the Alabama Task Force on Illegal Gambling — yes, the person who is in charge of keeping gambling illegal in Alabama — somehow managed to win a jackpot at a casino in next-door Mississippi. He resigned, even though gambling is perfectly legal in Mississippi.
But that just opened up a new can of worms. It turns out that the Mississippi casino involved is operated by the Choctaw Indians, who needless to say have a vested interest in keeping gambling illegal in Alabama. In fact, remember convicted influence peddler and lobbyist Jack Abramoff? According to a 2002 Senate Indian Affairs report, he boasted that the same Choctaw Indian Tribe spent $13 million to get Bob Riley elected the governor of Alabama, in order to keep gambling illegal in Alabama (I guess there’s a reason why the Alabama dictionary lists “Corporate Free Speech” and “Quid Pro Quo” as synonyms).
So to sum up. The governor who created the task force to keep gambling illegal in Alabama appoints David Barber to head it. Barber is caught gambling in a casino in Mississippi. It turns out that the casino owners donated massive amounts of money to the governor in order to keep gambling illegal in Alabama.
But it is all better now. The new head of the task force is former District Attorney John Tyson, who doesn’t gamble. But is it a surprise to anyone that as soon as he was appointed to the position, evidence appeared that while District Attorney, Tyson protected one of his underlings who was arrested on child pornography charges while running the county’s Child Advocacy Center?
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ice. cream. headache.