Is It Wise To Combine Lebron and a Gambling Casino?

By Roldo Bartimole

The fact that Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association will own casinos is reason for a NO vote against the casino issue on the November ballot.

I can’t understand how NBA chief David Stern can look the other way when one of his franchise owners combines basketball in Cleveland with a casino.

The NBA and Stern were marred when the FBI investigated and found that NBA referee Tim Donaghy was betting on games he officiated.

It seems to me that not only does it put the NBA in a ticklish situation but it also puts Cleveland Cavalier players in a bad position.

Would Le Bron? James, for example, spend some time in Gilbert’s casino after Cavs games? Would he be barred? If he were barred, why would he be barred? Or Delonte West?

It raises serious questions. If he were barred one reason obviously would be that he’d likely be rubbing shoulders with bettor on Cavs games.

Now you wouldn’t expect that James would have to ingratiate himself with gamblers but you never know, do you?

Stern admitted that half of NBA referees violated the league’s no gambling rule by visiting casinos in one year. Stern took the violations lightly, saying that the rule was “overly broad.”

Awfully lenient of Stern.

Well, when the referees and players are a few minutes from a casino doesn’t that suggest there could be a problem?

Frankly, I don’t know how any major league sport league could allow a team owner to combine ownership with a gambling joint.

And with the corruption problems that Cuyahoga County has been hit with in recent times, do we want to add the influence of gambling and the characters big time gambling attracts? I don’t think so.

Gilbert also is the wealthy chairman and founder of Quicken Loans, leading online home lender.

He is, of course, benefits greatly from the public subsidies of Quicken Arena, formerly Gund Arena, which has been heavily subsidized by Cuyahoga County taxpayers. Indeed, Cuyahoga County is still paying for the $120-million in bonds issued to complete the arena in the early 1990s. Doesn’t he have enough?

And will he be looking for tax subsidies for the hotel that’s promised with the casino? Well, of course, he will.

These guys never stop with the golden begging cup.

Finally, why isn’t this gambling situation a major issue in the casino battle?

Right-Wing Fanatics & 1963 & Dallas & Today

Eric Boehlert writes about his fears of the climate being created by the right-wing forces regarding our President. He sees and feels Dallas 1963.

“The radical right, aided by a GOP Noise Machine that positively dwarfs what existed in 1963, has turned to demonizing Obama – making him into a vile object of disgust – into a crusade. It’s a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times,” he writes.

Scary times and we’ve seen it before.

Boehlert writes about media and politics and is a senior fellow for Media Matters for America. He wrote “Lapdog: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush.”

He comments via a piece in this month in Vanity Fair. It details the hatred that “ran wild in Dallas” in 1963.

The Vanity Fair cover story quotes President John Kennedy saying to Jacqueline, his wife, “Oh, you know we’re heading into nut country today.”

Well, today “nut country” far outdistances Dallas.

You can read Boehlert’s full article here: http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909180004

Vanity Fair’s article by Sam Kashner covers the fight over the book written by William Manchester at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy though not with her later approval. It can be found here:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/death-of-a-president200910

And while you are at Vanity Fair I’d suggest a look at an article by James Steele and Donald Barlett, a former Plain Dealer reporter, about the Bush administration and the TARP funding of banks. Barlett and Steele are two-time Pulitzer winners and considered the best of investigative reporting teams in the U. S.

It includes an uncomplimentary look at Key Bank of Cleveland, recipient of $2.5 billion in bailout funds, and its questionable lending practices on student loans. It can be found here:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/bailout200910

There’s also a Lebron James piece but you can look for that yourself.

Roldo Bartimole celebrates 50 years of news reporting this year. He published and wrote Point of View, a newsletter about Cleveland, for 32 years. He worked for the Plain Dealer and Wall Street Journal in the 1960s.

He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991.

 (:divend:)