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Boxer’s Indian casino ties.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  October 30th, 2010 at 08:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Oddly, the original story about Senator Barbara Boxer (D, CA), Boxer’s son, a regenerated Native American tribe, and a rapidly-looming San Franciscan casino seems to have disappeared from The Hill’s site, but a copy can be found here. It’s fascinating reading.

The short version: back in the 1990s, Rep Lynn Woolsey introduced legislation that would reinstate an officially defunct Native American tribe (the Miwoks), with the explicit restriction that said tribe would not be permitted to build a casino (which is a standard revenue generator for Native American tribes, thanks to various federal regulations and exemptions).  When the bill came over to the Senate’s side, however, Senator Barbara Boxer changed the legislation to both remove that restriction and to make the land owned by the Miwoks a reservation.  This was supposedly done without the knowledge of either Rep. Woolsey, or Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Then – shock and surprise! – the Miwoks decided that they wanted to generate a revenue by building a casino.  Just outside of San Francisco.   As The Sacramento Bee glumly notes, the Miwoks can get away with quite a lot along those lines because they have a reservation – including essentially ignoring state environmental laws – and they’ve been pursuing the construction of a casino ever since.  In fact, they’ve just recently finally jumped through the appropriate federal hoops – and if Jerry Brown is governor next year the tribe expects more help on the state level from him than, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger (taking over 700K in campaign contributions from tribal sources can produce that kind of expectation).Meanwhile, in 2003 Senator Ma’am recused herself from the situation that she herself caused… but not before her son Doug Boxer did quite well for himself out of the deal.  Big Government reports:

Less than a year after Boxer’s tribal bill was signed into law, Doug Boxer helped negotiate a casino partnership between the tribe and Station Casinos of Las Vegas.  Doug Boxer’s firm also acquired options on 2,000 acres of land that was later transferred to Station Casinos for an undisclosed price, but which some reports indicate could have been as much as $24 million.

In addition, Doug Boxer’s firm took a consulting fee for brokering the land deal.  The amount of that fee has also remained undisclosed, but in May 2003, tribal chairman Gregory Sarris told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat that the consulting fee was “too much, more than I would like.”

If and when the casino does in fact open, Doug Boxer will profit then, too: According to Boxer campaign spokesman Matthew Kagen, Doug Boxer and the developer involved in the project are partners in a limited liability corporation that would financially benefit from such a move.

The Hill article – before it was taken down – reported that Doug Boxer’s take was around $8 million dollars.  And all because his mom happened to rewrite a House bill.  Amazing what you can get away with when you have a relationship with the people making and enforcing the laws, huh?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Carly for California.  Because aren’t you tired of this yet?

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COMMENTS

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  • mrscribbler

    …but the comments linger on!

    D’you suppose Senator Ma’m sicced a horde of lawyers on The Hill? Wouldn’t put it past her, since an honest report about many of her past “deeds” would be considered defamatory, to say the least.

    But hey, she’s a Senator, and it has been apparent for many years that members of Congress live by much different rules than those governing us mere mortals. From Adam Clayton Powell to Harry Reid to Charley Rangel to Babs Boxer, Congress has created a criminal class that could fill a large Maximum Security. And should, too…..

  • zipbags

    Should also send it to other news organization.

    If this is true…How is this woman not up on charges?!?

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Honestly, at this level of power sometimes the only recourse is to vote the perpetrator out of office.

  • proof_positive

    …and for sharing the suspicion that there’s something fishy in the way this story “disappeared”.

    Barbara Boxer worked hard to earn the title unemployed. Let’s honor that request.

  • Michael Dugas

    Our tax dollars have, for years, been padding the pockets of politicians
    families and friends. Pelosi used legislation to benefit her husbands
    real estate holdings.
    Hillary used stimulus money to enrich her buddy Mark Penn’s businesses by spending 6 million to save 3, that’s right 3, jobs. And then there’s Charlie Rangel, the poster boy for ethics and financial indiscretions. The list is huge and you could spend hours depressing yourself with the vast network of criminal behavior that is the Democrat party. Politicians have become so desensitized to corruption that it’s become standard operating procedure and those Republicans who should be screaming to high heavens about it are
    strangely silent about it most of the time. I guess that whole story about glass houses and stones keeps them timid and silent.
    This is what we are fighting to change! This is why when the election is over this Tuesday we need to keep right on pressuring
    Republican leadership to institute the changes we DEMAND and remind them everyday who they actually work for and what their job is.
    Right now establishment Republican leadership, especially in the Senate, are shining us on and are only interested in the power and control they will wield once we give them the majority.
    They are already talking about NOT doing away with Obama Care but “fixing” it which is NOT what their constituents are demanding. They are also speaking on inconsequential spending cuts which are but a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.
    We must remind these professional politicians every day that we WILL primary their butts come next election if they don’t do what is right and what We the People are asking them to do.
    Please people don’t for a minute think that this is over after we take this election……it is barely JUST the beginning.

  • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil_truth

    I was not familiar with Rohnert Park casino project relating to the Miwoks. However, this location is about 40 miles from San Francisco, which puts it outside the “urban” area proper.

    What I have been acquainted with is evidently a second and separate long-running scandal over a proposed casino much closer to San Francisco by the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, who similarly were “reconstructed” on even flimsier grounds. This would be the first “full service” casino in an urban area in California.

    Rep. George Miller was the politician most involved in secretly slipping enabling language into a bill that opened the door to tribal status.

    Boxer does not appear to have had her hand in this one – and Feinstein for a number of years tried to get this decision reversed.

    There have been strenuous efforts to and opposition to giving them rights to build at Point Molate in the city of Richmond, which is across the Bay from San Francisco.

    Curiously, there’s a an advisory vote for the residents of Richmond on the Nov 2nd ballot on this casino – huge spending by proponents and opponents.

    Here is a review of the major players in advance of this vote (for those interested) – just to give a sense of the scale of this endeavor.

    http://www.contracostatimes.com/richmond/ci_16428882?source=pkg&nclick_check=1

  • GreyCloak

    Years ago, I was privileged to meet with the Chief and lawyers for the Pueblo Indian Tribes near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    My company would have loved to provide the Tribes with a subcontract to build wiring harnesses (ok, so that’s arcane) for a Federal contract. They had experience, and our bid would have gained ZILLIONS of “bonus points” for including a Native American partner.

    Unfortunately (for us), the Chief and his Tribal Council declined … because our contract would not have provided NEW opportunities to train and educate young members of the Tribes in job skills.

    I’m sad that negotiations fell through, but I was left with great admiration for those particular tribal leaders who wanted the best for their people.

    I do not grudge ANY Indian Nation the opportunity to recover some funds from the “white-eyes” by taking advantage of gambling revenues (we mostly Europeans stole plenty of land and uranium), but is egregious for politicians to go so far as to “make up” tribes in order to steal just a little bit more.

  • JadedByPolitics

    I mean I buy my 22 yr old a suit for his birthday for interviews and they buy their kids millions of dollars of salaries by STEALING my tax dollars…..yes I am sick of this and I know you all are too so on Tuesday November 2nd let us start the cleansing because on November 3rd we begin anew because there are sooooo many more of those parents and grandparents in Congress to get rid of!

  • GreyCloak

    I don’t like it that Maxine Waters can employ her grandson as a staffer … but I am not unaware that even Republicans place their “preferred” constituents among not their own staff, but as a “handshake” amongst other congress-critters.

    The political class remains above their own laws.

  • proof_positive

    From the story that was pulled:

    “Of course, my favorite part of this story is the poor bedraggled, downtrodden Indian chief, Greg Sarris. You see, poor Greg Sarris is a Ph.D. who has served as a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

    Dr. Chief Sarris, according to his own biographical story, was adopted out when he was born, never meeting his natural parents. At some point in his life, like many who have been adopted, he wanted to know about his birth parents, and began to research. He discovered that his mother was deceased, and his father?s name was unlisted on the birth certificate. His mother was not a Native American.”

    “…To make a long story somewhat shorter, Sarris located the Filipino father of Emilio, who said that Emilio?s mother?s father had some Indian ancestry, and so Sarris adopted his ?father?s mother?s? heritage and proceeded to regenerate an Indian tribe.”

    To sum it up: the “chief’s” mother was not Native American and he was Filipino on his father’s side. This story has less to do with an “Indian Nation” than an opportunity to open a casino in California that are prohibited except on “tribal lands”.

  • talgus

    - new tribes need full disclosure (of all potential members) before enabling the money tree
    - political jobs must be term limited. One term. You can progress to other political jobs, but one only of each office, NO NEST BUILDERS. We have far too many elected “ruling class” that use the money of others to feather their nest.

  • Adjoran

    A favorite tactic is to resurrect defunct or extinct Indian tribes and get them recognized again. It doesn’t matter if the petitioners can prove any ancestry or heritage from the given old tribe – they never can and it never seems to matter. Once recognized, the federal spigots are turned on.

    The casino thing is a relatively new twist which allows the Indians to get a bit of money for the use of their tribal name, and allows organized crime to operate with limited scrutiny. Is it any wonder this is Democrats’ vision of heaven?