CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Wampanoag are now a federally recognized tribe

Coming out party last night at Coonemessett Inn 

The 1,486-member Mashpee Wampanoag tribe threw a party last night at Coonemessett Inn with an open bar, a twist on history's reports of our Native Americans relationship with "firewater" a century ago. This time the Indians picked up the tab for the palefaces.

A few minutes after 4 pm the call cal which set the tribe up on its final, one-year leg to recognition. 

Cape Cod's own native American tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoags, whose ancestors greeted the Pilgrims to Plymouth and The Cape in 1620, were given preliminary federal recognition approval.

Glenn Marshall, chairman of the tribe's council, said in a statement, "This is a great day for the Mashpee, but also for this country. We have always believed that the truth of our petition would be recognized, although it has been a long and hard struggle."

The tribe is expected to receive a final determination by March 31, 2007.

 What about The Casino?

Next week, the state legislature will vote again on allowing the state's three dog tracks to each have 2,000 slot machines. 

It the bill pases both house, which is predicted, Governor Romney has vowed to veto it, but early reports suggest that the legislature may be "veto-proof" on this issue and pass the bill again with a two-thirds majority. 

If that happens Romney won't have to go home to Nevada to place a bet on his election, but he'll still have to wait a while.

Our own Indian Nation won't get final recognition until this time in 2007, and then they have to decide which billionaire they'll allow build a casino for them.

The tribe has said it doesn't want to build on Cape Cod, but in Bristol or Plymouth County. 

Imagine, a Trump Tower in :"Beautiful Downtown New Bedford" by the decade's end. 

Read other reports about recognition:

• The Shock of Recognition
• Slots of Fun on the Cape?
• The odds against a local casino
• Slots in Raynham = Casino on the Vineyard
  

Bill O'Reilly: Former Cape Cod Newsman

If you are mystified and sometimes enraged by Bill O’Reilly I want to recommend a great article about him in the New Yorker Magazine dated March 27, 2006. The article is called “Fear Factor” and is written by Nicholas Lemann, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. It riveted me by its treatment of O’Reilly’s history in broadcasting and the forces which have shaped his public persona. In the 80’s he was a reporter for CBS and while vacationing on the Cape, discovered that Provincetown was a gay Mecca. He took a camera man down there and did a piece on what a bad influence that was on teenagers. CBS would not broadcast it and he left the network shortly thereafter.

Lemann writes about the out-of court sexual harassment settlement with Fox News producer Andre Mackris two years ago, his hatred of Frank Rich, Keith Olbermann, Al Franken, the ACLU, George Clooney and many others. These days he can only get minor liberal luminaries to debate him, removing some of the color from his confrontations. The writer describes his “nimble” gift of coming across as a populist, decent, straight shooting American commentator.

The writer sees O’Reilly’s 10 years of longevity as uncommon in show business, referring to his “baroque” period. Lemann writes that he has risen to the top in ratings because of his ability to remind his viewers how much the left hates him. An interesting observation is that he defies description as liberal or conservative on many issues. He is, for instance, against the death penalty, for gay marriage and not completely against abortion. He may not be all that fair and balanced, but Lemann maintains that Fox viewers understand that means “the news the way you already see it.”

Charter review, Condo conversions, no to Outermost House

Stories from The Cape Codder this week

Barnstable Gym gem, Boston bound, Principal steps down

News from The Barnstable Patriot

Retail curfew may move from voluntary to law
A two-year-old voluntary curfew for Hyannis retail stores could move could become required by law

What you should know about Darby land
Should the COMM district residents pay the town for an easement and conservation restriction on land we already own? An item, 2006...

CAPE COD COMMISSION-Foes throw a high, hard one
The president of the Barnstable Town Council wants to declaw the Cape Cod Commission, stripping the land-use agency of its ability to dig in and shape development.

Gymnastics gem
By Kathy Manwaring. When Allison Szatek started gymnastics at age 7, it was simply a hobby. As she grew older, that hobby became ...

Boston bound
By Kathy Manwaring. By day, Alicia Crowell- Furrer is a mildmannered bank executive. Early mornings, evenings and weekends, however ...

MME principal to step down in 2007
By Edward F. Maroney. The founding principal of the Marstons Mills East Horace Mann Charter Public School has given almost a year ...

Slots of Fun on the Cape?

With what seems to be the initial Federal recognition of the Wampanoag Tribe happening today, that news must be considered with the deliberations on allowing slots machines in Massachusetts. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it would allow the Wampanoags to build a casino on the Cape. I don't know what the implications would be in terms of degree of control any of our local oversight bodies would have over this.

Is this the kind of development people would like to see on the Cape? My gut says the whatever local economic benefits there would be, are more than offset by a number of quality of life issues. Still, it is only a gut feeling, and more information would be forthcoming further down the road, if the road is even taken.

While the State Senate overwhelmingly approved slots by a 29-7 vote, Speaker DiMasi has spoken out against this. Then again, the Speaker was in favor of the tuition aid bill for children of illegal immigrants, and that failed. Still, the House would need to come up with a favorable vote that was more than the 2/3's needed to override the promised Romney veto on this.

Nevertheless, it still brings up the interesting issue to ponder as to the implications of a casino on Cape Cod. 

KKK material distributed at Barnsatble Airport, other cape locations

The Globe reported this morning that U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Chad Blair  is distributing KKK material on the Cape Cod base.

That alone is not illegal, but his activities may violate the military code. The accused works as a procurement officer at Air Station Cape Cod on Otis Air National Guard Base.

See the story here. 

Go George Mason

Sports related thoughts on a nice spring day... I'm injured, and I can only work in brief paragraph form:

- College ball sells differently than pro hoops do, but a Louisiana vs Northern Virginia NBA finals series or World Series would be a financial butt-raping that the league wouldn't recover from in a TV contract year season. I can recall a lot of ugly scenarios being painted for an Indiana/Utah NBA finals that we almost got a few years ago.

   That said, go George Mason!

- Enjoy it while it lasts, because they already fixed the hole in the dyke... but notice how a few years after the elite high school kids start going to the NBA in great numbers, you don't see Duke in the Final Four? I already want the Celtics to get that Greg Oden kid who will do his one year apprenticeship at Ohio State next year.

- Speaking of NBA drafts... while watching the Knicks suck this season, know that they traded away their #1 pick (which may just be the #1 overall pick) to the soon-to-be-competitive Chicago Bulls for chubby center Eddy Curry.  No hope for the future.... and the present sucks, too. They should be pretty awful about the time Oden "finishes" college.

- I've been laid up a lot recently, and I've been watching a lot of normal (read: non-sports) TV. One of the great shocks to my system is the show COPS. 

    Keep in mind the fact that I watch almost nothing on TV but sports when I tell you that- in a lifetime of NFL viewing- I have only seen maybe 5-10 instances where a white man was able to run a black man down from behind. The white guys on COPS  never lose a footrace.

   I'd advance "crack" as a theory, but lots of NFL guys smoke crack. Taking LT and Michael Irvin as evidence, you'd figure that crack would actually improve the rogue's ability to get away. Nope. I must add that the cops catch all the white guys, too.

   Granted, the footage is edited so that the good guys always solve the case... and much like the coyote/roadrunner show, you kind of figure out that you won't get to see anyone beaten on prime-time TV. Still, they should try to show a few fruitless chases now and then.

   I'd imagine that the show wouldn't get the ratings if it consisted of a series of shots involving teens running from cops, who sort of chase them for 50 yards before giving up. I still think it would make for compelling viewing. "G*ddamn kid runs like a f****** deer..."

   Crooks get away from the white cop on Law and Order... but he usually has a young black/Hispanic partner.

- I'm verty, verty interested in how the Patriots spend their first round pick next month. Our starting WRs look like Deion Branch and an aging Troy Brown, we lost the brutal Willie McGinest at OLB, we played a bunch of jabronis at cornerback all last year, our offensive line is shaky, and we even need a kicker.

   We pick fairly late (21st), but we'll be drafting a starter. A lot of sites have us drafting a Corey Dillon replacement, although the McGinest move has started prognosticators towards selecting us a big linebacker. I'd personally try to get a cornerback, although we'll probably go with the BAAATT... "best athlete available at the time."

   We won't take a kicker in the first round. Bill Parcells raised eyebrows once by taking Scott "Missin" Sisson in the fourth round. I would imagine that we'll take whoever we can get.

- Best name in the draft? D'Brickashaw Ferguson. He's too big to laugh at in person, but I'll say it here for everyone to see.... that's a goofy name. Ashton Youboty is pretty funny, too.

- Two fun things happen next month. The Boston Marathon and Opening Day for the Red Sox are both merely weeks away. I could give a damn about the marathon, but a lot of people love the stuff. Bet on whoever has the most Ys, Ks and Es in their first name, and you should do a-ight.

   The Red Sox lost Damon, but they still have Manny and Big Papi. The rotation looks like Clement, Schilling, Wells, Beckett, and maybe Wakefield. If I have to wait another 86 years to see them win again, I'll kill someone by 65 or so.

- Speaking of droughts, the Bruins are now the only local team not to win a championship in my lifetime. They just canned G.M. Mike O'Connell after a six year reign of error, and we don't look good for making the playoffs.

   I seem to recall Boston being a hockey town when i was a kid, but they have had a frightening loss of momentum recently. I taught for several years in both city and suburb, and I never once saw kids talking about hockey. I personally like hockey, but one gets the sense of looking down on a dying patient when watching it. Boston needs to make that team interesting very quickly.

- It'll be hard to do it this year without a big shot of Winstrol in the arse, but I can't wait to see Bud Selig having to suck up to Barry Bonds when he cracks homer 756. That will be one of the funniest prepared speeches of all time. With Bonds and all time hits leader Pete Rose both banned from the Hall Of Fame, it's getting to the point where a team of persona non gratas  could beat the best team you could scrape up out of the HOF.

Action Alert! Save the Sound from Industrialization