Gee... does Mayor Pollard feel like an idiot, yet?

Royce Pollard, sadly, mayor of "America's Vancouver," has shown many troubling traits since he was elected.

He's shown that he not only doesn't care what voters want.... he's shown that he believes it's perfectly OK to sue the citizens of the city he would lead to KEEP from hearing what they want. He's shown that if you don't happen to like what he's doing... why, you can just get the hell out of town. He's shown that he's perfectly capable of putting the taxpayers of his city on the hook for $70 million dollars or so, when the hotel he rammed down the community's throat falls flat on it's collective financial face and the City must use city general fund dollars to keep it propped up (Man.... what a deal THAT was!!!!) a process he will be forced to use when the Cowlitz Tribe buries that new hotel after building their own... charging less money... and not paying one red cent in revenue on the profits. Sheer.... political... brilliance.

Most recently, the Mayor showed his ability to be hoodwinked by the Cowlitz "charm offensive," by getting sucked in by John Barnett of the Cowlitz Tribe, a man who cannot keep his bigoted son under control and who will not fire him as chief spokesman for the Tribe.

Our "esteemed" Mayor most recently illustrated his gullibility by telling us:

"When the Cowlitz Tribe announced their interest in opening a resort and casino in La Center, Vancouver got involved. Traffic impacts, jobs, housing...we knew all of it will have an affect on us. It would have been easy to get angry or defensive about their proposal. Instead, we have build a good working relationship with the Cowlitz. Because of this, when I met with the Cowlitz chairman John Barnett (David Barnett's father), John looked me dead in the eye and made a firm commitment. He said, "Mayor, we have no intention of causing any harm to Vancouver." At the end of our meeting, John and I shook hands, and I left feeling confident that he would honor his word and hold up his end of the bargain. And, I believe, he felt the same way about us. This relationship didn't happen with contracts or lawyers. We are building this relationship based on the values of trust, honor and integrity. "

Now... I've already busted Mayor Pollard's chops for being so dangerously shortsighted. But anyone who actually BELIEVES that the relationship between this community will actually be one of "trust, honor and integrity" has a screw loose. It is disappointing, but not terribly surprising, that the mayor lacks the necessary intelligence to grasp the obvious.

I'm reminded of one of the main problems the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied Europe had in grasping the reality of their situation. For the longest time, they simply could not believe what the Nazis had in store for them. They simply could not believe they were to be exterminated... exposed to murder on a mass-production scale. Even as they were walking to the gas-chambers... they were incapable of understanding what was going to happen.

The Nazis played on that. In processing these victims, they were told they were merely getting on trains for "resettlement in the East." The gates at these hell-holes almost always had a sign over them: "Arbiet Macht Frei"-Work Makes You Free. Unfortunately... that was a lie as well.

Inmates sent to "The Baths" were required to strip, place all their belongings on or under a numbered peg in the wall, while repeatedly being told to "remember their number," so that when they had "finished their showers" they could get their belongings back... "Sonder Kommandoes" playing their role of normalcy to the very end.

Many of these victims actually believed they were getting showers. They were wrong.

Mayor Pollard seems incapable of understanding that The Tribe will say anything... do... anything... to get local communities on board with this economic "black hole." But once this thing is built.... once this economic leviathan destroys our local economy... by then, it will be far too late.

Gregg Herrington brought it home in his column, a column that illustrates the depth of the lies... the betrayal... the control the Tribe will and to a large extent, already has begun, to demand.

Please read this column... all of it. Please make it your business to become acquainted with this issue in it's entirety. Please understand that the Cowlitz Tribe will do absolutely anything they want, whenever they want, regardless of any agreement... regardless of any local law... regardless of any local regulation. And once you understand it all, please contact your elected and government officials and tell them: ANY support of the Tribe.... anything but complete and total opposition to the Tribe and their aim to destroy our local economy and identity... will result in their immediate and total political death-knell.

Opinion - It's Friday, time to get rants out

Friday, March 4, 2005
GREGG HERRINGTON Columbian staff writer

One of the sports talk-show hosts has a regular feature he calls Friday Rants. It's Friday, so here are three items I'm shifting from my "Rants In" basket to my "Rants Out" basket.

Mohegan hardball: The Connecticut tribe that owns a gargantuan casino and is working with the Cowlitz Indians to put one near La Center is holding a political gun to the head of Connecticut lawmakers, one that fires threats of multimillion-dollar budget hits.

The Mohegans are pressing the Connecticut Legislature to reject a bill that would legalize the poker game Texas Hold 'Em in restaurants and bars. They fear it would attract customers otherwise bound for their gambling emporiums.

A Mohegan official told a chain of community newspapers there, including The Easton Courier, that it would be a violation of the tribe's state compact, and "if the state were to legalize them ... it would cost them more than the $400 million we give them as their 25 percent share of our slot (machine) revenues, the most generous in the United States. We wouldn't pay it anymore."

"We" is the Mohegan and the Mashantucket Pequot tribes, operators of two very large casinos in Connecticut, which together give those millions to the state general fund as a percentage of slot machine revenue.

I called the reporter who did the story, Tom Giordano, and told him Washington state, which has 24 Indian casinos, gets no general state revenue from them. He summed up his reaction to that news rather succinctly, saying, "That's a sucker state."

More...