Country Double Crossing

For those Slicers not living in Alabama (and those Alabamians who only read the sports section), yesterday 11 people were charged with bribery, graft, and all sorts of corruption while trying to legalize electronic bingo in Alabama. You can read about it here. For the purposes of this blog, we'll focus primarily on the head guy behind the local bingo parlor (Country Crossing) Ronnie Gilley, his country music/celebrity investors, and our local state legislator, Harri Anne Smith.

The basics of the conspiracy were that the Casino owners would "provide and offer to provide campaign contributions, campaign appearances by country music celebrities, political polls, media buys, fundraising assistance, offers to pay money to opposition candidates in return for their withdrawal from races, and other things of value, to incumbent legislators and candidates for election to the Legislature, in return for supporting the business interests of the Casino owners by promising to vote for pro-gambling legislation.

Slicers noticing that previous paragragh is not constructed in my usually perfect prose will take comfort in the fact that I copied and pasted it from the Federal Indictment which can be found here.

In addition to offering incentives to legislators who toe the line, Ronnie Gilley is quoted as having said (wiretapped cell phone), “We’re gonna support who supports democracy. And the motherf***** who doesn’t support democracy get ready to get their f****** a$$ busted.”

I think it's safe to assume that "supporting democracy" in this instance means selling your vote to Mr. Gilley. Not quite what Thomas Jefferson had in mind...

Can you stomach one more Gilley quote? (if not, skip ahead a bit!)

“’Course at this point the way we’re spending money, I don’t, I, I say just go ahead and do it, and if he damn don’t vote for us, we’ll kill his a$$, we’ll, we’ll, or we’ll f*** up the results in the poll and put him out to press.”

How delightful! That looks like a death threat.

There are a few more heart-warming quotes from Mr. Gilley but I'll spare you the pain. It is interesting to note that there would be more Gilley quotes available but the Feds had a hard time wire tapping him because he "changed the phone out every three days.”

A new cell phone every three days! In hindsight, he probably should have changed it out every day or multiple times per day.

The indicted will get their day in court. They'll get an opportunity to defend/explain themselves. The Constitution guarantees them due process. However, in the court of public opinion:



"String em up!"

While I was reading all 65 pages of the Federal Indictment, I was thinking, "I'll probably be the only one who reads this." Wrong again. Virtually everyone I've talked to has read some or all of the document. The general consensus? Don't look good...

However not everyone is convinced. Yesterday a rally in support of Harri Anne Smith was held in Dothan and an astonishing 8 people showed up. Which is roughly 8 more than I would have expected.

From a Dothan Eagle article covering the event (which can be found here), we'll focus on a couple quotes. I don't know any of the people quoted, I'll assume they are good people, if not the best critical thinkers...

“I have not (read the indictment), but she's done so much for the community,” said Sara Dunn, an Ozark resident. “I know her values. She's a Christian. She's a lady of her word.”

Her "word" happens to be for sale to the highest bidder.

“She stands up for the people, so I'm standing up for her,” said Liz Pike, an Enterprise resident.“All her life, she's stood up for people. She likes helping people, and I don't believe she's guilty of all this stuff. I think people are gonna stand up for Harri Anne even more, and they’ll realize she’s been railroaded into something she's not guilty of.”

So in 2008 when she introduced anti-bingo legislation, she was "for the people" and then in 2010 when she attempted to introduce pro-bingo legislation, she was also "for the people". It seems to me that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that she received in the interim might help explain this flip-flop and prove that she is "for whatever is best for Harri Anne".

Rhonda Gay offers this: “I just really think (Task Force on Illegal Gambling John) Tyson and the governor got together and have trumped up these charges,” she said. “Harri Anne would have to come to me and tell me she's guilty for me to believe it.”

I know the indictment is 65 pages long, but do you think you might at least skim through it? Match up the dates of the conversations with the dates she cashed checks. Mind if O.J. drops by late one night and tells you he's guilty?

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That's all I have time for today, but before I check out, I have a confession to make.

You might remember back during the summer I wrote a hilarious blog post supporting Chick-fil-a when the the local restaurant and its "entrepreneur" were being attacked by County Commissioner Taylor Barbaree. You can do yourself a favor by (re)reading it here.

I only change my cellphone # whenever I want to dump a girlfriend without telling it to her face. I prefer for her to just kinda figure it out slowly. With that in mind, I'm certainly not willing to make the commitment of changing my cell out every three days, and I fear that I might be the target of a Federal Investigation.

In an effort to head off an expensive investigation I'm offering a full confession right here on the Razor.

1. I was employed by Chick-fil-a from August 1994 through April 2006. A fact that I had not previously disclosed...
2. Yesterday, the "entrepreneur" gave me a free Chicken Sandwich.

When I wrote the blog post in question, I had not talked to the "entrepreneur" about the situation. After it was published, he sent me an email thanking me for my support. I have noticed that since that time, whenever I ask for Polynesian Sauce, I get 2-3 packs instead of 1 like everyone else (which I assumed was a coincidence). Yesterday was the first time I've ever received free food from them.

I will no longer be writing supportive stories of Chick-fil-a and I promise to disclose upfront any consideration I receive for writing various blog posts.

It is my hope and prayer that this situation has not yet escalated to the level of actual crime. When the prison's were full of rapists and murderers, I wasn't really that concerned with going there. However, the thought of having to share a cell with a politician, is more than I can bear.