Friday, May 24, 2013

Maximum Overdrive Cedric Style

Thank you (again) David Littlefield for reporting on the true news surrounding Cedric Cromwell's visit to the Taunton City Council Meeting....

HOLE IN THE LAND IN TRUST APPLICATION YOU COULD DRIVE A TRUCK THROUGH

These words being the most infamous words, and possible the words to his demise in a future in city government, were spoken by one of our city councilors when referring to the (IGA) intergovernmental agreement with the city of Taunton last year, who made this statement and then voted yes. So why bring this up a year later?? Let's see, Cedric Cromwell was sent a letter back in April to come before city council and update us on the proposed casino project. He was also asked to bring the LIT application to show us it is completed. Instead he brought with him a room full of tribe members, a bunch of lawyers, and some real cool drawings of a casino with moving cars and everything, and a graph chart showing the progress of the project as well as the progress with the federal government. What he neglected to bring was the completed LIT application. Still holding that close to your side, right Cedric?

So what is new about the project? Well, for starters the whole landscape and blueprints have significantly changed. Now the hotel/casino is 750 feet closer to Stevens street. Why this change? Because where the hotel/casino was originally situated, it was on top of wetlands. This now limits the spacious project of a worldwide destination resort casino to 60 feet off the road. Now I thought the picture of the casino with the moving traffic flow was great for a perfect world situation, of course. Clearly, Mr. Speller has not seen the traffic jams on 140/24 interchange during morning rush hours, nor has he seen the traffic on rt. 24 from the north side from 4 to 7 pm. If he had, he would have had the traffic flow to a complete stop. But then there would be nothing cool about that part of the presentation. Now what about Carcieri? You know that little legal decision that is one big hurdle for the tribe.

In enters Penny Coleman, big wig lawyer formerly from the Dept. of Interiors National Gaming Commission. She is the answer to a Carcieri Fix? Not likely. When asked how the tribe will get around Carcieri, her reply was simple and truthful. She had the dead stare of a deer in the headlights and replied "I do not know" then quickly passed it off to another of the many lawyers. She does not know because she only wrote Lands Opinions for gaming on lands that were already in trust, which the Mashpee's do not and cannot have. So, I would have to say there's more of your Malaysian dollars going to waste, Cedric. It seems it comes down to nothing new to see here folks, just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, with highly paid lawyers, architects, and slide shows. But there is still no LIT application.

Well I have the application for Land In Trust via a FOIA (freedom of information act.) request. It took a while to get, as the tribe blocked the request for over 40 days. I wonder why they would block such a request when they claim they are being so transparent. Aren’t we still partners? Well I guess I don't have to tell you, it is not completed. When and if it ever is completed, it will surely be rejected by the Dept. of Interior. On Wednesday, May 15th, the very next day after the Taunton meeting, I was at the State House giving testimony in front of the Senate Hearing Committee for the state compact. Again Cedric and crew showed up and filled the room, and left right after his presentation of course. Very interesting presentation made by the Mashpee's including "the historian" Jessie Baird, who paints a sad picture of how the Mashpee claim the Taunton lands. She even got the Chairwoman Canderas dropping a tear from her eye.
Jessie starts out talking some language I have never heard before. I felt like I was in the middle of a Star Wars movie, you know the scene where they are at the local night club, I mean all we were missing were subtitles.

Then she goes into the historical ties. It seems sometime in the 1800’s an Indian woman, Weetamoe, was crossing the Taunton River, she gets captured and beheaded, and her head is put on a stick and left in what we now call the Taunton Green. So this is the historical tie? I am telling you folks, you just can't make this stuff up!! My question to that is, why did the tribe go to Middleboro, then Fall River, looked at land in Plymouth and finally come to Taunton? What's the matter Cedric you thought Tauntonians were uneducated? You think we’re buying that story? No I don’t think so.


There you have it folks, there are so many holes in this Land In Trust application you surely could drive a truck through it. Cedric Cromwell can fool the local people, he can even fool the state people as well, what he cannot fool is the federal level He cannot because they know this tribe does not qualify for Land In Trust and the federal level knows we are watching them. The Mashpee's bought their federal recognition to the tune of 15 mil. No one was paying attention. But they won't buy Land In Trust because we are paying very close attention. The old saying you can fool some of the people some of the times, but you can't fool all of the people all the time. See you in Washington, Cedric.

I desire no future that will break the ties of the past - George Elliot

 
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. - Dwight D. Eisenhower
- be the change you want to see in the world -


 


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Another Open Letter to Cedric Cromwell....


Dear Cedric,

You can tout your rhetoric "we were under federal jurisdiction in 1934" fantasy all you want....you can even convince naïve journalists to write articles in supporting your claims...heck, you can hire a pseudo tribal member via marriage as your PR cheerleader to air commercials full of lies and innuendo...I'm fine with that. Heck, I am tickled pink thinking about the fact that you paid under-educated, LIT inept fancy lawyers to write up yet a third Carcieri argument to get land in trust. In fact, we are honored that our meek, timid, IN YOUR FACE letter to the SOI, BIA and State of Massachusetts regarding your (ahem) federal jurisdiction status as of 1934 forced you to write a rebuttal letter...really, we are...it was super fun finding the evidence, yet even more exciting that
it left your overpaid PR "tribal member by marriage" person speechless. Here is your problem Cedric...maybe, just maybe...if you knew ANYTHING about the history of the Tribe you claim to lead, you would have actually read your Federal Recognition first...you know...before sending yet another Carcieri argument about federal jurisdiction.  If you had, you would have realized that the tribe you claim to lead submitted evidence to the federal government in support of tribal existence, is in complete contradiction to your claims....  behold paragraph one, page 23 of the Mashpee Wampanoag Federal Recognition entitled: Federal Officials, Academics, and Researchers


(verbatim)
"Federal officials, academics, and various researchers consistently described the Mashpee in the 1930's and 1940's. In 1934, W. Carson Ryan, Jr., an official with the Bureau of Indian Affairs,* wrote James F. Peebles, superintendent of schools in Bourne, Massachusetts, regarding Federal assistance for building a school in the "Indian town of Mashpee." Ryan, writing at the behest of Eleanor Roosevelt informed Peebles that Federal grants for school construction were unavailable for "Indian groups" like the "Mashpee Community" under State jurisdiction."

* emphasis mine...
 
 Oh...and your claims regarding Mashpee children going to the Carlisle School is contradicted in your Federal Recognition also....just so you know.....

Kindest Regards,

Citizens of Region C who know you are up to your eyeballs in bulls**t...xoxo


 -The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic - John F. Kennedy

 I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant. - H. L. Mencken -

- be the change you want to see in the world -