Family Research Council email: Avast, Pirates on Dry Land

[tanyev]

Yes, that was the actual title. Looks like the fundies are starting to realize that the Republican party cares a lot more about money than the phony religious lip-service they are constantly spouting.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) signed into law yesterday legislation that allows Mississippi's floating casinos to build up to 800 feet inland for the first time. The state legalized casinos in 1990 but restricted them to the waters of the Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico. Governor Barbour campaigned in 2003 on preventing the expansion of gambling, but now he is throwing away that campaign promise on the false hopes that the gambling industry will provide more jobs and less crime. Billions of dollars are lost in casinos every year and it is society that suffers, while gambling interests who continue to profit. Many stories of homelessness, alcoholism, divorce and bankruptcy have their roots in gambling, but Governor Barbour's main concern is that the casinos are "a great taxpayer." Alongside the Mississippi Governor, Congress also seems uninterested in how gambling can cause longer-term damage than any hurricane. Currently the House Ways and Means Committee is crafting the Katrina tax package and is not planning to exclude casinos. Historically, federal redevelopment tax breaks have excluded industries like golf courses, country clubs, massage parlors and racetracks or gambling facilities. Please contact the committee and express your conviction that multi-million dollar casinos should be excluded from tax breaks meant to provide relief to victims of the hurricanes.