* The Chicago Tribune editorial board apparently has no decency left whatsoever. It has now stooped to the level of cracking very bad 9/11 jokes…
As part of their ham-handedness, the lawmakers stuck the Gaming Board staff with only a 60-day window — cynics note that it ends Sept. 11, a date associated with disaster — for producing the regulations to govern this big new industry.
What was this horrific outrage that the Tribune equated with one of the greatest tragedies in US history?
Video gaming.
Yes, video gaming.
Today’s editorial is a long, strident, breathless slam on legalized, limited and taxed video gaming. It’s chock full of phrases that would make nutballs like Alan Keyes smile with approval.
The Tribune continued its 9/11 attack theme today by claiming that video gaming is “invading” the state. That hysterical statement completely ignores the fact that almost totally unregulated, mostly untaxed video poker machines already crowd the Illinois landscape today, and pay out illegally.
And a newspaper which has consistently opposed making state laws via public referenda now whines that no public referenda was held on video gaming…
In mid-July, Gov. Pat Quinn — who as lieutenant governor called for a public referendum on a proposed expansion of gambling in Illinois — signed the capital bill and its gambling provision into law. A public referendum? No dice.
The problem with the Tribune since they were implicated in the Rod Blagojevich scandal is that the editorial page has begun to use campaign rhetoric rather than reasoned debate. So, we get things like the over the top comparisons of an admittedly botched attempt to regulate video poker to September 11th and that favorite word of politicians everywhere: “Invasion.”
Leave the campaign spin to politicans. And for crying out loud, leave September 11th out of stuff like this.