Posted on 12/17/2004 1:42:30 PM PST by nickcarraway
WASHINGTON - The sex industry funded part of a campaign that opposes the construction of a new baseball stadium on the Anacostia waterfront.
Opponents of a publicly financed baseball stadium spent roughly $50,000, trying to sway public opinion.
In one method used to get their message out, opponents used an automated phone line.
The person on the automated phone call says he's from a group called Friends of the Earth, and he's opposed to a stadium built with public money
Friends of the Earth is part of a coalition called "No D.C. Taxes For Baseball."
And, WTOP Radio has learned up to 20 percent of the $50,000 came from Robert Siegel, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner whose business would have to move to make way for the stadium.
Siegel is a major landowner on the South Capitol stadium site, an area that Siegel calls "D.C.'s unofficial Red Light district."
He owns 11 properties, several of which house gay nightclubs. He also owns a gay porn shop and adult theaters.
He says he's spent $20,000 of his own money to keep from being displaced by a new stadium. The funding includes other efforts he undertook to keep out baseball, including neighborhood signs and lawyer fees.
Some of the money went toward posters and radio ads, including one that ran on WTOP Radio.
Siegel says he's staying in the background because he doesn't want to cloud the issue of baseball with sex.
"No D.C. Taxes For Baseball" tells WTOP it wasn't trying to deceive anyone with its message. The group accepted money from Siegel's legal businesses to make its point.
Other members of "No D.C. Taxes For Baseball" include the League of Women Voters of the District of Columbia, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia and the Statehood Green Party.
I wonder how much of that money was given to Cobb.
Yeah, whether it's the semi-professionals. Or the politicians.
Politicians always win that fight. Everyone else is an amateur.
Any allegations of illegality? No? Ok.
One way or another, the tax payers get screwed.
OK, how about a 'Photo Contest' from public property to capture shots of patrons entering these fine little establishments? Bring the pimps and the johns to their knees for a change....economically....
It's DC. The real pimps and johns can be found in Gucci Gulch on Capitol Hill.
Translation: only scumbags oppose handouts for professional sports teams.
Translation: only scumbags oppose handouts for professional sports teams.
Good Point. How about the OWNER OF THE TEAM pay for THE STADIUM THAT HIS OWN TEAM PLAYS IN? What a novel concept.
One word - Barney.
BUTCH: I'm shocked that any thinking person would question the motives of a coalition of the League of Women Voters, the Legal Aid Society, the Statehood Green Party, and a captain of the gay porn industry! We all know that baseball is representative of the evils of American Society!
RATHER: How so?
BUTCH: Is it any coincidence that "W" played freshman baseball at Yale and co-owned a baseball team! And we all know that Halliburton would muscle in on the food and beverage concessions! Dick Cheney would see to that!
RATHER: And there is an ugly hate crime aspect to all of this, isn't there, Mr. Butch?
BUTCH: Call me Percy, puhleeze! Yes. Definitely! There is the issue of sexual taunting that those muscular, beefy, sweaty baseball players impose on the gay community! It amounts to the hate crime of unrequited sexual tension!
RATHER: [Visibly perspiring] Watching Kerry and Edwards in action, I felt, er, a similar, but not exactly the same tension...and...
BUTCH: ...and the way they grasp [audible gasp] their big bats wearing those ever-so-tight spandex uni's...why...it was...
RATHER: ..it was, er, to pardon the pun, rather tense even for a seasoned journalist like me...it was, as we say down Houston way, even tenser than a thong on the south side of Brad Pitt!
BUTCH: Ooh...my goodness gracious, it is getting tense in here! Ooh...Dan!! Did you just have a wardrobe malfunction?
[TAPE BROKE ACCORDING TO CBS SOURCES.]
At least when the sex industry people screw the taxpayers, they enjoy it.
I'm only serious about three things, my grandkids, my flying, and well, you know...
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