Scripps News service concludes a report: "No wonder Americans hold Congress beneath contempt" and perhaps the American populous doesn't pay much mind to the antics that take place within the House and Senate.  We sure didn't until two weeks ago when - in the dead of the night during the waning minutes before Congress prepared for Election Day recess period - a bill to curb internet gambling was attached to a port security bill.

But that wasn't the only hijacking of this important national security bill that took place according to Scripps and the New York Times.

Before Congress passed a port-security bill on Sept. 30, a House-Senate panel deleted a proposed ban by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on current or future dockworkers convicted of murder, conspiracy, explosives trafficking and transporting hazardous materials, among other felonies. As The Wall Street Journal's John Fund reported Oct. 2, conferees stripped this language "in the dead of night at the behest of unions fearful that too many of their members could lose their jobs." Call this measure "No Longshoreman Left Behind."

Among the 9,000 truck drivers the Department of Homeland Security investigated in New York's and New Jersey's ports, about half carried convictions for such crimes as homicide, arson and drug distribution. DHS concluded: These are "vulnerabilities that could be capitalized by terrorist organizations." Former customs agent Joseph King wondered: "Instead of bringing in 50 kilograms of heroin, what would stop them from bringing in five kilograms of plutonium?"

Station WTVJ "checked more than 1,300 members of the three major longshoremen's unions listed in port records," NBC's Miami affiliate reported in March 2001. "We found nearly one in five are convicted felons in Florida. Their offenses include: attempted murder, armed robbery, assault and battery, trafficking in cocaine, grand theft, auto theft and sex with a child. Despite a county law with strict guidelines on hiring convicted felons, nearly half who appeal to a special panel to work at the port are approved."

As to the attachment related to an internet gambling prohibition, some media was reporting that President Bush might return that piece of legislation and sign only the bill pertaining to port security.  The President was expected to sign the port security bill on Friday the 13th.

Online-Casinos.com reports that a Washington protest against the new Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has produced information that runs contrary to the almost universal view that President Bush will sign the Act into law Friday as part of a port security measure.

Lobbyist Debbie Richardson, who declines to identify her company, organized a small protest in Washington earlier this week, and plans a bigger turnout for November 3.

Richardson claims that during the protest unidentified political sources in the Capitol told her that there is a possibility that President Bush may elect to refer the online gambling legislation back to Congress, since there are too many flaws due to the last-minute nature of amendments that had to be made in order to attach the proposal at the eleventh hour to the port security bill on which it passed.

Some aspects of the law do not make sense, the website contends, pointing out analyses by the likes of renowned gaming professor I. Nelson Rose.  But even Online-Casinos.com casts its doubt on this report.

"With President Bush widely expected to sign the port security bill, and its anti-online gambling bill attachment tomorrow [Friday 13 October] Richardson's information will soon enough be tested."

Gambling911.com attempted to contact Ms. Richardson with little success.

----

Christopher Costigan, www.gambling911.com

Originally published October 12, 2006 11:28 pm ET