I hate to cheer for a foreign country over us, but when we're wrong, we're wrong.  And by us being wrong, I mean nanny staters and protectionists being wrong, specifically former Senator Bill Frist and whoever supported or were paid off to support his slimy ban let him pull what he pulled, and Bush for letting him get away with it.  

For those that don't remember, I'll see if I can fire up that longterm memory, basically the fucktard Frist slipped a ban on online gambling into a bill that got passed, basically banning online gambling.  You can look it up pretty easily, I could post a link, but I'm too lazy to find a good objective one.

Anyway Antigua filed a complaint against the US government, arguing that the US ban on online gambling was a violation of their rights as a member of the World Trade Organization.  And guess what, they're right, and the WTO agrees with them. 

Antigua is arguing that if the US is going to violate their right to practice free trade in the form of internet gambling, they should in return get to violate terms of copyright...as in, they get to engage in intellectual property piracy all they want until the US opens up trade again. 

Dave Shuler, writing in the link shows its a tough decision, I'll make you click over, the consequences of this issue could be severe, and as he says, this deserves a hell of a lot more coverage than its getting. That said, here's where I come down on the issue...

I respect Dave's point about giving in and looking like an undermining of US sovereignty if we cave, and I even agree with it to an extent, but this comes down to right over wrong, and I'm sorry, that online gambling ban was wrong.  It was quietly snuck into an unrelated bill, it was kept hidden from the public, and it shouldn't have, and it absolutely violated Antigua and any other WTO member who wants free trade access.

 We The retards in DC fucked up big time, as they are wont to do, and the clowns in DC need to do the right thing here and open up legal gambling. 

Congress and the President need to admit, this was a big mistake, a poorly thought out bill, and the error has been corrected, not because the WTO was making threats, but because it was the right thing to do, and the US government isn't above admitting they fucked up.

Found at Ace's.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:03 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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