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 (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 429 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Glad they got their wrist slapped.

Posted by: PattyAnn at August 27, 2007 08:54 AM (8vM5E)

2 After I deleted what was in the "Web:" box under my email, my comment was allowed to post.

Posted by: PattyAnn at August 27, 2007 08:55 AM (8vM5E)

3 Yeah, I don't know why its doing that, I'm gonna probably email Pixy soon.  I'm sorry about that, I don't know what the deal is.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:11 AM (5/pL6)

4 Lemme test this.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:12 AM (5/pL6)

5 Okay, I've emailed Pixy, and we'll see what he thinks.   I couldn't make it work, and its my site.  Sorry about this, I think I better check if blogspot or any of the other biggies don't work.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:24 AM (5/pL6)

6 I'll try RWS's site.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:39 AM (5/pL6)

7 Odd.  That worked.  Maybe its just wordpress.  I'll try typepad, I'll try baldilocks' site cuz that's the first typepad that I recognized on RWS blogroll.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:42 AM (5/pL6)

8 It just seems to be wordpress.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:42 AM (5/pL6)

9 Oops, forgot Cuffy was typepad.  I thought he was blogspot for some reason.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 09:53 AM (5/pL6)

10 If I remember rightly, that stupid bill might have helped us lose Congress in '04. It happened shortly before elections and made a lot of people hopping mad

Posted by: S. Weasel at August 27, 2007 10:03 AM (rasT+)

11 I think Pixy's just p*ssed at WordPress

Posted by: PattyAnn at August 27, 2007 10:20 AM (8vM5E)

12 Weasel, yeah, I remember Ace linking a piece that showed that the GOP probably lost thousands of votes because of that bill, and in tight races, that could have skewed it.  This is part of why I get so pissy about Nanny Staters on our side in particular, you wanna lose votes, start screwing with people's hobbys/interests, whether its guns, tobacco, food or drink, poker, big cars, whatever.

PattyAnn, maybe he's jealous!

Posted by: doubleplusundead at August 27, 2007 10:30 AM (5/pL6)

13

I'd have to agree with you on this issue. I'm a former smoker, but like an alcoholic I will always crave them at one time or another. Quitting wasn't easy and I did it because I decided I wanted to spend time with grandkids when they are in the picture. And a perverse desire to collect my military pension for as many decades as possible!

 

Seriously though, banning smoking outright is the wrong approach. I think the price of cigarettes will eventually make the number of smokers a small percentage of the country. And the speakeasy reference is appropriate - people would be carting truckloads of cigarettes in from Canada and Mexico, organized crime would benefit, etc.

 

Posted by: Bradky at August 31, 2007 05:17 PM (pZOXQ)

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