Could Online Betting Exec's Arrest Help Speed Through Anti-Gambling Laws?
from the how-convenient dept
When BetOnSports' CEO, David Carruthers, was arrested earlier this week, we noted that he had been fairly outspoken the week before about how the House's decision to pass an anti-online gambling bill was nothing to worry about, since the Senate was unlikely to do anything on it. However, it seems that his own arrest may be helping to turn the tide. Senator Frist (last seen insisting on an audio flag) is now pushing to get the Senate's version approved. In fact, it sounds like all the attention from Carruthers' arrest has only made this an issue the Senate is more interested in working on. All in all, this seems like more election season posturing, as politicians try to find "hot button" issues to promote. This exec's own arrest may have catapulted online gambling into the "hot button" realm.
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it's kinda funny how all these stories tell the same thing. nothing is really "new" here. why do this? i dunno
i guess it's hard to tax offshore sites. because taxing would generate a TON of money for the gov, but actually getting it would be difficult.
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This guy might not have to worry about the death penalty, but he may end up having a nice roommate named Bubba soon.
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I miss the days...
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Turning the tide? Not so much.
If only Bill Frist had that much initiative and independence. Frist (R-TN) was selected for the post of Senate Majority Leader back when the Bush White House was able to use Congress as a somewhat noisy rubber stamp for its policies; and while the Bush Administration has lost a great deal of its political clout, Frist remains one of its most devoted Senatorial mouthpieces. Frist is pushing the online gambling issue because the White House and the RNC are pushing it, not because he's being pulled along by events. It's no coincidence that the US Attorney General is cracking down on online gambling right now -- it's purely a political stunt.
Alberto Gonzales is cracking down on online gambling for the same reason Bush used his first veto ever this week: It's an election year, and off-cycle elections (i.e. elections that don't include a Presidential ballot) are often decided on turnout more than issues, and the conservative base has always been strongly against gambling*. Between the Iraq war, corruption scandals that fall mostly on Republican shoulders, and a mediocre economy that's expected to slow down right as the election approaches, the party in power is being forced to look around for hot-button social issues to get otherwise reluctant parts of its base to the polls. This is only one of many we'll see, and that it's a tech issue is pure happenstance.
It's also worth noting that Sen. Frist is widely expected to run for President in 2008. Bills like this are as much about being able to say "I introduced a bill to crack down on illegal online gambling that hurts children and destroys families" as anything else.
*This includes government-run lotteries, despite what's been mentioned on TechDirt previously. The prevalence of government-sponsored lotteries is a peculiar conflux of fiscal conservatives trying to find some way other than official taxes to fund government budgets they can't cut, and liberals trying to find some way to fund education and other programs in an era of major tax cuts. They are, however, stridently opposed by most social conservatives, for all the usual reasons.
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fuck congress
our government is so fucking corrupt now its sickening, there are not even keeping up the illusion anymore..
they know we know that they are all bought and paid for by corporations that dictate their every move
its supposed to be a government BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE
instead its by corrupt greedy snakes FOR the corrupt greedy corporations
"capitalism" unchecked, running rampant, blocking out competition, perverting laws, screwing the american people... capitalism is RUINING america, its like a cancer, its growing to obesse size, these companies are so big they pervert our government, which does everything it can to protect them... all at the expense of the country, and the world..
this points out some serious flaws of man
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They've got everyone confused enough to pick a side and argue over meaningless issues - while really they (republicans and democrats) actually ARE the same team that stands for corruption. If you vote, you only support the corruption. It's the system itself that's broken. Republicans and Democrats are both equally corrupt, they just have different players and methods.
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Arrest
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Representative Government...
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Money...
Money is destroying our nation. Money in our political system is displacing values of integrity, honesty, accountability, and responsibility with the value of the dollar.
Our founding fathers NEVER considered the impact money would have on our government. In fact, at the time, money was to be printed by congress. But, after the turn of this century, the banks and rich people in all their great wisdom and power decided it would be better if the money wasn't distrubuted or controlled by governement but rather by an independent, private entity called the Federal Reserve.
Why?... Because this method enables the banks to dictate to government and NOT the other way around. Modern economics is the new American government all else takes a back seat including our constitution.
What we see and hear about is all just fluff and staged sets designed to look, feel and sound like a legitimate, constitutional, democratic government . In fact we are ruled and controlled by money, economics, etc...
Our money has no real value. It's only worth is the faith that people have in it. This faith in money is also designed to relieve ourselves of thinking that our money is fake and worthless for all intensive purposes. We used to have a gold standard, meaning that the paper dollar has a relative value in gold at the depository in Fort Knox.
After the depression, the banks decided to remove the gold based standard and replace it with faith, GOD or whatever you want to call nothingness. The American people never even flinched. Why?... Because we want to believe our government knows what it's doing. All this faith in nothingness blinded us just long enough to realize we've been duped. The gold at Fort Knox was cleverly stolen by the banks and leaving us with nothing more than paper, ink, and false hope.
This has managed to subvert all our checks and balances because the decisions are made not at any federal level but at the finacial level. All that remains of our government are hollow, shell-like branches of government all suckling off the modern economics teat.
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The idea is true, and can't be argued. the problem is that the ideals have been perverted over time by scumbags.
we need to wipe clean and start over - adjusting the rules slightly enough to keep the corruption out.
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Also, yes money is a tool that has proven quite useful.
However, money often is misused for the wrong purposes.
Every U.S. Citizen should take an ethics course while growing up. They should throw it in with History, Biology, etc...keep pumping them with moral responsibility and actual values.
Somewhere, somehow, we are cranking out bigger and worse scumbags as time goes by. Where is it all coming from? Something is wrong somewhere. How did a guy like Bush even get close to office?
I just don't know anymore...
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sure enough
money is the root of all evil
greed and stupidity is what will destroy the human race
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Could Online Betting Exec's Arrest Help Speed Thro
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Leonardo da Vinci
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fucking bastids.
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1. deals made between representatives
2. riders
If only 30% support a given bill and 70% oppose it, they just add in some pork to help 21% of the opposition, giving 51% support.
Congress can pass ANYTHING. Not a legitimate representative body.
Solution:
1. Make congress vote by secret ballot
2. New amendment to constitution: No riders. One bill, one law.
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the good old usofa
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