July 12, 2006

Online poker ban? Don't bet on it

Fresh from the more-Republican-pandering-for-votes-with-meaningless-legislation dept.: The House votes to ban online gambling! Hooray! Maybe next they'll vote to ban spam, and viruses too! With about the same effectiveness, we might note.

Probably the most effective thing the House vote did was win a bunch of headlines, courtesy of the 24x7 news media monster that simply doesn't have time to analyze such efforts for the froth they are. It's easy to be a bloviator like Bob Goodlatte and proclaim that "Internet gambling is a serious problem that must be stopped," but how exactly does that jibe with politicians' willingness to be duped by gaming interests in meatspace? Oh, right, not a serious problem because after all those tribes are campaign contributors.

Hypocrisy smackdown score: 1.0 for Rep. Bob and his pals, who should stick to more relevant issues like flag-burning.

Two questions need to be asked: Are any voters fooled by such frothery? And does anyone in the House really think they could make such a ban work?

And maybe a third question: Isn't there more important work for our elected officials to be concerned with? Maybe we will find some answers from voters who are tired of such pandering come this November.

Posted by paul at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)