They are weaklings, make them quit.

[Squarehoop1]

It occurred to me the other day we should really be even more angry with our politicians, and so should our country.

I mean there they are working on a piece of legislation which is going to keep our country safe from foreign attack. A piece of legislation that can and probably will save lives. They doing this while men and women are overseas dieing for the same cause. Everyone reading this might not agree it is a good cause, but certainly those engaged in battle deserve credit for their sacrifice.

So, in the final days of this important piece of legislation what are our politicians doing? Adding money to the bill for more anti-terrorist tools? Nope. Adding in legislation that might somehow make it harder for terrorists to get in the country? Nope. Anything which anyone reading this post actually believes will keep Americans safer? Nope.

What are our great leaders doing?

Saving us from the Seahawks over/under line.

How pitiful. The leaders of our country in a time of war working on a piece of legislation to protect our homeland decided it was a good opportunity to buy some votes. They did it on an issue so weak it couldn't stand up to open debate.

This is the action of a group of weaklings. Men not brave enough to stand out front and survive on the basis of their actions and ideas.

So for this reason, I say stand up and fight! These are just neighborhood bully types. If we smack them in the face they will run away and look for a different group to pick on.

So, I will restate (roughly) what I said to one of the responders of my other post.

DON'T QUIT !!! There are plenty of ideas posted in this forum. Do something. Do it now! If you can't decide which one to do set a time limit and then pick one. Tonight, not tomorrow, not the next day. Pick one out of a hat if you have to.

But, for God's sake don't do nothing. Don't let them be encouraged to do more. DON'T LET THEM WIN WITHOUT A FIGHT!

They have passed a law which is impossible to enforce because overseas companies will ignore it for the amount of money at stake. The only true hope they have is real prohibition: they will eventually have to declare playing online illegal and arrest a few well known players. AND THEY WILL!!! Unless you show them it is not acceptable. Unless you show them you are not going to lie down and take it.

So, go out and do something, do anything, do it now. And after you have done it, tell every poker player you know that you did it, because then one of them will do it too.

They have a weak hand, we have 23 Million players, let's make them lay down!

[addictontilt]

AMEN BROTHER SING THAT HYMN AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[spidey74]

What's the best thing to do when you think someone is bluffing??

RAISE!!!

They will fold immediately!

We need everyone to concentrate our efforts in one specific area. Not that it is the last thing we will be doing, but if we can get everyone to focus on one thing for now, they will see how much power we have. What election in two weeks do we have the most chance of influencing for our favor? Does anyone know of a situation where one candidate is for the ban, one candidate is against, and the race is within 5%?? If so, we can all focus on that election. Call everyone in who lives in that state to spread the word.

Spidey74

[Squarehoop1]

spidey,

Here is my proposal:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=7770567&an=0&page=0# Post7770567

Or just look for my Counter Offensive post in the legislation page, since this doesn't look like it pasted as a link.

[spidey74]

Squarehoop1,

It sounds like we are on the same page. Whatever force the online poker community may have, the politicians will feel it the most if we can focus it into one sharp point. When the rest of the community sees that it is working, they will continue to add to the force and before you know it, it will pierce our opposition's heart.

You've mentioned Missouri and Tennessee as potential focus points. But is it mostly just a Democratic vs. Republican issue? It may be a start, but it would be even better if the Democratic candidate has proven he will support an online poker carveout. What are the Democratic candidates' names and have we confirmed they are indeed on our side??

Spidey74

[Little_Luck]

Unless they are fish, then they still call your raises even when they are bluffing.

[Squarehoop1]

No, it doesn't matter. There are almost no candidates, Democrat or Republican who have declared themselves in favor of regulated online gaming. Most are hedging their bets and saying they have not decided yet. Which is good. We just want to make a demonstration that we will take action and then the undecided folks will become afraid of us folks. It is therefore not even important for the candidate we support to win. The only thing we need to show is a forceful action, especially one which involves a large amount of campaign dollars. I guarantee you, there will be no candidate who has to run in the next election who will want to risk having it be his/her state that we pick next time. Which means follow up action (ie further enforcement) will be far less likely. Then sites like Pokerstars and FullTilt will stay around, then more players will come, then we will have more time to organize and lobby, then we will most likely get a written poker carver out, then we can forget this ever happened.

[spidey74]

I went to Claire McCaskill website and I could find no mention of online poker or personal freedom. Has her opponent Jim Talent openly supported the ban in any way?

What about in Tennessee?? I know Bill Frist is a senator from that state, but I don't think he's up for re-election. Who is the candidate we want to support in that state, and what candidate are we against (specific names please). I live in California, but I know a whole bunch of people that just moved to Tennessee when Nissan moved it's headquarters over there earlier this year.

If we are going to focus on a point, we need to make sure it is aimed at their heart and not at their left toe. Though I admit that they are rare, there were a handful of politicians that did speak up on our behalf. Are any of them up for re-election? If not then what about politicans that openly supported the ban. Are any of them up for re-election.

Squarehoop1, I don't want to derail any of your efforts, but I think it is important to identify the right place to focus. It would be much harder to try to shift our area of focus later. It's better that we do a little more work to pick the best point the first time. Everyone, let's identify the best place and post all detailed evidence you have on why it is the best place to focus. On any of the tight races, are any of the candidates openly for are openly against the prohibition of online poker? Would any of them be willing to support a carveout. We need to make some phone calls.

Spidey74

[addictontilt]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1025senate-poll1025.html

this link came via www.theagitator.com. (http://www.theagitator.com.)

we can take credit for it?

[Squarehoop1]

There is like two weeks until the election, no time for case studies. As I said before, win / lose, Democrat / Republican, Missouri / Tennessee, none of that matters very much at all. What matters is we have a show of action. The Missouri election has been the closest for the longest time, so I picked it because this is the easiest place to have an impact. No messing around, no wasting time, just taking action to move forward as rapidly as possible because the clock is ticking.

[spidey74]

Just sent Jim Pederson an e-mail.

--------

Jim,

Would you like to have a huge block of voters on your side for this November's election? I am part of an online poker community who is outraged by how Kyl and the Republican party shoved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to the Port Security Bill at the last minute. Poker is truly a game of skill and bets in poker can be considered as much of an investment as purchasing a stock through NASDAQ. Millions of Americans play online poker today and the community is currently looking for an election race to focus ALL of our efforts. If you would be willing to support a carveout for online poker similar to the carveouts for horseracing, lotteries, or fantasy sports, you can be assured of getting a large voting block to vote in your favor.

-----------

You can send his some e-mails yourself at:
http://www.pederson2006.com/

Spidey74

[NorthDakota]

I love the sentiment Spidey but I'm not sure how you can gaurentee a large block of voters yet... Too many Ostrich like head in the sand people in the Poker Community right now...

I think Squarehoop is right on the money with his thought process but I'm concerned right now about the mindset of the poker community... Very Few seem to understand the value of Squarehoop's solid idea... They are more concerned about Democrat/Republican or Support/No Support... No one sees the value of uniting and attacking with PRECISION...

We need Databases of Players around the Country... We need the PPA database... Pokerpatriot database... It would be an immense help if Pokerstars or Full-Tilt would help out and do something... Addictontilt's idea of Poker Tourney is huge if only Pokerstars would offer the rake for the cause but before the tourney starts we need the organization to handle potential income... We need Every little Poker League around the Country in Billings Montana to New York City... We need a list of Players and then we need to find local leaders who are pissed off enough to hang out in malls and make phone calls and take a ton of abuse in the process... And most importantly... we need an organization leader who is well versed in Law and politics who can put all the pieces together and determine how big a gun we have and where the gun should be aimed at... This will be imposible to put together in 2 weeks but it certainly could be done in the next 2 years... It would be a Grass Roots Movement and it would be powerful if we can get 5% of the 23 million on board...

[candyman718]

[ QUOTE ]
.. This will be imposible to put together in 2 weeks but it certainly could be done in the next 2 years... It would be a Grass Roots Movement and it would be powerful if we can get 5% of the 23 million on board...

[/ QUOTE ]

It would be nice if we could get 1/10th of 1% over the next 2 weeks to unite behind something.