Fight UIGEA!! -- Action plan for week of 2/26

[KotOD]

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I agree. If this becomes a Democrat circle jerk, you can count me out.

[/ QUOTE ]I never meant it that way. I've just added the people who are clearly <u>actively</u> fighting for us. If I have missed someone I want to know regardless of party. I believe there is a site like actblue for Republicans but I'll have to find it.

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And the most important person in the world right now for the purpose of getting any rollback, repeal or carve out would be a democrat. It's only logical that Frank is the target.

[clabbers]

Can anyone estimate WSOP attendance for this year and estimate a dollar figure of loss for both Harrahs and the Las Vegas economy due to the detrimental effects of UIGEA and subsequent mad dog prosecution on the WSOP attendance?
At least one B&amp;M (Rio) is about to realize that what was thought to be competition was actually nurturing lucrative common interests!

[Uglyowl]

2000: 512
2001: 613
2002: 631
2003: 839
2004: 2,576
2005: 5,619
2006: 8,773

Way too early to tell...let's revisit. My guestimate 7,300

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
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I agree. If this becomes a Democrat circle jerk, you can count me out.

[/ QUOTE ]I never meant it that way. I've just added the people who are clearly <u>actively</u> fighting for us. If I have missed someone I want to know regardless of party. I believe there is a site like actblue for Republicans but I'll have to find it.

[/ QUOTE ]

And the most important person in the world right now for the purpose of getting any rollback, repeal or carve out would be a democrat. It's only logical that Frank is the target.

[/ QUOTE ]

True. We're just saying this is a nonpartisan effort. That way everyone can feel comfortable participating.

Barney Frank will clearly be an appropriate target at some point (sooner rather than later, I imagine). He already supports us, but he needs to be able to show that he's hearing from Americans on this issue, especially as he's the House Financial Services Committee chairman. He's in a real position to help us.

[TheEngineer]

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If you can, will you also send notes to Reid and Ensign this week? You'll likely be able to reuse all or most of the note you sent to Moore, so it shouldn't be too much more.

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Done. Although there was no mention on Ensign's site of accepting non Nevadan email.

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Thanks! It feels good doing something about this. Even if we fail today, we're doing our part to lay the groundwork for our future freedoms.

It seems the sites that refuse non-constituent email say so, so I'm assuming Ensign's accepts it. We know he takes snail mail. On that topic, as a P.S. I mentioned that I visit Nevada three to four times a year and pay plenty of taxes there, for whatever that's worth.

[TheEngineer]

House Republicans who voted against UIGEA:

CA-26 Dreier, David [R](moderate, past House Rules Committee chairman)
AZ-6 Flake, Jeff [R] [libertarian (small "l"), former Executive Director of the Goldwater Institute]
FL-16 Foley, Mark [R] (LOL...gone)
NY-13 Fossella, Vito [R] (principled limited-government conservative)
NV-2 Gibbons, James [R] (succeeded by Dean Heller)
WA-4 Hastings, Doc [R] (seems moderate, past chairman of the House Ethics Committee
AZ-8 Kolbe, James [R] (retired)
NJ-2 LoBiondo, Frank [R] (moderate)
FL-14 Mack, Connie [R] (principled limited-government conservative, son of former Sen. Connie Mack)
OH-18 Ney, Robert [R] (LOL....gone)
TX-14 Paul, Ronald [R] (Libertarian presidential candidate, 1988)
TX-2 Poe, Ted [R] (moderate)
CA-11 Pombo, Richard [R] (lost reelection)
NV-3 Porter, Jon [R] (our friend in NV)
CA-46 Rohrabacher, Dana [R] (principled limited-government conservative)
OH-12 Tiberi, Patrick [R] (moderate)
AK-0 Young, Donald [R] (moderate)

Perhaps now that Republicans won't be getting reamed as badly by party leadership to tow the party line, we may be able to pick off more of them. It seems like we get moderates, libertarians, and principled limited-government conservatives. Should help in focusing our energy (for example, there's probably not much sense in sending Sam Brownback a bunch of mail).

[andywend]

The number of players in the main event this year will be WAY BELOW 7,300.

I would guess below 5,000.

[gurgeh]

I didn't hear anything from my rep. (James McGovern), so I called his Washington office. I spoke to Jay Lucey, his legislative assistant, who took my information and said he would track down an answer, even if my email would be delayed in being filtered down to the right people.

Though I often hear that one vote can't make a difference or that politicians don't listen to single constituents, these are both fallacious arguments. The organized influence Engineer is getting going WILL have an effect for very specific reasons, which I realized as I spoke to Mr. Lucey on the phone: He heard "I sent and an email" and "Now I'm calling you like the ex boyfriend who won't go away" and knew immediately that I was not going to be ignored, and that I was not just one vote. He knew that I would hound that office until I got my answer, and that I would then spread that answer around, voicing either my support or my disapproval. Loudly. Politicians don't want unhappy constituents, because unhappy constituents may rally lots of other people to vote, who may then recruit others, and so on. Likewise with every one of us, and that concern grows exponentially when questions about the same issue are received over and over again.

So if anyone reading this hasn't done so, get with it. Go with Engineer's game plan and demand an answer from the people who represent you in your state. And register to vote, if you haven't already.

[RonMexico]

Harry Reid's response to wizardofodds.com's Michael Shackelford (http://wizardofodds.com/general/hr4411.html ):

July 17, 2006

Mr. Michael Shackelford
(address removed)
Las Vegas, Nevada

Dear Mr. Shackelford:


Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to legislation that would restrict Internet gambling. I appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, all of the letters sent to this office are read by a state-of-the-art robot that forms an automatic response. I simply don't have the time or staff to waste on your ramblings. Therefore, my bot constructs a formulaic response to satiate your desire for faux democracy. It usually reads something like "thanks for writing, we love to hear your opinion" followed by "but we really don't give a [censored] because here is our unwavering position on the issue." So again, thanks for writing and we will fight internet gambling to the bitter end to insure my pockets get filled for the next 20 or 30 years.

My best wishes to you.

Sincerely,

HARRY REID

United States Senator

HR:ss

[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[TheEngineer]

Ron,

That was actually pretty funny, but I think we both agree that writing and calling are more effecting than NOT writing and calling. I'm glad to see so many here making this effort to stand up for our rights.

As for Harry Reid, once this year's WSOP flops, perhaps his pockets will be getting filled by casinos trying to fully legalize online gaming.

The phones aren't answered by bots. Will you make a couple of phone calls this week?