Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Weekly action thread

[Kodfish]

Thanks so much for all of your efforts TheEngineer. We need people like you to help focus us at times.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks so much for all of your efforts TheEngineer. We need people like you to help focus us at times.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks! It's great we all fought together. We'll have a lot more fighting to go, of course. I hope everyone will join in now that there's a bill out there.

[TheEngineer]

My letter to the Daily Show:

To: thedailyshow@comedycentral.com
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 7:31 PM
Subject: Rep. Barney Frank would be a great guest!


Dear Sir/Madam,

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) would be an outstanding guest on The Daily Show under any circumstance, but he'd be awesome now that he's introduced a new bill (HR 2406) to allow online gambling. It would be entertaining television to listen to Jon and Rep. Frank discuss the self-righteousness of the people who wish to ban online gambling.

Thanks for your consideration.

TheEngineer

[Kodfish]

[ QUOTE ]
My letter to the Daily Show:

To: thedailyshow@comedycentral.com
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 7:31 PM
Subject: Rep. Barney Frank would be a great guest!


Dear Sir/Madam,

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) would be an outstanding guest on The Daily Show under any circumstance, but he'd be awesome now that he's introduced a new bill (HR 2406) to allow online gambling. It would be entertaining television to listen to Jon and Rep. Frank discuss the self-righteousness of the people who wish to ban online gambling.

Thanks for your consideration.

TheEngineer

[/ QUOTE ]

That's an awesome idea, engineer...I would love to see that and wouldn't be suprised to see that happen. Frank loves tv time and Stewart would be all over this self righteous crap.

Kodfish

[DrewOnTilt]

I just stole your idea and emailed David Letterman's generic email box:

[ QUOTE ]

Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 23:52:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: Me!
Subject: guest suggestion for David Letterman - Barney Frank
To: cbsmailbag@aol.com

Hello Dave and company,

First off, great show! I can't get enough of it. After all these years, it is still funny and entertaining.

I would like to suggest that an invitation be extended to Barney Frank to appear on your show. Though I don't always agree with Mr. Frank, I have found him to have a razor-sharp wit, and think that he can be very entertaining. He has recently introduced a bill to allow Internet gambling, which has stirred up some debate. The man is not afraid to speak his mind, and I think that giving him some face time with David Letterman would provide some great entertainment.


[/ QUOTE ]

[Colm]

larry king would be a great forum as well.

[Colm]

message sent to larry king.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
I just stole your idea and emailed David Letterman's generic email box:

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent! I sent one to Colbert as well.

I also sent copies of Frank's press release to many media outlets, as it seemed to not get much coverage yesterday. I sent the version that explained the controls on underage gambling and all that, of course.

[TheEngineer]

I guess everyone knows what we need to do now. Write, call, email, repeat. Push for support of HR 2046. Write to our friends, uncommitted politicians, and our enemies. Write to newspapers, television shows, and any other media. Thanks.

This is our chance to get what should already be ours. Time to fight for what's right! Take no prisoners!! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[TheEngineer]

Well, what an excellent week. Barney Frank introduced HR 2046: To amend title 31, United States Code, to provide for the licensing of Internet gambling facilities by the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and for other purposes . And, it picked up 11 cosponsors right off the bat!

It seems there's a lot we can be doing right now. And, we really need to do it RIGHT NOW, before these politicians make up their minds. So, let's do the following:
<font color="brown">
1. Contact your congressman and senators by phone and by mail. Ask them to support and cosponsor HR 2046. Maybe comment on that fact that this bill protects from underage gambling and money laundering while protecting the rights of adults. Also, mention that you just want to play poker (if that's the case). Even though this wouldn't make a difference in a perfect world, non-gamblers can understand poker over online roulette. Also, this way it's easy to end the call with something like "come on...all I want to do is play a little poker".

2. Contact the majority and minority offices of the House Financial Services Committee (that's where the bill is now) and the Financial Institutions Subcommittee (one phone call AND one snail mail letter...see the next post for contact info).

3. Contact (write and call) the majority and the minority offices of the House Subcommittee on Trade. Remind them of our WTO obligations relative to our loss to Antigua in the recent online gambling case. This will act as a moral lever, as we have treaty obligations with the WTO. The Frank bill doesn't meet the requirements of the WTO, but the final resolution of the WTO case may coincide with the Frank bill being in some state of approval, making it easier to loosen up either in the Senate or in conference. Without a win, there's a risk of the U.S. complying by eliminating all online betting (even the precious f'ing horses [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]).

4. Let's thank the 11 (to date) cosponsors of HR 2046. This can be via a short phone call, a handwritten letter, or a donation if you feel compelled (I'll give a little something this week). They are:

Rep. Gary Ackerman [D-NY]
Rep. Shelley Berkley [D-NV]
Rep. Michael Capuano [D-MA]
Rep. Julia Carson [D-IN]
Rep. William Clay [D-MO]
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez [D-IL]
Rep. Steve Israel [D-NY]
Rep. Peter King [R-NY]
Rep. Ronald Paul [R-TX]
Rep. Melvin Watt [D-NC]
Rep. Robert Wexler [D-FL]

We've focused on almost half of the 12 (counting Frank), so it looks like we've been doing the right things so far, given our size.

5. Write to your local newspaper, media outlets, television shows, websites, and any other media you can think of to promote our cause. </font>

Thanks everyone!