Early House Report Card

[Legislurker]

You know Alaska being a small state population wise, and a LOADED field of Dem challengers for a Senate and one House Seat................You have them green and Young and Stevens are going down. If we have some Alaska people who cna find out who the Dems positioning themselves are for a primary run, getting a vocal committment from one and delivering him/her some votes might net us a friendly Senator.

[TheEngineer]

Alaska is green now because their only congressman, Don Young, is a really big supporter of our liberties. Alaskans tend to be libertarian and distrustful of the federal government. It would be great if we could pick up a pro-poker senator in the next election.

[kidpokeher]

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Sen. Kyl won't have any problem with being outed for blocking the bills we seek to have passed.

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This is true considering he was doing all he could to block ethics reform legislation.

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2492

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sen. Kyl won't have any problem with being outed for blocking the bills we seek to have passed.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true considering he was doing all he could to block ethics reform legislation.

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2492

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree. It's no secret Kyl is fiecely against us.

Fortunately, that doesn't mean we can't get a bill through. After all, six months ago some people here were saying we were foolish to try to do anything at all against UIGEA.

We should just do our part to push for House and Senate support....popular support is better than none. Who knows where we can do once the bill passes the House Financial Services Committee. We may get it added to some legislation. Under paygo, everything has to be funded. Revenues associated with us may look attractive later this year. However, for this outcome we still have to show political support (somehow BluffThis thinks legislation that passed 317-93 in the prior legislative session routinely gets overturned simply by conference committee additions...no other vote required I guess....let's tell everyone who wants anything this secret).

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
I just feel it necessary to constantly reiterate the point, that has been agreed with by our forum insiders (i.e. knowledgeable about how the political process works in Congress), that the only way we get what we want is by attaching our language to another bill which is must pass. Stating that truism isn't negative at all. It is realistic.

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps, instead of "constantly reiterat(ing)" your ideas by hijacking my threads, you could go to the proper thread, at Fight for Online Gaming!! -- Weekly action thread and post an actual plan there. You may find it's easier to find fault with others than it is to put your own ideas out for critique. So, go ahead and let us know what we need to do to get our language attached to some must-pass legislation, please, but do it over there where it counts.

By the way, your opinions, aren't "truisms", despite your tendency to post as if you are always right and everyone who disagrees with you is wrong by definition.

I look forward to your plan. You know, the one that turns our grassroots efforts into results.

Thanks.

[LegallyBlind]

Engineer. I have written to Mike Castle (R-DE) and recieved what I imagine was his form letter stating that he is opposed to legalizing internet gambling. If you would like me to send you the letter he sent me, I will. It didn't sound like he had any intention of changing his views.

From the little I know about delaware politics, I think his seat is safe. Even though he is a repulican in a blue state, he has a long history of politics in Del (serving his 8th term in the house, and former state gov.). Although I don't know how close his last race was.

[Uglyowl]

FYI- A little off topic, but Senator Kyl has more enemies than just us:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20070804/index.htm

Washington DC, August 4, 2007 - The United States Senate yesterday joined the House in passing bipartisan legislation that will fix several of the most glaring problems with the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that were identified in six government-wide audits of FOIA practice carried out by the National Security Archive. The legislation, authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.), overcame a hold placed by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Az) on behalf of Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department. It passed late Friday evening by unanimous consent, on the last day of the Congressional session before the August recess.

After multiple editorials, including several in Sen. Kyl's homestate Arizona Republic, assailed Kyl's position and nicknamed him "the Secrecy Senator,"

[Legislurker]

Does anyone have any FOIA experience? I bet we could find out
loads of useful information if we could somehow subpoena emails about the regs AND WTO negotiations. I would think neither impact national security, though the WTO might be confidential by nature of the treaty itself. I just have zero idea how to go about using FOIA. That would just gall Kyl awful mighty to have it used against him the week after he lost his hold on it.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
Engineer. I have written to Mike Castle (R-DE) and recieved what I imagine was his form letter stating that he is opposed to legalizing internet gambling. If you would like me to send you the letter he sent me, I will. It didn't sound like he had any intention of changing his views.

From the little I know about delaware politics, I think his seat is safe. Even though he is a repulican in a blue state, he has a long history of politics in Del (serving his 8th term in the house, and former state gov.). Although I don't know how close his last race was.

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Thanks. I'll update him to "F".

[TheEngineer]

Has anyone here received a strongly-worded anti-Internet gaming letter from a senator? I'd like to figure out who the "F"s are. Obviously Kyl is an F-. Others may be against unregulated Internet gambling but may support IGREA. If we can get a few F's on the list, we may be able to get responses from some others, especially as the reting article is the #1 Google returned site for almost every representative when paired with either "gambling" or "poker" (even without an "online" qualifier).

Thanks.