12 July 2006: Our Government Against Us

Gazing into the Abyss: Michael Rawdon's Journal

Our Government Against Us

Our wonderful government has been busily trying to restrict our freedoms over these last couple of months:

Amendment to Outlaw Gay Marriage:

Senate Vote, June 7: 49 for, 48 against, 3 not voting, measure failed (vote was for cloture on the measure)

Amendment to Outlaw Burning the American Flag:

Senate Vote, June 27: 66 for, 34 against, measure failed by 1 vote (2/3ds majority vote needed to pass)

Act To Prohibit Most Internet Gambling:

House Vote, July 11: 317 for, 93 against, measure passed.
(has not yet come up as a bill for vote in the Senate)

Of my own congress-people:

Senator Dianne Feinstein voted against the outlaw-gay-marriage amendment, and co-sponsored (!) and voted for the outlaw-flag-burning amendment.
Senator Barbara Boxer voted against the outlaw-gay-marriage amendment, against the outlaw-flag-burning amendment.
Representative Anna Eshoo voted against the outlaw-Internet-gambling bill.

I've always been vaguely unhappy with Feinstein as my Senator, but knowing that she not only voted for but co-sponsored the anti-flag burning amendment makes it a lock that I'm not going to vote for her this year. That attempt at restriction of fundamental freedom of speech is just unacceptable behavior.

The anti-gambling amendment irks me out of proportion of its import because it seems so useless and petty. (The fact that I've been enjoying getting into poker and on-line poker is a big catalyst in the game's popularity has something to do with it, too.) There are much bigger problems in the country to solve than on-line gambling, and finding a way to better legitimize the industry while taxing it at the same time seems like a much better thing for everyone. Outlawing it (or effectively doing so) seems like a really bad thing.

I think my favorite take on it in the blogosphere has been by Gene Bromberg, although Wil Wheaton's take was also quite good. (n.b.: I don't even try to read a significant fraction of all the poker blogs out there, so there may be excellent commentary I just haven't seen.)

All this is nuts. If your senator or representative voted for any of the measures above, I hope that you'll vote against them the next time they're up for election.