[melioris]

once again, melioris climbs on the soapbox

I hate to inject some (misguided?) optimism into this snafu, but in the long run this might be the best thing for this country. This particular issue isn't a conservative or liberal issue; it is a example of the general state of our country. Through both deliberate efforts and the general compliancy of a (mostly) prosperous nation, the general public of this country is apathetic. This apathy has allowed a very small but motivated sector of the voting population to seize a disproportionate amount of political power. If enough people get pissed off about something, hopefully everyone will start becoming active citizens and for the first time in our history we will truly have a democratically representative republic.

In the end, this is going to be ok. Some sites may value stock prices more than product, some extra hoops may be set up for a little while, but the American market is too large. And if there is one thing that we can trust in this country, it is that in this country the market is king. Even a liberal, progressive hippie like me can’t hide from that fact.

Finally, even in the worst case situation, one in which this bill is attempted to be enforced and other, more limiting, bills are passed, there is no way that they can be enforced. At best, and I mean best, the JOD can hope for something like the RIAA strategy of randomly enforcing ‘the law’ in the attempt to create an environment of fear that scares others away. It hasn’t work for the music industry (even a loser like me knows how to get free music, and the record industry is still on life support), nor will it work with poker if they try it.

So in the end, I agree with Kurn on this one. It doesn’t matter the party affiliation of individual representatives. It matters if you have communicated with your representative. Let them know how you feel, often. And if you don’t like what your representative is doing, get off your ass and vote him/her out of office. It is called being citizen, and it is sometimes a lot of work, but if you don’t do it STFU and take it like the bitch you are.