New blogs on Internet poker rights

[TheEngineer]

The federal government -- and many states as well -- are dying to get their hooks into the Internet. They can't stand that this is beyond their control!! Many statists on the right wish to censor it for content, while many on the left wish to tax it.

The Religious Right is starting this effort by going after two areas -- Internet gaming and porn. However, don't think for a moment that it would end there. Rather, these would be the toeholds they'd need for government to slowly but surely gain control over the entire Internet. As such, these efforts must be resisted in an effective manner. as we cannot afford to lose.

One problem we have is that statists have claimed this area on behalf of the entire GOP. :mad: They even managed to get online gaming prohibition planks in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 GOP party platforms.

To at least make a stand for liberty to the right, I created a poker rights blog at Townhall.com, at http://poker.townhall.com and here at Campaign for Liberty, at http://www.campaignforliberty.com/user/TheEngineer . I hope you'll all check them out. Thanks! :D

[TheEngineer]

I posted an article you all may like. Read/digg link: http://digg.com/d1pWxH

It's Time to Abandon Big Government Conservatism

By: RICH MUNY

Social conservative groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council recently began emailing action alerts asking their members to fight for what the alerts referred to as "liberty". What they are really advocating, unfortunately, are limitations on a handful of government actions and continued government expansion over many other areas.

Most social conservative groups wish for society to become less permissive. However, rather than focusing on convincing Americans to choose to adopt these values, they instead cast their lot with the federal government, hoping the massive power of the state will effect these societal changes by force. This, of course, permits the federal government to determine and enforce its ideas of morality on every American, as we are seeing now. This is a very dangerous thing, as a government powerful enough to give us everything we want is powerful enough to take everything we have. Rather than wanting a government big and powerful enough to promote traditional values USING big government, perhaps we ought to worry more about protecting traditional values FROM big government. The best way to ensure this is to minimize the power we give the federal government. As President Reagan famously said, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Surely this is evident to all conservatives now that the GOP is out of power......

[TheEngineer]

I updated my blog with some CPAC pics.

[TheEngineer]

eBay and Network Solutions filed amicus briefs in the Kentucky case. I wrote an article on it and posted it to my Campaign for Liberty blog, at www.campaignforliberty.com/user/TheEngineer and my Townhall.com blog, at http://poker.townhall.com . Digg: http://digg.com/tech_news/eBay_Asks_Ky_Judges_to_Kill_Gov_s_Internet_Censors hip_Scheme . For Twitter, use http://digg.com/d1pgyh .

Thanks!

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eBay and Network Solutions Join Growing Chorus Urging Judges to Stop Kentucky Governor’s Internet Censorship Plan

Rich Muny
April 27, 2009

On April 17, 2009, eBay and Network Solutions filed amicus briefs with the Kentucky Supreme Court arguing that the court should kill Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear’s ill-conceived, protectionist, Internet censorship plan. With this action, eBay and Network Solutions joined the Poker Players Alliance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Kentucky’s Bluegrass Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and many others in asking the court to uphold an appeals court ruling that blocked Commonwealth of Kentucky officials from ordering out-of-state registrars to turn over control of 141 overseas Internet domain names accused of violating state gaming laws.

Despite running for governor on a pro-gaming platform, Beshear unfortunately chose to lead a protectionist crusade against online poker. Late last year, Beshear (D) was able to convince a state circuit court judge to order the seizure of the domain names of overseas Internet poker and gaming sites by claiming that these sites reduce Kentucky's tax revenue by competing with the lottery and with the horse racing industry. Fortunately, the Kentucky Court of Appeals blocked Beshear's protectionist actions before these domains were forfeited to the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, rather than accepting this rejection, Beshear is appealing the case to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Following the appeals court loss, Justice and Public Safety Cabinet J. Michael Brown said, “The evidence demonstrated that illegal and unregulated activity is occurring in Kentucky, and that millions of dollars are being lost as a result of that activity, a fact that wasn’t disputed in Tuesday’s ruling. (emphasis added)” However, Brown’s opinion on the legality of online poker was not disputed in the Court of Appeals’ ruling simply because it was not ruled on at all. Rather, once the court rejected the seizure of these sites, the court declined to address the other issues presented, including Brown’s opinion.

While Brown’s opinion of Kentucky law regarding online poker may not have been ruled on by the Court of Appeals, his opinion was far from uncontested. It was vigorously disputed at every court hearing. The Poker Players Alliance (a one million member poker advocacy group) filed a brief proving that poker is a game of skill, not chance. They argued that poker should not be considered “gambling” under Kentucky law. Attorneys made verbal arguments in support of this position at the Court of Appeals hearing, and the Commonwealth’s attorneys did not even counter those arguments. There were several other arguments made contesting Brown’s opinion as well.

For the full eBay amicus brief: (PDF)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14667177/Ebay-KY-Amicus-Brief

For the full Networks Solutions amicus brief: (PDF)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14667179/Network-Solutions-KY-Amicus-Brief