Lame Duck Flies in the Face of Americans’ Rights

The Bush administration is arguable one of the most wildly unprincipled in the history of the white house. They have acquiesced to or directly introduced legislation from all sides of the political spectrum with no rhyme, reason, or apparent sanity. Now, they have pushed through the implementing regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act (UIGEA). UIGEA creates a de facto ban on internet gambling by preventing payment processing institutions (from banks to paypal) from processing funds related to “unlawful” internet gambling, but the law doesn’t say what gambling activities are unlawful. This rule will be implemented despite strident opposition from the hemorrhaging financial services industry (which will take the brunt of UIGEA’s financial burden) and the obvious fact that this law violates the individual rights of American citizens (48 states in America already allow some form of gambling). But we shouldn’t really be surprised at this development as neither a healthy economy nor personal freedom (not to mention consistency) were ever something that the Bush administration considered.