Bush Wants To Put A Stop To Fun

We only have 69 days of terror left, but we should all be concerned about the amount of damage Bush can do before he goes. First up, online gambling.

The Bush administration is moving in its last weeks to complete regulations to enforce a controversial law that seeks to block Internet gambling. The move is drawing hot protests from Democratic lawmakers and supporters of online betting.

"This midnight rulemaking will tie the hands of the new administration, burden the financial services industry at a time of economic crisis and contradict the stated intent of the Financial Services Committee," the committee's Democratic chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, wrote this week to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The law is apparently a vague disaster.

The result has been a cascade of disputes, because the law offered no clear definition of Internet gambling, instead referring to existing federal and state laws that themselves provoke differing interpretations.

Banks, credit unions and others have protested about being put in the position of enforcing an unclear law complicated by the difficulty of determining where payments are going and the fact that online betting businesses can disguise themselves with relative ease.

Oh, my God! Push it through! We need more chaos! Then pass a law that makes everyone drive backwards on the highway!