OK, we all know that the United States government made some trade deals with the Europeans and Antigua-Barbuda and several other countries, in order to enforce the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. Now it seems some taxpayers would like to know exactly the terms of those trade deals. Seems simply enough, right?
So, it seems freelance writer Ed Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the financial details of these trade agreements. The United States Trade Representative responded by telling Brayton that the information he requested was classified because of national security.
"Be advised that the document you seek is being withheld in full pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1), which pertains to information that is properly classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."
Brayton writes on his blog,
"Americans, according to this administration, have no right to know how many billions of our tax dollars they've spent with no legislative authorization whatsoever in order to buy the cooperation of other nations and allow them to continue to violate the rights of American adults by preventing them from gambling in the privacy of their own home."
I really want to say something witty or mean and perhaps even sound disgusted but this is just too stupid for words. The only thing that really scares me is that there probably are some Washington officials who really believe that poker is a national security issue; that and we pay these people's salaries to be this incredibly stupid in public.
And finally for U.S. voters, some actual political poker humor.
