The new internet gambling bill was signed in to law yesterday. Party Poker, Paradise, Fortune, the OnGame Network (Pokerrom) and several others have pulled out of the US market. Ultimate Bet's software provider has also pulled out, so I don't know what's up with them. Thankfully Pokerstars, Bodog, and my favorite, Full Tilt, have said they are staying, but that could change as the actual method of enforcement becomes clear. I do have a feeling that Bodog will stay no matter what. Pokerstars seems on the edge where they might skip out at any moment, and FTP will most assuredly stay at least until the end of the 270 days the bill allows for enforcement to begin.

There's barely any shared views left that keep me favorable to the Republican party, and there's even less in the Democratic Party. The Libertarians are crazy, and the libertarians are never going to start a party of their own (the difference between L and l is that L is the actual political party full of people who are closer to anarchists than I prefer, the l is for people who are like me, fiscally conservative, socially liberal, yet still want the U.S. to act like the responsible and powerful world leader it should be, instead of the whiny approval seeking loser the far left seems to favor). Anyway, I don't know who to vote for party-wise, but thankfully my oldest voting philosophy still rules my decisions. That is to vote based on my knowledge of each individual candidate, and ignore their party. If the country votes in the best candidates, regardless of their party.... Well in many cases there are no great candidates, and the lesser of two evils rules the day. I think there may be a big shakeup in the next 10 years which will change our party system, hopefully for the better. A split in either party, or maybe both, creating a new and powerful centrist party. One of the current big two will become marginalized, the other will survive, and we'll be right back to two parties, but the new one won't be beholden to extremist interests, as the Dems and Repubs seem to be now. Maybe that's just a pipe dream, but it's a good one.