Given that Congress is out of touch with America, and that certain politicians work for special-interest instead of the voters, let’s try the “Rank and Yank” method this mid-term election.

What’s “Rank and Yank“?

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric and proponent of the Rank and Yank Method

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, famously installed the Rank and Yank method into GE when he was running things. The Rank and Yank method is also known as the “20-70-10″ system. Here’s how it works:

• Top 20 : the top 20% of the workforce is most productive. They get the best promotions and opportunities.
• Vital 70 : the middle 70% work adequately. They fill out the rest of the company.
• Bottom 10 : the lowest 10% are nonproducers and should be fired.

The assessment and firings happened like clockwork every year. With this system in place, GE experienced a 28-fold increase in earnings.

If it works in business, it should work in government. At least it couldn’t be any worse than the culture of corruption that’s in there right now.

So where to start?

Why not start with answers to our own Congressmen and Senators On the Record post:

I fully support American Poker in all its forms: Yes or No

I will reverse the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act: Yes or No

I will work to legitimize the Great American Game of Poker online: Yes or No

Let’s get those answers. After that, we can compare attendance records, voting records and campaign donations against the polls of regular Americans. Very quickly we’ll see who’s working for America and who’s working for special-interest.

There’s also the Radar article that describes this congress as “busy doing nothing”. Their ranking of the Top 10 Dumbest Congressmen is as good a place to start as any.

Rank and Yank. It worked for GE. It could work for the USA.

Pink Floyd : The Wall

Prior to the signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act [UIGE], Business Week published an article addressing the point of prohibition vs. protectionism. We highlighted this point in a release we sent to the media last week, and the protectionism angle has certainly picked up some steam.

While the proponents behind the bill [Rep’s Frist, Goodlatte, Leach & Kyl] have argued their motivation was based on eroding American morals and values caused by online gambling - the bill that passed only affected the methods of transaction. The bill did not make online gambling illegal.

The response by the major public gaming operators of pulling out of the US market was about protecting long-term shareholder value and avoiding arrest if entering the United States, not an explicit law against online gambling. The cases of BETOnSports CEO David Carruthers and Sportingbet’s non-executive Chairman Peter Dicks put the fear into international gaming exec’s and certainly altered their travel plans.

The case is made, by ourselves and others including Business Week, that beyond the obvious pre-election “playing to the base” impact of the new law, that the door is still open to US-based gaming companies such as Harrah’s, MGM Mirage, Wynn and Trump to launch online gaming sites. The argument that we’ve read on many sites focuses on the fact that the taxation available to the US government from online gaming is just too great to outright ban or ignore. $6 billion dollars in online gaming revenue last year in the US alone? A few lobbying dollars will be spent to grab that booty.

So we’re wondering: if this is a protectionist move, and online gaming will be licensed and regulated inside the US in the future, is the new law the most effective move by the government? Is closing the market to outside competitors an intelligent free-market play? What if other countries block US companies from competing in their markets? Does the world need more walls?

We’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts - write a comment and voice your opinion.

You can read the Business Week article here.

Bill Gates found out in the 90’s that building a successful company in America not only took skill, smarts, money, marketing and product - it also took politics.

In fact, you can readily find coverage of the ongoing business battles Microsoft has with the United States, European Union, Asia and every other region in the world where it sells its products.

That’s the sign of a mature industry. It constantly works in political realms to maintain free-market freedom.

Calvin Ayre of Bodog on the cover of Forbes

Free markets don’t just happen. They are constructed by a myriad of interests: government, business, supply, demand, resources, regulation, community standards, and capital. Each of those interests has an agenda and fights for their agenda to be instituted. Through the give and take of that unending process, a balance is achieved. But that balance is always in flux with the times. Which is why free markets are a constant pursuit, never a destination.

Calvin Ayre recently commented on the UIGE Act and said, “I think that the existing issues relating to the recent online gaming legislation ought to be left in the hands of the electorate and policymakers.”

Well, Calvin Ayre is a billionaire. And billionaires never leave anything to chance – even ones involved in the gambling business. If he did, he wouldn’t be a billionaire. So he’s either being coy or forcibly naïve. My bet is that he’s coy, playing it close to the vest, as he should since he’s already witnessed what happens to flagrant gambling executives.

However, mature industries lobby for their interests. That is a reality.

Here’s hoping that Bodog is working behind the scenes as successfully as they are in front of the camera.

We at Poker Patriots encourage every poker industry player to promote and support whatever effort is needed to overturn the underhanded UIGE Act. Lobbying for American Poker is one of the ways to achieve that.

Ping Out: To John Caldwell and his Learn Lessons from the Music Industry article in Poker News. Thanks for the valuable insight.

The Poker Patriots blog was officially launched last week and already we’ve been written up in a spate of online reviews.

• Online Casinos
• Eye On Gambling
• Poker Listings
• iGaming Business Magazine
• Poker Player Magazine [registration required]

Our newsletter has become the hot read of the inbox and the Poker Patriots RSS feed is spreading like wildfire.

But we didn’t get into this fight for the fame; we got in to make a difference. To right a wrong. To overturn an underhanded deal. To promote a level playing field. To honor the American legend of Poker.

In that spirit, we’ll be presenting useful tools for battling against the un-American UIGE Act in the coming days and weeks. We urge you to use them and pass them on to others interested in the cause. As we pull together, you’ll see that this war will be won within 36 months. In today’s culture and technology, when the nation uncovers such an egregious injustice and then works together to right the wrong, it usually takes about 3 years to see the results.

Backing us is the fortunate timing of the mid-term elections, as well as the internet and millions of smart poker players ready to stand up for the great American game of poker. We fight to bring back the legitimacy of our sport, and in the process, cut-out the special-interest agenda that is ruining this country.

Talk your game. Play your game. And remember - there are 50 million of us. So on November 7th, vote your game.

Make the difference.

“Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.”

Photo of Pat and Kevin Tillman Saudi Arabia - 2003

The Life and Death of Pat Tillman sadly defines the current culture of corruption in this country - a government that makes a non-stop mess, and the heroic Americans sacrificed trying to clean it up.

Kevin Tillman, Pat’s brother, nailed it in his recent article:

“Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.”

This truth is a clear description of the un-American, anti-poker and special-interest UIGE Act. It is everything America is not. Poker is America. We invented the game. We perfected the game. We made it the legend that it is today.

Yet, special-interest politicians continue to push private agendas that are entirely un-American. They deny our heritage, our tradition, our legacy. And in doing so, they deny our freedom.

As Kevin Tillman states:

“Somehow lying is tolerated. Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance. Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.”

“Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday [November 6th].”

On November 7th – Vote Your Game.

We could have told you that.

But the good people at CNN have backed us up with an Opinion Research poll that states:

74% of Americans say Congress is Out of Touch

Here’s another fact:

50 million Americans play poker and we already know that our government is completely out of touch with what America is and what America does.

Poker is America. It was invented here. It was perfected here. It is a tradition in this country.

1 in 6 Americans plays poker. That’s someone in your family, your friends, your colleagues at work, your peers at school, the people in your church, and the neighbors in your community.

That is America.

The short answer is - NO.

You will NOT be arrested for playing poker online.

So is that it? Is it over then? Can we just go back to playing and enjoying our game? Not exactly.

For more indepth analysis of the issue, check out the 2 articles written by I. Nelson Rose and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman. Both of these writers are well-qualified to give opinions on the subject. Their articles are on the Must Read list.

But for those of you on the run, the TV Guide edition of the 2 articles is that “Freeloading Bill” Frist and his special-interest cronies have made a f***ing mess of American Poker, and someone will have to clean it up.

That someone is you and me.

We’re running this blog and working with every Poker Industry Player we can connect with to win this fight. To keep American Poker legal in America.

Let us know what you’re doing with an email.

Ping Out: To the fantastic freaks of the newly minted “Wicked Chops State Lotteries”, formerly Wicked Chops Poker. Keep posting the babes and fighting the dolts.