gamepolitics: Louisiana House Unanimous in Support of Video Game Bill

Game Politics (

gamepolitics) wrote,
@ 2006-05-17 05:50:00

Entry tags:

danny martiny, democrats, hb1381, james cain, legislation, louisiana, republicans, roy burrell, sb340

Louisiana House Unanimous in Support of Video Game Bill

Frankly, we're stunned.

Despite last Wednesday's embarrassing committee hearing marked by misinformation, gross distortions and frothy, purple prose about crushing skulls, 26-year-old murderers and how force feedback controllers teach one to be a cold-blooded killer, the Louisiana House passed HB 1381, Rep. Roy Burrell's video game bill, 102-0 yesterday.

102-0.

According to the Associated Press, several House members questioned whether Burrell's bill, HB1381, would survive an inevitable First Amendment challenge by the video game industry, but voted for the bill anyway.

"That's for the courts to decide," said Rep. Danny Martiny, (R), who presided over the House Criminal Justice committee which approved Burrell's bill on May 10th, thus setting it up for yesterday's floor vote in the House. "Anything's subject to challenge."

According to the AP, HB1381 would permit a judge to rule whether a video game should be pulled from store shelves. The measure now heads to the Louisiana Senate, where it may face a rougher ride.

That's because the Louisiana Senate has its own video game bill working its way through the legislative process. As reported by The Advocate, Republican State Sen. James Cain's SB340 is a watered-down bill which primarily addresses sexual content in games.

Want to talk about it? You can discuss this story via the "comments" feature (click below), or in the new GamePolitics Forums...

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(Post a new comment)

	poet_ninja 2006-05-17 10:04 am UTC (link)
	Hunh. So that hurricane blew off more than just their topsoil, eh? (Reply to this)

Time to fire up the Lawyers

yukimurasanada
2006-05-17 10:43 am UTC (link)

Apparently Burrells not paying attention much lately, but thats nothing new. I wonder, will a judge look kindly on this law with 6 previous rulings on the subject?

Doubt it!.

Apparently the politicans down in Louisiana can't read, or do research, or they'd know how boned they are in court. Oh well.

I will say this, I do kinda wish I could see jacks response when a judge kills the Cali bill. Probably call the Judge A "wacko liberal judge in the pocket of the porn industry".

Hey dennis, do you still get Press releases from good old Wacko Jacko? and if so, could you send them to me. I wanna catalog his insanity.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: Time to fire up the Lawyers -

rsconqueror, 2006-05-17 04:29 pm UTC

I wish I were suprised

danzuke
2006-05-17 11:30 am UTC (link)

But in politics, it seems that wasting tax dollars on these kinds of bills is worth it to these guys. No one wants to look like they anti-family or pro-videogame. It makes me sick to my stomach on a number of levels. First the shocking first amendment implications. Second, attempting to pass a bill they KNOW is unconstitutional, just for the political boost.

We need to hold politicians accountable for wasting our tax dollars and not doing their jobs. Wasting time on these kinds of bills serve no one but themselves. How much will it cost Louisiana to go through this entire process?

Here's an area the Videogame Voters Network needs to get involved in. This guy needs to go.

(Reply to this)

	rhanlav 2006-05-17 11:37 am UTC (link)
	Thats for the courts to decide? How about making stuff thats LEGAL first, then we won't have to get into this who "writing illegal and unconstitutional laws that have to go to court to be resolved" deal? That costs money, and time. So, when do the folks of Louisiana get to vote these morons to the curb? (Reply to this)(Thread)

Or, -

riffraff1138, 2006-05-17 03:24 pm UTC

	ianc14 2006-05-17 11:48 am UTC (link)
	See, people do still listen to Wacko Jacko and pals. Lets hope the courts do there job. (Reply to this)

	anticron 2006-05-17 12:17 pm UTC (link)
	"That's for the courts to decide," said Rep. Danny Martiny, (R) And for your constituents to foot the bill for your political folly. (Reply to this)

	kajex 2006-05-17 12:18 pm UTC (link)
	Christ almighty. That's just beyond insane. That's blatant ignorance. (Reply to this)

	kajex 2006-05-17 12:20 pm UTC (link)
	And to think- no legislation is being passed against people in general (not just retailers) for providing access to the games they don't want kids to have. Ridiculous. (Reply to this)

GIR, fetch me the bucket!

sabin_blitz
2006-05-17 01:22 pm UTC (link)

This cesspool of idiocy has made me sick! Unanimous passing in the House. Jack Thompson being there. Heinous misinformation being presented at every turn, mostly by Jack Thompson. People BELIEVING said heinous misinformation. It's true what they say: "Those in power are often the least fit to rule." 50-60 years from now, the history books are going to refer to these people not as concerned for the children, but as the cause of wasting untold amounts of taxpayers' dollars over legislation that has been ruled unconstitutional time and again by the courts. Yet they push on anyway, hoping this will improve their election chances. Yes, Germany's Socialist government will eventually collapse in about 20 years due to putting itself into a position to not be able to support itself, but the politicians aren't anywhere near this blöd, dumm, idiotisch, schwachsinnig, töricht or strohdumm. Okay, that's about every single non-profane German word for stupid I can think of at the moment to adequately describe the people who believed the bile Jack flooded the courtroom with, drowning the common sense of every single person in the room.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: GIR, fetch me the bucket! -

rsteinke, 2006-05-17 04:42 pm UTC

Re: GIR, fetch me the bucket! -

elricbrother3, 2006-05-17 07:19 pm UTC

...

danzuke
2006-05-17 01:36 pm UTC (link)

People need to use their votes and let people like this know it's unwelcome here in the states. That's really the only way to get these people to listen.

It's a slow process, but if more and more of us gamers actually vote they'll have to listen to us. I know I sound like a damn PSA, but I'm serious. Politicians only care about keeping their jobs and if game players got together to vote as one I bet these bills would disappear. Right now, we're an easy target.

Course in this case it's really up to the people of Louisiana, the rest of us just have to hope the court follows the constitution.

(Reply to this)

	dustin1986 2006-05-17 01:47 pm UTC (link)
	I guess they don't need the money for new levees anyway, they didn't work last time. What's the worst that could happen? All a hurricane could do now is wash away the debris that they never cleaned up. Just toss all the games into the pile and let the ocean sort it out! (Reply to this)

	c13 2006-05-17 02:46 pm UTC (link)
	No offence to the Americans reading this, but it's things like this that make me glad I'm Canadian. (Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) -

rsteinke, 2006-05-17 04:37 pm UTC

(no subject) -

brendanthejedi, 2006-05-17 07:12 pm UTC

(no subject) -

curiousthompson, 2006-05-18 02:04 am UTC

	al_wesker 2006-05-17 02:50 pm UTC (link)
	"Hell, we'll pass any crazy ol' law! Who cares if we have reservations about it? That's for the courts to decide and, therefore, not our job! We just PASS the laws! We don't actually think about them! That's someone else's job!" That's the whole vibe I got from them. (Reply to this)

WELL AT LEAST WE KNOW THE TRUTH....

bigman_k
2006-05-17 03:04 pm UTC (link)

These politicans know the law is unconstitutional but are voting for it anyways just to make a make an statement. We should go right to the LA taxpayers and tell them that their politicans are purposely wasteing taxpayers money on something they (the politicans) know won't win in just order to gain votes and take people's minds off the REAL problems facing LA right now. Makes me sick to my stomach!

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: WELL AT LEAST WE KNOW THE TRUTH.... -

larpguide, 2006-05-17 10:14 pm UTC

	aniki21 2006-05-17 03:45 pm UTC (link)
	Jesus, wasn't anybody there paying attention? (Reply to this)

Save us from the damned politicians...

houstondragon
2006-05-17 04:07 pm UTC (link)

That's for the courts to decide,"

It'ssssssssssss ELECTION TIME! Screw the facts! The hell with the constitutionality! Damn the logical naysayers! WE GOTTA SAVE TEH CHILDREN AND GET MORE VOTES!!!1ONEleventyBBQ!

With hope, this will certainly get the same bitch-slapping down it so desperately needs, however, the politicians themselves will still pat themselves on the back, and collect the cash from the taxpayers. Utter crap.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: Save us from the damned politicians... -

jesdk, 2006-05-17 07:20 pm UTC

Deep curiosity.

marbledog
2006-05-17 04:24 pm UTC (link)

As a lifetime resident of Louisiana, I can assure you that the Louisiana House doesn't vote unanimously on anything... unless there's something in it for them. I was suspicious of this whole deal when identical bills were proposed by a republican and a democrat. Now we have a unanimous vote and JT springing out of the woodwork. Something's rotten in Denmark.

No, wait...Denmark has better levee systems...

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: Deep curiosity. -

jesdk, 2006-05-17 07:21 pm UTC

Re: Deep curiosity. -

marbledog, 2006-05-19 12:04 pm UTC

	getwellgamer 2006-05-17 04:39 pm UTC (link)
	::Thunk:: ::Thunk:: ::Thunk:: ::Thunk:: ...Sorry, that would be the sound of me repeatedly hitting my head against my desk. I swear, a unanimous vote? It's frightening that every single person in any room could be swayed by that kind of misinformation and fearmongering, but the fact that it was the room containing a house of representatives is downright pathetic. (Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) -

jbourrie, 2006-05-17 07:16 pm UTC

(no subject) -

jesdk, 2006-05-17 07:24 pm UTC

(no subject) -

frankytfrank, 2006-05-18 03:13 pm UTC

(no subject) -

sabin_blitz, 2006-05-19 08:48 am UTC

	Meh.... goodrobotus 2006-05-17 06:14 pm UTC (link)
	They could have said the sky was bright green and computer games are the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, and they still would have voted for it, far too spineless to be in the positions of power that they hold. (Reply to this)

	I've said it befor and I'll say it again elricbrother3 2006-05-17 07:17 pm UTC (link)
	REBUILD THE LEVEES AND NEW ORLEANS!!!!!! (Reply to this)

	viridiscervus 2006-05-17 08:21 pm UTC (link)
	@#$%!!! This is my state. Jack Thompson's hit my home turf. The courts BETTER block this. (Reply to this)(Thread)

(no subject) -

nightwng2000, 2006-05-17 09:59 pm UTC

(no subject) -

viridiscervus, 2006-05-18 12:17 am UTC

(no subject) -

gamepolitics, 2006-05-18 10:33 am UTC

haha -

billboy2000, 2006-05-18 02:26 pm UTC

Interesting thing there -

enmitywithin, 2006-05-18 07:44 pm UTC

Re: Interesting thing there -

gamepolitics, 2006-05-18 08:48 pm UTC

Re: Interesting thing there -

enmitywithin, 2006-05-18 10:06 pm UTC

Re: Interesting thing there -

gamepolitics, 2006-05-18 10:15 pm UTC

Re: Interesting thing there -

enmitywithin, 2006-05-18 10:18 pm UTC

Re: Interesting thing there -

tweek_20k, 2006-05-19 03:56 am UTC

Re: Interesting thing there -

gamepolitics, 2006-05-19 10:52 am UTC

(no subject) -

ianc14, 2006-05-18 11:39 am UTC

LA Resident perspective

nikthinks
2006-05-17 08:50 pm UTC (link)

We're not all insane here. Well, most of the people are, but they tend to live in the northern, less urban areas. It doesn't shock me that the guy who sponsored the bill is from some place I've never heard of (Dry Creek, LA) and really doesn't shock me that they'd actually believe someone like Jacky-boy. Louisiana isn't exactly one of the most progressive states in the union and tends to jump to the front of the line for failing constitutional challenges in numerous areas, including but not limited to seizing obscene music, abortion law, creationism/religion in public classrooms, speech limitations, privacy laws, and (my personal favorite) a ban on wearing your pants too low that was so absurd that we made the Daily Show.

The 102-0 vote isn't really shocking because keeping bad games off the shelves is way more important that solving the rampant educational, economical, tax, and funding issues the state is facing as well as the rebuilding of Southeastern (Katrina) and Southwestern (Rita) Louisiana.

Even then, going by their wording, it seems almost impossible to prove a game should go onto the ban list. Sure, they grabbed the three pronged provision from various First Amendment cases, but they are going to have a increasingly hard time arguing that games are "patently offensive to standards in the adult community" and more importantly the games "lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."

Its essentially going to go to a test case, where some hicktown sheriff will seize a bunch of games and say they're banned (similar to the one in New Iberia that shut down a skating rink due to the "obscene music).

(Reply to this)

	You'd think they'd have bigger things to worry about. tweek_20k 2006-05-17 11:35 pm UTC (link)
	But whatever, another bullshit political grab for attention that'll die like the rest. How many more before they realize it doesn't work? (Reply to this)

	shock finaleve* 2006-05-18 12:47 am UTC (link)
	By the article, the sorta went like this "Ah man, i totally don't agree with this, but the button that says 'No to Bill' is so FAR AWAY." Yeah that seemerd to have summed that up well. (Reply to this)

	""That's for the courts to decide,""" zippydsmlee 2006-05-18 12:50 am UTC (link)
	I am sorry its you fckign job to know whatyour doing,to pass these mindless failed laws one after another only shows the couprtion and fing lazyness of you fcked up fat cats livieng off public money >< Rant end So its not your job to take thigns into accoutn and then pass a law...then WTHFH is it?!?!!?!?!@?!? (Reply to this)

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