I certainly hope they get their money back, especially if it hurts the taxpayers even more. Nothing says: "We won because you ALL were idiots" then getting money from all the people of a nation. Germany experienced it in World War 1, and boy were they happy after that...
If anyone should pay for this, it's the political parties that supported those bills and their own lawyer firms. The taxpayer will become enraged at the ESA if they start taking their funds out of their pocket.
I think the plan is less to get their money back, and more to publicly humilliate the Governor. Tell the public how much money he wasted fighting for a relatively (compared to things like crime) unimportant issue, and it won't matter if they actually got the money or not. The trick is to keep reminding people how much money the governor spent on something like this, and then compare it to, say, spending on salaries for police officers, and people will realise just how much money the governor wasted in order to try to buy their votes.
When it comes down to the crunch, taxpayers HATE being reminded about how much of their hard-earned money was wasted. Look at the last election up here. The Conservatives kept reminding people in Quebec how much money the Liberals spent on do-nothing legislation, basically attempts to buy their vote, and it right royally pissed off Quebecers, who felt insulted. The rest of Canada also got mad, because of all that money that was spent for nothing.
True enough, but people get even more mad when their tax money go into the pockets of organisations they do not approve of (like the ESA at this time of political upheaval against Video Games).
It's a vicious circle at this point... If the ESA doesn't want their money back and just want to point out how much was spent, it's going to bring an end to video game legislation. If they want their money back (and I'm sure they do) and fight for it, people will see their earnings fall in the hands of the ESA, not something they want.
Whatever the case is, Blagojevitch is going to be held responsible ANYWAYS. That's a nice compensation.
It's definately a vicious circle, but it helps to expose hopelessly incompetent seats in the local governments.
On one hand, they (the officials) didn't like or believe in the bill; on the other hand, they voted it in because if they didn't there would be stronger repurcussions for their potential re-election. They knew it was going to fail. They voted it on because they deemed it the right thing to do for themselves rather than their constituents.
The public isn't going to understand that until they see the big green dollar signs floating around the media. They'll happily assume that their reps are doing things for the people rather than for the reps' own careers. This was a $645k publicity stunt.
Re: Actuallyex_nozomu778March 16 2006, 19:00:20 UTC
I'd like to think people would be smart enough to know that the ESA isn't taking their money, the governor and state legislature are. These people make the laws, and they should have known when they lost, they would be legally obligated to pay the other side's legal fees
( ... )
hence the public announcement. By declaring a compensation for defending people's rights from a goverment body willing to remove the rights, they endear themselves to the public. The goverment used taxpayer money to try to pass the bill, and now it's using it to appease the ESA.
If the ESA took the money silently, then there'd be a problem.
If anyone should pay for this, it's the political parties that supported those bills and their own lawyer firms. The taxpayer will become enraged at the ESA if they start taking their funds out of their pocket.
Reply
When it comes down to the crunch, taxpayers HATE being reminded about how much of their hard-earned money was wasted. Look at the last election up here. The Conservatives kept reminding people in Quebec how much money the Liberals spent on do-nothing legislation, basically attempts to buy their vote, and it right royally pissed off Quebecers, who felt insulted. The rest of Canada also got mad, because of all that money that was spent for nothing.
Reply
It's a vicious circle at this point... If the ESA doesn't want their money back and just want to point out how much was spent, it's going to bring an end to video game legislation. If they want their money back (and I'm sure they do) and fight for it, people will see their earnings fall in the hands of the ESA, not something they want.
Whatever the case is, Blagojevitch is going to be held responsible ANYWAYS. That's a nice compensation.
Reply
On one hand, they (the officials) didn't like or believe in the bill; on the other hand, they voted it in because if they didn't there would be stronger repurcussions for their potential re-election. They knew it was going to fail. They voted it on because they deemed it the right thing to do for themselves rather than their constituents.
The public isn't going to understand that until they see the big green dollar signs floating around the media. They'll happily assume that their reps are doing things for the people rather than for the reps' own careers. This was a $645k publicity stunt.
Reply
Reply
If the ESA took the money silently, then there'd be a problem.
Reply
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