Something that is very bad

Forget about PA, these guys want to shut down direct shipping nationwide...

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show?id=42526

Write your congressman!

Just got an update, there are now nearly 40 sponsors of this bill. Congress expects to pass it in the next few weeks!

I was watching a Wine Library TV video last night and Vaynerchuk had on Brian Loring of Loring Wine. Gary asked him about this legislation and Loring had no idea. If guys like him, who rely of direct sales to make a living, are not in the loop, there is very little chance it will meet much resistance.

I urge everyone to look into this. Sending a note to your congressman couldn't be easier with this link:

http://www.capwiz.com/freegrapes/issues/alert/?alertid=14948676

I sent that to everyone I know. I've been stewing over this for a few days now and I am getting pretty damned pissed off. What makes me angry is that legislators will hide behind the excuse of fighting underage drinking and saving our youth. That is total BS and they know it. What 17 year old punk is going to save his lunch money for a month to buy a few bottles from a mailing list. What is going to happen to the businesses that survive due to mailing lists and wine clubs? How much do the legilators care about that? That does not help with your approval rating as much as "I fight against underage alcohol use." Oh I forgot, little Jimmy saved up his allowance to get that Screaming Eagle he and his girlfriend are going to chug from the bottle before they pull Daddy's car into a deserted parking lot. Let me pick what I want, don't hide behind lies. I guess money rules. I said good day sir!
Cheers-

-Eric

Tell'em E!! They can't ignore the people when you close with a Willy Wonka reference!! :-)

Thanks for the link to freethegrapes. Messages sent & infor forwarded.

How did they miss AIG, Bears Stearns etc.? By mucking around in things that aren't federal business, let alone anything they should care about in the Congress. Vote 'em out!

Same here, did my part; encourage all others who utilize this site to do the same.

More coverage of the same bill...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10161/1064348-34.stm

Again, if you haven't already, please use this link to send a note to your congressman!
http://www.capwiz.com/freegrapes/issues/alert/?alertid=14948676

Thanks
Mark

OK so HR 5034 never came to a vote but has been reintroduced under a new name, HR 1161, which is pretty much the same thing.

Forget about privitization for a minute... Imagine Wine Access, Cinderella Wine, and any other entity that ships wine directly getting legislated out of business by the Feds. That's what this would do.

Here is a recent op-ed piece from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/opinion/04white.html?_r=1

Go here and do something about it! (Like, use the Contact Congress link, friend them on Facebook, etc)
http://www.stop1161.org/

The article below appeared in today's Wall Street Journal editorial page. That makes it de facto political but it is on a subject near and dear to many of us.

Congress's Sour Grapes

A bill sprouts to kill out-of-state sales of wine to consumers.

Congress specializes in giving nice names to bad bills, and the latest is the Community Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (Care) Act. This purports to give states and communities more authority to regulate alcohol. In fact, its purpose is to prevent out-of-state wine producers from selling directly to consumers around the country.

The federal government and states have been in a tug-of-war over alcohol regulation since the 21st Amendment passed in 1933. That amendment gave states the right to decide whether to go wet or stay dry. But the Supreme Court in 2005 came down decisively in favor of the feds in Granholm v. Heald. The Court struck down laws in New York and Michigan allowing in-state wineries to ship directly to consumers while forbidding out-of-state wineries from doing the same. The Court ruled that while the 21st amendment gives states the authority to regulate alcohol within their borders, the Constitution's Commerce Clause bars them from erecting such protectionist barriers.

Many states have nonetheless tried to circumvent the Court's decision. Massachusetts in 2006 created a law allowing out-of-state and in-state wineries to ship to consumers but only if the wineries produced less than 30,000 gallons per year. Not coincidentally, that production cap covered 100% of Bay State wineries but only 2% of out-of-state producers.

Since the U.S. doesn't have an equivalent to the World Trade Organization to intercede between states in trade disputes, the only recourse against discriminatory policies are federal courts. Since Granholm, the courts have corked protectionist legislation in Massachusetts and about a half dozen other states.

Enter the Care Act, which would strip alcohol businesses of their Commerce Clause protections and thus eliminate their ability to sue states in federal court. The bill does this in the same way that the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 ceded Congressional authority to the states to regulate insurance.

You can bet your favorite case of California cabernet that Care will reduce choices and raise prices for consumers, just as McCarran-Ferguson has done in the insurance market. From what we've gathered through the grape vine, the main groups backing this bill are alcohol wholesalers. They serve as the middlemen in over 90% of transactions between wineries and retailers, and they account for up to 25% of the price of every bottle of wine. Wholesalers have convinced 57 Members of Congress, including 28 Republicans, to co-sponsor Care. Last year 153 Members, including 94 Democrats and 59 Republicans, co-sponsored a similar bill.

The wholesalers and their friends in Congress argue that Care promotes state sovereignty and limits Congressional abuse of the Commerce Clause. We might remind them that the original purpose of that clause was to stop states from enacting protectionist laws. The very reason James Madison called the Constitutional Convention was to eliminate interstate trade barriers that were balkanizing the union.

It's hard to imagine Congress giving states the authority to prohibit Amazon or any other online retailer from shipping its products directly to consumers. Yet that's exactly what they're trying to do with wine. Sounds to us like a case of sour grapes that deserves to be stomped.

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

That's an incredibly convincing argument for why this proposed legislation needs to be stopped. Everyone please contact your congressman/woman (in PA and out of PA alike) to shut this down!