Roger that, Tony.
I think that the principle problem is that legislators feel that they need to always be passing new law, otherwise they wouldn't be doint their job (or more importantly, the media won't portray them as doing their job to the voters/contributers). As a result, everytime they or the media notice that we're not actually living in paradise, the immediately propose some law to fix the problem. They never bother to see if there's already a law that should accomplish the exact same thing that their law would (in this particular case, RICO is already being applied to gang activities) or that laws similar to the one they propose actually work (or more importantly, don't make the situation worse). Don't bother them with the facts; they've got a job to do. Remember where Bluto Blutarsky ended up after Animal House. (Wasn't the line something like "this calls for a stupid and futile gesture, and we're just the ones to do it"?)
Ken
