Posted on 11/03/2005 8:59:50 AM PST by demlosers
Democrats on Wednesday managed to defeat a bill aimed at amending U.S. election laws to immunize bloggers from hundreds of pages of federal regulations.
In an acrimonious debate that broke largely along party lines, more than three-quarters of congressional Democrats voted to oppose the reform bill, which had enjoyed wide support from online activists and Web commentators worried about having to comply with a tangled skein of rules.
The vote tally in the House of Representatives, 225 to 182, was not enough to send the Online Freedom of Speech Act to the Senate. Under the rules that House leaders adopted to accelerate the process, a two-thirds supermajority was required.
"I'm horribly disappointed that this important measure failed to pass," said Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn. "This bill was designed to protect the free-speech rights of Americans whose only alleged crime is wanting to use the Internet to express their opinions."
The Federal Election Commission is under court order to finalize rules extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet. Unless Congress acts, the final regulations are expected to be announced by the end of the year. (They could cover everything from regulating hyperlinks to politicians' Web sites to forcing disclosure of affiliations with campaigns.)
Opponents of the reform plan mounted a last-minute effort to derail the bill before the vote on Wednesday evening. Liberal advocacy groups circulated letters warning the measure was too broad and would invite "corrupt" activities online, and The New York Times wrote in an editorial this week that "the Internet would become a free-fire zone without any limits on spending."
Rep. Marty Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat who opposed the bill, said during the floor debate: "We don't allow child pornography on the Internet. We don't exempt it from consumer safety laws...We don't because we think those laws are important." Campaign finance regulations should be extended as well, he said.
Previous Next Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, said that if the bill were approved, the public would have "no idea whether Internet campaign ads are being financed by secret soft money." Soft money is a general term referring to funds not regulated by election laws.
The House reform proposal, only one page long, simply says that the portion of federal election law that deals with publications aimed at the general public "shall not include communications over the Internet." It may eventually receive another vote under a slower, normal procedure that requires only a majority.
Not every Democrat opposed the campaign finance reform proposal. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat whose district includes part of Silicon Valley, said her colleagues should not believe the editorials in The New York Times and Washington Post. "What the bill does is a lot more modest than what the rhetoric would have us believe," Lofgren said. "All of the hoo-rah-rah...is incorrect."
Yep, the MSM wants to make sure it holds the only McCain-Feingold exemptions for its blatant politicking...
Shazam. Democrats actually go on record as being against the very internet that their leader AlGore invented.
They always say that, until they get it enacted. Then it suddenly sprouts all sorts of hidden implications that sweep everybody into the net.
Remember this affects DU too.
Yes, it's critically important that all spending go through the Times and their ilk.
D*mn McCain, the Congress as a whole, the President and SCOTUS for this unconstitutional disaster. It should never have gotten out of McCain's office, never mind passed, signed and upheld.
We need a test case after Alito gets seated and we need to all support any blogger willing to be the test case.
AKA, The Law of Unintended Consequences.
It does, but do you really think DU has as much influence and respect as FR? I don't. I wish one of our FR members who is an attorney would comment. To me, this looks ominous.
Since they insist on calling FR a "blog" we might need to throw all that support right here.
Imagine that... the Left working towards limiting free speech!
No, laws are for other people, not Demorats...
It better.
Since the Repubs control the House, they should be able to outvote the Dems - No?
If you actually read MF you would see that it is about as useless a law as ever was passed. Actually you don't even have to read it just look at the last election wherein it had ZERO impact except upon the exceedingly stupid.
The attempt to make it work will also fail.
Can someone post who voted against this?
No, this is the law of lying, hypocritical weasels. The consequences of this action are thoroughly intentional, notwithstanding the vigorous denial.
| Yeas | Nays | PRES | NV | |
| Republican | 179 | 38 | 13 | |
| Democratic | 46 | 143 | 13 | |
| Independent | 1 | |||
| TOTALS | 225 | 182 | 26 |
| Aderholt Akin Alexander Baca Bachus Baker Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Beauprez Berman Biggert Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Blunt Boehner Bonilla Bonner Bono Boozman Boren Boucher Boustany Brady (TX) Brown (OH) Brown (SC) Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp Cannon Cantor Capito Capuano Cardoza Carter Chabot Chandler Chocola Clay Cole (OK) Conaway Conyers Costa Cramer Crenshaw Cuellar Culberson Cunningham Davis (KY) Davis (TN) Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Tom Deal (GA) DeLay Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doolittle Drake Dreier Duncan Ehlers English (PA) Eshoo Everett Fattah Feeney Ferguson Fitzpatrick (PA) |
Flake Foley Forbes Fortenberry Fossella Foxx Franks (AZ) Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gibbons Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Granger Graves Green (WI) Gutknecht Harris Hart Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hensarling Herger Herseth Hoekstra Honda Hostettler Hoyer Hulshof Hunter Inglis (SC) Issa Istook Jenkins Jindal Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Keller Kelly Kennedy (MN) Kennedy (RI) Kind King (IA) Kingston Kline Knollenberg Kolbe Kuhl (NY) Latham Lee Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Linder Lofgren, Zoe Lucas Lungren, Daniel E. Mack Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCaul (TX) McCotter McCrery McHenry McHugh McKeon McKinney McMorris Melancon Mica Miller (MI) Miller, Gary Moran (KS) |
Murphy Murtha Musgrave Myrick Neugebauer Ney Northup Nunes Nussle Otter Paul Pence Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Pickering Pitts Poe Porter Price (GA) Putnam Rahall Rehberg Reichert Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Ross Royce Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Salazar Sanchez, Loretta Scott (GA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Shadegg Shaw Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Sodrel Souder Stearns Strickland Sullivan Sweeney Tancredo Taylor (NC) Terry Thomas Thompson (CA) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Udall (CO) Waters Watson Weldon (FL) Weller Westmoreland Whitfield Wicker Wilson (SC) Woolsey Wynn Young (FL) |
| Abercrombie Allen Andrews Baird Baldwin Bass Bean Becerra Berkley Berry Bishop (NY) Boehlert Boyd Bradley (NH) Brown, Corrine Butterfield Capps Cardin Carnahan Carson Case Castle Cleaver Clyburn Coble Cooper Costello Crowley Cummings Davis (AL) Davis (CA) Davis (FL) Davis (IL) DeFazio DeGette Delahunt DeLauro Dicks Dingell Doggett Doyle Edwards Emanuel Emerson Engel Evans Farr Filner Ford Frank (MA) Frelinghuysen Gallegly Gilchrest Gillmor Gonzalez Gordon Green, Al Green, Gene Grijalva Gutierrez Hefley |
Higgins Hinchey Hinojosa Hobson Holden Holt Hooley Inslee Israel Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Jefferson Johnson (CT) Johnson (IL) Johnson, E. B. Jones (OH) Kanjorski Kaptur Kildee Kilpatrick (MI) Kirk Kucinich LaHood Langevin Lantos Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) LaTourette Leach Levin Lewis (GA) Lipinski LoBiondo Lowey Lynch Maloney Markey Matsui McCarthy McDermott McGovern McIntyre McNulty Meehan Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Michaud Millender-McDonald Miller (NC) Miller, George Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Nadler Napolitano Neal (MA) Oberstar Obey Olver Ortiz |
Osborne Owens Pallone Pascrell Pastor Payne Pelosi Petri Platts Pomeroy Price (NC) Ramstad Rangel Regula Rothman Ruppersberger Rush Sánchez, Linda T. Sanders Saxton Schakowsky Schiff Schmidt Schwartz (PA) Schwarz (MI) Scott (VA) Shays Sherman Simmons Skelton Slaughter Smith (NJ) Snyder Solis Spratt Stupak Tanner Tauscher Taylor (MS) Thompson (MS) Tierney Towns Turner Udall (NM) Upton Van Hollen Velázquez Visclosky Walden (OR) Walsh Wamp Wasserman Schultz Watt Waxman Weiner Weldon (PA) Wexler Wilson (NM) Wolf Wu |
| Ackerman Boswell Brady (PA) Brown-Waite, Ginny Cubin Etheridge Hall Harman Hastings (FL) |
Hyde King (NY) Marshall McCollum (MN) Menendez Miller (FL) Norwood Oxley Pearce |
Pombo Pryce (OH) Radanovich Reyes Roybal-Allard Sabo Stark Young (AK) |
So you oppose this? On what grounds (other than the fact Lofgren and Waters voted for it - which makes it very suspicious)?
Everyone posting here on FreeRepublic is as much a journalist as anyone working at the NYT.
We have as much right as they do to print our news opinions!
This does not supersede my firm conviction that regulating political speech is none of the business of Congress. (Or any branch of gubment.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.