Posted on 03/04/2005 8:57:28 AM PST by chiller
Captain's Quarters has started this ball rolling:
March 04, 2005 An Open Letter To The United States Senate
To the honorable Senators McCain and Feingold, et al:
I have read with considerable dismay the effect that your recent lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, upheld by Judge Colleen Kollar-Ketelly, will have on political speech on the Internet. I write a political media-watchdog blog, Captain's Quarters, which enjoys a not-insubstantial daily readership. No one pays me to do this; I operate my site and write on topics purely from personal convictions and a deep desire to improve the world around me and make the nation stronger. I can unequivocally say the same about my many colleagues in the "blogosphere", both liberal and conservative.
Now we understand from Bradley Smith, one of the FEC commissioners, that your lawsuit forcing them to regulate speech on the Internet will have the effect of turning our efforts into in-kind contributions, especially when we provide hyperlinks back to candidate sites for referencing their positions and excerpt text from their on-line documents. Hyperlinks allow our readers to check our references to ensure our accuracy and context, and perform the hygienic task of holding our politicians accountable for their campaign practices. All of this not only should fall under the protection of the First Amendment, but it should be the primary reason for the First Amendment -- to protect and encourage free political speech and foster genuine debate.
Your legislation and the accompanying lawsuit that forced the FEC to regulate Internet political speech threaten all of that. If my links to political sites such as Georgewbush.com and Johnkerry.com counted as contributions and I was forced to accept responsibility for the cash value that the FEC designated to them, I would have been charged with several misdemeanors and possibly felonies, as I provided many such links during the past election cycle. During this cycle, my blog published over 680 essays on the presidential election. In fact, I linked to Senator Kerry's site four times as often as President Bush's site, which would have meant to the FEC that I was a major contributor to his campaign -- when in fact I opposed Senator Kerry and supported President Bush. These regulations would have forced me to retain the services of a full-time accountant and retain an attorney to understand when and where I overcontributed. At the very least, the burden of proof would be on me to make the FEC believe that my blog does not constitute in-kind contributions subject to the limits imposed on both hard and soft money contributions.
The effect of this would have been to force me to shut down my blog, or convert it to something else. In fact, it would have caused me less legal heartache to convert my site to a porn blog and do nothing but post hard-core pictures all day long. In the twisted environment of the McCain-Feingold Act, that kind of website would enjoy greater First Amendment protection than my political speech, a result for which every single Senator should feel shame and outrage.
Each of you should read the Constitution you swore to uphold and defend, and reflect on the unequivocal language of our forefathers:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
We may debate about the effect of unregulated cash on our electoral system, but if this new FEC effort comes to pass, the only people debating will be the corporate-owned media and the politicians. The rest of us will have been effectively bound and gagged, unable to contribute in any way thanks to the efforts of those who fear their own constituents. You can be assured that none of us in the blogosphere will fail to recognize those who do not act to defend our rights to free and unfettered political speech, and regardless of political party, none of us will rest until those voices of repression are stripped of office by the voters they hold in such low regard.
I, for one, will not be daunted by your attempts to stifle us. My many friends and colleagues on both sides of the political aisle stand as ready as I to defend the Constitution. We demand a hearing on McCain-Feingold, with open testimony before the press and our colleagues, and we demand action to reform or repeal this dangerous and un-American muzzle on political speech.
We await your response, sirs.
Edward Morrissey Captain's Quarters
UPDATE: A lot of these e-mails have bounced back. Apparently, our public servants don't like direct e-mail and require people to hit their websites to send them messages. At Town Hall, they have a Web form set up to do this, but many of the autoresponses indicate that they will not reply to messages sent from constituents outside their state.
Here's where you can help me out. Please copy my letter above and paste it into a message with an introduction of your own and send it to both Senators from your home state. That way we can be sure that all 100 Senators not only see this letter but your endorsement of it.
Thank you for your continued support!
I know.
Heard about this a day or two ago.
Been pondering it.
Something strange, the 'old media' seems to be behind this to an extent.
I suspect this is so.
Anybody got a list of real email addresses for the senators? I can't get the email forms to work for either of my senators on two different computers...don't know if their server is being unfriendly or whatever...
This proposal to control the internet has Hillary! written all over it. I distinctly remember a comment that Hillary made in the mid nineties about the fact that they controlled the media, but did not have control of the internet and needed to work on that.
It doesn't take more than an hour to set up shop with a web site in Boloniastan...so the FEC threat is more of a joke than anything else. They can't really threaten any group, from either party. And to sit here now and talk about it...is simply an attempt to look busy for the media.
Especially after the thrashing we gave them over the Rather memos.
They wanted to continue business as usual and ignore it, but we 'insignificant' internet 'peee-pull' let them know that sweeping it under the rug wasn't an option.
They see their monopoly on the news slipping away, and they are angry.
This is pretty bad.
Thanks for the ping
That it is.
Unfortunately it looks to be something they really are thinking about.
It's unConstitutional. Besides, blogs have been nationally hailed as heroes in pjs, even by the MSM.
Ah, now the wrath of the pajamahadeen will be unleashed for its first major war...and with Captain Ed leading the charge, it will get noticed, I believe.
Yes.
But they're angry about the CBS 60Minutes II debacle and te recent Dragon Toys captured doll thing.
Demented and sick, but they'll try it.
Anyone foolish enough to vote for it needs a quick kick in the seat of the pants and their name placard desk bar busted over their heads.
In that event, NY will need two new name placards for it's senators likely.
The fact that we have not only unelected administrative bureaucrats, but elected public servants-who are putatively supposed to represent our interests-that are willing to circumscribe our fundamental constitutional rights, in the name of political expediency, is disturbing, to say the least.
-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)
I'm all for it. Who's Capt. Ed?
Do you have any children? If not, adopt the Dems. They're whining, sniveling, little crap-covered larva. And later I'll tell you how I really feel.
Only daughter died in a car accident.
Don't want anymroe kids.
And adopting a Dem would convince me that a right exists to quell whiners through repetetive appplications of blunt objects upon cranial containers.
Captain Ed is the main poster at the Captain's Quarters blog...# 9 on the Truth Laid Bear ecosystem....
- Don't call them "honorable"; they don't deserve the appellation.
- Tell them to shove this idea right up their a$$es; we will not obey.
Time to smack political parasites down; enough bowing and scraping!
The last thing these morons want to do is unite the right and the left against them. Bring it on !
Blunt objects on dems is best. Sorry about reminding you of your loss; of course I had no idea and feel bad for stepping in it. I understand more now. {{{{HUGS}}}}}
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