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To: exhaustguy
Not really. They have violated an executive order of LBJ, never rescinded, that he put in place to punish someone he was running against in Texas. Such an order is as anathema to freedom of speech as McCain/Feingold.

My bad. It was after he ran for the U.S. Senate from Texas and won by a few votes that it was rumored that he had stolen the election. Some election official later made a deathbed confession that this was, indeed, the truth. Johnson was afraid the churches would call for his defeat and managed to get a line inserted into IRS legislation in 1954 that churches that engaged in political speech would endanger their tax-exempt status. This is still just as anathema to freedom of speech as McCain/Feingold.<

Here's a more concise summary:
the “Johnson Amendment” was first inserted into the tax code in a sneaky and underhanded manner, without due consideration by Congress or open debate. Lyndon B. Johnson, when he first ran for Senate in the state of Texas, seems to have stolen the election. An election judge admitted as much on his death bed, and told exactly how he had helped Johnson steal the election. A lot of Texas preachers knew about this, so the next time Johnson came up for re election, in 1954, they told their congregations exactly what they thought about his lack of honesty and integrity. So, Johnson thought of a novel way to shut them up. He quietly slipped an amendment into the tax code stating that churches and non profits could not endorse candidates or engage in political speech. This amendment was never openly debated on the floor, and many Congressmen did not even know it was there when they voted on the tax bill.

20 posted on 05/31/2008 3:23:51 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: aruanan

However it got inserted into the tax code, it is there now. It is still the law. Same with McCain-Feingold. However bad, it is still the law. Think we can get away with breaking that law?


41 posted on 05/31/2008 4:24:26 AM PDT by patj
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