Posted on 02/16/2002 1:34:37 AM PST by d14truth
Allowing itself just one more drink from the 'well of corruption', Congress will stop - NEXT TIME!!!.
In both admitting and denying the 'soft money' problem, the House, following the Senate's 2001 lead, passed 'Campaign Finance Reform' to stop what it feels, in light of the Enron/Global Crossing influence peddling, are 'offers' that they can't refuse.
They decided, however, that going 'cold turkey' would not be in their our best interests.
The 'corrupting influences' will be allowed for the 2002 elections to keep them 'fair'???
Bump!
Forget the Enron collapse.
Contrary to what you've been led to believe, it wasn't the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Not even close.
Nor was K-Mart, either.
Strangely enough, the mother-of-all-bankruptcies slinked under-the-radar -- getting little or no ink or airtime..
No, it isn't Global Crossing, either -- though, tellingly, the presstitutes have tried to avoid that scandal like the plague.
Give up?
Okay, here goes (drum roll, please?): The biggest, the greatest, the world's record-setter is....The liberal "news" media bust!
Yes, folks, you heard it right; you heard it hear first.
But wait a minute: Near as we can tell, there've been no major media bankruptcy filings, right? NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC -- none have filed for chapter 11 that we know of, correct?
Correct.
But who said anything about financial bankruptcy, anyway?
What am I talking about, you ask?
Well, by any chance, have you checked the President's latest approval ratings? Despite the media' best attempts to shave the numbers, President Bush is still on top of the world, riding a wave of sustained popularity that has presidential historians and pollsters alike scratching their heads in befuddlement.
And driving Dems to the loony bin in frustration.
Flashback to the first six months of the Bush Presidency: The airwaves were larded with horrid tales of Salmonella -- of how Bush wanted to poison school kids with tainted lunchmeat. For weeks, this lie was gleefully repeated and spread by all the major networks. Pundits gloomily predicted irreparable damage to the President, whether the stories were true or not.
But the punsters were wrong: Much to their chagrin, Bush emerged completely unscathed, with approval ratings still well above 50%.
And who can forget the media's Arsenic scare?
Again, all of the major networks ganged-up on the Bush administration, accusing the President of wanting to poison our drinking water with Arsenic. A media firestorm erupted when Bush rescinded a last minute Clinton Executive Order mandating lower acceptable Arsenic levels in drinking water. Never mind that Bush had proposed lowering the threshold as well -- just not as much as his predecessor.
Brokaw, Jennings and Rather hyped the Arsenic story for months -- to heck with the facts.
All to no avail.
Despite their smear campaign, the President remained as popular as ever.
Or, how about the brouhaha over Kyoto - the treaty? Bush scrapped it, calling it costly, unworkable and unfair. He ignited an international outcry. The networks had a field-day, portraying Bush as a veritable monster, a global pariah, a madman on a mission to wreck the planet, to make the world unliveable.
Never mind that the Senate had, several years earlier, unanimously rejected Kyoto. Brokaw, Jennings and Rather weren't about to let facts get in the way of extracting their pound of flesh.
Again, the presstitutes failed to lay even a glove on el hombre de Tejas. The networks were stunned -- and angrier than ever.
I could bore you to tears with endless examples like these.
So what's my point?
This: How impotent the media has literally become. Even during peace time, as I amply illustrated. Essentially, the media's bankrupt. Its once unfettered power to manipulate, to shape perceptions, to shift public moods and attitudes, is gone. They're a paper tiger now -- and they're itching for a bailout; from Washington, no less.
Enter "Campaign Finance Reform" -- a misnomer if there ever was one.
A better name would be the Liberal Media Bailout Act of 2002.
McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan is a naked assault on the Constitution -- the First Amendment, especially. It is a thinly concealed attempt by Washington to silence its critics, to muzzle dissension.
This bill is an abomination. It is unAmerican to its rotten core.
McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan is a disgrace.
Under its provisions, watchdog groups like Right To Life would be jailed for deigning to criticize a member of Congress via broadcast ads weeks before an election.
Even merely advertizing Congressman so-and-so's voting record or positions on issues could get you cuffed and thrown in the pokey. And here's the irony: Congressman so-and-so, under the same provisions, may run all the broadcast ads in the world, slamming your group, while promoting his record in Congress.
To be able to run such ads, the legislation would force independent, no-partisan advocacy groups (the NRA, Gun Owners of America, Right to life) to become partisan political action committees -- thus, destroying the broadbased, cross-party appeal and fundamental character of such organizations. Moreover, federal law limits PACs (political action committees) in how much money they may raise and spend. Under current law, no such restrictions apply to non-profit, advocacy groups.
Illustrating the purpose of this bill is to silence opponents, an amendment declaring Shays-Meehan does not violate the First Amendment was voted down, 237-188.
By defeating this amendment, introduced by Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, McCainiacs were all but admiting they knew their bill was unconstitutional -- a poison dagger aimed at the heart of free speech itself.
Small wonder the media loves McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan.
It's the bailout package Enron executives could only dream of.
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"===============================
On Capitol Hill yesterday, the hypocrisy was so thick you could slice it with a knife.
Democrats who, during the Clinton years, blithely shrugged off damning evidence of high level bribery, kickbacks, and payoffs suddenly morphed into born-again "reformers" yesterday, railing sanctimoniously against the 'corrupting' 'influence' of "soft money" contributions on politics. All the talk was Enron, Enron, Enron -- as if China-gate had never happened.
The tartuffery was nauseating.
Here was Rep. Marty Meehan of Massachusetts, a 'see-no-evil-hear-no-evil' apologist for Clinton corruption, breathlessly lecturing his colleagues on integrity and probity, sans the faintest hint of shame or irony.
Or take Democrat Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who in 1998 condemned the House impeachment probe as a "coordinated effort to harass... to really undermine the ability of the [Clinton] White House to do the business expected of it."
Three years later, Hoyer turns a new leaf. Yeah, right.
So, now that Shays-Meehan has passed the House, what's next?
Much to the chagrin of the McCainiacs, it ain't over quite yet. The bill now heads for the Senate, where it likely will face new challenges. Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey has already labeled "problematic" the House's decision to drop a key provision in the Senate-passed version requiring broadcasters to offer politicians ad time at special low rates. McCain-Feingold won with less than 60 votes in the Senate, so a filibuster is not out of the question.
If Torricelli switches sides and joins a filibuster, all bets will be off. The beauty of this scenario: The McCainiacs will only have themselves to blame.
Initially, the so-called "reformers" tried to muscle this turkey through the House sans legitimate debate on amendments. Their 'my-way-or-the-highway' hubris was illustrative. It underscored the sinister -- but thinly concealed -- purpose behind this bare-knuckle attack on the Bill of Rights, namely, to gag and de-fund the right.
Here's the deal: To lefties, the only thing standing in the way of socialist paradise here in America is 'evil' campaign money. Particularly donations from business interests.
The demise of Hillary-care was widely "blamed" on those memorable 'Harry and Louise' ads, which the media branded "misleading" and "deceptive".
But they weren't. Those ads exposed the fangs behind the smile of Hillary-care, an attempted coup detat over 1/7 of the U.S. economy.
In fact, the ads were devastating precisely because they were honest and candid. They conveyed the fatal flaws of Hillary-care in language everyone could understand and relate to.
Make no mistake: Just as Hillary-care was but the first step towards the total Sovietization of healthcare, McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan is merely the first phase towards the complete nationalization of American politics. The left aims to squelch all Harry and Louise voices of dissent.
Mandatory public financing of all elections and a ban on all independent political advertising would pave the way.
To achieve that ultimate objective, McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan constitute the necessary opening preamble. By compromising even an inch on the first amendment -- and these bills go well beyond that -- the precedent for government control over grassroots/independent political activities will have been set, greasing the skids for more draconian controls down the road -- after the next round of "reforms". The "reformers" newly emboldened, will come back for more -- again and again.
McCain-Feingold is only a dress-rehearsal.
At the end of this slippery-slope, in a world where private campaign expenditures are outlawed, politicians will no longer feel constrained to bend to business and corporate interests. Ergo: Socialism flows inexorably out of this new political landscape.
I'm convinced that's the cynical purpose behind the mad rush for "campaign finance reform".
But, for the "reformers" there's still one major hurdle: The U.S. Constitution.
The McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan provision prohibiting independent political advertising weeks prior to elections can not pass constitutional muster. Not under the judiciary as currently constituted, that is.
Despite eight years of leftist appointments to the bench under Clinton-Gore, constitutionalists still out-number usurpers where it matters most: The U.S. Supreme Court.
That's where McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan would ultimately land, where it would ultimately be vetted IF -- and that's still a big IF -- it were to become law.
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001
We have already seen this corruption beginning with the publicized acceptance of $100,000 by Billy Kristol for a directorship on a corporate "advisory" board. This bill will substitute the press for the congresscritters in the big money chase. At least we can vote on the the congresscritters but we can't touch the press.
I thought my breaking point would be when they came for my gun. I beginning to believe that they have crossed that line in the sand with this assault.
Precisely.
Kudos.
Sorry, I could not find that one in my "Funk and Wagnalls." Could you define it? (Great word!)
The line to use as a title for the first one, IMHO--
"Liberal Media Bailout Act of 2002"
"The reformers one major hurdle: The U.S. Constitution."
Petition Written By: S.D. Smith
Petition Written By: David C. Osborne
FREEPMAIL me if you are aware of any other petitions so I can add them to my list...
There are actually 2 petitions that I know of so far.. Please sign BOTH !!...
Petition Written By: S.D. Smith
Petition Written By: David C. Osborne
FREEPMAIL me if you are aware of any other petitions so I can add them to my list...
Could you define it?
Basically, it means phoniness.
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