Posted on 11/03/2005 4:43:26 PM PST by Whitehawk
House Defeats Bill on Political Blogs
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(AP) Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections.
The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments.
The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet.
Asssuming they get O'Connor off the court.
they will....
you guys need to look on the bright side of things for a change.
The negativity on this site sometimes is something to behold.
That is no solution, only a retreat. We must fight for our freedom of speech here at home, not on some offshore island or boat anchored 201 miles offshore. The Pilgrims didn't flee England and come to America just to go offshore, they came here in order to practice their religion without persecution by government, and in doing so established the foundation of what eventually became the 1st Amendment ... the centerpiece of the American Dream, as it were ...
To flee offshore now, after 200+ years of the Constitution of the United States of America, would be a spit in the face to all who sacrificed life and limb for a better life here in America.
Considering most of the obscene First Amendment rulings by the Supreme Court have been 5-4 rulings there should be little question that things here should change quickly.
Are we talking about the same thing? What's under discussion here is a (good) exemption from an already-existing (bad) law.
I was not being negative, I just know the Dems are going to delay and delay as much as possible. I am quite positive on the outlook of the court.
Try taking away my First amendment rights and I'll excercise my Second amendment rights.
I personally always wanted to apply for an NEA grant for a picture of Bill Clinton in a beaker of urine. That would be recognized as freedom of speech as well, right?
I was talking more to everyone else.
read it wrong....
What I mean is that the entire CFR will go down sometime in the near future....
What an irony if freerepublic eventually gets silenced because of this Bush stupidy -- ironic because freepers regularly blast me for not joining in their perpetual football-stadium "wave" in celebrating W, and the moderators have taken to banishing me every third week because I dare to tell uncomfortable truths about Bush.
He's spending a billion dollars a week to occupy Iraq in the name of "freedom" while we face the real prospect of having the internet neutered at home, because of his INDEFENSIBLE signing of McCain Feingold.
Your hero Bush signed it.
It's my fault?
No, your hero Bush. It's his fault. And I'm not being sarcastic. The weakling coward signed it/ He was afraid of bad media and mean words from McCain. Bush can stand up to Saddam - but that wasn't hard when he had us all believing Saddam had nuclear weapons. What's hard is standing up to Teddy Kennedy and John McCain. Bush doesn't do that very often. (I'll give him Alito, though; good move - but it came only after his cowardly nomination of a cypher - Miers - was shot down by outraged conservatives)
You mean SCOTUS will go directly against its own precedent? I'd certainly hope so, but I'm not going to assume that. We still need to keep the pressure on Congress to get it repealed, just as we would if we had nine Ginsburgs on SCOTUS.
Remember that a lot of conservatives were snookered into not making too big a deal over Bush's signing of CFR, on the theory that SCOTUS wouldn't uphold it. Fool me once...
Won't it be ironic if CFR shuts down FreeRepublic? Ironic because so many freepers think Bush walks on water -- but it was Bush who signed CFR.
I hope you're right on that. But given the charade of the original CFR passage, then its signing by Bush (cynically, as it were), and then when it all blew up in our faces with its upholding by SCOTUS in almost its entirety, pardon me if I'm still a bit skeptical on the entire legistlation going down in flames anytime soon .... but there is still some fleeting hope. Perhaps this latest outrage (ie: Internet regulation of political speech) may tilt the scales
Bush does not like to show his backbone too often. CFR he was hoping the Supreme Court would do his dirty work. Harriet Miers was a retreat to appease Democrats. Bush needs to learn he gets nowhere by appeasing Democrats. Bush goes up in polls when he shows backbone and does what he should be doing. I think with Alito, Bush finally did something right. If Bush wants a good legacy, he needs to start getting tough on the budget.
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