Posted on 06/15/2010 6:43:01 PM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
The National Rifle Association is suffering a sudden onset of amnesia this week, as the gun lobby cuts a deal to exempt itself from the latest Congressional attempt to repeal the First Amendment. NRA members may soon regret the organization's bid to ingratiate itself with Democrats at the expense of its longtime free-speech allies.
The campaign finance bill, sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Chris Van Hollen, is the Democratic response to the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which restored the First Amendment right of corporations, unions and nonprofits to make independent campaign expenditures. At the time, the NRA's Wayne LaPierre called Citizens United "a defeat for arrogant elitists who wanted to carve out free speech as a privilege for themselves and deny it to the rest of us."
Look who's arrogant and elitist now. Under the Schumer-Van Hollen bill, political speech would be bound up with new restrictions, including special burdens on government contractors and corporations that have a certain level of foreign ownership or received TARP funds. The bill also includes disclosure rules designed to hit corporations, requiring CEOs to appear to "approve this message" the way politicians do, and for groups to identify their donors. Except for the NRA.
Under the NRA carve-out in the House bill, the new rules won't apply to any organizations that have been around for more than 10 years, have more than a million members and receive less than 15% of their funding from corporate donors. That fits the NRA nicely, though as best we can figure, everyone else, from the Sierra Club to Planned Parenthood, fails to qualify. So much for defending the little guy against the fat cats.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
It’s kinda funny that you say without the First there would not be a second.
While I have huge reservations about the NRA getting an exemption from the Disclosure Act. That is exactly what they are trying to avoid. Being shut out. If they would just come out and say they would continue to fight for everyone to have a voice the matter would be closed. I don’t get it.
JPFO...gotta love it!
It’s kinda funny that you say without the First there would not be a second.
While I have huge reservations about the NRA getting an exemption from the Disclosure Act. That is exactly what they are trying to avoid. Being shut out. If they would just come out and say they would continue to fight for everyone to have a voice the matter would be closed. I don’t get it.
JPFO...gotta love it!
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