Our government has been stamping out political speech for many years under the guise of fair elections. A little over a year ago the future incumbents of elections wrote a law that hamstrings citizens from combining their dollars and donating money to to political candidates. The McCain-Fiengold bill was supposed to regulate how much money a person gives a candidate. However, under the bill, other types of non-monetary donations are given monetary value and must be reported as a donation. The writers exempted the internet from the bill, however, a judge has ruled that any donation must be tracked. This means that if I as a private citizen, use my private computer to write a blog entry supporting a candidate, I am required to report that to the candidate for him to count as a donation. Failure to do so, will cause the FEC to fine me.
This is absurd. I do not have to tell anyone what I write or why I write it. Furthermore, I refuse to pay any fines that may be levied against me. I will go to jail first. I have the right to express my opinion via any means of communication available and NO GOVERNMENT can deny me that right or legislate that right. NONE!!!!
So, Federal Election Committee, just go and try and enforce this ruling on the blogger world. Bloggers changed the tide of the last election. The internet is more powerful than you. There will be a revolt because we will not put up with you and your stupid, idiotic, asinie rules.
2 comments:
"There will be a revolt because we will not put up with you and your stupid, idiotic, asinie rules." - Randy
I think that you are overly hopeful... Allow me to restate a conversation I heard on the Medved show the day before the inaguartion.
The head of the U.S. atheist association was on the show arguing it violated his rights to have the Pres. pray during the inauguration.
Medved asked him how many people were in his organization... Around 10K was the number, but he argued 30% of Americans were atheist... Medved argued that 30% were non-religious which is world of difference... I agree with Medved.
This means however that less than .005% of Americans are able to change the course and direction of this nation. The reason is that we have become a great nation of complacent people.
Too many people are too complacent and so the gov can go any direction it wants to go.
Millions of Americans blog. It has been shown that bloggers tend to me more intelligent and more self-motivated than the average American (I remember reading this, but can't find the source right now). This issue will affect both liberal and conservative bloggers. One thing the government has done well is to teach us that we have freedom of speech and everyone will see this as impuning upon that right. The rest of America may be complacent, but I think bloggers tend to be a bit pro-active, therefore, I think that millions of American bloggers non-violently ignoring the fines and rules (while publically proclaiming the fact they are ignoring the fines and rules) will get this asinine law changed.
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