McCain Set to Stomp On Freedom Again
McCain teemed up with Feingold in 2002 to create the hideous campaign finance "reform" that muzzled any organization except for the liberal media in the days leading up to an election. The Gun Owners of America labeled this legislated rape of the First Amendment the "Incumbent Protection Act".Oh well, we said, Dubya won't sign it.
But he did.
Oh well, we said, the Supreme Court can't possible sanction it. It strikes at the very heart of the Bill of Rights.
But it did.
Now Johnny boy is at it again, this time with S. 2128, the "Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act".
After the Abramoff scandal, politicians are trying to show that they are doing something about corruption in and around our elected servants. But rather than reforming themselves (can you say "ethics"?) they are reforming lobbying efforts, including every grassroots organizations in existence today.
Tim Chapman says:
If McCain’s provision stays in tact, grassroots organizations would for the first time be subject to requirements and regulations that would devastate their ability to reach out to the general public. ...The Gun Owners of America explains:The way McCain’s provision is written, “grassroots lobbying” means “any attempt to influence the general public, or segments thereof, to engage in lobbying contacts whether or not those contacts were made on behalf of a client.” So grassroots organizations could be prohibited from reaching out to people not already included in their membership. This legislation would seriously curtail many groups’ abilities to get their message out and arguably infringes on their 1st Amendment free speech rights.
Now with the Gag Act (S. 2128), McCain wants to target his wrath on groups like GOA -- requiring them to register their "grassroots" communications and to file twice as many frivolous reports. ...It is legislation like this that will keep me from ever voting for McCain for president. Should it come down to a choice between him and Hillery, I'll be driven to vote Libertarian even though I swore that would never vote Libertarian at the federal level ever again. Or perhaps it's time to check out the Constitution Party.For example, if we wanted to alert you to gun ban that is moving in our nation's capital, we could first have to tell McCain (and all his other buddies in Congress) about what we're planning to do, who we're planning to alert (that is, grassroots folks like yourself), how much money we plan to spend, etc.
Because of Section 105 in this bill, everyone with whom GOA contracts to get the word out (advertisers, printers, etc.) could be required to tell Congress twenty days in advance about GOA's public information campaign.
In effect, we would end up alerting Sarah Brady every time we plan to wage a grassroots campaign in opposition to gun control.
Technorati Tags: John McCain, First Amendment, Free Speech, 2128, Senate 2128, Lobbying Transparency and Accountability Act, Ethics Reform, Grassroots, Grassroots Lobbying, GOA, Gun Owners of America, Raping the Constitution.
Blog post #5829 in category
First Amendment
posted 28 February 06
I couldn't agree with you more about Senator McCain. I will grant that he may well be the one 2008 candidate who could be most trusted to carry the fight to those who would destroy us.
Question is, what exactly would we come back to once the fight was over? McCain-Feingold was plenty bad enough. Coupled with that flagrant bit of statist violence to the First Amendment, this latest attempt at limiting the very freedoms we are trying to instill elsewhere in the world makes a McCain candidacy every bit as frightening as that of Hillary Clinton.
Posted by Bat One on Tuesday at 11:59 PM