Roadkill Journal

NewsMax follows the progress of efforts to apply law and regulation to internet bloggers who express political opinions which might affect the candidacies of members of Congress:

‘FEC Delays Ruling on 'PoliBlog' Speech”

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/3/16/115943.shtml?s=ic

At issue is the application of the “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002,” better known as the McCain-Feingold Act, to internet “Polibloggers.” According to NewsMax:

“The Federal Election Commission has postponed a long-anticipated decision on whether to apply the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law to political speech on the Internet… It appeared that FEC Commissioner Michael Toner wanted to give Congress a chance to pass the Online Freedom of Speech Act proposed by Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling.”

The FEC ruling was postponed until March 23rd. Meanwhile, the aforementioned bill is currently in the House Rules Committee and will not be considered again until March 27th…

Blood pressure time…

The “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002” is, IMO, the most blatantly unconstitutional law ever enacted by the US Congress – and that’s saying a lot. In an America ruled by the Constitution such a law would have been seen as what it is: A clear violation of The First Amendment, whose clear intent was to protect political speech.

“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”…

However in the fallen America of today, ruled by a mostly corrupt political class intent on its own survival, callously uncaring of the rights of the citizens and supremely disdainful of those citizens’ abilities to make intelligent electoral decisions, the McCain-Feingold “Incumbent Protection Act” is par for the course…

And a damned good argument for armed revolution…

But it’s the law and if law itself is to avoid following the political class into its pit of evil, the law must be evenly applied. Bloggers clearly wield huge influence today, being capable of reaching and even organizing thousands of voters literally overnight – an activity that otherwise would require the expenditure of huge sums of money.

And after all, the “Camel through the needle eye” justification of The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 was the equally specious notion that speech and money were interchangeable. And since the corrupt brigands in Washington can be bought – cheap – money must be regulated because buying off Congress is the province of Jack Abramhoff and his peers. Ordinary citizens should never contribute enough money – or money equivalents - to a political cause to influence it.

After all, if “we the people” had real influence, the Establishment hacks might have to choose between listening to the people and keeping their over-paid and over-privileged positions…

So we need to regulate internet “free speech” immediately. And we need to make that regulation as complex as possible so even if bloggers try to follow it there will inevitably be screwups whose perpetrators can be fined into poverty and jailed for felony free speech. That, along with the inevitable fool prosecuted for defiance should be sufficient to cow the masses and protect those incumbents who voted to create this travesty of self-protection in the first place.

Parlamentarischer Hagel! Sieg Hagel!... Jackboots everyone! March!