Thursday - November 03, 2005

Democrats Defeat Online Freedom Of Speech Act

The Dummycraps in Congress banded together and, in a vote that split right along party lines, defeated the Online Freedom Of Speech Act, which would have amended U.S. election laws to immunize bloggers from hundreds of pages of federal regulations. In other words, the Donks don’t want us bloggers to be free to say whatever we want about candidates. They say they’re afraid soft money might find its way into our evil little pockets. In short, they’re afraid of us bloggers after the last election when they the Dummycraps got their clocks cleaned with help from bloggers who refused to let them get away with their usual bulls**t and lies.

I freely admit that I did my share in exposing John Kerry for the idiotic gigolo he is and I did everything I could to get Dubya re-elected and ya know what ....? I didn’t receive a single red cent from the RNC, the Bush-Cheney campaign or anybody associated with the election. If the FEC wants to look at my books and my bank account, they may feel free to do so at any time (provided they bring a duly signed warrant). What they are not going to do is tell me what I can or cannot say on this blog.

Democrats Defeat Election-Law Aid For Bloggers
Democrats on Wednesday managed to defeat a bill aimed at amending U.S. election laws to immunize bloggers from hundreds of pages of federal regulations.

In an acrimonious debate that broke largely along party lines, more than three-quarters of congressional Democrats voted to oppose the reform bill, which had enjoyed wide support from online activists and Web commentators worried about having to comply with a tangled skein of rules. The vote tally in the House of Representatives, 225 to 182, was not enough to send the Online Freedom of Speech Act to the Senate. Under the rules that House leaders adopted to accelerate the process, a two-thirds supermajority was required.

“I’m horribly disappointed that this important measure failed to pass,” said Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn. “This bill was designed to protect the free-speech rights of Americans whose only alleged crime is wanting to use the Internet to express their opinions.”

The Federal Election Commission is under court order to finalize rules extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet. Unless Congress acts, the final regulations are expected to be announced by the end of the year. (They could cover everything from regulating hyperlinks to politicians’ Web sites to forcing disclosure of affiliations with campaigns.)

Opponents of the reform plan mounted a last-minute effort to derail the bill before the vote on Wednesday evening. Liberal advocacy groups circulated letters warning the measure was too broad and would invite “corrupt” activities online, and The New York Times wrote in an editorial this week that “the Internet would become a free-fire zone without any limits on spending.”

Rep. Marty Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat who opposed the bill, said during the floor debate: “We don’t allow child pornography on the Internet. We don’t exempt it from consumer safety laws...We don’t because we think those laws are important.” Campaign finance regulations should be extended as well, he said.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, said that if the bill were approved, the public would have “no idea whether Internet campaign ads are being financed by secret soft money.” Soft money is a general term referring to funds not regulated by election laws.

- Go Read More On This At C|Net News

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/03/2005 at 03:17 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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