The problem is the scumbags in politics but they'll get to us one way or another. Wait till your phone starts ringing with scummy political messages (and they're not prohibited by "do not call" legislation).
Please God, somehow, give us a few more Scalias on the bench.
In the late 70’s I attended one of Scalia’s lectures at the University of Chicago Law School. All of the students in the class were first rate – but they were all nervous as long tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs as Scalia fired questions at them. His intellect was way down the road and the class was struggling to stay within sight of him.
Unfortunately he hasn’t had the right support on the Court, and it seems unlikely that Bush will nominate him to succeed Rehnquist (unless the GOP gets 60 votes in the Senate after the ’04 election). So he may go down in history as nothing more than an extremely eloquent dissenting voice.
I don’t see how we can get there given the majority’s support for McCain Feingold, but the best regulation of campaign financing is no regulation at all, but rather a system that gives full and instantaneous disclosure of contributions and expenditures.
I would suggest the elimination of all financial limits (contributions or expenditures) with the institution of a central clearinghouse for contributions. If I wanted to contribute to Kerry (God forbid!), I send a check to the central clearing house, and information on my identity and the amount of my contribution is posted on the FEC website simultaneous with the EFT transmission of $ to the Kerry campaign’s accounts. Likewise – expenditures can be monitored and posted as they occur on the FEC site.
Add draconian penalties for the expenditure of any money on a campaign, which cannot be traced through these accounts – and you have full disclosure for voters to ponder and no infringement on the First Amendment.
I like this part even better:
"The federal election campaign laws, which are already (as today's opinions show) so voluminous, so detailed, so complex, that no ordinary citizen dare run for office, or even contribute a significant sum, without hiring an expert advisor in the field, can be expected to grow more voluminous, more detailed, and more complex in the years to come — and always, always, with the objective of reducing the excessive amount of speech.
Go ahead and flame me. I no longer care, but the one reason GWB will not get my vote next November is because he signed this odious piece of 'legislation' and then expected the SCOTUS to clean up his mistake.
Well, he guessed wrong and he saddled me and my future generations with a Legislature that can now be counted on to find even more ways to reduce 'excessive amounts of speech.'
Thanks President Bush, for driving another nail into the coffin of what once was a Free Republic.
Others may forgive you, but I will not.
L