Reason Is No Guarantee:-C F R Thread, Day 100

The late Sidney Hook -- who was one of the early dissenters from the American Left on the matter of whether the Soviet Union is worthy of any admiration and loyalty, and a pretty formidable philosopher and scholar in his own right -- had a lament he told me about. We were at the Hoover Institution together, he as a senior scholar, I as a temporary fellow, back in the mid-1970s. On one occasion he told me that the major disappointment in his life had been the discovery that reason is ineffective. Regardless of how conscientiously one makes use of it, the results won't necessarily be good.

This came to mind when the Senate passed the new campaign finance bill, which President Bush promised to sign. It will almost certainly become one of those futile laws that achieves none of what its supporters hope for -- namely, remove money from politics. How could it?

So long as government is in the business of taking wealth from us and then sending some of it back to a select few, citizens will try to pay off officials so they are the recipients of the largess, not others. Those who believe they are entitled to be given support by this method will work hard to make sure they have the best chance to be the beneficiaries of such wealth redistribution.

Yet the evidence of the ineffectiveness of restraints is clear. People in all ages have done their best to get in front of the line waiting to get a handout from the state. And all the hand-wringing and double talk about reform has done nothing to alter this fact.

Reason, wisdom, insight, prudence, and common sense counsels that campaign finance reform is a ruse. Yet millions of people put their faith in various measures to produce such reform. It's not unlike tax reform. It starts off with the dream of fairness and efficiency, but quickly becomes no more than the production of loopholes and special privileges. The bottom line? There is no way to make a corrupt system good.

As most of us know from both our own and our fellows' experiences, the temptation to base our actions on dreams rather than hard facts and painful lessons from history is enormous. Instead of trust, which is based on past experience, we often indulge in faith in the impossible.

In this case, millions of people and their political representatives have decided to forget about history and common sense and place on record an impossible dream: campaign finance reform. The idea that governments will henceforth refrain from taking bribes and responding to them with largess is that impossible dream.

What my dear old friend, Sidney Hook, forgot -- in his conscientious efforts to make a valuable contribution to the world he loved so much -- is that people are free to attempt to indulge their fantasies or impossible dreams even with the best evidence staring them in the face, providing them with the proverbial proof that circles cannot be squared. So we will have this law. It will make billions of dollars for clever legal minds and policy wonks who will quickly learn how to circumvent any new obstacles to buying politicians, and proceed with the old game: Send money to the centers of power in the hope that you'll be first in line when a bit of it is returned. It is the iron law of the politics of a welfare state.

First Amendment Restoration Act
Bill # H.R.3801

Original Sponsor:
Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD 6th)

Cosponsor Total: 35
(last sponsor added 03/18/2004)
2 Democrats
35 Republicans

About This Legislation:
Washington, D.C. is often referred to as "Inside the Beltway" or "Belly of the Beast." A more appropriate reference, however, is "The Twilight Zone."

In 1961, there was an episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "The Obsolete Man." In that episode, the government finds a librarian to be obsolete and sentences him to liquidation.

Has that eerie bit of 1961 fiction become a chilling reality today?
Congress, the president, and the Supreme Court have, with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold), found political speech by average American citizens to be...obsolete. What will government mandate next...liquidation?

On February 11, 2004, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, along with several other members of The Liberty Caucus, introduced the "First Amendment Restoration Act" (H.R. 3801). This legislation would restore Americans' First Amendment rights by repealing sections of the McCain-Feingold law that forbid issue-advocacy groups, such as The Liberty Committee, Gun Owners of America, American Conservative Union, Concerned Women of America and the National Rifle Association, to inform their members about important issues and votes relative to incumbent candidates during the 30 and 60 days before primary and general elections.

So during that 30-60 day period when the U.S. Congress takes a vote on abortion, immigration, gun control, United Nations, taxes, treaties, etc., we won't be able to tell you about it without committing a federal crime and risking jail time! Even a simple E-mail alert will violate the law!

McCain-Feingold, passed by Congress, signed by President Bush, and affirmed by the Supreme Court, muzzles the average American who doesn't have a high-priced lobbyist to represent his views in our nation's capital. Under the guise of "cleaning up our political process," incumbent politicians increase their job security by making it illegal for average Americans to participate.

The Liberty Committee strongly supports H.R. 3801 and encourages you to speak in favor of this critical legislation -- while you still can. Don't let the political elite make you "The Obsolete Man."
http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/bills/?bill=5269186

Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob
Special to FreeRepublic | 17 December 2003 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

This is nothing like the usual whine by someone whose post was pulled. JimRob pulled my previous thread for a good reason. "If direct fund-raising were permitted on FR, it would soon be wall-to-wall fund-raising."

So, let's start again correctly. This is about civil disobedience to support the First Amendment and challenge the TERRIBLE CFR decision of the Supreme Court to uphold a terrible law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush.

All who are interested in an in-your-face challenge to the 30- and 60-day ad ban in the Campaign Finance "Reform" Act, please join in. The pattern is this: I'm looking for at least 1,000 people to help the effort. I will run the ad, and risk fines or jail time to make it work -- AND get national support.

But there should be NO mentions of money in this thread, and not in Freepmail either. This is JimRob's electronic home, and we should all abide his concerns.

Put your comments here. Click on the link above, and send me your e-mail addresses. I will get back to you by regular e-mail with the practical details.

This CAN be done. This SHOULD be done. But it MUST be done in accord with JimRob's guidelines.

Fair enough?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1042394/posts

Update
I've already tested the idea of my in-your-face challenge ads, first in the print media and then deliberately illegal on TV, with certain editors I have a long relationship with. I could trust these two gentlemen, one in the print media and the other in the broadcast media, with a "heads up" on what I am planning. Both said they wanted to know, in advance, when I am about to do this.

The bottom line is clear. If I am willing to put my neck on the line, with the possibilities of a fine and jail time, THAT effort will put CFR back on the front page in all media. And that is part of the point. There's not much value of going in-your-face against the enemies of the First Amendment unless the press takes up the story and spreads the word. It is now clear they will do exactly that.

Update 2
QUICK PROGRESS REPORT, ANSWERING A SUPPORTER'S QUESTION:
We have about 15% of the needed 1,000 sign-ups.

Spread the word, direct folks to the front page link on my website.

Google-bomb the phrase "anti-CFR" directing readers to that page and link. (We're already #2 and #4 on Google.)

Target date is now August, since the NC primary looks to be put back to September. (Remember, the ad isn't illegal until the 29th day before the election.)

Cordially,

John / Billybob

Note if you are interested in more on this please contact Valin or Congressman Billybob

'Well, Feiny, first thing we gotta do is make a ball out of this here cube. We can start by hammering off the corners. Then we can chip the corners off the edges until the thing is round.'

'Gonna end up pretty small, ain't it, McCrab?'

'Can you spell, G-O-L-F, Feiny?'

'More like a marble, McCrab.'

'Whatever. It's ours to play games with anyway. Right?

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