Posted on 03/09/2005 5:02:56 PM PST by RWR8189
As the primary Senate authors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, we have spent years fighting to clean up elections and ensure that powerful monied interests do not drown out the voices of everyday Americans in our political system. Those interests don't want to give up any of their power, and their main tactic has been to try to whip up fears, however unfounded and unrealistic, about reform.
The latest misinformation from the anti-reform crowd is the suggestion that our bill will require regulation of blogs and other Internet communications. A recent federal court decision requires the Federal Election Commission to open a new rulemaking on Internet communications. The FEC will be looking at whether and how paid advertising on the Internet should be treated, i.e., should it be treated differently than paid advertising on television or radio. This is an important issue -- since BCRA outlawed soft money, we need to make sure that the FEC doesn't try once again to subvert the law by creating loopholes. So far, the FEC has not even proposed new regulations. When it does so, there will be ample opportunity for comment and debate about whatever proposal the FEC makes.
This issue has nothing to with private citizens communicating on the Internet. There is simply no reason - none - to think that the FEC should or intends to regulate blogs or other Internet communications by private citizens. Suggestions to the contrary are simply the latest attempt by opponents of reform to whip up baseless fears. BCRA was intended to empower ordinary citizens, and it has been successful in doing so. We will continue to fight for that goal.
Dear God, let it end.
Whatever.
Yeah--sure--whatever!
John McCain and Russ Feingold did a find job last time didn't they. /s
"There is simply no reason - none - to think that the FEC should or intends to regulate blogs or other Internet communications by private citizens"
How do you define a private citizen? And why would a group of people who get together and pay for the upkeep of a website devoted to esposuing whatever beliefs (left or right) not be *private citizens*? They're just pissed that their plan got a lot more attention than they expected. We're on to them.
The only reform that is needed is to repeal McCain/Feingold and the act created the FEC, disband it, and return to the standard of "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Are the people of Arizona ready for a recall yet???????
McLame needs to go NOW!
Since when are "interests" separate entities from the interested? I didn't know an interest could have power of its own, or tactics, or the ability to whip up fears.....hmmm. Scary. /sarcasm
Interests are nothing more than the opinions of the people. You cannot separate them and pretend that the "interests" are unrelated and even the enemy of the people. That's just crazy.
I do not believe a word they say about the Internet. No way. Those bad "interests" can use the internet and the blogs to gain power and McCain & Feingold will have none of that. McCain will really lose his cool if the Internet is used against him. After all, this whole campaign is really all about him and his power. He's gained a lot of it by aligning himself with the MSM interests.
Executive summary: Senator John McCain's and Senator Russ Feingold's lips were moving.
McCain is not that bad . I mean after Bush has supported Massive hikes in federal spending for "no child left behind" , "farm bill" "steel tariffs" and created a whole new Federal Department ( Homeland security) I feel less and less mistrustful of McCain . At least He doesn't Talk the hardcore conservative talk .He's Voting record is really not that bad but he just seems to say too many silly things far too often.
ROFLMAO. Masterfully implied BUMP!
Corrected.
I'm very PRO-Reform. Reform the campaign laws by repealing this damned outrage. McCain is the anti-reformer now.
This is a notice from two lying POS corrupt politicos.
If anyone believes this crap I've got a bridge in New York I want to sell them.
You would have thought that McCain would have been disgraced and exposed for what a sleaze he is by the Keating bribery scandal, but he slimed his way out of that one.
Recent revelations, however, prove that he has learned nothing and continues to sell his vote to the highest bidder in the same brazen and clumsy manner.
He is the poster boy for term limits.
Check that. McCain is the poster boy for rubber rooms and jackets with very long arms. He's a loony.
Let's hope this amateur attempt at "damage control" is an indication of the amount of heat they are getting over their attempt to subvert the constitution and protect their corruption from critical comment.
In the case of the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform it’s much like the old USSR, everything is owned by the people, so no one has anything.
McCain Feingold “empower(s) ordinary citizens” by taking away our political free speech a couple months before an election.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Well John (and Russ), you may have spent years fighting to clean up elections BUT you have failed miserably in your fight. It's time to pass that responsibility on to the grown-ups now John (and Russ)......
Right.
Too bad you have no credibility. Campaign Finance is a joke, no more so proven than during the last election.
I really wish McCain's re-election hadn't been in '04. I would have loved to take him on in '06.
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