Those Were The Days, My Friend ...

It was nearly 4 AM when I wrote this, and I was suffering from a spate of insomnia. It’s hard to sleep when you’re spitting nails. You probably are too, or soon will be …

See if you can wrap your mind around the latest travesty that is seeking to pass itself off as Constitutional legislation. I’ve been having a lot of trouble absorbing the extent of the evil embodied in the democrats’ most recent assault on my, and your, inalienable rights. My mind prefers to be in a state of denial about this one. Accepting it would be tantamount to an admission that I no longer wield any power at all in the political arena, and that the final nail has been driven into the coffin of government ‘of, by and for the people’.

As if the McCain-Feingold ‘Campaign Finance Reform’ bill weren’t a despicable enough example of the left’s determination to suppress the voice of the average citizen in the political process, the new democrat-controlled senate has introduced yet another assault on the First Amendment -- at least that portion of it that guarantees free speech to the average citizen, and those grassroots organizations that attempt to work in his behalf. As is generally the case, the big guys are exempt from the chains that are being prescribed for you and me.

The ‘grassroots lobbying’ section of newly introduced U.S. Senate Bill 1 (Section 220) contains burdensome reporting requirements, mandatory on a quarterly basis, for just the kinds of grassroots groups that have organized to look out for you and me. And there are civil fines of up to $100,000 if they fail to comply with the new federal dictates.

Under Senate Bill 1, any grassroots lobbying organization -- i.e., again, most of the groups that you and I support, and to whom we look for information that the media choose not to publicize or disclose -- would have to report the issues, the names and specifics of their employees, and how much they spend on what is called ‘paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying’ (note that the vagueness of that particular phrase is cavernous).

The groups affected are defined as ‘any organizations that encourage five hundred or more members of the general public to contact Congress’ (*gasp!* -- we can’t have the American people contacting Congress! That would lead to the dreaded ‘A-word’ – accountability).

This massive and burdensome reporting requirement will kick in if the organization plans to do one of two things: (1) request a face-to-face or written communication, regarding a question or concern about public policy, with someone in the executive or legislative branch, or (2) encourage citizens to contact the executive or legislative branch (again, ‘encouraging’ is not defined, so the wording leaves significant room for interpretation by those on the Hill, and their buddies in the judiciary, who want to silence any opposition, or any group that seeks to make public what is going on within the walls of the senate, house, or the administration).

There is no minimum dollar spending floor. Any grassroots organization that attempts to arouse the citizenry to thought or action, or merely seeks to inform, will be expected to jump through a myriad of expensive and time-consuming bureaucratic hoops -- so many of them that a significant number of these groups will become severely financially strained. They will be forced to keep detailed records of expenditures on informing the public about any issue: their consulting fees, printing or broadcast/telecast costs, postage, advertising, personnel, etc.

Obviously, the cost of meeting these bureaucratic regulations will be prohibitive. And that is precisely the reason for this proposed legislation: to keep you and me from learning those tyrannical, unconstitutional legislative travesties of which the 'powers that be' would prefer we remain ignorant.

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all is contained in the fact that the bill makes broad exemptions for larger, organized groups who employ paid lobbyists – those who don’t rely primarily on grassroots communication to get their messages out (i.e., unions, large corporations, etc.) The Teamsters, the NEA, AARP, moveon.org, and other leftist ‘membership’ groups will not fall under the bill’s bureaucratic mandates.

Ain’t that convenient for those in ‘leadership’ positions who believe the Constitution is outmoded – i.e., would-be tyrants, one-world agenda adherents, and elitists?

This offensive bill was introduced by Harry Reid along with seventeen co-conspirators, three of them 'republicans':

I would suggest that we all also call or e-mail our own senators and voice our outrage, but it will take a major activist movement to stop this particular steamroller. And, since most of the grassroots movements that will be suffocated (some of them even extinguished) under this bill came into being precisely because the media is failing to inform, you can bet that this particular bill will be kept under tight wraps by those very same media. Negligent journalism, at best – conspiratorial, more likely.

hy-po-cri-sy -- noun – insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have

Nancy Pelosi promised that an ‘ethics overhaul’ would top the agenda in the new congressional session. Well, the ‘Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007’ has just increased the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the next two years. But ... oddly (or perhaps not so) ... the only exemption to the law is American Samoa. Why? Because StarKist Tuna is the largest employer on the island. And Starkist’s parent company, Del Monte Corporation, is headquartered in Nancy Pelosi’s district. Nancy appears to have a different definition of ‘ethical’ than the rest of us.

"...the new democrat-controlled senate has introduced yet another assault on the First Amendment -- at least that portion of it that guarantees free speech to the average citizen, and those grassroots organizations that attempt to work in his behalf. As is generally the case, the big guys are exempt from the chains that are being prescribed for you and me."

Bush could and should have vetoed CFR, but instead chose to avoid the flak altogether by tossing it over the transom to SCOTUS which, the White House was convinced, would surely declare it unconstitutional (well, "surprise, surprise" as Goober used to intone). Of course, an increasingly out-of-touch SCOTUS, still part of our federal Komintern,, didn't do that, leaving Bush with egg on his face and a thoroughly pissed off conservative base. Now comes presidential opportunity #2. Will Bush, this time, step up and do what we elect our presidents to do, protect and defend the Constitution, and veto HR 1? Or will he sign it as presented, like he has everything else?

I am not optimistic.

I am not optimistic.

I am of the same mind as you, czar.

The analysis on the Free Speech Coalition site is excellent – especially their continual reference to the fact that the bill would pose financial and legal penalties on those simply wishing to exercise their First Amendment rights, without first registering with Congress.

As mentioned before, the loophole in the bill will allow large trade unions, corporations, and other special interest groups to collect and spend hundreds of millions of dollars in order to brainwash voters into accepting their point of view. Even foreign corporations, and foreign nationals, would fall under the exemption. But small citizen associations will be monitored closely, and will have to expend great time and expense to abide by the bill’s dictates.

The Founders would be horrified at the notion that, under the provisions of this bill, public interest groups, representing average citizens, must register with the government in order to question government actions, and in order to disperse the results of their analysis to American citizens.

The analysis of the bill (undertaken by four attorneys knowledgeable in the machinations of congress, and Constitutional scholars all) concludes with these two telling paragraphs:

H.R. 4682 [the companion bill to S.1] would target and restrict the First Amendment rights of citizens on an unprecedented and needless basis. There is no correlation between the fundamental rights being targeted by this and similar bills and the real ethics and corruption problems in Washington. The bill also provides huge loopholes for wealthy Washington insiders and special interests that actually may be engaging in (1) writing legislation and making policy without disclosure and ‘sunshine’, (2) providing money, gifts and trips for members of congress, and (3) seeking pork, privileges and handouts from congress.

There are ways to legislate to reduce corruption in Washington, but regulating First Amendment rights, in the way H.R. 4682 [and its counterpart S.1] proposes to do, would only further corruption, not reduce it.

Bottom line: If you or I, or the groups that have organized to represent us, dare to inquire as to the motives or methods of our elected representatives, we must ‘register’ with them first, and then continually report our every move, contact and expense to them, so that they can monitor (and perhaps even anticipate) our actions. Yet those powerfully entrenched, agenda-driven, wealth-backed (and even foreign-backed) special interest groups, whose motives are often far more sinister than a mere desire for information, are completely unrestricted under this particular bill – no registering, no forms, no reporting, no monitoring.

I would like to ask Ms. Pelosi, her cohorts in the house, and their counterparts in the senate, to explain the liberty-based parameters under which they believe this to be a necessary, let alone Constitutional, bill. Interestingly, should it be signed into law, my ability to do just that would be severely limited.

I’ve said countless times before, and I believe this to be a good example: the leftists can get away with this incremental dissolution of our Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties because the media do not report on their crimes, but, even more importantly, the average American simply doesn’t even care enough to know.

I used to occasionally watch re-runs of Hannity and Colmes late at night. I will never again do that. With all of the government negligence in relation to our borders, especially, and the liberty-robbing legislation that is being proposed (and will no doubt be signed into law) without so much as a word of it being reported in the major media, the major focus of the edition of Hannity and Colmes that I watched a few days ago was on the continuing ‘feud’ between Trump and O’Donnell.

The media may be consistently (and with great relish) playing the bread-and-circuses card because that is what the lazy, apathetic American public craves, but ninety-five percent of the ‘news’ they report/analyze is a grotesque insult to any thinking person.

It is our national sloth, more than anything else, that will be our undoing.

~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.