Posted on 01/13/2007 9:14:29 AM PST by joanie-f
Edited on 01/13/2007 10:59:19 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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':
Sen Robert Bennett [R-UT]
Sen Sherrod Brown [D-OH]
Sen Maria Cantwell [D-WA]
Sen Susan Collins [RINO-ME]
Sen Dick ‘Our Troops are Nazis’ Durbin [D-IL]
Sen Diane ‘Not-So’ Feinstein [D-CA]
Sen Frank Lautenberg[D-NJ]
Sen Patrick ‘Leakin’ Leahy [D-VT]
Sen Joe Lieberman [D-CT]
Sen ‘Traitor’ Lott [R-MS]
Sen Mitch McConnell [R-KY]
Sen Robert Menendez [D-NJ]
Sen Barbara Mikulski [D-MD]
Sen Ken Salazar [D-CO]
Sen ‘Chuckie’ Schumer[D-NY]
Sen Debbie Stabenow [D-MI]
Sen Jim ‘Porn Writer’ Webb [D-VA]
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.
Welcome to Amerika.
P.S. An interesting side note, for anyone who may not be aware of it:
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.
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
"My poor grandchildren will never know the country I grew up in."
You're right. Mine won't either.
How CAN we describe what the 50's were like - the innocence - pretty-much the "leave it to beaver" life, the afternoons on a bicycle, the warm summer evenings sitting outside on the porch just looking at the stars, the playing in the street, the neighbor kids getting together and doing - doing - whatever popped into their minds, and then finally realizing that it was getting late,- - - - - - going home to mom's cooking, having a nice warm bath and plopping into bed and falling asleep with the windows open and the front door unlocked, and then.....and then waking the following morning and starting-out on another day's "new adventure".
I fear that there won't be anything TO read that accurately says what America WAS. It will probably be referenced as failed-capitalism - doomed by the greed of the evil rich.
I'm sure there was bad back them but we didn't hear about it or see it. We lived and played in an innocent time.
There was one rule they made us obey, and we never broke it, It was always the last thing we heard mama say, "be home by dark".
What a glorious age that was to be a kid in.
I have to wonder if anyone "a year or two younger" read these last couple comments and wondered if they were indeed true.
If any of you "out there" did read them and wonder:
The answer is yes.
Yes, it's true. A bygone era. *sigh*
You think they would be constrained by a 700+ grain .50 caliber bullet traveling at around 2,500 to 3,00 feet per second?
It's no wonder many of the sponsors are also big time gun grabbers.
As long as even using manual presses was illegal, might as well use laser printers. In for a dime, in for a dollar.
Why that would be easy. Shouting from rooftops is dangerous. You might fall on a child. Gotta ban that. [/sarc
As long as even using manual presses was illegal, might as well use laser printers."
Modern printers will all have a implanted chip that sends copies of everything to the D.A.C.S.(Dept. of American Citizen Surveillance).Any attempt to remove or deactivate it will detonate a miniture neutron bomb and you will be fined $5000.00.
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