Two items related to free speech today. The first is regarding the latest round of nonsense from Congress on political speech, the second is on this whole Everybody Draw Mohammed Day thing.
What half-assed and sure to be muffed piece of legislation are they now working on in Washington D.C. ? Well, check this out:
The DISCLOSE Act’s purpose, according to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Chris Van Hollen and other “reformers,” is simply to require disclosure of corporate and union political speech after the Supreme Court’s January decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that the government could not ban political expenditures by companies, nonprofit groups, and labor unions.
The bill, however, would radically redefine how the FEC regulates political commentary. A section of the DISCLOSE Act would exempt traditional media outlets from coordination regulations, but the exemption does not include bloggers, only “a communication appearing in a news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication…”
Read the whole thing and feel free to let me know what you think. I guess I want to see the exact language that the bill ends up with before I get too bent out of shape, but I also know that any attempt to stifle my free speech on this humble little blog will be met with a firm "go pound sand" from me. Now, I realize the odds of me coming to any authority's attention are pretty small, but there are amplifiers like Instalanches out there and anyone can be quickly catapulted far beyond their normal number of readers. Though the likely targets would be the big bloggers and internet opinion writers, this is about defending everybody's right to free speech and another reason to throw some of these idiots out of office in November.
What part of this don't they understand?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or 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.
Hmmm...I guess I'll do a part II on the Mohammed issue.
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