McCain-Feingold Online

And it goes on and on. The FEC is still contemplating what to do about the Blogosphere and politcal speech. This all thanks to McCain-Feingold. You remember how thislaw was supposed to reign in all the big money donations and to date has failed miserably to do that. OpinionJournal.com has few things to say on this in their Review and Outlook piece, Will the FEC make bloggers kiss the First Amendment goodbye?

As far as I am concerned the blogosphere is the new town square. We have a right to free political speech, whether it is on-line or on a soap box.

Considering how McCain-Feingold was frauduently foisted upon us. (see my post, Buying 'Reform'), it is now more urgent that we bloggers and all Americans fight back and fight back hard. We need to demand a full Congressional invesigation into how McCain-Feingold was frauduently presented. I urge all of you to contact your Federal representatives and demand this now, along with legislation protecting our free speech rights.

This is how ludicrous the FEC may get:

"An idea kicking around the FEC a few years ago would require government to calculate the percentage of individuals' electricity bills that went toward political advocacy (we aren't joking). Another alternative would be to classify all bloggers as journalists, seeing as how the press is about the only entity exempt from McCain-Feingold. As much we enjoy our profession, we think a nation of journalists is overkill. "

They forgot to include the cost of the PC, (though that would have to be depreciable), and the cost of the Internet Service Provider. Let's takes this a little further. It would be in the realm of possibility that if you were to do the same things you do on-line in person, will the FEC want to do calculate your costs for say delivering a candidates position papers? Where does it end? This assault on free political speech must not be lost. - Sailor