Nancy Pelosi to undermine free speech

It seems that the Nancy Pelosi plans to 'ram through a new law that would seriously undermine free speech – and put restrictions on conservative groups and others who encourage ordinary citizens to directly deal with Congress.' (hat tip Mind of Mog who says, "Oh gee, just what I wanted… that shrew Pelosi to curb my free speech.")

Will Pelosi's plot apply to bloggers?

“The . . . plan is perhaps the most comprehensive regulation of political speech ever proposed, and would make small grassroots causes report quarterly to Congress — the same as K Street lobbyists representing wealthy interests before Congress,’ Viguerie says.

“The reporting requirements and more severe penalties being written in response to recent congressional corruption scandals would apply to those who have no Washington lobbyists, who make no political contributions, and who do not provide gifts, travel or anything of value to politicians,” Viguerie continues.

Public Citizen, a liberal government watchdog, has touted that it has helped Pelosi draft the legislation and wants lawmakers to adopt the Internal Revenue Service’s definition of “lobbying,” which includes communication that encourages the general public to contact a member of Congress on pending legislation or public policy.

Some controversial features of the bill:

It makes changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and requires any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis. (source)

Mind of Mog says:

It flies in the face of the First Amendment. “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.”

Time to contact your politicians and let them know what YOU think about this.

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Comments

[Thomas Hamilton]

PS.

I'm encouraging ALL of you reading this to contact your congressman and 2 senators and raise holy hell.

Send in the jack booted thugs now!

[Thomas Hamilton]

I have 2 questions:

How would they know if a blogger incited anyone to call their congressman or senators?

If they did, how would they know they got 500 people to do so?

Hell, they can't find their asses with both hands now. How would they ever figure that out?

[Debbie]

I have no idea what the trackback problem is. I will check it out. Thanks Blandy

[Blandly Urbane]

This post is a "trackbackable offense." Unfortunately Haloscan has been screwing around a bit today and has been enjoying repeating this message to me:

"An internal server error occurred. Please try again later."

I dunno, the TB may or may not show up, any time I've retried today it has told me...you did that...

So, I'm guessing the Dems aren't the saviors we were expecting? I'm very surprised.

[Debbie]

"In a future election the leftists will be voted out big time. Let's only hope that after that future election the Republicans will remember why they lost in 2006." I hope you are right about that, Thomas.

Hi Night Rider, you, Jason, and Blandy Urbane are all right. This is scary stuff.

[Blandly Urbane]

"Time to contact your politicians and let them know what YOU think about this."

I'm hoping for your sake that the above quote only reaches 499 people.

Disturbing as all get out!

[Night Rider]

Hi Debbie,

Well what do you know the leftists commie socialist wanna change the 1st amendment. Sure seems that they want that Socialism more and more all the time.

[Thomas Hamilton]

The Democrats are wrong but they are not stupid. They realize that part of the reason they lost power in 1994 was that the drive by media had become challenged by other outlets such as talk radio and now the blogosphere.

They don't intend to lose power again so they will make every attempt to suppress talk radio and bloggers and any other outlet that challenges the MSM and the left slanted bilgewater the MSM spews.

This may sound disturbing now but in the long run it may be a blessing. The left thinks they won because they believe the country is coming over to their leftwing way of thinking so they will start acting more and more like the lefetists they are. As they do it will become more and more apparent to the voters who they really are. The Republicans lost this time because they failed to act like Republicans.

In a future election the leftists will be voted out big time. Let's only hope that after that future election the Republicans will remember why they lost in 2006.

[Jason]

Seems like the Congress critters are trying to turn Congress into the House of Lords. I wonder if President to King will be the next move.