AridzonaShooter: Ramblings
The end of freedom of speech
This from JEP: <http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view449.html#Thursday>
Thursday, January 18, 2006
The End of Freedom of Speech
The Democrat Congressional Ethics scheme seeks to silence Internet comments about Congress. Anyone with more that 500 readers will have to register as a lobbyist or be fined and possibly jailed. The campaign finance laws were bad enough. Now, snuck into a Congressional Ethics -- there's an oxymoron -- act is an attempt to halt the modern equivalent of pamphleteering. Pamphleteers were precisely what the Framers intended to protect with the First Amendment. In those days there wasn't a Main Stream Media, although HM Stationary Office came close: i.e., official propaganda. What the politicos of the time sought to halt was Committees of Correspondence, and pamphlets denouncing the government.
The new "ethics" act doesn't officially try to stop people from criticizing incumbent, but like all campaign finance reforms that's the real purpose and effect. Incumbent protection is the goal of nearly every government action interference in the political process.
I don't expect this to pass. Not even the new Senate can be that stupid. Surely?
