Pelosi's Planned Assault on the First Amendment

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18510

Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech

by Amanda B. Carpenter
Posted Dec 18, 2006


House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require 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.

SNIP

“This bill would apply to those who have no Washington-based lobbyists, who provide no money or gifts to members of Congress, and who merely seek to speak, associate and petition the government,” it said. “Regulating the speech, publishing, association and petitioning rights of citizens is not targeted at corruption in Washington, as Public Citizen and its supporters would believe. Instead, it is targeted directly at the 1st-Amendment rights of citizens and their voluntary associations.”

 

I am afraid that the McCain-Feingold law opened the door to frontal assaults on political speech in this country.

 

Yes, but McCain-Feingold affected mainly politicians and their commercials.

This one affects me and you and our ability to address grievances through public petition without filing a report as some type of "organization".

 

I agree. While campaign finance reform was a worthy topic for reformation, the results are proving to be less than helpful - if not more harmful than before.

 

"Tolerance"
"Political Correctness"

These are destroying the country. They muzzle and place at risk the speaker. We don't need lockjaw to survive as a nation. Pelosi is the champion of lockjaw.


:tonofbricks: <----Pelosi