The Democrats Don't Want You to Read This Blog

A bipartisan group of legislators wrote a bill entitled the Online Freedom of Speech Act, which would have protected blogs was the overbearing McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform boondoggle.

The bill came up for a vote and was defeated by those first amendment warriors, the Democrats.

Matt Welch explains more:

The bill itself would have placed an extra layer of statutory protection over what should already be (but isn't) protected by the First Amendment—the right to buy political advertisements online. As the mess of appalling FEC rules currently stand, nobody can legally purchase a broadcast, satellite, or cable advertisement that even mentions a candidate for federal office within 60 days of a general election (30 days for a primary), unless he or she sets up or joins a political action committee (PAC) and agrees to abide by the heavy regulations that govern PACs' funding and disclosure.

Now, under pressure from crusading campaign-finance Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), the FEC is finalizing rules that could mean the restriction not only of online advertisements, but of e-mail lists, partisan blogging, and potentially even hyperlinking. The Online Freedom of Speech bill, sponsored by Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling and co-sponsored by three Democrats and six Republicans (including Jeff Flake and Ron Paul), would have amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 "to exclude communications over the Internet from the definition of public communication," essentially making the Internet off-limits to the FEC. Because the measure was not brought up under normal House rules, it required a two-thirds majority for passage, but fell 46 votes short, 225-182. Democrats voted nay, 143 to 46.

This blog could be censored or subject to federal election regulations because the Donks chose to vote against free speech.

I think W. signing the ghastly McCain-Feingold bill was wrong, maybe even worse than the Medicaid bill, but why would the Dems vote down this bill which potentially rectifies some of the more oppressive portions of the bill and helps them more?

The likely reason is that they feel that the right side of the blogosphere has a stronger influence on the electorate than does the left.

Maybe the Donks realize what "screw them" Kos has not. The right has more ideas and explains them in simpler terms than they. They voted this down out of pure fear.

But hey, this is the modern Democratic party, why let a little 1st amendment stomping ruin your day.

By the way, I've found probably the most horrid collection of lefty propaganda anywhere on the web. It includes the exploitation of dead and mutilated bodies: