printCoverage has been hard to come by today on the passing of the DISCLOSE Act, with the exception of WND.COM and Fox News. Older reports were carried on Hot Air, and Politico. Where the Act was briefly mentioned, it was only to gloat that its passing dealt a defeat to Republicans. Credit goes to the HuffPo for this report.
The official, twisted title: “H.R.5175 – DISCLOSE Act: Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections.”
[Amends] the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit foreign influence in Federal elections, to prohibit government contractors from making expenditures with respect to such elections, and to establish additional disclosure requirements with respect to spending in such elections, and for other purposes.
As our reader rightly points out, Mark Levin ATTEMPTS to explains how the Disclose Act threatens the First Amendment, but he and his guest fumble hopelessly.
UPDATE (June 26): Contra Levin, the Campaign for Liberty gets it. This from their newsletter:
“Earlier today, the House of Representatives shredded the First Amendment by voting 219-206 to pass H.R. 5175, the DISCLOSE Act.
As hard as it is to believe, they made the bill (which should really be called the Establishment Protection Act) even worse in the hours leading up to the vote by including more provisions to benefit their Big Labor pals and to obtain further details on those opposed to their powergrabs.
Thanks to the actions of Campaign for Liberty members and other freedom-minded activists across the country, the vote on H.R. 5175 came down to the wire and was much closer than expected. Your pressure reminded them that we are serious about holding our elected officials accountable for their actions.
Matter of fact, your calls made such an impact that Campaign for Liberty was even mentioned on the House floor during the debate!
This vote is by no means the end of the fight, and the battle to protect Americans’ right to free speech and to keep the federal government from gathering even more information about us now moves on to the Senate, where the bill faces many challenges.
There are several steps you can take to ensure the Establishment Protection Act is decisively defeated in the Senate.
First, contact your senators right away and make sure they know we have not given up on this critical issue. Click here to find their contact information and urge them to oppose H.R. 5175 and all other attempts to curb free speech.
Next, call the NRA headquarters at 1-800-672-3888 and their Legislative Action group at 1-800-392-8683 and tell them to drop their compromise and actively oppose H.R. 5175.
Without their special deal with House leaders, DISCLOSE may have been stopped in its tracks before ever reaching the House floor in the first place.
Finally, please forward this email to your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers so we can spread the message about the threat posed by the Establishment Protection Act.
Campaign for Liberty has enjoyed more success than the statists ever imagined possible, and they would love nothing more than to shut us down by going after our donors.
Let’s show them that the Freedom movement will never back down.”
It would appear that certain groups will be muzzled and certain other groups will be allowed to blow their pro-democrat horns. This is nakedly unconstitutional but it will be at least two more election cycles before anyone can gear up and get it before the Supreme Court. In the mean time the Democrats will have such a strangle hold on the government the whole thing will be a moot question.
Apparently, the bill has passed only in the House. I doubt that any version of it will ever become law. If it did, it’s difficult to imagine that anyone, even in the Obama Justice Department, would be sufficiently stupid to enforce it, as such enforcement would get their party more negative publicity than the bill was intended to prevent. If BHO’s appointees were sufficiently stupid to attempt enforcement, the Supreme Court would eventually nullify the law.
Just wait until the Republicans take control and get back at those nasty Democrats by taking away a different set of our freedoms… Damn useless politicians, all of them!
I’d also like to point out the useless lawyers Mark Levin and Cleta Mitchell. Mark Levin who takes a stand first and draws his principles later. And Cleta Mitchell who can’t get actually explain what’s wrong with this law until almost 3 minutes into the conversation, even though the first question asked of her was to explain what this act was all about.
The clear thought and concise writing on this blog are truly rare commodities, folks! Just listen to this lawyer drone on, distracted like a cat by every shiny talking point she needs to make.
Between the Unions, Government Contractors, Federal Corporations (Fannie Mae, Amtrak, Corporation for Public Broadcasting), FCC-licensed Media,
Federally dependent Universities, Congressional Franking privileges, Ballot Access requirements, federally owned banks, Overregulated companies, Agribusiness Whores, Lobbyists, and Consultants; it has to be hard for Levin or Mitchell to figure out where the manure starts and where it ends. Nuclear physics is far easier to untangle than the Washington glomerulus. Elections, democracy – huh? – to figure out which particular set of corrupt clowns get payouts from the various piglets sucking off the national udder.
To Myron: That’s what I call nailing volumes in one short paragraph. You sound like me. A grouch.
It’s great that this one will probably work out ok, but the libertarian-conservative right could benefit from adding some non-linear strategies to the mix as well (particularly by directing the left’s power and internal contradictions, against it).
For example, in the case of legal immigration and fracturing the left’s coalition:
http://escapistart.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/ms-pelosi-tear-down-these-chains/
I’ve got some upcoming posts with specific strategies for borders, economics (Social Security/Medicare) and general political advancement. There’s room for both the right’s standard “stand and fight”, and adding in some seichel (cleverness, workarounds).
Greetings Ilana, I’m a long-time reader of your blog, a conservative-libertarian minded young woman and a first-time blogger. My blog is designed to be “entertaining conservative-libertarian” (with upcoming humor spin-off), focuses on sharing new ideas/possible solutions (in areas including economics, immigration, entitlements, and how to get to the point of being able to implement them), is written by an unlikely demographic , and has future posts which reference concepts from your writing. If you find the blog interesting (after reading current posts, or future ones), a link from your blog would be appreciated (I’m going to add a blogroll soon, and will link back). Also, if you’d like to comment etc, you are of course most welcome.
Best,
Escapist
[Welcome to BAB!]
Thanks Ilana, The situation described in this blog post exemplifies part of the problem – although on the surface it appears to be a victory, the right is always playing defense and reacting to increasingly outrageous demands from the left. When a “hail Mary” shot is blocked, the right sees it as a win, but the reality is that the left later gets in with what appears to be a compromise (often a free throw).
Being right on the issues is not enough – if it was, the left wouldn’t be where it is today. The right needs to play aggressive political offense and force the left to react to it – but also to play chess rather than checkers in the realm of politics (which can include politicking amongst those that some on the right may not view with intrinsic sympathy). The Escapist “Ms Pelosi, Tear Down These Chains” is an idea along these lines, as is a future post (“Room at the Top”).
Ok let me see if I can simplify this into terms even I can understand. So George Soros and his buddies are fine but, Karl Rove and his buddies aren’t? Right? (Note: I just picked Karl Rove as I heard he was trying to organize a counter to George Soros).