Free Speech in Peril?

[AAAintheBeltway]

Quote from Cutten:

This hasn't much chance of actually becoming law, and even if it does, it will be overturned by the supreme court the moment it is challenged. I can't think of a more clearly anti-constitutional proposal.

Even if somewhow it does get on the books, you would see a campaign of mass civil disobedience so big that it would relegate whichever politicians who sponsored it to the scrapheap of history. Luckily for America, there are enough people there who own guns and *would actually use them* to defend their rights on an issue like this, that the government could never enforce it.

I have to say though, that the very fact this bill has been proposed is an extremely worrying development indeed. It's shocking to think that elected representatives are so alienated from the core values of the republic and constitution they swore to uphold and protect. This is something you would expect from socialists in Belgium, not the U.S.A. Some rich person who supports liberty should identify the sponsors of this bill, then spend a hefty chunk of change trying to eradicate them permanently from political life.

I think you are far too optimistic. I don't know what the vote count is on this , but if it is defeated, it is sure to come back. The media is solidly behind it, since they detest bloggers and anything that restricts free political speech actually enhances their power, since they are not subject to it.

It seems totally unconstitutional to me, but the Supreme Court already approved even more breathtaking restrictions in the original McCain-Feingold law that the craven Bush signed. We do have a different Court now, so I have not abandoned all hope.

Pabst is totally correct as well. This bill is the inevitable result of the McCain-Feingold bill. Once you start restricting political speech, it becomes a game of wahck-a-mole because money will flow from one outlet to another. All McCain-Feingold has accomplished is take the money away from candidates and parties, where there was some sense of responsibility if only because a candidate had to answer for the ads, and funnel it to totally irresponsible activist groups like moveon.org.