7.27.2010

Some animals are more equal than others -- DISCLOSE Act vote today

UPDATE:  FAIL!!!  The forces of darkness retreated for the time being on a 57-41 vote.

The Senate is set to vote on the DISCLOSE Act today, which would silence opposition.

The bill would kill the free speech rights of small opposition groups by burying them under a mountain of red tape and expense, while exempting leftist lobbying groups including unions, the ACLU, and the Sierra Club. The NRA was also exempted in order to buy off their opposition to the measure.

Here's Tea Party Patriots on the measure:


INFORMATION (from Freedom Action)

Even if somehow the speech restrictions in this bill were constitutional, their uneven application would be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection under the law. Even the left-leaning Sierra Club has labeled the DISCLOSE Act a two-tiered system that is "unfair and undemocratic" and that smaller grass-roots organizations would be disadvantaged because they lack the resources to cope with "the additional disclosure burdens." The unions and the big non-profit groups get to keep their free speech given to them in the January Supreme Court decision, but the corporations and small non-profits lose theirs under DISCLOSE.

Also, President Obama and some Democrats are dishonestly stating that the Court's decision would "open the floodgates for special interest, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." However, current federal law and Federal Election Commission regulations already ban foreign corporations from participating directly or indirectly in American elections. (see 2 U.S.C. § 441e and 2 U.S.C. 437g).

HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU

Exampleville, Ohio has two people running for U.S. Congress-Mr. A and Mr. B-in what promises to be a close race. Exampleville's local Tea Party believes in Mr. B. The Tea Party wants to run ads highlighting Mr. B's stance on cap and trade, federal spending, increased taxation, etc, but they don't have enough money to fulfill the new highly complex reporting requirements from DISCLOSE. And DISCLOSE would force them to list their top donors, even if they are not necessarily the specific donors to the ads, in their ads. Besides, the disclaimers required could take up to 14 of a 30 second ad. The Tea Party gives up trying to run ads to support Mr. Republican.

In contrast, Mr. A has some well-funded unions who want to see Exampleville's factories unionized, so the unions run ads against Mr. B and ads for Mr. A. Also, the Sierra Club and the ACLU (groups actually opposed to DISCLOSE) want Mr. A to support their issues, so they also run ads for Mr. A. None of these ads are subject to DISCLOSE's requirements.

Guess who wins?

(For those interested, here's a good link with information on the actual language and problems with the DISCLOSE bill, click here.)

The DISCLOSE Act exempts unions and very large special interest groups!! And the little guy is left without a voice.


Senators to call:


Scott Brown (R-MA) He is voting NO so call him to say thank you for defending equal free speech rights for all!

http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactme

Washington DC: (T) (202) 224-4543, (F) (202) 228-2646



Olympia Snowe (R-ME) She is undecided so we've got to reach out to her! Remind her that this bill creates unequal freedom of speech for different people!

http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorSnowe.Email

Washington DC: (T) (202) 224-5344, Toll free (800) 432-1599, (F) (202) 224-1946



Susan Collins (R-ME) She is undecided so we've got to reach out to her! Remind her that this bill creates unequal freedom of speech for different people!

http://collins.senate.gov/public/continue.cfm?FuseAction=ContactSenatorCollins.EmailIssue&CFID=42880122&CFTOKEN=39747274

Washington DC: (T) (202) 224-2523, (F) (202) 224-2693



Ben Nelson (D-NE) No info yet

http://bennelson.senate.gov/email-issues.cfm

Washington DC: (T) (202) 224-6551, (F) (202) 228-0012



Kent Conrad (D-ND) No info yet

https://conrad.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

Washington DC: (T) (202) 224-2043, (F) (202) 224-7776

3 comments:

Jr Deputy Accountant said...

Don't forget the AARP and Humane Society included in the exemption.

Dogmeat said...

It was the Tea Party who claimed that they got Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown elected and that he was one of them. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Tea Party for electing Scott Brown since he voted for the Financial Reform Bill and help the President of the United States with another legislative victory, thank you Tea Party. Have you heard of “Unintended Consequences” or “Blowback”? Was he working for the Tea Party, himself or our Country, hmmm only you can answer this one?

The problem is this. Tea Party candidates will win a number of these congressional races because local districts are often safely partisan in nature. They can make their wild, unfounded claims, crazy accusations, etc., and win. That means not only are we likely to see an increase in Republican seats in both houses, we’re likely to see more antics, more insanity, more stupidity. At the same time they’re going to do everything they can to derail Obama’s policies which will likely mean high unemployment, a moribund economy, and more compromises on policy positions that make no one happy.

That could literally mean that if the Republicans put up a legitimate candidate in 2012, they could win. Such a result is bad enough, but the likely response for the Democrats is to move further to the “middle” to placate voters. As we’ve seen over the last decade, the “middle” in American politics is basically on the verge of being an 80s Republican. Increasingly that means we’ll have a political landscape of a conservative party and ratfuck insane parties. The former, given it’s track record, slowly moving to the right, the latter, given it’s track record, loudly screaming “socialism, communism, fascism!!!”

If we continue on this course, privatization will be socialism.

W.C. Varones said...

Thanks for stopping by, Dogmeat.

I'm quite happy with Scott Brown.

He voted for the fake financial reform bill, which is fine. While there's no financial reform in it, it's generally harmless. So Scotty gets to look like a bipartisan compromiser to his leftist Massachusetts electorate by voting for a meaningless bill.

As for "helping the President," go ask your friends and neighbors, "Hey, what do think about that awesome financial reform? What a win, huh?" As if a complete farce of a bill written by the corrupt Dodd and Frank is going to swing any moderates or turn out any base.

Go Scotty B!!!

As for the overall Tea Party, sure there are some nuts. But mainstream Republicans (Boehner et. al.) are the ones who drove this country into a ditch along with Bush and the Democrats. We need reform so desperately that I'll take a few kooks along with the wave of reformers.

Happy Super Tuesday!