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Progressive News & Views (since 1982)
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This should be of concern to anyone who supports any cause.
Skywolf.
On Nov. 21, 1864 President Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Colonel William
F. Elkins.
He wrote "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and
causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war,
corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its
reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is
aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this
moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in
the midst of war."
_____
Subject: Congress wants reports filed on citizens who use grassroots
organizations to communicate with their elected representatives
Please read the very important info below!
<http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/64/4127/2006-03-15.asp?wid=64&nid=41
27>
http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/64/4127/2006-03-15.asp?wid=64&nid=412
7
SHOULD CONGRESS SERVE OR RULE?
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
What would happen if you required your boss to tell you all the people he or
she deals with before you would take instructions about how to do your job?
You'd be fired on the spot.
Well, Congress is doing exactly that. Congress wants reports filed on
citizens who use grassroots organizations to communicate with their elected
representatives.
But doesn't Congress work for you? Shouldn't you be able to use grassroots
organizations like DownsizeDC.org, Gun Owners of America, AARP, or the
Marijuana Policy Project, to communicate your desires to YOUR
representatives? Shouldn't you be able to issue instructions to YOUR public
servants without them placing burdens on how you do that?
Congress wants every grassroots lobbying organization to file reports with
the government. Reports about you! Reports about who you are, what your
business interests are, and how much money you contribute. But shouldn't it
be the other way around? Shouldn't Congress, and all the people who work for
Congress, be the ones who are filing reports (available to YOU) about how
they spend their time, who they meet with, who writes the bills they
sponsor, and who buys them meals and pays for their travel?
The Lobbying Reform Act, currently pending in Congress, has it exactly
backwards. Congress wants to exploit the recent Jack Abramoff and Duke
Cunningham scandals, involving wrong-doing by people in Congress -- not
wrong-doing by YOU -- to regulate how you communicate with your public
servants.
This is how Congress operates. Congress does something wrong, and then
exploits its own bad behavior to regulate not itself, but the people it is
supposed to serve. Congress wants to rule rather than serve. The Lobbying
Reform Act would make you, the boss, submit to Congress, rather than the
other way around. But it gets worse ...
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has taken the Lobbying Reform Act -- a
very bad bill -- and combined it with a very good bill that we support --
the Online Freedom of Speech Act. The Online Freedom of Speech Act would
preserve the First Amendment's "Freedom of the Press" for individuals.
"Freedom of the press" is a right that belongs to all of us, not just big
establishment media corporations. The Online Freedom of Speech Act would
place blogs and websites on the same legal footing as the mainstream media.
It would give them the same protection from the incumbent-protection laws
(otherwise known as campaign finance regulations), that the New York Times
enjoys.
Combining these two bills is a really despicable move by Senator Frist.
Here's why ...
The Online Freedom of Speech Act probably has enough support to pass on its
own -- thanks largely to the work of the very grassroots lobbying
organizations Congress wants to strangle with the so-called Lobbying Reform
Act. But the Online Freedom of Speech Act has nothing to do with the
Lobbying Reform Act. It should be voted on separately.
This is a typical Congressional con game. Congress constantly combines good
bills with bad bills to give the American people a raw deal. This is how
Congressional leaders manipulate things to rule rather than serve. Don't let
them get away with it.
Please use DownsizeDC.org's quick-and-easy online citizen's lobbying system
to send a message to your supposed public servants in Congress. Tell them to
separate the Online Freedom of Speech Act from the so-called Lobbying Reform
Act. Tell them to vote on each bill separately. Tell them to pass the Online
Freedom of Speech Act, and reject the so-called Lobbying Reform Act. You can
do so by clicking here:
<http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=43>
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=43
_____
<http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=43>
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=43
2006-Mar-12
Good bill + bad bill = raw deal
The Lobbying Reform Act threatens the existence of organizations like
DownsizeDC.org. If it passes it will force us to spend massive amounts of
money that we do not have to file reports with the government. Reports about
who are supporters are, the legislation they care about, and the money they
contribute to us. This would greatly limit our effectiveness.
Why shouldn't the politicians have to file these reports instead of us?
Grassroots lobbying organizations like ours have no power to confer
government favors. Only Congress can do that. So why shouldn't the members
of Congress, and their staffs, have to report to us who they're meeting and
dining and traveling with? Why is that when someone in Congress does
something wrong! new regulations are always imposed on the people, and
never on Congress? The Lobbying Reform Act is bad, bad, bad.
And it's equally bad that Congress constantly combines totally unrelated
legislation. The Online Freedom of Speech Act is a good bill. But the good
that it would do is totally counteracted if it passes in combination with
the Lobbying Reform Act.
<http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=43>
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=43
<http://presence.mail.netscape.com/IM/?sn=randalltbrush>
****************************************************************************
**
Marijuana is Medicine
_____
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