After July 31, it's illegal to mention or refer to Bush in Moveon ads.

[genius]

We need to make sure that whoever wins the nomination has the money to get out the word about Bush.

The following was received from legitgov.org (one of the best sites for receiving accurate information on the occupation of America)

Supreme Court's Gag Rule on Us 'The Powerful Have Only Gotten More Powerful' --by Nat Hentoff "Independent organizations—not tied to political parties—wanting to place broadcast ads criticizing George W. Bush will have these obstacles, as detailed by the AFL-CIO: 'Beginning 30 days before the first primary or caucus . . . December 14, 2003 . . . Section 203 will criminalize broadcast references to the President in a series of geographic blackouts that will continuously ripple through the Nation, blocking every broadcast outlet, wherever located, whose signal can reach 50,000 persons in an upcoming primary or caucus state until June 8, 2004. This blackout will become national in scope on July 31, 30 days before the August 30-September 2 Republican National Convention . . . and it will then continue without interruption throughout the remaining 60 days until the November 2(s)election. Thus, from July 31, 2004 until the election, it will be a crime for a union, corporation, or incorporated non-profit organization to pay to broadcast any 'reference' to the President {sic} by 'name,' 'photograph,' 'drawing' or other 'unambiguous' means anywhere in the United States.'"

[MsUnderstood]

1. Is this for real?

What happened to freedom of speech?

Oh that was crossed out too!

[arewethereyet]

17. our boy Feingold's brilliant idea

I will never understand how this bill got passed

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Becasue 'the people' wanted 'campaign finance reform'

Just because something is called 'reform' doesn't mean that it is actually an improvement over the current system.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

2. Individuals?

I see no mention of hard-money ads paid for by an individual.

I am hoping to run some ads for my site that mention Bush -- I'm trying to find out if those are still kosher.

Anyone know???

[rucky]

3. i've never heard of legitgov

and this is pretty unbelievable.


you understand my skepticism, right?

[genius]

4. I just realized we can't use brackets here.

That's why there was temporarily a line through part of the posting.

[Atlant]

27. You can use brackets, but they must be "coded".

[See?]

Use the following two codes (without the spaces that I've inserted):

& # 91 ; for [
& # 93 ; for ]

Back in DU1,this was simpler, but it was "improved" for DU2. :)

Atlant

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. Link? Reference?

I can't find this article on their site so it is hard to comment on it.

But Hentoff is wrong, as far as I know... could we get a link or could you IM me the whole email please? Thanks...

[genius]

7. The link is on CLG's site. Here it is.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0404/hentoff.php

http://legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

[Feanorcurufinwe]

10. I can't tell from the article

which Supreme Court decision he is referring to.

He mentions two cases, McConnell v. Federal Election Commission and Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, but in neither of those decisions do I find the passage Hentoff quotes: "Beginning 30 days before the first primary or caucus... etc."


I just don't see those words in the rulings. Am I looking at the wrong case, and I just missing it, or what?

[xray s]

6. It bans broadcast ads

So I guess that will make a lot of newspapers and magazines and billboard advertisers happy!

Oh, and don't forget internet pop-up ads! I don't think those count as "broadcast ads".

We find a way to get the truth out!

:):):)

[tobius]

8. was everybody asleep when there was opposition to the bill?

the attack on freedom of speech was yelled from the rooftops for years while campaign finance reform was debated, and you people act surprised?
The soft money ban was thouroghly debated also. That's why some 527's are being investigated for possible illegal end runs around the ban.

Bonus question: who has been pushing these reforms?

[DoNotRefill]

11. People were too busy creaming their jeans about muzzling the NRA....

to worry about being muzzled in return.

"Democracy: Where everybody gets what the majority deserves....good and hard!"

Same deal with bankruptcy reform. I've seen DUers say that it needed to be made tougher to declare bankruptcy, to keep costs down which we all pay. The reality is that bankruptcy reform is going to benefit banks and financial institutions, at the cost of the poor, while nobody else gets even a smidgen of benefits. It's going to be another giant "FUCK YOU!" to the people, and the idea of Democrats supporting it makes me want to vomit.

[SoonerShankle]

21. A conservative republican group called...

ABC went to the FEC with this complaint. It's documented thoroughly on the FEC website and on nonprofit org websites. Check out for more info.

[jansu]

9. Print out 100 pamphlets and leave them in places you visit...ask those who

take one to print out 100 pamphlets and leave in other places and so on...We can get our message out cheaply, if we are all willing to take the time! They can not stop this, as this is how our Founding Fathers informed the public and got their messages out!

Make them polite and informative! No Bush bashing...we don't want to be preaching to the choir! We need to change some Republicans and Independents minds about voting for Bush!

If you need some material, (which I don't see anyone on DU needing) you can send an e-mail to [e-mail] and some information you can print out will be sent to you. I am sure that you can come up with many issues which are important to you. Print them out and get them out there.....also send your ideas to that e-mail address! Write when you have done this and tell your stories of what works and what doesn't!

Let's beat them at their own game! REAL GRASSROOTS POLITICS!

This ruling you quote is just for 527's and PAC's, not individuals! Let them try to take away my freedom of speech! How about yours?

[DoNotRefill]

12. Oh, Jesus H. Christ.

I'm speechless. Well, almost speechless. I'd better stop now before I get in trouble.

[CTLawGuy]

13. what the 30 day thing means...

BCFR only regulates ads that are run within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general.

When they talk about banning ads advocating the defeat or victory of a candidate, they are only referring to corporations or unions, not the PACs of those unions. This is to prevent a corporation from using stockholders money to do political stuff, since not all stockholders support one candidate over the other. With Unions, not every union member likes Kerry, so its not fair to use their dues to buy ads for him.

Corps and Unions can form PACs, which may run ads, but there are laws governing contributions.

[DoNotRefill]

14. I don't think you're right.

If what you said is true, then the NRA-ILA, which is the NRA's lobbying PAC and collects money from members for the sole purpose of lobbying and putting out ads, would be free to run ads, and that's emphatically NOT the case.

[mzmolly]

15. Color me totally confused after reading this thread...

is there anything conclusive yet? I keep hearing different things about this...

[looking glass]

16. McCain-Feingold: Terrible Legislation

This is the result of a very misguided effort to "get money out of politics."

The money is still there, but now there are some horrible restrictions on the First Amendment.

[vetwife]

18. OK What about My Take it Back CD

Now this has me wondering. My own money..Take it Back Narration of Bush's misleading. mini move on type thing. I have it up for sale at Cafepress and it is supposed to help sites like this and the Candidates of the Democratic party. Now. Guy James has it and I am glad. So does Congressman Lewis and I do bash Bush with truth on there. What about me? I am no 527 PAC but I am using Bush's name and I did not mention Kerry's name because there was no nominee at the time but I refer as Our candidate will be the one who can bring sanity back to the White House.
How or will this affect me?

[looking glass]

28. I honestly don't know

And that is another problem with McCain-Feingold.

You need a lawyer to know if it is o.k. to excercise your First Amendment rights.

It is just a horrible, horrible, horrible bill that needs to be repealed.

[SoonerShankle]

19. Is this the FEC thing in regards to the 527s?

I know that nonprofits are against the FEC ruling because they fear that the ruling intended to curb 527s like MoveOn.org will filter down into other nonprofit orgs. Also, this can and should be challenged in court under the first amendment (all too late to matter this year of course). PACs though, will need to step up to the plate. PACs are NOT prohibited, at least that is my understanding. Folks need to learn more about this, and how their civil liberties are being taken away because they fear we, the people, are replacing "soft money".... Check out

[rasputin1952]

20. This seems to be a little beyond reason...

if there is truth to this, the entire First amendment has been overturned, and if that happened, I was asleep at the switch, as was the rest of the country.

There has to be more to this than meets the eye.

Thanks for the heads up, this is something that needs to be looked at, and quickly. Who would have thought the "Alien and Sedition Act' wold make a comeback?

O8)

[DoNotRefill]

24. What it's going to take....

is for somebody to violate the law and then get prosecuted for it.

Until then, we're fucked.

[notbush]

22. Guys, if you don't like it now

where were you a year ago?
Soft money ban, was the key to McCain/Feingold....
I was sayin' "it's free speech". So were people from Rush Limbaugh to the Sierra Club.
Today, both McCain and Feingold testified in committee that these "527" expenditures broke the law as they wrote it.
I guess what bothers me most, is the repugs, by asking the FEC to make a decision, may be looking to jump into this "527" thing big time.
Every billionaire doesn't hate B**h like Soros......Who do they have lined up.

[Marius]

23. Great. More killing on the First Amendment.

Whatever happened to that great idea that our forefathers had...the idea of Free Speech? Whatever happened to that? :grr:

[DoveTurnedHawk]

25. This Is No Big Deal

Frankly, all of our groups should spend themselves out of cash before July 31, anyway. After the Democratic convention in late July, Kerry receives $70-80 million in federal funds, and he will be able to run his own ads.

It could be a LOT worse.

DTH

[looking glass]

29. It's a big deal to me

I ought to be able to say whatever I want, about whatever candidate, in whichever medium I choose. Whenever I choose.

The sad truth is that the push for McCain-Feingold came almost exclusively from the Left. It was supposed to muzzle the NRA.

It muzzled a lot more than that.

[Samantha]

30. So what if people just substitute the asterisk

That can be construed as "ambiguous."

[al-again]

31. once again

once again people showed massive support for what they did not understand. the first amendment was designed explicitly to allow freedom of 'political' speech. people gave that right up with a smile on there face in order to support so-called campaign finance reform.

i cannot believe the supreme court found it constitutional. i must say thank-you to all of you allowed this to happen.