Redstate

Great work Congressman, and welcome to Redstate!

And I will be urging my congressman to support this bill as well

Many thanks Congressman. I just emailed my representative, Congressman Mel Watt, urging his support.

I used to live in your district! Many years ago, but still. Small world and all that.

And a big shout out to everyone who worked so hard and so fairly, on both sides of the virtual aisle in the blogosphere, to help bring this moment into reality.  

How would your bill react with McCain-Fiengold?

Would this exempt the internet from its proscription on political speach 60 days before an election?

How about instead of a band-aid we repeal McCain-Feingold?

We now have a bad law and an attempt at a targetted "fix", along with the assumption that the gevernment can give or take away our Freedom of Speech.

If you are concerned about getting the money out of politics, we need to get rid of the ability of legislators to pay back donations with favors. As long as legislators can successfully favor one group over another, there will be money, no matter how many short-sighted patches we put on the problem.

Calling this a win is completely sad.

Dear Ms. Eshoo:

Please support HR1606, the Online Freedom of Speech Act.  The FEC has made noises that bloggers and other political activists on the Internet could be subject to FEC campaign finance laws under McCain-Feingold, while newspapers and other parts of the traditional media will have an "exclusion".  

Since the days of Franklin and Paine, pamphleteering has been an important and honorable means of political debate and registering dissent, with blogs and Internet political chat sites being only the modern manifestation of this medium.

Given that much of the technology backing Internet organizing was developed in our district at Google and Yahoo, among other companies, we in Silicon Valley have a special incentive as technologists as well as a duty as Americans to see that technology-enabled grassroots organizing and debate is not hindered by bureaucratic side-effects.

So, please support this bill.

Thanks,

    <foobarista>

who has been absolutely tireless on this issue.  

the Honorable Joe Wilson (the Congressman, not the truth-challenged ex-ambassador) that I hope he supports the bill as well.

The related Senate version of the bill (S. 678) has been read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration. Be sure to let your Senators know you support it!

Do we really need more laws? Lets get rid of M-
F asap.

I emailed my congressman, Elton Gallegly, to support this bill.  

Absolutely people should let their Congressmen know to support this bill.  What the bill does is restore the exemption for the Internet from certain of McCain Feingold's restrictions on "public communications."  If it passes, it would demonstrate that Congress favors a hands-off approach to the Internet, which is valuable in itself.  BUT - it would not answer (and isn't designed to answer) many of the questions that have been raised about how Internet journalism should be regulated/protected under the press exemption or the exemption for volunteer activity.  This bill is an important part of the answer to the FEC regulatory problem, but don't be surprised if questions still linger about how internet journalism will be treated.

and I asumme the ACLU will be supporting you as well as the free speech media.  At least I hope they will.  Thanks.

He's one of my favorites.

I don't know how he's come down on this issue, but he's been fantastic on illegal immigration. Shades of Pete Wilson. Hopefully, he'll come down on the right side.

And yes, that patently anti-Constitutional monstrosity known as McCain-Feingold needs to be repealed...immediately!

Will this absolutely end the FEC's current rulemaking process?

And what specific risks do political speakers on the Internet still face?

Well, the necessity for the rulemaking - the court order to rewrite the Internet exception, would go away, but it is possible that even absent that the FEC might want to continue to try to write a rule on whether internet journalists get exempt as press, or whether individual bloggers could claim a exemption for volunteer activity.  My hunch is that the FEC would prefer to leave these areas unexplored, which means the status quo - uncertainty about whether bloggers are "periodicals" protected by the exemption, what qualifies on the internet as a press function, and the other raft of issues discussed in the Online Coalition Comments to the FEC.  With no clarifying rules, we may be faced with the FEC's case-by-case judgments on these questions, and the uncertainty that creates isn't good for anyone.