WILL BERNARD LORD CONTROL OUR BLOG?????

Charles,

You may find this article from today interesting. Probably only a
matter of
time before this happens in Canada. Heck, there are those on your site
now
who want to censor free speech. Wait until the government gets
involved. LOL


Political bloggers in free speech fight

By DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press







WASHINGTON (AP) — Political bloggers who offer diverse views on
Republicans
and Democrats, war and peace argued on Thursday that they should be
free of
government regulation.

The notion was echoed by some members of the government agency trying
to
write rules covering the Internet’s reach in political campaigns.

Amid the explosion of political activity on the Internet, a federal
court
has instructed the six-member Federal Election Commission to draw up
regulations that would extend the nation’s campaign finance and
spending
limits to the Web.

The FEC, in its initial rules, had exempted the Internet.

Bloggers told the Committee on House Administration that regulations
encompassing the Internet, even ones just on advertising, would have a
chilling effect on free speech. The FEC vice chairman also questioned
the
necessity of any rules.

“I strongly believe that the online political speech of all Americans
should
remain free of government review and regulations,” said Michael E.
Toner.

Toner argued that political activity on the Internet fails to meet the
campaign finance law’s threshold to stop corruption or the appearance
of
corruption. Toner urged Congress to pass a law that pre-empts the
court’s
action and ensures that the Internet remains exempt from campaign
finance
rules.


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Michael J. Krempasky, director of the Web site RedState.org, said that
if
bloggers have to meet a government test every time they discuss
politics,
“the reaction will be completely predictable: rather than deal with the
red
tape of regulation and the risk of legal problems, they will fall
silent on
all issues of politics.”

But Scott E. Thomas, the FEC commissioner, said his agency’s original
exemption for the Internet was a mistake and the FEC should come up
with
rules for Internet campaign ads in light of the $14 million spent on
Internet ads in the 2004 campaign.

Thomas said Congress should hold off on any legislation until the FEC
acts.

Another commissioner, Ellen Weintraub, said the agency preferred a
“less is
more” approach.

“This is appropriate because the focus of the FEC is campaign finance,”
she
said. “We are not the speech police.”

Thomas said the FEC hopes to write its rules by the end of the year.
The
full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is reviewing
the
ruling and if it decides that the challenge to the initial rules had no
standing, some commissioners may push to abandon the work on writing
new
rules, Thomas said.