Trampling Free Speech; Congress Passes Disclose Act

In almost everything President Obama says or does, he himself labels or qualifies it as "unprecedented." These days things simple as sharpening a pencil has become monumental and of course, "unprecedented," for our President. Boy, aren't we lucky!?!

Our "unprecedented & unpresidential" POTUS, through his Democrat controlled Congress, delivered another "unprecedented" kick in the teeth of Lady Liberty and the voice of freedom she so beautifully sings on our behalf by breaking her pencil of Free Speech in two!

By passing the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) bill (H.R. 5175) & defying the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United that they were unhappy with, Congress has officially redefined our 1st Amendment right of Free Speech to a Selective Right to Free Speech.

They, Congress, being the ones who "selects" what should be allowed as Free Speech. Do you start to hear the rhythmical cadence of goose-stepping off in the distance?

Masquerading behind the as-advertised intent of bringing transparency to the political & campaign process, the backroom politiking of special deals & the cloaking of transparency used by Congress to pass this bill is equivalent to hypocrisy in unprecedented levels....

From National Review Online --

According to the Center for Competitive Politics, they sent one of their staffers to attend the hearing, but she was barred from entry. Apparently, as CCP pointedly said, “their version of democracy wasn’t strong enough to allow regular folks to attend their rubber-stamp hearing for the bill.”

The Rules Committee decided to allow only one hour of debate before a vote, which will probably occur either Thursday or Friday. All GOP motions, including one to extend the debate to four hours, were rejected. The Democrats believe that only one hour of free speech is needed before voting on a bill that will severely restrict free speech.

An effort to allow a vote on eliminating the NRA exemption was defeated, thus guaranteeing a two-tiered system of First Amendment rules for political speech. The Democratic leadership will only allow floor votes on five amendments. The first would require covered organizations to report required disclosures to shareholders, members, and donors in a “clear and conspicuous manner.” The second would prohibit any company with leases on the Outer Continental Shelf from making campaign-related expenditures. In other words, Congress would silence companies that are in favor of oil and gas drilling, but not the critics of offshore drilling. One could not find a starker example of how this bill is intended to silence those whose political views the liberals don’t like.

A third amendment covers corporations with significant ownership by foreign governments or foreign nationals; a fourth amendment would force disclaimers on advertisements to include the city and state of the funder’s residence or principle office. This will lengthen the required disclaimers even more — even the ACLU says that these new disclaimer requirements are so burdensome that “they would either drown out the intended message or discourage groups from speaking out at all.”

The ACLU & conservatives agreeing? Yep, the mouth piece of the progressive left is even unhappy that a brown shirt type gag will be placed on the American public. The following can be attributed to Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

"Our Constitution embraces public discussion of matters that are important to our nation's future, and it respects the right of individuals to support those conversations without being exposed to unnecessary risks of harassment or embarrassment. Only reforms that promote speech, rather than limit it, and apply evenhandedly, rather than selectively, will bring positive change to our elections."

Regardless of partisan leanings, color, creed, underwear size, hairstyle, etc... every U.S. citizen has the right to Free Speech. We may not like what someone has to say.... but this inherent right was one of the basic building blocks for the founding of our country and to ensure our freedom must be protected.

For a Roll Call of the vote Click Here.