Speach and thought police start campaign to stop truth on the web.

[Guest guest]

As the major media of television, radio, and major print newspapers have become

not much more than propaganda organs for the neocons and the oligarcy, many

people are turning to the web and finding a more unvarnished version of the

truth, the power elite see it as a growing threat that must be " regulated "

(squashed). F.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61433-2005Mar23.html

 

 

read the following 3 times.

 

" at least at this stage, we don't plan to regulate the vast majority "

 

 

 

FEC Signals Light Hand On Internet Campaigning

 

By Brian Faler

Special to The Washington Post

Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A08

 

The Federal Election Commission revealed yesterday that it plans to

take what one of its commissioners termed a " relatively nonintrusive "

approach to regulating political campaigns on the Internet.

 

The agency, which is beginning to consider how and whether to restrict

blogs, e-mail and other online activities, released a document

describing the legal issues it plans to tackle over the next several

months.

 

Its " notice of proposed rulemaking, " as it is known, indicates that

the FEC is focusing much of its attention on whether to apply federal

contribution limits on online political advertising campaigns. It also

indicates that the six-member panel has not decided to impose, but is

leaning against imposing, restrictions on independent bloggers or

bloggers who work for political campaigns.

 

" I think that we're trying to use this document as some sort of broad

hint that, at least at this stage, we don't plan to regulate the vast

majority of what individuals do [online] and the vast majority of what

bloggers do, " said FEC Chairman Scott E. Thomas (D).

 

" It is designed to give people a pretty clear signal that the FEC

never did have any intent to overregulate citizens who want to use

Internet technology for communicating in the area of politics, " he added.

 

The agency is being forced to address the issue after losing a federal

court case last fall. Two of the sponsors of the campaign finance

reform legislation that was adopted in 2002 had sued the FEC,

complaining that the regulations it wrote to implement the law were

too lax. In September, the legislation's sponsors won. The agency must

now rewrite a number of those rules, including ones that had left

online political activities virtually free from government regulation.

But the FEC is free to address whatever legal issues it chooses.

 

Commissioner Bradley A. Smith ® sparked a firestorm in the

blogosphere earlier this month when he suggested that the agency might

begin regulating bloggers who back political candidates. Since then,

several other FEC commissioners, who oppose the idea, have taken their

views to the news media.

 

But this is the first time the FEC has revealed its agenda for this

round of rulemaking. The agency will collect public comments on the

document for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register,

said Thomas. The agency then plans to hold a public hearing on the

issue and then, this summer or possibly this fall, vote on the final

regulations.