H.R. 1606: Time to ACT-NOW!!!!!

[dogday]

Moments ago, the FEC announced that it will delay its vote on the Internet rulemaking (from tomorrow, 3/16, until 3/23) so that the Commission can see what the House of Representatives does on the issue tomorrow. It's up to you to convince Congress to stand up for H.R. 1606, which is scheduled for a vote tomorrow, and prevent the FEC from voting on new regulations which may change Internet political activity forever.

Everyone here -- everyone -- needs to to pick up the phone and make a call to protect free speech online. Our opponents are ruthless, and we need to tell both Democrats and Republicans to stand up to the "reformers" and stand up for H.R. 1606.

In calling your representative and Democratic leaders to support H.R. 1606, here are some key points you might want to make:

HR 1606 is a simple bill that just codifies the status quo. This is the system which operated for the 2004 elections, and did not lead to soft money corruption. It creates no new loopholes.

HR 1606 would help head off an invasive FEC regulatory process which is scheduled for a vote tomorrow on draft regulations no one has seen.

HR 1606 has the support of leading Democrats including Rep. Steny Hoyer (whip), Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Sherrod Brown, Rep. Jack Murtha, Rep. Maxine Waters and Sen. Harry Reid

HR 4900 (the CDT proposal) is not now an acceptable alternative to HR 1606. It hasn't been through committee yet and no one is sure of its implications -- for example, its proponents are unwilling to say whether it even protects DailyKos. And given that its proponents have made it clear in the past that they don't want sites like this to operate freely, no politician who claims to be a "friend of the netroots" should want to clear the path for this site's regulation.

Moreover, HR 4900 accepts as a given that the political activity on the Internet ought to be regulated, and it's just a question of how. Given how well this speech market has policed itself over the years, why disrupt anything?

After you call your Congressman, please give key Democratic House leaders a call. Back in November, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman visited here to explain their then-opposition to H.R. 1606, but they still wanted to "assure the blogging community that we are fully committed to freedom of speech on the Internet and do not support any attempt to subject every day bloggers to FEC regulations or silence the rights of Americans to go online and voice their opinion."

It's time to hold them to it. While my understanding is that they are opposed for the moment to HR 1606, they haven't heard from you yet. So after you dial the Capitol Switchboard at [phone] and ask to speak to your Congressman, give Reps. Pelosi and Waxman a call, and ask them why they'd support a bill that could be used to regulate this site into silence:

Rep. Pelosi: [phone]
Rep. Waxman: [phone]

The netroots only has power when we choose to exert it, and if we prevail, we may never have to see what the FEC had in store for us. Call your Congressman at [phone] right now.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/15/124948/880

[sasha031]

1. done

:thumbsup:

[dogday]

2. Thanks, this needs to be done by everyone here

It affects us all.....