A post by Pat
*UPDATE 6/18: The vote was again postponed. Maybe the ultimate result of the NRA sellout will be to kill the bill. I don’t think they planned it that way.
Apparently small organizations are the greatest danger to democracy. Environmental groups were not pleased by the House Democrats exempting the NRA from the DISCLOSE Act so there was another rewrite and even more groups were exempted.
Groups to Pelosi: Drop NRA exemption on campaign finance bill
Forty-five political and advocacy groups, including the Alliance for Justice, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club, have warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that they will oppose new campaign finance and disclosure reforms unless an exemption in the bill created to placate the National Rifle Association is dropped.
“It is inappropriate and inequitable to create a two-tiered system of campaign finance laws and First Amendment protections, one for the most powerful and influential and one for everyone else,” the groups wrote. “There is no legitimate justification for privileging the speech of one entity over another, or of reducing the burdens of compliance for the biggest organization yet retaining them for the smallest.”
Instead of striking the language exempting groups larger than 1 million, the size of exempted groups was reduced to 500,000 or more.
Dems Add More Exemptions To Disclosure Bill
DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen, lead sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, told the Dem Caucus this morning the bill will allow long-standing organizations with more than 500K members to be exempt from disclosing their membership lists. An original carve-out, aimed primarily at mollifying the NRA, would have exempted only groups with memberships of more than 1M.
The deal with the NRA incensed House liberals, 15 of whom met with Van Hollen and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday to air their complaints. Several members, including Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) — leader of the group of liberals — Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) have voiced strong reservations about the bill’s NRA provisions.
Remember the DISCLOSE Act is the “Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act”. We must assume Congress thinks it’s the smallest and newest groups, i.e. Tea Party groups, that are the most dangerous to democracy. We know what is endangered by these groups—government as usual.
It is the newer grassroots groups that have the elites running scared. Nothing could have made that more clear than this blatant attempt to silence these voices. It is disappointing to see these groups squashed by their brethren as well as Big Brother. The new grassroots groups are a sleeping giant just awakening. Membership in these individual groups may number in the hundreds or dozens but taken as a whole they are millions strong and will not be silenced.
A floor vote on the bill is expected tomorrow.
Small organization of “one” here! The power of individual voices are very scary to the left … witness Pat’s post and my capability to comment on it! Hit the submit button, and POOF – exercising my first amendment rights…and the whole free world can access these few words.
DeMint to Introduce Bill to Stop FCC’s Attempted Internet Takeover and Tax
Very difficult to explain this critical issue to a society that thinks only of lust and lunch.
I’m confused. By what authority can Congress peer into the lists of private gtoups? What can we do about it?
Star Trek NG: Nemesis; Scene where all of the Romulan senators are congregated and the end result is quite the demise and quite desired
In all seriousness (well who is to say I wasn’t) this congress is beyond corrupt they would frankly do anything to destroy each and every one of us
One the face of it, this seems pretty odd. Typically legislation affects big players and exempts small players. Weird that it should be the other way around. Seems like an attempt to perpetualize the status quo. Which makes sense if you’re Obama and on top of the situation, but you expect your power to wane in the next election cycle. Or you would have waned, except that you froze things in the optimum state.
The following is my response to Michael Land of the NRA-PVF with respect to the so-called disclose act:
Dear Mr. Land:
Thank you for responding to my letter of several days ago. The following is what I, as an NRA member (who happens to be a Life Member along with his son… but then that shouldn’t matter as I am just a member like all other members) find most disturbing about the NRA’s stance with respect to HR 5175, the so-called DISCLOSE ACT.:
‘ We told Congress we opposed the bill. As a result, congressional leaders made a commitment to exempt us from its draconian restrictions on free speech.’
This bold highlighted part of the NRA’s statement, Sir, is the Democrat’s/Obama’s attempt to buy the NRA organization off to eliminate its opposition.
The following quote notes the NRA’s willingness to take a dive in order to get an exemption from the proposed law:
‘If that commitment is honored, we will not be involved in the final House debate.’
For the NRA NOT TO BE INVOLVED IN FIGHTING THIS STIFLEMENT OF FREE SPEECH FOR THE BENEFIT OF PROTECTING INCUMBANT POLITIICANS IS A TRAVESTY. The NRA is not the sole guardian of the 1st Amendment or any part of the Constitution, let alone the 2nd Amendment…to assert that it is the sole protector of any part of the Constittution is arrogant as well as an insult to my intelligence, Sir.
I also note that in your view ‘some’ NRA members feel as I do. Trust me, Sir, it will become ‘many’ if not ‘all’-…very soon.
It is clear to me now that the NRA needs its own ‘Tea Party’ from within to purge bad leadership as well as reform a PVF rating system that is a joke. If the NRA doesn’t recind its decision to go along with this DISCLOSE law under the current circumstances I will leave it as well as my son as we are both ‘LIFE’ members….
Right now, I don’t know what is in the heads of the NRA leadership of Wayne LaPiere and Chris Cox, but it stinks. I think they need to go.
Sincerely,
Greg Winchell
As the reader can tell, I’m pissed.
Banks, Insurance Companies, AARP, AMA and now the NRA? Why do these organizations think that they can work with this administration? (or sorry, oil companies now too).