Grandma's House

Looks like trouble brewing in the good ole U.S. of A., and this time both sides of the political spectrum better work together or die an ugly death. The powers that be are thinking of expanding the McCain-Feingold debacle so that the political opinions expressed on the internet would be treated the same as print material or television programming.

Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over. In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

It could even extend to posting an entry praising a candidate. They would try to determine how much that helped the politician, and you could be fined accordingly, if your post helped to raise more than the limits set by McCain-Feingold. You may ask, what makes Bradley Smith's opinions any better than anyone else? Bradley Smith is one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission who are trying to unravel this mess. Of course, you can tell by his writing he's opposed to the expansion, but some of the commissioners are not. I say the Republicans and Democrats both have something to lose if this monstrosity is enacted. Please, contact your Congresscritters and let them know that this is not acceptable. The internet is one of the few places left where people can truly write what they feel, without the government telling them to stop. While you're at it, see what you can do about repealing McCain-Feingold. It never should have been signed into law in the first place. It is the epitome of a violation of the First Amendment, and must be stopped. One of our most basic freedoms is riding on this. Both sides of the aisle have a lot to lose. We should all work together to protect what is rightfully ours.