Blogs vs. the FEC
The Blogosphere is a-twitter over recent comments by the FEC related to blogs, in-kind campaign contributions and general campaign finance issues. To get a good sense of the silliness, check out the comments from LearnedFoot over at the Kool-Aid Report (tip o' the fedora to Doug at Bogus Gold)
This truly shows the utter absurdity of the McCain-Feingold bill and any other attempts to regulate campaigns. I've always thought that the way to solve the whole campaign finance problem is two simple concepts:
This truly shows the utter absurdity of the McCain-Feingold bill and any other attempts to regulate campaigns. I've always thought that the way to solve the whole campaign finance problem is two simple concepts:
- Allow anyone to contribute any quantity of money to any campaign
- All donations must be publicly disclosed within (say) 48 hours of the donation
That's it! No freedom of speech issues, no limitations, just good clean political fun.
The founders would be rolling in their graves if they were able to see the lengths that our government has gone to restrict political speech.
posted by festivus | 3/05/2005 09:33:00 PM
I heard on the Northern Alliance Radio Network yesterday that Captain Ed had linked more often to the Kerry campaign than Bush....I guess someone will be charged with valuing each specific link. (Does anyone want to get into business with me on this...)
I totally agree with your comments and idea. To further the public disclosure rule, the amount of the donation should be correlated to the pro-action of the disclosure. For example, if someone donates $100 their name should appear on a public list accessible by anyone over the internet (the way it is currently). If someone contributes $10 million their names should be included at the bottom of every campaign ad or a totally separate ad should be run stating that that person contributed and how much was contributed, just to make sure that as many people as possible know about the influence. There should be a sliding scale for every amount of contribution in between.
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