{"id":23813,"date":"2014-09-11T06:08:05","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T10:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=23813"},"modified":"2014-09-11T06:08:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T10:08:05","slug":"senators-opposed-to-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=23813","title":{"rendered":"Senators Opposed To Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the Washington Post<\/a> posted an article by George Will on a recent move by Senate Democrats to limit free speech.<\/p>\n

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution<\/a> reads:<\/p>\n

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not a lawyer (neither were most of our founding fathers), but that seems pretty clear to me.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reports:<\/p>\n

The 48 senators proposing to give legislators speech-regulating powers describe their amendment in anodyne language<\/a>, as \u201crelating to contributions and expenditures intended to affect elections.\u201d But what affects elections is speech, and the vast majority of contributions and expenditures are made to disseminate speech. The Democrats\u2019 amendment says: \u201cCongress and the states may regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections,\u201d and may \u201cprohibit\u201d corporations \u2014 including nonprofit issue-advocacy corporations (such as the Sierra Club, NARAL Pro-Choice America<\/a> and thousands of others across the political spectrum) from spending any<\/i> money \u201cto influence elections,\u201d which is what most of them exist to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because all limits will be set by incumbent legislators, the limits deemed \u201creasonable\u201d will surely serve incumbents\u2019 interests. The lower the limits, the more valuable will be the myriad (and unregulated) advantages of officeholders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The foxes are guarding the hen house again.<\/p>\n

This is the list of Senators proposing this bill. The names in italics are Senators running for re-election:<\/p>\n

Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Mark Begich (Alaska)<\/i>, Michael Bennet (Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Cory Booker (N.J.)<\/i>, Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Benjamin Cardin (Md.), Thomas Carper (Del.), Robert Casey (Pa.), Christopher Coons (Del.)<\/i>, Richard Durbin (Ill.)<\/i>, Dianne Feinstein<\/a> (Calif.), Al Franken (Minn.<\/a>)<\/i>, Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kay Hagan (N.C.)<\/i>, Tom Harkin (Iowa), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Angus King (Maine), Amy Klobuchar<\/a> (Minn.), Carl Levin (Mich.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Edward Markey (Mass.)<\/i>, Claire McCaskill<\/a> (Mo.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Christopher Murphy (Conn.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Jack Reed (R.I.)<\/i>, Harry Reid (Nev.), John Rockefeller (W.Va.), Bernard Sanders<\/a> (Vt.), Brian Schatz<\/a> (Hawaii)<\/i>, Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.)<\/i>, Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Jon Tester (Mont.), Mark Udall (Colo.)<\/i>, John Walsh (Mont.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Ron Wyden (Ore.).<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one example of why we need term limits and Congressmen who understand the Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, the Washington Post posted an article by George Will on a recent move by Senate Democrats to limit free speech. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8088,7078,8086,1541,3640,2205,733,6791,8087,4771,1134],"class_list":["post-23813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amy-klobuchar","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-brian-schatz","tag-claire-mccaskill","tag-dianne-feinstein","tag-first-amendment","tag-harry-reid","tag-kay-hagan","tag-naral-pro-choice-america","tag-u-s-constitution","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23814,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23813\/revisions\/23814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}