Give Me Liberty Or Else!!!
That's the message that the blogosphere should send to McCain and other power-hungry do-gooders for McCain-Feingold.
Newt Gingrich thinks that that's what the Roberts Court will do if they hear a case involving the Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) and the Federal Election Commission. Here's what happened:
The courts aren't the only places where people ignore the Constitution. What do you think John Murtha's diatribe is doing to those Marines' constitutional rights to a fair trial and to their other due process rights? It certainly isn't enhancing their rights to a fair trial. That's if anyone gets charged, which isn't guaranteed but seems likely.
See how quickly Democrats abandon their mantra of fair play when it doesn't help them advance their agenda?
Let's look at Newt's counter to McCain-Feingold:
It's time that we got rid of that abomination of legislation because it runs counter to every principle that our Founding Fathers fought for and were willing to die for. It's time that We The People told those smarmy bureaucrats to get their censorship laws out of the way or we'll elect people to replace them who will repeal that abomination.
Posted Thursday, June 1, 2006 9:14 PM
April 2006 Posts
No comments.
WRTL attempted to air several issue ads in Wisconsin in the summer of 2004 calling on citizens to urge both of Wisconsin's U.S. Senators to oppose the filibustering of federal judicial appointments. McCain-Feingold however, which Wisconsin Senator Feingold cosponsored, contains a free speech "blackout period" before elections in which radio and television ads mentioning a candidate are deemed "electioneering communications" and are thus illegal. Therefore, since Senator Feingold was up for reelection in 60 days, this Wisconsin grassroots organization could not exercise their First Amendment rights and hold their elected representative accountable.The Rehnquist Court saw fit to let stand McCain-Feingold, a clearly unconstitutional bill for 'the greater good'. Simply put, that's dangerous. Justices Souter, Breyer, Ginsburg, Stevens & O'Connor essentially said that they would ignore the First Amendment because it was more important to clean up political campaigns.
The courts aren't the only places where people ignore the Constitution. What do you think John Murtha's diatribe is doing to those Marines' constitutional rights to a fair trial and to their other due process rights? It certainly isn't enhancing their rights to a fair trial. That's if anyone gets charged, which isn't guaranteed but seems likely.
See how quickly Democrats abandon their mantra of fair play when it doesn't help them advance their agenda?
Let's look at Newt's counter to McCain-Feingold:
McCain-Feingold explicitly rejects James Madison's warning in Federalist 10 that the destruction of liberty in pursuit of "curing the mischief of factions" is worse than the disease itself.McCain-Feingold couldn't possibly be seen as of by or for the people, which Newt rightly states is where all power lies. McCain-Feingold essentially says that they know better than Jefferson and Madison what's best for society. That isn't just elitist, it's unconstitutional because it's a huge restriction of our First Amendment rights.
Madison and Thomas Jefferson were very sensitive to limitations on free speech because they lived through the Federalist efforts to criminalize political speech that was critical of the government. In response to the Sedition Act, Madison helped author the Virginia legislature's resolution that declared the act unconstitutional and stated that the law "ought to produce universal alarm, because it is leveled against that right of freely examining public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every other right." Jefferson helped write Kentucky's resolution, which called the Sedition Act a momentous regulation that wounds "the best rights of the citizen" and stated that "it would consider a silent acquiescence [to it] as highly criminal."
It's time that we got rid of that abomination of legislation because it runs counter to every principle that our Founding Fathers fought for and were willing to die for. It's time that We The People told those smarmy bureaucrats to get their censorship laws out of the way or we'll elect people to replace them who will repeal that abomination.
Posted Thursday, June 1, 2006 9:14 PM
April 2006 Posts
No comments.
