If you thought McCain-Feingold was scary...

...just wait for Pelosi's "lobbying reform!" This is bad news for the ability of citizens to pool their resources to make their voices heard throughout America and, more importantly, on the Hill. Should this "reform" become reality, we at the grassroots level will effectively have our little mouths duct-taped shut. From Mark Tapscott's article, "Pelosi preparing new shackles on free speech," on Examiner.com:

... "The key provision of the 2006 bill was its redefinition of grassroots lobbying to include small citizens groups whose messages about Congress and public policy issues are directed toward the general public, according to attorneys for the Free Speech Coalition.

All informational and educational materials produced by such groups would have to be registered and reported on a quarterly basis. Failure to report would result in severe civil penalties (likely followed soon by criminal penalties as well).

In addition, the 2006 bill created a new statutory category of First Amendment activity to be regulated by Congress. Known as “grassroots lobbying firms,” these groups would be required to register with Congress and be subject to penalties whenever they are paid $50,000 or more to communicate with the general public during any three-month period.

In other words, for the first time in American history, potentially millions of concerned citizens involved in grassroots lobbying and representing viewpoints from across the entire political spectrum would have to register with Congress in order to exercise their First Amendment rights." ...

Bloggers (whether Independent, Liberal, or Conservative), this could very well be applied to us. How many people read your blog every day, week, month, year? How many emails do you circulate among friends who then circulate it even further to their friends? The scoop in a nutshell comes from an email that hit my inbox today (I've added the links):

"Dear fellow conservative:

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and liberal Washington insiders plan to silence the conservative movement under the guise of lobbying reform unless we act fast.

In her “First 100 Hours” as Speaker, Pelosi plans to rush legislation written by liberal special interest groups such as Public Interest, Common Cause and others who brought us the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which regulates political contributions. The Pelosi/Reid plan would regulate speech to the general public. This is worse than McCain/Feingold!

The first or second conservative organization, group or individual to be fined or even subject to criminal penalties for failure to register or report will cause us to stop or at least pull our punches on what we say and do. This will effectively shut down the conservative movement, and the liberals know it.

The Pelosi/Reid plan is perhaps the most comprehensive regulation of political speech ever proposed, and would make small grassroots causes report quarterly to Congress the same as K Street lobbyists representing wealthy interests before Congress. Communications to as few as 500 citizens would trigger reporting under lobbying laws.

The reporting requirements and more severe penalties being written in response to recent congressional corruption scandals would apply to those who have no Washington lobbyists, who make no political contributions, and who do not provide gifts, travel or anything of value to politicians.

This is intended to cripple the conservative movement, for which the grassroots are our valuable – sometimes our only – means of affecting public policy.

Reid says he plans to introduce in the Senate the same bill that was passed in 2006. Senators Joe Lieberman and Carl Levin, co-sponsors of the Senate version in 2006, told America not to worry because the bill is targeted at only “paid efforts” to inform and motivate citizens to contact Congress on policy matters. Their bill doesn’t define “paid” except by excluding communications to fewer than 500 citizens, with no other conditions or qualifiers.

That, of course, means that your emails, blogs, editorial ads in newspapers, direct mail and other forms of the new and alternative media, regardless of costs, could trigger reporting and potential penalty (civil and even criminal) provisions.

Besides adding new, unprecedented reporting to Congress, the Pelosi/Reid bills provide loopholes so large corporations, labor unions and even foreign interests could spend hundreds of millions of dollars communicating to shareholders, officers, employees and members, yet still not report those expenditures the same as even the smallest, most financially burdened conservative causes and even individuals.

Many small, start-up and under-funded conservative causes and individuals will not be able to afford costs of quarterly compliance, so will not be able to engage in their communication efforts, or will face stiff fines and potential criminal penalties simply by engaging in First Amendment rights.

Critics who can afford to report quarterly to Congress, often the deserved object of grassroots criticism, will be under the thumb of lawmakers. That, in First Amendment terminology, would “chill” First Amendment rights, resulting in censorship of political speech.

This is why Pelosi, Reid and liberal Washington insiders want to regulate grassroots speech.

I am starting a new effort called GrassrootsFreedom.com to help organize the conservative movement on this one issue, and stop Pelosi, Reid and their liberal friends from silencing us.

We must flood Congress with petitions, emails and phone calls. We must also generate OpEds against this bill. We need to call into talk radio shows.

Mark Tapscott wrote an excellent piece for The Washington Examiner and Amanda Carpenter also wrote a brilliant piece for Human Events." ...

"I also enclose a letter signed by 47 conservative and other leaders, such as Dave Keene, Paul Weyrich, Morton Blackwell and Don Wildmon to Public Citizen opposing this legislation." ...

Remember, during the Clinton presidency the liberals made an attempt to silence conservative talk radio. Conservatives labeled that the “Hush Rush” bill. And if Pelosi and friends are successful in silencing the grassroots conservatives, you can fully expect their next target to be to abolish or at least cripple talk radio with the Fairness Doctrine to silence conservative talk radio.

Well, one NewsMax.com piece discusses how this new bill could even regulate and impede conservative talk radio." ...

"We only have a few days to alert the entire conservative community. GrassrootsFreedom.com will be sending you more news, and will be helping lead the charge. Please get this information to your grassroots networks, and let’s stop Pelosi, Reid and the Washington Establishment from trying to silence us.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Viguerie

P.S. GrassrootsFreedom.com will have more information, petitions, etc. up soon, and I would appreciate hearing back from you particularly describing any action you take to help stop this assault on our freedoms and the conservative movement in particular."

I think many of us have known for a long time that without grassroots efforts, Conservatism would have been relegated to obscurity years ago as the mass media driven messages numb citizens into submission to Leftwing propaganda: "Big Government is your friend, citizen. We, the Government officials who know best, will take care of you. You need not be an individual and aspire to a better life for yourself and your family; we will provide what is required for you to live the meager life that will serve your needs."

This effort by Pelosi and Reid simply smacks of Orwellian double-speak: "We will protect you from those critical thinkers who confuse and mislead you. Those nasty 'lobbyists' will bother you no longer. We will ensure that the information you receive is fit for your consumption. Rest your little brain, citizen."

So apparently, under Democrat leadership, free speech will no longer be free. "Censorship" will be the word of the year in 2007 -- that is, if it is not removed from the online dictionaries and published reference material in the libraries by the Government to protect us from lobbyists. If that doesn't scare you, you're not paying attention, citizen.