Warning: Rant on PolticsSomehow, I have managed to get onto all kinds of Republican and conservative mailing lists recently. (I admit I considered changing my voter registration to Republican so I could vote FOR John McCain in the primary since I consider his challenger really unacceptable but it looks like McCain is in control of the race now so I won't have to do that). I have requested to be removed but to no avail. I got the following gem this morning which I am pasting verbatim (except for the pics that were in it).
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AARP Above The Law Once Again;
U.S. House Places Restrictions on Free Speech
for Groups Like SSI While Exempting AARP
It’s not enough for congressional liberals that AARP already has its own special private-letter ruling from the IRS exempting its insurance-commission revenues from the income tax; now the liberals in Congress want to give AARP special political-speech rights that it would deny to smaller, newer non-profits groups such as The Social Security Institute.
Such unequal treatment under the law is unfair, unjust and unconstitutional.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of campaign finance reform (The DISCLOSE Act) in an effort to sidestep the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission, which struck down the McCain-Feingold law as an unconstitutional infringement of free speech by corporations and labor unions. In order to head off opposition to the bill by the powerful National Rifle Association, which surely would have killed the legislation, bill sponsors slipped in a carefully tailored exemption freeing the NRA and a few other big liberal non-profit organizations such as AARP from the strictures of the law.
Do Not Allow Liberal Democrats to put AARP Above the Law Again;
Fax Congress NOW to Prevent Another Sweetheart Deal for AARP
The DISCLOSE Act draws an irrational and unjustified distinction between non-profit groups for purely political reasons, and in the process, it produces a discernable disparate impact politically by favoring liberal organizations over conservative groups. Only organizations at least 2 ½ years old with 500,000 or more dues-paying members (including at least one dues-paying member in each of the 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico) are spared the political-speech restrictions created by the bill. There are very few non-profit organizations that meet the narrowly drawn distinctions of the DISCLOSE Act, all of them liberal with the exception of the NRA.
By drawing this unwarranted and irrational distinction, Congress consigns newer, smaller groups such as The Social Security Institute to second-class citizenship status, imposing on them indefensible restrictions on their right to engage in free and unfettered political speech in election campaigns.
Such unequal treatment under the law is unfair and unjust.
There was no rational basis for the House to create two classes of organizations, one with fewer free-speech rights than the other. The only purpose of the discriminatory, rifle-shot exemption was political, to neutralize political opposition from the powerful NRA. But once Congress decided for political expediency to make some groups more equal than others, House liberals took full advantage of the opportunity to expand the exemption just enough to cover its favorite left-leaning groups and put liberal groups such as AARP, the ACLU and the Sierra Club above the law.
Do Not Allow Liberal Democrats to put AARP Above the Law Again;
Fax Congress NOW to Prevent Another Sweetheart Deal for AARP
Before the DISCLOSE Act moves to the U.S. Senate, all Americans who believe in free speech and equal protection under the laws must fax their senators and demand the AARP exemption be removed from the bill.
The AARP exemption not only is constitutionally repugnant, it is also a political rifle shot right at the heart of groups like SSI. This sweetheart deal for AARP will greatly disadvantage conservative groups such as The Social Security Institute in competing with AARP in the political arena.
The evidence of the political bias the AARP free-speech exemption creates is crystal clear: Liberals are in a heated rush to ram the legislation through Congress in time to freeze conservative advocacy during the upcoming fall campaign.
Do Not Allow Liberal Democrats to put AARP Above the Law Again;
Fax Congress NOW to Prevent Another Sweetheart Deal for AARP
It is bad enough that Congress is trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling and find a slippery constitutional means to restrict political speech by non-profit organizations. The only thing worse is for Congress to impose restrictions on some groups but not others.
It is irrational and unjust for Congress to sneak around the First Amendment with a backhanded restriction on the right of non-profit organizations to speak freely during elections campaigns. It is irrational, unjust AND outrageously unconstitutional for Congress to anoint some non-profit organizations freer than others to speak their piece.
Fax Congress NOW. Don’t let liberals exempt AARP from restrictions on political speech while imposing those restrictions on other groups such as the Social Security Institute.
Make your voices heard in the halls of Congress.
Do Not Allow Liberal Democrats to put AARP Above the Law Again;
Fax Congress NOW to Prevent Another Sweetheart Deal for AARP
Sincerely,
Lawrence A. Hunter, Ph.D.
Social Security Institute
15 Culpeper St.
Warrenton VA, 20186
P.S.Free Speech is for EVERYONE or it is notFree. YOUR FAXES DO HAVE IMPACT.Send Every Member of Congress a Message – SEND FAXES NOW!
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So here is the key offending statement: "In order to head off opposition to the bill by the powerful National Rifle Association, which surely would have killed the legislation, bill sponsors slipped in a carefully tailored exemption freeing the NRA and a few other big liberal non-profit organizations such as AARP from the strictures of the law. "
The NRA is a liberal non-profit? Yeah, "the NRA and a few other big liberal non-profit organizations..." Sorry dude, you don't get to rail on a the liberals for a provision inserted into a bill for the NRA! Yes, the Sierra Club will also be exempt, but they weren't the ones threatening to kill the bill over this provision.
What gets my goat is the amazingly hypocritical rhetoric. A provision inserted into the bill for the conservative NRA and then conservatives criticize it! Make up your mind already! Talk about damned if you do and damned if you don't!
And the worst part is, I don't want this provision in there! I am in favor of full disclosure and don't want the Sierra Club, the NRA , or whoever exempt. You can also note that he lists many liberal organizations that would be exempt by not other conservative organizations which would benefit (such as the American Family Association which claims to have over the minimum number of members to be exempt as well).
We have the right of free speech, but with rights come responsibilities and I think one of those responsibilities is to have the cojones to tell us who you are.
By framing the issue a) disohonestly and b) in totally partisan terms, Lawrence Hunter, PhD, seems to be going out of his way to alienate people who might AGREE WITH HIM ON THIS ISSUE! No attempt is made to argue the merits (or lack thereof in this case) of the provision, just an appeal to oh, the evil liberals did it...I guess partisan pandering is more appealing that cogent arguments. And he could do a bang up job with the cogent arguments because I think he's on the right side on this one (but he doesn't want to risk badmouthing the NRA).
And Lawrence Hunter, Phd, if you don't want me posting your emails on for all to see, maybe you should finally honor my request (which I have made multiple times and again this morning) to be removed from you mailing list!
. . . I don’t like it. Recently, Google News (http://news.google.com/) changed the layout of their site. Google News is one of the sites I’ve become addicted to. As far as I’m concerned, their new format is for crap. Although you can customize the page, you lose that every time you dump your cookies, and I do that quite often. And even customized, the page is not what it once was. If I perceived some benefit to these changes, I wouldn’t complain. But like so many other changes that I see, it seems to me like it was change for the sake of change.
