Constant Opinions

Sometimes it’s really scary watching how close we can come to losing one right or another. The most recent close call was Section 220 of S. 1, which confronted the issue of “grassroots commentators”, as they called it.

If that terminology isn’t clear, let me try to help. Bloggers have the potential to fall into the group, for all the Senate was claiming to be targeting other groups, 220 would have impacted anyone who communicated politically to more than 500 members of the public on policy matters. Awfully easy for a blogger to fall into that group, as you can imagine.

To avoid getting into trouble, bloggers would have to register as lobbyists or face criminal penalties.

Unusually enough, this attempt appears to have come from the liberal end of the spectrum, which is certainly not what most would expect. There are some arguing that this is just more partisan bickering, since the voting was so close along party lines.
While I’m quite relieved that this one didn’t pass I don’t expect it to be the only attempt. I see too much evidence of late that our politicians on both sides of the spectrum have little respect for the rights of the people.

Technorati Tags: grassroots commentators, amendment 220

Filed under: Controversial, Politics