OnLine First Amendment Bill Defeated

Today was not a good day for free speech online. The US House defeated HB H.R. 1606 that would remove restrictions placed on online speech by the Federal Elections Commission in 2002 in an effort to control "soft money" (good thing - Ed.Note). The result is Federal Control over on-line, political speech (bad thing -Ed.Note). Political comments now face certain restrictions (see http://www.fec.gov ) that in short make it almost impossible for an individual to freely comment on elections, or elected officals due to the everchanging reporting requirements.

From the ">First Amendment Center "The House voted 225-182 for H.R 1606, which would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments."

Looking at the Roll Call Vote from the House of Representitives (Roll Call Vote 559) the following Representitives voted to Pass (this mean not send the Bill on for consideration) and fail the bill:

Aderholt Akin Alexander Baca Bachus Baker Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Beauprez Berman Biggert Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blumenauer Blunt Boehner Bonilla Bonner Bono Boozman Boren Boucher Boustany Brady (TX) Brown (OH) Brown (SC) Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp Cannon Cantor Capito Capuano Cardoza Carter Chabot Chandler Chocola Clay Cole (OK) Conaway Conyers Costa Cramer Crenshaw Cuellar Culberson Cunningham Davis (KY) Davis (TN) Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Tom Deal (GA) DeLay Dent Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Doolittle Drake Dreier Duncan Ehlers English (PA) Eshoo Everett Fattah Feeney Ferguson Fitzpatrick (PA)

Flake Foley Forbes Fortenberry Fossella Foxx Franks (AZ) Garrett (NJ) Gerlach Gibbons Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Granger Graves Green (WI) Gutknecht Harris Hart Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hensarling Herger Herseth Hoekstra Honda Hostettler Hoyer Hulshof Hunter Inglis (SC) Issa Istook Jenkins Jindal Johnson, Sam Jones (NC) Keller Kelly Kennedy (MN) Kennedy (RI) Kind King (IA) Kingston Kline Knollenberg Kolbe Kuhl (NY) Latham Lee Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Linder Lofgren, Zoe Lucas Lungren, Daniel E. Mack Manzullo Marchant Matheson McCaul (TX) McCotter McCrery McHenry McHugh McKeon McKinney McMorris Melancon Mica Miller (MI) Miller, Gary Moran (KS)

Murphy Murtha Musgrave Myrick Neugebauer Ney Northup Nunes Nussle Otter Paul Pence Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Pickering Pitts Poe Porter Price (GA) Putnam Rahall Rehberg Reichert Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ros-Lehtinen Ross Royce Ryan (OH) Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Salazar Sanchez, Loretta Scott (GA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Sessions Shadegg Shaw Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Simpson Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Sodrel Souder Stearns Strickland Sullivan Sweeney Tancredo Taylor (NC) Terry Thomas Thompson (CA) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Udall (CO) Waters Watson Weldon (FL) Weller Westmoreland Whitfield Wicker Wilson (SC) Woolsey Wynn Young (FL)

In my opinion this is completely unacceptable behavior from the House. If your Representitive is on this list, call, fax, or email then today! Rep Jeb Hensarling will be attempting to reintroduce this bill before the session ends.