Co-sponsors legislation that ensures bloggers’ right to political expression
Washington, DC—Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-5) today announced her co-sponsorship of the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 (H.R. 5699), a bill that safeguards the First Amendment rights of bloggers. The Blogger Protection Act will transform current regulations that protect bloggers’ rights into permanent federal law.
“Bloggers are a vital part of our national dialogue,” Foxx said. “Everyday, countless Americans take part in the political process via the blogosphere—breaking news, checking facts and voicing support or opposition to various candidates. We must ensure their rights are protected.”
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations two years ago to ensure bloggers free speech rights were not infringed upon by certain campaign finance laws. This ruling protected bloggers from misinterpretations of the law. Concerns had been raised that some people might construe bloggers writing about or linking to federal campaigns as a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate.
Additionally, the FEC ruled that blogs should be treated like any other publication under federal campaign laws. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law. But all of these blogger protections are merely regulatory—they are not in the law and can be changed without congressional action.
“We must not leave the First Amendment rights of bloggers in the hands of the Federal Election Commission,” Foxx said. “Bloggers’ rights are too important to leave them to the whims of a panel of federal regulators.”
I want to throw in my own comments here real quick. The freedom of the blogosphere has allowed your ordinary, every day citizen like your’s truly to really get their hands into the political realm and have a voice at making a difference. Some of the very top bloggers like RedState and the Daily Kos have been instrumental in getting their readers rallied to their cause, conservative or liberal, and have a part in the political process. In many cases bloggers have been even more effective than the mainstream media at exposing political corruption, like when Matt Drudge broke the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal some ten years ago. The Internet has changed the face of politics by giving the people an extra set of eyes to watch our elected officials. This freedom is imperative and must be protected. Congresswoman Foxx, as well as the other sponsors of the bill, deserve a lot of credit for their efforts here.
The Charleston NAACP called for school board Vice Chairwoman Nancy Cook to apologize or resign Tuesday for suggesting that unfit parents should be sterilized.
After meeting with Cook about her controversial comment over the weekend, the group said she should enroll in sensitivity and diversity training, and urged other members of the county school board to condemn her comment.
“Ms. Cook’s remarks show an arrogant and uncaring attitude toward single parents and their children that could easily have a negative impact on the funding, staffing and equipping of their schools,” NAACP branch President Dot Scott said during a press conference.
“Her words are especially offensive in the American South, where poor women were once involuntarily sterilized and often, with prejudice, labeled as unfit mothers because of their color or economic class.”
Anyone who heard Cook’s remarks know full well that there was nothing racial about them, but the NAACP has to somehow keep itself relevant. You have to understand that they really have no legitimate purpose today, therefore they must come out to wail and cry and insenuate racial strife to even the most remote stretch they can even when it isn’t really there. They don’t want their funding to dry up, after all.
As far as the sensitivity and diversity training goes, that’s the feel good term for Marxist brainwashing.
The N.C. Lieutenant Gubernatorial Candidates Forum will be televised at 8 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. Thursday on UNC-TV.
Participating in the forum are Democratic candidates Walter Dalton, Hampton Dellinger, Patrick Smathers and Dan Besse and Republican candidates Timothy Cook, Greg Dority and James Snyder. The only candidate not participating is Robert Pittenger because of a scheduling conflict. The moderator will be Shannon Vickery, UNC-TV’s executive producer for content.
Dozens of people spoke at a hearing in Raleigh about the pros and cons of North Carolina’s municipal annexation law.
More than 300 people packed at public hearing Wednesday night before a state House committee that will recommend any changes to the law.
A strong majority in the meeting room at the Legislative Building opposed the current law, particularly a provision that allows towns and cities to swallow up unincorporated areas without a referendum of the landowners being annexed.
But municipal elected leaders and planning directors who spoke said the law works well as written and helps North Carolina manage growth effectively.
These municipal leaders supporting this practice are nothing more than wolves in sheeps’ clothing. They could care less about managed growth. Forced annexation is all about a tax grab by the city officials. They want to reach into your wallet and snatch some of your money. People live in these areas precisely to avoid the higher costs of city bureaucracy.
Private property is one of the fundamental principles of a free society. When a city government can come along and forcibly redraw their borders to encompass your property they are infringing on your property rights. This needs to be made illegal and it is a travesty that it has gone on this long.
Orr cited a June 4, 2006 article in the Observer that said: “McCrory acknowledges undocumented workers likely had a role building Charlotte Bobcats Arena and expressed uncertainty about whether the NASCAR Hall of Fame could be completed within budget without illegal immigrant workers.”
“I can’t let him keep going around talking about leadership and how tough he is on immigration without setting the record straight,” Orr, a former N.C. Supreme Court justice, said at a news conference.
McCrory’s gubernatorial campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
In a way Pat McCrory reminds of Rudy Giuliani. Neither governed their respective city overly conservative, but when they went prime time they both ran from their record to appease their party’s base. Giuliani’s campaign eventually imploded. If more inconsistencies in his record continue to be revealed McCrory could indeed blow his own double digit lead.
In his nearly seven-year political career, Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower has been called plenty of names.
Now he can add “arrogant ass” to the list—and it comes from a pretty high source: the mayor of Flat Rock.
Flat Rock Mayor Bob Staton used that language in an email to Mumpower, after a dustup over rules for an upcoming debate this Thursday for the Republican candidates for Congress. Mumpower objected to a rule prohibiting larger signs and placards and had said he would not participate, a decision he has now reversed.
There are battles that you pick and choose and I think Mumpower lacked a great deal of judgment in having a huff over the sign rule at this debate. I don’t know if it makes him look like and arrogant ass, but petty is a word that comes to mine.
