Stumble it!Message from The American Center for Law and Paranoia
posted in Politics by themaiden |Religion is under assault. Christianity is under attack. The nation is collapsing. The Lib’rals are guttin our values, stomping on our Bible-based Constitution, educating our children, putting condoms on our men and shoes on our women. Or so says The American Center for Law and Justice, whose initialism– ACLJ– is curiously similar to ACLU. Sneaky… sneaky… Credibility by association is not fair play.
This is urgent … we could see a vote in the Senate anytime this week! Your freedom of speech has literally never been so threatened as it is today.
Senate Bill 1 and House Resolution 4682 are clearly the work of politicians who want to control, limit, and silence Christians and conservative groups.
By classifying and regulating any Christian organization or church, which you may be a part of, as a ”lobbyist” …
… this legislation will forcibly restrict your right to free speech - which is absolutely unconstitutional.
Message from The American Center for Law and Justice « The Light
… except that H.R. 4682 does no such thing. Read it. (Helpful hint: If a person complains about the content of a easily available document but does not link to that document, don’t trust that person.) What the resolution does do is treat lobbyists like lobbyists. And that is the problem.
Lobbyists are individuals who petition, cajole, bribe, beg, threaten, and otherwise attempt to persuade members of congress to support or oppose some special interest, like the much debated marriage amendment. Typically lobbyists, or the companies who employ them, are sent money by individuals who support the special interest. The lobbyists then take the message to Congress. This kind of lobbying, in response to blatant corruption, has been regulated for a short time now. Part of what H.R. 4628 does is alter– I’d say strengthen– that existing regulation.
However, H.R. 4682 includes something else, something it terms “grass roots lobbying”. Rather than pay an individual to personally go to Congress, the “grass roots lobbyist” would pay for some form of media campaign encouraging people to contact Congress.
As I read the document, it is intended not to prevent individuals or organizations from distributing politically charged material, but is intended only to extend lobbying regulation to lobbying firms who adopt these techniques, hence the stress upon paid lobbying and upon clients.
(18) GRASSROOTS LOBBYING- The term `grassroots lobbying’ means the voluntary efforts of members of the general public to communicate their own views on an issue to Federal officials or to encourage other members of the general public to do the same.
`(19) PAID EFFORTS TO STIMULATE GRASSROOTS LOBBYING- The term `paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying’–
- `(A) means any paid attempt to influence the general public, or segments thereof, to engage in grassroots lobbying or lobbying contacts; and
- `(B) does not include any attempt described in subparagraph (A) by a person or entity directed to its members, employees, officers or shareholders, unless such attempt is financed with funds directly or indirectly received from or arranged by a lobbyist or other registrant under this Act retained by another person or entity.
`(20) GRASSROOTS LOBBYING FIRM- The term `grassroots lobbying firm’ means a person or entity that–
- `(A) is retained by 1 or more clients to engage in paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying on behalf of such clients; and
- `(B) receives income of, or spends or agrees to spend, an aggregate of $50,000 or more for such efforts in any quarterly period.’.
http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:1:./temp/~c109pBQJlA:e25096:
And…
(3) GRASSROOTS LOBBYING FIRMS- Not later than 20 days after a grassroots lobbying firm first is retained by a client to engage in paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying, such grassroots lobbying firm shall register with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives.’.
http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c109:1:./temp/~c109pBQJlA:e25096:
In other words, the regulation doesn’t apply unless the “grassroots lobbying” is financed by a lobbyist– “lobbyist” being defined as a person or organization “retained by 1 or more clients to engage in paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying on behalf of such clients”. It looks as though a person or organization may engage in grassroots lobbying efforts in his, her, or its own behalf without having to worry about this legislation at all.
In context, the legislation doesn’t apply to churches unless those churches are hiring lobbying firms to do the dirty work, and even then it is the firm, not the church, that is impacted. Of course, a church which itself serves as a lobbying organization– that is, a church that accepts funding from one or more organizations with the understanding that this funding will be used to push some political agenda or another– would under this legislation be treated as any other lobbyist, which strikes me as rather fair. Churches that function as lobbyists ought not be exempted from lobbying regulation. And that brings me to two other points.
Nowhere in the resolution, so far as I have been able to find, does it discriminate against “conservatives” or “christians”. Framing it as doing so is dishonest.
Nowhere does the resolution forcibly restrict anyone’s right to free speech. It does require that lobbying activities be duly reported, but it does not restrict those activities. Framing it as doing so is dishonest.
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