QUOTE OF THE DAY
"In Washington Irving's familiar story of Rip Van Winkle...the most striking
thing...is not that Rip slept twenty years, but that he slept through a
revolution that would alter the course in history...Every society has its
protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are
notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival
depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas...If we do not
act, we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of
time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might with out
morality, and strength without sight."
- - Martin Luther King
Rhino here:
Last Monday's N.Y.Times editorial told a sad story; the "carving out" of the
McCain-Feingold election reform law's across-the-board ban on soft-money
fund-raising by federal officeholders or candidates. While I believe it's a
crime for non-elected government employees to gut what was an important
first step toward taking the U.S. elections back from business interests, I
also believe there is a deeper root to the problem that must be cut if the
concept and even the legacy of American Democracy can ever be taken seriously
again. The broadcast airwaves belong to the people.
The Federal Communications Commission licenses them for a pittance to media
giants who then rent them out for ridiculous amounts of money by the 30 & 60
second bites. Consider the millions of dollars its said that's needed to run
for any federal office. These are the dollars our Congressmen spend so much
time raising when they're supposed to be working for us. And where do most
of these millions end up at the end of each election season. In the coffers
of the media giants.
As a requirement to have an FCC licence, a growing number of people now
believe each broadcaster should have to provide ample free time to all the
candidates to get their positions and plans out to the voters. This could
take away the need for all the money raising and promise making. They
already make tons of money off the sports, soaps and other day after day
rainmakers. Shouldn't they give some payback to the real landlords of the
airwaves they use? And wouldn't this be an appropriate way to do that?
The legislators could then be elected on the basis of their ideas rather
than on the size of their coffers. It would also allow them once elected, to
do their jobs. Pipe dream of aging left leaning commie pinko hippies?
Or can miracles happen in the U.S.A.?
New York Times | Editorial
Monday, 24 June, 2002
It took seven years for supporters of campaign finance reform to pass the
McCain-Feingold law banning unregulated "soft money" in elections. It took
less than seven days last week for a handful of political appointees on the
Federal Election Commission to open up vast loopholes allowing the very
fund-raising barred by the statute. Arrogantly ignoring the law's language,
the intent of Congress and even the recommendations of their own legal
staff, the commission members gutted major provisions and created huge
exemptions out of whole cloth. This was a mugging of the statute that must
be overturned by Congress or in the courts...
(most of the article deleted here - see below for link to entire article)
...These rules and exemptions are nothing less than an abuse of power by
unelected bureaucrats pushing a corrupt agenda of favoring special-interest
money over the voices and votes of citizens. The sponsors of campaign reform
-- Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold and Representatives Christopher
Shays and Martin Meehan -- deplored what the commission did. But the silence
of other reform champions -- notably the Democratic leaders, Representative
Richard Gephardt and Senator Tom Daschle -- is conspicuous. All those who
worked so hard to pass this law must now work just as hard to undo the
damage meted out by the F.E.C., and start thinking about replacing the
commission with some other body that would implement the law rather than
rewrite it.
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
To Read Entire Article go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/24/opinion/24MON1.html
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright
law
( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ).
All copyrights belong to original publisher.
7:37:53 AM 
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