Useful Fools

Posted By John Moore on December 11, 2003

Whilethe public has been distracted by the enormous hyperbole focussed on The Patriot Act, the most dangerous attack on American democracy since the Civil War has been upheld by the ImperialSupreme Court: The McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance “Reform”.

It is time to reign in that court, but those who would do so are those who benefit most from its actions! It is time for Arizonans such as myself to fight to replace Senator John McCain, the rather stupid (yes, Arizonans know that McCain is not the brightest bulb) pawn of the media and officeholder special interests. And, of course, it is a tremendous black mark on George Bush’s presidency that he failed to veto this law!

We are also once again ashamed that the swing vote on the court is another confused and arrogant Arizonan, Sandra Day O’Connor!

The Supreme Court, the great upholder of such minor First Amendment freedoms as the right to view virtual child pornography has upheld John McCain’s campaign finance law, denying ordinary Americans the right of political free speech! This law is so extreme that few expected the Supreme Court to uphold it!

Quoting Justice Thomas in his oustanding dissent:

…the Court today upholds what can only be described as the most significant abridgment of the freedoms of speech and association since the Civil War.…

The very “purpose of the First Amendment [is] to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail.” Yet today the fundamental principle that “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market,”… is cast aside in the purported service of preveenting “corruption” or the mere “appearance of corruption.” Buckley v. Valeo…. Apparently the marketplace of ideas is to be fully open only to defamers, New Yortk Times Co. v. Sullivan…; nude dancers, Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc. …; flag burners, United States v. Eichman…; and cross burners, Virginia v. Black…

[emphasis added]

This law cuts to the heart of the First Amendment, prohibiting adequate spending on political speech by vast groups of Americans. If an American citizen buys a TV commercial supporting or attacking a candidate, jail may be the punishment! But of course if the candidate happens to already be in office, he or she can get enormous amounts of publicity for free simply by calling press conferences.

Furthermore, a news organization, somehow protected by the same First Amendment whose protection no longer applies to ordinary Americans (except pornographers, congressmen and performance artists), now wields far more power than in the past, as it can select or slant its reporting to favor or attack candidates as it wishes. Hollywood, of course, can continue to produce biased drama putting forth its twisted ideas of political correctness. Jay Leno can probably make fun of specific politicians on TV, but you and I cannot buy time to do the same!

This ruling came as a shock to civil rights organizations of all stripes, who joined in an unprecedented attempt to prevent it – the leftist ACLU joining Libertarian Party joinging the single issue NRA among others!

As a result of this absurd ruling, one important civil rights organization, the National Rifle Association, has already announced its intention to purchase a news organization in order to take advantage of the associated First Amendment protections!

Furthermore, wealthly liberals have already found ways around the law. George Soros has contributed $10,000,000 to a tax exempt charity which will attack Republicans.

It is time to end the imperium of the Supreme Court. In this decision and others (such as the Michigan affirmative action case), the court has chosen to ignore the clear intent of the constitution in order to craft its own law, for the purpose of achieving what it views a desirable goals (one stated in this opinion was avoiding the appearance of corruption). The members of the court are in violation of their oath of office and are a danger to the freedoms of most Americans (except the privileged few who benefit from the decisions).

And for those still scared of the Patriot Act, note that the court upheld that broadcasters must keep records of all requests for broadcast time made by or on behalf of a candidate for public office! Forget the library records of Patriot Act infamy… if you even try to buy an add to express your political opinion about a candidate, this law requires that the request be maintained and be available to the federal government!

As noted by Spoons, Iraqi’s now have more rights to criticize their government officials than do Americans, and some big bloggers seem surprisingly quiet about the whole thing.

Categories: Culture War
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