RSSPolitical Bloggers Under Fire
By Ed Oswald | Published April 4, 2005, 2:17 PM
Bloggers in the San Francisco area may soon have to watch what they say politically - or they may face mandatory registration of their Web logs and be forced to report all related costs to the city’s Ethics Commission.
The news comes after city supervisor Sophie Maxwell introduced legislation late last week that requires any person engaged in "electioneering communications" to report their activities, including payments received and/or made.
In a copy of the proposal obtained by BetaNews, it appears that the law is not singling out just Web logs. Included is any "cable, satellite, radio, internet, or telephone communication," as well as paper flyers and door hangers - as long as the communication involves a city election.
Political blogging has come under fire recently as some supporters of campaign finance reform see it as a way to skirt current laws. Almost two weeks ago, the Federal Election Commission proposed amendments to deal with the Internet, which drew an outcry from the blogging community, both on the left and the right.
"This draft rule creates an unnecessary regulatory minefield for bloggers," RedState.org blogger Mike Krempasky wrote. The law even prompted an online petition, which was signed by 22 conservative and liberal bloggers, as well as over 3,540 people as of press time.
The San Francisco law has come under fire as well. "Whether this ordinance is a poorly worded honest mistake, or whether its a deliberate attack on citizen media, it cannot be allowed to stand," Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos.com wrote. The Personal Democracy Forum called on readers to e-mail Maxwell with their discontent.
It is not immediately known when the Board of Supervisors plan to bring the legislation to a vote.
This story erroneously attributes this to Sophie Maxwell, whose office denies the story. That she's a Schwarzeneggar hack is true, but this effort is being directed by the Bush administration and his FEC chairman. The last thing republicans want is free speech; they want you to pay for it. This is a prelude to taxing political blogs as campaign ads. More money for republicans in Washington who want to control your life.
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|Go ahead and show your stupidity. She introduced the legislation, and she is no friend of Ahnold or Bush. She is a super liberal democrat. Go blame your own party, and realize that we are headed down the tracks toward socialism.
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|Here we go. Everyone that disagrees with the Republican Corpro-Centric viewpoint now has to be a Donkey. I mean I didn't hear anyone mention Democrats and here you go s***ing the focus on them instead of dealing with the systemic problems with, what is clearly your party.
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|So the Commies will have to watch what they say now about the Socialists, and vice versa. Wow.
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|Yeah, god forbid we should protect 'bloggers' under the 'freedom of speech' act. For that matter, why should anyone be allowed to communicate their own personal thoughts/ideas when it might conflict with your own increasingly narrow view of society.
I know. Let's gather up all those who do not believe as you do and execute them. Maybe we can even affectionately call you Hitler while we're at it.
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|There isn't any "freedom of speech" in San Francisco, unless you're a member of those two groups. Hitler would be very happy about that I'm sure.
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|I'm a leftist from Canada, and while I admire San Francisco's gay postive attitude and its progressive social and economic policies, I've always found the government there (and, to a lesser extent, other major California cities)to go extremely overboard with regards to political correctness (And coming from somebody who makes Gavin Newsom look like Tom Delay, that says a lot).
I mean, Los Angeles once tried to have the IDE bus designations changed from master/slave to something different, and San Francisco banned an antique shop from playing White Christmas for fear that the lyrics could be interpreted racistly. (The idea that American lefties can find their own to be that dumb boggles my mind. Not even far-right Jesuslander types are dumb enough to believe that White Christmas is a racist song.)
San Francisco's leaders are the kind of people who would think that Iron Maiden's The Clansman is a song that glorifies the KKK, when it's really a Braveheart-inspired ode to the Scottish nationalist movement (which is generally extremely left-of-centre nowadays. The Scottish National Party is left of the Anti-Blairites (Old Labour) wing of the Labour Party, and the Scottish Socialist Party makes the SNP look like a bunch of Europhobic, Bush-worshipping Tories.).
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