Broken Quanta: Congress Shall Make No Law

Brian at Broken Quanta has written a letter to the FCC about the proposed campaign finance internet regulation, along with some comments on it. Read it all, this is an important issue and one that I haven't blogged on recently. This bit from his post is extremely important:

Weaselling out of the current situation by applying a 'media exception' to bloggers is indefensible. The FEC applies this exemption to those entities providing a 'legitimate news function.' It seems clear to me that the government of the United States has no business declaring what sort of speech (and which US citizens) fulfills such a purpose.

Freedom of the press can only exist if the individual citizens of the nation have the freedom to speak completely and fully on any issue they desire. This is what we must maintain. The press is an outgrowth of the First Ammendment, but not the primary reason for it to exists. In America, we believe that the people are sovreign, not subjects, and as such they can freely speak their mind, and use whatever means they can to get their message out. Under the guise of 'campaign finance reform' this freedom has been deeply damaged, and may in effect become lost altogether. Brian also adds:

PS Notice I left out my nefarious, career-enhancing plan to be the first citizen prosecuted under any new Internet speech regulations. If they're stupid enough to enact such rules, well, I want that to come as a surprise..."

I also plan on practicing civil disobedience if regulation of political commentary on the internet comes to be. I will neither register as a 'media outlet' or inform the government in any way of my speech activities. I will act as a sovreign, not as a subject.