FEC's Ann Ravel is Trying to Gag Us

Democrats would love to control all of the media, including my blog. They love freedom of speech, just as long as they agree with what's being said. You see it on Fox News all the time: Jessie Watters asks whether Rush Limbaugh should be thrown off the air for his views and invariably leftists believe that he should.

A key Democrat and Vice Chair on the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), Ann M. Ravel (pronounced "Alinsky") called for new rules on Internet-based campaigns that would regulate political sites and news media like the Blaze and the Drudge Report. Currently, these sites are exempt from most FEC rules, but Ann would like more power over us to keep us in line. "A reexamination of the commission's approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue," she complained.

Ann's power play attempt comes after a 3-3 deadlock vote on an anti-Obama campaign in Ohio featuring 2 YouTube videos that violated FEC rules when it didn't report its financing or offer a disclosure on the ads. 

But the ads were placed for free and not considered paid advertising. According to a 2006 FEC rule, free political videos and advocacy sites are not under FEC regulation because the FEC wanted to boost voter participation in the political arena. Only paid advertising are supposed to be regulated just like on TV.

If Little Awful Annie had her way, she would regulate all right-leaning groups that post anti-Democratic ads even if they're free. (Google IRS + scandals).

Fortunately, the FEC Chairman, Lee E. Goodman, is a good man and a Republican. He said that under the conditions Ravel argues for, then anyone with a political blog, uses a chat room or runs a politically active news site could be regulated, that is, censored, handcuffed, or gagged, however you want to depict it.


It's like the old saying goes: "When conservatives speak, liberals want to shut them up. When liberals speak, conservatives want them to keep talking."

People like Ann Ravel are dangerous to our First Amendment rights, which means they're dangerous to all of our rights. Look at any dictatorship and you will see a society that does not allow anyone to speak, write or in any way go against it.


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