CNN quick vote
Created: Thursday, August 26, 2004, at 13:17:43 EDT
Should the government crackdown on political advertising by 527 groups?
Yes 61% 47711 votes
No 39% 30651 votes
Total: 78362 votes
Wasn't the government controlling everything that is aired during the election good enough for the people of America? I was paying attention when the fiance reform act was passed, but I have been paying attention to the 527's.
I love them, you can say whatever you want as long as you have the money to do it. You can say it as long, as loud, and wherever you want. I could rent advertising space in times square talking bad about bush and aliens, if I had the cold hard cash.
Removing 527s purges a major legal classification of organizational communication for independent groups and third parties. It effectively clears out competing ideas for the major parties (You wonder why both of them are for this).
I also love the fact that once you give money, that money is then reported on quarterly. It makes you have to put your money where you mouth is. That is also important. I helps people to know where the information is coming from, to make a good judgment on the quality of the information. For example, when a group comes forward and states that they have cloned humans, it helps to know they are funded by a group helping us adjust to the aliens amoung us. 527 provide transparancy, that are not present in many groups (ie newspapers, corporations, and even bloggers).
cube
update: Fox's take.
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3 comments:
Unfortunately a 527 cannot say anything they want.
One example is that they cannot claim to be for a candidate only against one.
It makes sure that the mud is slung with gusto.
actually from what i read they can't even do that.
"Many 527s run by special interest groups raise unlimited "soft money," which they use for voter mobilization and certain types of issue advocacy, but not for efforts that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate or amount to electioneering communications. "
so, i don't know about that one. it is tax code and hard to understand
I think the cube is right on this one. 527's cannot advocate for or against a particular candidate. However, I think that "advocate" is defined by just a few magic words. So you can trash Candidate A as a pot-smoking, wife-swapping, card-carrying commie with bad breath and a penchant for leather but just don't tell us to vote for or against him and you're fine, Mr. 527. And you know what, you don't even have to verify that any of your charges are true. Pretty swift, huh?
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