Monday, March 27, 2006

Daily Kos: FEC: The Netroots Win

Daily Kos: FEC: The Netroots Win:

"The netroots have won.

Not an election, mind you - though those victories will come - but an official governmental recognition that what you all do is a valuable part of the democratic experiment, and one which should not be thwarted by the incursion of the federal government.

Today, the Federal Election Commission voted unanimously to approve its final regulations regarding political activity on the Internet. As you know, we had dreaded these regulations for a year and did everything we could to influence or stop them altogether - submitting our own comments to the FEC and encouraging you to do the same (and you did, in the thousands), testifying before the FEC and Congress, and pressuring Capitol Hill to pass legislation protecting the medium.

Congress punted, but something remarkable happened -- though it's not something which ought to be remarkable: the Federal Election Commission reviewed all the comments, asked pointed questions during two days of hearings, deliberated for months . . . and ended up with the only logical conclusion that the facts, technology and law could warrant:

Through this rulemaking, the Commission recognizes the Internet as a unique and evolving mode of mass communication and political speech that is distinct from other media in a manner that warrants a restrained regulatory approach. ...

As a whole, these final rules will make plain that the vast majority of Internet communications are, and will remain, free from campaign finance regulation. To the greatest extent permitted ...the Commission is clarifying and affirming that Internet activities by individuals and groups of individuals face almost no regulatory burdens under the Federal Election Campaign Act. The need to safeguard Constitutionally-protected speech allows no other approach."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/27/1427/23860