Cloaked in the nice-sounding phrase campaign reform is an assault on free speech — particularly political free speech. One of my first posts to get any attention was on this subject.

Is that post you just made, the one favorable to candidate Blah B. Blah that you hope will help get him elected, a thing of value? Did you file a report with the FEC? Should you have to? What’s at the bottom of this slope?

I know, that’s a lot of questions, but the main one is this, can the government regulate my speech, particularly my political speech?

This is an issue that could have a chilling effect on blogs and bloggers. From Red State today:

We’ve been working for a long time on HR 1606 - The Online Freedom of Speech Act. It will come up for a vote on the floor of the House TOMORROW [Thursday - 3/16/06 - ed] but as you read this - the campaign regulation community is hard at work - working the halls of Congress, lying about not only our bill - but “their” bill as well. And as far as their intentions go - well, I think it’s fair to say that when it comes to THEM bragging about protecting free speech - they are not to be trusted.

Read Krempasky’s post and then contact your congress critters. Please. Today.

Others:
Kim Priestap - Wizbang: “This bill should be important to all who blog and care about free speech.”
Glenn Reynolds - Instapundit: “THE ONLINE FREEDOM ACT IS UP FOR A VOTE, and it seems to me that supporting it is very important to the future of the blogosphere and alternative media generally.”