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FREE SPEECH ISN’T FREE ACCORDING TO WISCONSIN
Aug 6th, 2010 by TMH
By: AJ
Wisconsin has enacted a law which makes political free speech subject to fees or jail time.
If you think this can’t happen in America… well… it just did. This law affects liberals, conservatives and those of every political persuasion. It affects every American, both inside and outside of WI, who communicate in any manner about candidates running for office in WI.
Whether you are supporting or opposing a candidate, gathering to demonstrate for or against a candidate, or even if you are using email or the Internet to express your opinion about a candidate, you are subject to fees or jail time.
In the dark of night, behind closed doors, WI enacted the new Government Accountability Board – G.A.B. 128 Rule which silences political free speech 60 days prior to the election. Conveniently, this law goes into effect on August 15, 2010 with little to no time for successful legal challenges prior to the November 2010 election.
The entire text of the G.A.B. 1 Rule can be found here (Sections 1.10, 1.28, and 1.42 are most revealing): http://www.legis.state.wi.us/rsb/code/gab/gab001.pdf
Under this new law, individuals and groups must pay a $100 registration fee to the state of WI if they want permission to use political speech that totals at least $25 “cumulatively in a calendar year.” But it doesn’t stop there…
Individuals and groups must set up a separate depository account and file a report with the Accountability Board and Secretary of State. They then need to provide periodic reports of every communication – explaining the type of communication/action for each and every episode of political free speech.
What WI did by adding G.A.B. 1.28 to the G.A.B. 1 Rule is to define political communication and actions in order to give the government the legal ability to regulate and monitor everything you say and do.
Expenses related to political free speech will include such things as a portion of your Internet bills, your phone bills, signs you’ve made, gas/bus fare to political gatherings, fliers, mailings, etc. These types of communication and action will easily total $25 per year for every American who wishes to exercise their 1st Amendment right to political free speech.
Essentially, WI has now abolished everyone’s Constitutional right to political free speech by enacting a law to ensure free speech is no longer free, and it’s now granted (or not granted), and monitored by the government.
This unconstitutional power grab by the government should outrage everyone on the political spectrum – left, right and everyone in between.
Just as the events of the Gulf Oil disaster unites everyone who cares about our Gulf Coast, this too is an issue that unites all of us.
If this new law stands in WI, it won’t be long before it spreads to other states throughout the country. Ohio is already moving in that direction: Bloggericide: Ohio Officials Charge Blogger With Campaign Violations. Will your state be next?
Here is the list of WI legislators who are responsible for taking away our right to political free speech – you may want to contact them via phone, email or letter before our right to free speech expires on August 15:
• Senator Russ Feingold (D)
• Senator Herbert H. Kohl (D)
• Governor Jim Doyle (D)
• Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton (D)
• Secretary of State Doug LaFollette (D)
• District 1 – Paul D. Ryan (R)
• District 2 – Tammy Baldwin (D)
• District 3 – Ron J. Kind (D)
• District 4 – Gwen Moore (D)
• District 5 – James F. Sensenbrenner (R)
• District 6 – Thomas E. Petri (R)
• District 7 – David R. Obey (D)
• District 8 – Steve Kagen (D)
With 77% of WI’s elected officials coming from the Democratic Party, clearly it’s been hi-jacked and it’s no longer the party we once knew. Their actions prove that they, AND the complicit Republicans, intend to strip us of our freedom and liberty.
When we allow government to grant “rights” to the American people, we are also granting them the power to take our rights away… and they just did.
From Gateway Pundit:
It should be pointed out that political speech was the very sort of free speech that the founders of this country were talking about when they crafted the First Amendment.
UPDATE: The list of WI elected officials are listed in this post to point out that, on their watch, this law was enacted. They could have informed the public, taken action against this G.A.B. Rule, or pursued legislation to over-ride it. They did none of those things and are, therefore, complicit in this unconstitutional usurpation of the rights of the people to have political free speech as granted by the 1st Amendment.
A list of the other responsible State legislators can be found here: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/w3asp/contact/legislatorslist.aspx?house=assembly
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by A Walker, Terresa Monroe. Terresa Monroe said: FREE SPEECH ISN’T FREE ACCORDING TO WISCONSIN http://tinyurl.com/34pmb72 #tcot #federalist #constitution #glennbeck #iamthemob #912project [...]
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WI can KMA on this BS.
Whoever wrote this article does not seem to know who passes STATE LAW. It is the state legislature (the House and the Senate of the state) — NOT, NOT, NOT members of Congress (who are listed here), nor the Lt Governor nor the Secretary of the State. If you have an issue with this STATE (not federal) law, then take it up with your state representatives and senators, NOT your members of Congress! And take it up with the governor, who signed it into law.
Hi East Coast Gal, looks like the state legislature abdicated their responsibility to an un-elected board, so it became official. I think all WI elected officials were negligent in letting this happen. http://gab.wi.gov/node/1252
“The rule, known as GAB 1.28, was approved by the Government Accountability Board in March 2010 and submitted to the Legislature, which has the power to block the rule within a certain period of time. In July, the Senate Committee on Labor, Elections and Urban Affairs and the Assembly Committee on Elections and Campaign Reform both reported taking no action on the proposed rule. The rule will now be published in the Administrative Register and is effective August 1, 2010.”
And HERE IS A LINK TO THE Vicki McKenna Show where they discuss the new law; 1st hour: http://www.newstalk1130.com/cc-common/podcast.html
Something is wrong here! Several of these people would have nothing to do with making state law! Is this a smear campaign or what is the purpose? I think the law, if true, is horrible but let’s have the facts!
Looks like the facts are that an un-elected group of people put an unconstitutional law into effect that violates the rights of the people.
Not one… not one of the ELECTED officials are doing anything about it. They’re not even speaking out against it. Don’t you think WI ELECTED officials should be doing something to protect the rights of citizens? Isn’t that what they were hired by the citizens to do?
If not them, any one of them, then who?
To do nothing, to say nothing is the same as condoning it. These politicians are paid to speak on their constituents behalf, not tow the party line or cower in their chambers.
So, they are now treating political speech like gun rights.
[...] If you think this can’t happen in America… well… it just did. This law affects liberals, conservatives and those of every political persuasion. It affects every American, both inside and outside of WI, who communicate in any manner about candidates running for office in … [...]
f*ck all of you !
It is my right to not agree with anything that isnt right!
you are all communists !
Most of the elected officials have nothing to do with this “law”.
The Government Accountability Board is essentially an unelected group, appointed by the Governor, “Diamond” Jim Doyle. These are the same people that discredited his previous opponent in ’06, by legalistic fabrication, and have been doing everything in their power to empower the Democratic Party in Soviet Wisconsin.
Beware, Jim Doyle is not running again in 2010, and has made it clear that he desired the lifetime position as federal judge since the early days of his career. He has been licking President Obama’s boots since 2007, so look out America!
[...] #WISCONSIN NoisyRoom.net #freespeech #tcot #tlot #teaparty #Wisen August 10, 2010 by RRD http://noisyroom.net/blog/2010/08/06/free-speech-isn%E2%80%99t-free-according… from → Uncategorized ← In memory Patricia Neal 84 #aynrand #objectivism [...]
If this was banning scientific speech it would be a Fundamentalist dream come true.
Free Speech isn’t free according to Wisconsin…
Wisconsin has enacted a law which makes political free speech subject to fees or jail time. If you think this can’t happen in America… well… it just did. This law affects liberals, conservatives and those of every political persuasion. It affects every…