It’s time
Appalachian Gun Trash reminds us that:
Today is the beginning of the 60 day “grace” period of the McCain-Feingold bill that makes it illegal for any organization to do a TV or radio spot about a candidate for Federal office.
Any organization* that wants to run a political ad criticizing any politician in that window can do so here. Not only will I run the ad free, I’ll do a post on the ad on the front page.
Anyone wanting such an ad can email me at:
You can email me your ad text and a small image or I’ll give a free offer code at blogads to run your ad.
Update: Glenn says:
It’s wrong, it’s unAmerican, and it’s the single best argument against either McCain or Feingold running for President in 2008.
Update 2: Bill’s sort of in:
here’s another suggestion for groups wishing to continue running commercials criticizing candidates by name: Make the ads, then upload them to YouTube, and spread them via blogs. BillHobbs.com will be happy to carry commercials criticizing incumbent Democrats.
More blogs in on the action here (scroll down).
September 5th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Although I was not asked, I started an ad today at my place, just because the whole situation pisses me off.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Instead of trying to circumvent the law by using YouTube or something that law should be deliberately broken. This law is blatently unconstitutional. Hopefully our court system works well enough to strike this down. Where’s the ACLU on this one?
September 5th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
[…] Joe mentioned this worthy effort to me a while back, and I promptly got busy with other stuff and forgot to do anything about it. But as is noted here, here, here, and here, today’s an excellent and appropriate day to rectify that omission. […]
September 5th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
And what about comments, articles, rants, etc. against incumbents posted purportedly by non-US citizens, on non-US hosted sites?
That is, if “newbury” posts a scathing roast of Senator Clinton’s policies on ‘hilaryisaliar.ca’ is there a breach of the Incumbency Protection Act?
(Site name made up!)
Conversely, do posts on ‘jacklaytonisajerk.us’, hosted in Buffalo, breach the Canadian Elections Act?. No in both cases, methinks.
=Geoff
September 5th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
I think the time has come to stop voting for incumbents of any kind.
September 5th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Not a wise strategy. There are plenty of incumbents that are worth keeping. If it’s a choice between an A+ NRA-rated incumbent and an F- challenger, I’ll take the incumbent every time.
Far better for the voters of the US to start actually paying attention to what their “representatives” are doing while they’re out in Washington.
September 5th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
While I would agree with Captain Holly completely with his (your) statements, I find that most folks don’t even know who their incumbents may be.
To that end, try this:
http://www.politicsnationwide.com/profiles.asp?ID=29
Even at that, why not send a simple message to your representatives telling them that if they don’t overturn McCain-Feingold – that you’d vote them out.
September 5th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
This law is blatently unconstitutional. Hopefully our court system works well enough to strike this down. Where’s the ACLU on this one?
Matt, where have you been? This law has been upheld and the ACLU was fighting it alongside groups like the NRA.
September 5th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
In Honor of McCain-Feingold “Trash the First Amendment Day…”
Today marks the cutoff for criticizing candidates via the airwaives. It is an abomnination, and probably the single biggest reason I will never, ever vote for McCain for anything, let alone President. I’ll make the same offer others have:here?s anothe…
September 5th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
I’m not sure I understand all the hysteria. Rather than see a lot of “attack ads” pointing out why the opponent is so wrong and so awful, I’d MUCH rather see a candidate speak positively about what he/she would be doing right.
I’ve thought for a very long time that negative campaigning too often devolves to attacking the person, not the policies. And rather than hearing about all the wrong policies of the opposition, why not hear about all the right (according to the candidate) policies that would make that candidate the one worth voting for. Perhaps then, we could feel we are voting for the right candidate rather than just the lesser of two evils.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
I hate to be a stickler, but the “grace period” actually starts on Friday. Election Day is November 7 and there are 30 days in September and 30 days in October.
60 Days out is September 8th.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Grrr.. that should have read 31 days in October.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Me too, then.
Campaign advertisements must mut meet minimum standards of NRA approval and decency.
Fire away.