House rams passage of act muzzling Pro-Lifers, Tea Party

The U.S. House rushed approval late this afternoon of a nasty bill undermining free speech, called the DISCLOSE act. UPDATE, June 29: Liberal McClatchy media, including KCStar, editorializes against the bill.

The so-called campaign finance disclosure bill will disable grassroots political voices. The bill was altered behind closed doors last night and forced to a floor vote, breaking the protocol of a minimum 24-hour waiting period.

National Right to Life  calls the bill, “unconstitutional, unprincipled, and nakedly partisan.”  Even the ACLU agrees that this bill protects those groups that don’t challenge the status quo while suppressing those groups that do challenge the status quo.

The bill has numerous odorous provisions, including, but not limited to, these:

• every time an organization runs a campaign ad, its CEO must appear in the ad and twice state his name and the organization’s name;
• the top five funders of the organization behind the ad – even if they had nothing to do with the ad’s funding – must also have their names listed in the ad;
• the most “significant” donor to the organization must –three times in the ad– list his name, rank, and organization.

Thus the new “DISCLOSE” disclaimers effectively devour valuable airtime bought by these groups that would otherwise be used to inform voters about a candidate’s record.

“We’re getting a little silly here. We’re talking about making disclaimers that are going to take the entire time of a commercial,” stated bill critic, Rep. Dan Lungren (GOP-CA3), during  the short one-hour debate today.

KC-area Congressman Dennis Moore (D) voted for the bill while GOP representatives Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran and Lynn Jenkins opposed it.

The situation is grave, as the bill will be quickly taken up in the Senate, where 50 senators already support the Senate companion bill.  The bright light is that Senate Republicans control enough votes to filibuster the measure.

Read more about DISCLOSE details– and the audacity of the House Democrat leadership in ramming thru this legislation– in an excellent report from LifesiteNews here. Additional coverage from Lifenews here. Also, hear 6 min. Mark Levin interview here.