Now it is official: The United States of America has a federal bureaucracy in charge of deciding who can say what about politicians during campaign season. We can argue, and people do, about whether this state of affairs is good or bad, better or worse than some alternative. What is inarguable is that America now has what amounts to a federal speech code, enforced with jail terms of up to five years.
I found this excerpt particularly disturbing.
On September 9, the FEC ruled that a conservative group called Citizens United was not a "media organization" and therefore could not use unrestricted money to broadcast ads marketing a book and film critical of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. "Not everyone can be a media organization," said one FEC commissioner.
How soon until these campaign regulations (or future regulations like them) are imposed upon citizen journalists like bloggers?
Go and read the whole thing. When you're done, contact your congressional representatives and tell them that you want the McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws repealed.
Honestly, if it weren't for the war on terror and the alternative being John Kerry, Bush's signing of this law would be my reason for voting against him.