Free Speech Saved from/by the Senate!

It seems to be a rare occasion when the Legislative Branch saves us from its usurpations of power, but yesterday was one such time. Thanks to an ammendment by Senator Bennett (R) of Utah, a restriction on political speech failed to pass along with the new ethics bill. Both houses of Congress have been touting the new standards of ethics that they will champion in this new congress, so the classic busy-body notion took effect: if a little ethics reform for Congress was good, wouldn't a lot of ethics reform for everyone else be even better? This notion, ladies and gentlemen, is one reason why our founders protected the right to bear arms.
Section 220 of the ethics bill, S1, provided for the regulation of all broadcasters, bloggers, preachers, grassroots interest groups, and political communicators of every kind with an audience of 500 or more. If they ever called on their readers or listeners to call Congressmen and advocate for or against a bill, they would be classified as lobbyists and have to report their financial transactions to Congress for oversight. Failure to report to Congress would result in fines of $100,000 and 10 years in prison. In other words, this blog that you are reading would be subject to federal scrutiny if the audience ever ecclipsed 500 people. If I refused to take time out of my day to report my financial transactions, I could be put in jail and fined. This is tyranny, plain and simple. There should be no barriers blocking our right to petition Congress. When I was in Iraq, I emailed several Senators on a few occasions and our founders wanted the right to petition the government to be unabridged as the cornerstone of consensual government.
Thankfully, Senator Bennett (R) of Utah proposed an amendment that struck the offending section from the bill. His amendment passed 55-43 with two abstentions. Seven Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for free political speech: Baucus of Montana, Bayh of Indiana, Conrad and Dorgan of North Dakota, Landrieu of Louisiana, Nelson of Nebraska and Salazar of Colorado. Guess who voted for government regulation of speech like this blog you are reading? JOE LIEBERMAN (D) of Connecticut. Do not be deceived: he is a dyed-in-the-wool Big Government Liberal on everything but the War. For the moment, our speech is free. I shall advise when the next threat arises.