It's a much bigger win than the FEC's original proposals would have been....

Zach, you are correct.

To accept that the FEC has the power to "grant" us a right that we consider inalienable, is to accept that such a right is not at all inalienable, but merely a gift from a benevolent political power.

Hillman

I agree with Hillman & Zach. Once we accept that the federal government has a "right" to regulate the content of political speech, we have already surrendered to those who would murder the Constitution.

I would vote for Hillary Clinton before I voted for John McCain.

Huh? Congress CHOSE to dump it all in the lap of the FEC. For whatever reasons, they punted it to "those six unelected bureaucrats" rather than run with it when they elected to 'postpone' voting on HR 1606 prior to the FEC's ruling. And thank God they did. When I called my Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney (D, NY) the week the HR 1606 vote had been scheduled (before it was 'postponed'), she STILL hadn't made a decision on it one way or the other! On the other hand the FEC took freedom of speech on the internet, and it's task, very seriously.

I understand this is a libertarian, gov't bureaucrats = BAD site, but this just seems to be a case of they got it right.

And the FEC ruling isn't written in stone -- our elected members of Congress are free to f*ck it up at any time.

I consider it a tremendous win for speech because it would have been a tremendous loss for speech had the FEC gone the other way.

I disagree Nick. We managed to keep the status quo. That's not a victory - repealing McCain-Feingold would be a victory. This was avoiding a defeat.

I agree with you, Zach. This whole thing is similar to the President wanting to add a constitutional ammendment defining that marriage is between a man and a woman. (As if it hadn't already been defined as such)

Given the rest of what this administration has managed to do (specifically the wiretapping), I consider a narrowly avoided defeat a victory.

I don't misunderstand your point (that we shouldn't be happy for not being defeated)- I just disagree with it.