Skepticseye.com

My latest scholarly effort is now available for view on my BEP page.

Comments and general wisdom are always appreciated.

UPDATE: Alert readers have noted that somehow the version that I converted to pdf “shows changes.” I really, really dislike the “show changes” option — almost as much as I dislike Powerpoint — and is a mystery to me how any version in my possession was so configured. I will fix this tomorrow!

UPDATE II:  Fixed!!

Is this REALLY the issue the Clinton campaign does best to highlight?  Next:  Clinton attacks Edwards for being insensitive to confidential personal information contained in FBI files.

The SpeechNow Advisory Opinion Request is here.  Comments to the FEC are due December 10!  If you can read it by then.  (True, it isn’t as long if you skip the attachments, but why would you do that?)
Or don’t read it, and comment generally on the proper scope of “political committee.” Is a group that raises money from individuals to expressly advocate against (maybe sometimes for) candidates based on the candidate’s position on campaign finance reform subject to the FECA contribution limits?

You already know what you think, don’t you?  No?  Then play with “major purpose” a little.  Don’t be shy.

Malibu-residing superstars, mysterious nights at the White House, and scratch inflicting spats.  I can’t wait for this election season to really fall into gear.
No, really.

Sinister news from, where else, New Jersey.

Of course, 527s can keep donors secret, too, if they are willing to pay tax.  And c4s can owe tax, too, in certain circumstances where they engage in 527-like activity,  And, at least as of now, the IRS is more interested in revenue than “transparency.” And that’s a good thing, too.

Another fine poetic offering from the most talented FOTS we are honored to know:

Kubla McKhain

(with apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

In Washington did Kubla McKhain
A stately campaign-finance law decree:
Where Potomac, the sacred river, ran
Through Capitol buildings measureless to man
Down to a sunless Chesapeake.

So twice five miles of bureaucratic ground
With lawyers and civil servants were girdled round:
And there were offices bright with those who lobby,
Where blossomed ideas that caused fierce fights
And here were protections that shouldn’t be wobbly,
Enfolded in amendments in the Bill of Rights.

But oh! Those deep rights to speak and petition did cost soft money
And Kubla McKhain in his incumbency did disdain the right
That created a wild marketplace! Of ideas and criticisms funny
As e’er beneath a national media market that shined too bright
A light on his and others’ doings in the Halls of Congress!
Electioneering communications caused turmoil seething
And the mention of his name led to rage and heavy breathing,
A mighty fountain of these Communications must be damned
And comments on congressional doings must be condemned,
Sharp fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
In chatty ads beneath the attacker’s flail:
So mute these communications at once and ever
Stop those nonprofits quartered on the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through Unions and Corporations the sacred river ran,
Then reached the Trade Associations measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And ‘mid this tumult Kubla McKhain heard from far
The Reformers’ voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the campaign reforms
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the critics’ storms
From Wertheimer in his raves.
It was a new Sedition Act to stem the tide,
A dark campaign-reform we were forced to abide!

A lawyer with a brief
At the Supreme Court I sought:
He was Bopp from Indiana,
And for WRTL he fought,
Arguing for the First Amendment.
Could he revive within our system
The symphony resplendent,
Of political speech, chaotic as it may be?
Would be a deep delight ‘twould win me,
That with Justices holding so loud and long,
We could rebuild our ancient rights, bar the FEC,
That great Constitution! The First Amendment!
And all who speak should know they are there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
That McCain-Feingold law, those holier-than-thou Reformers!
Weave a brief round them thrice,
Bind them tight with Justice Robert’s thread,
For they on Pew-money hath been fed,
And drunk the fantasy of Election-Paradise.

The Nevada state branch of the Constitution party will litigate the issue of whether they can be required to file disclosure statements, reports Richard Winger.  Go team!

Bob Bauer has this, on the new WRTL rule.  The last stanza memorializes the fact that electioneering, even where permitted, must be reported:

Warning: whether safely in or out of port,
You owe the government a report
On who it was who paid the freight
For a pre-election ad neither for, nor against a candidate.

The meter is a little shaky, but that it was done at all is worthy of praise.

I found this paragraph in an 1894 Chicago Daily Tribune, and wonder if the writer was on to something . . .

In the pending contest, we observe that the German Democrats are almost a unit against corruption, and it is creditable to that race that the same may be said of them in almost any large city.  We all know how it is in Cincinnati, where the German wards may always be expected to roll up majorities against anything that smacks of corruption in municipal affairs or unsoundness in finances  You do not find them anywhere bellowing for cheap money, but always demanding sound money.

And don’t forget Octoberfest! (Citation:  Chicago and new York, Chi. Daily Trib. Nov. 2 1894 at 3, available in ProQuest Historical Newspapers.)

The Media Fund should have registered, reported, and followed the limits applied to political committees, says this new settlement in MUR 5440.

To quote the press release:

Approximately 93% of its receipts during that time period– over $55 million – came from labor organizations or corporations prohibited from contributing to political committees, or from individuals who gave in amounts that exceeded the $5,000 limit established under the Act for contributions to political committees. The Commission concluded that the language used in fundraising solicitations sent by TMF or its joint fundraising committee, the Joint Victory Campaign, clearly indicated that the funds received would be targeted to the election or defeat of a specific federal candidate. Most of the solicitations targeted the defeat of George W. Bush, and some of the solicitations targeted the election of John Kerry. Funds received in response to these solicitations constituted contributions under the Act and caused TMF to surpass the $1,000 statutory threshold by December 2003. TMF’s former president made direct solicitations to donors, which included messages such as “Bush can be beaten,” “The Race for 270; The fight for the White House is a state-by-state battle,” “270 Electoral Votes (Evs) Needed to Win,” and “17 Key States Will Decide the 2004 Election.”