"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

As a matter of fact , there was an email from the folks at the NRA in
my
inbox today . You idiots are seriously twisting what the NRA's position
on
this matter really is .

I got the e-mail, too. It's a nice PR job!

I'm not on their mailing list. Care to forward it to me?

Ok, I sent it, and a follow-up they sent two days later.


There is legislation pending that would seriously limit the rights of
organizations to speak freely on matters of importance . These laws are
designed in part to muzzle the NRA in it's defense of our right to keep
and
bear arms . We can't allow that to happen .

Not really. There is some question about the laws' ethical status -- it
depends on whether you believe in full disclosure, or complete privacy.
The
two are in conflict. It's not as simple as the NRA suggests.

Yes it is. Free speech is unrestricted speech. Especially when it
concerns maters of
politics.

It isn't really about speech. It's about finding out who the puppeteers are.

It's a legitimate debate -- full disclosure versus secret campaign funding.


The concern might be that there are groups of small numbers with big
bankrolls that
attempt to sway public opinion by appearing as a large group of like
minded individuals.

The NRA with 3 million members is a big group we know exists.

The Brady Center is looking like a small group, claiming to be big. I
posted this in
another thread but the Brady bunch has claimed to have 500K members and
they rented out
their mailing list which means they had to disclose, turns out they had
50K members and
some of those are people like me monitoring them. Not much of a deal for
marketing.

http://www.examiner.com/x-30265-Detr...-to-raise-cash


My brain seems to want to pull up words like pamphleteers. Of course that
reminds me of
Thomas Paine who didn't put his name on Common Sense.

On one level, I'd like to know who is behind all these adds I see on the
TV but on
another, freedom of speech means you can say things with out having the
state identify
you. Considering the withering array of laws that can make almost
anything illegal, I'm
going to go for staying anonymous. We saw the illegal scrutiny of Joe the
Plumber when he
embarrassed Obama and the Dems.

Wes

Well, as I said, it's a legitimate debate. The NRA is trying to wrap it in
the flag, but that's a PR farce. As it is, there are all kinds of
organizations that fund campaigning -- including a LOT of government
contractors -- who disguise themselves as something else.

--
Ed Huntress