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Ungrounded Lightning (62228)
Ungrounded Lightning
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Journal of Ungrounded Lightning (62228)
IRS rule muzzles email legislative alerts.
Sunday January 18 2004, @07:45AM
Your Rights Online.
A new IRS rule (PDF here) would effectively ban advocacy groups from informing their members of pending legislation during the weeks before an election. This would allow legisltaors ram through unpopular legislation before their constituents find out and object.
It can be applied to groups of any political leaning, but is subjective enough to selective enforcement against only those groups unpopular with the IRS bureaucracy and/or the administration. Here is an explanation of how this would work, by one affected organization.
A new IRS rule (PDF here) would effectively ban advocacy groups from informing their members of pending legislation during the weeks before an election. This would allow legisltaors ram through unpopular legislation before their constituents find out and object.
It can be applied to groups of any political leaning, but is subjective enough to selective enforcement against only those groups unpopular with the IRS bureaucracy and/or the administration. Here is an explanation of how this would work, by one affected organization.
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Great pointer, thanks for the heads-up (Score:1)
Re:Great pointer, thanks for the heads-up (Score:2)
(I tried to get it posted as an article but it got rejected. So it seemed like a good item for kicking off my journal.)
Ignore it (Score:3, Interesting)
Wrong.
The minute they try to enforce this, there will be a massive backlash from the press, the public, everybody. Those responsible for drafting it will very likely be left flapping in the wind. This isn't one of your geek minority issues, it's a frontal assault on freedom of speech that everybody can understand. Pity the poor idiot who thought it would be a good idea.
Ignore it, get fined into poverty and sent to jail (Score:2)
Re:Ignore it, get fined into poverty and sent to j (Score:2)
Re:Ignore it, get fined into poverty and sent to j (Score:2)
Why should the press be indignant. This makes them into a much larger powe
Re:Ignore it, get fined into poverty and sent to j (Score:2)
Members? (Score:2)
It looks to me as if this would only affect PR campaigns, not newsletters to members (see 527(e)2 in the PDF). Overall, the organization you linked to is missrepresenting what it says there; it explicitly states in the PDF that they could object to legis
Re:Members? (Score:2)
Oops... (Score:2)
Oops. Six factors pushing the vauge balancing test toward not-OK (with the caveat that these are NOT exhaustive, meaning the IRS can make up more on-the-fly), five puhing it toward OK.
Note that the IRS de
Re:Members? (Score:2)
MarkusQ: t looks to me as if this would only affect PR campaigns, not newsletters to members (see 527(e)2 in the PDF). Overall, the organization you linked to is missrepresenting what it says there; it explicitly states in the PDF that they could object t