Libertas Continued

A nation that requires no direct service by it's citizens can not claim to be free.

Friend -- After last night's historic health care vote in Congress, I wrote some thoughts about this long-awaited accomplishment -- and the lessons it offers for our efforts to change Congress. This piece is published on the Huffington Post , and I've pasted it below. Please forward this email to your friends and colleagues and share it on Twitter, so we can show our fellow Americans that this health care saga is a clear example of why our electoral system is broken -- and why we must fix it. -- Lawrence Lessig The Moment President Obama will savor, and rightly so, his extraordinary achievement in enacting fundamental health care reform. He has done something few thought possible. And he may well have revived the enormous faith his election gave millions. But we should not miss the lesson in this fight. Nor the opportunity to rally this rebounded presidency to its real potential for reform. However good, however essential, however transformative this health care bi

"A bill that was introduced in the US House of Representatives last week would require all Executive Branch agencies to publish public information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats. The [1]Public Online Information Act would also establish an advisory committee to help craft Internet publication policies for the entire US government, including Congress and the Supreme Court. Citizens would have a limited, private right of action to compel the government to release public information online, though common sense exceptions (similar to those for FOIA) would remain in place."

No Non-U.S.-Citizen may participate in U.S. Federal Politics via political speech or campaign contribution. This is not a debate about weather non-citizens (like corporations and foreigners) should have free speech. This is a debate about a particular kind of political speech. Just as it is illegal to defame or to endanger people with speech, so it must be illegal for non-citizens to engage in campaign speech. This says nothing about speaking through legal citizens, nor does is limit financial influence, as campaign finance laws are a separate matter, it just takes non-citizens out of the political game. A game in which they do not belong. A game in which these non-citizens have not earned (that corporations can not earn) the right to participate. Corporations are not people, thus they can not be citizens, and should not have voting rights or direct political influence. Foreign Nationals are not citizens and have no legal rights other than those we choose to give them. There is