posted 03-08-2004 09:54 AM            

By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee on Friday asked about 250 television stations to pull a liberal group's ads critical of President Bush.

The RNC sent the stations a letter Friday suggesting the outlets may be complicit in breaking campaign finance laws if they air the MoveOn.org Voter Fund ads. It asked them to decline to broadcast the ads.

The RNC argues that the group, financed by so-called "soft money," is spending it on ads to influence a federal election. The campaign finance law broadly bars the use of such corporate, union and unlimited donations to influence federal elections.

MoveOn began airing ads Thursday critical of Bush's policies. MoveOn founder Wes Boyd said the ads are legal, and added that the group isn't concerned by the RNC's letter. The ads were financed with unlimited donations from individuals — one form of soft money.

The ads were originally to air in 17 presidential battleground states over five days at a cost of $1.9 million. Boyd said the group decided Friday to spend $1 million more to run an ad criticizing Bush's economic policies for an additional week in several states.

In the letter, RNC chief counsel Jill Holtzman Vogel wrote, "As a broadcaster licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, you have a responsibility to the viewing public and to your licensing agency to refrain from complicity in any illegal activity, specifically in this case, violations of our nation's federal election laws."

posted 03-08-2004 10:46 PM            

This article as well as the site has some interesting hyperlinks.

Tuesday, March 02, 2004
RNC ORGANIZERS REPORT BEING CONTACTED BY THE SECRET SERVICE

The organizers behind the website counterconvention.org have reported they were contacted by the Secret Service on Thursday. The NYC Indymedia site has posted an email from counterconvention.org that reads in part:

After confirming that the inquiry was real (by calling the Secret Service main line in DC and confirming the agents name) we immediately spoke with a lawyer at the NYCLU who agreed to follow up with the Secret Service on our behalf. However, the Secret Service agent was unwilling to speak to our lawyer. Because we are unwilling to communicate with the Secret Service without our lawyer the agent only said that he would proceed with the investigation "through other means".

At this time we don't know why the Secret Service contacted us or what questions they had, because the agent refused to relay his questions to us through our lawyer. While receiving a phone call from an investigative agency like the Secret Service should always be taken seriously, we have no reason to believe this is part of any larger campaign or investigation on their part. CounterConvention.org is not involved in any illegal activities--the website is simply a tool designed to facilitate organizing work that groups around the city are taking on.

This letter is not being sent as an alarmist note, rather as one of information and caution. The Secret Service, FBI and NYPD will all be involved in policing activities around the Republican Convention and will be watching all public meetings, listservs and websites very closely. These agencies each have long histories of using intimidation to stifle legal protest and dissent.

The Secret Service will be working with the NYPD during the the convention because the government has designated the convention to be "National Special Security Event."
Since Sept. 11, there have been numerous other reports of Secret Service and FBI agents questioning activists and artists involved in legal forms of dissent. The Progressive recently published an exhaustive round-up of some of these cases in an article titled "The New McCarthyism." The Christian Science Monitor also published a similar article titled "Political Dissent Can Bring Federal Agents to Your Door"

Othe examples include:

19-year A.J Brown of North Carolina is visited by Secret Service and grilled for 40 minutes after they received a tip that her apartment contained "anti-American" material.

FBI agents visit the home of retired telephone company worker Barry Reingold after he was overheard critizing President Bush at a San Francisco gym.

posted 03-08-2004 11:25 PM            

You're not criticizing our FUHRER are you???