Suzu
09-30-2015, 08:22 AM
I have posted a supportive comment on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article referenced below. Please do the same if you can. Pass the word!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ron Calzone <ron@mofirst.org>
Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 7:56 AM
Subject: I'm under attack and need your help...
I'm sending this email to each of the many thousands of people who have used the LibertyTools witness form system to weigh in on the legislative process in Jefferson City.
Together, we've been very effective. So effective, in fact, that the certain powerful politicians and professional lobbyists are trying to shut us down.
They are using the Ethics Commission as a political weapon. They filed a complaint against me, claiming that I must register as a lobbyist and submit reports, like the professional lobbyist do. They won round one earlier this month when the Ethics Commission ruled against me and fined me $1000 for exercising my First Amendment rights. They cited the LibertyTools witness form project as one of the reasons.
We filed an appeal last Friday, though. The appeal is critical, because the Ethics Commission ruling leaves a lot of regular citizens in a gray zone -- unsure if they would also be required to register. The appeal isn't just about defending me. It's about defending the most basic principles of our constitutional republic -- the citizen's right to influence the laws he lives under.
Please read my op-ed in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Leave a comment there so everyone will know that We the People don't need a license from the state before we use our First Amendment free speech rights!
Read the op-ed here: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/lobbyists-legislators-aim-to-quash-political-activist-s-free-speech/article_5053629c-ec48-57c8-b5e8-e5e3b39a4bba.html
To learn more about the case and threat to citizen involvement in the legislative process and how you can support the public interest law firms defending our free speech rights, please go here: http://www.mofirst.org/lawsuits/2015-Ethics-Complaint/2015-Ethics-Complaint.php
Thank you for helping to defend our First Amendment rights!
For liberty,
- Ron
--
And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works. -- Frédéric Bastiat - "The Law"
Ron Calzone, director
Missouri First, Inc.
ron@mofirst.org
http://www.mofirst.org
(573) 368-1344
If I were the one being persecuted this way, I would resist, not comply in any manner -- even if found "guilty" -- and force the state to show its true colors in a bigger way. I would also encourage others who care about this sort of issue to follow Ron Calzone's lead and start a similar "lobbying" group of their own, following his example as shown at www.mofirst.org. There are so many more of "us" than there are of "them". Let "them" expend their energy trying to stop "us" from exercising our natural rights!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ron Calzone <ron@mofirst.org>
Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 7:56 AM
Subject: I'm under attack and need your help...
I'm sending this email to each of the many thousands of people who have used the LibertyTools witness form system to weigh in on the legislative process in Jefferson City.
Together, we've been very effective. So effective, in fact, that the certain powerful politicians and professional lobbyists are trying to shut us down.
They are using the Ethics Commission as a political weapon. They filed a complaint against me, claiming that I must register as a lobbyist and submit reports, like the professional lobbyist do. They won round one earlier this month when the Ethics Commission ruled against me and fined me $1000 for exercising my First Amendment rights. They cited the LibertyTools witness form project as one of the reasons.
We filed an appeal last Friday, though. The appeal is critical, because the Ethics Commission ruling leaves a lot of regular citizens in a gray zone -- unsure if they would also be required to register. The appeal isn't just about defending me. It's about defending the most basic principles of our constitutional republic -- the citizen's right to influence the laws he lives under.
Please read my op-ed in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Leave a comment there so everyone will know that We the People don't need a license from the state before we use our First Amendment free speech rights!
Read the op-ed here: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/lobbyists-legislators-aim-to-quash-political-activist-s-free-speech/article_5053629c-ec48-57c8-b5e8-e5e3b39a4bba.html
To learn more about the case and threat to citizen involvement in the legislative process and how you can support the public interest law firms defending our free speech rights, please go here: http://www.mofirst.org/lawsuits/2015-Ethics-Complaint/2015-Ethics-Complaint.php
Thank you for helping to defend our First Amendment rights!
For liberty,
- Ron
--
And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works. -- Frédéric Bastiat - "The Law"
Ron Calzone, director
Missouri First, Inc.
ron@mofirst.org
http://www.mofirst.org
(573) 368-1344
If I were the one being persecuted this way, I would resist, not comply in any manner -- even if found "guilty" -- and force the state to show its true colors in a bigger way. I would also encourage others who care about this sort of issue to follow Ron Calzone's lead and start a similar "lobbying" group of their own, following his example as shown at www.mofirst.org. There are so many more of "us" than there are of "them". Let "them" expend their energy trying to stop "us" from exercising our natural rights!