The Liberty Observer & Guardian
From: Richard Lewis
502-403-5534 - You will probably need to dial the 502 prefix to reach my / this cellphone!
Attention: Friends
ON May 11, 2010 :
The General Counsel, for the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance confirmed that a "Permanent Committee" is Kentucky's name for what the federal government calls a "Political Action Committee".
The General Counsel, for the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance confirmed to me, that a "Permanent Committee" is a vehicle that allows Kentucky residents to pool their money and participate in certain kinds of political activities including donations to a candidates election committee.
The General Counsel, for the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance confirmed that a "Permanent Committee" can not be a "corporation" as the "prohibition against corporations donating directly" to a "candidate" are still in force at both the state and federal level and were not impacted by the recent supreme court decision "Citizens United v. F.E.C”.
The General Counsel, for the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance confirmed that a "Permanent Committee" is neither a "Person" nor a "Corporation" for the purpose of law in Kentucky.
Personhood: Is the basis for "RIGHTS" in our state and federal legal systems!
While newspaper and broadcast businesses are allowed to endorse candidates and political ideas because they are recognized as "legal persons" flesh and blood Kentucky residents are "illegally" stripped of their standing as persons and are reduced to non-entities in order to engage certain aspects of their political process in Kentucky!
Kentucky is the only state in these United States that does not include within its laws and statues a "media exemption" or a "press exemption"! Despite this fact, newspaper and broadcast businesses in Kentucky are not required to register with the "Kentucky Registry of Election Finance" and are not required to report their "political activities or endorsements as contributions" and "Kentucky election laws" place no restrictions on raising funds to pay the cost of paper, ink or the distribution of their candidate endorsements, political ideas, and opinions!
In the year 2000 as a result of two complaints filed by myself and John Riley the "Kentucky Registry of Election Finance" determined that the absence of a "media exemption" or a "press exemption" in Kentucky statue did not impact Kentucky newspapers or broadcasters in any way and that they are exempt from Kentucky Election laws which regulate political communications and endorsements by Kentucky's living residents, political parties and political organizations.
The findings of the registry at the hearing regarding the above mentioned complaint included that a "Pizza Company" had as much "Right" to use a Pizza Box to endorse a candidate as the "Courier Journal" Kentucky's largest newspaper”! I have a certified copy of that hearing. As you can see this decision mirrors the recent Supreme Court decision "Citizens United v. FEC”!
If the "Kentucky Registry of Election Finance" was correct in that decision..... election finance complaints in other states against newspapers and broadcasters were settled in other states to the advantage of the newspaper and broadcasters
on the sole basis of their respective "state’s press exemption"!
Another question regarding the lack of a "Kentucky Press Exemption Remains"!
Does a "Press or Media Exemption" serve a dual purpose? Is it also the "legal basis" the "authority" for treating the "RIGHTS" of "Flesh and Blood Persons" as inferior to "legal persons" newspapers and broadcasters which are exempted from speech and press regulations?
If a "press or media exemption" is not the "legal basis" the "authority" for treating the "RIGHTS" of "Flesh and Blood Persons" as inferior to "legal persons" the newspapers and broadcasters in Kentucky, what "legislative Act" provides that authority?
As Kentucky law does not include a "press or media exemption" is there any lawful basis for restricting the speech and press "Rights" of Kentucky's "Living, Breathing Human Residents"? Is the "Kentucky Registry of Election Finance" violating the "Civil Rights" of the people of Kentucky that are living, breathing and human in favor of the “corporate legal persons?
The Federal Election Commission office of public information, confirmed for me that a PAC or Political Action Committee at the federal level is in fact a person for the purpose of federal law! The FEC information specialist did not name a legislative act or court decision that provided a lawful basis for recognizing a PAC as a "legal person"!
Questions that I am attempting to resolve are:
Is an unincorporated newspaper business owned and operated by a single "living person" for the purpose of law a "legal person"?
Are U.S. federal courts or Kentucky courts recognizing the "speech" and "press rights" of newspaper and broadcast businesses because they are "legal persons" or have our courts substituted newspaper and broadcast businesses as the definition of a "FREE PRESS"?
