THE US GOVERNMENT is planning to force bloggers who criticise Congress and organise grassroot causes to register themselves or face jail time.
According to GrassrootsFreedom.com, under Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, bloggers who have more than 500 readers will have to register and report quarterly to Congress just like lobbiests or go to jail.

GrassrootsFreedom.com chairman Richard Viguerie said the new law would create the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever.

The Senate would make exercising your First Amendment rights a crime. The Senate voted 93 – 2 to amend S. 1 to include criminal penalties for knowing and willful reporting failures. That would include when the government thinks you should have known to report and civil disobedience. See the vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll...on=1&vote=00002.

Pelosi & Company’s lobbying legislation “reform” would define political communications to and even between citizens as “lobbying.” This turns the definition of lobbying on its head and is in violation of the First Amendment.

Moreover, their legislation would treat grassroots activists more harshly than the K Street lobbyists and the big corporations and unions. They get loopholes that the smallest critics using the Internet wouldn’t enjoy. Communicating to as few as 500 people would trigger the registration and quarterly reporting to Congress.

In truth, the grassroots legislation would help protect corruption in Washington by silencing critics and diminishing the ability of grassroots causes to communicate with the general public.

"The bill would require reporting of 'paid efforts to stimulate
grassroots lobbying,' but defines 'paid' merely as communications to 500 or
more members of the public, with no other qualifiers.
    "On January 9, the Senate passed Amendment 7 to S. 1, to create
criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, if someone 'knowingly
and willingly fails to file or report.'
    "That amendment was introduced by Senator David Vitter (R-LA). Senator
Vitter, however, is now a co-sponsor of Amendment 20 by Senator Robert
Bennett (R-UT) to remove Section 220 from the bill. Unless Amendment 20
succeeds, the Senate will have criminalized the exercise of First Amendment
rights. We'd be living under totalitarianism, not democracy.

    "The legislation regulates small, legitimate nonprofits, bloggers, and
individuals, but creates loopholes for corporations, unions, and large
membership organizations that would be able to spend literally hundreds of
millions of dollars, yet not report.
    "Congress is trying to blame the grassroots, which are American
citizens engaging in their First Amendment rights, for Washington's
internal corruption problems."