I went over to gopusa.com for a look at what they’re saying about this issue.
Following is a typical comment.
It made me grin till I realised he was a typical GOP voter.
Scary.
I’d like to think Oz politics is not quite so lunatically polarised.

studebaker51
Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 24
Re: Voices of the Grassroots Should Not Be Silenced
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I’ve said it before: the Dimocrats will do ANYTHING to retain their power & positions...they know why they lost elections, & are moving to counteract the problem areas. Liberals are bullies...if they can’t win fairly, then they will change the rules so they can win...this is also why they are trying to re-enact the “Fairness Doctrine”. They know that conservative talk radio is a powerful opponent to their MSM....Any weapon that could be used against them will be systematically eliminated....just as they learned from their “Gods”, the communists...Hitler ,Stalin & Castro destroyed opposition before consolidating their power. The Dimocrats will use the law to silence their enemies.....just look @ most of their initial legislation
These elitists scare me......time to increase survival supplies & buy more guns & ammo for the civil war that will come....after all, if the jerks won’t listen to the voice of the people that (stupidly) elected them, then the hot-heads will resort to violence to get their point across.
Guess I’d better stop before this turns into a rant....

I was surprised he didn’t mention his love for the one and only true god who is surely a GOP supporter. 

Swordsbane, while I consider all politicians as corrupt and morally bankrupt until proven innocent, astroturfing is something I associate most closely with Rovian machinations. Therefore…

Well, as far as I’m concerned, the only difference between a democrat and a republican is the number of barbs on the rod they’re trying to shove up my ass.  I don’t for a moment think that the provisions worthiness can be judged by the fact that a lot of democrats voted against it.  It was simply in THEIR best interests.  Sometimes that is also in OUR best interests, but those times are getting fewer and harder to find.

Be that as it may, the Democrats have a vested interest in looking busy, and at least appearing to be looking out for us.  I would venture to guess that this provision had nothing much to do with bloggers by design but COULD be used to screw us if the wrong people were interpreting it, but that’s only a guess.  That’s why it’s so important to know what the text of the bill says and not just a summary or someones opinion of it.  Especially if that someone is a republican or democrat.  The reps will always try to make the dems look bad and the dems will always try to make the reps look bad.  Truth be damned.

As far as the bill goes.  Paid lobbyists are the governments ally.  The fact that they will have to report to the government doesn’t really do anything.  The government uses them.  Do you really think they will want to have a record that there may be something fishy with their favorite lobby?  I would venture to guess THAT’s why the provision was struck down, irregardless of what the bill does to unpaid lobbyists or bloggers.  The opposition might have been all democrats, but how many dems were among those who voted yes?

To recap: the provision was a good thing aimed at treating lobbyists like lobbyists even if they were bloggers, and a Republican internet lobbyist though it would be clever to stir up some trouble by deliberately mischaracterising the entire thing as a 1984-style attempt to limit freedom of speech.
Slashdot, with its penchant for swallowing things whole without examining anything at all, fell right into the trap and misreported the thing.

And now, the provision has been stripped from the bill, because people are dense and can’t be bothered to actually read the bill, which is pretty straightforward, and because the Republican voting bloc still exists.
A sad day for democracy.

The folks at ArsTechnica.com took a look at this bill recently too. Looks like it’s passed the Senate minus section 220.

And another look:

[ur=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070119-8651.html]New lobbying bill to criminalize political bloggers?[/url]