HLOGA’s Impact on Lobbying Amounts

CQ covers HLOGA’s impact on what lobbying amounts are reported:

The projected spending increases this year can largely be attributed to changes in lobbying disclosure rules. Industry experts believe that these new rules and harsher penalties may have lead to more groups registering and reporting their spending with greater specificity.

Several industry representatives cited new criminal penalties for non-compliance with the new disclosure rules as a possible reason for the dramatic uptick in spending. But they also said new filing procedures, which allow lobbyists to report business expenses noted on their tax returns for large advertising campaigns, consulting and grass-roots lobbying, may have helped drive the numbers up.

North Carolina Right to Life v. Leake

Digesting the opinion, some of it is quite favorable to Speechnow.org’s cause (see discussion starting at p. 24 of the opinion).  The court strikes contribution limits on independent expenditures for what appears to be precisely the reasons Speechnow.org has argued.  North Carolina (in the Fourth Circuit, of course), is having an important primary soon and American Leadership Project and individual donors have had a complaint filed against them by the Obama campaign, which in part alleges violations of contribution limits.   North Carolina Right to Life v. Leake strikes as unconstitutional similar limits appearing in North Carolina’s law.

UPDATE:  Rick Hasen has already pointed some of this out. 

Pig Found

Entertainment Weekly updates us on the inflatable pig found after being lost at a Roger Waters concert.  The pig, and fliers distributed in connection with its flight over the crowd, had “Obama 08” on its undercarriage.  No mention of how the activity was funded, whether foreign nationals were involved, or if a disclaimer (in a box) was present.