Senator Richard Lugar (right, owner of a killer lemon flip cake recipe) is lugging around Washington something he calls the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005.

A better name might be the First Amendment Licensing Act of 2005.

Under the proposal, "journalists" would get source protection, but some would be more equal than others. Those who work for institutions (a dwindling proportion of the whole) would get the right to protect their sources. The rest -- independents, bloggers, etc. -- would get no protection.

In other words, the First Amendment protections of corporate journalism would be expanded, and the rest of us -- the pamphleteers, the true heirs of Tom Paine -- would be told to pound sand.

Given the abuse of current sheilds perpetrated by The New York Times in recent years, and by others who have allowed anonymous sources to hide behind the press' rights while engaged in mere bureaucratic name-calling, I frankly don't think this law is necessary.

The only real protection we have as citizens, in the First Amendment, is the right to fight for our rights.

Rights are not given. They are seized.

In order to seize them, people have to stand up and demand rights. They have to be willing to suffer in order to expand rights.

Many bloggers have suffered greviously in these last few years for their right to speak. Some have been threatened with lawsuits. Others have been fired from jobs. Still others have been SLAPPed down. The right to write anonymously, as James Madison did in the Federalist Papers, is under unprecedented attack by corporate interests.

The Internet has brought many things to a head. Add this to the list.

But I for one intend to fight for my right to speak and write as I choose. Will you?