Free Speech Isn't Free

Matter of fact, it costs a fucking bundle. Airing commercials in prime time is expensive.

It's also illegal in some cases.

McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform stipulated that "issue ads" - those TV spots that don't mention a candidate, but you just KNOW who they're aimed at anyway because they're about abortion or guns or wetbacks - can't be aired 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary.

As is the American way, somebody sued, saying their free speech was being violated like a prom queen after the chloroform. And ya know, I'm not a lawyer, and a don't play one on TV, but that sounds right to me. The government shouldn't be able to tell media outlets what advertising they can and cannot accept.

The case wended its way through the courts, and now the Supremes are going to hear it.

--Jumping into a heated free-speech dispute a year before the presidential primaries, the Supreme Court on Friday accepted a pair of appeals over a sweeping campaign-finance reform law that limits "issue ads."

Oral arguments in the cases will be held in late April, with a ruling expected by late June -- six months before the 2008 election officially kicks off with primaries and caucuses in such states as Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

The question for the high court is whether issue ads aired mainly on television -- and funded by businesses, labor unions, and other groups -- can be banned 60 days before a general election, and 30 days before a primary.--

All I can say is, this oughta be interesting. I never quite got how y'all went from "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech" to "Your right to free speech goes up in smoke a month or two before the election."

Keep me posted. Seriously. This moose is fascinated by something besides his penis for a change, and that's rare enough to be noteworthy.

Also in the linked article:

--In a separate case, the justices will hear oral arguments in an appeal by a staffer to Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minnesota. At issue was whether the staffer had the legal right to sue his boss over personnel policy. Federal law generally protects federal officeholders from individual lawsuits over their official duties.--

Um, okay. Let me see if I've got this straight. The guys who make the laws about employment situations can't be sued if they don't follow those laws?

That's, like, one of the fucking stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's time for the lunatics to give control of the asylum back to the sane people.

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