Tuesday, October 07, 2008

It's a Twofer

The (Wisconsin) Government Accountability Board was formed last year and assumed responsibilities of the former State Elections Board and the State Ethics Board in January of 2008. Since they were on a roll and we got two government agencies for the price of one, they decided to give us even more bang for the buck and do something about that pesky First Amendment.

The Government Accountability Board today signaled plans to regulate so-called issue ads that tout or malign candidates just before an election but do not explicitly tell voters to vote for or against them.

Regulating those ads would limit how much individuals can give to groups running
the ads and require public disclosure of who gives to those groups. It would also mean corporations could no longer fund the ads, which could greatly diminish the number of issue ads that run before an election.

People complain about government inefficiency and we finally get a cost effective two-for-one deal .. and they go after the Constitution.

Wel fine - we it's not as if we were actually using the Bill of Rights anyway.

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