Keep Your Dirty Toe Out Of My Pristine Pool

Some efforts just don't meet the giggle test. In this spirit, the Federal Election Commission has decided to dip its dirty toe into the freewheeling frontier of political discourse on the internet. Newly proposed regulations seek to apply to the internet many of the same crippling standards that exist for paid electioneering communications and political ads on television and radio.

The American political system, already an indecipherable mass of freedom-stunting, ineffective regulation, now stands on the crest of a new wave of heavy-handed rulemaking. Spurred by court order, the FEC's proposed rules, if formally adopted, will undoubtedly send both regulator and regulated chasing their tails in an attempt to control electioneering activity in a sphere where the sheer size and diffusion of activity make regulation wholly impractical.

An elegantly designed Constitution set forth the most effective form of political regulation 10 score and 18 years ago when it empowered the citizenry as the ultimate arbiters of the behavior and actions of its elected representatives.

Sadly, the Good Government movement has been co-opted not by those who believe in the citizen's market as the best regulator of behavior, but by those who believe that free speech and political activity can and should be limited.

I sure hope this entry isn't construed as an in-kind contribution of over $2K. I wouldn't want to exceed my allotted freedom of expression.