Right Wing Nut House

Watching the Canadien press twist themselves into gordian knots trying to avoid violating the publication ban surrounding testimony in the Adscam scandal currently roiling the political landscape in that country would be comical if not for the deadly serious issue the ban raises for bloggers worldwide.

Captain Ed seems to be as puzzled as the rest of us about the idiocy of it all:

In order for a citizenry to remain at liberty, they have to know what their government is doing, and the press needs to report it without fear of government reprisal. The notion that Brault’s rights had to be protected over the rights of all Canadian citizens is not only ludicrous but a false choice at its heart.

Despite the efforts of both regulators and their allies in various reform movements to downplay the issue, it’s becoming increasingly clear that bloggers in America and other “free” countries have a great big bullseye painted on their back; and governments are starting to take aim.

In San Francisco, two laws were just passed to regulate campaigns; one of them put truly draconian restrictions on bloggers including requiring registration if the site experienced more than 500 hits a day and/or contributed in-kind contributions of more than $1000 to any candidate. I posted on the subject here, but was almost immediately put off by a commenter at the linked site who pooh-poohed the idea:

Could someone provide a source for that City Attorney comment? Because there’s nothing remotely like that in the bill.

Nor is there anything about “electronic communications” in that bill — just a lot about “electioneering communications”.

And news stories, commentaries, and editorials from any “recognized news medium” are exempt.

So, like, someone needs to do some fact-checking here, or at least source the allegations, because the bill doesn’t on its face do anything that’s been alleged.

Unfortunately, as with most legislation, the law of unintended consequences takes effect as soon as human beings get into the act. Whatever a piece of paper says pales in comparison with the capacity of the human imagination to come up with novel ways to interpret its meaning. Thus, we learn from Chris Nolan that while blogging did indeed receive an exemption (perhaps “reprieve” would be a better word) the fact that the idea of regulating blogs in this manner was even on the table is indicitive of much worse things to come.

The publication ban in the Adscam mess is causing our Canadien blogging friends numerous headaches while also revealing a spunky rebelliousness that should gladden the heart of American pajamahadeen everywhere. Despite threats from Canada’s Attorney General, some of our northern bretheren are not only ignoring the ban by linking to Captains Quarters for updates on the story, some are going so far as to post on the scandal themselves complete with scathing opinions of the shenannigans in general and the Liberal Party specifically.

In the wake of the FEC’s attempt to regulate blogs in the United States, we yanks should be well disposed to learn from our neighbors to the north the meaning of defiance. It may come in handy if the FEC goes off the reservation and begins to come after bloggers here.