Weekend Followups

Weekend Followups

Atrios: Rep. Jim Gibbons is apologizing for being a plagiarist but not really apologizing for saying opponents of the war should be sent to Iraq as human shields.

Some dispute around the blogosphere as to how serious Bradley Smith of the FEC was about the idea of regulating blogs under the auspices of campaign finance.

One school of thought is summed up by Fret Wertheimer:

Smith's comments are obviously designed to instigate a cyberspace furor to pressure Congress to reverse the court decision requiring that paid political ads on the Internet should be treated like any other paid advertisements. Mr. Smith has a right to try to win converts to his anti-regulatory philosophy, but he has an obligation to present the issues fairly and forthrightly, and his comments to CNET fail both tests.

Have we been fished in? Electrolite seems to think so and has links to many others.

I must admit I'm a slippery slope guy with my 1st Amendment, so maybe I overreacted. But the Bushies are so brazen I'm afraid to take any chances.

Politics