Equal Time, my ass, and other fun stuff

[yendi]

Jesus Fuck.

Liberal media, my ass. Equal Time (offering Kerry a chance to appear afterwards? Nothing short of showing Fahrenheit 911 uncut the next night would qualify), my ass.

Oh, and fuck any talk of "Equal Time" to begin with. Federal election law prohibits corporations (or unions) from active electioneering within 60 days of an election (http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/electioneering.shtml#Corporations_Labor).

(And I do hope that there's actually a chance that the FEC pays attention -- the chair was appointed under Clinton, and isn't, to the best of my knowledge, in Bush's pocket. Of course, enforcement after the fact won't mean shit, any more than a judge telling a jury to disregard some comment a lawyer made. And preemptive prevention of the broadcast is a can of worms that I don't even want to go near.)

In other news, hangingfire points to the first article that actually explains why Bush brought up that clumsy Dred Scott reference.

Legal Affairs has an interesting piece by Mark Tushnet (whose name, with a dot inserted into it, becomes a porn site) on the ramifications for a the Supreme Court depending on the outcome of the election (the basic prediction: not much difference, and it's hard to predict what'll happen, anyway). Some oversimplifications and assumptions, but a good read nonetheless.

Oh, hey, did you know that rampant lesbianism is threatening Oklahoma? Listen to Tom Coburn (Republican candidate for Senator) make the claim. Insert your own Oklahomo joke here.

Comments

[aurora-lamour.livejournal.com]

How ARE they going to try to justify it under the equal time rules?

[cissa.livejournal.com]

If Oklahoma were smart, they'd embrace the rampant lesbianism (heh) and call it a tourist attraction.

At least, if they were smart and such a "threat" existed...

[shaddragon.livejournal.com]

What, you don't find rampant lesbians threatening? In hordes they're positively frightening!

At least, so I'm told.

As for the rest... ngh. I try to avoid reading politics lately -- there's just so much stupidity flying this time, worse than I think I've ever seen it. Thanks for pointing out links that're actually worth checking out.

[dwivian]

They won't. They'll claim that the documentary was in the public interest, and simply broadcast it. Kinda like CBS News, or FoxNews various commentary programs. They aren't required to sell OJ time to make his case against anti-OJ programming, or Scott Peterson any time to make a statement against all the anti-Scott sentiment, because the reporting is deemed "the public good."

Now, if Kerry wanted to BUY that much time, and they sold it, you'd have an issue, because it was KERRY buying it, so Bush would get a shot at time, and then it just cascades....

The only way this gets equalized is if the FEC decides that the documentary was not in the public interest, but was a specific politically motivated action in favor of a candidate. And, then it opens up a nasty issue of attempting to censor the press and the right to free expression in order to enforce what may be an unconstitutional law. Rather than lose their teeth, they may make vague threats and act AFTER the election.

[jerel.livejournal.com]

agreed. Whenever there's an election, i try to make my decision well before, so that when we get to this point, i don't need to be informed and can just turn that s$&^ off.

[shaddragon.livejournal.com]

Even there I'm sorta so-so. Because it seems to me that it's at this point that they start showing their true colors, so to speak -- the mud-flinging (heh, 'mud' is the least of it), name-calling, petty sniping behind backs and to faces, the sophmoric and asinine attitude-laden speeches.

I hate politicians. Why do all the options always have to be politicians? (Yes, sarcasm.)

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

It was the Marcus Cole Estrogen Brigade who spotted that Daily Kos deconstruction for me first. Beyonnnnnd infuriating. What other little secret messages are we missing by not being fake Christians, too?

[harold3.livejournal.com]

I think in this particular case the issue was the using of the girls room for uhm, amoritory hyjinks.

I dunno.