"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

The other day I was discussing the reasons why I’ve left the GOP and I mentioned their support of censorship through indecency laws.  Basically I was laughed at my a lot of the hard-core Republicans, but now that I’ve read this story I feel totally vindicated.

The chairman of one of the entertainment industry’s most important congressional committees says he wants to take the enforcement of broadcast decency standards into the realm of criminal prosecution.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner III, R-Wis., told cable industry executives attending the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. conference here on Monday that criminal prosecution would be a more efficient way to enforce the indecency regulations.

“I’d prefer using the criminal process rather than the regulatory process,” Sensenbrenner told the executives.

The current system—in which the FCC fines a licensee for violating the regulations—casts too wide a net, he said, trapping those who are attempting to reign in smut on TV and those who are not.

“People who are in flagrant disregard should face a criminal process rather than a regulator process,” Sensenbrenner said. “That is the way to go. Aim the cannon specifically at the people committing the offenses, rather than the blunderbuss approach that gets the good actors.

That’s right, folks.  If you put a boobie on TV or say the f-word on radio you’re going to have the awesome might of the behemoth federal government criminally prosecuting you for doing so.  Some of you Republicans out there, please explain to me how this isn’t an oppressive use of government force to threaten people into following a certain moral code (i.e. one dictated by conservative Republicans).

If you want Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and Donald Wildmon dictating what you can watch on TV, vote Republican.