Why Legislatures Should Only Meet Once a Year

Remember the Tim Couch (tim.couch@lrc.ky.gov) bill (HB 775) that I discussed earlier this morning? Well, I just ran across this little blurb about it from John Cheves:

Couch on Wednesday [March 5] readily acknowledged that his bill raises First Amendment issues regarding free speech, so he won't be pushing it. But he wanted to call attention to the phenomenon of unkind and often untrue comments about people being posted online by Kentuckians hiding behind the cloak of anonymity....

Couch said he, too, has been the subject of anonymous online roasting, and while he doesn't enjoy it, he doesn't think there's much the legislature can do about it.

"I think right now (online posting) is pretty much just on its own. It's a machine that's going to go its own way," Couch said. "The state can try to pass some rules, but I don't really think it would do anything."

So Couch didn't author this bill with any chance of it being addressed. He authored this bill to prove a point, or to get his name in the news, or something.

Boy, did he get his name in the news.

Ars Technica, Lawmaker's attempt to criminalize anonymous posting doomed

Associated Content, Tim Couch's Kentucky Law to Require Private Info Online

Silicon Alley Insider, Kentucky To Commentcowards: See You In Jail

I bet they don't treat Couch with this level of disrespect at his Masonic Lodge:

LESLIE COUNTY

Hyden #664
Across from the Courthouse
Hyden
Lige D. Sizemore - Master
Leihman Howard, Jr. - Secretary
Meetings 2nd. Monday & 4th. Saturday 7 p.m.
Members - 76

Do Masons vote on stuff? Has Couch proposed that Lodge #664 buy a Cadillac dealership, in a move to remind his fellow Masons that the Shriners have cool little cars? (And old-time Southern Californians who check out the last link, remember the radio commercial about the guys who were on their way to Canada?)

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