I have spent the last couple days chronicling Steve "Joe McCarthy" nASS attempts to jail a cartoonist for daring to make fun of him. I wanted one more post on this and hopefully the next time we hear about this will be in Steve nASS’s concession speech on election night where he apologizes to Mr. Konopacki.
In today's Wisconsin State Journal:
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said Wednesday his office is considering whether to file a felony charge against a political cartoonist who reproduced the letterhead of state Rep. Steve Nass on a phony press release sent to a Madison newspaper.
Ozanne said Capitol Police have asked his office to determine whether Mike Konopacki of Madison should be charged with violating a state law that makes it a felony for someone who is not a public officer or public employee to act in an official capacity or to exercise any function of a public office.
The Class I felony is punishable by up to 3½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Ozanne said his office has the discretion to file a different felony or misdemeanor charge, or to not prosecute.
Konopacki, 60, said Wednesday he believes his parody — which makes fun of Nass, a Republican from Whitewater, for his role in canceling an art exhibit related to last year’s protests at the state Capitol — is protected political speech
Yes I know, ridiculous. But wait there’s more:
Nass filed a formal complaint with Capitol Police on March 8 asking that Konopacki be charged, said spokesman Mike Mikalsen. He said Nass’ office contacted Capitol Police the night of Feb. 25 with concerns over the misuse of the letterhead.
Mikalsen said that if such fabrications became the norm, it would make it difficult for lawmakers to communicate to the public and for media organizations to trust that the news releases they put out are genuine.
yes, All Mikalsen cares about is being communicating with the public. Open Public communication is so important to them, they have won awards for their diligence. Just ask nASS how important transparency is he will tell you!
In terms of is this a crime or not, I believe this video answers that question:
OK, back to your other stuff. Why haven’t you been fed to the bears, or at least arrested? Isn’t what you do illegal?
Perhaps it is! And we don’t know! Bears would be too good for us, but our targets don’t want the risk. At least that’s our theory. Anytime anyone has done something about us—saying they “deplore” us, complaining that we’re a Political Action Committee, whatever—they’ve looked ridiculous to the press.
On the other hand, what we do might not be illegal. Lawyers don’t seem to know; the ones we’ve asked can’t point to such-and-such a law that means we’re in trouble. But then the law is pretty irrelevant, as far as corporations are concerned—if they want you silenced, they just throw a totally bogus lawsuit at you, that invariably gets thrown out, and in the meantime ties you up in red tape. That’s called a SLAPP suit, and it’s the main way corporations silence community activists whose causes aren’t sexy enough for the mainstream media to follow.
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