Sunday, February 19, 2006

La Mesa threatening to sue a resident over comments made at a city council meeting. Apparently, the speaker hurt Mayor Art Madrid's feelings, and he went crying to his lawyer. Of course, every lawyer the paper talks to confirms that it is almost impossible to sue someone for slander for speaking in a council meeting. And they don't mention California's anti-SLAPP legislation, which would force the city to pay the defendant's legal fees for using a lawsuit to quash free-speech rights. And, of course, the whole thing just makes it look like the mayor and his cronies really do have something to hide, if they're so eager to hide behind their consiliere rather than letting this pathetic slight go.

I can assure you I won't be voting for Art Madrid in the future. And he and his associates on the city council will be getting a stern letter from me about a little thing called the first amendment. And maybe I'll bitch about those annoying "It's our neighborhood, slow down!" signs. They didn't have those when I was a kid, and I survived. If their parents wouldn't break for me, I'm not slowing down for their kids.

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