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GAO Green-Lights White House Interference in Elections

I'm running really late this morning so with apologies to those who are following both blogs, I going to cross-post this item on Dan Forbes excellent article, to be sure no one misses it.

The law of our country prohibits the use of "official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election." Nonetheless the General Accounting Office of the White House told drug czar John Walters he can campaign at will under ONDCP's congressional mandate of "taking such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize" drugs. They don't even care if he tells the truth.

The Office of Special Counsel ruled that ballot initiatives don't fall under Hatch Act restrictions on using an official position for electioneering; leaving the drug czar free to spend your tax dollars traveling around the country denouncing initiatives brought forward by the taxpayers. Their reasoning being -- since no person is actually elected, a ballot initiative is not an election, despite the thousands of citizens who show up at the polls to cast a vote.

Our government has already spent 2 billion of your tax dollars on this ad campaign . Money that could be spent on schools instead of lame commercials that don't work. Your elected members of the House have now authorized another 2 billion to cover false propaganda expenses through 2008. It's currently stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Don't think you're safe just because you don't care about drug policy reform. When they're done with us -- they will be coming after you. Contact your senators and tell them not to fund this exercise in anti-democracy. There's only two and you can find them in two clicks here.

Via Lew Rockwell, Dan Forbes examines this subversion of the public's will --paid for by our own money-- in painful detail. Keep reading to the end no matter how much it hurts. It's worth it.