News came Friday that it appears that La Mesa councilmembers will not go forward with their threatened (loser of a) lawsuit against resident Chris Tanner. Score one for free speech.

On the other hand, it appears that the politicians in Washington state want to outlaw politics -- seriously. A story from Saturday's Olympian reveals that press releases from Washington GOP legislators are being edited for content. (via SoundPolitics)

The words which must not be written are:

• “Shell game”
• “. . . lack of honesty with taxpayers . . .”
• “It’s not truthful to say this money is being put into reserve.”
• “Tax-and-spend liberals”
• “. . . lack of truth in the majority’s message. . .”
• “. . . the majority party does not believe . . .”
• “Disingenuous”

And the justification?

“You cannot say Republicans are disingenuous or that Democrats are tax-and-spend liberals because we have rules governing the use of taxpayer resources that say you can’t use those resources to sling mud,” [House Chief Clerk Rich] Nafziger said. “We can’t censor people. There’s still free speech.”

Unbelievable.