Cyberbullying? No, it's just bullying.

I really, really want to believe that our representatives in the government are smart and always try to make good decisions and behave rationally, but time and again I'm disappointed. And when it comes to the pols dealing with technology and the Internet, it seems like clear thinking will be part of their agendas about the time that Hell freezes over.

For example: Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Calif.) along with 14 more of Washington's finest are sponsoring a proposed bill to be called The Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act. This bill was first proposed a year ago and many of us hoped it would just quietly wither and die. No such luck.

The bill (which, in a curious departure from normal sound bite politicking, does not have a cute or pithy acronym) seeks to criminalize electronic bullying.

UCLA School of Law professor Eugene Volokh sums it up this way in his blog: "Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."