Yeah, me too. But in all fairness our watercolor society has had to have permits to put up a large sign near the place where we had a show. It's the way for the government to extort a little more money.
It may be "just" the government having to be in every little aspect of our lives. They're even in our restrooms! My pet peeve is the signs in the restrooms, "Employees must wash hands before returning to work." It's not that I want them to have dirty hands, but I can't tell which is worse, our society so dumbed down so much that people don't know they should wash up after going potty or a government that's so intrusive that it has be in our restrooms.
Courts have ruled that political speech is the most protected of free speech rights under the constitution and requiring a permit for free political speech is so unAmerican it's "Massachusettsian" a.k.a. Kennedyesque