Censorship Alert
According to The Bachmann Blog’s latest post, Rep. Michael Capuano, (D-MA), wants to make blogging congresscritters go through a process before being permitted to post on blogs or YouTube. Here’s a portion of Rep. Capuano’s letter to Rep. Brady, (D-PA), chair of the Committee on House Administration:
As you are aware, current CHA regulations have been interpreted to prohibit Members from posting official content outside the .gov domain. Unfortunately, many members who wish to display vidoe on their websites have found that the existing tools available within the House to do so are not user-friendly or efficient, and in that addition, server storage space within the House is insufficient to meet the growing demand for video. The House Leadership and your committee began to examine solutions to this situation last year and the Franking Commission recently engaged in detailed discussions of possible solutions. Specifically, we discussed the ongoiong effort to establish designated House “channels” on external sites. This would allow a Member to post video on a qualifying external site and then embed the video on his or her Member site from this external site. The concept of an “official” external channel has been adopted by other government agencies and it could be available to the House in short order if the relevant CHA regulations and practice is amended.
Here’s another key portion of Rep. Capuano’s letter:
To the maximum extent possible, the official content should not be posted on a website or page where it may appear with commercial or political information or any other information not in compliance with the House’s compliance guidelines.
That last section sounds eerily close to censorship. Each representative reports to We The People, not the Franking Commission or the Committee on House Administration. The information that Michele Bachmann or Eric Cantor posts on their blogs or on YouTube is information about the people’s business.
Rep. Capuano’s suggestion that this be regulated in any way is an assualt on a legislator’s ability to communicate with his/her constituents. That’s totally unacceptable. Any attempt to regulate, restrict or inhibit electronic forms of communication between a legislator and their constituents is a potential restriction on a constituent’s right to know.
We The People won’t stand for that.
Technorati Tags: Censorship, Michael Capuano, YouTube, Blogs, Michele Bachmann, Eric Cantor
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
July 8th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Frankly, Gary, wouldn’t it be great if the congresscritters were censored? Completely! I mean, not even a peep out of them. Think of all the damage that wouldn’t occur simply because they couldn’t even talk, let alone blather.
Unless it was on or in a media source available to the public, where anyone could post or say his 2 cents worth.
And wouldn’t it be nice if all conversations with your congressman had to be recorded and published? I mean, even the one with the farmer and his wife or, more importantly, the one with the ethanol lobbyist or the NEA lobbyists? Think of all the things that might not be said as opposed to what we don’t know is being said today.
In other words, if they’re going to censor, they’d better also make all the dealings available to the public. After all, it’s my dime and yours that’s paying for their time while they’re listening to the lobbyists, and I think that qualifies me to know what’s being said, offered, bribed or threatened.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
And wouldn’t it also be nice to have a time limit on when they get their work done, better yet pay them say 6 months a year and a train ticket home. After all Amtrak is their baby, let them all use it, not just the ones along the NE Corrider main.
I feel much safer when Congress is not in Washington.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Oregon’s legislature meets every two years. The only ones who want it to meet every year are those who feed at the trough (bureaucrats, lobbyists, welfarers, etc.). Although they try desparately to get two years damage into one, they generally fail.
Makes me feel better knowing that.