Thursday, June 22, 2006

More on Fletcher's Blog blocking

More on that Fletcher (mis)administration attempt to block critical Blog sites.
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From BluegrassReport one of the blockees:
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Rep. Ben Chandler (D) has just publicly condemned Fletcher's censorship actions and stands behind the constitution. Keep in mind that Ben also voted for net-neutrality as well:

KY Congressman: Great Kentucky Blog Ban Violates
Constitution
!

...Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY), whose district includes the state capitol, has just come out firmly against the policy. "I believe the recent action of the Fletcher
administration to block access to a handpicked number of blogs is a violation of
the equal protection clause of the Constitution," Chandler said through a spokeswoman. "This flies in the face of a fundamental right of free
speech."

Ryan Alessi has a story on the Herald-Leader website:
Fletcher Administration Blocks State Employees' Access To
Political Blogs

By Ryan AlessiHERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU
FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration blocked state employees' access to Web logs today, a day after a prominent political "blogger" was critical of the governor in a New York Times story. The ban sent the political sector of the cyber world into a tizzy, attracting attention from national blogs, some of which were added throughout the day to the list of sites state workers couldn't access.
Finance and Administration Cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said that as part of a continuing Web-monitoring process, the state is restricting employees' access to sites that contain computer viruses as well as those devoted to entertainment, movies, auctions, classified ads, jokes, comics, message boards and, yes, blogs.
"We want to make sure we are doing what's best for the taxpayers," she said.
Officials had planned two weeks ago to limit access to blogs as part of a regular update of "non-business-related" Web pages, Midkiff said. The timing had nothing to do with the front-page New York Times story about Fletcher's political troubles, Midkiff said.
In that story, Mark Nickolas, publisher of the Bluegrassreport.org blog, criticized
Fletcher's administration for trying to "play by their own rules even if it's against the law." [...]
In an interview, Nickolas said the timing is more
than suspicious.
"But all this is going to do is draw more attention to it," he said. "It is an example of the low political IQ of the administration, that they think they can censor political speech to keep people in line."

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Blogs weighing in:
Talking Points Memo
Boing Boing
Daily Kos
Atrios
And on and on. For the latest though go to BluegrassReport

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