As reported yesterday here on RedState, Congressional Democratic leaders, who promised in 2006 to create a more “open” government, are now proposing a new rule that would prevent Members of Congress from using the Internet to communicate with the American people unless the Web site they are using has been “approved” by a panel responsible for creating internal House rules.
Millions of Americans, and hundreds of Representatives — including myself — use video-sharing Web sites like YouTube, personal blogs, and online community sites like Red State to keep track of what is going on in Congress, to provide constituents with information and insight, and to build and foster communication between elected representatives and the American people.
The Internet and the New Media have made Congress more transparent, sometimes against its will, and have better empowered Americans to hold elected officials accountable for their actions, statements, decisions, and votes. Instead of embracing and working to further this new level of openness and transparency, as they promised when they were candidates for office, Democratic leaders are fighting to close the new lines of communication between politicians and the people that the Internet has opened.
Please read on.
As the Directors said yesterday, "Congressmen should be able to decide for themselves where and how they interact with their constituents and the American people." Using such Orwellian tactics to limit our contact with you the people, and vice versa, only serves to make government more secretive and less transparent – which is the exact opposite of what the Democratic leadership promised to do when elected.
Please take a moment and sign the petition on my Web site. Tell the Democratic Congressional leadership that preventing elected representatives from communicating with the American people will not stand.
The post was written by Congressman Mike Conaway on the Redstate.com site. He’s working to make sure that the “new media” remains available for Congress to use for communications. I don’t typically do direct copy and pastes of articles but this one is important. Click the link and sign the petition. The Dems have done some stupid stuff and this ranks up amongst the worst!
