We should be all a-Twitter

By GottaLaff

I get e-mails, and this one was of particular interest. It's from my pal Karoli over at Drumsnwhistles, verbatim:

[E]vidently some in Congress are making an effort to restrict Congress people's access and use of social media sites like Twitter and Qik. Unfortunately it comes from Democrats, but I suspect it would be the same with Repubs in the majority too. At any rate, no political bloggers are picking this up and running with it, sadly. John Culberson has been remarkably engaging and willing to have a conversation about some pretty major subjects, including FISA.

Here are some excerpts from her post:

Congressmen John Culberson (R-Tx) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) are on Twitter, and regularly send updates to Twitter directly from the House floor. [...] I view this as a huge leap in political communication. No longer constrained by the “official” responses, these representatives choose to directly speak to anyone who follows them on Twitter, and tell us what’s going on.

Unfortunately, there are some Democrats in Congress who take a dim view of any communication with voters that isn’t “official communication”. This includes video and text communication, evidently. Earlier today this came through Twitter from Rep. Culberson:

I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen’s ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc - outrageous and I will fight them.

Based on the rules set forth in the document below, every communication any House member sent to Culberson would have to be vetted and disclaimed before it could be posted. Obviously that’s not acceptable. [...] If we don’t protest this obvious violation of the First Amendment they’ll succeed at silencing someone who is attempting to actually do what he was elected to do — represent the people in his District and communicate with them. The fact that his communication is in real time makes it more meaningful than any vetted and disclaimed statement would be.

Please go read the rest here.

I suggest writing Nancy Pelosi and Michael Capuano to let them know that the Congress should not be BANNING social media; it should be embracing it.

Thank you, Karoli. Excellent post and one that we should take seriously.