If you're a Michigan Senator, you can still read this blog -- for now.
There's quite a hubbub in Lansing today over Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop's decision to block Senate computers from accessing a liberal blog called BloggingforMichigan.com.
Apparently Bishop's staff doesn't want Senate employees wasting taxpayer time as they diligently work to solve the state's budget crisis.
At this point, BFM has heard many different excuses as to why Bishop doesn't want the Senate to see our work. I'm really curious as to the real reason. I tend to think it's this-
Bishop's chief of staff, Matt Miner, ordered the blog be blocked on Thursday.
Other political blogs, such as Michiganliberal.com and Michiganconservative.com, were not blocked.
"Michiganliberal.com doesn't matter, they don't say bad things about us," Miner told MIRS, a daily political newsletter.
So, if you say good things about the Senate Republicans, you are probably OK. But don't count on it.
Go read Chad's piece. Show the Jackson CitPat some love for addressing the issue of censorship.
Libby Spencer has posted at the Detroit News blog about Senator Bishop's actions.
Good to see this hitting the MSM in any form- but I disagree with Libby on one thing-
Bishop who is dancing faster than the hapless drunk in an old western trying to justify his boneheaded move, is surprised by the reaction. Maybe he should bone up on his constitutional knowledge. If he wants to ban blogs in the hallowed chambers of Lansing on account of work productivity, fine. But then he has to block all of them -- or none. In America, freedom of speech means everyone gets to talk. Not just the people who agree with him.
I don't think Mike should be allowed to block anything in the "hallowed chambers of Lansing" by fiat like that- and I would say so at the DN, but I have never been able to figure out their very strange comment system there.
So, Libby , if you're reading this- thanks for your thoughts on this matter. Nothing better than to see BFM appear at the Detroit News.
(Democratic Senator Mark Schauer represents Michigan's 19th district, and is the Senate Minority Leader. Welcome Senator Schauer! - promoted by Christine)
I hadn't yet had the opportunity to post on Blogging for Michigan, but most of you already know that I think you do a wonderful job of discussing issues that are important to our state. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I firmly believe that blogs and the online community are an important part of sharing ideas, interacting with the public, and examining what we do as your elected officials. I've personally had constituents tell me that they find it useful to have access to this information and this type of dialogue.
In fact, I have made it a priority to reach out to bloggers, treat them as the constituents they are, and give them the respect and information they deserve as new media journalists. Their editorial content is up to them and I can tell you there have been plenty of opinions I haven't completely agreed with, but I would hope my colleagues would encourage expanding the debate and increasing the dialogue, rather than establishing this dangerous precedent of slamming the door in their face.
That's why I am so disturbed by the recent decision made by the Senate Republican Leader's office to ban certain blogs and the comments by his staff that implies that they are working on continuing and expanding this censorship. I plan to share my concerns with the Senator, his office, and the Secretary of the Senate, but let me be clear that I find this censorship unacceptable. I hope that this is simply a matter of confused staffers and a lack of understanding of new media on their part and not a firm, and in my opinion very misguided, policy direction that they are committed to.
In the meantime, please keep doing what you do. And for our friends at the Yearly Kos convention in Chicago, please tell everyone there that despite all this, Michigan really is a great state and they should come see for themselves soon!
Hello. My name is Cathleen Carrigan, but you know me as wizardkitten. You might remember me from my extensive body of work on the election last year.
It appears that my series on Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans here at Blogging For Michigan has caused quite the nationwide stir.
Good.
It's about time that people started paying attention to the fact that Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans are blocking progress for the citizens of Michigan. The Republican Party in this state has obstructed my Governor, Jennifer Granholm, at every turn during her time in office, and I want the whole nation to know about it. They are currently dragging their feet on fixing the budget crisis that faces Michigan, and that has been my focus for most of this year, both at this site and at my own blog.
I started this series on July 24th- it's the "Senate Republican Statement of the Day". I decided to do this after reading the Senate Journals and listening to these guys get up day after day and say the most outrageous things... and I felt it was time to give them a little more publicity.
Apparently Mike Bishop has taken offense to a post I did on Bruce Patterson, and decided to shut off access to this site for the Michigan Senate. Senate Republicans are trying to claim that this is the work of a Senate employee because, according to MIRS- "the blog updated after session and it coincides with what the Senate's doing."
Yes. Just as soon as you guys put this on the web, and the stories hit the papers/journals, I am on it. I am just that quick.
I found it very interesting that you would single out this blog and try to keep us from speaking out, especially right when the Senate Democrats are going to start a series of posts here. Other people are finding that interesting as well.
Let's address the post that Bishop/Miner is referring to. If you look at that post on Patterson, you will see that it was made the day after he said the things that he said.
By now you may know that the Michigan Senate has blocked access to BFM. MIRS and Gongwer have reported on this. Mike Bishop's Chief of Staff, Matt Miner, is the talking head behind all of this. I'd like to respond to a few of his comments on this blog.
First, I'll address the comments that are only mildly annoying. In subscription only MIRS, he says this:
"I'm not blocking them (blogs) all because some are informational.
Hmm .. informational ... BFM isn't informational? So this stuff doesn't count?
Yesterday afternoon I received a few inquiries from the Michigan Senate as to whether BFM was offline.
It was an understandable question … we've had some problems here. But this time, the error was a little different … "server timed out" … hmm … the kind of error you get when your site is blocked.
So we did a little digging, and it turns out that Mike Bishop's chief of Staff, Matt Miner, directed the Secretary of the Senate, Carol Viventi, to block all Michigan Senate computers from accessing bloggingformichigan.com.
(Actually they blocked us by IP, so there are several sites that are blocked. Pesky details)
So I checked on some other sites, to see if all blogs were blocked, or if we were just special.
