Get To Work!!

Ernie Fletcher's administration has made what many consider to be another blunder. His office has restricted state employees' access to many sites on the Net, something that has not made front page news until today. Up till now, state employees have been prohibited from visiting porn sites, shopping sites, gambling sites, and gaming sites.

Today, however, the story broke that ol' Fletch has barred state workers from visiting many blog sites, most notably, political blogs. Granted, the timing is fishy. The ban went into effect one day after the New York Times ran a front page story on Fletcher which quoted Mark Nickolas. Nickolas is the publisher of a popular Kentucky blog called Bluegrassreport.org. The article dealt with the allegations that Fletcher faces and the quote from Nickolas, while hardly inflammatory, wasn't loving praise, either. He mentioned that the administration seems willing to disregard any rules but their own, even if those rules happen to fracture the law just a bit. (By the way, he's totally right.)

Now, understandably this has sent many folks off the deep end. After repeated attempts to reach Nickolas' site had failed, a reported "half-dozen" state workers contacted him with the news. Bluegrassreport.org immediately posted an entry about the ban, which attracted the attention of several national bloggers (not me).

Charlie Wells, the executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees was quoted to say "This is the ultimate in censorship. I think the priority for the administration should be blocking pornographic sites. I don't see a problem in state employees reading someone's political views."

Neither do I. Matter of fact, I don't see anything wrong with state employees accessing porno sites, either. Or gambling sites, entertainment sites, auction sites, classified ad sites, movie sites, or message sites, which are also off-limits. I've got no problem whatsoever with these folks visiting these sites: If they're anywhere but work.

In a rare, and, admittedly, confusing moment for me, I find myself siding with the governor's office. Two weeks ago they conducted a study to identify which web sites state workers were visiting that had nothing to do with state government work. According to Finance and Administration Cabinet spokeswoman Jill Midkiff, this is part of an effort to restrict employees' access to sites that could potentially contain viruses (markedly flimsy) or prove totally worthless in their day to day duties (pretty solid).

After compiling their list, the governor's office sent it to an Internet security firm which began blocking the sites Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Nickolas has stated that the administration believes they can "...censor political speech to keep people in line." Midkiff points out the obvious rebuttal, that employees are not being limited in their freedom of speech because they can visit whatever websites they like and post their thoughts and ideas therein when they aren't working for the taxpayers.

The state's Commonwealth Office of Technology will be blocking ALL BLOGS, not specific political blogs, as it learns of each one.

The Bluegrass Institute is a free-market advocacy group based in Bowling Green that has found itself banned from state office computers as well. Jim Waters, institute spokesman, maintains that state workers should be able to view any and all public debate forums. He says that's the beauty of the Net, that all policies and ideas can be discussed openly.

The National Coalition Against Censorship has flung a gauntlet down, as well. It released a statement that it "condemns these actions and requests that the sites be cleared for access by state employees."

For the life of me, I can't imagine why. Believe me, I've tried to find reasons. After I read the article in the Herald-Leader I spent a lot of time figuring out a way to oppose Fletcher's office. After all, he's a dyed-in-the-wool crook bent on appointing all his buddies to cushy jobs with the state. I oppose nearly every word out of his mouth. Try as I might, I can't come up with a reason to condemn what his administration has done with this.

Unless a state employee is gathering data or checking the political climate in regards to Boss Fletcher, I don't see why they should be allowed access to these blogs when they're at work. Stay off the Internet, you gape-jawed, Frankfort slackers! You're in the capitol working on the taxpayer's dime so try to get something done. I don't care what you do on the computer when you get home, but, when you're at work, please try to accomplish a few of the tasks we pay you to do.

Unless it's directly related to assigned duties, Internet access in the state office seems a frivolous waste of time. If it's a slow day, I don't expect you to be surfing at EntertainmentWeekly.com; somehow, I still expect you to be doing something worthwhile. My wife used to manage a busy retail store. I know for a fact there were times when nothing was going on and the employees were just standing around trying to figure out if George W. Bush was really gay or if he just hated women. If she had left them to run the floor and just chilled in the office ordering Aerosmith tickets and checking out the Ms. site online she'd have been fired. And she was selling CLOTHES to people. The state office in Frankfort is selling us GOVERNMENT. Come on, folks, make us believe it.

I am not allowed to use my cell phone at work. Nor am I permitted to use my laptop or iPod(TM). I don't see why government emplyees should be able to use the Internet for entertainment purposes when they're clocked in and I'm helping pay the tab. If public blogs and forums are integral to their job description, fine, carry on, soldier. If not, if they're just hanging at their desk and seeing what the rest of the world is up to, it seems like that could wait until they've gone home.

If anyone knows more about this than I do, please leave a comment. I would love to know that I'm barking up the wrong tree here. The last thing I thought I'd be doing when I woke up today was supporting a decision that came from Ernie Fletcher's Republican office.

Wake up and resist.