US House Adopts New Third-Party Web Site Rules 49
GovIT Geek writes to tell us that third-party websites will no longer be off limits for members of the US House, provided that they use it for "official purposes" and not personal, commercial, or campaign purposes. "The rules are seen by House Administration Chairman Robert Brady as a compromise between several proposals under consideration in recent months and are closely aligned with those circulated by the Senate Rules Committee last week. [...] 'These new guidelines are a step in the right direction for a Congress that has been behind the technological curve for too long,' Boehner said. 'By encouraging the use of emerging and established new media tools, Congress is sending the message that we want to speak to citizens, and receive feedback, in the most open and accessible manner possible.'"
If they wanted to speak to citizens... (Score:1, Insightful)
.... why did they take away Congressmen's blackberries away from them during the height of the bailout debate? http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/staffers-for-th.html [abcnews.com]
In other words (Score:4, Insightful)
As a member of the Green Party, (Score:3, Insightful)
I couldn't be happier that members of Congress are finally allowed to check third parties out. We have all kinds of fresh ideas they could appropriate.
Re:If they wanted to speak to citizens... (Score:3, Insightful)
Crackberries in the hands of actual congresscritters is like a five year old having it. You get nothing but fantasy and gibberish with the occasional regurgitation of things they heard the grown ups say.
You mean like when any suit gets ahold of a blackberry?
Re:I didn't know that they were off-limits (Score:3, Insightful)
My impression from the (relatively poorly written, especially on this point) article, and the fact that just about everyone has a campaign website, is just that linking from the official site is forboden. For instance, neither Obama [senate.gov] nor McCain [senate.gov]'s site really makes it look like they are running for president. (I know both are Senators, not Representatives, but TFA says the new House rules are modeled off of the Senate ones, so I assume they have similar restrictions.)
Re:Seems unconstitutional (Score:3, Insightful)
No. No it isn't.
Re:Hopefully... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe thinking that a YouTube video is open, ongoing communication is too idealistic.
NIB! (Score:3, Insightful)
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