From today's Rocky:
Gov. Bill Owens on Thursday warned state employees that they would be subject to disciplinary action if they use state computers to post comments on political Web sites.The directive came after the Rocky Mountain News informed the governor that anonymous and sometimes caustic postings from someone using the nickname "Real Deal" had been traced to a computer in the governor's office, which has more than 100 computers.
[...]
"Today, the governor ordered that we develop new policy prohibiting the use of government computers from being used to post to any such sites. Please make certain that all members of your respective staffs are notified that this policy is effective immediately."The ColoradoPols.com Web site has been a must-read for politicos since it went online at the beginning of the year.
Those posting to the site thought their identities were anonymous.
But late last month, state Republican Party officials sounded the alarm that someone had created a database purportedly linking postings to computers where the messages originated.
Republicans initially blamed Democrats, but two GOP operatives, Laura Teal and Andy George, admitted to compiling the data after Teal was granted special password access to the blog as a regular contributor nicknamed "Red Hawk."
Why would they do that? Hmmm...
George said he was motivated to unmask the blog users after some, including the poster nicknamed "Real Deal," criticized him and his friends."Real Deal" was particularly active in April and May, according to the database.
In one posting, "Real Deal" criticized Schaffer's Senate campaign staff.
"As far as his staff goes, I personally find them to be a joke," "Real Deal" wrote. "They got in way over their heads . . . and they didn't have a clue what real campaigning is all about."
Ah.
What's the best word for that kind of behaviour? Petty? Catty? Juvenile? I can't decide.
Gov. Owens responds by doing what minor tyrants tend to do; restrict avenues of expression. That itself seems like a fairly useless gesture, as he well knows he can't block "Real Deal's" posting activities from computers other than the State's.
Advice to "Real Deal:" get yourself some IP blocking software and post freely from home. And keep up the good work.
I would vote for Tancredo over him anyway...
Colorado's got pretty strict laws about using government stuff for political or personal purposes, too. I know I've got friends in the Governor's office who really really prefer any non-business communications, even a link to an interesting article, go to their non-government accounts. It doesn't appear the policy is anything but "don't use the office computers for personal stuff."
This seems pretty logical to me. It will cut down on pontential political damage caused by a
staffer, who might post inside info to hurt political opponenets, and then is later outed.