Kentucky's new state government is trying to decide if it wants its employees to read political blogs at work.
The issue of whether state government employees should be permitted to spend work time reading political blogs was a hot one in Kentucky last year. It appears to be back.
In the summer of 2006, a Kentucky blogger who got a lot of attention for getting a lot of attention raised a ruckus when he claimed the state's governor was out to get him. His feathers were ruffled because the state cracked down on its employees using work time to read and comment on political blogs. Access to all political blogs was blocked, but that didn't stop some bloggers from claiming it was a conspiracy and they were its victims.
They even got a Congressman to play along, calling it an attack on First Amendment rights.
Mark Nickolas, the Kentucky blogger who stirred up the controversy, has since given up his website and moved to Montana. Kentucky's newly-elected Governor Steve Beshear is trying to decide, though, whether to continue Nickolas' cause celebre.
A new gubernatorial administration trying to decide on allowing state employees to waste taxpayer resources surfing the net when they should be working wouldn't ordinarily be a tough decision. But this one apparently is.
The funny thing about this is the free publicity Kentucky political blogs like mine got during the "Great Blog Blocking Scandal" was invaluable. I look forward to doing it again.