More on the Twitter battle in Congress

Following up on yesterday's post about the battle over Twitter (*) and other uses of social networking software from the floor of Congress, TechPresident's Daily Digest tries to inject a little calm to counteract some of Rep. John Culberson's fulminations.

We've been over the Capuano letter (pdf) with a fine-toothed comb, and it takes a great deal of extrapolation to see it as an assault on members' use of tools like Twitter and Qik.

Well, such is the nature of politics. The thing is, Culberson is right to point out the shortcomings of Rep. Capuano's proposals, which at least attempt to deal with the far greater shortcomings of the current House rules - rules that were adopted, as some people have noted, when the Republicans were in the majority - but he's so desperate to spin this as a partisan attack on freedom and the Internets that he can't seem to see that he's needlessly arguing with people who'd be right there next to him if he'd just dial it back a bit. Go down into the comments of that TechDirt post, where Culberson gets into it with author Mike Masnick, who tries unsuccessfully to tell Culberson they're "talking at cross purposes", to see what I mean. For those of us more familiar with Rep. Culberson, all I can say is "welcome to our world, Mike". Greg has more, as does that TechPresident link, which has a few other links that provide a GOP-friendly perspective.

(*) I can't say "Twitter" and "battle" in the same sentence without thinking of Tweetle Beetles. This is what happens when you read a lot of bedtime stories to young children.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 10, 2008 to National news