Joe McCarthy mini-me, Ben Velderman.
It was late last school year that the goof ball ideological terrorists at the Michigan-based Education Action Group demanded that my school district hand over to them all my work emails.
Which they did.
EAG gofer Ben Velderman signed the FOIA request.
The reason for the FOIA was that this blog asks tough questions about education and public policy and is outspokenly pro-teacher and pro-union.
Nothing has changed about that. Certainly not a FOIA request from some punk from EAG.
Now Think Progress reports that this is becoming standard GOP practice. Ask a Republican elected official a challenging question and you get placed on a watch list.
In recent weeks GOP congressmen have resorted to all sorts of underhanded schemes to avoid interacting with their angry constituents back home over August recess. Now two Republican freshmen, Reps. Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Tim Griffin (R-AZ), are taking this trend one step further, using disturbing intimidation tactics and “watch lists” to discourage constituents from asking them questions.
In preparation for the General Assembly fight for teacher pensions, we at Fred Klonsky’s blog have instituted Pension Call Tuesday. Each Tuesday we will publish the phone number or email of a member of the Illinois General Assembly so that teachers and fair minded citizens can express their support for retired teachers.
Will House Republican Leader Tom Cross put our names on a watch list, shades of the Nixon enemies’ list?
Maybe.
But it won’t stop us any more than Ben Velderman stopped us.
Fred Klonsky 