Kentucky Fried Fletcher

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, is engulfed in a growing scandal in which he pardons his criminal buddies in state government as fast as they are indicted -- actually faster.

According to the New York Times,

"14 ... members of his administration who have been indicted are charged with a total of 23 felonies and 60 misdemeanors for, among other things, criminal conspiracy and evidence tampering. In August 2005, Mr. Fletcher issued a blanket pardon protecting everyone in his administration but himself from prosecution."

Fletcher himself recently had his lawyer enter "not guilty" pleas for him to three political corruption charges.

Until today, the scandal has been covered mostly by a couple of forward-looking blogs like Talking Points Memo and The Bluegrass Report. But after today's exposure, some idiot running Kentucky's state computer network started blocking access to those two blogs for all state employees.

Now, Daily Kos, Atrios, Political Wire, the Swing State Project, and lesser known blogs like True or Better, Baby Fight, Intoxication, and, yes, even us we are joining in to help shine the light into this foul Kentucky cave. By tomrrow, it's all but certain there will be hundreds more.

Think we don't need Net Neutrality to guard against political and corporate favoritism in accessing the web? Think again.