Obama Spies asked to Collect Emails and Information on Neighbors
by Eric Zimmermann, The Hill
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) is worried that the White House will use a new media outreach program to collect the personal data of its political opponents.
Yesterday, the White House asked supporters to forward "fishy" claims or rumors about the President's healthcare plan to a White House email address as a way to respond to "disinformation."
Cornyn says this practice would let the White House collect personal information about people who oppose the President.
"By requesting citizens send 'fishy' emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email, addresses, IP addresses and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House," Cornyn wrote in a letter to Obama.
"You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program." Cornyn asked Obama to cease the program immediately, or at the very least explain what the White House would do with the information it collects.
Read the Rest of the Story:
6 comments:
Let me see if I got this straight. In 2005, when Cornyn was told about Bush's domestic wiretapping program and he said it didn't matter, that was nothing to worry about. But when Obama fights back against liars and smear merchants, and Cornyn makes up crap about "he's gathering ISP's!", that's cause for alarm?
So real spying is OK, as long as it's done by a Republican. But imaginary spying is something to worry about, if it's imagined that it will be done by a Democrat?
Do you also believe that chick on Glenn Beck who thinks that the Cash for Clunkers website gives the government total access to your computer?
Let me see if I have this straight....you Nameless are now comparing Citizens to Terrorists? The Bush Administration was going after terrorists after 9-11 (remember that?). Even Liberals are coming out against this. How long before the Obamanation & his crooked cronies try to takeover the Internet & YOUR Freedom of Speech? Turn ME in Nameless, I am ready for battle!
Well, your rhetoric doesn't come across sounding like you're particularly tightly wrapped. And if one of the warning signs of a terrorist is a disconnect from reality...
If the Bush Administration was "going after terrorists," why was it gathering all the calls made from all the phones, except those from the one company that refused to comply? An operation, incidentally, taht didn't net us a single terrorist.
But that was the kind of data-mining you're talking about. Bush tried to cover a lot of things under the umbrella of "protecting us from terrorists." Meanwhile, Bush was also trying to sell US ports to the United Arab Emirates. Tell me what kind of sense that made?
Now, if you can loosen the tinfoil around your head for a while, let's apply a little logic to this. If the White House was going to try to start some massive data-mining operation like you're suggesting, why would they plant themselves right in the middle of it? Wouldn't it be easier just to plant a virus in Google? Or Facebook? Or even websites like yours?
Ok Nameless then why did the White House post it on their website and make a video about it?
BTW, you have a good Blog!
Thanks.
They set up the "send us your lies about healthcare" on their website because... well, because that's their website. Where did you want them to work?
They posted a 3-minute video about some of the lies (specifically Drudge) because it's been shown that not responding to the lies of the partisan hacks isn't a useful tactic - ask John Kerry about that.
Or are you referring to some other video?
Oy.
But you think that's the best way to put together an "enemies list"? All the resources of the NSA at his fingertips, and Obama says, "What we need are 60,000 copies of the same emails from three different groups of lobbyists! Yeah, that's the ticket!"
Come on, think about it for a while. Anybody can come up with a better info-gathering method than that. Hell, even Palin could probably manage that one!
Post a Comment