Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) has sent a letter to President Obama about the White House's program to have Americans snitch on fellow citizens who they believe are saying "fishy" things about health care and undermining the administration's position.
In the letter, Cornyn asks Obama to contemplate the massive outrage that would have been unleashed if former President Bush's White House had asked Americans to report fellow citizens who were saying things critical of his administration's policies.
He also asks what the White House plans to do with the data it collects–specifically what action it intends to take regarding the people reported as engaging in "fishy" speech and how it will use their names, e-mail addresses, and IP addresses.
It's a good letter.
SECOND UPDATE: The White House program may be illegal. QUOTES:
The Obama White House may be breaking the Privacy Act of 1974 by asking citizens to report “fishy” political speech.
It turns out, even asking for citizens to report on each other may be illegal. According to the Department of Justice, “the purpose of the Privacy Act is to balance the government’s need to maintain information about individuals with the rights of individuals to be protected against unwarranted invasions of their privacy stemming from federal agencies’ collection, maintenance, use, and disclosure of personal information about them.”
Further, anything is considered a “personal record” if it identifies an individual (an e-mail address would qualify), and “federal agency” specifically includes “the Executive Office of the President.”
SOURCE.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
Imagine spying on and ratting on your fellow citizens!
It’s a good thing that the internet wasn’t around during Watergate! Or McCarthys era… Or the Japanese internment… Or WW2…
nevermind…
The comment boxes in the story that this is linked to are frightening to say the least. This is proof positive that we live among modern BROWNSHIRTS who will believe that their man is always right because he is their man. This goes on with both parties, and is becoming more and more evident as we see this from the other side. I am usually not afraid of having my words reported to a higher authority, as long as that higher authority is in agreement with me, and will not use it against me or my fellow citizens, but I am not sure that anyone in power has the restraint anymore to not use anything that they must use to meet their objectives, whether that is a good end or not. Ends do not justify the means!!! This should be obvious by now, with the scandals of torture, and protection of guilty priests, but this again shows that we have a great gift in our faith, and that the blinders have been removed for the believer.
Well, I saw on the news today that the White House says we can all rest assured that they aren’t collecting names or other personal data from the e-mails.
So… that’s just fine, then.
What a relief! If they were thinking of using that information to get back at political enemies or anything, they would have admitted it… right? I mean, if you can’t trust a Chicago machine pol, who CAN you trust?
Oh, this is just silly. Use encryption software like pgp or truecrypt and you’re all set.
Actually, we should all agree, as a people, that when we use the word, “healthcare,” in an e-mail, we are really referring to a bicycle – except when we aren’t. That way, the government will have to track down everyone who sends an e-mail on healthcare, I mean bicycles and ask them if they mean a bicycle or healthcare. We should further agree that we can choose either one of those two meanings at random during a communication.
If they want to reduce communication to the level of random acts, so be it. It couldn’t be any worse than the healthcare bill.
The Tinfoil Hat-wearing Chicken
The Obama White House may be breaking the Privacy Act of 1974 by asking citizens to report “fishy” political speech.
They don’t care about the Constitution, so why would they care about the Privacy Act?
For all his faults, at least former President Bush didn’t encourage or endorse Americans spying on one another if they said something critical about his administration’s policies.
You know, this guy may end up being the Democrat’s Nixon if he keeps up with this…
Well, well, Mr. Akin, it appears you have been stirring the pot once again against our poor president. We’re willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start. All that we’re asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a few fishy blog posters to justice.
Ohh, Ohh, I’ve got it…we need secret decoder rings!
The Chicken
“…we need secret decoder rings.’
The Chicken is evidently not one of us. Beware of him. Execute Plan Alfa-Three-Zulu.
WE WANT SOYLENT GREEN!
Now with Green Tea extract and Soy!
Mmmmmmmm… edible organic products…
Well, well, Orwell, Mr. Jeremy; remember “all animals are created equal”… “but some are created more equal”… “four legs good, two legs bad”.
Would suppose if we stirred the pot, poured the vegetables on the table of slate, and with one graceful wiping motion we could “wipe the slate clean” for a new “fresh start”. And all you are asking in return is cooperation in bringing a few fishy four legers to justice.
While Congress earmarks $550,000,000 for private jets, receives health care benefits that the lowly middle social class could only dream of, vote themselves raises as others lose their jobs, take over and nationalize the banks, car companies, and health care system, yet fail to understand how to balance a simple home budget, or run a basic Kool Aid stand profitably, pass laws on others that they themselves are exempt, and reward the “To Big To Fail” – yes these are the people we want Mr. Akin to report – the “few fishy blog posters” for animal farm justice.
Perhaps Mr. Jeremy believes himself as Captain Ahab in search of Moby Dick. IMHO
I think Jeremy was engaging in sarcasm.
pseudomodo: You forgot the antioxidants and omega-3s!
Chicken,
“It couldn’t be any worse than the healthcare bill.”
Don’t you mean the “bicycle bill.” I am sure you were talking about the bicycle bill, because I don’t have to report you if you were.
cheyenne/bill912,
In fairness to Jeremy, the “fishy blog posters” was my post, and yes it was sarcasm. I’m still stuck on Obama’s unintended blue-pill/red-pill reference to the movie The Matrix. If you’re familiar with that movie and Agent Smith, the sarcasm may have been more obvious.
Chicken,
“It couldn’t be any worse than the healthcare bill.”
Don’t you mean the “bicycle bill.” I am sure you were talking about the bicycle bill, because I don’t have to report you if you were.
Sure, sure, the bicycle bill. Everyone should have a right to a free bicycle. Only, they won’t let the really old ride one and the president wants to control the shape and color, even though he hasn’t read the instruction manual.
The Chicken
I think some of this stuff that has been said about Obama and all his legislation can be interpreted as incendiary and incitement to illegal action. When an afternoon entertainer equates Obama to Hitler and his policies as equal to the Nazi’s, he may be inciting people. John Shaefer has referred it to leaving a loaded gun on the table and walking away. What did they do to the Nazi’s? You cannot proclaim an administration is the return to Naziism and not expect someone in the audience to idealize patriotism in the form of an act of murder.
What I mean is this. It is not a long stretch to see how rhetoric of people with a pulpit can lead others to illegal and immoral actions. When you cry fire in a theater, whether you believe it to be truth or lie, do not be surprised that people get trampled at the exit.
By the way. spying on Americans is nothing new. The Federalists tried in 1798 with the Sedition Act which didn’t work. The questionable email address may not be a good thing, but keeping tabs on those who incite others to disruption, may indeed be a wise endeavor in the long run.
“keeping tabs on those who incite others to disruption, may indeed be a wise endeavor in the long run.”
Chuck,
The big brother email wasn’t asking people to report radio personalities-neither was it suggesting that anyone was inciting violence over Obamacare. It was asking regular Americans to report “fishy disinformation” about the bill-nobody-wants-to-read-or-has-the-time-to-read. No mention of violence, just “disinformation” (read: differing opinion with his “Oliness”).
To color this paranoid email address as a reaction to the stupid things always said about the president is simply not true. No one at the White House has, to my knowledge, chosen to use this defense of the program, probably because it is unrelated to it.
“Enemies List”, anyone?
When an afternoon entertainer equates Obama to Hitler and his policies as equal to the Nazi’s, he may be inciting people.
When an afternoon entertainer equates Bush to Hitler and his policies as equal to the Nazi’s, he may be inciting people.
Did you complain then?
In regards to the Nazi comparison, that was something I was pointing out to my relatives before the election, and events after have only made the similarities stronger. If you follow pro-life news sources at all there are a lot of similarities in regards to the culture of death and the philosophy behind it that were shared by both the Nazi’s and some of the people in the current administration. In regards to the abortion issue, you have a class of human beings they define as non-persons who can be killed (just like the Jews), and there are some in the administration who have written statements that seem to agree with the ideas of Peter Singer. There is also the euthanasia thrust that says the old and weak are useless and unwanted. The Nazi’s also nationalized industries which is something the current administration is doing, or attempting to do. Hitler was also voted in on the basis of his Rhetoric and promises with an almost hysterical love on the part of a portion of his supporters, and almost no previous political track record. Obama has also denied we are a Judeo-Christian nation, which of course the Nazi’s did in Germany. He also steeped himself in racial politics from his early years. It’s an unpleasant topic, but having taken some African American Studies courses myself, there is a strain of racial hatred and superiority there in the movement and literature that is the same thing as white extremism, but in reverse. Because of the tragedy of slavery, no one wants to say that in the open. I have contended since before the election that Obama is a little anti-Christ.
“Did you complain then?”
Back then, “dissent (was) Patriotic’.
In relation to this discussion, if anyone doubts that adulation is still occurring, take a look at the latest cover of Rollingstone. Hitler also promised the Germans “Hope and Change”. I think it’s dangerous to invest so much hope and faith in any one human personality (unless it’s Christ of course, who is true God and true man)…
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0703a.asp
From 2007, found by a quick google.
http://www.adl.org/Braun/dim_14_1_nazi_med.asp
ditto– ADL, defending public health care, on the basis that just because the Nazis did it, doesn’t make it evil. (absolutely true– they breathed, after all, and that ain’t evil….)
That said, it’s flatly offensive to accuse folks of “inciting violence” by pointing out historical precedence while the White House says to “hit back twice as hard” the day before their supporters send someone to the hospital. Oh, and it’s worth noting there had been no violence prior to that….
I don’t think that *any* set of events will be enough to cause buyer’s remorse among those who have been vocal Obama supporters from the beginning. If things fall apart, nothing in the world will make them believe they made a bad choice, or that Obama is at all to blame. They have too much emotionally and even spiritually invested to allow themselves to doubt at this point. To bastardize Frank Herbert, “Doubt is the little death. Doubt is the mind killer”. They have to keep going, keep running with the theory, in spite of any concrete evidence it may be failing.
Failure will be blamed exclusively on those who resist The Grand Plan… if the economy falters and doesn’t recover as predicted, if nationalized health care turns out to be a debacle, if our foreign policy falls flat… that will all be the fault of the critics for failing to line up behind the President with sufficient enthusiasm.
Incidentally, some supporters of G.W. Bush (IMO) behaved the same way when Iraq began to drag on, Afghanistan began to sour and ill-advised (possibly illegal) policies came to light.
Tim, liberals were actively undermining Bush, albeit cautiously, before the first bomb dropped in Afghanistan. Believe me, I remember seeing the protest tent camps at UWM, days before.
Besides that, hasn’t anyone recalled “Godwin’s law”? Enough with the Nazi stuff. It’s not like the bill has any structure to alleviate the health care system by revoking “life unworthy of life”. Oh wait.
Godwins law: as a Usenet argument carries on, the likelihood that a Nazi metaphor will be used approaches one.
That whoever mentions it automatically wins is a later addition, and frankly stupid when we’re talking about direct parallels, such as killing off those “unworthy of life”/”life not worth living”.
If someone shows up in an SS uniform, yelling “Heil Hitler” and handing out pamphlets on how to wipe out inferior groups, you do not somehow lose all rhetorical validity by pointing out the similarities to the Nazis.
The original intent of the Privacy Act of 1974 (coming on the heels of Watergate) was to protect individuals from release of information once it was obtained by an “agency” of the government. It does not govern the events prior to the collection of the data, such as requests for information about individuals. It would, under ordinary circumstance, prevent the names of those fishy individuals from being released once they are acquired.
The situation is not ordinary, here, because the executive branch is not considered an agency under the law, so this law does not apply either before the collection or after the collection.
In fact, if congress were on its toes (and notice that this remark was made after congress went on break – this may be coincidental or not) such an action by a president could force a Constitutional crisis as a violation of the powers of the executive branch regarding the First Amendment. The president does have the power to ask for the reporting of certain things, such as census information, but this current request can only be for political reasons and outside of the authority of a president, in my opinion.
I cannot believe that a country that helped liberate so many people from tyranny would fall so quickly into the same behavior. As yourself: when do people allow themselves to be placed under outside control. That is a worthy topic of discussion.
The Chicken
Of course, I was talking about bicycles, above.
The Chicken
Tim’s comment about being wary of “true believers” regardless of their political allegiances is a good point. It can happen to anyone who invests too much faith in an individual. As Chesterton said, saying “my country, right or wrong!”, is like saying, “my mother, drunk or sober!”.
“Tim, liberals were actively undermining Bush, albeit cautiously, before the first bomb dropped in Afghanistan. Believe me, I remember seeing the protest tent camps at UWM, days before.”
You’re right, of course, and that is where America’s war protesters have done her a real disservice over the last 50 years or so. By protesting any kind of military action anywhere at all, they lose the moral authority to protest (and have anyone listen) when there really is a questionable war.
Afghanistan was and is a slam dunk justifiable war. Iraq was and is a problem, and that’s why I changed my mind on it a year or two ago. Abu Ghraib didn’t help.
But that’s getting off topic. The salient point is, no amount of catastrophic failure of Obama’s policies will lessen the loyalty and adulation he commands from his base. He is a symbol, and doesn’t need to DO anything, doesn’t need to accomplish anything.
His political pragmatism is alienating a few, but they have nowhere to go. They will hold their noses and toe the line, and blame everything on a public unworthy of such a great and visionary leader.
I was also talking about bicycle policies above, of course… bicycles are very important for the national economy.
We don’t want to end up with a Bicycle Gap. We must remain vigilant against any plot to adulterate our vital chain lubricating fluids!
I guess its safe to metion that Obama’s giant pictures during the campaign reminded me of Mao and any stereotypical dictator in their origins for that matter.
It is coup time. This group of fascists has to be removed NOW.
“It is coup time…”
Oh, do get a grip.
So, Tim, I take it you don’t think we should be betting on the Preakness?
(Oh, I DO hope somebody gets that. Besides SDG, I mean).
It is coup time.
Coups go well with lemon, I hear, and a cold glass. Don’t forget to order Coups Light – the same taste with half the carnage. Seriously, a coup? That is so 1776. Modern methods of mass persuasion have all but replaced the need for gun and musket. Pass the remote…
The Chicken
Bill912,
as far as classic movies I see this more of a Manchurian Candidate than a Seven Days in May.
Great reference nonetheless, have you seen the remake?