In the meantime, Our Hero’s White House move of collecting “fishy” information regarding ObamaKare may just be a teensy-weensy bit illegal:
White House Move to Collect ‘Fishy’ Info May Be Illegal, Critics Say
The White House has been under fire since posting a blog on Tuesday that asks supporters to e-mail any “fishy” information seen on the Web or received electronically.
The White House strategy of turning supporters into snitches when they see “fishy” information about the health care debate may run afoul of the law, legal experts say.
“The White House is in bit of a conundrum because of this privacy statute that prohibits the White House from collecting data and storing it on people who disagree with it,” Judge Andrew Napolitano, a FOX News analyst, said Friday.
“There’s also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. It can’t try to rewrite history by pretending it didn’t receive anything,” he said.
“If the White House deletes anything, it violates one statute. If the White House collects data on the free speech, it violates another statute.”
Napolitano was referring to the Privacy Act of 1974, which was passed after the Nixon administration used federal agencies to illegally investigate individuals for political purposes. Enacted after Richard Nixon’s resignation in the Watergate scandal, the statute generally prohibits any federal agency from maintaining records on individuals exercising their right to free speech.
The White House has been under fire since it posted a blog on Tuesday that asked supporters to e-mail any “fishy” information seen on the Web or received electronically to flag@whitehouse.gov.
In the meantime, healthcare protests continue to spread.
The wondrous and beautimous Nancy Pelosi had the surrounding decibel level raised whilst in Denver. There are, it should be noted, “things to do in Denver when you’re dead.” Thanks, Warren.
And doctors are finally beginning to weigh in on ObamaKare.
Our Hero? I think he had a sandwich today.
Can everyone repeat after me: T – O – N – E D – E – A – F ?
BZ
I am so glad that I found you! Great site….and we Northern Californians have to stick together.
BTW….I am swiping your P-shop if that’s okay…..
BZ:
I read somewhere that the white house may be open to alternative plans other than single payer crap! I wish they’d leave it alone altogether because they have no Constitutional warrant to get involved in the marketplace, and to this degree!
This comment has been removed by the author.
BZ,
I had to erase my comment. I didn’t want to say what I was thinking, but if you take a look at who we have at the helm and combine it with the history of other Socialists that take over, like Honduras or Cuba, we may have a bigger issue on our hands down the road. It is against a Marxists’ nature to leave.
When did Obama pay any attention to the Constitution anyways saying at some point it is fundamentally flawed and not bothering to put an end to the birther questioning or his ties to Ayers or Chicago political shenanigans. Bet those names will be stored in the interest of national security as we are under a National Public Health Emergency with it’s powers to be exponential.
Yes civility declines and those who back authority try to say that they aren’t while they do… strange enough to say that the Left in America has actually wanted the normal citizen to be ‘active’ in politics.
Say, we are going to find out how that works out now, aren’t we?
My bet is that it is not what the Left expected, however…
ChristmasGhost: Northern Fornicalia? I actually found someone who lives in NoCal?? Amazing! I thought I was the only one here! Thanks for visiting and thanks for taking the time to comment, and please come back!
Mahndisa: I completely concur on that one. Let’s start with fixing what’s broken rather than taking it down to all the parts and THEN putting them back together in a completely incorrect fashion.
Ahrcanum: thanks for taking the time to visit, and taking the time to comment; please return when you so desire. And yes, all the collected information will in all likelihood be KEPT.
AJ: it’s like we both said; protesting is great if you’re a Leftist; bring it on. If you’re a Conservative or A Jacksonian — eh, not so much tolerance is shown.
BZ
Awesome post! Keep up the great work!
COMMON CENTS
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
ps. Link Exchange?
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen such a disconnect between our government and WE THE PEOPLE. I’m referring, of course, to the various videos I’ve seen of recent town hall to promote ObamaKare.
Did anyone think one year ago that we’d be witnessing so much unrest in America? I didn’t.
Meanwhile, our elected representatives wants us to shut up. I think not.
It’s been said before and it bears reapeating… LOCK and LOAD!
Or, go surfing…
LOCK & LOAD or Go Surfing!
Why not both?
A friend called and said Obama’s released some special investigator of a big obama money guy in Oakland, you hearing about that, BZ?
Apparently, the rule is you must give 30 days notice and this guy’s saying he was told “you’re out” and he’s supposed to be out with no notice. The WH is saying he has dimentia or something and apparently he was on TV very recently talking brighter than five of us put together……this is about an Oakland or Berkeley guy, some ex NFLer being investigated, some friend of O’s? Do you know about it?
Also, I heard Patrick Fitzgerald was taken off the Rezko case, but I Googled that and can’t find it….have you heard?
Obama’s SO overstepping his bounds EVERYWHERE that I believe even Dems are beginning to take notice. (Please, God!)
BZ,
I’m confused. The Repubs are supposed to be in complete disarray and cowering before the mighty Dem machine. Now they are organizing a series of protests? I wouldn’t listen to the Repubs at this point on just about anything.
Americans are just fed up with these intimidation tactics. Napolitano, Judge that is, is right on the money.
Alas BO will wiggle off the hook because his MSM buddies will ignore this, just as they’ve ignored everything else he’s done.
The instance of the Lunatic Fring Righty-like the asswipes here-to relate Obama to Nazi’s is absurd and outrageous. It is inciting violence and the blood will be on your hands when some moronic yahoo actually shoots someone. It has already happened in Pittsburg.
You people are the sickest and dumbest fucks I’ve ever seen
LD
LiberalDude: I disagree. Period.
BZ
I heard someone saying recently, regarding LibTurd Gay, “You are the sickest and dumbest fuck I’ve ever seen”
Just sayin’..
It is very simple: the Left need only disown the violent Purple Shirts and stop trying to press an unwanted agenda on the Nation and act with civility towards your fellow citizens. Disown and denounce these Purple Shirted thugs who join the Black, Brown and Red Shirts of decades past.
I am not inciting for violence.
I do not want to see my fellow citizens intimidated, beaten and subjugated by a lock-step Leftist agenda.
Those protesting spending and these plans are NOT supporting socialism or national socialism: the supporters of the agenda ARE doing that.
The violence has not started by those protesting the spending, the health care proposals, the stimulus… no, that has come from the LEFT. Disown those thugs, repudiate them and support civil discussion so that we may keep our Nation and be civilized.
I do not want a fight.
Given one I will end it, even if that means my life because I will not back down to authoritarians who wish to enslave my fellow citizens and remove their liberty and hand it to government.
Any government.
Right or Left.
It is just that simple.
I don’t give a damn for ideology when supporters of government to endanger liberty, freedom, life and happiness start to beat people and threaten them. I will stand against any authoritarian of any stripe and any empire builder, too. Left, Right, from outer space, I care not.
I do not want violence.
I am a peaceful man.
Right up to the moment ideology means blood on the streets and the lives of my fellow citizens lost.
Then things change.
There is no dimmer switch on that.
The Left can still, even now, step back from this precipice and come to their senses. Because we have now seen thugs ‘hitting back twice as hard’ when they were not hit AT ALL. That is on the LEFT not the Right or conservatives and Jacksonians are pleading for civility.
Ignore the pleas… and you will get what you deserve when the thugs go one step too far. You have heard the rattlesnake. Make sure the next move is not the last.
Texas Fred,
It’s been said before and it bears reapeating… LOCK and LOAD!
A few months ago, I’d have said that was a dangerous statement.
I don’t feel that way now.
The disconnect keeps getting wider and wider.
Now that the msm can not longer ignore what’s going on at various town hall meetings, the Dems are spinning the story; I check MSNBC to get the low down on that.
Toward the top of this blog is a graphic the blogmaster has offered for use.
Z: “big money guy” in Oakland — no, I haven’t seen anything out here about that. The closest we have in Sacramento is Kevin Johnson, the newly-elected mayor and former basketball player (Sacramento Kings) who is getting himself into a possible investigation with improper funding for one of his local charities.
LOT: as I wrote earlier, two Republicans can keep a secret if one of them is dead — that’s how trustworthy and organized THEY are.
AJ: that’s the finest summation I’ve read in quite some time. Again, THAT’S why you need to be read.
AOW: I went there and “Snagged” the graphic I think you’re writing about. And with regard to your response to TexasFred: each and every week, those words he writes become more and more meaningful and relevant. Something I never thought I too would begin to seriously wonder about MY nation and MY government.
BZ
Mr. Z – I’ve been pointing to this being a Zero Party State for some time… we just got a minor re-arrangement of letters, but the direction of government doing ‘good things’ and encroaching on liberty have been apparent for years. We are left very much with what Goldberg pointed out: while Republicans persist in thinking that if TR were elected things would have turned out so much better, that is a delusion as both TR and Wilson were Progressives. While TR might have gotten foreign affairs a bit better done, the intrusion on domestic liberty would have continued. We now have economic analysis evidence that monopolies do not persist for long, yet the push to restrict companies was based on the idea they would self-persist forever. Yet technological change and the ability of new entrants to the market to adapt better than larger concerns means that the time of a monopoly is self-limiting, not self-persisting.
We have been stuck with this for a very long time and now Progressivism runs its course to becoming fully Statist. That goes by many names, but the result is that the State dictates your life to you. I do not like that under the R or D party, both of which are wings of the Incumbistani Party. The reasons Jackson cited for getting rid of the National Bank now have returned, in full with interest, with the Federal Reserve, FMs, and all other intrusions of government into the economy. What is worse is the willingness of the ‘moderate’ Hamilotians to back this. That is not ‘moderate’ at all, but carrying out Hamilton’s original vision of an aristocracy for America that controls government to its own ends. The Jeffersonians dither finding the ACLU betraying liberty and the process of the law itself becoming corrupted.
So with 3 out of 4 now either actively aiding and abetting or just sitting around befuddled by the massive encroachment of government just which group in the US shows up at town halls?
Mahndisa once wondered how the US could react as it did towards Japan during WWII. I believe that question is now getting answered for all to see. The group that just wants to lead a good life FREE of government control and interference is now showing up… live and let live goes right up to the point where there is blood on the streets. The Left thinks it can intimidate its way to perennial power like that.
The fourth group is now showing up.
They are citizens, not subjects.
And 45 ACP is flying off the shelves… this does not bode well for the future. The fourth group doesn’t want a fight… but given one it sure will end it.
Just ask Imperial Japan that made the exact, same mistake the Left is now making. The time for returning to civility is growing short… very, very, very short.
I, too, would rather avoid the physical violence and bloodshed that is usually part and parcel of a group of people throwing off the chains of control – but like many, many others here, I will not let that stop me from being a PART of the fight that DOES throw off the chains. The left is picking a fight that they can’t win – if for no other reason that they believe owning/using/being familiar with firearms is an affront to society.
They just don’t realize how polite society, as a whole, would be, if every one knew that every one else was carrying a weapon…