White House Needs Informants

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Part of me wanders if this is how the Stasi got started.
White House's Call for 'Informants' Draws Conservatives' Ire
Conservative bloggers and opinion leaders Tuesday expressed outrage over the White House's call for informants to notify it of "disinformation" regarding the health care debate.

From the White House Web site:

"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end-of-life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an e-mail or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."


Then the rest of me remembers that this is America, land of the free and home of the brave. We can be a belligerent bunch of loud mouths when the spirit moves us (see the Gates Crowley encounter for and example of this). Especially when there is even a hint of someone trying to mess with our constitutional rights. Particularly when the rights involved are freedom of speech and expression and the "someone" seems to be our own government.

So the White House wants to know what people are saying about health care insurance reform? Go right ahead and tell them! They've even given you a handy dandy little email address to send it to, flag@whitehouse.gov. Let the White House know exactly what you have to say about health care insurance reform. And don't just keep it between you and the White House staff. Tell everyone you know so that they can send what you have to say to the White House too. They can even add their own opinions. We can start the biggest chain letter ever all about health care insurance reform! Wouldn't that be something. I know I'll be emailing some scuttle butt to my friends and family tomorrow in hopes of rating a report on me to flag@whitehouse.gov.

The internet is a double edged sword. I would have thought that the current administration would have realized that by now after they had to slog through all the alien abduction and marijuana questions and suggestions at change.gov between the election last year and the inauguration in January.

Now should anyone feel the need to report this post to the government please be sure to get my stance on the issue correct. Trying to rush through health care insurance reform is a bad idea. You get four years to be President not four minutes. The President needs to take his time and get it right not get it right now. Senators and Congressmen have no business voting yea or nay on something they can't even take the time to read. Who wrote it if none of the people pushing it actually know what's in it? The price tag for this monstrosity is too high. If I think of anything else I'll post it and you can report it later okay. Good night.

Comments

  1. Jeremy PierceAugust 05, 2009 7:35 AM

    This doesn't sound like it should be restricted to reporting other private citizens. If you're supposed to be reporting anything fishy, you should be reporting the White House statements to this address while providing corrections, with some of factcheck.org's reports as evidence.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeremy PierceAugust 05, 2009 7:45 AM

    I sent them a link to this article that points out some misinformation from an important figure in the debate and said that I hope they can take its points into account when putting together their information to the public about all the misinformation being propagated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DarkStarAugust 05, 2009 9:37 PM

    There are a few ways to look at this.

    1. The manner in which you look at it and it's potential to lead to "re-education".

    2. Take them at their word (I'll wait for your laughter/scoffing/purging of digestive juices) and say it is a new level of counter-programming communication. Think of it this way. Instead of letting "talk radio" frame the "populist debate" without responding, they are going full bore in battling.

    Did it ever bother you that the Bush administration didn't use any media means to battle against their critics? As a few conservative media talking head said, the Bush administration was leaving up to the talking heads to counter punch. That was ineffective and in my way of thinking, stupid.

    Maybe you can't respond to everything but you can monitor and fight back on things that seem to be gaining ground.

    It's full time campaign activities.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SamAugust 05, 2009 11:37 PM

    With regard to option 2 the only problem is that they are going full bore at us, people like you and me who are trying to tell our elected officials to slow their roll, by claiming that anyone who disagrees is some sort of political hack or industry shill. (That in my mind is an act of desperation by someone who knows they are losing ground.)I didn't need talk radio to tell me this was a bad idea. Did you? With such a wide variety of media to consume it's kind of funny that we're talking about talk radio by the way. The only talk radio I listen to is NPR.

    You know I did think the Bush admin. was behind the ball with web tech, to their detriment. But maybe they had different priorities. As far as the Obama admin. utilizing web tech now I think they're setting themselves up to be mauled by the tiger they're trying to ride when they try stunts like this. Did you read any of the top vote getting stuff over at change.gov when they were asking for questions and policy suggestions after the election? Hot Mess.

    Weren't we supposed to be seeing more transparency with pending legislation being available for perusal and comment on the internet? Whatever happened to that hopeful change? Instead we get this mess.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Alan MAugust 06, 2009 1:26 PM

    I was thinking along the lines of Jeremy's 1st comment... maybe sending them some cost estimates from the CBO contrasted with some quotes from the Obama administration. Those are the things that seem fishy to me. And the 10-year plan that the health industry supposedly agreed to to lower health care costs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DarkStarAugust 06, 2009 8:59 PM

    Sam, all good points.

    I didn't need talk radio to tell me this was a bad idea although I think it is playing a HUGE part now because a lot of the details of the different versions of the bills seem to have been first pointed out by talk radio and as caught fire. The MSM hasn't touched a lot of the points being made.

    As far as the Obama admin. utilizing web tech now I think they're setting themselves up to be mauled by the tiger they're trying to ride when they try stunts like this.

    You're right but I think they did the smart thing in trying to counter-punch via the web.

    Weren't we supposed to be seeing more transparency with pending legislation being available for perusal and comment on the internet? Whatever happened to that hopeful change? Instead we get this mess.

    It's a hot mess, shameful and down right Clinton-esque.

    And now it appears the Obama administration is about to do a "read my lips" on taxes.

    ReplyDelete

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