I Want You: To Report Your Fellow Citizens

Here's an excerpt from the letter Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas sent to the President.

I write to express my concern about a new White House program to monitor American citizens' speech opposing your health care policies, and to seek your assurances that this program is being carried out in a manner consistent with the First Amendment and America's tradition of free speech and public discourse.

It goes on to say:

Yesterday, in an official White House release entitled "Facts are Stubborn Things," the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, asserted that there was "a lot of disinformation out there," and encouraged citizens to report "fishy" speech opposing your health care policies to the White House. Phillips specifically targeted private, unpublished, even casual speech, writing that "rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation." Phillips wrote "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Spin it any way you want it comes down to two points.

• The .gov just asked you to inform on anyone who is opposed to the health care reform as envisioned by Obama.
• If the Bush admin had done this the opposition would have been howling at the moon.

An excerpt from the official response. Read it all and draw your own conclusions. I will be contacting my Reps and extending Kudos to one and asking the others why they are not howling at the moon. It likely won't do any good, but one can hope right? You need to strongly oppose this on the principle of "It aint none of the governments business".

'Nobody Is Collecting Names': White House Responds to Charge It’s Monitoring Speech of Health Care Reform Opponents - Political Punch: "As ABC News’ Rick Klein was first to report, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was quite taken aback by White House Director of New Media Macon Phillips’s request that if citizens “get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy,” they “send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.'"

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