Free Republic

The White House tactic to control the message on health care reform had critics accusing the Obama administration of playing "Big Brother" and threatening the privacy of average Americans.

The W.H. web address flag@whitehouse.gov, set up for the public to report 'fishy' information regarding health care reform, has become inactive today...

It started earlier this week, FOX News began to e-mails from people who said they got an e-mail last week from senior adviser David Axelrod, even though they had never requested any communication from the White House. In the email, Axelrod defended President Obama's health care proposals and asked supporters to help rebut criticism circulating on the Internet. Axelrod wrote that opponents are relying on tactics including "viral e-mails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies." "So let's start a chain of e-mail of our own," he wrote, and asked supporter to send his message...

Over the next decade, systems which create and store digital records of people's movements through public space will be woven inextricably into the fabric of everyday life. We are already starting to see such systems now, and there will be many more in the near future. Here are some examples you might already have used or read about: Monthly transit swipe-cards Electronic tolling devices (FastTrak, EZpass, congestion pricing) Cellphones Services telling you when your friends are nearby Searches on your PDA for services and businesses near your current location Free Wi-Fi with ads for businesses near the network access point...

I know it's from the ACLU.....but really between the IRS and Obamacare what privacy will we have left? Still funny. http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

Obama Administration’s Health Care Plan HR 3200 currently under consideration in the House of Representatives Reviewed, revised and adapted on July 29, 2009, by Liberty Counsel from the original authored by Peter Fleckenstein and posted on FreeRepublic.com and his blog, http://blog.flecksoflife.com. * Sec. 113, Pg. 21-22 of the Health Care (HC) Bill MANDATES a government audit of the books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self-insure in order to “ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure”! * Sec. 122, Pg. 29, Lines 4-16 - YOUR HEALTH CARE WILL BE RATIONED! * Sec. 123, Pg....

CONGRESSMAN____________________________________ If you aren’t going to read the entire HealthCare bill, here is a summary: PG 22 MANDATES the Government will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!! PG 24 Line 116 Government effectively sets prices for ALL private health plans. PG 30 Line 123 THERE WILL BE A Government COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get. PG 37 Line 132 The Government will be reviewing grievances about themselves and will decide on appeals for rejected claims. PG 29 Line 4-16 YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!! Additionally you can reference PG 15 Line 19-25. PG 42 The Health Choices Commissioner...

Posted: 08/13/09 01:21 PM [ET] Half a dozen federal agencies are paying a private company to track and analyze the behavior of visitors to their websites, taking advantage of technologies that could become more common on government sites if a White House proposal is approved. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense are among the agencies that already have contracts with ComScore, a Reston, Va.-based firm that analyzes Web traffic, to profile Web audiences. Now the Obama administration is evaluating comments regarding its proposal to allow federal sites to use “cookies,” which collect...

Days after directing Americans to report "fishy" speech opposing his controversial health care policies, President Obama plans to reverse a longtime federal policy banning the use of web technologies to track and compile personal information that can easily be utilized to invade privacy. A 9-year-old policy forbids the U.S. government from implementing methods on federal internet sites that track an internet user’s every click, often identify the person and even build a database of each user’s viewing habits. This poses a serious threat to Americans’ personal information, according to the Obama cheerleading squad better known as the American Civil Liberties...

The United Kingdom government has set aside £400million to pilot test a family surveillance program that advocates are calling a “path-breaking step toward stamping out social pathologies.” Under the program, 20,000 “problem families” will be subject to 24-hour closed circuit TV observation in their homes for the next two-years. The program, labeled “sin bins” by the media, is intended to discourage bad behavior. “People are more likely to conform to socially beneficial behaviors when they know they’re being watched,” said the Government’s Children’s Secretary Ed Balls. For now, the focus is mainly on the behavior of the children. “We’re going...

The Obama administration is proposing to scale back a long-standing ban on tracking how people use government Internet sites with "cookies" and other technologies, raising alarms among privacy groups. A two-week public comment period ended Monday on a proposal by the White House OMB to end a ban on federal Internet sites using such technologies and replace it with other privacy safeguards... Supporters of a change say social networking and similar services, which often take advantage of the tracking technologies, have transformed how people communicate over the Internet, and Obama's aides say those services can make government more transparent and...

"Secretary Napolitano called on the American people to help in the fight against homegrown terrorists. She said that even children could be educated on what to look out for in airports and other key locations. She was quoted as saying in a speech today, “There’s actually an important role we can play in educating even our very young about watching for, and knowing what to do, if you’re in an airport and you see a package left with no one around.”"

Report: Over 40% of employers running credit checks on job applicants. Not unlawful; perhaps "distasteful." Congress looking at new law to outlaw this practice.

Communications firms warn of unprecedented extension of state powers Wednesday, August 5, 2009 A group of over 300 internet service providers and telecommunications firms is fighting back against the British government’s plans to monitor all emails, phone calls and internet activity nationwide. The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which represents some 330 companies, including BT, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse, says that the government is misleading the public about the extent to which it plans to monitor their communications and internet activity. LINX has described the Government’s surveillance proposals as an “unwarranted” invasion of people’s privacy. A statement from the group to...

Public Discourse: The candidate who told his supporters "to argue with them and get in their face" now finds the shoe on the other foot. So they're taking names and encouraging you to turn in your neighbors.So this is hope and change — telling American citizens who in a democracy disagree with you that they are mind-numbed robots participating in mob action and expressing "manufactured" outrage. Considering that upward of 80% of those hooligans like their doctors, like their insurance and like their care, anger over your government-run health care was not that hard to assemble. It was not that...

An Oregon congressman says he wants to test having a government GPS unit in every car so a tax could be imposed on the miles driven. The proposal, H.R. 3311, which calls for a test project costing $150 million-plus, was introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore. "Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled fee, and it is time to expand and test the VMT program across the country," he said in a statement on his website. "A VMT system can better assess fees based on use of our roads and bridges, as well as during times of peak congestion,...

Just when we all thought that we had seen how filthy, how deceitfully despicable, and how completely un-trustworthy Barack Hussein 0bama could be, the worst president in all of America’s otherwise rich and proud history has hit a new low. We, as citizens of this constitutional republic, are being asked and encouraged by this chipmunk to report on our neighbors and co-workers if we see or overhear them saying anything negative (or “fishy”) about the Obonehead-proposed Government Run Health Care proposal. This because, to quote them, “The White House can’t monitor” everything being said by everyone, be it in emails,...

THOUSANDS of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday. The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics. The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services. The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites. The Tories said the Home Office had "buckled under Conservative pressure" in deciding against a giant database. Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single...

An Oregon congressman says he wants to test having a government GPS unit in every car so a tax could be imposed on the miles driven. The proposal, H.R. 3311, which calls for a test project costing $150 million-plus, was introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore."Oregon has successfully tested a Vehicle Miles Traveled fee, and it is time to expand and test the VMT program across the country," he said in a statement on his website. "A VMT system can better assess fees based on use of our roads and bridges, as well as during times of peak congestion, than...

The Obama administration has announced a program asking everyone to spy on their neighbors. The call for an army of spies was announced in a White House’s internet site blog: 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 emails 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 email or see something on the web about health...

Dear conservative friend, In one of the White House's creepiest acts yet, it has posted a blog, which amounts to asking citizens to turn in those opposing Obamacare. They even set up an email address so citizens may tell the White House who is spreading "disinformation" (wink, wink) about Obamacare. Can you believe it? President Obama and his radical community organizers at the White House want literally to "keep track" of those who disagree with the government-run, potentially bankrupting health care bill, with its rationing of medical procedures to control costs, which Obama and Democrats in Congress are trying to...

The American Community Survey is a questionnaire that was recently sent out by the federal government. Three million Americans were asked to complete the information. The questionnaire is much more detailed than the regular census, leaving some North Texans wondering if 'Big Brother' is acting more like a nosey neighbor. The American Community Survey is sent to random households every year.  The information updates the census, which is given every 10 years. But some people say the yearly survey is getting too personal.  A Richardson resident, who didn't want to be identified, just received the survey.  She says it not...

"When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed to authorized CARS, [Department of Transportation] and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

"A warning box comes up, and it says, ‘This application provides to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States government,'" Beck read. "‘Any and all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.'"

Scary information about the cars.gov website. This was on Glenn Becks show today. VIDEO HERE

Two DeKalb County Officers are being investigated for allegedly performing a background check on President Barack Obama. They have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Officials would not release the names of the officers. The incident occurred on July 20, according to DeKalb County officials. The United States Secret Service notified county officials that DeKalb County computer equipment was utilized to do a query on the President. Such behavior, said William “Miz” Miller, DeKalb Public Safety director, is not to be tolerated. “As Public Safety Director for DeKalb County, I want everyone to know that...

Start-up cost estimated at $1.5 million The city of Lancaster may take to the skies in an effort to keep the city safe. City Mayor R. Rex Parris and aviator Dick Rutan are working on an "eye in the sky" surveillance system. The plan is to have a plane, armed with a camera, patrol the city 24 hours a day. The system would cost an estimated $1.5 million. "Suppose your wife is at home and she thinks somebody is breaking in the back door," Parris told the Daily News. "We can see it in 30 seconds." But now let's suppose...

Don't look now, but no matter where you go, you're connected. We -- or most of us, at least -- have opened our front doors to large corporations, hardware manufacturers, software firms and search engines. We have allowed them to rifle through our jacket pockets and handbags. And now they can do as they wish with us, or do the bidding of the powers-that-be -- in the form of a totalitarian government, for example. Don't believe it? Well, consider a recent incident involving the Internet bookseller Amazon and two works by -- ironically enough -- George Orwell. Amazon had been...

Experts debate proposed 'big brother' medical councilFrom Kevin Bohn and Jessica Yellin CNN updated 10:04 p.m. EDT, Thu July 23, 2009 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration is touting a provocative proposal to give a medical advisory council the power to help decide the scope of coverage that would be eligible for reimbursement under Medicare. Administration officials say the proposed council would improve health care quality and control costs. But some health care industry groups object to the proposal, saying such a council would not be qualified to make those judgments. This council would consist of doctors and health care...

How much tracking does On-Star do with your auto? If you don't have a contract with them, can your car still be tracked? If you do have a contract but have it turned off, can you be tracked? And what about cell phones...can the government trace you even though you have it turned off?

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- Most public officials like red light cameras, but many motorists do not. The city of Los Angeles is concerned it could lose these high-tech "speed catchers" because of one company's financial woes. The red light cameras are scattered at intersections all over Southern California, but the company that runs them is also in the red. "For this particular company, our information is they're $33 million in debt. That's a major problem," said L.A. Councilman Dennis Zine. The company, Nestor Traffic Systems out of Rhode Island, filed for receivership in June.

In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.” On Friday, it was “1984” and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” that were dropped down the memory hole — by Amazon.com. In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them. An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a...

So then, you’re a writer perhaps of childrens books. Or maybe a journalist or a rocket scientist and you volunteer to speak to children in assembly in school. Sometimes it could be one of those talks where adults tell kids about their job and what they do etc. Well, now in the interest of child safety people who talk to the kiddies from a stage where there are teachers and maybe parents, ppl who answer the question the children may have, now need to be vetted BEFORE they are allowed to talk to the kids. From a stage even. Got...

Governments will soon have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time      http://www.cbsnews.com/ Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car. It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold. Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians'...

It's all in the name of research on finding a better way to tax motorists, and the pay is $895. Wanted: 250 Maine drivers willing to let a stranger put a black box under their dashboard. The reward: $895 and the opportunity to speak their minds about the highway tax experiment to a researcher. University of Iowa researchers are seeking 250 motorists in Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties willing to have a computer tracking system installed in their cars for 10 months. The system could someday be used to tax drivers according to the number of miles they drive, rather...

LANCASTER - In what they say is the first step toward a new era in law enforcement techniques, city officials are testing a small airplane mounting a high-tech surveillance camera to help fight crime. The aerial surveillance system features high-definition video recording technology that is capable of viewing people or objects several miles away and whose images can later be magnified to identify the individuals, officials said. "You never know when you are being watched or followed. It would be stupid to commit a crime. You see it with such detail," said Mayor R. Rex Parris, who took a ride...

undefined Dr. Sheldon Miller, my children's pediatrician used to say that mother's know better than doctors. President Obama and his democratic congress do not agree with the good doctor. There are many loving parents who insist that some of the vaccines given to children today are dangerous (just for the record I am not one of them) and they do not want them given to their kids. They point to some evidence that links some vaccinations to Autism and even worse afflictions. There is other evidence that some vaccinations do not protect their kids as they wear out before the...

Workers who quit smoking, lose weight, and eat right could have their health insurance premiums cut by as much as half, possibly saving them thousands of dollars per year, under a measure inserted with little notice this week into the Senate healthcare overhaul bill. Discuss COMMENTS (47) Obama may need to take a closer role on overhaul. The move represents a potential breakthrough on one of the most controversial elements of healthcare overhaul: how to get Americans to improve their well-being without turning government into a medical version of Big Brother. Under the plan, individuals would have a strong financial...

The furore around the Chinese government’s Green Dam software has raised the issue of the way modern technology is used to monitor our daily lives. Here, we list seven of the technologies that can be used to keep track of your movements. CCTV Closed-circuit television cameras were first used in Germany in 1942 to remotely monitor the launch of V2 rockets. Since then, CCTVs have become one of the most contentious pieces of technology in public use. The government and law enforcement agencies claim the use of video monitoring technology can help reduce crime and improve public safety; critics argue...

Next month, as the class of 2013 moves into the dorms, Wisconsin's Beloit College will release its annual "Mindset List." The list is that much-forwarded email that always makes you feel old--the one that includes horrifying factoids like, "for today's college freshmen, GPS navigation systems have always been available," and, "there has always been Pearl Jam." More horrifying still, soon they'll all be able to vote. The generation born from the late 1970s to the early '90s has been called "Gen Y," "GenNext," and "the Millennials." Its name is Legion. But whatever name they go by, and despite their image...

Sara was late for work. The alarm clock didn't alarm, the kids were unusually slow getting ready for school, and nothing went right. She finally got to her car -- a brand new 2020 Chevy Adventure. She touched the finger-print secured start button. Nothing. It wouldn't start. She touched it again. Nothing. Furious, she banged the steering wheel with her fist. Then she noticed the paper hanging from the receipt printer on the dash. "Your designated visa account rejected your Road Use Tax in the amount of $87.32 for the month of June, 2020. You must insert a valid account...

This is good news:A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said. "The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing," Judge Marbley wrote. In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign...

POLICE are to blockade neighbourhoods with Baghdad-style checkpoints in a bid to catch criminals. A hand-picked team of officers are setting up roadblocks as part of a series of lightning strikes on crime hotspot areas. GMP is thought to be the first force in Britain to trial the new tactic from Wednesday. Civil liberties campaigners say they will monitor how it works. US police in Washington were criticised last year after they set up security checkpoints following a spate of shootings. Critics compared the approach to the security clampdown in Baghdad. Senior officers at GMP say the operation will see...

CCTV, RFID tags and GPS-enabled phones are among the technologies that can be used to keep track of your movements. Big Brother is watching you: CCTV cameras have become one of the most contentious pieces of technology in public use The furore around the Chinese government’s Green Dam software has raised the issue of the way modern technology is used to monitor our daily lives. Here, we list seven of the technologies that can be used to keep track of your movements. CCTV Censorship of the web is futile, says Google CEO China accuses Google of spreading ‘vulgar content’ Closed-circuit...

HORSE SPRINGS, N.M. — Wranglers at the Platt ranch were marking calves the old-fashioned way last week, roping them from horseback and burning a brand onto their haunches. What they were emphatically not doing, said Jay Platt, the third-generation proprietor of the ranch, was abiding by a federally recommended livestock identification plan, intended to speed the tracing of animal diseases, that has caused an uproar among ranchers. They were not attaching the recommended tags with microchips that would allow the computerized recording of livestock movements from birth to the slaughterhouse. “This plan is expensive, it’s intrusive, and there’s no need...

PMSpeaker Nancy Pelosi, the Leadership of the House, and Chairmen Waxman and Markey have, through their leadership, secured an important bipartisan victory for the American people. The American Clean Energy Security (ACES) Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation Congress will ever pass. This comprehensive legislation will make meaningful reductions in global warming pollution, spur investment in clean energy technology, create jobs and reduce our reliance on foreign oil. The next step is passage of this legislation by the Senate to help restore America's leadership in the world and begin, at long last, to put in place...

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal. In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said school officials violated the law with their search of Savana Redding in the rural eastern Arizona town of Safford. Redding, who now attends college, was 13 when officials at Safford Middle School ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear because they were looking for pills - the equivalent of two Advils. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs and the school was acting on a tip from...

For example, the National Association of Home Builders hired Baker & Hostetler a week after Barack Obama’s inauguration to lobby explicitly on the stimulus bill, which, in the end, included an $8,000 credit for home purchases. Better Place Inc. is an electric car company that hired its first lobbyist — Steve McBee, a former staffer for House appropriator Norm Dicks, D-Wash. — to push for electric car incentives in the stimulus. The resulting cornucopia included an expanded tax credit for plug-in cars, $2 billion in funding for electric car batteries and $400 million to build an electric car infrastructure, complete...