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Obama's dissident database could be secret -- and permanent
The Washington Examiner ^ | 08/06/09 | Byron York

Posted on 08/06/2009 6:06:32 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o

The White House request that members of the public report anyone who is spreading "disinformation" about the proposed national health care makeover could lead to a White House database of political opponents that will be both secret and permanent, according to Republican lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are examining the plan's possible implementation.

On Monday, White House director of new media Macon Phillips posted a note on the White House web site complaining of "disinformation about health insurance reform." "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation," Phillips wrote. "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 insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

In a letter to Obama Tuesday, Republican Sen. John Cornyn wrote that, given Phillips' request, "it is inevitable that the names, email address, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House." Cornyn warned the president that "these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program."

"I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House," Cornyn continued. "I urge you to cease this program immediately."

Senate Judiciary Committee lawyers studying the proposal say that although there is no absolutely settled law on the matter, the White House plan is likely not covered by the Privacy Act, which prohibits government agencies from keeping any records "describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained." Therefore, it appears the White House can legally keep records of the emails and other communications it receives in response to Phillips' request.

Those lawyers also point out that the White House is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act, which means it would not have to release any information on the plan to members of the public who make a request.

In addition, the lawyers say the collected emails likely will be covered by the Presidential Records Act, which requires the White House to preserve and maintain its records for permanent storage in a government database. Phillips' request suggests that whatever information the White House receives on health-care reform "disinformation" will be used to further the goal of passing a national health-care makeover, which is, of course, one of the president's main policy initiatives. Such material, and whatever the White House does with it, would qualify as presidential records. Only after more than a decade would such records be publicly available.

"So the White House, whether by design or accident, has requested information from the public that will become 'records' under the Presidential Records Act, yet would be impermissible for any government to otherwise collect under the Privacy Act," writes one Judiciary Committee source. "Where were the lawyers in all of this? What is their legal basis for authorizing the collection of these records?"

Linda Douglass, head of communications for the White House Office of Health Reform, says the White House is "not compiling lists or sources of information" on opponents of health care reform. But if "fishy" information is indeed collected, as Phillips' request suggested, the laws involved mean that the information obtained by the White House could not only be secret but permanent. A dissident database, in whatever precise form it ultimately takes, could be around for a long time to come.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agenda; bho44; bhofascism; bhohealthcare; bhotyranny; communism; democratcorruption; democrats; enemieslist; fascism; fishy; hopeychangey; informants; liberalfascism; lindadouglass; lping; marxism; obama; obamabrownshirts; obamacare; snitches; socialism; socializedmedicine; townhalls; transparency; tyranny
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To: KeyLargo

Obama’s Healthcare Prescription

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/health-care/1435


61 posted on 08/06/2009 7:51:51 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: CodeToad
OOOH Guess you told me big tough keyboard commando.

OK genius JKSUT exactly who do you think is going to enforce this statute against 0? Come on now tough guy are you going to march up to the WH and tell them he is braking the law?

Just EXACTLY what are you going to do? sit at your keyboard and write what you think is clever stuff to others out of your small penis weakness?

Go back to your computer games. When you march up to the WH with a warrant you will get some respect from me and others. Otherwise go F your self you basement toad.

62 posted on 08/06/2009 7:53:10 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit The law will be followed, dammit!)
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To: boomop1
Where is the Capital of the United States?

New answer: Chicago

63 posted on 08/06/2009 7:55:39 AM PDT by Protect the Bill of Rights (I piddy da foo if JimmyT zots you)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

EEEEEK!


64 posted on 08/06/2009 7:58:32 AM PDT by Lilpug15 (The Forgotten Man: He works, he votes and he generally prays - but He Always Pays": Sumner)
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To: IamConservative

Out of nowhere, I started receiving e-mails from the White House. There are only two way they could have gotten my e-mail address:

1) They bought a list from someone.
2) They intercepted it through my e-mail correspondence with my congress critters.

___________________________

Or the Congressperson’s office forwarded it on.


65 posted on 08/06/2009 8:01:12 AM PDT by JavaJumpy
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To: mkjessup

HA....I’ve been predicting a Nixonian problem ..... i.e. RESIGNATION....for awhile now.


66 posted on 08/06/2009 8:10:00 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Tell everyone, DEMS are the RACISTS...they created the KKK and Jim Crow Laws...to start)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Like I said, you’re all mouth about anything anyone suggests. Why are you even here. Just lube up those ankles and wrists so those chains don’t chafe too bad and make you cry.


67 posted on 08/06/2009 8:12:44 AM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
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To: rawhide

“Where is Judicial Watch? The ACLU? Are they all scared?”

Not sure, but it certainly is a topic that can get traction. If anothing else, Obama is taking heat for this Big Brother nark line.


68 posted on 08/06/2009 8:14:16 AM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
So... like Obama’s the only guy with a database? Lots of us have databases...
69 posted on 08/06/2009 8:27:07 AM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Just imagine the howls of protest of Bush or Reagan had done this. We heard it during 9/11. NO SECRET LISTS...


70 posted on 08/06/2009 8:29:05 AM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

The Blog post is now down. And Google has even scrubbed the cache version. Conspiracy.


71 posted on 08/06/2009 8:34:23 AM PDT by Beloved Levinite (R.I.P. My Beautiful America - Land of the Free & Home of the Brave - 20 January 2009)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

THANKS.

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! FOR THE TRUTH.


72 posted on 08/06/2009 8:34:55 AM PDT by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
In your face snitches coming to a census near you.


73 posted on 08/06/2009 8:36:04 AM PDT by SouthDixie (We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly.)
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To: Noumenon

>In a better world, they would all swing from gallows lining he Capitol Mall.

And people would accuse me of being bloodthirsty, vindictive, or ‘intolerant’ if I said that’s the kind of world I would like to see. :/

And I do want to see it, it would be far better to respect justice now than to wait for God to make things just (balance the books) on that day of judgment.


74 posted on 08/06/2009 8:36:59 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Dear flag@whitehouse.gov

On Tuesday, August 4, I overheard Mr. Charles U. Farley of 683 Evergreen Terrace in a conversation in an adjoining booth in the local Dennys. Mr. Farley is a retired welder, and he expressed to his son some concerns about how the healtcare plan might affect his Medicare benefits. At the time, Mr. Farley was foisting a huge cost upon the healthcare system by consuming a Double Bacon Slam with an estimated calorie count of 1300. He was also overheard to describe former Governor Sarah Palin as a “pretty hot tomato”. Mr. Farley left Dennys in a dark green 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass which I would classify as a “clunker”. I would be willing to pour a sodium silicate solution into the crankcase upon receipt of coded orders from Rahm in the usual dead-drop. Sincerely yours, Joe Deepthroat.


75 posted on 08/06/2009 8:37:33 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: mware

Notice he’s carrying GOP talking points and a bus schedule provided by the insurance companies /sarc.


76 posted on 08/06/2009 8:38:13 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Fish rot from the head down.)
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To: P.O.E.

you forgot he is wearing an outfit from LL BEAN.


77 posted on 08/06/2009 8:49:50 AM PDT by mware (F-R-E-E, that spells free. Free Republic.com baby.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

I wear being an enemy of this administration as a badge of honor. These people know no bounds and must be stopped. I applaud everyone’s efforts here to expose what is really going on.


78 posted on 08/06/2009 8:55:09 AM PDT by Madashel
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To: April Lexington

Yes, but is it a dissident database?


79 posted on 08/06/2009 8:57:01 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark
From our perspective, its a list of people who really don't love America and who have demonstrated tendencies of wanting to destroy our freedoms and enslave us. So... from that perspective, they can be considered dissidents, yes.
80 posted on 08/06/2009 8:59:20 AM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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