[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I don’t think this is something to worry about.
Note that I’m very paranoid about civlib stuff and suppression of dissent. I have some family history with authoritarian regimes so it means a lot to me. And I am watching Obama closely because I think he’s often tempted to step over the line. (Habeas corpus, anyone? Or, what about the army of volunteers – nice folks, but still – promoting the President’s agenda across the country? I talked to some of them and asked what they did, and it was all, “We support the President and tell people about his policies” and they had no idea that there was a propagandistic aspect to that.)
But back to this. They’re not asking for the names of opponents of health reform. They’re asking to see rumors – stuff published on websites or chain e-mails, stuff that is either public or soon to become public. The administration has had problems with terrifying rumors gaining traction (and yes, a lot of them are false. “Obama is foreign-born.” “Obama is a Muslim.” “The health care plan includes euthanasia of the elderly.”) So now they want to nip them in the bud before they take on a life of their own. I’d be worried if they were taking the names of dissenters, but they’re just asking for links.
Why can’t they do that themselves? Well, they’d have to pay some college grad who’d probably surf the web at work. Why do that when regular citizens will do it for free? It’s called crowdsourcing and it works.
(And by the way, Pat, I sincerely hope you never have trouble with the government. I don’t think it’s likely, but if I’m wrong, I think you have people here who will try to help. Sometimes I worry that the day will come in my lifetime when dissent will be dangerous in America.)[/quote]
The trouble is that this is how the Nazis got the majority of people to report on the minority of people – Jews, gays, the deeply religious. Getting one set of citizens to spy on another is a road we don’t want.
I think it’s a problem that the president is asking for e-mail addresses and information about private citizens. Had Busch done this in reference to the war in Iraq people would have been throwing fits. Every news station in the country would have been covering it and people would be rioting in the streets.
[quote]Brett295 wrote:
I think it’s a problem that the president is asking for e-mail addresses and information about private citizens. [/quote]
hmmm. I must have missed the part where the administration did this. When I read it he was looking for the misinformation, not the ones spreading it. Do you have a link or quotation that supports this claim?
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
Brett295 wrote:
I think it’s a problem that the president is asking for e-mail addresses and information about private citizens.
hmmm. I must have missed the part where the administration did this. When I read it he was looking for the misinformation, not the ones spreading it. Do you have a link or quotation that supports this claim? [/quote]
Interestingly enough, they took the origional paragragh down that said:
“If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
I am not seeing where they said, extract the content and leave out the source. They want the emails and websites which are all traceable to people.
[quote]pat wrote:
Gambit_Lost wrote:
Brett295 wrote:
I think it’s a problem that the president is asking for e-mail addresses and information about private citizens.
hmmm. I must have missed the part where the administration did this. When I read it he was looking for the misinformation, not the ones spreading it. Do you have a link or quotation that supports this claim?
Interestingly enough, they took the origional paragragh down that said:
“If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
I am not seeing where they said, extract the content and leave out the source. They want the emails and websites which are all traceable to people.
[/quote]
So they neither asked for the source nor explicitly asked to remove the source. Perhaps you should e-mail them and make that suggestion. It’s quite a jump to the “thought police,” but this would be an appropriate place for such conspiracies.