August 5, 2009 5:58 PM

Sen. Accuses White House of Creating "Enemies List"

By
Stephanie Condon
Topics
Obama
(GETTY)
The White House in recent days has taken pro-active steps to combat the misinformation spreading about the president's health care plans -- but one Republican senator thinks they are going too far.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday to express his concern about "a new White House program to monitor American citizens' speech opposing your health care policies."

Cornyn's letter was prompted by a White House blog post written by White House Director of New Media Macon Phillips.

"Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to 'uncover' the truth about the President's health insurance reform positions," 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."

Cornyn wrote that he could think of no other incident of a president asking American citizens to report on their fellow citizens' political speech. He said that "citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights."

Furthermore, Cornyn wrote, the collection of e-mails could amount to the White House amassing various forms of personally identifiable information.

"By requesting that citizens send 'fishy' emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House," he wrote. "You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program."

Cornyn requested that the White House answer a number of questions, such as how it intends to use and then purge the information it collects, what actions will be taken against citizens reported for "fishy" speech and whether the president's own past comments qualify as "disinformation."

Add a Comment See all 183 Comments
by GT1776 September 30, 2009 2:07 PM EDT
One of the historians in this thread said Hitler wasn't a socialist. Well, I recommend that person GOOGLE what the acrymn NAZI means:

National Socialist German Workers' Party

Even Wikipedia knew this.

Before you try to spread disinformation, you should research your facts because you now look like the fool you are.
Reply to this comment
by demsnazi August 22, 2009 5:48 PM EDT
It shows why ignorant Americans should not vote.They vote for a candidate that reads great speeches and fall into the HYPE of Obama (i.e. Adolf Hitler). And the neighborhood watch comment is way off base you watching citizens when they BREAK THE LAW not when they speak out against policies of the government. YOUR choice for President is slowing slipping in the approval ratings I guess people aren't going to fall for this HYPE next time around If you want SOCIALISM so bad where you live move to China, Venezuela, North Korea. Because we don't want it here in a free society where we have choices. Our health care is not the best but SOCIALISM IS NOT THE WAY!! and if you don't like what I have to say send a email to the white house maybe the will send the Secret Service "SS" to get me.
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America
Reply to this comment
by demsnazi August 22, 2009 5:47 PM EDT
It shows why ignorant Americans should not vote.They vote for a candidate that reads great speeches and fall into the HYPE of Obama (i.e. Adolf Hitler). And the neighborhood watch comment is way off base you watching citizens when they BREAK THE LAW not when they speak out against policies of the government. YOUR choice for President is slowing slipping in the approval ratings I guess people aren't going to fall for this HYPE next time around If you want SOCIALISM so bad where you live move to China, Venezuela, North Korea. Because we don't want it here in a free society where we have choices. Our health care is not the best but SOCIALISM IS NOT THE WAY!! and if you don't like what I have to say send a email to the white house maybe the will send the Secret Service "SS" to get me.
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America
Reply to this comment
by tresia43 August 9, 2009 5:43 PM EDT
Yes please send all your Obama emails to the white house...crash their system. I think I have heard something similar to this....OH!!!! yes the Germans telling on their Jewish neighbors... soon they will be pulling us out of our beds in the middle of the night.
Reply to this comment
by TomJefferson2009 August 9, 2009 10:41 AM EDT
It's too bad you guys don't understand that Bush is gone .
Obama is the one responsible now .
And he made a big mistake !
The folks that are complaining about his healthcare attack are not his stoned continually out of work welfare folks nor are they the mind controlled union workers ( they still have an income if not working so don't care ) or the programed left of center puppets all these people are more interested in " American Idol " then real life. the ones complaining are the retired , self employed and hard working folks . self thinking folks used to making their own decisions. who are out of work because of his policies heck if they were still working they might have been to busy to notice Obama acting like a dictator . they aren't getting stoned or drunk They don't want mommy or the government to make life decisions for them. they pay attention to what is going on and will not let the wool be pulled over their eyes . and they don't respond to being called names but do respond to criminal bullies trying to push them around and will fight back . Obama has already broken a law put in place to stop presidents from making an " Enemy's List " like Nixon did "The Privacy act of 1974" was put into effect as a direct response to Nixon's list . Fishy List my a*s.
Why hasn't the Senate , Congress or even the FBI either put a stop to his unlawful actions or arrest him ? We will all find out who is on this list as long as he doesn't break another law . The President is required by law to keep all correspondence (again to stop things from happening like the " Missing 14 minutes " of tape from Nixon's record ) or is he planning on putting the majority of Americans in "Detention Camps" ? He has already asked the armed forces to volunteer to man these camps .
Are these laws only to be used against Republicans ? NOT !
Reply to this comment
by ObaNot August 8, 2009 10:34 PM EDT
It feels as if Extraterrestrials have landed.
The goal of the Obamartians is to destroy our way of life and turn our country into an ObamaNation.
Reply to this comment
by tds24 August 7, 2009 10:16 PM EDT
President Bush used this to protect the United States of America, Obama is using this to pass HIS personal political agenda. I think Americans are much smarter than you think and if other political officials do the same as Senator Cornyn has done instead of keeping their mouths shut just protect their own political career then this country would be much better off. We do not need a Hitler style ruler running our FREE country. It's time to stand up for our constitution.
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by Wayneear August 7, 2009 2:18 PM EDT
I've been reading the posts on here and I'm wondering how many people writing comments have read the bill. I have and it changed my opinion, I also found out by reading that the ones that are putting out misleading information are the President and Speacker of the House. They are not telling people the truth about what is in the bill, example; They are not telling us that the Government will have real time access to our bank accounts ( SEC. 163) Or that MUST auto-enroll employees into the "public option" (SEC 313) this does not sound like an option to me. They also aren't telling us that WILL instruct and cunsult regarding living wills and durable powers of attorney (SEC 1233). These are just a few examples of what we are not being told.
I urge you to please read the bill.
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by GoUSA14 August 6, 2009 10:18 PM EDT
You liberals are so typical. All you can say about this opposition is that "the Republicans are just made they lost the election." This just shows how in denial you all are. The election is over. We know it. We didn't win. We moved on. Right now the argument is the direction of the country and health care. We are speaking from our hearts and using our first amendment right to disagree. You Liberal demorcrats are living in a fantasy world where everything goes your way or no way. Get a life and come back down to earth you spineless pukes!
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by pontiactrail August 6, 2009 4:26 PM EDT
I just sent an email to the white house regarding the "fishy" emails. I guess that they must think we can't read the bills for ourselves and hence, someone is putting us up to it. Send an email to flag@whitehouse.gov and make it easier on the administration to collect names. See you in the camps.
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