OK, now I’m angry, and more than a little worried. It seems our Comrade Rulers at the White “Kremlin” House have decided to enact the “snitch on your neighbor” program, ala Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. This was posted Aug 4th, 2009, on the White House home page by Macon Phillips, one of the White House Staff Bloggers-You can check it out for yourself at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/
“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 insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”
Whoa. Hold on here…Let’s take a closer look at this statement……”There is a lot of disinformation (facts) about health insurance reform (Operation Bend Over, America)…These rumors (truths) travel just below the surface (does that include the inside of my home?) via chain emails (aka. right wing bloggers) or through casual conversation (dangerous dissenters at the company water cooler). Since we can’t keep track (spy on you) of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking (commanding) for your help (to rat out your neighbors)…
The phrase that really concerns me here is “casual conversation”. Even though there is no reference here that tells people to directly eavesdrop and report on overheard casual conversations, the fact that they used that phrase leads me to believe they expect people to do exactly that. I’m glad to know that I now have to mind what I say in certain company unless I want to wind up with my own Government file somewhere labeled, “Trouble-Maker”. I mean, really, do you trust the average American’s interpretation of a term as vague as “fishy”? My neighbor sits on his front deck in his boxer shorts reading nudie magazines, watches wrestling, complains when I have my stereo up too loud (or at all), and then has the nerve to fornicate so loud as to wake myself, my wife, and my children. I’d love to hear what he thinks is fishy.
Another thing I’d like to know is what exactly do they plan on doing with this information? Are they going to start a file on anything our friends and neighbors may report to them for later use like J. Edgar Hoover did? Or are they planning on just sending over Obama-Troopers to kick in your door and haul you away to “re-education” camps? OK, I may be slightly over-exaggerating there, but could that really be far off? People need to wake up and understand that THE GOVERNMENT IS COLLECTING INFORMATION ON PEOPLE THAT DISAGREE WITH THEM!!!!! Doesn’t that scare anyone else? The last people to openly do this was the fucking Nazi’s! Am I the only one who read Anne Frank?
A friend of mine pointed out today that Dick Cheney and his Bush chronies had been gathering information on all of us for years via the Patriot Act and that pesky, non-existent communication system the NSA uses to spy on everyone called “Echelon”. I gotta admit, he’s probably right; however, unless you’ve used the phrase “bomb the White House/President” or similar words in an Arabic dialect and in multiple sentences recently, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna be OK. This is a completely different situation-if the Bush Administration wanted to collect information and potentially silence people that disagreed with them, they probably could have done that. I think the dissenters would have been relatively easy to find (like at the RNC National Convention in my hometown of St. Paul). That obviously was not their intent. The Obama Administration, on the other hand, basically spells out their intent in plain English. I cannot stress this fact enough, so I’ll say it again: THE GOVERNMENT IS COLLECTING INFORMATION ON PEOPLE THAT DISAGREE WITH THEM!!! And they’re asking you to give it to them.
One final thing that I’d like to point out is this: Rewind the clock about 5 years. Take this same exact statement from Mr. Phillips, except put Mr. Cheney’s name on it and substitute the phrase “Iraq War” or “Weapons of Mass Destruction” for “Health Insurance Reform”. Now how do you hippies feel? Probably like throwing down your bongs and marching down the streets of Washington D.C. with torches and pitchforks (if you could find it). That’s the point I’m trying to make. This is dangerous and it’s frightening, and until the American people stand up and say enough is enough, this government will continue to steamroll right over them, ramming policies and programs they don’t want right down their throats.
So, in the interest of sociology, I plan on conducting an experiment. I’m going to set up a fake email address from an anonymous, outside computer (no need to give them a reason), and I plan on flooding them with as many “fishy rumors” and paranoid drivel as I can. As soon as I do, I’ll post the email address, password and login on here, and maybe my 3 or 4 buddies who read this will be willing to help out by sending a few of their own. I want to see what response, if any, I can illicit. We’ll see what happens.
