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The White House strategy of turning supporters into snitches when they see "fishy" information about the health care debate may run afoul of the law, legal experts say.
"The White House is in bit of a conundrum because of this privacy statute that prohibits the White House from collecting data and storing it on people who disagree with it," Judge Andrew Napolitano, a FOX News analyst, said Friday.
"There's also a statute that requires the White House to retain all communications that it receives. It can't try to rewrite history by pretending it didn't receive anything," he said.
"If the White House deletes anything, it violates one statute. If the White House collects data on the free speech, it violates another statute."
Napolitano was referring to the Privacy Act of 1974, which was passed after the Nixon administration used federal agencies to illegally investigate individuals for political purposes. Enacted after Richard Nixon's resignation in the Watergate scandal, the statute generally prohibits any federal agency from maintaining records on individuals exercising their right to free speech.
The White House has been under fire since it posted a blog on Tuesday that asked supporters to e-mail any "fishy" information seen on the Web or received electronically to flag@whitehouse.gov.
"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there," the blog said, adding that "since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help."
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And the funniest part, the DEMOCRATS put this legal mess into affect because they feared Republican Administrations rolling over peoples rights. I'm sure some left leaning talking head will say it's Napolitano's misunderstanding of the law.
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You can't see me, but I'm laughing hysterically.
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Schteveo knows a good joke when he hears it
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8 comments:
How can that be? Obama is a Constitutional scholar, not a paranoid dictator. Therefore, whatever he says must be the law.
But Bill, isn't it Paranoid Dictators who make law, simply by speaking?
This is EXACTLY the kind of thing they do in North Korea, China, Cuba...
Hey!
How you boys and girls been?
All work and no play makes Jimbo a dull boy.
On topic:
Schteavio, big buddy - For some reason my brain keeps wanting to somehow tie this thread to BJ & Hitlary's FBI files. I also would like to be able to tie it to Yomma's snitch line, but it's my opinion that anything posted on the great WWW, in fact, COULD be pure hear-say - written and distributed by ANYONE using someone else's computer/username/connection.
I.e. - just because some worthless communist bastard got offed with a gun I "own" doesn't mean I pulled the trigger.
Our newest racist bitch on the SCOTUS would disagree with me since my white skin proves without a doubt I am an evil person.
My dog could have done it.
My gun was stolen.
Off topic - hurricane Felicia is coming. It's supposed to wither to a little 80 mph winds-tropical storm by the time it gets here in a couple of days - but one thing is for sure: SURF'S UP!
'Course - I don't surf...
You guys should know by now that Yomama never gets his own hands dirty. That's what his hacks (like the commie Rahm Emanual and Nancy Botox) are for. They're his ideas alright, but the hacks put them into action so Obummer can say "hey, i wouldn't do that".
Plausable denyability!
Jimbo,
I agree, it's all about keeping track of "enemies". But in this case, it's a simple case of tracking ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH THEM. And until Noya Cantdisagreewitme gets to vote on it, we still have that right.
I'm in Angel Fire, NM with my mother celebrating her 75th birthday but I'm considering trading her in for cash. I'm sure she has already gone way over her health care limit. Breast cancer, double mastectomy, reconstruction, broken hip... all since she turned 70. Wonder how much I could get for her? Sounds fishy, doesn't it?
I love NM, especially along I-40, right at the AZ / NM line. Love the rock formations. I'd like to spend a month there, with my trusty Ricoh, tons of 64 ASA film, and a tripod, 30 minute lapses, catching the colors turn, with the Sun moving through the day. Then, hit the Grand Canyon, same thing, for another month.
But instead of that, I'm going to my Brother's Anniversary Party. It's the 14th Anniversary, of his 35th Birthday.
WORD OF THE DAY
REGRESSION, n.
A process of political inversion which transformed America from a small island of government surrounded by an ocean of inalienable liberty into a rapidly shrinking speck of individual liberty being engulfed by a Nanny State tidal wave.
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