After Hours Friends

Written by Janet

The White House critics are accusing the Obama Administration of controlling the message on healthcare by playing “Big Brother” and threatening the privacy of average Americans. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement, that no one expects that when they exercise their First Amendment rights to ask questions or complain about a proposed government program that they’re going to be listed on a database in the White House. This raises serious privacy concerns.

The White House posted on a blog Tuesday that asked supporters to report “fishy” information they come across about the health insurance debate. The appeal was made at the end of the blog, which showed a video that countered a set of online clips that made it look like Obama wanted to eliminate private coverage.

The blog states the following:

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there,” the blog concludes. “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.”

Some critics say this request raises the possibility of an “enemies list”, that would initiate a whole new brand of surveillance over that undertaken during the Bush administration, critics called the move an Orwellian tactic to control the health care debate. This is being compared to the Orwell book, 1984.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said the White House should “clarify” what it meant by the message. Thursday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied that the IP addresses or names of people would be trapped by the administration, further saying, we have used on many occasions the Web site to debunk things that are simply not true. We ask people that if they have questions about health care reform and about what they’re hearing about its effects on them, to let us know and we provide information to show that isn’t true. But nobody is collecting names.

The Democrats are accusing the protesters and critics of being backed or put up to the behavior by large conservative organizations. Many of the critics at some of the town hall meetings have shouted at lawmakers, calling them liars and drowning them out. At least a handful of large organizations acknowledge they have encouraged people to express their concerns on health care reform and have challenged the demonization of attempts to organize communities around an issue that affects everyone.

The conservative organizations that have acknowledged encouraging town hall participation say they’ve only played a limited role. And at a number of town hall meetings, the participants have tried to engage the lawmakers in substantive debate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the protests “astroturf” — slang for grassroots organizing that is not genuine — and even said the protesters are carrying swastikas to meetings. Lawmakers will continue to press for reform “in spite of the loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt town hall meetings.”

Meanwhile, Conservative activists are vowing to keep up their fight against President Barack Obama’s health care plans, even as the Democratic Party pushes back hard, accusing Republicans of organizing angry mobs.  The Democratic National Committee says in a new Web video, that the mob activity is straight from the playbook of high-level Republican political operatives. Some of the activists say they came together during the “Tea Party” anti-big-government protests that happened earlier this year, and they’ve formed small groups and stayed in touch over e-mail, Facebook and in other ways. They insist they’re part of a ground-level movement that represents real frustration with government spending and growth.

Thursday the AFL-CIO announced plans to mobilize labor activists to attend town hall meetings in 50 congressional districts this month to counter the conservative protesters. There’s no doubt government attempts to change health care can incite real anger. In 1989, a pack of screaming senior citizens angry about a planned change to Medicare surrounded the car of then-House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois. They shouted “Liar!” and “Recall!” and hit Rostenkowski’s car with picket signs.

One thing that’s different this time around is the Internet, which allows groups to communicate and mobilize on a large scale. Amy Menefee, director of communications at Americans for Prosperity says, that her group uses all tools at their disposal. They are encouraging its many thousands of members to attend town hall events and is sending buses around the country, making stops for rallies and at some town halls. Democratic lawmakers insist they won’t be cowed. The only way to respond is to try to get out the message about what’s really in the health care plans before Congress, they say.

See also: MichelleMalkin.com and Hotair.com

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Tags: "Big Brother", Americans for Prosperity, healthcare, Obama Administration, protestors

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