In the United States we take our constitutionally granted right to free speech for granted. Perhaps we need to rethink that. Consider the blog quote below cut and pasted directly from the White House blog:
"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 ."
Source:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/
So if something seems "fishy" report it to the White House. "Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help."
The reports I am hearing about the contents of the democrats healthcare plan proposals suggest that many of the details objectionable to conservatives are buried within one plan or another. I understand that various committees in the House and Senate have variations of proposals. With several plans currently being hashed out the opportunity for plausible deniability of one aspect or another is probable. Of course this is the normal way the branches of government ultimately arrive at a final bill for passage. In the meantime the president and others can admit or deny just about anything regarding the healthcare bill since there are so many versions and proposals. The one asking the question is usually not aware of to which version the answer refers. This is normal everyday inside the beltway POLITICS. But the whitehouse has gone one step across the line playing the Godfather routine.
In the movie "The Godfather" Michael Corleone maintained a degree of separation from his henchmen who carried out activities that were illegal or close to it. That way he could stay above the fray. Of course if anyone dared disagree with the Godfather, the henchmen would go after them and someone might be wearing concrete golashes. The obvious inference is that the Godfather and his inner circle monitored what was being said.
My point is this: here is an official agency of the U.S. government, the whitehouse, sending out messages to those who agree with the current administration's policies asking them to track, monitor, and inform whitehouse officials when other citizens don't agree. What is the next step? Perhaps a note to another government agency to bring actions to bear on that citizen? This indeed is a form of censorship that cannot stand!
Americans, it's time to stand up and be counted. Even if you are for the healthcare plans, what will be the next policy of the government with which you disagree? Whether you are a republican, democrat, independent, or something else, the U. S. Constitution should mean something and no agency or branch of government should have the right to track, monitor, or use citizens against one another unless it has to do directly with terrorism, a crime, or the conspiracy of such. Consider the following:
"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
(Martin Niemoeller in "Dietrich Bonhoeffer," Christian History, no. 32.)
Are you next? Is the whitehouse monitoring your emails, blogs, phone calls, etc.? Where is the outcry?
Dr. Tom Cocklereece
"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 ."
Source:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/
So if something seems "fishy" report it to the White House. "Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help."
The reports I am hearing about the contents of the democrats healthcare plan proposals suggest that many of the details objectionable to conservatives are buried within one plan or another. I understand that various committees in the House and Senate have variations of proposals. With several plans currently being hashed out the opportunity for plausible deniability of one aspect or another is probable. Of course this is the normal way the branches of government ultimately arrive at a final bill for passage. In the meantime the president and others can admit or deny just about anything regarding the healthcare bill since there are so many versions and proposals. The one asking the question is usually not aware of to which version the answer refers. This is normal everyday inside the beltway POLITICS. But the whitehouse has gone one step across the line playing the Godfather routine.
In the movie "The Godfather" Michael Corleone maintained a degree of separation from his henchmen who carried out activities that were illegal or close to it. That way he could stay above the fray. Of course if anyone dared disagree with the Godfather, the henchmen would go after them and someone might be wearing concrete golashes. The obvious inference is that the Godfather and his inner circle monitored what was being said.
My point is this: here is an official agency of the U.S. government, the whitehouse, sending out messages to those who agree with the current administration's policies asking them to track, monitor, and inform whitehouse officials when other citizens don't agree. What is the next step? Perhaps a note to another government agency to bring actions to bear on that citizen? This indeed is a form of censorship that cannot stand!
Americans, it's time to stand up and be counted. Even if you are for the healthcare plans, what will be the next policy of the government with which you disagree? Whether you are a republican, democrat, independent, or something else, the U. S. Constitution should mean something and no agency or branch of government should have the right to track, monitor, or use citizens against one another unless it has to do directly with terrorism, a crime, or the conspiracy of such. Consider the following:
"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
(Martin Niemoeller in "Dietrich Bonhoeffer," Christian History, no. 32.)
Are you next? Is the whitehouse monitoring your emails, blogs, phone calls, etc.? Where is the outcry?
Dr. Tom Cocklereece
