◼ White House didn’t stop ‘flagging’ Obamacare ‘misinformation’ - Website still soliciting informers on friends, neighbors, co-workers - Anne Hendershott and Brian Simboli/Washington Times
In 2009, the Obama administration conscripted citizens to join the government in helping to monitor the emails, casual conversations and activities of their neighbors, friends and co-workers by reporting “misinformation” about Obamacare.
Creating the email address, flag@whitehouse.gov, the administration encouraged citizens to inform the government of inaccurate information — or information that was counter to what the president was telling them — about the health care act.
The response to the attempt to create an informant society was immediate — and angry. Two weeks later, responding to growing public criticism about the idea of neighbors informing on neighbors on the proposed health care bill, the White House announced it had deactivated the “flag” email.
Did they? Despite the administration’s announcement that the “flag” had been deactivated and removed, we have found that today, more than four years later, the email address still appears on the White House webpages (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things), accompanied by the same invitation to citizens to report anyone who is disseminating misinformation about Obamacare....
The invitation is still there, and the platform for soliciting and gathering information is still very much in place. Citizens are still being invited to inform on their friends and neighbors’ email or conversations.
This is a problem. From the first day the “flag” email site was announced, its creation symbolically signaled that the Obama administration intended to do everything it could to promote its social policies and suppress all dissent. Some worried whether the creation of the site to inform on dissenters from the president’s policies was just a ploy to gather information about potential political enemies.
Lawmakers knew this. Even when the site was reported to have been removed, Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, noted that “questions still remain about information that’s already been collected over the past few weeks.”
◼ Hey, remember AttackWatch.com? - Daily Caller 6/1/13
...This is an age of official paranoia, in which the President and his apologists routinely declare dissenters beyond the pale, claiming they have no legitimate motivations beyond greed and racism.
I just hope more people are starting to see that. I hope they see how far this administration is willing to go in order to repress dissent and discourage free speech....
◼ Obama’s new Snitch Central: AttackWatch - HotAir 9/14/11
In 2009, the White House launched an effort to get people to snitch on those who expressed opposition to President Obama through a new official e-mail, flag@whitehouse.gov, and a web page on the official White House site. It didn’t quite last a fortnight, thanks to an outcry of anger over the idea that a President would be so petty and so paranoid as to need an official informant bureau in the White House. They dropped this about the same time that Obama finally dropped his war on Fox News, having lost on all fronts to control opinion.
Did they learn a lesson? Apparently not, or at least they learned the wrong lesson. The “flag” program is back, but this time it’s being run out of the Obama re-election campaign...
◼ Attaaaaack Waaaaaaatch - Michelle Malkin 9/14/11
