Patterico's Pontifications

8/20/2009

DNC: White House did Collect Data Via Flag@Whitehouse.gov

Filed under: Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 11:41 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

Erick Erickson at RedState says the DNC admits Barack Obama was collecting information on people via Flag@Whitehouse.gov:

“Trying to deflect attention from the White House invading people’s privacy, the Democratic National Committee is making real news by admitting flag@whitehouse.gov was used to collect data on people being turned in by third parties.”

The problem isn’t that the White House was collecting data on people who knowingly leave their names and contact information, typically because they want to be contacted. Most websites do that and anyone who leaves personal information is aware of it. The problem is that the White House was collecting information about people who, without their knowledge, were being reported by someone else.

H/T Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

— DRJ

42 Responses to “DNC: White House did Collect Data Via Flag@Whitehouse.gov”

  1. They said if I voted for John McCain, we’d have massive government intrusion into the privacy of citizens. And they were right!

    Official Internet Data Office (0a0b35)

  2. Add OIDC to the list… oh, already there – put an * by that one.

    Corwin (ea9428)

  3. Presumably we will now see mass outrage from the left and the nobly expressed objections of the liberal media. The NYT will no doubt lead tomorrow with a front page, above the fold story and an editorial. Pundits will go on MSNBC to sputter. Keith Olbermann will name the entire WH as “The Worst Person in The World”. Nancy will organize angry hearings in the House. The administration will be made to pay a price in public trust by the combined outrage of Congress and the MSM. Constitutional questions will be raised by the Justice Department, and there will be talk of bringing Fitzgerald back to D.C as a Special Prosecutor. All that will happen, no doubt.

    MTF (551a4b)

  4. Is this subject to a FOIA request? If so, I sure want to know if the Obama White House has a dossier on me! Shades of Lyndon Johnson …

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  5. I’ll bet if Bush had started up “W’s List of Commies” and invited people to “send in examples of Communist subversion” there would have been hell to pay.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  6. “Is this subject to a FOIA request?”

    Nope!

    Juan (bd4b30)

  7. Bush! Cheney! Halliburton! War criminals! Racists!

    JD (783baa)

  8. Bush! Cheney! Halliburton! War criminals! Racists!

    Huh, I just read that same thing in the Lockerbie thread. I like your version better.

    Do you think they decided to kill of the snitch email because it was getting 5 million spams a day for viagra, enlargement, and nigerian check scams? Nobody saw THAT coming, that’s for sure.

    [note: fished from spam filter]

    Gonad the Testicularian (b90bc6)

  9. I would love to see the emails I sent come out on an FOIA request…

    carlitos (b5ed79)

  10. Question for the Press Secretary:

    “How many hoarders and wreckers evildoers falsehood-spreaders have you identified via the flag@whitehouse.gov email address, and what is the Administration doing with this information? Are dossiers being compiled and if so, how many and who has access to them?”

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  11. Hope and Change, folks! Hope and Change!

    Eric Blair (0b61b2)

  12. The Stasi would be so proud.

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  13. The Stasi would be so proud.

    Proud? Hell, they would be impressed! In fact, even they might say, “Geeze, guys, don’t you think maybe you are going a bit overboard?”

    JVW (111cb0)

  14. Well, maybe we should let it leak out that, first chance we get, the names of all informants will be published, along with who they informed on.

    These emails are preserved, no?

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  15. Barry lied! I’m shocked! Well, no. At this point I’d be shocked if he spoke a truth.

    RB (0772e7)

  16. He is who I thought he was.

    Techie (482700)

  17. What else has he done in his entire life but lie? Truth isn’t in his vocabulary.

    JT (def7db)

  18. What does it take to get an investigation into this snitch site by Congress? Can’t the Republicans force the issue? I’m serious. I know I like to joke around but why can we have some grandstanding hearings and call in the White House staff and ask them lots of questions. You know it has been done in the past.

    Alta Bob (3dd3fe)

  19. Which gets me wondering…. will the Department of ObamaCare & Spam offer Viagra and male enhancement products? This could be a game changer. Maybe this is why Nancy Pelosi is pushing it so much.

    [note: fished from spam filter]

    Huey (cbc224)

  20. I’m glad that the gigabytes of data and pictures and encyclopedia sections I sent them along with a copy of the Constitution with every one of my emails wasn’t in vain for nothing!

    What a bunch of fascist morons!

    Curtis (653a53)

  21. Do you think they ever felt the least bit stupid with their snitch email address? Nah, too stupid to feel stupid.

    PatAZ (9d1bb3)

  22. I sent them A LOT of emails. Boatloads of youtube. And copies of every moonbat lying in the comments here.

    JD (ae93de)

  23. Techie-
    So right on.

    Now comes the hard part, getting him out of office. Before he does any more damage.

    tyree (b7243f)

  24. here’s what i sent to them:

    Since you are asking people to report citizens who don’t agree with the health care plan currently in in Congress, let me do my part:

    There is a guy i know well, an honorably discharged veteran with more than 17 years experience working in health care. He bad mouths Ear Leader’s brilliant plan to change the health-care system in America, mocking both the plan, and ‘The Won’, every chance he gets.

    He points out the cost, the fact that neither Congress or the First Socialist have read the bill, and the fact that the public statements made by these incompetents fundamentally contradict each other as to the nature, goals and cost of the program. He even has the gall to question where the idea that health care is a right originates, and where it is justified.

    That person is me, and I’m exercising my 1st Amendment rights, as noted in the US Constitution, when I do. The fact that you would attempt to chill my free speech by calling for people to report me is disgusting, but utterly expected of your ilk.

    Allow me to fully express my utter and complete disdain for everyone who thought this was a good idea, starting with that ignorant idiot in the Oval Office, and all you fawning sycophants doing his illegal and immoral bidding, by contacting you to be put on the list that you are evidently compiling.

    And yes, I fully expect to suddenly discover that something is wrong with my records, or that my files have gone missing, or whatever other petty bureaucratic punishment you may decide to meet out for the crime of Lèse majesté . You are scum, and that’s what scum does. I’m an American, and I take shit from on one, let alone some self aggrandizing, jumped up, would be third world tinpot dictator.

    In closing, allow me to suggest, in the best tradition of the Infantry and the Cavalry, that both you and your president go have sexual intercourse with yourselves, using the most vulgar of terms.

    Contemptuously Yours,

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  25. I wrote to the replacement address telling them I thought the whole thing was a bad idea and officially denouncing myself.

    Richard Aubrey (a7a600)

  26. Why is the DNC doing anything with a whitehouse.gov e-mail address ?
    Political activity in the White House is prohibited by the Hatch Act.
    That’s why the DNC (or RNC) does that sort of activity off the premises.
    There is a big problem here if the DNC got anything that came in on the “flag” whitehouse.gov email line.

    These federal and D.C. employees may not
    * use official authority or influence to interfere with an election
    * solicit or discourage political activity of anyone with business before their agency
    * solicit or receive political contributions (may be done in certain limited situations by federal labor or other employee organizations)
    * be candidates for public office in partisan elections
    * engage in political activity while
    o on duty
    o in a government office
    o wearing an official uniform
    o using a government vehicle
    * wear partisan political buttons on duty

    Neo (46a1a2)

  27. Why is the DNC doing anything with a whitehouse.gov e-mail address ?
    Political activity in the White House is prohibited by the Hatch Act.
    That’s why the DNC (or RNC) does that sort of activity off the premises.
    There is a big problem here if the DNC got anything that came in on the “flag” whitehouse.gov email line.

    Neo (46a1a2)

  28. I sent them that Monty Python Fishy thing from the Meaning of Life and a bunch of other “fishy” things. I also sent them links and copies of the privacy act that is supposed to protect us citizens from this very thing.

    Vivian Louise (c0f830)

  29. Comment by redc1c4 — 8/20/2009 @ 4:54 pm

    If you would have posted that as a petition, you would have had tens of thousands of additional names on the bottom.

    Well Done!

    AD - RtR/OS! (37c4be)

  30. Oh redstate. Your idiocy is truly original.

    imdw (f2050c)

  31. Comment by imdw — 8/20/2009 @ 6:24 pm

    Why don’t you do everyone a favor, and if you are unable to make an intelligent comment, or attempt to refute actual items in a post or comment, how about you just shut up, huh?

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  32. Hey, don’t worry! Be happy! The ACLU says no problem, no big.

    Patricia (29a01d)

  33. “Why don’t you do everyone a favor, and if you are unable to make an intelligent comment, or attempt to refute actual items in a post or comment, how about you just shut up, huh?”

    What’s to refute? Redstate noticed that third party information was in the flag emails? There’s no refuting that.

    imdw (b62539)

  34. Big Brother is alive and watching.
    You should be very careful.

    AD - RtR/OS! (37c4be)

  35. What’s to refute? Redstate noticed that third party information was in the flag emails? There’s no refuting that.

    And you fail at reading comprehension.

    What the DNC admitted was that e-mail addresses that were sent to flag@whitehouse.gov by people who didn’t own the e-mail addresses were collected and used.

    and it isn’t that he noticed it… it’s that the DNC admitted it. The DNC said that they used flag@whitehouse.gov to collect info on people that others ratted out.

    Imagine if I sent your e-mail address to the RNC, and they used that to send you mis-informed spam (you know, like the DNC did with the addy’s sent to flag@whitehouse.gov). Now pretend I did it when Bush was in office, and that the system had been set up and run by WH staff.

    How thrilled would you be?

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  36. #33 — Comment by imdw — 8/20/2009 @ 7:36 pm

    What’s to refute? Redstate noticed that third party information was in the flag emails? There’s no refuting that.

    Just curious about something, imdw, if you would be so kind to reply; do you think it is bad for the Executive Branch of the United States Government to start tracking the identities of American citizens for political reasons?

    Pons Asinorum (20c241)

  37. C’mon, Scott and PA. Say it with me:

    “…that’s different™!….”

    It’s like that great poster that has the caption: “It’s not fascism when WE do it.”

    The Left is strangely silent on these things, when you know how over the top they would get if GWB and his friends had done precisely the same things.

    Ask Cindy Sheehan.

    It’s just alphabetism.

    Eric Blair (76bb2a)

  38. “Redstate noticed that third party information was in the flag emails? There’s no refuting that.”

    Que?

    Wasn’t Redstate responding to lefty buffoon Greg Sargent’s lame comparison of Congressional data gathering practices with that of the Whiyr House snitch site?

    daleyrocks (718861)

  39. You’re right, what was I thinking…

    lol

    Pons Asinorum (20c241)

  40. imdw – Warn us when you believe you are about to make an intelligent comment so we can be suitably surprised.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  41. The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.

    kazooskibum (a4dd38)

  42. i sent a copy of all of my anti-marxist health suggestions to obama’s snitch email saying “i am flagging in myself so you don’t have to bother my friends.” as if that’s not bad enough…then obama’s people try to use their website to sell his marxist health plans ON 9/11 HISTORY! I have never seen a president SO SELFISH AND SO DETERMINED TO GET “HIS” WAY EVEN THOUGH AMERICANS HAVE WRITTEN, EMAILED,CALLED HIM AND TOLD HIM “NO.” OBAMA JAMMED THE STIMULUS BILL, OMNIBUS BILL, GM, BAILOUTS, CHRYSLER DOWN OUR THROATS!!!!!!!!!! STOP AND STOP NOW! Americans have had it!

    mindy rodriguez (4e0dda)


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