Bush Domestic Spying Ally Cornyn Now Warns of Obama Data Collection
By Jon Perr Thursday Aug 06, 2009 5:00am
If nothing else, Republican Senator John Cornyn is an irony producing machine. During the Terri Schiavo affair, the former Texas Supreme Court Justice was at the forefront of the GOP campaign to intimidate and threaten judges. Now after his fierce defense of President Bush's regime of illegal NSA domestic surveillance, Cornyn is comically warning that the Obama administration has launched a sinister "data collection program" to promote health care reform.
Back in December 2005, Cornyn dismissed the New York Times' revelations of the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program. Regurgitating the same "Give Me Death" defense offered by colleagues Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jeff Session (R-AL), Cornyn sneered:
"None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead."
Alas, that was then and this is now. Now, there's a Democrat in the White House, one who's trying to overcome Republican obstructionism on health care reform.
When the Obama White House on Tuesday asked Americans to help fight the disinformation campaign ("If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov"), Cornyn was quick to suggest a dark plot was afoot. As The Hill reported:
"By requesting citizens send 'fishy' emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email, addresses, IP addresses and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House," Cornyn wrote in a letter to Obama. "You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program."
Cornyn asked Obama to cease the program immediately, or at the very least explain what the White House would do with the information it collects.
"I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure speech that is deemed 'fishy' or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests," Cornyn said.
Of course, this is just the latest data collection myth spawned by the right-wing noise machine this week.
Earlier, Fox News hosts Glenn Beck and Kimberly Guilfoyle claimed the "cash for clunkers" web site used by U.S. auto dealers to process rebates was in fact Obama spyware. "They are jumping right inside you, seizing all of your personal and private (information)," she wrongly explained, "And it's absolutely legal, Glenn"
For its part, the Obama White House wants health care reform supporters to voluntarily send emails to help it set the record straight. As for the Bush White House defended at every turn by John Cornyn, we still don't know what happened to millions of its emails.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)
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... I am a Republican Senator in the wonderful United States of America. As you may be aware, our President George W. Bush left office, leaving $350 Billion in funds that I need your help to recover.
Please send me your name and bank account number so I may help return your hard-earned tax dollars to you.
for One Million. Has a freeway view . . .
any idiot can figure that out.
Government spends more time trying to find out who their political enemies are then they do helping people who need help.
Your spelling is as faulty as your logic.
I disagree with the comment as far as Obama's concerned, but the only misspellings I see is the texting style use of lower-casing, and I would probably use the word than than then.
When you let the elected officials get by with these actions and pass legislation which is illegal and against the constitution and freedom of our citizens.
These laws which are passed for power and control are never purged but increased in power..
Government officials know that the electronic voting machines can be controlled to switch votes , delete votes and when transferring the voting records can change the results anyway they wish....
Yet they do not purge this process from operation.
Emanuel loves using these powers thru the office of the President.
There are three essential ingrediants missing in Conservatives:
1. Irony
2. Empathy
3. Common sense
There are, of course, many others, to varying degrees. But these form the triad from which all of the other stupidity comes from.
Am I missing any?
because obviously no one does anything about it otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.
Humor?
... empathy.
I'm not very empathetic.
the wealthy conservative says, "I have a maid to do my irony".
The conservative politician says,"The democrat party is it's own worst empathy".
The fundamentalist preacher says," Common, sense me yer money".
Thu, 08/06/2009 - 06:15 — cund_gulag
There are, of course, many others, to varying degrees. But these form the triad from which all of the other stupidity comes from.
Am I missing any?
__________________________________________________________________
Neurons, dendrites and synapses?
I think Tinker Toys should be included in that list.
Erector Sets?
Legos.
... their Lincoln Logs and Erection Sets are in fine working order.
They already have more than enough trouble with erections...
BTW: It's a shame that nobody has created a device to gauge hypocracy; these asshats would constantly peg the meter.
But that's why there's Viagra!
the wealthy conservative says, "I have a maid to do my irony".
The conservative politician says,"The democrat party is it's own worst empathy".
The fundamentalist preacher says," Common, sense me yer money".
the wealthy conservative says, "I have a maid to do my irony".
The conservative politician says,"The democrat party is it's own worst empathy".
The fundamentalist preacher says," Common, sense me yer money".
... that the White House not only pushed for illegal wiretaps, but wanted to have truck drivers and letter carriers report 'fishy' activities to DHS, fire fighters and paramedics to report 'fishy' things at people's homes, and this little project by Admiral John Poindexter called 'Total Information Awareness.'
evolve into in another 10 years or so.
... Democracy to completely fail, America to spend a decade as a powerful fascist state until it breaks itself trying to reclaim the Middle East for Buddy Jesus, and then a long, slow, painful return to sanity.
Entropy is a constant. Stupidity, therefore, is more powerful than intellect, and will inevitably win.
It's almost a gimme
I can't even imagine what they're going to evolve into for the 2010 elections!
He is so off the rails on this one. All the white house wants to know is what kind of bullshit is out there so they can counter it asap.
I just saw Cornyn on Fox and the fox friends were eating this stuff up. One of them mentioned "an enemies list". The white house isn't worried about where the email came from, they are worried about bogus content being spread around.
Don't tell Cornyn about Social Security Numbers.
The secret is safe with me.
Oh groovy
Another chance for ripping-on Texas.
Why oh why didn't Ron Kirk win?
http://www.dmagazine.com/~/media/0_Articles/D...
(He'd likely be a Blue Dawg though.)
No shit. Every time that guy or Rick Perry opens their mouths we Texans take it up the you know what.
Cornholyn
Yes, that is the orafice to which I was referring.
I call it cornynholing.
I need TeePee.......for my bungholio!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flaf_3tofA4
I'm hopin' now that King Of the Hill's been cancelled, Mike Judge will create some new Beavis and Butthead episodes.
But I want it on network, even though there may be no frog baseball.
Well, if we didn't have a line on each ballot people could check that says "I'm with Stupid" maybe we wouldn't make ourselves such an attractive target.
.."I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure speech that is deemed 'fishy' or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests," Cornyn said.
So if we see something suspicious, like say, a woman photographing a military base where she's not supposed to be, we say nothing? If we hear a guy say he's going to shoot up a bunch of women, we say nothing? Maybe the White House hasn't ever been the recipient of information like this but the same way our DHS uses tips to go after terrorists, domestic or foreign, the Obama Administration needs to know what arguments they need to argue against. So what is your F-ing problem other than being republican.
As to Ms. Guilfoyle's comment: "They are jumping right inside you, seizing all of your personal and private (information)," she wrongly explained, "And it's absolutely legal, Glenn"
If its absolutely legal, what's your problem? Did you have a problem with W eavesdropping on our Soldiers in Iraq talking to their wives and husbands and kids? Did you have a problem with the NSA listening in to our phone calls and viewing our e-mails which was ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL? If not, then STFU!
That's probably the last cogent thing I'll say today. Later, my sister-in-law, the conservative one who worked for a big Pharm, is now unemployed without health care is coming for a visit. One word about the Republican agenda out of her mouth and I might lose my mind.
I remember very well when the Chimp said "If you aren't with us, then you are against us." The implication was, well, if you are against us then you may be al Queda, or maybe enemy combatants. As it turned out, the blanket, all-encompassing domestic spying began for real in April 2001, well before 9/11.
The US Patriot Act (I & II) made it very easy to use all available intel resources, electronic and human, to penetrate any domestic civil organization that opposed the Rethug preemptive imperial wars in the ME.
Even scarier, the Military Commission Act allowed the Executive branch to seize all assets of any person or group which provided "aid and comfort" to the enemy, Theoretically, any domestic person or group that opposed ANY Rethug fascistic policy could fall into that group, including the loyal Democratic opposition.
Karl Rove believed that the Rethugs would hold the reins of power in this country for the next 100 years,
thanks to their (his) great organizational skills and precedent-setting fascistic legislation. They forgot that even with severely tampering with the ballot box, they could not counter-propagandize an overwhelming grassroots rebellion at the ballot box. They did not factor in Dr. John Dean's 50 state strategy.
Unfortunately, Dr. John Dean has been shunted out of any position of power in the Democratic Party, all in favor of the corporatist DLC and Rehm Emannuel. The fractious Democratic party would, apparently, rather suck up to the big corporate campaign contributors than actually govern for the benefit of the vast majority of the American people. And so, the Democratic Party is doomed to become, yet again, the whimpering minority party.
So what is Cornyhole actually complaining about? The US Constitution is still "just a piece of (toilet) paper", in spite of President BH Obama being a Constitutional scholar. What goes around really goes around, again.
No major change in how Washington does business == the return of the Rethugs and DINOs to power.
trapped by my spam detector to Sen. Cornyn?
Maybe they can nail some of these right wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh who go overseas to have sex with underaged children....
The Bush administration had a penchant for reading private emails of elected Democratic officials who they targeted like Eliot Spitzer....Yes, Spitzer was on the Bush administration's enemies list and they got him under what "appeared" to be "legtimate" circumstances, even as they snooped and then leaked his extra-marital activities.....
Limbaugh should be investigated for his out of the country sexual activities with children.
Well... duh - Cornyn simply doesn't want Obama finding out that all that crap is coming from his and other Repigs' computers! They are afraid of getting caught!
Here is the email letter I sent Cornyn this morning:
"August 6, 2009
Sir,
Your letter to President Obama yesterday is "fishy."
You Republicans are sore losers.
There is so much disinformation; there are so many falsehoods out there coming from the Republicans; it infuriates me when I hear people like Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, claim that Obama's health care plan is going to kill old people. She is not the only one who makes claims like this.
I will first say that there is a special place in hell for people like Ms. Foxx who spread lies like this in an effort to scare seniors. Do you agree with these tactics???
Someone needs to expose these lies. If I hear one of my neighbors spread lies like this, I will be sure to forward that information to the Obama administration. I will also copy you.
Fortunately, I do believe that most of my neighbors are Democrats who are intelligent and DO NOT LIE, unlike Republicans."
Do you know the interesting thing about this? I received a confirmation email of mine, and it listed my name, my address, my email address, and a copy of my original email. I wonder what Cornyn and his staff are now going to do with my personal information????
of your whereabouts.
Do you think they will bomb the hell out of me and my neighbors?
He means Jeff Gannon
I wasn't quite sure...I thought maybe he meant that SACK of shit Glenn Beck, you know, the one who likes to "paint with poop."
to restart the box vs. sack Hammer controversy. I prefer bags if I remember my position correctly, but for those willing to delve in the archives, send me some dementia prevention pills if I am wrong.
...the MASTER teabagger.
Masterbagging?
No, but the people six blocks from your house may get hit.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/de...
teabagger makes death threat on NC Dem Congressman.
Did you see the picture of the smiling teabagger next to a Democratic congressman being hung in effigy? Don't remember who the congresman was, but I think either Keith or Rachel showed it last night.
I saw it and son of a bitch standing beneath it looked like it was Christmas morning and he had just gotten his new bike.
The face of America.
The face of ignorance.
The face of hatred; the face of the republican party.
Smiling white numbskull lynching fellow white guy.
Yes, and they're bold about it.....right outside the office of Frank Kratovil.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/28/dem-effig...
Pride of the Confederate Party...
Real Confederates were Democrats.
are well on their way of proving once again that they are the most ignorant and easily manipulated people on the planet.
American Idol fans are still the most ignorant and easily manipulated people on the planet.
Really?...and WHO invented American Idol..a Sudanese?
Actually I think we might be a little ahead of schedule at this point.
Americans love it. They flock to Facebook and make it simple for all.
Baaah. Baaah.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/d...
YSB,
Why are you ratting on your fellow Texans?
What happened to (WHT) if you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about?!?! Now why would those people be afraid of the cable man if they weren't guilty of something?!?!
"I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure speech that is deemed 'fishy' or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests," Cornyn said.
I seem to remember quite a lot of that just after the September 11 attacks. People were being encouraged to report "any suspicious activity" - who would we be reporting on if not our fellow citizens?
These fucking people have such conveniently erasable memories!
These dumb, corrupt bastards thought they were founding the Thousand Year Reich. Didn't figure on losing the election so all those weakenings of the constitution they put in place can now be used against _them_. Hardly healthy for the country, but amusing nonetheless.
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