Obama launches another snitch police squad

By Michelle Malkin  •  September 13, 2011 09:20 PM
MICHELE MALKIN

They’re baaaaack. It’s another legion of Obama snitch police.

The Obama 2012 campaign has rolled out “Attack Watch”.

“Get the facts. Fight the smears.” And report all dissidents and enemieshere.

The announcement was made earlier today on the official BarackObama Twitter account.

Twitter’s already having a ball with it: Just check out the #attackwatch hashtag.

If this all sounds familiar, it should.

Recall that during the Obamacare campaign in August 2009, the White House summoned Obama-bots to monitor blog postings and “casual conversations” of health care takeover opponents — and then report them to the president. The effort was led by health czar Nancy deParle and former ABC News correspondent Linda Douglass.

Who was behind the Obamacare Internet Snitch Brigade? Obama campaign operatives and former Soros-tied Center for American Progress progs then on the federal payroll. Reminder:

Czardom has its privileges. This week, President Obama’s health care overlord launched a taxpayer-funded initiative to recruit an Internet Snitch Brigade that will combat “disinformation about health insurance reform.” As the White House explained in a special online bulletin:

“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.”

What will health care czar Nancy DeParle do with this information? Where will it be stored? Who has oversight of the czar’s powers, budget, and personnel? Concerned citizens, alas, will have a hard time tracking down the “Office of Health Care Reform” created by executive order in April. There is no central website for the office, no direct channel for transparency, and no congressional accountability.

At least one member of Congress has started asking questions. Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn sent a letter to President Obama demanding that he disband the Internet Snitch Brigade immediately: “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,” Sen. Cornyn wrote. “You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program.”

Taxpayers have the right to know what government agencies and third parties the health care czar may share that data with – and why. Take note: The White House Office of Health Care Reform is working in close quarters with an entirely separate Office of Health Reform created under the Department of Health and Human Services. That office is staffed with several Obama campaign operatives and former employees of the Center for American Progress, including special HHS assistant Michael Halle and HHS director Jeanne Lambrew, a former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who worked on health policy in the Clinton Administration.

CAP is a lead organization in the Health Care Action Now coalition, the Astroturfed “grass-roots” lobbying group for Obama’s health care takeover legislation run out of 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C. with a $40 million budget. CAP is also the parent group of Think Progress, the far Left website leading the smear campaign against fiscal conservative activists protesting at congressional town halls.

Lawmakers must also dig far beyond the health care czar’s flagging operation. Last month, a Washington, D.C. citizen watchdog group filed suit to force the White House to disclose which health care lobbyists and executives it had met with this year to discuss the government health care takeover legislation. White House counsel Greg Craig refused to disclose which administration officials attended the meetings. But at least two of the industry visitors have ties to health care czar DeParle. William C. Weldon is chairman of Johnson & Johnson, which paid DeParle $7,500 for a recent speech. Wayne Smith is chief executive of Community Health Systems, which merged with Triad Hospitals – where DeParle served on the board of directors. DeParle’s options were converted to cash payments worth $1.05 million.

Despite Obama’s lip service to transparency, the public is in the dark about which assets DeParle has divested; how many times, if any, DeParle has recused herself from policy matters and meetings; and the exact nature of her conversations with health care executives. While White House press secretary Robert Gibbs lambastes the corporate health care ties of Republican opponents, he has shrugged off the corporate ties of the woman leading the Obamacare charge.

Alert the Internet Snitch Brigade: The fishiest odor is emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Also: During the 2008 campaign, Obama used the same “Fight the Smears” slogan and website domain to smear his critics.

Remember?

Fun fact: Among the liberal media tools at the time working as unpaid Fight the Smears operatives for the Obama campaign…then-Time correspondent Jay Carney, who is now the White House press secretary.

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One more goon squad flashback (h/t American Elephant):Remember the St. Louis lawyer goon squad from 2008 – and how “St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both Obama supporters, [threatened] to bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President.”

NOTE:

Here's a new video to demonstrate to Obama that Americans consider his latest trick either insane, or so foolish there is only one way to respond and that is with humor!

Uploaded by misfitpolitics on Sep 14, 2011

A promotion for the White House's latest genius campaign idea, AttackWatch.com.
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