Free Republic

Security: A Senate bill lets the president "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "nongovernmental" computer networks and do what's needed to respond to the threat. Didn't they just collect our e-mail addresses?We wish this was just a piece of the fictional "Dr. Strangelove" that fell to the cutting-room floor, but it's not. It is a real piece of disturbingly vague legislation sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. Senate Bill 773 would grant the administration emergency powers (where have we heard that before?) in the event of a cyberemergency that the president would have...

It started with a series of straightforward questions from Fox News correspondent Major Garrett to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.  Garrett’s bottom-line inquiry: How did thousands of Americans, who had never contacted the White House previously, receive unsolicited political emails authored by top administration strategist David Axelrod?    In response, Gibbs and his press office colleagues undertook a strategy of dismissing the core issue, impugning the questioner, shifting blame, and vaguely pledging to change White House email policy.  Still, the basic question of exactly how the White House came to possess countless private email addresses remains unanswered.  The public deserves a...

The White House may have thought that the controversy ended this week when it disabled its electronic tip box, but at least one GOP senator is keeping it alive. In a letter to President Barack Obama Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) says the decision to disable the e-tip box -- flag@whitehouse.gov to monitor "fishy" claims about health care -- only raises more questions. Cornyn says he wants the White House to eliminate all the data it received in the 13 days the program was in effect and wants to know whether any information has been shared with the Democratic National...

They have theories, mind you. But the theories don’t add up. The White House told FOX News that third-party groups sending online petitions to the official administration Web site could be to blame for a rash of e-mails that have gone out to people who never requested them. The theory is that these groups are including the names and e-mails of members and petition-signers along with the petitions themselves, in turn embedding those e-mails into the White House distribution list… Griffith, who works for the American Association of Christian Schools in Washington, D.C., said she got the e-mail in her...

White House Blames E-Mail Controversy on 'Sinister Conspiracy Theories' After confirming to FOX News over the weekend that third-party groups could be responsible for official White House e-mails that have been sent to people who never signed up for them, President Obama's new media director took to the official White House blog to "clear up" the confusion, and pointed the finger at "outside groups of all political stripes." FOXNews.com Tuesday, August 18, 2009 The White House is blaming the controversy over its Web site and mass e-mails on viral rumors, "fear-mongering" and "sinister conspiracy theories" even as it acknowledges problems...

A little less than two weeks ago, the Obama administration announced a program asking American's to spy on their neighbors. The call for an army of spies was announced in a White House’s internet site 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...

The e-mail address set up for people to report "fishy" information about health care reform has become inactive. The White House also has added two new filter devices to its "Contact Us" section on its Web site, following complaints from people who said they were receiving unsolicited e-mails from the administration

"The White House for the first time Sunday somewhat acknowledged that people across the country received unsolicited e-mails last week on health care from the administration, suggesting the problem on third-party groups it claimed placed the recipients' names on the distribution list...." "If an individual received the e-mail because someone else or a group signed them up or forwarded the e-mail, we hope they were not too inconvenienced." http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/16/white-house-e-mail/

Is White House liable for Spam under Washington State's Anti-Spam Laws? Can't I sue them?

Who should be fired over the ill-conceived (and possibly unlawful) FLAG@whitehouse.gov scandal? Emanuel? Axelrod? Douglass? Sebelius? Are any news outlets asking who should be fired? Are any Republican leaders calling for any firings? Steele? McConnell? Boehner?

White House Blames Political Groups for Spam Emails on Health Care Bills Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The White House is blaming political organizations like pro-life groups for the unsolicited emails people have ben receiving promoting the pro-abortion health care restructuring bill. Thousands of people have emailed LifeNews.com and other media outlets complaining about the spam emails from the Obama administration. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5361.html

Healdine only at Drudge