Big Brother Is About To Grow

Go ahead and post your comments on the White House’s publicly accessible sites. Just be prepared. The government is hiring vendors to market and store your information.

The National Legal and Policy Center, or NLPC, revealed the White House New Media team is seeking to hire a technology vendor to collect data such as comments, tag lines, e-mail, audio and video from any place where the White House "maintains a presence" – for a period of up to eight years.

How much would you like to bet it won’t be just the information posted to their pages that gets examined, harvested and stored? For example, all they need to do is turn their page into an application at Facebook and it automatically shares all of your information. I’ll bet this gets billed as a means to hunt down threats to the President, but I bet all it eventually does is stifle dissent.


But, then again, that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Consider the President’s address to school children—just school children, by the way. Did you know the speech comes with accompanying lesson plans tailored to various grade levels? That’s the chief complaint from Republicans and other conservatives.

NBC spoke with Katie Gordon, a spokeswoman for the Florida Republican Party, who said the party's "beef" is with the accompanying lesson plans.

According to the article, people are calling those against the speech ignorant for keeping their children from being encouraged by the President. But, obviously that is not the goal. It is all about what the children are supposed to learn. That makes it an indoctrination event, using the basic definition from the dictionary (check this reference at Dictionary.com if you doubt what I say.) Maybe those accusing others of ignorance should better educate themselves on what is going in this case.

Speaking of ignorance, do you know what been going on with the money from the Stimulus package? Joe Biden gave of speech filled with praise on what the package has accomplished. But, the AP did a fact check that shows it isn’t as good as the administration would like it to appear.

(…and Obama wonders why his popularity is dropping…hmmm…)

11/05 Morning Report

I do not often trump the Wednesday Hero post. Today, I thought it was appropriate, since we have a new Commander-in-Chief.

I have been super busy lately finishing college. I have been following the election process. I am proud to say that my children have been doing the same, asking some great questions, and learning a lot. I hope, if you have them, you have been doing the same with your children. They will be the ones who assume control and leadership of our nation when after us.

I will say that I am very glad a black man has been elected to the highest office in our nation. That is a huge milestone of change for America. I do, however, think there is too much being made of this issue by the media. They seem to be creating a new group of smoke and mirrors so people are kept from recognizing real issues.

I will also say that I disagree with his ideas. I do not believe that government is the savior of men. I do not believe that government should have the responsibility to say who should have what. I will also say that I intend, however often I can write it down, to continue to point fingers at the media for not doing their job. Bias allows many evils. The media has many liberal biases they need to deal with.

Barak Obama ran a good campaign. He didn’t really do anything more sneaky or behind the back than anyone else in politics. But the result is he becomes the new Commander-in-Chief. As such, I will pray for him, and support him with honor. I will not name-call. I will not slander. I will disagree, because that is my right and my responsibility. And, they are not just mine. We all have the same ones. I hope you all exercise your rights and responsibilities well.

10/08 Morning Rant

Let’s see if I have all of this straight…or at least mostly. The Democrats blame 8 years of failed policy under Bush for the economic crisis in America. The Republicans blame failure of Democratic oversight groups—like the committees in Congress chaired by Democrats—for not doing anything to derail a crisis. And both Presidential candidates take credit for having tried to do something about PART of the problem. McCain did scream about abuses at Freddie and Fannie…and Democrats in Congress (including Obama) who should have been overseeing did nothing. Obama, on the other hand, saw a problem with sub-prime mortgages…and screamed about it. And, Congress (including McCain) ignored it. The warning signs were there. Different people saw different signs. But NO ONE did anything. And, now, the two of them, along with the pundits, just want to point fingers and cast blame.

The truth is there are a lot of people in government at fault. First, removing the wrong regulations was a mistake. The mistake was made by both parties, though. Deregulation was sought by Democratic Congressmen during the Regan, Clinton, and Bush administrations. So the claim that this is the culmination of 8 years of Bush policies is kind of absurd.

Second, not holding legislators accountable for their jobs was, and still is, a mistake. Barney Frank, and other leading Congressmen and Senators, refusing to deal with things at Freddie and Fannie should have Congressional hearings going on. The government in general not properly applying rules and laws that could have protected the American people should be causing massive re-election bids on both sides of the aisles.

And the media…is silent on all of this…except for blaming Bush and letting the Democrats off the hook…and sharing mundane, empty “headline stories” like this one about Sarah Palin’s family tree--which apparently includes FDR and Princess Dianna. (…haven’t actually read it…just saw the headline…)

Meanwhile, tonight after the debates, I heard pundit after pundit whine about how neither candidate had any real plan for solving the financial mess. Of course they don’t. This is so big, and hit so quickly, despite the warnings for years that it was coming, that no one has a plan to deal with this. Even the best experts only have ideas on how to deal with various parts of it. Anyone who has finished high school…even those that haven’t…knows this thing is huge, and it will take time to solve it properly.

Politicians and the media are so worried about scaring people with the reality that our “I want it now” and “give me more credit” society has brought itself to. Get a grip. The American people need to know the truth. Not platitudes. Maybe it’s been so long since someone in Washington…or wherever (including the media)…has out right told the truth no one remembers how. Maybe it’s time they started.

10/03 Morning Report

It could have been any country that started the financial crisis cascade, as an article at The Economist indicates. Unfortunately for America, it wasn’t another country. The crisis exists in America, and is affecting other countries as the waves of illiquidity spiral out. . The governments of several nations have already stepped in to bail out their banking industry.

Step forward, Peer Steinbrück, Germany’s finance minister, who rashly declared on September 25th that America was “the source…and the focus of the crisis”, before heralding the end of its role as the financial superpower. Within days, the focus shifted and Mr Steinbrück and his officials were obliged to arrange a €35 billion ($51 billion) loan from German banks and the German government to save Hypo Real Estate, the country’s second-biggest property lender.

I talked a couple days ago about how debt obligations are bought, sold, repackaged, and so on. Well, the painful truth is that debt obligations are traded on a global scale. That fact will drive the US government to do a bailout/loan package. It is a foregone reality because of the international realities involved.


Meanwhile, we have the Hot Topics of the elections. Iraq: US combat deaths down 86% from a year ago. Strange we did not hear about that in the Vice-presidential debate, considering how much they talked about Iraq. But, then again, inspite of Tom Brokaw’s statement ON CAMERA that “The Democrats are lucky there is only one Vice-presidential debate,” the NY Times claims the GOP merely survived a test. All things considered equal, I think Sen. Biden did a better job in the closing statements than Gov. Palin. But, over all, the fact that she could go step for step with him is telling of the ability of the McCain/Palin ticket. I suspect that if they can create distance between themselves and the Bush administration, the GOP just might be able to hold the Whitehouse this election.