I'm here to chew bubble gum and suck some dick, and I'm all out of bubble gum
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Socialist Paradise of USA
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Ok, you go to school for 6 years, work for next to nothing as a resident 18hr days, pay $250,000/yr in malpractice insurance and save lives and tell me that you don't deserve that kind of cash even though they don't make that much on average.
As a side note, if we are adding 45 million to the rolls but no new doctors how is the quality of care going to go up??? What will be in incentive to become a doctor???
I write to express my concern about a new White House program to monitor American citizens' speech opposing your health care policies, and to seek your assurances that this program is being carried out in a manner consistent with the First Amendment and America's tradition of free speech and public discourse.
Yesterday, in an official White House release entitled "Facts are Stubborn Things," the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, asserted that there was "a lot of disinformation out there," and encouraged citizens to report "fishy" speech opposing your health care policies to the White House. Phillips specifically targeted private, unpublished, even casual speech, writing that "rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation." Phillips wrote "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."
I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed "fishy" or otherwise inimical to the White House's political interests.
By requesting that 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. You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.
I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program-and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.
So I urge you to cease this program immediately. At the very least, I request that you detail to Congress and the public the protocols that your White House is following to purge the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and identities of citizens who are reported to have engaged in "fishy" speech. And I respectfully request an answer to the following:
How do you intend to use the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and identities of citizens who are reported to have engaged in "fishy" speech?
How do you intend to notify citizens who have been reported for "fishy" speech?
What action do you intend to take against citizens who have been reported for engaging in "fishy" speech?
Do your own past statements qualify as "disinformation"? For example, is it "disinformation" to note that in 2003 you said:"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan"?
I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator
Sen. Cornyn serves on the Finance, Judiciary, Agriculture and Budget Committees. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee's Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.
Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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This'll be my last post in here about politics, cause I have seen no real response to the valid questions I posed.
Pred, it's the 'Messiah' shit that's so fucked up. Your posts on here are for shit regarding the actual issues, just so much of the same hate-tinged sarcastic static that has brought our systems to disfunction.
I do agree with Obama in that one clip you posted - that the assholes that created this mess (of both parties) need to shut the fuck up and get out of the way, cause as a country we once again voted in the opposition party to clean up the mess; and I actually think he may be the best out there to represent my interests - I'd hire him. And unlike Clinton before him, Obama may have a real chance to make the adjustments necessary because the voters really did give this guy a mandate. The Republican controlled Congress did nothing for health care, or any other issues that are the systemic causes of our current turmoil.
I'm gonna give Towdog the benefit of the doubt that he was really trying to talk issues here, though his political bent is clear - too bad if that was the case, because clearly this isn't the place.
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That letter is hilarious in the fact that Cornyn has no problems voting for Big Brother to tap people's phonelines/emails/mail/IPs for ties to "terrorism.," but the government getting some information on corny information about healthcare is a blatant attack on privacy/amendments.