Third Parties Sent Out White House Emails?

That’s what the White House is saying today, in response to a huge public outcry about unsolicited emails sent to private citizens, from senior advisor David Axelrod, talking up Obamacare.

In the mass message, Axelrod defended President Obama’s health care proposals and asked supporters to help rebut criticism circulating on the Internet. He wrote that opponents are relying on tactics including:

“Viral e-mails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies. So let’s start a chain of e-mail of our own.” The email then invited the recipients to forward the message.

The Administration is now saying that the emails were sent out by third parties (ACORN and the gang?). Are you kidding me?

Fox News has filed a Freedom Of Information request to shine some sunlight on whether the Admin was compiling an enemies list. The law says that correspondence of any type to the White House must be kept on file. Did Obama’s team abuse this rule?

This wouldn’t be the first time citizens might have been snared into surrendering their privacy to .gov, …the White House asked the public to send in “fishy” information on health care reform they may have received. The Cash For Clunkers program’s site declared that your all of your files, data–really your whole computer could be recorded by the government when you visited. The Administration also wants to put “persistent cookies”–tracking cookies on your computer which can record everything you do on the web — a practice which has been banned for 9 years.

The White House slightly changed it’s website overnight; although they only redirected the flag@whitehouse.gov snitch-reporting site instead of eliminating it. In the Contacts section, there is now a check box to opt out of receiving email from Barry and Co., even if you comment at the site. You must type in a captcha code to verify your intentions; that you’re a real person, not a program.

However, anyone who fills out a comment must uncheck a box that says, “sign up to get e-mail updates.” The box is automatically checked when the page loads so commenters must take an action to un-check it. What they also didn’t do, but SHOULD have, is to make the process one where you must opt-IN to receive anything from the White House.

Honestly. Do you even want to go to the White House website now? Do you really trust this Administration?

Major Garrett’s blog gives you a first-person account about what is turning into quite a scandal.

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