Flap’s Links and Comments for September 15th on 10:20

These are my links for September 15th from 10:20 to 10:31:

• Big Brother Obama is watching – Attack Watch – e careful, if you dare to criticize Citizen Obama, comrade. The Web is watching. This week, President Obama’s re-election team launched “Attack Watch,” an interactive website that allows the president’s registered supporters to report instances of “attacks” against the commander in chief or his record. Citizen snitches are asked to detail who the attacker is, the type of attack, and whether the offending words were actually heard or passed along as second-hand rumors. The “Attack Files” section provides summary responses to some common smears. For example, the site explains that, “President Obama is a friend to Israel, despite unfounded claims to the contrary.” For critics, it represents a handy list of the issues that most infuriate the White House.

  The look and feel of the site conveys a sense of foreboding. It’s Web design by Orwell. A black background, stark red headers and white text surround the site’s own attacks. Grainy black-and-white photos depict those on the White House hit list, which includes the likes of Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck. The design is so unconsciously theatrical and amateurish it is hard to believe it is not a parody.

  It’s not the first time Mr. Obama has attempted to harness the Internet to create a nation of informants. In August 2009, the White House set up the email address “flag@whitehouse.gov” to gather information during the debate over Obamacare. According to an official press release, people were actually supposed to send a note to the White House “if you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy.” The effort raised serious concern over the appearance that the administration might be compiling an enemies list. As if the privacy implications weren’t bad enough, the address became instant spam bait. After three weeks of withering criticism, the White House abandoned its fishing expedition.

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  Orwellian in the extreme

• NY Times Review: Joe McGinniss’s ‘The Rogue,’ on Sarah Palin – Mr. McGinniss explains that he was shocked, just shocked, at the angry response his presence in Wasilla provoked. But “The Rogue” makes the Palins’ widely publicized anger understandable, even to readers who might have defended his right to set up shop in their neighborhood and soak up the local color. Although most of “The Rogue” is dated, petty and easily available to anyone with Internet access, Mr. McGinniss used his time in Alaska to chase caustic, unsubstantiated gossip about the Palins, often from unnamed sources like “one resident” and “a friend.”

  And these stories need not be consistent. “The Rogue” suggests that Todd Palin and the young Sarah Heath took drugs. It also says that she lacked boyfriends and was a racist. And it includes this: “A friend says, ‘Sarah and her sisters had a fetish for black guys for a while.’  ” Mr. McGinniss did in 2011 make a phone call to the former N.B.A. basketball player Glen Rice, who is black, and prompted him to acknowledge having fond memories of Sarah Heath. While Mr. Rice avoids specifics and uses the words “respectful” and “a sweetheart,” Mr. McGinniss eggs him on with the kind of flagrantly leading question he seems to have habitually asked. In Mr. Rice’s case: “So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?”

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  Read it all

  McGinniss is a sensationalist slime ball.

• Yes, cancer sucks. But… – I’m glad Rick Perry is pro-life. But public officials cannot govern based on how they feel. They must think.
  Their job is not to mandate life-saving interventions at any cost. Especially if the price is liberty-curtailment. (Listen to further discussion on this point at FreedomWorks radio here.)
  “If it saves just one life” is a fiscally imprudent and morally irresponsible justification for massive government intervention — and antithetical to core Tea Party principles.
  Moreover, the story now making the rounds is clearly an attempt to shift the spotlight from Perry’s Merck ties.
  Just as I criticized Michele Bachmann for unwisely using one mother’s unvetted anecdote to bolster her criticism of Perry, I will repeat the warning against such demagogic tactics as the “erring on the side of life” defense. It’s a path that leads to the kind of heart-tugging Obamacare fables I’ve blasted for the past two years.
  While the personal back story now being disseminated by Team Perry supporters may help explain why he did what he did, it does not in any way excuse it.
  Nor does it bolster confidence that Perry’s bedrock understanding of the proper role of government in health care decisions is much different than Mitt Romney’s or Barack Obama’s.
  That sucks, too.

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  Read it all.

  What concerns me: Will Rick Perry repeat this policy behavior after he is elected President?

  American cannot afford another Obama meddling around with our health care system – crony capitalism notwithstanding.