Wow, big surprise here.  We already know that the Obama administration is real good at assessing blame for its shortcomings, policy-wise.  Game over?  Ya think?  Not by a long shot.  Instead of “manning up” and acknowledging that they were solely to blame for the unsolicited emails that regular citizens have been receiving from David Axelrod (allegedly), they chose instead to blame third parties for sending out these unwanted emails.

As usual, a spokesman for the administration had a ready-made excuse for these unwanted emails getting out there as a written statement put out by WH spokesman Nick Shapiro stated:

“The White House e-mail list is made up of e-mail addresses obtained solely through the White House Web site. The White House doesn’t purchase, upload or merge from any other list, again, all e-mails come from the White House Web site as we have no interest in e-mailing anyone who does not want to receive an e-mail. 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.”

Before I forget the mention, the unwanted emails that went out were in reference to the health care bill that Obama is trying to cram down our throats.  Shapiro also added that recipients of these emails can unsubscribe to these mailings ”by clicking  at the bottom of the email or (telling) whomever forwarded it to them not to forward such information anymore”.

I will give the WH this much credit – they have said that their web managers are trying to correct the problem.  But nonetheless, this is rather troubling as it does smack ever so slightly of Big Brother.  I’m just curious as to who exactly are these “third-parties” (assuming there are any) and what their role (if any) they’re playing in all of this.

This folks, in my humble opinion, seems to infringe on our privacy rights in reference to any correspondence that we send out, whether it is by snail mail or e-mail.  This should get interesting, to say the least; when I get more information as to the resolution of this debacle, I will pass it along to you.

From what I was always taught, free speech is guaranteed within the United States of America.  But you wouldn’t know it, coming from the Obama administration.  For those who have keeping tabs, the administration, on their blog Tuesday, asked supporters to report “fishy” information in reference to the health care debate that’s been a bone of contention within the White House.

And there’s lawmakers who do not like the notion of the administration having their supporters spy on citizens who do not agree with their health care policy.  The first who comes to mind – and the most vocal – is Texas Rep. John Cornyn.  I think he shares the sentiment of most of us in this statement that he made earlier today:

“No one expects that when they exercise their First Amendment rights to ask questions or complain about a proposed government program that they’re going to be listed on a database in the White House.”

By the way, here is the piece from the White House blog website:

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there,” the blog concludes. “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 something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Anyone out there remember back in the day when President Nixon used something very similar to this to create an “enemies” list?  This isn’t too far removed from that tactic, albeit different technology.  As a matter of fact, this type of action is reminiscent of a George Orwell novel.  Perhaps you remember his novel, “1984″?  If you do, then you can correlate what the Obama administration is attempting to do here.

One thing that you have to remember about the Obama administration.  They are very thin-skinned, especially if anyone disagrees with their policies; not surprisingly, these are also traits of the Democratic Party.

The tea parties and town hall meetings that have sprung very recently are living proof of that.  The administration is of the opinion that the dissent at these town hall meetings is “manufactured”.  I beg to differ.  The dissent is due to the fact that Congress has crammed down our throats bad legislation without our input.

And I can assure you: the Democrats – and I suspect some Republicans – are scared of us.  That’s right, there’s some within the GOP who are for this health care bill.  Anyways, the Democrats do their damn best to marginalize these people who show up at these tea parties and town hall meetings.  And the funny thing about this is that the more the Dems continue acting the way that they do.  And all that is going to do is make the people even more pissed off.

The Obama administration is obviously paying attention – and hopefully afraid - because they are using the “Big Brother” tactics at their website.  So up to this point, I would have to say that we the people have their attention.  But we’re nowhere close to beng done, folks.

We need to continue attending the tea parties and town hall meetings so we can continue telling these “lawmakers” that we’re not at all happy with them.  And when you do, please be civil, have questions ready before you go – and if you have signs, take them with you.  We will need to do this for some time until they eventually get the message that we are not happy with their actions and Obama’s policies.

Those of us who know something about cybersecurity probably already know about how some of the larger departments within the federal government provide their own cybersecurity against their own computers – with the Department of Defense and the Pentagon being some examples.  But the government – in their quest for more power and perhaps even more – want to put together proposals which would empower the government to set and enforce security standards for private industry.

Specifically, these proposals would increase the focus of the government’s cybersecurity efforts to include not just not military networks, but also private systems that control essentials such as electricity and water distribution.  In addition – and this is where there may be some problems – the bill would also add regulatory powers to ensure industry compliance with the rules.

I am willing to bet you that private companies will take issue with this, if for at least this reason: creativity will be stifled and these companies would have to adopt a “uniform approach”.  See, here is the problem – at least from my point of view.  Smaller companies – banks, utility companies, transportation companies and the like – if I remember correctly, have cybersecurity that’s in place that is in good shape and does not need the intervention of the federal government to make it better.

I understand and also realize there is a need for cybersecurity upgrades within the federal government and for essential services that we take advantage of on a daily basis.  But again, the government needs to stick to what they’re supposed to do – governing this nation of ours.  I’m pretty sure there are enough cybersecurity professionals in the private sector which would make government intervention unnecessary.  Not to mention the “Big Brother” aspect of what the government seems to be bringing to the table with this proposed measure.