Calling John Galt

Whitehouse.gov has “pulled” its effort to get neighbors to snitch on each other for sharing “misinformation” about healthcare reform. From a post called “An Update on Reality Check“:

Since the White House’s Reality Check site launched, we’ve seen incredible response from individuals eager to get the facts about health insurance reform and pass them along to family and friends.

An ironic development is that the launch of an online program meant to provide facts about health insurance reform has itself become the target of fear-mongering and online rumors that are the tactics of choice for the defenders of the status quo.

So let’s clear up two issues that have come to our attention.

I would hope that those two issues might include the notion of asking people to turn in American citizens who have done nothing but exercise their freedom of speech. I would pray that complaining about the collection of data that could be construed as an “enemies list” (and certainly would be if the previous administration was still in place) would be called something other than fear-mongering.

I was wrong. The apologies are for:

1. Inadvertently adding people to the President’s e-mail blast list, and
2. .

Oh, wait. There was no second issue!

Seriously, read the post in its entirety, and tell me what the two issues were. It seems to be clear that one had to do with the integrity and security of the e-mail blast list. But was there an apology for making it “appear” as though they were asking for “dirt” on others? Nada.

In fact, the first apology also shifts blame! Look at this:

It has come to our attention that some people may have been subscribed to our email lists without their knowledge –- likely as a result of efforts by outside groups of all political stripes

What the hell? Apparently, it was the Astroturf lobbyists for the insurance industry who are to blame, for putting themselves on the list and being too dumb to realize they might get emails from the White House Reality Check Team!

Instead, here are some self-serving back-slaps about just how awesome this whole administration-led community organizing effort truly is:

• we’ve seen incredible response from individuals eager to get the facts about health insurance reform
• However, it’s clear that a lot of Americans appreciate getting updates from the White House and that number continues to grow.
• Despite reports by some bloggers and others in the media that have invoked a variety of sinister conspiracy theories, more people signed up for updates last week than during the entire month of July.
• we’ve seen incredible response from website visitors who are using the tools provided on the site to share videos and other content with friends and family.
• The Reality Check website exists to inform public debate about health insurance reform – not stifle it.

The last one is rather funny, because the site is not about hosting or fostering a debate. Those running the site made up their minds a long time ago, and have no interest in other opinions.

The one about “more people signed up for updates last week than in the month of July” is hilarious, because the infamous flag@whitehouse.gov email address was launched August 4.

Hey… what about that email address? If you send anything to it now, it will bounce back to you. However, there is now this nifty contact form on the page, which is the same sort of webform that one would use to create a back-end email, but legally it is not an email.

So, what was missing?

• An acknowledgment that it was an abuse of power to ask citizens to report each others’ activities to the Oval Office
• An apology for same
• A pledge to find some means of discarding that data, within the law
• Any culpability whatsoever.

Arrogance?