'Nobody is Collecting Names' - Obama Truth Squads Alter the Truth!

The White House blog entry is still up, "Facts Are Stubborn Things." Here's the key quote:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. 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.

The implication is not hard to discern: Name names. The White House wants them for a political enemies list. And after the ObamaCare truth squads identify political opponents, well, obviously the names will go into a database along with other identifying information on the administration's political enemies.

What's so hard about that? That's what any authoritarian regime would do.

It's thus surprising that the truth squads are out to jigger the truth. Here's the classic line from Steve Benen:

The very idea that the White House would be "collecting names" is about as legitimate as the idea that the president is a not a natural-born citizen. As nutty Republican conspiracy theories go, this was even more headache-inducing than most.

Hey, Benen, duh, THE OBAMACRATS PUT OUT THE CALL FOR NAMES, AND THEY POSTED A WHITE HOUSE E-MAIL ADDRESS SO OBAMALINGS COULD NAME NAMES!! THEY'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING WITH NAMES!!

Also, from my comments Dr. Ahmadinejad Chavez Biobrain fires up the truth-mobile:

If you guys could find even ONE indication that they were gathering names, I would still think you guys were nutcakes. But you can't. They're NOT collecting names. This ISN'T about the people making these claims. All they did was request that people forward the disinformation that they're seeing, and it's not about reporting the people behind it. And this is the same thing they did last year during the campaign.

Okay. Right. Like last year, when critics of the Obama campaign were threatened with prosecuation for "intimidation insults."

Hey, at least they never actually set up those camps .... or, did they? Gosh, who knows the way the White House is working to crackdown on opponents. It's like Ed Morrissey says, "WH: We’re Not Collecting Names, We’re Storing Your E-Mail Addresses":

The administration clearly wants to activate millions of snoops across America to get tips on what people say about Obama and his health-care plan. One can parse whether that amounts literally to “taking names,” but its design explicitly demonstrates a desire for the White House to track its political opposition. If all Obama wanted was a chance to respond to the debate, it could keep its own tabs on arguments made on Capitol Hill during the Congressional actions on ObamaCare bills. They can also easily keep an eye on lobbying groups and their public campaigns without creating a vast network of snitches to do it.

Ain't that the truth!

Image Credits: The People's Cube.