Public option not dead yet, WH admits spamming, now wants to use cookies - cites "compelling need"

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined… [and] will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce….” Federal tax collectors, James Madison assured everyone, “will be principally on the seacoast, and not very numerous.” - from a Heritage Foundation blog.  These articles and commentary are also posted at my blog: http://theconsequencesofideas.blogspot.com/. 1) Obama criticizes a Cold War approach to defense PHOENIX – President Barack Obama chastised the defense industry and a freespending Congress on Monday for wasting tax dollars "with doctrine and weapons better suited to fight the Soviets on the plains of Europe than insurgents in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan." "Twenty years after the Cold War ended, this is simply not acceptable. It's irresponsible. Our troops and our taxpayers deserve better," he told a national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "If Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with a bunch of pork, I will veto it." But apparently he won’t veto a stimulus bill “loaded with a bunch of pork.” Yes, Dick Cheney, you are correct. This man IS making this country less safe.  See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090817/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_vfw 2) Morning Bell: Public Option Is Not Dead Yet The headlines are encouraging: The AP reports, “White House appears ready to drop ‘public option’.” Politico reads, “White House backs away from public health care option.” And the front page of USA Today says, “Obama may drop public option in health care.” These headers all stem from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ comment on CNN Sunday Morning that the public option “is not the essential element” of President Barack Obama’s health care plan. But by Sunday night the White House was already walking back Sebelius’ statement. An anonymous administration official told The Atlantic that Sebelius “misspoke” and White House health reform communications director Linda Douglass released a statement explaining: “Nothing has changed. The president has always said that what is essential is that health-insurance reform must lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and it must increase choice and competition in the health-insurance market. He believes the public option is the best way to achieve those goals.” …Conrad insists that the Senate could pass health reform that includes health insurance co-operatives. Co-operatives do have a long and proud tradition in many sectors of the U.S. economy, but details matter. Conrad says these health co-ops will not be “government-run and government-controlled” but instead “membership-run and membership controlled.” But others in Conrad’s caucus have a starkly different co-op goal. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is pushing a vision of co-ops that are: 1) run by the government, preferably the federal government; 2) funded or subsidized by the government; or 3) includes plans chosen by the government. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/17/morning-bell-public-option-is-not-dead-yet/ 2a) Administration Official: "Sebelius Misspoke." …A second official, Linda Douglass, director of health reform communications for the administration, said that President Obama believed that a public option was the best way to reduce costs and promote competition among insurance companies, that he had not backed away from that belief, and that he still wanted to see a public option in the final bill. See: http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/08/administration_official_sebelius_misspoke.php 2b) 'Death panel' is not in the bill... it already exists …H.R. 1 (more commonly known as the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, even more commonly known as the Stimulus Bill and aptly dubbed the Porkulus Bill) contains a whopping $1.1 billion to fund the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. The Council is the brain child of former Health and Human Services Secretary Nominee Tom Daschle. Before the Porkulus Bill passed, Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant governor of New York, wrote in detail about the Council's purpose.  Daschle's stated purpose (and therefore President Obama's purpose) for creating the Council is to empower an unelected bureaucracy to make the hard decisions about health care rationing that elected politicians are politically unable to make. The end result is to slow costly medical advancement and consumption. Daschle argues that Americans ought to be more like Europeans who passively accept "hopeless diagnoses." See: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/death_panel_is_not_in_the_bill.html 2c) Protesters mix it up over health reform outside Belgrade town hall meeting …Meanwhile, Anna Gustina, who heads Organizing for America, Obama's political organization in Montana, called it "a great day" for the group. She said the group worked with the SEIU and Montana AFL-CIO to charter five buses to bring workers from Billings, Great Falls and Missoula to support the president's health care reform efforts. Notice the Obama supporters have to be bussed in; they can’t drive there themselves… And,  …It was loud and raucous at times, with a brief shoving match between supporters and critics of Obama and the Democrats' health-care reform proposals. The Tea Party group of Bozeman accused health-care reform supporters of taking the space they had paid a fee to reserve. They have to squat on space that someone else had paid for. How appropriate. It’s just like stealing someone’s else’s money to pay for your health care.  See: http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_08bf58d4-8938-11de-8011-001cc4c03286.html 2d) Townhall Downfall: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) Only Wants To Meet With Obamacare Supporters Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has been telling his constituents that he would not be hosting any townhalls this summer. But then on August 11th, he sent a blast email to the Obama administration controlled Organizing for America announcing a “roundtable” at Ohio State in Columbus on August 12th. Check out this video of Brown constituents who were shut out of the townhall roundtable, while OfA members were let in: See: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/08/14/townhall-downfall-sen-sherrod-brown-d-oh-only-wants-to-meet-with-obamacare-supporters/ 3) White House says it did send unwanted e-mails WASHINGTON – After insisting no one was receiving unsolicited e-mails from the White House, officials reversed their story Monday night and blamed outside political groups for the unwanted messages from the tech-savvy operation. White House online director Macon Phillips said in a blog posting that independent groups — he didn't name them — had signed up their members to receive regular White House updates about Obama's projects, priorities and speeches. The White House had consistently denied that anyone who hadn't sought the e-mails had received them. …Issa also asked White House counsel Greg Craig whether officials were collecting names of the president's critics. "I am concerned about the possibility that political e-mail address lists are being used for official purposes," Issa wrote. "This, again, raises questions about this administration blurring the lines between political and official business." Issa also wanted to know how, exactly, the White House was using a separate e-mail account designed to track what it called "fishy" claims about its proposed overhaul — an account that was disabled Monday afternoon. …In what seemed to be a reply, Phillips indicated there was little chance for cooperation with Issa, a member of a minority political party without significant power. …Weeks ago, White House officials asked the public to share critics' e-mails so they could fight back and correct the misconceptions. Because those e-mails are official correspondence with the White House, they must be preserved — unaltered — for decades and eventually released to the public through the National Archives. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090818/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_e_mail 3b) Obama: Every move you make, I'll be watching you online Planned lifting of ban on 'cookies' called '1984'-style spying effort WASHINGTON – The Barack Obama administration has announced plans to lift a government ban on tracking visitors to government websites, and potentially, collect their personal data through the use of "cookies" – an effort some suspect may already be in place on White House sites. A ban on such tracking by the federal government on Internet users has been in place since 2000, however, the White House Office of Management and Budget now wants to lift the ban citing a "compelling need."  In fact, according to the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, federal agencies have already negotiated agreements and contracts with social networking sites like Google, YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and VIMEO to collect information on visitors for federal web sites. All of these private companies are known to have agreements with federal agencies, but the public has never seen them. In public comments submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, EPIC notes it has obtained documents that show federal agencies have negotiated these contracts with the private sector in violation of "existing statutory privacy rights." Those agencies include: Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the National Security Agency.  There are suspicions the White House is already involved. …According to Obama "technology czar" Vivek Kundra, the "compelling need" driving this major policy reversal is the administration's desire to create "more open" government and to "enhance citizen participation in government." See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=107086 4) AP investigation: Calif. lawmakers boost staff pay SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Against a backdrop of deep fiscal distress, several California lawmakers rewarded their employees with pay hikes during the first half of the year, an Associated Press review of legislative pay records showed. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090817/ap_on_re_us/us_california_legislative_pay