One of the interesting things about the way politicians work is that once you have sent them an email, even one that was protesting a stand of theirs, they feel the need to add you to their email newsletter list. For this reason, I am always intrigued by the way these newsletters are used to try to position themselves in front of the voters.

Today’s emails brought the latest missive from Senator John Cornyn. In this newsletter he was trumpeting his letter to President Obama about the White Houses request that their supporters send in copies of emails that they receive full of disinformation and…hell, let’s be truthful, lies. Here is a quote from the Senator…

I write to express my concern about a new White House program to monitor American citizens’ speech opposing your health care policies, and to seek your assurances that this program is being carried out in a manner consistent with the First Amendment and America’s tradition of free speech and public discourse.

Yesterday, in an official White House release entitled “Facts are Stubborn Things,” the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, asserted that there was “a lot of disinformation out there,” and encouraged citizens to report “fishy” speech opposing your health care policies to the White House. Phillips specifically targeted private, unpublished, even casual speech, writing that “rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.” Phillips wrote “If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Now the first couple of times I saw this, I ignored it and just hit delete. The third time I received a reference I was finally moved to reply. Here is the reply I posted at the Senator’s website:

In regards to your latest email newsletter and the letter you sent to President Obama:

Dear Sir:

I find your outrage confusing to say the least. As an outspoken proponent of a much more troubling form of “data mining” by the past administration, get down off of your soapbox.

I received the email request and viewed the video you are up in arms over after I received at least a dozen of the emails full of lies and disinformation. Most were from friends and family who never question the version of the “news” they get from Fox. A minutes worth of research before forwarding these emails would bring up the fact that there in little or no truth in most of them.

Your fanning the flames of fear about the motives of your political opponents is troubling to me. The very fact that you attribute these types of behaviors to your political opponents but not to the members of your own party who seem to be orchestrating the disinformation campaigns is another reason I have found myself on the other end of the political spectrum from you and your party these recent years…

Thank you for your time…You can refrain from replying with the standard email thanking me for my interest and appreciating my views…For I know you do not.

Now, since Senator Cornyn seems to think advertising his letter to the President is a good thing…I’m just gonna post my reply…Free speech and all that sort of thing…And if some large corporate sponsor would like to write off some of the profits they feel obliged to give to politicians…Post a comment and I’ll be happy to relieve you of some of that money…