A Reply From The Senator…And My Thoughts

If you read my post a while back about Senator Cornyn’s response to the White House’s request that people forward the emails they received with disinformation…You may be interested in his reply that arrived today…

Dear Mr. Boyd:

Thank you for contacting me about President Obama’s new initiative to monitor American citizens’ speech about his health care policies. I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this matter.

As you know, on August 5, 2009, I sent a letter to President Barack Obama expressing my concerns about a new program that requested American citizens to forward to the White House emails and “casual conversations” of their fellow citizens who oppose the President’s health care policies. As I stated in my letter to the President, I believe that this program is inconsistent with America’s tradition of free speech and public discourse. I urged the President to cease the program, to purge personally identifiable information gathered by the program from White House records, and to detail how the White House intended to use the information gathered.

Though I am still awaiting a response to my letter from the President, I was pleased to see that on August 17, 2009, the White House shut down the program. While I am glad the site has been shut down, Americans still deserve to know what the White House intends to do with information that was collected during the 13 days the program was in effect. On August 19, 2009, I sent another letter to the President, reiterating my belief that the White House should fully disclose how they are using this information, and seeking the President’s commitment that no similar programs will be instituted in the future.

Health care affects every American and I believe we need to take the time to listen to the patients, providers, families, and small businesses that will be significantly impacted by reform. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.

I appreciate the opportunity to represent Texans in the United States Senate, and you may be certain that I will continue working with my colleagues to protect our First Amendment rights. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,

JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

I must have missed that part of the original White House video where we were requested to report the “casual conversations” with our fellow citizens. Did you catch that part?

Also, it wasn’t the opposition to the President’s health care plan that was the issue. Since the President doesn’t have a Health Care Plan to oppose that would be a non-issue if it wasn’t just dishonest. The request was for people to forward the lies and disinformation being passed on as fact. Now if lies and disinformation is what passes for opposition in the mind of Senator Cornyn, Texas, we have a problem. If someone wants to offer real thoughtful opposition to Health Insurance Reform in America, I’ll listen…I’ll argue…I’ll have a conversation…But when I hear lies used to spread fear just to scare people into believing the lie…Get real Sir.

Four paragraphs in we get to your first reference to the issue at hand…Health Care. But to turn that around to pushing fear of government monitoring after the last administration’s abuses of the right to privacy…Abuses you approved of…That is just to much of a stretch of credulity. Senator, you need to take your feigned outrage and put it to good use stopping the intimidation of free speech by the gun wielding thugs and screaming, shouting “citizens” at the town hall meetings around the country.

The view from the right is evidently beyond my comprehension…