White House Trying To Get Information On Citizens from sites like YouTube and Twitter

[JMJ]

You can't even get to NLPC (National Legal Policy Center) to read their write up as I would assume it's getting hammered.

You can only find it on various blogs at the moment. Below is a link to the contract description/PDF

http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2009/09...working-sites/

Here's the link to NLPC's report/article (Servers are down right now)
http://nlpc.org/stories/2009/08/31/o...orking-website

contract description/PDF
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportun...&cck=1&au=&ck=


White House Still Trying To Get Information On Citizens
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has discovered a secret White House project to harvest personal date from social networking websites like facebook and twitter.

The White House office of New Media has sent out a request for proposals from technology vendors to develop and run the project. According to the proposal request, the information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video.

The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others -- any space where the White House "maintains a presence." The Proposal requests a bid covers allowing this project to last eight years.

In all fairness if you read the PDF of the solicitation, it speaks of the project as a way to to comply with the Presidential Records Act. But then there are the frightening parts especially for this administration which promises to be the most transparent in history. The disturbing parts of the proposal include:

Extremely broad secrecy terms preventing the vendor from disclosing to the public or the media what information is being captured and archived (page 7, "Restriction Against Disclosure")

Wholesale capturing of comments by non-White House staff on publicly accessible sites

Capturing of content of any type (text, graphics, audio, or video)

Capturing of comment by both Obama critics and supporters, with no restriction as to how the White House would use the information.

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.p...terstitialskip

[Area52]

Originally Posted by JMJ

You can't even get to NLPC (National Legal Policy Center) to read their write up as I would assume it's getting hammered.

You can only find it on various blogs at the moment. Below is a link to the contract description/PDF

http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2009/09...working-sites/

Here's the link to NLPC's report/article (Servers are down right now)
http://nlpc.org/stories/2009/08/31/o...orking-website

contract description/PDF
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportun...&cck=1&au=&ck=


White House Still Trying To Get Information On Citizens
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has discovered a secret White House project to harvest personal date from social networking websites like facebook and twitter.

The White House office of New Media has sent out a request for proposals from technology vendors to develop and run the project. According to the proposal request, the information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video.

The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others -- any space where the White House "maintains a presence." The Proposal requests a bid covers allowing this project to last eight years.

In all fairness if you read the PDF of the solicitation, it speaks of the project as a way to to comply with the Presidential Records Act. But then there are the frightening parts especially for this administration which promises to be the most transparent in history. The disturbing parts of the proposal include:

Extremely broad secrecy terms preventing the vendor from disclosing to the public or the media what information is being captured and archived (page 7, "Restriction Against Disclosure")

Wholesale capturing of comments by non-White House staff on publicly accessible sites

Capturing of content of any type (text, graphics, audio, or video)

Capturing of comment by both Obama critics and supporters, with no restriction as to how the White House would use the information.

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.p...terstitialskip

Unbelieveable. At this rate, Obama won't finish his first term in office. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
He wants you to think that he is somewhere in the middle when he speaks, but his actions are clearly to the left.
With the exception of lifelong socialists, people that continue to support Obama,
even with the negative information discovered daily, remind me of diehard wrestling fans.
Even with conclusive evidence to the contrary, they still swear that it's real, that his agenda is not a socialist agenda.
Folks, he has appointed people with a confirmed history of radical and communist ideology to make decisions about U.S policy.
It's real and it's a fact. These people don't represent mainstream America.
Obama has to know that. So, the alternative action for him is to sneak his agenda past you (or your reresentatives).

Our system of checks and balances are being greatly tested right now.
The so-called "town meetings" are proving that. Hopefully, American citizens will continue to stand up and stop this before it goes too far.
Despite what Obama and his peers think, mainstream America will have the say on what direction this country is going, not some fool like Van Jones.

That appointment is your wakeup call, America.

Now watch somebody defend this white house action by saying that it's Bush's fault.

[slsch]

So the first SNS with SSL/encryption will make a fortune...

[think]

Here's your sign:

National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is a front group and industry funded conservative political and policy lobbying organization. NLPC was founded in 1991 by Peter Flaherty and Ken Boehm, who previously worked for "Citizens for Reagan". [1] NLPC is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) foundation.

.......
Funding

NLPC’s predominate sources of funding are the Scaife Foundations. [20]
[edit]
The man behind the curtain

Richard Mellon Scaife is heir to the Mellon banking, oil and aluminum fortune. He is the premier financier for right wing political and policy organizations in the United States. The Mellon family owns Gulf Oil. See also Scaife Foundations.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php..._Policy_Center

[Raider]

Originally Posted by Area52

Unbelieveable. At this rate, Obama won't finish his first term in office. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
He wants you to think that he is somewhere in the middle when he speaks, but his actions are clearly to the left.
With the exception of lifelong socialists, people that continue to support Obama, even with the negative information discovered daily, remind me of diehard wrestling fans.
Even with conclusive evidence to the contrary, they still swear that it's real, that his agenda is not a socialist agenda.
Folks, he has appointed people with a confirmed history of radical and communist ideology to make decisions about U.S policy.
It's real and it's a fact. These people don't represent mainstream America.
Obama has to know that. So, the alternative action for him is to sneak his agenda past you (or your reresentatives).

Our system of checks and balances are being greatly tested right now.
The so-called "town meetings" are proving that. Hopefully, American citizens will continue to stand up and stop this before it goes too far.
Despite what Obama and his peers think, mainstream America will have the say on what direction this country is going, not some fool like Van Jones.

That appointment is your wakeup call, America.

Great post as always!.... I think early in Obama's Presidency, he honestly thought he was elected for his ideology of socialistic change, but nothing could be further from the truth. Obama got elected on his message of "Change", alright, but most voters really never understood what that "Change" was, Well now their finding out and they don't like it.

What you see at these town hall meetings and in recent polling data, is a clear rejection of his ideas and the direction he's taking this Country, You would have to have your head buried in the sand not to see it... So guess what their doing now at the town halls? Restricting the town hall audience to INVITATION ONLY!, can you believe it? Anything to silence the opposition and suppress free speech... Unbelievable

Originally Posted by Area52

Now watch somebody defend this white house action by saying that it's Bush's fault.

Originally Posted by Area52

With the exception of lifelong socialists, people that continue to support Obama, even with the negative information discovered daily, remind me of diehard wrestling fans. .

I wonder where our diehard wrestling fan is now? He must be busy attending to his dogs or designing pretty logo's for his sig.

[think]

Originally Posted by Raider

Great post as always!.... I think early in Obama's Presidency, he honestly thought he was elected for his ideology of socialistic change, but nothing could be further from the truth. Obama got elected on his message of "Change", alright, but most voters really never understood what that "Change" was, Well now their finding out and they don't like it.

What you see at these town hall meetings and in recent polling data, is a clear rejection of his ideas and the direction he's taking this Country, You would have to have your head buried in the sand not to see it... So guess what their doing now at the town halls? Restricting the town hall audience to INVITATION ONLY!, can you believe it? Anything to silence the opposition and suppress free speech... Unbelievable





I wonder where our diehard wrestling fan is now? He must be busy attending to his dogs or designing pretty logo's for his sig.

A front group for an oil tycoon and bank heir tosses out a hit piece on an innocuous record collecting effort on behalf of the Obama administration to comply with The Presidential Records Act and you guys just suck it up. The simple truth is they were FOLLOWING THE LAW. But hey no need to vet your source as long as it goes along with your rant of the day.

Besides Bush didn't need to comply with laws because he was too cool for that. Perhaps the Obama administration should just "lose" a few million emails like the Bush administration:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Millions of White House e-mails may be missing, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino acknowledged Friday.

"I wouldn't rule out that there were a potential 5 million e-mails lost," Perino told reporters.

The administration was already facing sharp questions about whether top presidential advisers including Karl Rove improperly used Republican National Committee e-mail that the White House said later disappeared.

The latest comments were a response to a new report from a liberal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), alleging that over a two-year period official White House e-mail traffic for hundreds of days has vanished -- in possible violation of the federal Presidential Records Act.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/...ail/index.html

[Doc Com]

I think the main issue here is transparency of one administration vs. discreet, covert, and illegal activity of a previous administration.

But, no one wants to hear that noise...it is as if the spying on individuals or organizations just miraculously started.

[fab]

More & more politics. Oh, I forgot this is the political section. For a moment I thought I was in domain-land.

[Raider]

Originally Posted by think

Besides Bush didn't need to comply with laws

Just as predicted..... You must be a diehard wrestling fan.

[think]

Originally Posted by fab

More & more politics. Oh, I forgot this is the political section. For a moment I thought I was in domain-land.

Sorry Fab but it is the political section. I get really irritated when people post something without understanding who their source is and consider it gospel.

There are many wealthy individuals who love to make money and control society. So much so that they are willing to circumvent the truth through non profit front groups that the truth is easily distorted.

Someone will post the lies of these groups and I have choice to either let people believe the bullshit or take the time to show people who is pulling the strings. It's not really the fault of the person posting the information as they feel the source is trustworthy because the source uses a name like National Legal and Policy Center.

On first glance this would appear to be an unbiased politically neutral non profit organization looking out for the interests of the common man. For years I myself never questioned the origin of these groups. Now that I am used to these rich bastards trying to pull a fast one so now I make an effort to expose their slimy "non profit" front groups.

I just hope people can see that it's a billionaire making profits on oil and banking making these accusations and not just citizen action group like they claim to be.

Originally Posted by Raider

Just as predicted..... You must be a diehard wrestling fan.

Only diehard wrestling fans are concerned that Bush violated laws? Like I said some of you guys don't care if he broke the law so your response is predictable.

[Doc Com]

It also shows how gullible many are to think that this has never happened before.

Domestic spying is and has been a cornerstone of this nation for decades. The only thing that has changes is the organization's willingness and capabilities to adapt to changing technologies.

I find it most incredulous and humorous to watch people attack it now as if this is the first time it has ever been mentioned in their lifetimes. Not to mention that this is also a very well publicized practice of corporate America.

My point is, why do people insist on posting this garbage without knowing facts or the history behind this? This is basic elementary civic, history, government education courses taught in middle school.

Who here has not heard of the Rosenberg Trial? or Joseph McCarthy hearings? The Cold War?

Someone show me something that has never been done before by any administration or domestic clandestine operation. Because as the saying goes, anything old is new again.

Originally Posted by think

trying to pull a fast one so now I make an effort to expose their slimy "non profit" front groups.

I agree and those groups themselves became targets, especially since the Swift Boat Ads.

[Area52]

Originally Posted by Doc Com

It also shows how gullible many are to think that this has never happened before.

Domestic spying is and has been a cornerstone of this nation for decades. The only thing that has changes is the organization's willingness and capabilities to adapt to changing technologies.

I find it most incredulous and humorous to watch people attack it now as if this is the first time it has ever been mentioned in their lifetimes. Not to mention that this is also a very well publicized practice of corporate America.

My point is, why do people insist on posting this garbage without knowing facts or the history behind this? This is basic elementary civic, history, government education courses taught in middle school.

Who here has not heard of the Rosenberg Trial? or Joseph McCarthy hearings? The Cold War?

Someone show me something that has never been done before by any administration or domestic clandestine operation. Because as the saying goes, anything old is new again.

I agree and those groups themselves became targets, especially since the Swift Boat Ads.

Thank you for your standard canned reply to reports on negative actions of the Obama administration.
"That's nothing new", "What politician hasn't done that before", "Old news", etc, etc.
What kind of logic is that? Obama didn't do it first, so that makes it OK?

I have to hand it to you though. We would have far fewer people in jail, if we applied that logic to our court system.

[think]

Originally Posted by Area52

Thank you for your standard canned reply to reports on negative actions of the Obama administration.
"That's nothing new", "What politician hasn't done that before", "Old news", etc, etc.
What kind of logic is that? Obama didn't do it first, so that makes it OK?

I have to hand it to you though. We would have far fewer people in jail, if we applied that logic to our court system.

For Pete's sake. Call it domestic spying if it makes you feel better but the simple facts is that this is record keeping as required by law.

You might want to look into the FISA Act if you want to be concerned about domestic spying. Obama supported an amendment to the law that allows information to be gathered unwarranted and gave retroactive immunity to the telecoms which spied on you. I am in disagreement with Obama on this. This is where you'll find issues of concern as it pertains to your civil rights and spying that are real and disturbing.

The results were so thoroughly precooked that there was no surprise in the Senate’s 69-to-28 vote today to gut a law that has protected Americans from spying by their own government for 30 years.

Still, it was distressing — and depressing — to watch Congress wrench Americans’ civil liberties back to where they were in the days before Watergate, when the United States government listened to our phone calls whenever it wanted.

We had hoped, at least, that the supporters of this awful bill would make a substantive case for their position. Instead, they offered up the usual thick stew of fear mongering mixed with big chunks of disinformation.

Senator Christopher S. Bond, the Missouri Republican who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there was nothing to fear in the bill “unless you have Al Qaeda on your speed dial.”

Actually, the bill has nothing to do with whether Al Qaeda is on your speed dial.

It dilutes safeguards in the old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that directed government eavesdropping at threats like Al Qaeda. The bill will permit the government to intercept your telephone calls, cell phone calls, letters, faxes and email messages to other countries basically whenever it wants.

The government eavesdroppers won’t need a warrant and they won’t even have to say they are trying to prevent a terrorist act.

All the government has to do is certify that its target is someone overseas and it can snoop all it wants for an entire year without a warrant.

http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/20...e-off-a-cliff/

The White House has sites on Facebook , MySpace and other social networks to inform people about what is going on in the White House. Because they are communicating with the public these records need to be kept as required by The Presidential Records Act. It is only the records maintained and operated by the government that are covered in this contract.

This is from an article discussing the exact wording of what is at the heart of this so called debate:

I’m not sure that highlighting a public contract offer amounts to “uncovering” a conspiracy, especially since their analysis turns out to be faulty. Contrary to NLPC’s take, the contractor would be collecting data required to be kept by the White House — by law. The RFP’s language is a bit dry but perfectly clear:

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) essentially requires each administration to keep every pixel and keystroke ever published for later review by Congress or investigators, in case illegal activity takes place. We have seen this invoked ex post facto to the Clinton and Bush administrations, in the latter over e-mails sent and received outside the White House mail system. At that time, legal experts and investigators insisted that everything produced by an administration for anything remotely concerning official business had to be archived within the EOP.

A more careful reading of this RFP shows that to be the project. The contract directs the contractor to archive the “information posted on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence“, including social networking sites like MySpace, Twitter, and so on. It doesn’t call for everything on those networks to be archived, but only “information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence[,] both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites.” In other words, the archiving will include interaction on EOP websites and pages, but not anything else.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/0...working-sites/

I think you can see which is the greater threat to your civil rights and liberties. I oppose Obama on FISA and I hope you do too. But as for this hit piece from the NLPC front group give me break.......

[Raider]

Originally Posted by Area52

What kind of logic is that? Obama didn't do it first, so that makes it OK?

If the FBI found that Obama ordered the break-in at Republican National Headquarters to get information for his 2012 re-election campaign, Would Doc and other Liberals be outraged? Of course not, Their response would be to go back 37 years and say;

"Who here has not heard of Watergate? are we forgetting about Richard Nixon's illegal activity?"

In their world, 2 wrongs make a right, The only time it's doesn't is when a Republican occupies the White House.

[Gregcyber]

"Who here has not heard of Watergate? are we forgetting about Richard Nixon's illegal activity?"

(90% of Watergate was a bout Ted Kennedy. I wonder why? was it that he did not get prosecuted for killing someone?

[Raider]

Originally Posted by Gregcyber

(90% of Watergate was a bout Ted Kennedy. I wonder why? was it that he did not get prosecuted for killing someone?

Most will agree that he should of at least been prosecuted on a manslaughter charge, but hey, He was a "Kennedy" When you carry a name like "Kennedy" your immediately forgiven, Which is one of the primary reasons why the idiots of the State of Massachusetts re-elected him to 9 terms, 46 years... Unbelievable.

[JMJ]

Originally Posted by think

For Pete's sake. Call it domestic spying if it makes you feel better but the simple facts is that this is record keeping as required by law.

You might want to look into the FISA Act if you want to be concerned about domestic spying. Obama supported an amendment to the law that allows information to be gathered unwarranted and gave retroactive immunity to the telecoms which spied on you. I am in disagreement with Obama on this. This is where you'll find issues of concern as it pertains to your civil rights and spying that are real and disturbing.




The White House has sites on Facebook , MySpace and other social networks to inform people about what is going on in the White House. Because they are communicating with the public these records need to be kept as required by The Presidential Records Act. It is only the records maintained and operated by the government that are covered in this contract.

This is from an article discussing the exact wording of what is at the heart of this so called debate:



I think you can see which is the greater threat to your civil rights and liberties. I oppose Obama on FISA and I hope you do too. But as for this hit piece from the NLPC front group give me break.......

Keeping every pixel and keystroke of what they do is one thing. Datamining info of what other people say and do is another. Like many other things it's a can of worms that doesn't need to be opened. In the contract description they use very broad and non specific terms and even point out the need for secrecy. If these are publicly accessible sites and the information they obtain is already publicly available why the need for secrecy? It doesn't make any sense.. Fishy..

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by Area52

Thank you for your standard canned reply to reports on negative actions of the Obama administration.
"That's nothing new", "What politician hasn't done that before", "Old news", etc, etc.
What kind of logic is that? Obama didn't do it first, so that makes it OK?

I have to hand it to you though. We would have far fewer people in jail, if we applied that logic to our court system.

Do you want to know how stupid this looks to me?

It makes it appear as if the person who posts information is entirely clueless, is out of touch with reality, and wants to be the first one to tell everyone "Look what you government is doing!"

To answer your question, "what kind of logic is that?", it is not logic at all. It is a "matter of fact" statement which requires no logic. It has happened before. It is happening now. Logic? Because they can and because they do, if that is what you are after.

That is why I say it is old news and a continuation of what's been going on.

Does that make it right? Well, that's for the courts to decide whether it is right or wrong, isn't it. And if they say its illegal - guess what. There are operations that will still do it even if it is against the law.

As for your proclamation of me saying Obama didn't do it first so that makes it okay, I say - what the **** has taken you people so long to open your eyes and take an interest in politics??? Is it the fact that we have a half white/half black person in charge? Is it the fact that we handed someone (anyone) a heaping pile of elephant shit and we enjoy watching them try to wade through it? Is it the fact that some can say, "I didn't vote for him. He's not my president."

The fact that Obama is not the first to do it does not make it okay but doing it in the previous administrations and denying it after getting caught or doing it illegally does not make it okay.

That is why I say - Guess what, it's nothing new.

It is just that many of you people have decided to become conscious again.

And you know what? My supposed canned answer would be the same if this was McCain in office. Or if this was Bush's first term. Or Reagan's first term. Or Clinton's first term in office. The statement would be the same no matter who was in office - this is not the first time. So if you want to call that a canned response, then have at it.

That would not be the first time.

Originally Posted by Gregcyber

(90% of Watergate was a bout Ted Kennedy. I wonder why? was it that he did not get prosecuted for killing someone?

Wow, which script are you reading from today.

90% was about TK. WTF???

Originally Posted by Area52

We would have far fewer people in jail, if we applied that logic to our court system.

Not exactly. You would have more people in jail if those that did it illegally after the supreme court ruled it to be illegal and those that did it or continued to do it were prosecuted.

You have more people in jail because the person committed the crime is caught, prosecuted, and sentenced.

You have less people in jail because they are either not caught, not prosecuted, or not sentenced.

Apply that logic to your court system.

[zurc.net]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVrI5waDWqo

[bd77]

Originally Posted by Doc Com

I think the main issue here is transparency of one administration vs. discreet, covert, and illegal activity of a previous administration.

But, no one wants to hear that noise...it is as if the spying on individuals or organizations just miraculously started.

I thought your boy was supposed to get rid of the Patriot Act??? He just hasn't found the time now has he? lol

You are correct in that the last administration did use spying on Americans to some extent but Obama wants to take it to a new level. He wants to collect information on his enemy's so he can destroy them with it. Typical Chicago thug politics.