TT Note: "When we first try to deceive...." Free speech with your fish, anyone?
/PRNewswire/ -- The Office of the President and other White House officials are defendants in a free speech lawsuit filed by a prominent physician group, and a non-profit advocate for inner-city poor.
The White House has "unlawfully collected information on political speech," thereby illegally using the power of the White House to chill opposition to its plans for health care reform, according to the complaint filed in District Court for the District of Columbia, by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE)
The lawsuit was prompted by the White House solicitation for the public to report any "fishy" comments to 'flag@whitehouse.gov.' Although the White House slightly revised its data collection procedure last week, the email address still exists, the illegal activity continues, and is part of an "unlawful pattern and practice to collect and maintain information" on the exercise of free speech, which "continues in violation of the Privacy Act and First Amendment even if the Defendants terminate a particular information-collection component due to negative publicity."
The lawsuit outlines how the White House has employed a form of "bait-and-switch" tactic of accusing the Plaintiffs and other opponents of spreading misinformation about the Administration's goals for health care reform, and thereby refusing to 'come clean' about its real agenda.
The lawsuit outlines that the White House knew that the data collection would chill free speech, and in fact, intended to do just that:
"43. As part of their effort to advance the White House healthcare
reform agenda, Defendants have accused opponents (including
Plaintiffs) of spreading misinformation on issues such as whether
(a) health reform would provide public funding for abortions, (b) put
"death panels" in place to deny care to the elderly or infirm,
(c) amount to a government takeover of healthcare, and (d) increase
healthcare costs..the Defendants and the administration have spread
misinformation, semantics, and disinformation on these topics.....
"45. By denying and continuing to deny that healthcare reform
legislation includes "death panels" that make individual life-or-death
decisions on the elderly or infirm, the Defendants and the current
administration have ignored and implicitly denied and continue to
ignore and implicitly to deny both that their healthcare reform agenda
involves rationing healthcare..."
"My hate mail started shortly after the White House issued the 'fishy' request," said Kathryn Serkes, Director of Policy and Public Affairs for AAPS. "We were quite visible and vocal before then, so it doesn't seem like a coincidence. Who did they share their data with? With whom might they share it?"
AAPS and CURE demand that the White House remove all information already collected, and further, be prohibited from collecting any personal data in the future.
-----
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Showing posts with label complaint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label complaint. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Hard lesson learned re: Amazon
My husband has surgery earlier this month and was still unable to be left alone for long periods of time. I have shopped on-line before, love having packages just show up on my front porch. When Greg's daughter-in-law sent a list for the grandkids with the suggestion that I shop on Amazon I thought it was a GREAT idea!
I popped over, found the things we wanted and ordered. Voila, done without any hassle. They guaranteed arrival before Christmas, we had 8 full days so there was a fudge factor allowance in case there was a glitch.
One of the books arrived on the 20th. Checked email and found a note saying that they'd split the shipment, the rest would arrive by the 24th. Cutting it close as that's Christmas Eve and that's when the grandkids were coming, but they promised.
On the 22nd I called as it hadn't arrived. On-line tracker showed only that the carrier had been notified to pick up. I was starting to do a mini-panic.
The person I talked to (from India I believe based on accent), was rather abrupt. He said they were getting a lot of calls and that my shipment was like everyone else's and it would arrive by Christmas. The carriers were very busy and they were not all scanning the items thus it was not showing on their tracker that it been picked up but it would arrive. Basically he said I was wasting his time calling. Frustrating as it seemed he didn't even bother to check anything, just spouted his standard lines.
Christmas eve day... no packages. But the mail was running behind, we saw trucks zipping up and down the road delivering packages and knew they worked late to make sure the packages arrived.
The kids came. The kids left. No Christmas presents from Amazon. The grandkids were so good about it (probably because the parents had warned them on the way over that their Christmas presents might not have made it to our doorstep). Disappointed but good. I was so frustrated. We must have sneaked outside 20 times to see if maybe the packages had been delivered.
What a rip. That is the last time I will order presents on-line from Amazon. I know that only allowing a week for delivery at Christmas is a risky proposition. However, I think if when I called their so-called help line someone should have done some cursory checking. It they had followed up, the presents would have been found and delivered. I used to manage an area where we dealt with similar situations. I am well aware of what COULD have been done.
I'm not giving up on ordering on-line. I just won't be shopping Amazon anymore. If it hadn't been for my recovering husband, I wouldn't have allowed Christmas to sneak up so quickly. I'll know in the future to shop earlier...
I sent Amazon an email, not yelling, not nasty, but definitely to the point, regarding the shipment. It's been 12 hours. I haven't heard back from them yet. They're going further and further in the dog house with me.
I popped over, found the things we wanted and ordered. Voila, done without any hassle. They guaranteed arrival before Christmas, we had 8 full days so there was a fudge factor allowance in case there was a glitch.
One of the books arrived on the 20th. Checked email and found a note saying that they'd split the shipment, the rest would arrive by the 24th. Cutting it close as that's Christmas Eve and that's when the grandkids were coming, but they promised.
On the 22nd I called as it hadn't arrived. On-line tracker showed only that the carrier had been notified to pick up. I was starting to do a mini-panic.
The person I talked to (from India I believe based on accent), was rather abrupt. He said they were getting a lot of calls and that my shipment was like everyone else's and it would arrive by Christmas. The carriers were very busy and they were not all scanning the items thus it was not showing on their tracker that it been picked up but it would arrive. Basically he said I was wasting his time calling. Frustrating as it seemed he didn't even bother to check anything, just spouted his standard lines.
Christmas eve day... no packages. But the mail was running behind, we saw trucks zipping up and down the road delivering packages and knew they worked late to make sure the packages arrived.
The kids came. The kids left. No Christmas presents from Amazon. The grandkids were so good about it (probably because the parents had warned them on the way over that their Christmas presents might not have made it to our doorstep). Disappointed but good. I was so frustrated. We must have sneaked outside 20 times to see if maybe the packages had been delivered.
What a rip. That is the last time I will order presents on-line from Amazon. I know that only allowing a week for delivery at Christmas is a risky proposition. However, I think if when I called their so-called help line someone should have done some cursory checking. It they had followed up, the presents would have been found and delivered. I used to manage an area where we dealt with similar situations. I am well aware of what COULD have been done.
I'm not giving up on ordering on-line. I just won't be shopping Amazon anymore. If it hadn't been for my recovering husband, I wouldn't have allowed Christmas to sneak up so quickly. I'll know in the future to shop earlier...
I sent Amazon an email, not yelling, not nasty, but definitely to the point, regarding the shipment. It's been 12 hours. I haven't heard back from them yet. They're going further and further in the dog house with me.
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