Infroming on Your Friends - Not The Change I Hoped For

The Obama Administration has taken a page right out of the old Soviet play book - have the neighbors snitch on each other for saying things counter to the party line. No, not kidding and it should scare the hell out of you. Via Red State comes this scary request that appears on the White House website:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Manly's Republic points out the the all encompassing depths of the Stalin inspired snitch program in the old Soviet Union:

At the height of Stalin’s dictatorship in the old Soviet Union, children were instructed in school to inform Communist Party officials if they saw or heard their parents or any other adults doing or saying anything of an “anti-communist” nature.

It is only a few short steps from asking one neighbor to snitch on another to implementing the type of all encompassing informant programs like the old Soviet Union had.

Before today I would have never believed that a President would at the very least condone and at worst approve of a program calling on Americans to inform on other Americans for engaging in lawful and constitutionally protected activities - such as free speech and peaceful protest.

We all should be scared.