Found at Redstate.com (http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/08/20/dnc-admits-barack-obama-was-collecting-information-on-people-via-flagwhitehousegov/):
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Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Thursday, August 20th at 1:25PM EDT
Greg Sargent, doing his part as a mouthpiece for the online left, is trying his best to deflect concerns over [email protected], but in the process reveals that Democrats are now admitting the White House collected data on individuals from [email protected].
Here’s the deal — and you’ll have to pardon wading through the stupid that is Greg Sargent regurgitating DNC talking points:
John Cornyn has a contact form on his Senate website.
You can contact Cornyn by filling in your name, address, etc. and sending an email note.
Greg Sargent breathlessly reports that
Now the DNC is striking back by pointing out that similar email collection is done on the Web sites of Senators and members of Congress, including … John Cornyn.
Over on Cornyn’s Senate Web site, for instance, you find that people who want to contact the Senator are asked to submit personal info, such as their names, addresses and emails, which are all required.
In other words, “John Cornyn does it too.”
But, as Cornyn points out, and the DNC admits, with Cornyn’s website it is an individual offering their own information to contact the Senator. With Barack Obama, it is people offering other people’s information.
The distinction is huge.
But the DNC argues this is a meaningless distinction. Following Cornyn’s logic about the White House, the DNC says, shouldn’t those who write in to Cornyn’s Web site to criticize the Senator ask what his office will do with their personal info?
Of course that is desperation on the Democrats’ part. Trying to deflect attention from the White House invading people’s privacy, the Democratic National Committee is making real news by admitting [email protected] was used to collect data on people being turned in by third parties.
