Three stories of the new hotness. First, as Erick Erickson points out, um, yeah, that fishy email thing did collect personal information. He catches Greg Sargent inadvertently telling the truth
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.
As Erick points out, “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.” I’d add that people can opt out of being on an email list.
Over at NRO, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, discusses Section 163 of the House health system bill
What is envisioned is a “machine-readable health plan beneficiary card†that, in addition to information about a person’s medical history, will contain checking-account or credit-card information, so as to allow electronic payments and, if a person is lucky, occasional remittances. Since under the proposed legislation everyone would be required to have health insurance, all Americans would have to provide this information.
The required collection of such data is unprecedented. At no other time has the government sought to collect this type of financial information from everyone in America.
Because we all want Los Federales to have massive access to our checking accounts. Exactly who will have it, and what will they do to protect us from abuse? How many times have people hacked government websites, as well as lost laptops? Feel secure?
Two Democrats responsible for shaping health care legislation sent a letter (PDF) Monday to various insurance companies, the Wall Street Journal reports, asking for detailed information about executive pay, company events, retreats and other business practices.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and committee member Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) say in the letter that the committee is “examining executive compensation and business practices in the health insurance industry.”
The letter asks each company to identify employees compensated more than $500,000 in any year from 2003 to 2008, as well as information on how those employees were compensated. It also asks for board member compensation, each companies’ total revenues, net income, dividend payments, premium revenue, claims payments and other information. The congressmen requested a response from the companies by mid-September.
Why is this their business? I’m hoping someone in the industry who was sent these letters tells Waxman and Stupak were to stick this request, and, perhaps employees will sue for violation of privacy.
Just imagine this stuff happening if Bush was president, and the massive freak out. Justifiable freak outs. Ones in which the Right would join the ACLU in promoting.
