More Obama Privacy Creepiness

Hooliganism moves online at The Cave in Chicago, sucking up your private information and harassing your friends

There’s nothing surprising (at least to Clintonistas) that the Obama campaign has been using peer pressure and psychological manipulation to herd Democrats.  But in light of Snowden’s revelations about the extent to the NSA’s reach into our private lives, the Obama campaign’s tactics are deeply disturbing.  If you got an email from a suspicious sender asking you to surrender your address book and a lot of private information so he can harass your friends, you’d quickly change all your passwords and turn on two-step verification.  But when it’s some 20 something Obama fan boy in a cave in Chicago doing it, we’re supposed to trust them?

I don’t think so.  

Anyway, listen to the Terry Gross  interview with Jonathan Alter and think to yourself how different this sounds now than it would have a month ago.  Who believes that the information gathering, retention and mining stopped after the election?  I have bridge in Brooklyn…

Meme Alert- Privileged snobs

Short one today.

I’ve seen the following meme in comment threads:

“Personally, I haven’t lived a life privileged and middle-class enough to find these differences- between Obama and Romney, Democrat and Republican … to be insignificant”

There’s also the typical “if you are a woman, how could you think of voting for Romney??” (Who said I was going to vote for Romney?) and “you’re just throwing you vote away and letting other Democrats down” (My vote is my own, if other Democrats want to waste their’s on Obama without a fight, then they are letting ME down.)

But it’s this new one that if you are complaining about how Obama hasn’t met your standards for being liberal, then you must be an overeducated, privileged snob, that I find interesting.  I think this is *supposed* to be targeting the suckers voters who were enthusiastic Obama supporters in 2008 but are now feeling betrayed by him.  It almost feels like the paid Obama campaign troll commenter is saying that Obama’s “accomplishments” were never meant for *you*.  They are meant for the poor working class person who lives in a trailer and whose kids are on drugs. (That bit came from nippersdad)  Yes, if you live a live of privilege, you don’t really need any help from the Obama administration so qwitcherbitchin.  And anyway, Obama is the most pragmatic politician who like any politician is forced to make compromises (I think this is a nested meme, the derivative of which can be calculated using the chain rule).

The Obama campaign is going to be surprised in the fall when it finds out how many of those overprivileged snobs are now living in trailers but you can’t tell people sometimes.  They have to learn it the hard way.

Keep your eyes peeled for more of the same and if you’ve found any patterns of your own, share them in the comment threads.

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There are more posts about what John Roberts was thinking floating around.  This one is particularly good.  Rumor has it that Anthony Kennedy was a pain in the ass and pursued Roberts about his decision down to the very last day.  Not surprised, Jeffrey Toobin’s book on the Supreme Court wasn’t flattering to Kennedy.  Forget Antonin Scalia, it’s Kennedy who is the real conservative on the court.  Sandra Day O’Connor was the only one who could ever get through his thick pompous skull.

So, here’s my worthless 2 cents on Roberts.  No one should be fooled that he has a secret bleeding heart.  I think Roberts was taking one for the team.  He was on the verge of rejecting the ACA but there were political dividends to be had by letting it stand.  For one thing, the Republican conservative court couldn’t be blamed for kicking people with pre-existing conditions off of insurance policies.  That would look bad in an election year and would also draw too much of voters’ attention to the Supreme Court.  So, letting the ACA stand was a neutralizing move.  But Roberts also had an opportunity to score one for Republicans and Libertarians by making the ACA into a tax.  That’s going to play to the Republican base.

Besides, letting it stand cements the law into place, allowing insurance companies to plunder our bank accounts.  So, you know, it’s all good.  If Romney is elected, expect him not to change a thing.  It’s his plan after all.

So, enough of the speculation over Roberts.  It was a political move and in this case, the foolish consistency was only going to get them into trouble.  He did it for the cause.