Barack Obama Wants to Know What You Do on the Internet

In an article titled "U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears," Spencer S. Hsu and Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post are reporting that the Obama administration is seeking to reduce the Web privacy rules that apply to the Federal government.

Currently, the Federal government is largely banned from collecting data on visitors to its Web sites; however, the Obama administration wants to relax these rules. The excuse for reducing your privacy protections is that the government wants to bring more transparency to government. This claims is ridiculous. Obama's people want to reduce your privacy rights on the Web, because they want to make it easier for them to spy on you. For some reason, Chairman Obama's administration wants to know what sites you visit and how often. You should be deeply concerned about why the Executive Branch wants this information and what they intend to do with it.

Just imagine if you were doing a report on firearms for your job or a class. What if you spent an hour or so browsing Web sites that sell firearm-related products and then visited the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. The BATF would be able to access your cookies and flag you as someone who has a particular interest in guns. What if you happened to be working on a paper that specifically covers weapons used by terrorists. Who knows what could happen? You might get flagged as a security threat and wind up on a watch list.

Your private life is about to get less private.

Barack Obama Wants Wounded Soldiers to Pay for Treatment with Private Health Insurance

Barack Obama has angered and dismayed Craig Roberts, the leader of the American Legion, with a plan that would force private insurance companies to pay the medical costs of their customers who belong to the US military and have sustained service-related injuries.

This move is bound to save the Federal government hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is going to have tremendous consequences for people who are in the military. By shifting this financial burden away from the government and to the insurance companies, Obama will be creating an insurance nightmare for those who are serving this country or have in the past. Faced with the enormous new cost and liability, the insurance companies will have to raise their rates on members of the military. The insurance companies may not even want to take the risks and just drop coverage for military people. Even worse, employers may be reluctant to hire veterans and reservists because of the associated increased healthcare costs. Also, some medical plans may require huge out-of-pocket payments or enforce high deductibles before coverage kicks in. No matter how you look at it, this is a losing proposition for members of the US military.

The real crime is the betrayal. When a person puts his or her safety and life on the line for the country, we have a duty as nation to care for them if they sustain service-related injuries. Anything less is immoral. How can we possibly people to fight for our country and then not cover their medical expenses when they are hurt in the line of duty.

If Chairman Obama executes this plan or anything like it, it will be an incredibly shameful act. If America chooses to treat its wounded veterans in this way, how can we possibly expect anyone to want to fight for this country?