Hazard Lights

As my friend Ricky would say, Oh. My. Wig!

The White House is hiring a contractor to harvest information about Americans from its pages on social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

The National Legal and Policy Center, or NLPC, revealed the White House New Media team is seeking to hire a technology vendor to collect data such as comments, tag lines, e-mail, audio and video from any place where the White House "maintains a presence" – for a period of up to eight years.

Got your attention now?

WND has also reported that the Obama administration has announced plans to lift a government ban on tracking visitors to government websites, and potentially, collect their personal data through the use of "cookies" – an effort some suspect may already be in place on White House sites.

A ban on such tracking by the federal government on Internet users has been in place since 2000, however, the White House Office of Management and Budget now wants to lift the ban citing a "compelling need."

Shades of Big Brother???

There are suspicions the White House is already involved.

According to Obama "technology czar" Vivek Kundra, the "compelling need" driving this major policy reversal is the administration's desire to create "more open" government and to "enhance citizen participation in government."

Right. More open government. Which is why the major networks have not reported on this. Enhanced citizen partipation in government? This why average citizens show up to town hall meetings on their own nickel, and why SEIU, ACORN and other Democratic-friendly types are bussed in.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.