The Department of Justice Visited My Blog and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

Back in August I posted a few videos of Rep. John Dingell's Town Hall on Health Care.  Over the next few days I wasn't surprised to see a few visits from House.gov and Senate.gov on my web site.  As you can see, near the bottom of my blog is a counter that tracks visits to this site.  I can't tell who visited, but I can see what I.P. address they were using.

Imagine my surprise that a few weeks later I see that someone from DOJ.gov logged onto my site.

That's right:  The Department of Justice.  Why would they be looking at my blog, a blog that was getting at that time an average of 50 visitors a day? Sure, I have been critical of the Obama Administration, but there has been nothing on this site that broke any laws in anyway.

Well, I may have found my answer.

The New Republic Online posted this story on October 6th:

Is the Department of Justice engaging in fraud, or is it simply trying to hide its propaganda? Those of you wondering how DOJ uses your tax dollars to enforce our nation’s laws might be interested to learn that Eric Holder has apparently hired former Democratic campaign bloggers to work at the department in what appears to be a secret propaganda unit. According to a story at The Muffled Oar website, the bloggers are housed in the Office of Public Affairs (the press office). Their job is to place “anonymous comments, or comments under pseudonyms, at newspaper websites with stories critical of the Department of Justice, Holder and President Obama.” One of the bloggers is former DNC and John Edwards staffer Tracy Russo, whose name was featured prominently on the department’s introduction of its new website on October 1.

 Matthew Miller Director of Public Affair at the Justice Department told the Washington Times:

"There is no 'blog squad'. There is Tracy [Russo] who handles online media.  It’s the policy of the office of public affairs to not post anonymous comments.  We have not seen any evidence that anyone does post comments, and if we did have evidence of that, people would no longer work here."

Mr. Miller countered accusations of the existence of a "blog squad" pointing to what he says is lack of evidence.

Except for the fact that the DOJ.gov was on my site back in August.  Now maybe I gained a fan from someone in Attorney General Holder's office, but considering it was a one time visit, I figure they were looking for something.

Are we seeing a trend develop in the Obama Administration?  First we read about employees working out of the White House to get artists to work with the National Endowment for the Arts to create propaganda that will "push" the President's agenda on health care.  Now we may have the Department of Justice scanning web sites for dissent against the policies of the White House.

What's next?    Stay Tuned....



If you like what you read, please become a fan of The Hippo's Ass on Facebook, feel free to reblog us on your site, or follow us on Twitter @thehipposass. If you see something that is worthy of being on The Hippo's Ass, please email us the story or video at hipposass@gmail.com