A petition we can all get behind

[Desk trauma]

Among the debris piled on the White House petition site I found a diamond in the rough:

Shut down White House petitions, since they never get a sincere response, few read them, & they are ultimately worthless
Since the White House never actually responds to any petitions in sincerity (like letting the one man whose job it is to oppose marijuana to respond to the marijuana legalization initiative, or having the head of the TSA respond to why we can't de-fund the TSA) we should immediately de-fund and dismantle the White House petition website.

In recent days it has become a mockery with petitions for secession from almost every state, and cities wishing to de-secede in such events.

We ask Barack Obama to admit that this is a mockery of democratic process and immediately dissolve this joke of a website.

I expect this petition will be, like all the others, ignored of laughed off should it actually be mentioned but there it is anyway.

 

[TeddyReceptus]

Among the debris piled on the White House petition site I found

.....

I expect this petition will be, like all the others, ignored of laughed off should it actually be mentioned but there it is anyway.

Actually this is a problem of the "internet age". Everyone realizes they can be heard. Only instead of standing on a streetcorner screaming at the streetlights they can go onto a webpage and put their comments in writing.

It starts off with "Comments" sections on every single blog on the planet to this now.

It's almost like this "petition page" is the Country's "Comments" page. You will get a lot of jokers, a lot of unhinged folks, a few good ideas, and a lot of bandwidth taken up.

Bandwidth is the new "oxygen"...it is free to everyone?

I think the Petition thing should be kept and only occasionally looked at. People can vent their spleen, get it off their chest and move on.

 

[Desk trauma]

I think the Petition thing should be kept and only occasionally looked at. People can vent their spleen, get it off their chest and move on.

The problem is not the people using the site but the stated purpose of the site, to have petitions with sufficient signatures directly addressed by appropriate people, being ignored. When the site first opened up there were some very successful petitions about drug law reform which the President literally laughed at in a press conference, it's been a farce from the start.

I should be clear that none of that is a shock but that does not make sit well with me.

 

[TerranceL]

Great find.

 

[variant]

It's sad that the Petition website wasn't taken more seriously by the people of this country.

 

[Desk trauma]

It's sad that the Petition website wasn't taken more seriously by the people of this country.

I reiterate that the problem lies not with the open gate allowing all comers, as after all that's just free speech in action, but rather with the other end of the equation where the reaction is a only slightly tempered version of "my what an awful noise the plebs do make."

 

[variant]

I reiterate that the problem lies not with the open gate allowing all comers, as after all that's just free speech in action, but rather with the other end of the equation where the reaction is a only slightly tempered version of "my what an awful noise the plebs do make."

It's an appropriate reaction to some of the suggestions (those that rise little above the level of Internet trolling).

 

[Desk trauma]

It's an appropriate reaction to some of the suggestions (those that rise little above the level of Internet trolling).

The only direct response that I have read about, a limited sample I admit, was when President Obamas response to a question on drug policy reform was, to paraphrase, "LOL, pot heads, LOL."

 

[variant]

The only direct response that I have read about, a limited sample I admit, was when President Obamas response to a question on drug policy reform was, to paraphrase, "LOL, pot heads, LOL."

Better sourcing would be required.

Regardless. It is the President's job to enforce drug policy, which if you want it changed would have to start with the congress.

 

[Creech]

I don't understand, these petitions are in no way worthless. There was international media coverage on almost every news station about many of these petitions on the website. They are a good way of voicing the frustrations and hopes of the American people.

 

[TerranceL]

I don't understand, these petitions are in no way worthless. There was international media coverage on almost every news station about many of these petitions on the website. They are a good way of voicing the frustrations and hopes of the American people.

Britney Spears wedding got international media coverage too.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Among the debris piled on the White House petition site I found a diamond in the rough:



I expect this petition will be, like all the others, ignored of laughed off should it actually be mentioned but there it is anyway.

The thing with freedom of speech is that you have the freedom to say whatever you want. You don't have the freedom to force people to listen to you.