"Take Petitions Seriously" petition on whitehouse.gov

[valerief]

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/take-petitions-seriously/bHPkPddj

Take petitions seriously.
If you are going to create a public petition system, then take the petitions seriously.

Dismissing the top petitions with canned responses invalidates the whole exercise.

Created: Oct 28, 2011
Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Government Reform
Learn about Petition Thresholds
It's up to you to build support for petitions you care about and gather more signatures. A petition must get 150 signatures in order to be publicly searchable on WhiteHouse.gov.
Over time, we may need to adjust the petition signature thresholds, but we'll always let you know what the thresholds are.

Signatures needed by November 27, 2011 to reach goal of 25,00020,976Total signatures on this petition4,024.

[yurbud]

1. no shit. Their response on pot was an embarassment.

[valerief]

3. They might as well send everyone the same form letter for any petition.

It can say, "Thank you for your vote. We value your vote."

That's all, cuz that's about all they ever say to any petition anyway.

[TheWraith]

2. Maybe people should stop petitioning them to do things they can't do.

Like it or not, the White House can't change the laws by imperial mandate. Laws require Congress.

[valerief]

4. Bully. Pulpit. nt

[TheWraith]

9. Magic. Wand.

If you really believe the "bully pulpit" will motivate a lock-step herd of Republicans to pass, say, a bill to legalize marijuana, you might as well be believing in magic.

[Romulox]

11. The illegality of pot is an administrative matter that is in the hands of the DEA. Not Congress.

Get your facts straight before issuing your apologies for the status quo, k? :hi:

[valerief]

13. No. A bully pulpit is to inform and energize the 99%. nt

[intheflow]

5. Or, they could actually listen to the people

and bail us out instead of banks, legalize marijuana, institute a single payer healthcare system, stop funding and participating in endless wars, stop domestic dependency on fossil fuels, etc., etc., etc.

[TheWraith]

10. Thank you for again listing a dozen things that are impossible without Congress.

As well as some things which are imaginary, such as "endless wars" when we're out of Iraq in six weeks, and have begun to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

[Romulox]

12. Umm????

:hi: :silly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act

[valerief]

14. Bully. Pulpit. nt

[hootinholler]

7. Maybe they can reply with answers based in science

Rather than basing the answer in propaganda.

[intheflow]

6. Step 1: Create an account to sign this petition.

Step 2: Log in to your account.
Step 3: Have your login come up as a 404 page on whitehouse.gov. :argh:

[hootinholler]

8. Step 4 open IE

Repeat step 2

Step 5: Enjoy the superior browser experience, instead of a standards-based experience. :sarcasm:

[intheflow]

15. Step 5: try the next day when web site is up again.

IE is a POS. I uninstalled it in favor of Firefox years ago.

[yurbud]

16. I see a silver lining on this petition site fiasco, especially the pot one.

Twenty years ago, a response like the one they posted would have been persuasive to most people since they didn't have access to enough information to know better, and those who did know how to get the information might not take the time to go to the library and pull the various journals and stats to see if they were right.

Today, not only does everyone able to read that response online have the ability to fact check, many have already read or heard several credible sources that not only prove that response wrong, but make it look like deliberate lies.

By democratizing information, the internet is creating something lethal to oligarchy and sham democracy: an informed electorate.

My high school history teacher said revolutions occurred when political structures didn't keep pace with economic ones. Now it would be more accurate to say they occur when they don't keep pace with access to information.