We, The People, Are Sarcastic And Not Easily Mollified By Bland Political Non-Answers
from the yearning-for-authenticity dept
The White House's We, The People petition site is definitely an interesting experiment in an attempt to be more open in governing. However, as we discovered last week when we mentioned the petition against SOPA/E-PARASITE, many people believe that the administration is not really taking the whole thing seriously. In particular, there's been a fair amount of anger over the bland, political non-answers given to issues raised in the petitions. That's resulted in a petition to take the petitions more seriously, as well as a slightly more sarcastic response (found via Ars Technica), in the form of a petition demanding "a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition."We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.While extremely snarky, it's a pretty good way of making a point. While the press may be mollified with boring standard political emptiness, the public is pretty damn sick of it. It seems like the public really yearns for just a bit of authenticity out there, and that's not what's coming back. Unfortunately, petitioning for authenticity just doesn't seem likely to get much of a result.
Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.
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Filed Under: answers, petitions, politics, white house
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The system is down
The Keystone Pipeline protests - People petition right in front of the White House but the administration won't take a position right before an election year.
Marijuana legislation - Won't take an issue because "To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition."
Now think about this. Smoked marijuana has not been found to meet modern standards? Who makes those standards? And who does Obama not want to go against right before he asks them for money on new drugs or patents for making new pills?
Which would you rather screw over? The people that can grumble that you made a bad call, or the people backing you?
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Re: The system is down
"Home gardeners are killing the marijuana industry"
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"Home gardeners are killing the hemp industry!"
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Re: The system is down
The real problem is that it's eating into the profits of the drug cartels in Mexico. This "increased competition" is making a (literally) cutthroat market even worse. The violence and corruption is a destabilizing on the entire country of Mexico. Mexico, as a country, is too dependent on drugs as an income source.
As the profits dry up, the violence and corruption escalates as cartels attempt to gobble up existing market share from others.
It's another self made problem by our politicians. They created a huge market for illegal activity in Mexico by making all marijuana illegal in the United States and now the Mexican society is destabilizing as a result.
Now the choices are either allow the narco state to continue and consume Mexico or take some demand away and watch their society destabilize and violence escalate, potentially spilling over into our country.
If only someone had thought this through and worried about the unintended consequences before making asinine, unenforceable, prohibitions.
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Re: Re: The system is down
We all seem to agree that driving while under the influence of pot would be bad, but with out a way to test for it, it is easier to just make it illegal all the time. Invent a "pot breathalyzer" and I'd bet legalizing it would work better.
I personally think that it would be a good source of revenue with a hearty consumption tax of say 25%-40%.
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Re: The system is down
They do not mention how they allow Cigarettes to be legal with the 100's of cancer forming chemicals used just to make a cigarette.
Marijuana is natural and has no chemicals in it during growing or in it in the making of your pipe/joint smoke.
I made a few petitions and you can not find them on their website.But I do have links to them so White House why can people not see them ?
MARIJUANA PETITION
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/legalize-marijuana-adult-use-and-create-n ew-jobs-and-businesstake-us-seriously-and-no-form-letter/BT0ZrHlp
UNEMPLOYMENT EXTENSIONS
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/make-bill-which-will-only-cover-renewal -federal-emergency-unemployment-aid-emergency-millions/RYFBQ7Rx
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Re: Re: The system is down
And trying to keep them focused on the path with a single, coherent message is going to be like herding cats...
On a serious note however, I do strongly support the Libertarian agenda to repeal ALL drug prohibitions as it does nothing but breed black markets, violence, artificially high prices, wastes tax money, and places Law Enforcement in dangerous, life threatening situations when it would be more appropriate, efficient, and with a higher benefit to society as a whole to simply legalize and tax the consumption with proceeds going towards a medical, rather than legal approach to the problem of addiction.
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There are pot smokers in every area of society, including scientists, doctors, lawyers, elite athletes, politicians, people of every health level, success level, income, education level, every type of diet, etc.
There is no rational, logical, or other functional reason why cannabis should remain illegal in any capacity. Proven by the US government's own studies to reduce the risk of various types of cancer. Filling more and more prisons with poor people who used drugs is pure insanity, and paid for with billions dollars of the people's money.
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It was a joke. You can tell because after that part he said "On a serious note however..." That means that what came before it wasn't serious.
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How would you -fix- the problem?
.
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Institute term limits: 12 years for all Congressional offices - that's a political MAXIMUM of 6 House terms and 2 Senate terms per individual, and then 2 Presidential ones, should you be so lucky.
Immediately remove Congress' ability to vote themselves a pay raise.
Freeze Congressional salaries and index them only by inflation. Taking national office should be the civilian equivalent of serving in the military - a sacrifice.
Commission a thorough investigation of campaign finance corruption, and eventually require all political action groups to have full transparency or severely reduced limits on contributions, remove the ability for corporations to contribute directly to any politican's coffers or campaign, and institute strict public funding for any direct contributions. This may also necessitate a law requiring broadcast/cable networks to provide time for political discussions during campaign seasons.
...and, while I'm dreaming, I'd also like to implement instant-runoff voting and make voting mandatory.
How's that?
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Ya know, as long as we're wishing...
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they just never use it because of the massive headache that would ensue.
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And since we're all dreaming big here, I'd also like to add a Constitutional amendment which allows for a nationwide referendum on a vote of no confidence in the government. This would provide for a special election, initiated somehow by the states (I'm not sure on the logistical details) - if 75% of turnout votes no confidence in the government, a new nationwide election is triggered for ALL members of government (House, Senate, President) and all currently serving members are prohibited from being re-elected.
Obviously the details are sketchy on this one, but this would sure put those idiots on notice, don't ya think?
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Yep. So let's see how long it takes Congress to enact such rules... :-(
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Forget directly, how about at all? First, no Super-PACs. All contributions must be able to be sourced, and no PAC or political organization can donate to another PAC.
Second, no corporation or business or organization shall have the right to contribute more money to a politician or party or PAC than may an individual, and limit individuals to $2K.
And that $2K includes money, goods, and services.
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Just provide each registered candidate with a campaign budget for the election (to come from the federal elections department, whatever the US version is called). No external funding permitted.
If candidates want to pool their money for a party campaign, fine, but no external funds.
Then, and this is the really hard part, make any bribery(offering, soliciting, accepting) a really SERIOUS criminal offence, on the order of a 10-year minimum prison sentence and all personal assets seized.
No more problem.
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Plus no pension.
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It's fucking pathetic that soldiers are held more accountable for their actions than the men controlling them.
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Government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic
http://www.1215.org/lawnotes/lawnotes/repvsd em.htm
http://www.williampmeyers.org/republic.html
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It's a nice thought but not going to happen with the current broken system. The current system is too dependent on money.
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Do you think that vapid sound bites and vacuous 'debates' would hold their sway, if people didn't sit there eating it up like the pigs they are?
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Since voting has been shown so clearly as the waste of time most people do something else on election night. Its only the true believers who show up year after year to vote for the home team...
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If you can guarantee that ICE and DHS will leave my perfectly legal website alone I might be willing to go that route. However, I don't think that's a guarantee anyone could keep.
The thing about stifling free speech through over zealous and downright illegal seizures is that you have no idea what might have been done without such heinous acts acting as a deterrent.
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You don't get the answers you want because it is your very actions that force the politicians to have to craft laws that narrowly define things. Every time a law is enacted, a few sneaky people find ways around them, ways to abuse them, and ways to flaunt the law. So each time, the politicians must go back and try again to block you from your own stupidity.
SOPA, Protect IP, and all of that are here because you guys couldn't control yourselves. You get what you get because you did it yourself. No stop whining because the politicians are tired of your shit and don't want to give you a straight answer. They don't owe you one.
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stop whining because politicians are tired of us? politicians dont owe us one? they dont want to give us a straight answer, so we should deal with it?
im gonna make what i hope is a safe bet, and assume your post was satire/snark? it was super funny, thanks for the chuckles bro.
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Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the internet
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Second: your deft rebuttal of an apt comparison has me speechless with admiration. (AHAHAHAHAHA)
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I'd like to point out that everything i currently download I'd be happy to spend say $100-200 per year on each(which is only 4-6 things but still). My conditions for spending that sort of money are:
1) Timely posting content that stays around for at least 2 years.
2) Quality high bitrate 720P or higher streams with 5.1 audio.
3) Ability to watch from what ever the fuck device with a screen I happen to be looking at when I decide I want to watch it.
4) Ad free, both the stream and the site I get it from. I am paying for it after all.
Now for the record this is all motorsport stuff (F1, WRC, Dakar, MotoGP), and while some of it is sort of available in my local region, it is either highlights and not the full race, or it is commentated on by someone who clearly didn't even bother to find out how to say peoples names before sitting down let alone knows anything about the event, that is if it even makes it on air.
As for what this site would be competing against, uploads with-in minutes of the normal TV broadcast ending, at 720P h264 packed in a MKV with 0 DRM. How it could be better? streaming would be nice, so I could just start watching instead of waiting for 6 GB to download. It could contain relevant extras say the position of each car on the track sync'ed with the video feed(offered for free(i think) on F1's website, but hard to sync unless you are watching live and is for windows only(no android, linux, OSX, winmo, iOS). Just not having to muck with bit-torrent, and seeding ratios and such. Also it could provide links to other similar events that were offered which may be of interest, like "ohh we see you like enduro rally, and fast track cars, maybe you would like to preview our coverage of 24 hours of Le Mans. It is kind of like an endurance rally and F1 all mixed together."
Also would your boss at work take an answer like "well i'm not sure it it isn't bad, but i'm not sure if it isn't good either and while we are at it here is a circus with free bread."? Yes, politicians are my employees, there are notionally paid out of my taxes, and put in to that position by me, they sure as hell better answer to me.
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I signed this petition last week.
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Same in the UK
The 'your say' web site which allowed public to vote to repeal unpopular laws? Let down by poor coding and lack of government action.
The one good thing about the latest government seems to be the amount of policy u-turns they make when the public cries out.... though that could just be because the public have a greater voice now thanks to twitter etc
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Re: Same in the UK
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If we, the dissonant crowd on this site, is the meaningless, you and your ilk, as the anti-dissonant, are part of the 0.00001%, and as such constitute less than the 0.00001%.
How does it feel being more meaningless than the meaningless?
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cookies
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I wonder...
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Re: I wonder...
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There is no such petition ?
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Re: There is no such petition ?
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/we-demand-vapid-condescending-meaning less-politically-safe-response-petition/gCZfn86x
Try this
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Re: Re: There is no such petition ?
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Authenticity
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