New We The People Petition Asks White House To Respond To Eligible Petitions Within 30 Days
from the yo-dawg-i-herd-you-like-petition-responses... dept
This is what happens when you ignore the public. Are you happy, We the People?
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:It's a nice idea. There are petitions that appear to be permanently stuck to the administration's backburner while others that haven't even met the 100k signature threshold have been answered simply because the White House has a canned response on hand.
Respond to all Whitehouse.gov petitions that get over 100k signatures within one month.
Whitehouse.gov petitions were intended to give the public a voice. The idea is that if more than 100,000 people all feel strongly enough about something to hand over their home address and personal email to the government and complete a nearly impossible CAPTCHA, then the President of the United States should have to respond to them. Because... democracy.
Here's the problem: there are dozens of Whitehouse.gov petitions that have received more than 100k signatures, but have gone months and even years without a response (1). That's not improving transparency, it's the same gov't spin we've always had. So what will it, Obama, hypocrisy or democracy? Sign!
Others require more thoughtful answers or (would) force the administration to take a stance on controversial issues, something it clearly would rather not do. The average wait for a response has slipped to nearly 300 days. Among the petitions still being actively ignored by the White House are ones dealing with pardoning Edward Snowden and firing the attorney who handled Aaron Swartz's prosecution.
This new petition, created on April 1st, is clearly tongue-in-cheek. While there are some petitioners who mistake petitions for binding contracts, this probably isn't one of them. However, it does go meta on the issue, potentially putting the administration in the position of agreeing to address petitions in a timely fashion. This could prove uncomfortable for the White House since it appears it would rather ignore certain petitions until the White House changes hands in 2016.
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Filed Under: democracy, petition, public participation, responses, we the people, white house
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Good petition, lousy timing
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Lack of response doesn't mean they weren't read and brought to the attention of senior staff members.
At the very least, a petition indicating that people are pissed about the petition response process should add one more mark to their already crappy record.
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The next president in 2016 should make a point of personally answering EVERY single outstanding petition on the site, regardless of their merits... the day they are sworn in. That's what I would do...
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And then, when you become President, flip on every campaign promise you made as a presidential candidate. Set up another website for transparency and then ignore it for 300 or more days.
Sounds like the current plan.
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This is exactly what will happen.
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I will be a BETTER president than Obama because...
I stand for the transparency that you were promised and never received.
Here is where I stand on (fill in appropriate petition here)
Of course the lying scum that pass as leaders these days would answer with the most popular response, and do whatever they want once elected (like they always do)
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>democracy
haha, good joke, almost got me but it was aprils1
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We the People....
It's a petition site that has ZERO official weight. It can be attended or IGNORED as desired.
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Re: We the People....
That's kind of the point of this petition, right?
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And if that doesn't work... we... we... we'll...
Like this one:
"We petition the obama administration to: respond in a timely manner to the petition to respond to petitions in a timely manner."
That'll teach 'em. Right?
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Yowza
Oh, wait. Only Ukrainians and Iraqis get to do that.
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At the rate it is going, if you want change, you're gonna have to get out in the street to do it.
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I don't believe my cynicism need be added. This one sentence says it all.
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http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/223mlg/new_we_the_people_petition_asks_white_house_t o/
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That's an interesting idea. Enjoy your yearlong wait for our response.
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Dear Whitehouse.gov, please stop this farce. Take down this petition website and admit that you are unwilling and unable to justify your actions since the start of this administration.
signed-
Embarrassed For You
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