White House Obfuscates Email

markgo2k writes "Do you want to email the president? This John Markoff, New York Times story (reprinted here in the non-subscription Seattle PI) details how the White House no longer promises to read anything you send to [e-mail]. Instead, you must navigate a multi-page website AND confirm your submission via email. Oh, and they only want to talk about subjects that are of interest to them." The web-form system appears to be a bit overloaded at the moment.

Overloaded

[xannik]

And now instead of being a little overloaded it will just be completely unavailable. :-)

which movie?

[mcgregorj]

"When it comes to a Web site, it's a bit like a movie," Mr. Orr said. "Some will say it's a tour de force; some will say it fell flat."

This website must be "Cabin Boy."

Now...

[Anonymous Coward]

So maybe now Bush will stop blowing the budget on viagra, HGH and penis enlargers...

one can only hope

Re:I'd rather not have to deal with the DOJ...

[sosume]

The "Against Us" email automatically get forwarded to Ashcroft.

Gueass again where that's going.. (and you along with it).. ever been to Cuba? I heard it's got this lovely bay with lots of friendly people in orange suits. Gua .. Guanta .. I can't remember. ;)

Yeah

[cscx]

What do you want, a personal response from the Prez? Jeez, I think he's just a bit too busy for YOU.

Gee

[Bob Abooey]

This will certainly put the kabosh on a good percentage of slashdotters who have been emailing the president to whine about how SCO is trying to screw Linux development...

Don't click on the link!

[calethix]

Or you'll be prosecuted as a terrorist for performing a DOS on their web form. :)

I'm not surprised.

[Randolpho]

[e-mail] has got to be the most well-known email address on the planet. How many penile lengthening offers does GWB get a day? I'm sure it's pretty high. Then there's ginseng supplements (maybe he could use them? ;)), and real estate deals, oh, and let's not forget all those important emails from the president of Nigeria!

other way round

[alexander m]

given the grammatical skills of the semi-literate currently in the white house, i rather thought obfuscated emails were coming in the other direction...

Thats why you have interns to collate it

[Anonymous Coward]

Your elected representive is too busy to listen to your opinion right now. Please leave $10,000 after the tone......*BEEP*

hrm

[calethix]

"Once the message is sent, the writer must wait for an automated response to the e-mail address listed, asking whether the addressee intended to send the message."

Maybe [e-mail] was just getting too much spam and they decided something needed to be done after GW lost too much money to that poor Nigerian widow.

Code Orange

[OctaneZ]

I'm just waiting for the security level to get bumped a color because the Whitehouse[.gov] is under a coordinated attack by people from around the world!

Click the link! Change the Color!

Reminds me of the old joke ...

[EisPick]

This bogus story (does any of you "promise to read" anything emailed to you?) reminds me of the following Clinton-era joke.

Q: If Bill Clinton is now [e-mail], then where do I send email to Hillary?

A: [e-mail].

Re:I'd rather not have to deal with the DOJ...

[rusty0101]

I am sorry, he is not alledged to be the President. Since the Federal Court system was involved, we have to come to the conclusion that he was Convicted. With good behaviour he may be parolled after 4 years.

Re:I'd rather not have to deal with the DOJ...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're asking a difficult question, just automatically mark yourself as "Against" and the FBI, uh interns, will take care of the rest.

Re:I'd rather not have to deal with the DOJ...

[arkanes]

"Please check this box if you'd like to be contacted by the President or his authorized partners regarding special offers and discounts only available to our valued subscribers"

re: deluges of mail

[ed.han]

perhaps the admin staff who pre-sort the e-mails use a variant of the slashdot moderation system and the president only sees the ones rated +5. i can just imagine the modifiers now...

+1 campaign donor
-1 civil liberties kook
+1 convenient ally
-1 democrat
-1 libertarian
+1 republican
+1 useful tool

ed

Re:This is a good thing

[Toasty981]

"Increase your penis size, Mr. President! Usually we offer pills, but the political climate now IS A SPECIAL ONE-TIME DEAL. Increase your manhood a much better way: Destroy a country! LIMITED TIME OFFER!!!

RECEIVE FREE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION WITH OFFER!!! Maybe."

Re:Hmm

[the gnat]

It's not worth it. With the last president, $100,000 got you a night in the White House.

How come onlythe president gets a way around spam?

[Kenshiro70]

Obviously, he's not a fan of breast enlargement or viagra, but instead of creating a process to keep him from getting those offers, why doesn't he just support legislation which forces spammers to user correct return addresses and accurate subject lines? This simply puts him more out of touch with the problems of his constituents.

Better fact check it

[b-baggins]

Folks, this story is from the NY Times. Better check out what snopes.com has to say about it.

Apparently they've gotten over 1000 e-mails....

[PsiPsiStar]

... in favor of Bush enlarging his penis. That's gotta count as a refferendum or somthing.

Re:This is a good thing

[Lumpy]

well :-)
I cant think of ANYBODY who uses [e-mail] for filling out those required forms for adobe, random Foo downloads, etc...

in fact I have NEVER given a good email addres to any of those companies looking for me to fill out to gain access.

Just like I never use to give Radio Shack the 1600 Pennsylvania Addrerss in Washington DC every time I bought something.

The only problem I see...

[Rorgg]

is if you can't go off the topic list. Let's face it, email to the president is sorted through by low/un-paid employees who sort it into pretty much the stuff listed, and that statistical report is what W sees:

"Ok, Mr. President, here's the breakdown today:"

23% of emails on Iraq, 43% positive.
18% of emails on the tax cuts, 57% positive.
11% of emails on the economy, 32% positive.
6% of emails on the environment, 22% positive.
42% of emails on pleasing FLOTUS longer. Oh, and 34% of those were from Mrs. Bush herself. Should I schedule some time at Camp David, Sir?

Re:We've come a long way baby

[mvpll]

So if another one gets shot, will they declare firearms a valid method of casting your vote or just give the whole "president" thing a miss?

Re:Hmm

[El_Ge_Ex]

and if you were Barbard Streisand, walking funny in the morning.... :/

-B

It doesn't matter...

[fudgefactor7]

...I'm not sure Bush can read at all anyway.

Why not Bayesian filtering?

[shotgunefx]

Can't "Dubba ya", just run popfile [sourceforge.net] like everyone else?

I can see his buckets now...
Republicans
Liberals
Kooks
Minions
Deaththreats

Bush's War on Criticism

[hey]

All part of Bush's War on Criticism [theonion.com]

Re: it all gets there anyway

[ip_vjl]

The "Against Us" email automatically get forwarded to Ashcroft.

Why bother with the web-form at all?

In a couple years (if they all get their wishes) any email you send will end up in their hands anyway, so there'll be no real need to send mail directly to them.

Re:We've come a long way baby

[cactopus]

Please punch a hole in the president you don't want.... ...I can't the butterfly presidents confuse me....I accidentally shot Pat Buchanan... oh wait accidental?...er.... so that's why they call that talking heads show Crossfire

Re:I'd rather not have to deal with the DOJ...

[Anonymous Coward]

With good behaviour he may be parolled after 4 years.

Damn! I guess we're stuck with him for another term.

Re:We've come a long way baby

[DaBunny]

First was McKinley? For the history geeks, there was this obscure president named Lincoln who got shot about 35 years before McKinley. You may have heard of him?

Re:I'd rather not have to deal with the DOJ...

[poot_rootbeer]

It would make perfect sense for the Republicans to send out emails for contributions to those on the "for" list.

It would also be an enormous ethics violation, and thanks to those geeks among us who use a different email username for each site we submit data too it would be simple to prove what was happening.

The "liberal media" (if any) would have a field day with it.

What do we tell our kids?

[goetz]

Teacher: "Kids, we're going to write an email to the President today! So start gathering your thoughts and questions. And don't foget kids.. You must first determine whether your email will be in support of the White House policy or differing from it!!!"

Jimmy: "I just want to tell Mr. President that he's my role model and I look up to him."

Teacher: "Well, then you support his policies Jimmy!"

Janey: "I wanted to tell Mr. President he's funny looking."

Teacher: "That's pointless. Everyone already knows that. In any case, you disagree with his policies!"

Muffin: "Uh... I dunno if I agree with his policy or not..."

Teacher: "Well, in that case, don't even bother writing him anything."

Re:Waste of the President's time.

[McDutchie]

I can't imagine why anyone would think the president of the United States would bother to read unsolicited email.

Yeah, we couldn't have that. A president with a 6 feet male apparatus would have been somewhat embarassing.

Whitehouse slashdotted

[slasho81]

Will slashdot make it to the terrorist organization list?

Re:Hmm (the whitehouse spams!)

[the_pooh_experience]

Well I get spam all the time from the whitehouse (www.whitehouse.com). If they are sending me spam, I think it is great they are getting it in return. And strangely enough, Bush is one horny individual. I guess this is why he is a "passionate conservative".

But in all seriousness, I wonder how many people accidently send things to the president (www.whitehouse.gov) that are intended to go to the aptly placed porn server (www.whitehouse.com). Or for that matter, how many emails for GW are actually being received by the porn server (www.whitehouse.com). Does slashdot want to interview Dan Parisi [salon.com] about this?

Send a letter to

[maroberts]

The Other Whitehouse [whitehouse.com]. It's easier, and you can guarantee someone in the government will read it. ;-)

Re:Hmm

[mcc]

He said "the modern states rights movement". He's not talking about the idea of state's rights, he's talking about the modern version of the "movement" in favor of them, which makes a difference. States Rights have been brought up and then dropped in various ways at various times throughout america's history, and it just happens that the current thrust toward the meme of increasing state's rights has its origin with federal attempts to end racial segregation.

All of these states rights movements have of course had their basis soundly in the tenth amendment. However, in general I think it's safe to say there has not been a time in american history when states rights have been advocated in a generalized way in an organized manner-- every time a states rights advocacy group pops up, it tends to have some kind of specific agenda, for example (as in the 1860s and 1960s) protecting a racist system. Today states rights advocacy groups, if you look, seem mostly to be doing so just as a tool with which to advocate either lesser restrictions on gun possession and use (if they're on the right) or lesser restrictions on pot possession and use (if they're on the left). Of course, a lot of these people seem to be much less enthusiastic about states rights' if "states rights" seems to mean that a federal anti-abortion law would be unconstitutional (if they're on the right) or that a state that doesn't allow same-sex mairrages would be allowed to view as invalid a same-sex mairrage initiated in a state that does allow them (if they're on the left)..

Incidentally, somehow, while I hear people on tv and in the newspaper all the time talking about how the 10th amendment means that rights the federal government doesn't explictly have control over should be in control of the states, I never seem to hear any press time being given to people claiming that the 10th amendment means that rights that the government doesn't explicitly have control over should belong to the people. Funny, that.

Re:We've come a long way baby

[majorflaw]

(quote) "If every American wrote the President of the United States on a regular basis, he and his staff would not be able to read them all AND do his work as the leader of the World's most powerful country." (quote) I suspect that GW Bush's problem is not with the volume of mail he receives, his problem is with the "reading" part.

Mailing lists

[Derkec]

I thought the exact same thing. I agree with the President on a handful of issues and I'll send him a supporting letter on one of those. I expect several requests for money from the RNC thereafter which I will promptly throw away smiling and knowing that I have fined the RNC bulk postage for their stupidity.

The real reason for the changes...

[NewtonsLaw]

It turns out that the real reason for the White House no longer accepting email to [e-mail] is that Bush's aides began noticing some worrying things about their charge.

It seems he'd been spending quite a bit of time reading all his email and had been receiving a large number of packages delivered in plain brown wrapping.

Turns out that the Prez now has a 32-foot-long penis, breasts the size of Dolly Parton's, has lost 399lbs of weight without exercising or dieting and is now awaiting the delivery of TWENTY FIVE MILLION US DOLLARS in unclaimed bullion from a secret fund in Nigeria.

Not only that, but he's also talking about quitting the presidency because he's been told that you can make more money stuffing envelopes just a few hours a day from home.