Re: [OT?] Free Software petition on WhiteHouse.gov
On 12/25/2012 08:40 PM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
> On 12/25/2012 5:12 PM, Worrier Poet wrote:
>> On 12/25/2012 04:06 PM, Go Linux wrote:
>>> --- On Tue, 12/25/12, Max Hyre <max@hyre.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> From: Max Hyre <max@hyre.net>
>>>> Subject: [OT?] Free Software petition on WhiteHouse.gov
>>>> To: "Debian User mailing list" <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
>>>> Date: Tuesday, December 25, 2012, 12:10 AM
>>>> Dear Debianists:
>>>>
>>>> The U.S. president's website has a
>>>> petition to support the use of
>>>> Free Software in schools. It might be a good idea for
>>>> us USAians to
>>>> sign it:
>>>>
>>>> http://wh.gov/Rz6C
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Too bad signing requires registration with personal info. That's one
>>> DB I'd rather not be in. Of course I could fake it but deception is
>>> not in my nature . . .
>>>
>>>
>> I think I understand these concerns. However, petitions used for getting
>> bills started and placed before the U.S. House and Senate (or just for
>> state legislatures or city councils) do have to have authenticated
>> signature sources. Otherwise, it would be easy enough to fake a petition
>> with almost any number of signatures.
>>
>> What's different about this (as compared to how we did it decades ago)
>> is that the sign-up is done with an on line entity instead of with a
>> local signature collector that you know, or are presumed to know. That's
>> the additional risk. And, IIRC, whitehouse.gov has been compromised on
>> at least one previous occasions. But so have many sites to whom many of
>> us have given our credit card information.
>>
>> the worrier
>>
>>
>
> Except this isn't how a bill gets introduced. The President cannot
> introduce any bill into Congress. Only Senators and Representatives
> can. The President can only request a bill be introduced.
>
> You want to get a bill introduced? Contact your Senators and Congressman.
>
> I, too, refuse to sign up on the White House site.
>
>
Did you think I was trying to give a gov 101 course lecture? It's
obvious that the whitehouse.gov site is interested in seeing what
political capital any of the ideas might hold, and thus what ideas they
might want to shop out for sponsorship. And the president obviously can
get bills introduced to Congress. It's just done differently and less
directly than the way a rep or sen does it -- for instance, by the
process by which you allude to in your own message. And petitions signed
at this site can have a real political effect.
Sign, don't sign. Big deal. But just about everyone who's used the
Internet for anything has "signed" in some way at even more "dangerous"
sites -- and for less laudable causes. I don't think my point was that
obtuse. People give their credit card data to poorly secured Web
entities to buy Teletubbies, for pity's sake.
You do have to take some risk in order to try to stand for any idea. One
can argue points about where one can do the most effective risk-taking,
but none of us really knows what's going to be done with even the best
ideas and intentions, regardless of how one goes about trying to get
them enacted -- especially when we're talking about government (or any
other big industry).
I've bought stuff at Amazon.com, and I signed the petition at
whitehouse.gov. Just call me a serious risk-taker.
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