I wouldn’t bank on that, wring. The WP numbers released overnight have to have the pols in the WH in a tizzy. He looks more vulnerable by the day.
And Miller?
Did you just say ‘whinging’? Anyone who uses ‘whinging’ in a sentence forfeits the right to vote.
Call it ‘Chance’s Law’.
Ah, but there’s one important difference: Used to be you could email the president about what YOU were concerned about.
Now you can only email the president about what HE WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU ABOUT.
In other words, if you’re concerned about Dictator X in Podunk Country Y but it’s not on the predetermined list of approved subjects, HE DOESN’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT.
This means, of course, that even considering that these emails are only used for polling and trend purposes, they will only be about the subjects HE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT. We no longer have the ability to raise other issues with our leader that we think he SHOULD hear about even if he doesn’t WANT to.
Why are so many of you not seeing a problem with this???
Dammit. You can still write letters or place calls.
Here, I’ll make it easy for you:
President George W Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20500
202-456-1111 (That’s the comment line)
And, for all you losers who have apparently not even fucking gone to the web site…
It’s right there under ‘Contact’ from the main page. So your ability to email the president is just one damn click from the front page of www.whitehouse.gov.
Because, even before that ‘system’, the likliehood of the president being aware of your concern wrt the library in Podunk City was nil, anyhow. that’s what they’ve got handlers and aides for you know.
and the snail mail still works, too ya know.
Oh, I’m way ahead of you, wring.
So… apparently, in the future, should I wish to take exception to one thing the Bush administration does, I should make a point of citing everything ELSE he’s done that bugs me, as well as making sure it’s a BIG enough thing that nobody thinks I’m a maroon for expressing my opinion of it.
Got it.
I don’t recall saying a thing before now about conspiracies, Vince Foster, flying saucers, or Bigfoot, for that matter. Read what I wrote.
And if it is not yet clear enough, I just meant to say, “Gee, isn’t it a damn crime that the administration thinks so little of the American people that they’d screw up our email access to the President, as pathetic a thing as that may be.”
Plainly, however, some people just don’t get that.
Other people don’t seem to WANNA get that.
Other people don’t seem to think it’s any big deal.
And yet other people have chosen to use the idea as a springboard to go trolling.
And those of you who speak of “voting” are quite correct, IMHO. I DID vote. Not that it did any good. And no, Texas ballots don’t use the “chad” system.
At any rate, I’m leaving this thread now.
I’ve made my point, and expressed my opinion, and it’s pretty plain that now I’m just serving as troll bait. Agree or disagree, as you wish; it is your right to do so.
Thank you all for your time and your responses.
Wow. Did I just get called a ‘troll’? Or was that wring?
As noted, Wang-Ka, your ability to email the president is exactly the same as it was for Clinton and Bush I. And manifestly better than for Reagan and all of his predecessors as I recall Bush I was the first President to have it (or any computer equipment).
Since Al Gore never said he invented the internet, do you think that you might stop spreading that particular bit of ignorance? Thanks ever so.
:: deep breath :::
pbththththththththththt 
Wang - just whom do you think here was trolling?? I disagreed w/your OP based on the realtive triviality (IMHO) of the concern, vs. other quite serious (again IMHO), and more likely to be relevant to our daily lives issues.
criminy. In the past, the realitve likelihood of any president in recent times to have looked at heard of, seen, observed, sat next to, any individual message of any particular John Q Public approached mathmatical zilch. ANd it remains the same now. The only change I can see is that it might take a few less hands to go through before being ignored.
wheras the administrations foreign and domestic policies have an appreciable effect on most citizens daily lives. (again MHO).
So, I’d personally just as soon rather have this filitering system, whilst I direct my energies on stuff like, oh, Iraq, the economy, the Patriot Act, Federal judicial appointments, etc. vs. if I get a ‘personal’ email back with the header “from the Office of the Pres” with a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.
YMMV.
Actually, if you could just make sure you actually have something worth complaining about before you start complaining, that would be plenty.
Hey, Oliver Stone: you’re the one who started talking about re-education camps. That’s at least as stupid as the idea that Bill Clinton had Vince Foster whacked. My analogy stands.
To bad what you meant to say bears only the most passing resemblence to what you actually said. Let’s take a little stroll down memory lane, shall we?
All of these conclusions are apaprently drawn from the fact that emailing the most powerful man in the world isn’t as convenient as it used to be.
Yeah, in other words: not everyone agrees with you. Thank you for spelling out exactly how disagreeing with somebody works.
Do you mean me? I think he means me. He has directly referenced my posts twice in this thread, which is at least twice more than he’s addressed anyone else who has disagreed with him.
Promises, promises.
You really should brush up on exactly what “trolling” is. Hint: It doesn’t remotely resemble anything posted in this thread.
Well, my husband, who VOTED for George Bush, is pretty damned disturbed by his new email policy.
Yes, you can still send snail mail. Or call. But THAT’S NOT THE POINT. He’s narrowed down our ability to contact him through one of the most common business communication forms to only what HE wants to hear.
Not to mention we have to tell him we agree or disagree with his policies before even writing to him. What if we agree on some but disagree on others? So we say we agree, next thing you know we’re on the Republican National Committee fundraising list for all eternity (and don’t tell me it ain’t gonna happen, I didn’t fall off THAT turnip truck lately), or else we say we disagree and next thing you know we’ll be branded as evil/stupid/unpatriotic/unAmerican traitors or some such and find our names in a secret FBI file (and don’t tell me that can’t happen since we know it has!).
Nope, the whole purpose of the “write your president” email forum has just been turned on its head. It’s no longer for us to tell him about what concerns US. It’s for us to rubberstamp what concerns HIM. And if you can’t see that, there’s no point in my wasting any more time here, either.
Got another good story in another thread I can read, Wang-Ka?
No, but getting worked up over a fucking drop down menu you’re required to complete to email the POTUS is about as pointless as getting angry that you have ear hair. And this particular injustice grave is really fucking insignificant when put into context of, I don’t know, any number of OTHER things the current administration has either done or tried to do.
The notion that the president reads even .0001% of email (let alone mail in general) directed at him is absolutely fucking bonkers. I doubt even G. Washington read every letter he got back in the day.
You’re in favor, then, of the converse, which is to make life more difficult for others to save you the injustice grave of, once again, a fucking drop-down menu? I’d accuse you of missing the forest for the trees, but you have the entire thing so far up your ass it’s disappeared from sight.
Oh baby. I’m shaking in my nuke-yew-luhr subliminable shoes.
I guess we’ll be seeing your Pit thread on Rutherford B. Hayes any day now, then.
[quite]This is a man who got us into a war without a clear mandate from the American people.
[/quote]
And since this is obviously, even to a casual student of American history, the first time this has EVER happened in this country, this must have bearing on … wait for it…
AN EMAIL DROP DOWN MENU.
Regardless of what you spin around in your head until it seems sufficiently Evil that only a Republican could have conceived of it, it is not this Great Fucking Injustice that will cause the simultaneous destruction and/or elimination of the world’s governments, the entire capitalist system, and the designated hitter.
If you come to that conclusion based on this “issue” as the last straw, I seriously suggest you see a licensed psychiatrist.
I’m really, totally, completely not kidding. If an email drop-down menu is the reason you now think this, you are, in my unmedical opinion, insane. What brand of tinfoil do you use for your hat, or do you make your own because of the chance of microscopic holes in the store-bought stuff?
Get.
A.
Grip.
That there’s a drop-down menu that doesn’t contain all possible options yet doesn’t mean you can’t classify your issue where it doesn’t belong. In fact, I’d say that would cause there to be more options. And there IS, as there is on all sufficiently large web page systems, a “contact the webmaster” link.
But he’s not getting any of those emails, right? I bet they’re all being read by an intern who sits there scrolling through emails pretending to work while he’s actually masturbating to plushie porn.
Do you actually think before you post or do you have a Post-a-Matic for when you want to sound like you’re insane?
Lastly, again, to all those who feel that they must choose the correct topic from the drop-down menu if it isn’t there:
I rather doubt, given the already-stated complexity of this system (i.e. not even close), that there is any sort of filter that automatically blocks you from emailing the POTUS regarding your penis size, if you so choose. You are not required to find an appropriate topic upon penalty of not being allowed to send your opinion, are you? Because that would be an actual issue, as opposed to all the arm-waving and self-inflicted papercuts being brought in here as battle injuries.
Wang-Ka, I don’t see anyone “trolling” in this thread. The people you refer to happen to be disagreeing with you. You could read our SD Mail Bag Item to get a better understanding of what trolling is. And even then, you should always report a post you feel is trolling, rather than openly proclaim so on the SDMB. You report a post by using the “Report this post to a moderator” link at the bottom of every post.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Whew! Coldfire, I thought you were warning me!
I keep pitching 'em…they keep missing them. I’ll take advice from the peanut gallery on my apparent lack of communications skills.
See that post up there? With my name on it? The one you didn’t read?
Why do I know you didn’t read it, you ask yourself?
BECAUSE I CLEARLY POINTED OUT THAT YOUR ABILITY TO EMAIL THE PRESIDENT HAS NOT BEEN HAMPERED!
You may still email president@whitehouse.gov directly. There is now, however, an ability to use a web form to communicate if you choose. But you don’t have to.
You may, through the White House website (www.whitehouse.gov)(know it…love it) click on one link and have an email link to directly communicate with the President the same as before. You don’t have to choose a topic, or indicate agree/disagree. No menus, no drop-downs.
You have lost nothing.
Not.
One.
Damn.
Thing.
You can click on the link, fill out a subject line, and rant or rave to your hearts content without going through any of the web form nonsense. Just the same as before.
Hell, you don’t even have to go to the website. Anyone, from any email client, can email (here it comes again…) president@whitehouse.gov and zing a note off to the President. No visiting the website needed.
Do I have to repeat myself again? Or is this getting through this time?
Mama Tiger, you and others might find it interesting to note that senators have had this same system of categorizing emails at the user interface end (i.e. you pick from a list what topic it most closely resembles if it doesn’t fit one exactly). I don’t recall one having a “pro/anti-administration” pulldown bit, but it seems to me that it would be preferable to get junk mail from a political party (one could always write "Return to Sender; NFA [No Forwarding Address] on the envelope) than to have a file started by the FBI on possible “anti-American” activities.
YMMV, as always.
I guess this administration is just making me so paranoid with its constant nibbling at our freedoms of expression that it becomes increasingly easy to see plots beyind every action.
This whole email thing is symptomatic of a far deeper problem, IMO. And one that makes me increasingly nervous for the safety of some of our most treasured freedoms.
Or else maybe I’ve just been watching too much B5 and see President Clark sharing a body with President Bush…
I think the interns reading these emails may be surprised to find that “I think war in Iraq, given that we had fuck-all for evidence, was a shitty idea” is a pro-administration letter, inasmuch as the whole pro/anti, other than the plausible (but still kinda weak, and ignoring the possibility that anti-admin emails will just be tossed to the wolves) “we just want to sort them to see how many people are for/against there are” issue, is probably going to a significant number of people (proportional to the number of letters, that is) labeling their letters pro-admin when the opposite is the case.
Uh, iampunha, it’s been a long day. Care to break that into two or three sentences so I can figure out what on earth you just said??? It just ain’t scanning, friend.
I e-mailed the president this morning at president@whitehouse.gov
The autoresponder thanked me for my e-mail and told me the president cares very much about my issues.
It also said that I could contact the president at president@whitehouse.gov, and it said that in addition to the e-mail, “we have developed White House Web Mail, an automated e-mail response system.”
It didn’t bounce my e-mail, it didn’t tell me I had to use the automated system. I assume my e-mail went through and will be paid as much attention as any e-mail ever is.
So I think people can just chill now.
Wow, mad props to iampunha for the mother of all run-on-sentences.
[Rant]You know what? I don’t think the President should accept any email. You’re writing to the President of the United States. Get a pen and write it out. Show some respect, goddammit; he’s the fucking leader of the free fucking world, for fuck’s sake. If your opinion isn’t important enough to warrant one rotten stamp, you shouldn’t be bothering the man![/Rant]