Last updated on 2016-06-11
Online petitions aren’t worth the electrons on which they are printed (at least not until I take over the Senate, pass a secure online petitioning law, and get Secretary Krebs to hire David Bergan to wire the system up). When peddled by candidates and political action committees, online petitions are usually just thinly disguised tools to harvest your e-mail for future spam.
But if you’re going to pretend to offer a petition, you could at least pretend to offer us specific language that looks like a petition. Congresswoman Kristi Noem trolls for e-mail addresses with just such a fake petition on the GOP spin blog.
“PROTECT THE 2ND AMENDMENT”, the ad shouts. O.K., let’s click and read this petition.
President Obama and his liberal allies have announced executive orders and policies to infringe on our 2nd Amendment rights.
It’s unacceptable, and we cannot allow them to ignore the will of the American people.
Stand with me in this important fight to protect the 2nd Amendment by signing my petition now and help me send a clear message that we’re committed to defending our gun rights! [Kristi for Congress, e-mail harvester, screen capped 2016.04.17]
That’s not a petition; that’s a request that I sign a petition. It doesn’t tell me which executive orders (still fewer than Reagan) and policies I’m protesting. It doesn’t tell me what action this petition calls for to protect gun rights. It sounds more like something I’d get from the Silver Bullet mercenary circulators whom Jason Glodt and Lisa Furlong hired to circulate their initiative petitions last year.
Hmm… maybe Kristi is just applying her approach to legislation: don’t bother reading it—just sign it because it sounds good. I punch in some info to advance the screen…
…nope! Nothing. No petition language to read. Just thanks, and Kristi’s campaign server getting a series of bouncebacks from WeLearnNothing@DakotaWarCollege.com. Dang, she could at least send me some coupons for those really snazzy earrings she wears pheasant-hunting.
I expect better considering the size of her war chest.
The petition is like the empty handed pheasant hunter with the fancy earrings. No substance. I would say all form, no substance. But the petition doesn’t seem to have a form.
Headline got me. I was expecting to see a yoooge big red combine thrashing windrows of e-mails.
Ms “No Clue” Noem, neglects to mention that President Obama actually expanded “gun rights” in 2012. Allowing people to carry guns in to National Parks, as well as folks being allowed to carry guns in checked baggage on Amtrak trains.
So, Ms Noem, he can’t be both a “gun grabber” and a “gun rights expander” ….all at the same time. And sigh….Obama isn’t running for office in 2016.
This is just lazy fundraising (yes, people – if you sign that, you will get pimped for $$ inthe future) and data mining on the part of Noem. Using the ole “I’ll pose with a gun and have a big banner that says gobbly gook about the 2nd amendment. That always works with those who are going to blindly follow”.
Just like Thune, there isn’t any substance with Noem either. What Cory has noted above, is continued proof of that. (add it to the pile) That she keeps getting elected – does it show more about her? Or more about South Dakotans? Mind boggling.
a nefarious person would use a valid sdwc address. or lots of them.
There are a lot of nefarious people out there, Mr. Klein. But it is the insidious ones that pretty young Ms. Noem should beware in this particular situation.
More being and nothingness.
this is trolling for recognition. her PR people or NRA just want the photo op. Grudz and Sibby are trolls. they are angry and mean and dishonest and want to hurt people about certain issues that pull their triggers. internet anonymity lends itself to trolling. kristie wants to hurt you so she can keep her subsidized farm and drive fast and needs your vote and knows if she shames you on gun rights she’ll get yer vote. simple. she apparently doesn’t really care about a petition. that is just another fish hook.
trolls are fishing for something. males often say “BWAHHAWHAW”. misogynism is typically the root. responding to trolls is dangerous, but sometimes can produce large, healthy, systemic change. usually though it is pointless. when people don’t get educated and then are butt hurt by having smart people tell them things they don’t like, they respond in childish mean ways on the net. jimo (watch, grudz will say who is this “jimo”)
“Reacting to individual trolls, cretins, and bullies may well be an essential part of this larger process, but fighting harassment in a lasting way will take a much larger and more coordinated effort—one that’s rooted in a shared belief of what the web should be like, which is a reflection of what the world should be like, too.”
oh,… http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/hungry-hungry-trolls/478548/