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You are here: Home / I Can’t Keep Up

I Can’t Keep Up

by | 48 Comments

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Take the dogs to the park for a half hour, come back, and there are 30 new messages from advocacy groups and campaigns in my email box.

Look- I understand it is the campaign season, but I have a working theory that most human beings will go their entire lives without telling me something truly important. What that means is that there is simply no need for Rose Kaplyniski or however you spell her name at the Boxer campaign to email me five times a day.

Seriously- is spamming people good politics? I’m usually far more inclined to read emails from people who only email me once or twice a week than idiots who send me 10 breathless emails every day.

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @arguingwithsignposts: me too. spam isn’t as annoying as phone calls–Al Franken, I told you a year ago to stop calling my house, dammit–but it is irritating.
    I got an e-mail from Dianne Antoinette Feinstein telling me she’s supporting “Barbara” and I should, too! I already gave Boxer money, and I plan to give her more, but I wouldn’t give a nickel to Feinstein.

  8. 8.

    Poopyman

    It’s the big end-of-month push. I delete ’em as fast as I get ’em, and it sounds like about the same amount as you.

    Bill Clinton, Axelrod, Rahm!, campaign managers, candidates, innocent bystanders… they all spam me. They might as well get in line behind the Nigerian bank manager that’s got a special deal just for me.

    ETA: Just got 2 more from Jon Tester and Patrick McGarrity. I mean really, who???

  9. 9.

    JPL

    At the bottom of most emails soliciting money, they have a way to opt out of further emails. It doesn’t mean that you can’t contribute to them in the future but remember if you do, opt out of the emails.
    After health care passed, I gave to several candidates through Act Blue. It’s worth the few seconds it takes to stop the emails.

  10. 10.

    rootless_e

    Just for the record, anyone, including John, who took Greenwald’s summary of the DOJ arguments re Alwaki at face value has been deceived.

    The DOJ argument essentially boils down to: Alwaki is currently engaged in armed conflict with the USA and the operation of US forces to counter his side are not subject to supervision by courts: e.g. a decision on whether to try to capture or kill him is a purely military/executive decision as long as he continues to be acting as a combatant.

    Does anyone really think that a special forces unit in the mountains of Yemen needs a court order to decide whether to use a sniper against a commander of enemy forces.

  11. 11.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    I do find it interesting to see who’s asking for whom. After Reid stepped on his tongue with Park51, I got “Help Harry” emails from the Franken, Sherrod Brown and Whitehouse campaigns (Oh shit, can you guys help me with those liberal internet types?). Jon Tester is asking me today to help Coombs in DE, I guess a Westerner-to-Westerner appeal, or something. I wonder what Blue Dog list I’m on for the odious Feinstein

  12. 12.

    Cat Lady

    I’m convinced that one of the reasons Coakley lost was because of inbox/voicemail assault. If I hadn’t been as big of a committed Democrat/Scott Brown hater as there is, the annoyance factor could have easily pushed me to his camp, or to stay home. Especially because she had ignored the whole thing until it got tight, which reeks of desperation, and no one likes the stench of desperation.

  14. 14.

    cmorenc

    Email you can set filters for.

    One thing to never never never never NEVER do if you can at all help it, is give out your phone number with a campaign donation. HINT: political campaigns are among the categories EXEMPT from the “do not call” list.

    Feeding a political candidate or organization money is like feeding fresh-grilled salmon to a stray cat, only MUCH MUCH MUCH worse if they have your phone number – with politics, you haven’t just got yourself a cat, he’ll bring a whole herd of cats to your (phone) “doorstep”, mewing incessantly at all hours of day and night for MORE SALMON (money).

  15. 15.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    I received messages from Jan Schakowski and Alexi Giannoulias – the exact same message – the other day minutes apart.

    OT: I sent an email message last week about my inability to connect to Balloon Juice from home. This has been the case for about a month. Any idea how I got on the Balloon Juice equivalent of the “do not fly” list?

  18. 18.

    RSR

    The priority inbox feature in Gmail is pretty effective (and you can sort back and forth between standard and priority with one click; it’s not an either/or choice).

  19. 19.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Persia: Agreed. I get tons of these telling me how urgent this that or the other thing is. And, I gotta say, until I see the Democrats actually get a spine in real life, all their tough words don’t really move me. “Can you believe the Republicans said/did this?” Well, yes I can. However, me giving twenty bucks isn’t going to end that problem. You, as a congress person/member of DNC just may be able to do something about it.

    I rarely read any of them any more.

    @arguingwithsignposts: How are you doing? How’s your fractured wing? And, I can haz pics of Lady Smudge, plz? kthxbai.

  20. 20.

    fasteddie9318

    @Perry Como:

    Spam works. That’s why there’s so much of it.

    It’s like cold-calling on steroids; the amount of time and effort it takes to spam millions of people is negligible, so even a trivial success rate is worth it.

  21. 21.

    marcopolo

    Call me jaded but I get enough email from individuals and groups that I actually want to read (and perhaps even respond to) to occupy pretty much all of the time I want to spend looking at my inbox each day so I just delete any campaign related emails without reading them. I should add that I do not need a prompt to make a donation to a candidate or campaign I support or, indeed, to volunteer some time. Finally, while I hate robocall political phone calls, I have made enough calls myself that when I get a real human campaign worker or volunteer calling me on behalf of their candidate/issue I at least listen politely for 15-30 seconds before thanking them for the call and telling them I am (or more likely am not) interested in volunteering/making a donation or suchlike.

  22. 22.

    beltane

    Spam is better than robocalls. We’re getting deluged with them in Vermont, blocked caller id’s spreading slander. Last month, I considered Brian Dubie to be an OK guy I wouldn’t vote for because he’s a Republican. Now I think he’s a coward, a liar, a whore, and a p*ssy. We used to have decent Republicans here; they are now an officially extinct species.

  23. 23.

    Ruckus

    I find it interesting that you have gotten ten emails from someone you can’t vote for and I have gotten exactly none from the same person, who I can vote for. I do get emails from Russ, from OFA, from a lot of people I can’t vote for. I even get emails from Jane.
    Maybe, just maybe it’s not about the votes. Maybe it’s about the issues.

    Nah, if it was me and it was about votes and issues I’d be emailing to people who could actually vote for me.

    I know, I know. Call on me. It’s all about the money.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Several of us had problems. I unplugged the modem for awhile and then started everything back up.
    Stuckinred initially suggested that fix but techies came up with other fixes also. They should respond soon.

  28. 28.

    Rosalita

    I unsubscribed or blocked all political emails over the last year or so. The incoming was incessant.

  29. 29.

    El Tiburon

    Also new rule:

    Political campaigns, when I generously donate to you even though you are out of my state, please don’t call me during dinner or EVER. And when you do call and leave a message, then don’t EVER call back. And stop calling me several times a week. I don’t want to talk to you. Shoot me an e-mail, I know you have it, and if I want to donate again, I will. Or better yet, harass people like John Cole, because it was probably his blog who got me to give in the first place.

    If I want to donate more money to your campaign, I will do it on-line. You are pissing me off and making me regret my original donation.

    So fucking PISS OFF.

  30. 30.

    Tsulagi

    Seriously- is spamming people good politics?

    Nope.

    You might try something I did. Use an email address when have given campaign contributions. Few years ago that address was swamped. Then given D performance some time ago put it on sternly worded autoreply. Maybe some staff or whomever actually read the automatic reply as the volume has decreased significantly.

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    @Rosalita: How did they get your email address in the first place? Why do people actually give out real addresses?

    Here’s a trick: if you’re forced to give a valid address (say for a confirmation email) give them:
    youremail+personyougavceitto@yourdomain

    That is, add a plus sign and who you gave it to inbetween the username and the at sign. Mail will still be delivered and you can procmail everything off to its own folder. You need never open that folder, but you can see how much they’ve sent, or if you do dip into it, you can see other people using the same address that *had* to have gotten your address from only that source.

  35. 35.

    4tehlulz

    It could be much worse. Imagine how much paper you’d have to recycle if it wasn’t for e-mail. Spam filtering e-mail is a bit less difficult than regular mail.

  37. 37.

    bemused

    I get up to five a day from Friends of the US Chamber of Commerce. I think it’s time to remove myself from their mailing list. It was somewhat interesting to read how they were spinning things at first but it’s gotten old.

  38. 38.

    Wendy

    I can’t figure out why the mail from the Boxer campaign keeps addressing me as Robert. My name is not Robert. My husband’s name is not Robert. My son’s name is not Robert. No one in my family is Robert except my crazy right wing uncle with whom I haven’t even spoken in a few years.

  39. 39.

    Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)

    why not just adjust your spam filter accordingly? Or block the offenders completely?

  40. 40.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Seriously- is spamming people good politics?

    I wonder.

    And I wonder why there doesn’t seem to be any way to give money through ActBlue without getting a shit-ton of spam. Sure it’s quick to unsubscribe, but is there a way to do so preemptively at donation time?

  41. 41.

    Billy K

    It really pisses me off that the by-product of contributing to worthy campaigns is a boatload of spam. Way to abuse your supporters!

    I just mark them spam now. Used to feel bad about it, but it’s their fault.

  42. 42.

    Tom Levenson

    A-F*****-Men.

    I’m giving less than I intend to because of this; and I’m giving primarily to the big committees, if only because i can’t stand (a) the “decision” process of handing over $10 bucks here and $25 there to forty candidates about whom I know little. (Nearby folks — Paul Hodes, Deval and so on, that’s a different matter). And (b) they just don’t stop.

    So even if the DCCC and the DSCC and OFA and the rest are inefficient or part of the Rahmspiracy or whatever, it’s just easier to go the Walmart route and call it done.

  44. 44.

    Violet

    I’ve got a junk email box just for that purpose. Check it a few times a week. Keeps everything annoying out of my “real” email accounts.

  45. 45.

    HRA

    I am in WNY -Buffalo area. Last week I received a hefty envelope addressed to me from Angl (NV) I tossed it. So I have no idea why it was hefty or sent to me at all.

    Note: I changed my party preference to D over a year ago.
    G, on the other hand, is a registered R who now cannot stand the crazies in his party. IOW he does not adhere to party line. The question is why did he not get the letter?

  47. 47.

    Bill Cole

    @Ruckus: In Re. “Plussed” addresses

    @MikeJ:
    Nice tip. Didn’t know this. Does this work with all email? I assume that it does as a naming convention.

    Not all, but many. It’s an old trick from the first widely-used mail server (sendmail) that isn’t a formal standard but has been adopted directly or in variant forms by many others over time. I don’t think Hotmail or MS Exchange or Yahoo support it, but GMail does (along with arbitrary additions of periods within the local part of the address) and sendmail is still a very common mail server.

    If ‘+’ doesn’t work for you, something else might. The question to ask your email provider is “Do you offer a way to create tagged addresses?” It is actually a good thing that there is no formal standard for tagging because it makes de-tagging addresses a low-yield tactic. Some spammers do attempt de-tagging and some entities that solicit email addresses reject ones with ‘+’ in them, but the diversity of tagging mechanisms in use limits such countermeasures.

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