This petition comes on the heels of the denial of a few other petitions by the White House, and it’s quickly getting enough votes to be answered.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Damn right I heard that as a threat.
Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.
With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.
Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.
So many bastards, so little time.
They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.
We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.
Giving up is unforgivable.
Let me file that under fuck it.
If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.
The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.
Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.
When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?
It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!
The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.
Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.
Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.
Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.
This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.
When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.
Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers
You are here: Home / Ask Me, I Won’t Say No, How Could I?
Baud
The White House find some nice intern to draft a response saying they are going to form a bipartisan committee to look into the important questions the petition raises.
Joseph Nobles
I’m holding out for the Pony, Stat petition.
cleek
this just in: politicians are political
debit
What an excellent use of time and energy.
Pat
Shyness is nice….
jeffreyw
Roasted my first batch of coffee yesterday. Ground some this morning and am on second cup. Good stuff.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
No coffee pictures?
amk
Where is my pony ?
Same shit, different day. The whiny left needs to grow the fuck up.
jeffreyw
@SiubhanDuinne: Not yet, I may cobble together a gadget post for W4D later on. Right now I’m thinking poached eggs in tomato sauce.
grass
This petition nonsense is getting silly. It’s quite plain that any petition asking for fundamental changes to explicitly stated policy isn’t going to alter the US gov’s course. I’m not sure how naive you have to be to believe it’s that simple to get the things you want. If you want real change to come from petitions, use them for the unnoticed injustices in the world.
However I’ll concede that it’s a great way to add a little pressure and raise awareness for whatever issues. But saying that, stupid things like this will just end the project.
harlana
For realz? Hee-hee
RRoss
I’m an atheist, but I always liked this quote and think it sort of fits in this context.
“God hears all prayers, sometimes the answer is no.”
chopper
@Baud:
i would get a WH intern to whip up a drawing of a flying pony with ‘free health care’ branded on its side.
bin Lurkin'
On the pot issue specifically, the issue that’s probably driving this the most, the administration is consciously and deliberately lying about the dangers of pot. We know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying.
There are two terms for those who will look you in the face and lie to you when they know that you know they are lying.
The first term is “politician” and the second is “pathological liar”, determining whether there is any difference between the two terms is left as an exercise for the lurkers.
Amir Khalid
One humorous reply to a humorous petition couldn’t do any harm, I guess. But the White House must have been expecting quite a few frivolous or unrealistic petitions anyway, given the nature of the submission process, so they aren’t really going to be fazed. They’ll still have to review each petition, to determine whether to act on it.
Surly Duff
@amk:
The whole petition process is a little ridiculous on its face. What do people expect from that process? Polticians are going to give poltically neutral responses more often than not.
Sorry, but I find the above petition to be a humorous response to the petition process in general. I think the best response would be a humorous one from the White House. Combat snark with snark.
Amir Khalid
@Surly Duff:
The US Constitution does mention a citizen’s right to petition the government for redress of grievances, doesn’t it? It might not (or might no longer) be the most practical way to get things changed, but it’s surely a good thing that the Obama administration is taking that right seriously.
Surly Duff
@Amir Khalid:
In general, I find the above petition a humorous attempt to make light of some of the administration’s response to previous petitions. However, in regards to the petition website, I suppose ridiculous wasn’t the correct word for me to use, and I will withdraw the statement.
The point I wish I made previously is that while having a responsive government that is willing to address questions from the citizenry is ideal, the response from the government will not necessarily be ideal (from the perspective of the questioner). I think the “vapid and condescending” portion of the above petition is harsh, but I am curious as to why the petitioner, and potentially others, would find it unusual that they would receive anything other than a “politically safe” response from the government. Our political process often rules out anything other than “politically safe” statements and actions.
jayackroyd
@Joseph Nobles:
Yeah. But I guess the petitioner was getting into the preemptive compromise spirit by settling for a cookie.
jayackroyd
@jeffreyw:
I have regrets in my life. The biggest is the 7 years I spent in NJ saving up to be able to afford to move to NYC. I shoulda just moved in the first place.
And I regret not having acquired an espresso machine far earlier than I have. Unlike the food processor, which apparently is only good for making pesto (and there is no other way to make pesto, apparently, because during the times between food processors, there was no pesto), I use the espresso maker every day.
Long preamble, to a short question. I buy drip coffee as beans, and grind as needed. But I don’t trust my blade grinder to attain espresso fineness. Am I wrong about that? Do burr grinders really make a difference?
jayackroyd
@grass:
All true. So why did the White House provide this petition feature? What’s the point of doing it if it is going to ignore the petitions, or, worse, belittle them?
jayackroyd
@Surly Duff:
The petitioner obviously recognizes this, and is commenting on the dishonesty of providing this petitioning process. It’s emblematic of the administration’s failure to live up to its promise of change, in policy and in process.
The petitioner is also remarking upon the blatant disregard the administration has for its core supporters–the sort of people who applaud crazy ideas like a government responsive to the citizenry.
boss bitch
This is fucking stupid. And so is the reaction to the pot question. How many fucking ways can Obama say he’s not going to legalize pot? Get a fucking clue and stop being assholes.
boss bitch
@jayackroyd:
total garbage. Core supporters my ass. If any of the presidential candidates endorsed legalizing pot, those so-called core supporters would jump ship in a second.
Some of these issues that they are petitioning, Obama has been pretty clear about from the start. The petitioners are being assholes.
Baud
@jayackroyd: Jeez, talk about vapid, condescending, and meaningless responses.
different-church-lady
Snark: it can change the world!
numbskull
@boss bitch: I’m not sure that the condescending aspect of the responses from the WH is getting them anywhere, though.
jayackroyd
@Baud: LOL Touche!
Brewzor
@jayackroyd: Yes a Burr grinder will make a huge difference, the key is to have uniform sized grounds which you can never obtain with a blade grinder. Trust me you will love the coffee you produce if you use a Burr grinder with an aerobee aeropress.
jayackroyd
@boss bitch:
Indeed. STFU and get in line.
harlana
Meh, I think it’s ha-ha funny. I’m not really worried about a WH intern’s hurt feelings. And, if anyone hasn’t noticed yet, the President himself is a pretty tough guy. But carry on with the indignation.
RalfW
This whole thing is weird. I support the silly petition, because the notion of the White House building a site to have people petition the White House to get it to respond to the citizens seems bogus/crappy to me.
Are White House staffers tired of folks like the Natural Resources Defence Council, MoveOn, etc, making appointment and bringing their own petitions? Do they think they can do it better themselves?
Did some intern read the bit in the Constitution about the right to pretition the government for redress and think “oh, crap, we’re not doing that, better throw up a web page”?
This thing is window dressing and a distraction. The silly “vapid response” petition just uses 21st century self-reflexivism to say it.
Judas Escargot
Real productive, that. So clever. Hee hee.
BTW, rule-by-referendum sucks, because the typical voter is underinformed, easily swayed by emotional soundbites, short-sighted and fickle. May it never be elevated to the national level.
joes527
@amk:
What you are actually saying is that they need to shut the fuck up.
Someone notices that the whole petition thing is a hollow shell. Pointless. The “in god we trust” and “we’re reading the constitution here” level activity of the Obama administration.
And they DARE to point it out.
In a humorous way.
Fucking hippies don’t _deserve_ the freedumb that we bring them with our superior blogging-fu.
slag
I love it! I’m old enough to remember when our presidential candidate gave a kick-ass speech on race that treated American voters like adults. Whether we deserved it or not is another question. But it was nice to be treated that way.
Expect the best in people, and they just might live up to your expectations. Expect the worst, and they definitely will. This petition is demonstrating that people expect better from this administration. I approve of this message.
Judas Escargot
@joes527:
Smug, counter-productive, hankie-fluttering “meh, both sides are the same, yawn” lefties gave us Bush in 2000.
If they help Mitt win in 2012, I’ll be taking up hippie-punching as my new midlife hobby.
slag
@Judas Escargot:
I guess it’s too much to expect you to reserve some of those punches for any other responsible parties.
joes527
@Judas Escargot:
Funny how “part unity” always boils down to “my way or the highway.”
Sit down. Shut up. And do what you are told. — Democrat Blogger Platform 2012
Judas Escargot
@slag:
You’ve obviously never read a gorram thing I’ve written here over the past 18 months or so.
@joes527:
I’m going to assume you’ve heard the anecdote about FDR, meeting with some of the liberals of his time. “I agree with everything you’ve said”, he told them. “Now, you have to make me do it.”
You want change, bubba? Argue. Make a case. Convince. Fight.
Shit like this is just the facile, mewling whine of privileged hipsters looking for attention they haven’t earned.
TooManyJens
@Judas Escargot:
I agree. But then why is the White House even providing this petition site? If getting 5,000 signatures on an internet petition isn’t enough to bring about any significant action — and depending on the action, it probably shouldn’t be — then why pretend that it is? Why encourage people to use their energy on a meaningless gesture?
slag
@Judas Escargot:
Well, if your response to this petition is any indication, it would seem that I haven’t missed much.
harlana
@Judas Escargot:
Everytime I read this kind of thing, I just have to ask, will it hurt the WH? Will it damage the President? So, why worry? What’s the big fuss?
Judas Escargot
@TooManyJens:
They probably assumed (wrongly) that the response would be more ‘serious’. Just as they wrongly assumed the Republicans in Congress would be willing to compromise in good faith when it came to running the country.
If you want pot legalized or a public option or a free pet unicorn that shits gold bricks for Christman, talk to your Congressman (or, even better, replace him/her in 2012).
The President, by himself, can’t do it for you.
Judas Escargot
@harlana:
Did you sleep through the ACA fight and the 2010 elections?
Judas Escargot
@slag:
Oh well.
Have fun in Iran, kid. You’re getting a free trip there if Mitt wins.
giltay
@Brewzor: I have a blade grinder and two burr grinders (one if which is a PoS and will not be mentioned again). I find that, the way I make coffee, there’s no appreciable difference between blade- and burr-ground coffee. However, since I use a drip coffee maker with a paper filter, I can grind down to any size. With the blade grinder, I can just keep going until it’s a powder, so there’s no real problem with consistency of size. The burr grinder worth mentioning is manual, so I end up using the blade grinder for anything over two cups’ worth.
singfoom
I enjoy all the comments denigrating those people who are taking this process the white house set up seriously and are disappointed with the results.
The really jerky meta-statement I get from all of them is “You fucking assholes, how dare you take this petition seriously? Can’t you see this is just the White House fucking with you, giving you an outlet to get rid of your frustrations? Jokes on you if you thought we were serious.”
Why the hate on the angry petitioners here instead of the White House.
NCSteve
When Hitler ramped up construction of the Autobahns as a jobs and war preparation program, a lot of formerly idled workers got swept up into working conditions that ranged from harsh to brutal. The “Worker’s” in “National Socialist German Worker’s Party” being one of the two little linguistic jokes on the German people the Fuhrer had encysted into the party’s name.
One of these workers naively wrote a reverential letter to Hitler imploring him to help the workers. People were being actively encouraged to look upon their leaders in quasi-religious terms and, let’s face it, it’s not like a lot of Germans took much encouraging to do that in those days.
So this letter the guy wrote was along the lines of “oh my dear benevolent Leader, if only you knew how bad things were for us here in the Organization Todt, I know you’d do something about it.” And he did. The letter was immediately forwarded to the Gestapo which promptly pulled the guy off the crew and dropped him in a concentration camp.
That’s what the First Amendment right to petition for redress of grievances is all about–the right to complain to the government without fearing you’ll be punished for it. It’s a precious right, and one we should thank our lucky stars we have. The right to sign a petition without fearing you’ll get thrown in jail or lose your job or suddenly pick up a tail is so deeply ingrained in our culture that we’ll sign a petition without a thought of consequences.
But it doesn’t mean the government has to give you your pony just because you ask for it. It means you have the right to ask for it without being afraid of consequences. It also means you have the right to mock the president on a site he set up to make petitions easier for not doing what you want.
Just thought it would be nice if people on both sides of this same tiresome argument about “hippy punching” we’ve been having since the second week in November of 2008 took a “big picture” moment to think about that. Because it’s not a right that billions now living enjoy nor is it a right that the vast majority of the thirty billion humans who lived before us would have even dared to dream of having.
And yeah, I gotcher Godwin right here!
Tevation
Honestly, who in their right mind actually thought they were getting anything other than a “politically safe answer” to the pot petition? The Obama administration has been pretty freaking clear on their position since the begging despite polls showing growing support for it. If so many people thought he was condescending when he answered the town hall question on pot why in the heck would you think he would suddenly change now?
That said, I do think the fact that there are some awesome petitions on there is being lost in all of this silliness.
I don’t think there is anything wrong for pushing for legalization, or any other position ( although some of the things I seen being pushed for is political suicide ) but I do think it’s pretty silly to get pissy or shocked when the Obama admin gives an answer he’s given before or refuses to end his career for the petitioner.
jayackroyd
@giltay:
A manual burr grinder might be just the ticket! I only need enough for a double espresso. Is it messy?
Mnemosyne
@jayackroyd:
Pot smokers are the president’s core supporters? I’m pretty sure the ones I know didn’t remember to get up off the couch to vote in 2008, but maybe you know some really energetic and motivated pot smokers.
Because that’s what this specific petition is about, not some grand idea about responsive government. Pot smokers want it legalized, the administration said, “no,” and now the pot smokers are pissed off that they didn’t get what they wanted. And I’m sorry, but I really don’t give a shit. Sure, decriminalize it so we don’t have people clogging up our jails, but I really couldn’t care less about pot legalization.
jayackroyd
Awesome.