We all realize that there is no direct measurable effect on government from signing these petitions. And we also realize that signing these petitions and then taking no further action does not make you a hero.
But for god's sake, stop posting about how they're useless every time someone starts talking about one. First off, we get it, some people think they're painfully useless. Second off, just because you can't see any direct effect, or just because the effect wasn't exactly what you wanted it to be, doesn't make them useless. They are a good tool for rallying support behind an idea. They are a good tool for spreading awareness. They are a good tool for getting a cause a little bit of noticeably. They are a good tool for collecting thoughts in a coherent matter so they may be further discussed.
TLDR: We get it. You don't get petitions. Please figure it out or stop complaining. You're not helping a goddamn thing.
I speak up and say they're bad because I think signing these petitions uses up what little political activity the typical citizen is willing to exert. If they sign this, they're goign to be less likely to pressure their representatives directly, which, as we've seen from lobbyists, is the only way to get anything done.
On the other hand, these petitions spread awareness to far more people, educate them to start researching, and may instigate further action and discussion.
You say that his is "using up" what little people are willing to do... (and what are you doing?) Being against a small step in favor of an unstated big step does not make you a hero.
The SOPA petition got Obama to publicly say he would veto anything that is overly broad, without due process and threatens the nations security (the DNS stuff in it). Soon afterwords they dropped it.
Albeit they made a new differently named one later, but still I don't think the situation is quite so hopeless.
No, but why waste the time with a tool that seems so ineffective that one almost wonders if it isn't designed to make people feel like they're doing something while they actually accomplish nothing – essentially it's starting to look like a bit of a dark design pattern, in my eyes.
Has any substantial change come from a Whitehouse.gov petition? (I'm genuinely asking and would really like my above cynicism to be wrong).
I suspect that we'll get another non-answer as well, but that's not stopping me from spending 30 seconds to sign the petition. (Okay, more than 30 seconds because their site is slow.)
Well if you have standing, take them back into court (you know, the place where the government is actually willing to listen to you). Petitions are meaningless.
Let's face it, the only petition that will make a difference is the big one on November 6th. I'm amazed the TSA's policies and practices have not become a campaign issue. If you care about this, then petition the candidates to take a stance for civil liberties.
That sentiment was quite prominent in 2000 during the Bush / Gore election. A lot of people voted for Nader hoping to legitimize a third party on the ballot. The common thinking was Gore and Bush were no different.
Given how world events unfolded, that view (in hindsight) was probably a pretty dumb one.
If you want change with the TSA first figure out what a politican can say when (s)he will be attacked for being soft on terrorists cos that's what's going to be happen if anyone tries to reform the TSA.
Simple - they are defending your civil liberties and they won't let terrorists destroy the freedoms we are granted by the constitution. They can also say that they won't continue increasing debt further through ineffective, unproven, and personally violating policies.
Additional uncaught exception thrown while handling exception.
Original
MongoCursorException: couldn't send command in Mongo->__construct() (line 35 of /mnt/codebase/petition-release-2012-07-11/sites/all/modules/contrib/mongodb/mongodb.module).
Additional
MongoCursorTimeoutException: cursor timed out (timeout: 30000, time left: 0:0, status: 0) in MongoCollection->findOne() (line 22 of /mnt/codebase/petition-release-2012-07-11/sites/all/modules/contrib/mongodb/mongodb_cache/mongodb_cache.inc).
Apparently the White House petition page uses Mongo and has no dedicated 500 side. I am sure the tax payer paid many millions for this
"Additional uncaught exception thrown while handling exception.
Original
MongoCursorException: couldn't send query: in Mongo->__construct() (line 35 of /mnt/codebase/petition-release-2012-07-11/sites/all/modules/contrib/mongodb/mongodb.module).
Additional
MongoCursorException: couldn't determine master in MongoCollection->findOne() (line 22 of /mnt/codebase/petition-release-2012-07-11/sites/all/modules/contrib/mongodb/mongodb_cache/mongodb_cache.inc)."
The duplicates indicate a kind of tie. What I've noticed before are sequences like 100,101,101,103, suggesting that the two middle signatures happened at more or less the same time.
5704, 5705, 5705, 5708 is a little odd - there should be a third 5705, or a 5707.
But for god's sake, stop posting about how they're useless every time someone starts talking about one. First off, we get it, some people think they're painfully useless. Second off, just because you can't see any direct effect, or just because the effect wasn't exactly what you wanted it to be, doesn't make them useless. They are a good tool for rallying support behind an idea. They are a good tool for spreading awareness. They are a good tool for getting a cause a little bit of noticeably. They are a good tool for collecting thoughts in a coherent matter so they may be further discussed.
TLDR: We get it. You don't get petitions. Please figure it out or stop complaining. You're not helping a goddamn thing.