White House Petition of the Day: Make Legislators Wear Logos of Corporate Backers
The latest brilliant idea to come out of We The People website is this petition suggesting that lawmakers should be required to be more transparent about their financial backers by wearing logos of their corporate “sponsors,” just like the NASCAR drivers do. As of Thursday evening, it has accrued more than 9,000 of the 100,000 signatures it needs to be formally addressed by the White House. GOOD magazine previously explored this idea with photoshopped mockups of New York Senator Charles Schumer and Florida Senator Marco Rubio donning logo patches of their contributors on their suits.
Hat tip goes to Dangerous Minds.
Not likely to go anywhere (just like NASCAR drivers, who drive in circles), but sort of amazing.
When we launched We the People, none of us knew how popular it would be, but it’s exceeded our wildest expectations. Through the past year, interest in We the People exploded and we’re closing in on 10 million signatures.
When we first raised the threshold — from 5,000 to 25,000 — we called it “a good problem to have.” Turns out that “good problem” is only getting better, so we’re making another adjustment to ensure we’re able to continue to give the most popular ideas the time they deserve.
Starting today, as we move into a second term, petitions must receive 100,000 signatures in 30 days in order to receive an official response from the Obama Administration. This new threshold applies only to petitions created from this point forward and is not retroactively applied to ones that already exist.
In the last two months of 2012, use of We the People more than doubled. In just that time roughly 2.4 million new users joined the system, 73,000 petitions were created and 4.9 million signatures were registered.
Note: Petitions that have already hit the lower mark will still get responded to, but new petitions have to reach the higher standard.
115k signatories petitioned the White House to ask that Texas be allowed to secede from the United States
24k signatories petitioned the White House to demand deportation for Americans who sign secession petitions
(Source: forbes.com)
While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.The White House • In an official response to the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT-IP, written by three officials with key views on the law: Intellectual property czar Victoria Espinel, US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Special Assistant to the President Howard Schmidt. Another key line: “We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet.” It sounds like Obama wouldn’t sign either law in its current form, though he’d be open to changes. The official response was written in reaction to an online petition in the White House’s “We the People” section. Read the whole thing over this-a-way.
Simply put, [marijuana] is not a benign drug.Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy • In the official White House response to a number of petitions calling for weed legalization. This is part of the Obama administration’s “We The People” program: Anybody can submit a petition on a topic of their choosing, and if it gathers enough signatures, the White House will issue an official response. It’s cool that they’re actually following up on the promise to address the petitions, though we imagine proponents of medical marijuana won’t be pleased at the response. source (via • follow)
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