Previously:

White House: petitions – We the People (September 22, 2011)

White House – petitions: removing “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (September 24, 2011)

White House – petitions: almost something for everyone (September 28, 2011)

White House – petitions: definitely worth signing (September 29, 2011)

Today, at the White House site:

We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.

Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.

Created: Nov 04, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Government Reform

Signatures needed by December 04, 2011 to reach goal of 25,000 22,679

Total signatures on this petition 2,321

“…We would also like a cookie…”

We are a nation of smartasses. There is hope for the republic.

And signing a petition doesn’t do shit. Also, too.

Previously:

White House: petitions – We the People (September 22, 2011)

White House – petitions: removing “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (September 24, 2011)

White House – petitions: almost something for everyone (September 28, 2011)

The White House started an online petition process on September 22nd, with an initial staff review threshold of five thousand signatures for petitions submitted through the process.

There certainly are a number of petitions worth signing, like this one:

Restore democracy by ending corporate personhood.

Citizens United dramatically altered the political dynamic of our country. Never before have corporations had so much sway over our country’s politics, and as a result our nation looks less and less like a democracy every day. By calling corporations “people” and deeming money to be “free speech,” we are allowing the richest Americans to influence politics in a way that the vast majority of us can never dream of. By ending corporate personhood we can restore our country’s democratic vision and create an America that answers to people rather than to money.

Stop the top 1% of Americans from drowning out the voices of the 99%. End corporate personhood and stop giving an unfair advantage to the wealthy few before it’s too late.

Created: Sep 22, 2011

Issues: Government Reform

Total signatures on this petition

10,846

And, of course, there are seemingly disparate petitions that, given another look, would appear to make a great deal of sense if they were paired:

Allow BASE Jumping in National Parks

We the people believe that BASE Jumping is not an illegal activity when participated in on public property. It should be treated as other sports are when they are active in designated areas. BASE Jumping has been banned by the NPS, and that should be addressed. The United States of America should be a place of personal liberty and freedom that allows BASE Jumpers to pursue their passions like all other citizens.

Created: Sep 23, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Government Reform, Natural Resources

Total signatures on this petition

1,389

Promote / Enforce the teaching of Evolution over Creationism

Evolution has been unquestionably supported by scientific evidence, and is universally accepted in the scientific community, While it may run contrary to personally held religious beliefs, it is not the purpose of our publicly funded education system to teach religious dogma as fact, or even controversy, in a biology class.

It makes as much sense to teach creationism in a science class as it would to teach that the sun rotates around the earth in an astronomy class, or that lightning and storms are created by the the gods in a weather science lecture.

Evolutionary theory is the basis for much of modern biology, and to accept creationism is to reject modern knowledge of geology, carbon dating, genetics, and history. Depriving or confusing students about Evolution is unacceptable.

Created: Sep 24, 2011

Issues: Education, Innovation, Science and Space Policy

Total signatures on this petition

3,486

There’s probably a less dramatic way to demonstrate natural selection to school children.

Previously:

White House: petitions – We the People (September 22, 2011)

White House – petitions: removing “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (September 24, 2011)

The White House started an online petition process on September 22nd, with an initial staff review threshold of five thousand signatures for petitions submitted through the process. Several petitions have quickly reached that threshold.

The current leaders in signatures:

Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol. 41,026  Signatures

Abolish the TSA, and use its monstrous budget to fund more sophisticated, less intrusive counter-terrorism intelligence. 22,855  Signatures

Call an Investigation into Allegations of Prosecutorial & Judicial Misconduct in the Case of Sholom Rubashkin 21,182  Signatures

Forgive Student Loan Debt to Stimulate the Economy and Usher in a New Era of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity 19,906  Signatures

Edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase “Under God”. 14,491  Signatures

Allow Industrial Hemp to be Grown in the U.S. Once Again 12,898  Signatures

There are a number of petitions concerning legalization of marijuana:

Allow United States Disabled Military Veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD. 502  Signatures

Give States the Freedom to Establish Their Own Marijuana Laws. 8,128  Signatures

Stop Interfering With State Marijuana Legalization Efforts 11,396  Signatures

Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana. 12,391  Signatures

Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol. 41,033  Signatures

There are other petitions on issues of concern to some which will or will not garner signatures, depending on one’s grasp of reality and/or medication schedule:

form a presidential commission to investigate the covert use of mind control technologies on American citizens. 214  Signatures

prohibit all federal agencies from promoting, endorsing, or funding fluoridation of the public drinking water. 1,273  Signatures

Immediately disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings 3,379  Signatures

formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race – Disclosure. 5,790  Signatures

Dr. Strangelove!:

“…It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works…”

As of this writing there are 89 petitions on the site. Is this a great country, or what?

 

Previously:

White House: petitions – We the People (September 22, 2011)

Those who ignore history are, well….stupid (October 25, 2007)

The White House started an online petition process on September 22nd, with an initial staff review threshold of five thousand signatures for petitions submitted through the process. Several petitions have quickly reached that threshold, including one to legalize marijuana, one to abolish the TSA, and, as of this writing in third place (with over 9,000 signatures), one to remove “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance:

We Petition the Obama Administration to:

Edit the Pledge of Allegiance to remove the phrase “Under God”.

The Pledge of Allegiance is said every day in schools across America. It is a government sanctioned speech, and should remain neutral in matters of religion. In its current state, it supports the existence of God, which goes against several religions, and supports others. This bias should not be supported by the country according to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Created: Sep 22, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Human Rights

In 1943, as described in WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION ET AL. v. BARNETTE ET AL., 319 U.S. 624, the text was:

…’I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of [319 U.S. 624, 629]  America and to the Republic for which it stands; one Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’…

Note what is missing.

The pledge is not a founding document:

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931). It was originally published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country…

In 1954:

History of the Pledge of Allegiance:

….the Knights of Columbus mounted a campaign to add the words “under God” to the Pledge. The nation was suffering through the height of the cold war, and the McCarthy communist witch hunt. Partly in reaction to these factors, a reported 15 resolutions were initiated in Congress to change the pledge. They got nowhere until Rev. George Docherty (1911 – 2008) preached a sermon that was attended by President Eisenhower and the national press corps on 1954-FEB-7….

And, back to WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION ET AL. v. BARNETTE ET AL., 319 U.S. 624, no individual is under any compulsion to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in whole or in part:

….A person gets from a [319 U.S. 624, 633]  symbol the meaning he puts into it, and what is one man’s comfort and inspiration is another’s jest and scorn….

….Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good as well as by evil men. Nationalism is a relatively recent phenomenon but at other times and places the ends have been racial or territorial security, support of a dynasty or regime, and particular plans for saving souls. As first and moderate methods to attain unity have failed, those bent on its accomplishment must resort to an ever-increasing severity….

….Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard….

….If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us….

[emphasis added]

In a time of war, no less. In 1943.

One of the side-effects of right wing rhetorical excess is the debasement of political language. During the past two years, as the political and media arms of the right wing have attempted to whip up the base, we have seen concepts such as “socialism” and “facism” used in such twisted ways that they no longer have meaning outside the community of political scholars who still share common definitions. Other words, like “racism,” are becoming sadly chipped away as they are up-ended by the right wing effort to feed white racial resentment. Particularly galling is the usurpation of the refrain, “We the people,” once an evocation of our pluralistic democracy, but now devolving into code for Tea Partiers and their sympathizers.

Glenn Beck’s black magic can perhaps be held responsible for helping to spread this aberration although it cropped up earlier among right-wing libertarians. Locally there is now a “We the People” group in Chesterfield, presumably a group organized in response to Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, that  pushes Tea Party events and organizes “We the People” meet-ups and discussion groups with the goal of training “citizen leaders.”

If you search the term on google, you will find a myriad of examples that show that Tea Partiers rarely speak of themselves collectively in the first person plural, but with growing frequency as “we the people.” Just a couple of examples: a tea party member from Branson, Missouri talks about attendance at Tea Parties as “When we the people gather together … .” In their Mission statement, the Eureka Tea Party  purports to speak for “we, the people of Eureka, Missouri and citizens of the United States.”

Which leaves the rest of “we the people,” the majority that voted for Barack Obama, with our mouths gaping in amazement. How dare they speak for us! A recent CBS poll finds that:

… 29 percent of those asked considered themselves Tea Party supporters and 54 percent did not. Fully 17 percent had no opinion either way.

“We the people” is 29 percent of the people?

It’s the same tactic used by GOP obstructionist pols who claim to be speaking for “the American people” –  who, incidentally, voted their party out of the legislative majority in 2006. It reminds me of the way that back country hikers are often told never to run from predators like bears and cougars, but stand their ground and try look bigger than they are. Sometimes, I’m told it actually works. In this case, however, the strategy has had the effect of rendering a venerable phrase risible.

One of the side-effects of right wing rhetorical excess is the debasement of political language. During the past two years, as the political and media arms of the right wing have attempted to whip up the base, we have seen concepts such as “socialism” and “facism” used in such twisted ways that they no longer have meaning outside the community of political scholars who still share common definitions. Other words, like “racism,” are becoming sadly chipped away as they are up-ended by the right wing effort to feed white racial resentment. Particularly galling is the usurpation of the refrain, “We the people,” once an evocation of our pluralistic democracy, but now devolving into code for Tea Partiers and their sympathizers.

Glenn Beck’s black magic can perhaps be held responsible for helping to spread this aberration although it cropped up earlier among right-wing libertarians. Locally there is now a “We the People” group in Chesterfield, presumably a group organized in response to Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, that  pushes Tea Party events and organizes “We the People” meet-ups and discussion groups with the goal of training “citizen leaders.”

If you search the term on google, you will find a myriad of examples that show that Tea Partiers rarely speak of themselves collectively in the first person plural, but with growing frequency as “we the people.” Just a couple of examples: a tea party member from Branson, Missouri talks about attendance at Tea Parties as “When we the people gather together … .” In their Mission statement, the Eureka Tea Party  purports to speak for “we, the people of Eureka, Missouri and citizens of the United States.”

Which leaves the rest of “we the people,” the majority that voted for Barack Obama, with our mouths gaping in amazement. How dare they speak for us! A recent CBS poll finds that:

… 29 percent of those asked considered themselves Tea Party supporters and 54 percent did not. Fully 17 percent had no opinion either way.

“We the people” is 29 percent of the people?

It’s the same tactic used by GOP obstructionist pols who claim to be speaking for “the American people” –  who, incidentally, voted their party out of the legislative majority in 2006. It reminds me of the way that back country hikers are often told never to run from predators like bears and cougars, but stand their ground and try look bigger than they are. Sometimes, I’m told it actually works. In this case, however, the strategy has had the effect of rendering a venerable phrase risible.