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Write Your Congressman -- If You Use IE

Posted by timothy on from the beholden-beholden dept.

inonit writes "Well, geez -- after all this US election talk, I got inspired to write my congresswoman. But as a good Slashdotter, imagine my irritation when I found the following note in the "Contact" section: 'In order to send an e-mail to Congresswoman Tubbs-Jones, please complete this form using the Internet Explorer browser. If the Internet Explorer browser is not available, please mail your correspondence to the listed postal mailing address above.' I don't really have the time to check all 435 Congressional sites to see if this is widespread, but it gives me some insight into why all those <sarcasm>foreigners</sarcasm> are complaining about having their governments be beholden to U.S. technology companies. Can someone running IE write my congressperson and ask her to let me write her? Does she only accept phone calls from AT&T customers?" I just tried filling out the form with Mozilla, and ended up at a page notifying me of a search error. (Huh?)

6 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. a new form of slashdoting by ealar+dlanvuli · · Score: 5, Funny

    a million teenagers calling her offices at 3pm...

    I feel for the receptionist

    --
    I live in a giant bucket.
  2. and here's the kicker... by Derek · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...quoted from the top of her "contact" page

    **NOTICE: Due to recent anthrax cases, mail delivery to the Washington office has stopped indefinitely. Please utilize e-mail, fax, and phone when possible to ensure timely receipt and response.

    So, I guess snailmail isn't even an option!!

    -Derek
  3. Well, I wrote her with IE... by Mr_Cheeky · · Score: 1, Funny

    My message was thus: "It is pathetic that you require Internet Explorer to submit e-mail messages. Aren't you aware the Microsoft is a convicted monopolist? The Internet runs on open protocols. Your eMail should be the same." I clicked submit, and even with IE I got an error message: "No records found with Please enter another Search Phrase." Looks like a paper cert is employed in the halls of congress...

    1. Re:Well, I wrote her with IE... by Penguin · · Score: 5, Funny

      My message was thus: "It is pathetic that you require Internet Explorer to submit e-mail messages. Aren't you aware the Microsoft is a convicted monopolist? The Internet runs on open protocols. Your eMail should be the same."

      What did (s)he reply? -1, Flamebait?

      (for thousands of years smileys haven't been necessary for the written media - if we just in a couple of years have lost our ability to understand irony, we have a proof of the Net making people stupid)

      --
      - Peter Brodersen; professional nerd
  4. In the pockets of US tech companies? Surely not! by 0x0d0a · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why, *every* self-respecting contituient downloads WINE, installs it, downloads IE, installs that in WINE (doing whatever hacking is necessary to get it to work), and then uses that to contact their representative. They aren't forcing you to buy the products of the (by far) largest donor of government funds from the tech industry at all! They certainly aren't trying to quell the voices of the people that oppose it.

    --
    May we never see th
  5. People are too serious. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 3, Funny


    This is a bad thing happening in the U.S. culture. People are too serious. I didn't assume Tannaz is a male. It was just a sloppy joke. Anyhow, I don't speak Farsi.

    The big issue is that the U.S. senators and representatives have not bought themselves some good programming for communication. Why are things still such a mess?

    My middle eastern friends and I joke about the U.S. government's love of bombing:

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    By joking about the U.S. invading the island of Kiribati, the New Zealand publication Spinner has delayed a plan by the U.S. government to invade every other country. The U.S. military forces plan to start with the small countries first, then work their way up to the larger ones.

    The U.S. government has invaded 14 countries in the last 33 years, and has found it so profitable that it decided to invade all the others.

    U.S. Army General Mayhem said yesterday that the military would delay the invasions while they investigate the possibility that Spinner's story was prompted by a security leak.

    General Mayhem said that the U.S. would not actually invade every other country. There are no plans to invade France. "We wouldn't want to seem arrogant", he said.