Write Your Congressman -- If You Use IE

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?)

Comments

a new form of slashdoting

[ealar dlanvuli]

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

I feel for the receptionist

and here's the kicker...

[Derek]

...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

In the pockets of US tech companies? Surely not!

[0x0d0a]

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.

Re:Well, I wrote her with IE...

[Penguin]

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)