White House Responds To Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz's Prosecutor

First time accepted submitter devloop writes Petitioners requesting the White House remove D.A. Carmen Ortiz from office for gross prosecutorial overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz, received today what amounts to a denial from WhiteHouse.gov. "Aaron Swartz's death was a tragic, unthinkable loss for his family and friends. Our sympathy continues to go out to those who were closest to him, and to the many others whose lives he touched. We also reaffirm our belief that a spirit of openness is what makes the Internet such a powerful engine for economic growth, technological innovation, and new ideas. That's why members of the Administration continue to engage with advocates to ensure the Internet remains a free and open platform as technology continues to disrupt industries and connect our communities in ways we can't yet imagine. We will continue this engagement as we tackle new questions on key issues such as citizen participation in democracy, open access to information, privacy, intellectual property, free speech, and security. As to the specific personnel-related requests raised in your petitions, our response must be limited. Consistent with the terms we laid out when we began We the People, we will not address agency personnel matters in a petition response, because we do not believe this is the appropriate forum in which to do so."

Comments

So, what does that make the record ?

[argStyopa]

...for Whitehouse.gov as a platform to spur/enact popular initiatives?
0 for 15,000?

Do I believe that 5000 internet dorks signing a petition should compel action from the government? Not at all.
Do I believe that having such a forum should be useful to a government to see what things are 'catching the public's attention'? Sure.
Do I believe that Whitehouse.gov petition site was *mainly* meant as an anodyne to Obama supporters to make them *feel* connected when in effect it is actually meaningless? Absolutely. I believe the actual record of initiatives that came from this proves my point over what, 7 years?

How many times done anything helpful?

[Futurepower(R)]

"How many times has this administration embraced a petition and moved forward with it?"

How many times has this administration helped make the U.S. government better for its citizens in any way?

The U.S. government has been arranging that the rich get richer, allowing the violent to be more violent, and helping those who want to make money by killing people.

For example, the "Affordable Care Act" is, in my opinion, in the direction of other recent changes in government. Instead of 2 organizations between you and a health care provider, there now are 3 or 4. The ACA gathers money from those like myself who never get sick. See, for example, Oregon Health Care Cost Increases under the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA was announced and pretended to be in operation before the software was ready: How Obamacare's epic fail exposed our government's biggest tech problem. Whoever is at the top of the U.S. government was obviously completely incompetent. (Often a U.S. president merely pretends to be in charge, hiding what is actually happening, and who is arranging it.)

The ACA helped technology companies take advantage of state officials who are completely ignorant about technology development. For example, Oregon sues Oracle over failed Obamacare website.

Quoting: Oregon's suit, filed Friday in state court, alleges that Oracle, the largest tech contractor working on the website, made falsely convinced officials to buy "hundreds of millions of dollars of Oracle products and services that failed to perform as promised." It is seeking $200 million in damages.

If you love the U.S. like I do, help deal with the immense problems and lack of good leadership.

Re:How many times done anything helpful?

[drinkypoo]

The ACA gathers money from those like myself who never get sick.

Look, there are real problems with the ACA, but this is not one of them. This is how insurance works. The problem is that it's actually a system of graft from stem to stern. The health insurance companies must be eliminated if we are to have working health care in America. That's how you know the ACA is a lie. If it were meant to help us, the insurance companies would be gone, because we would no longer need them.

Re:Zero accountability

[Crashmarik]

Child labor laws are largely irrelevant due to rising standards of living. Families would put kids out on the street to fend for themselves at a much earlier age. Ask yourself what the alternative is letting the kid go hungry because they are having hard times ? Of course these days the question is likely moot due to reasons contained in the second response.

Environmental laws are a good bit of what moved our manufacturing to China. Hard to argue that isn't at best a mixed bag. It also decimated what were many entry level jobs. A very good example of how well meaning and emotionally appealing policy can have horrible consequences.

Limiting where people can build and how they can use land, drives up housing costs and fuels housing speculation housing speculation we now have 14.2 million vacant homes while people are going homeless. http://www.realtytrac.com/cont...