Cant Keep Quiet!

Puh-lease!

That was the first thing that went through my head when I finished reading one particular letter in my e-mail today. My next thought was, “How the @#$@% did I get on their mailing list!?!”

This is the beginning of what I got (all images and links have been removed)

Friends,

I have some very big news to report to you.

Starting today - Monday, May 22, 2006 - our Censure campaign begins a multimedia ad blitz that will wake up this nation!

Our new television ad campaign begins on CNN and Headline News. You can watch the new Censure TV Ad by clicking the Censure button: {removed}

First off, I’m not this person’s friend. I don’t know this person and I didn’t agree to be on her mailing list. Secondly, these people want to censure former President Carter. Something she doesn’t tell you until more than halfway through through her e-mail. There is no way I would knowingly join a mailing list of this sort. We’ll get back to this in a minute.

If you go to their website you’ll find this quote

The Legal Information Institute defines a congressional censure as, “a process of Congressional reprimand–the political equivalent of a strongly-worded letter.”

They should have provided the entire quote from the Legal Information Institute. The entire section reads as follows:

What is “Censure?”

Although ill-defined, censure is a process of Congressional reprimand–the political equivalent of a strongly-worded letter. In 1834, a Whig Senate “censured” Democratic President Andrew Jackson in retaliation for his withholding documents. Three years later, a Democratic Senate “expunged” the censure from the record. However, that act of censure had no basis in either the Constitution or the Rules of the House and Senate. This remains true today. Ordinarily, Congressional disapproval of the President is relayed either through its legislative power including the veto override power or through impeachment.

Presumably, censure of the President would take the form of a resolution adopted by both the House and Senate and then publicly announced. Legally, the resolution would have no effect. Censure derives from the formal condemnation by either the House or the Senate in rebuke of a Member of their own body. After a majority vote, the Member is publicly denounced, but still retains the position of Representative or Senator. However, the House removes the offending Member from any leadership positions in committees or sub-committees.

Not once on LII’s site does it mention that a person who is no longer in office can be censured. Censuring a former office holder is a waste of time. I doubt that it even rises to the “political equivalent of a strongly-worded letter,” since the person receiving the “strongly-worded letter” doesn’t have to answer to Congress in any way. My personal take on censuring a former office holder is that it would be the “political equivalent” of junk mail.

Further digging showed that the censure Carter people are part of the Move America Forward group. Move America Forward is the baby of Howard Kaloogian.

You remember Howard Kaloogian. He’s ran for the seat left open by former Congressman Duke Cunningham’s “resignation.” He’s also the person who put a picture up on his site back in March and claimed that it was a picture showing a peaceful intersection in Baghdad. His claim was that the news wasn’t telling the truth and his picture (that he said he took himself) proved it.

The picture that he posted was a pleasant street in Baghdad was actually an intersection in Istanbul, Turkey.

That’s not the only false or misleading photo on Kaloogian’s site. He also has a photo (still on his site) that claims to be taken in Iraq with General Custer. The big problem with this photo is that it wasn’t taken in Iraq but at MacDill Airforce Base in Tampa, Florida. The same photo, uncroped, is shown on the Move America Forward site. On that site the photo is identified as being taken at MacDill.

Kaloogian also has a picture on his site claiming to be him with President Bush. If you click on the thumbnail, though, you’ll see that Bush has a Texas pin, not the US flag. The picture was actually taken before Bush was elected president. It should correctly read “Then Governor Bush & Howard.”

Yeah, I know, picky. However, claiming endorsements he doesn’t have is also a problem of Kaloogian’s (false endorsement #1, false endorsement #2, false endorsement #3 & #4).

Right now, Kaloogian has not stated on his campaign site if he will or won’t run in the regular election for California District 50.

So censure Carter is the brain child of Move America Forward which is the brain child of Howard Kaloogian. At best, Kaloogian has a problem telling fact from fiction. At worst, Kaloogian is an outright liar that will do anything to promote his cause of the moment.

Doesn’t say much for the censure Carter group, does it?

Let’s get back to my contention that I never asked to be on this group’s mailing list.

I never knew they existed until today. Yeah, sometimes I don’t pay attention to things because I think they are just too ludicrous to bother taking up memory space.

Prior to this evening, I had never been to the Move America Forward website and I’d never joined their mailing list. Now, I might have briefly hit the MAF site and just don’t remember it (see paragraph above) but I know I’d remember the site if I’d registered for some reason.

Some people will join mailing lists for groups they don’t agree with just to see what they are putting out. It happens on both sides of the political spectrum. I don’t happen to be someone who does that, though. I just don’t have the time to read everything I do get that I agree with, so I’m not going to waste my time with crap I don’t agree with.

Since this is not a group I would have signed up with, they had to have gotten my e-mail address a different way. No matter how they got my e-mail address, it was a definite breach of ‘net etiquette.

Either they got my information from a personal blog that I had to “register” for to enter a comment on a post. That has happened once or twice when something someone wrote got past my “I’m not registering just to leave a comment” reflex. By the way, this is a reflex that kicks in no matter which way a blog leans. If this is the way they got my e-mail address, the person who gave them my information broke ‘net etiquette by passing my information on to someone else.

They may have also gotten my information by trolling. No, I’m not talking about someone who posts an inflamatory comment just to get a rise out of someone. I’m talking about someone who joins a mailing list or surfs blogs and websites just to get e-mail addresses to send out their junk.

The second possibility is the one that I find the most likely in this case. Many of the people on Bring It On got this e-mail. The only sure way to get all or almost all of us is through trolling.

Not only is the censure Carter group backed by a possible liar, they practice spamming techniques. Neither makes me any more willing to listen to what they have to say than I was before I knew who they were.

Cross posted on Bring It On!