It’s things like this that remind me the people trying to represent us in government really don’t understand us. Particularly in the way of Technology. Recently I sent an email to my Senator expressing my concern over the recent rape of our privacy in the HomeLand Security “we can spy on you if we *think* you might be a terrorist-international communication act BS”. This is the reply I get.
Thank you for your e-mail. If you would like a response please use the
web based e-mail form on my official Senate website at
http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/email_form.htmlThe number of Utahns that communicate with me via e-mail has increased
dramatically over the last few years. The use of a website contact form
provides two primary benefits. First, discourages third-party
organizations from using individual's names without their permission. Some
third-party e-mail contractors collect information from their web form,
use it to contact members of Congress without the knowledge of the
individual or sell the information to other organizations. I have had a
number of constituents express concern about receiving a response from me,
when they have not written. Second, an e-mail web form helps me to manage
incoming e-mails, its reduces the amount of spam I receive, and it allows
me to respond more quickly to e-mails.I regret any inconvenience using my web form may cause you. However, I
hope you will consider using it. Or if you prefer, please send a letter,
a fax, or call one of my offices to express your views. You can find my
contact information on my web site at
http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/contact.html. Again, thank you for
writing.Sincerely,
Robert F. Bennett
United States Senator
What I get out of this is “Sorry you took the time to write me using the standard communication form of email. Please re-write your entire message in a BS web-based form because our email servers can’t handle normal email.” They probably use Exchange.
Hey! Exchange is the one MS product that does seem to work 🙂
Anyways, we received a similar letter from our reps as well here in Illinois. I got one of the automated letters with the fake signature on a serious matter in this state. Irritated the hell out of me. So I took the next step and called the number on the letter as it said to do, left my info, name, and contact info. About 1 hour later I got a freakin’ phone call from an automated computer call with the rep speaking. And it said the same damn thing as the letter. Annoying, the supposedly speak on our behalf, but don’t listen to us unless we are kissing their arse.
In all seriousness though, I have wasted to much breath trying to communicate with them. Illinois had one senator when I was in the Illinois, and actually welcomed me to visit him at the capital in DC when I was stationed out there. Him and I had different views on things politically, but because of the meetings him and I had, I always respected him for that.
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The problem here is not “our servers can’t handle normal email.” The problem is that email can be forged with so little effort.
Mr. Bennett is my senator too, and I certainly don’t want his political decisions to be influenced by spam. If you want to make your opinions known to your senator, pick up the phone, or use a stamp. Unauthenticated email just doesn’t cut it.
[gabe@porkchop ~]$ host bennett.senate.gov
bennett.senate.gov has address 156.33.195.33
bennett.senate.gov mail is handled by 10 mail.senate.gov.
[gabe@porkchop ~]$ telnet mail.senate.gov 25
Trying 156.33.195.209…
telnet: connect to address 156.33.195.209: Connection refused
Hmmm, seems they *really* can’t handle “normal” mail.