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Axelrod, White House Viral Email: Obama Spamming America?
Obama Adviser David Axelrod and White House website send Obama health reform chain email
White House Website and Obama Adviser Axelrod Spam America’s Inboxes
Axelrod Viral Email Hell
Americans hate spam and getting spammed. Not the kind in the can but the kind that clogs your email inbox. The kind that makes you wonder where the sender got your email address. Today I got such an email from the White House and Obama adviser, David Axelrod. Here’s an excerpt:
Dear Friend,
This is probably one of the longest emails I’ve ever sent, but it could be the most important.
Across the country we are seeing vigorous debate about health insurance reform. Unfortunately, some of the old tactics we know so well are back — even the viral emails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies and distortions.
As President Obama said at the town hall in New Hampshire, “where we do disagree, let’s disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that’s actually been proposed.”
So let’s start a chain email of our own. At the end of my email, you’ll find a lot of information about health insurance reform, distilled into 8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage, 8 common myths about reform and 8 reasons we need health insurance reform now.
Right now, someone you know probably has a question about reform that could be answered by what’s below. So what are you waiting for? Forward this email.
Thanks,
DavidDavid Axelrod
Think it’s no “big deal”? Think again, as I’ve never signed up at WhiteHouse.gov for anything so how did they get my address? Therefore, the Axelrod/White House viral email falls under the category of spam.
Is it illegal? Not according to the Federal government’s rules on spam mail:
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that a spam e-mail contain accurate header and subject lines, identify itself as an ad, and include the sender’s postal address. It also requires that the spam give recipients an opt-out method, so consumers can elect not to receive messages from the spammer in the future. To ensure that consumers are not exposed content they do not wish to view, the Adult Labeling Rule requires that senders use the phrase “SEXUALLY EXPLICIT: ”in the subject line of sexually explicit e-mail messages and ensure that the initially viewable area of the message does not contain graphic sexual images. The consent agreements announced today settle charges that the spammers violated the CAN-SPAM Act, the Adult Labeling Rule, or both.
Here’s the address of the email:
The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111
and,
WhiteHouse.gov
Is the viral email an “ad”? It sure seems to fit the qualifications of one: a political ad, mass marketing of President Obama’s healthcare reform.
Even if it’s not illegal for Obama’s website to spam Americans and my email box, the question still remains, how did the White House get my email address? Here’s the facts:
I have visited the website, WhiteHouse.gov.. but,
I never signed up to receive emails, nor have I sent an email to the White House website address.
During today’s White House Press briefing, FOX New’s Major Garrett asked Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the Axelrod viral email. Garrett stated that he’d been contacted by several people who, like me, had received the email, and, like me, wondered how they’d received the email, when, like me, there was no reason for the White House to have their address.
Gibbs wouldn’t give Garrett an answer. In fact, he was highly dismissive of Garrett and Garrett’s claims while picking on Garrett’s “demeanor”. Gibbs asked Garrett to give him the names of the people so he, Gibbs, could inquire if they were on the “list”. Since I got the viral email and the people who contacted Garrett got one too, then we’re on a list. Not just any list, but a list compiled and maintained by the White House. A list used in a giant mass marketing spamming of America.
Note to David,
“don’t spam me, man.”
*UPDATE*
Hot Air had this to say about Axelrod/White House Viral Email:
From Hot Air:
He claims to have evidence that some entity — either the White House itself or The One’s army of cultists at Organizing for America — has now sunk to the point of spamming people about the glories of socialized medicine. I suspect Ace is right in thinking that this is the origin of the spam and that Garrett has his facts slightly wrong: It’s not Axelrod who’s spamming people, it’s Obama cultists acting at Axelrod’s behest by copy/pasting his post and sending it to friends. If Fox wants this charge to stick, they have to show us exactly what Garrett was forwarded (minus the “to” and “from” lines, natch). Frankly, given The One’s ubiquity on television and in print, the White House might as well go the rest of the way and start pushing e-mails at us too. The more talking points I hear, the more they blend together as noise and the easier it is to tune them out.
Now, if Garrett can somehow put the spam story together with this story, then we’re cooking with gas.
Sorry, Hot Air, I got the email. There was no “cut and paste”. As I stated before, I did visit WhiteHouse.gov but I never left a comment, never sent an email, and never signed up to receive one.
This was the header:
David Axelrod, The White House to me
Here’s the footer:
This email was sent to XXXXXXXXXXX.com
Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy
Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House
The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111
By LBG
Image – Spam
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It’s even worse than that, Jim.
Inside the email is an embedded link. How elementary this is to change from viral to malicious! all you have to do is change the link address behind the link listed. Spammers can also change the text to sell something, or include other links soliciting donations to their version of the White House website for those wanting to support health care — or a malicious mailer can go the direct route of embedding a nasty virus in the old standby, an executable masquerading as the video they reference in the letter.
*Note that I do not advocate nor have I ever practiced these techniques. However, someone will, and it will be our vulnerable senior citizens who will be victimized by this. This really ticks me off.
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There is so much retorhic from both sides of this thing it is getting a bit crazy. I wish both sides would relax and really look at what is out there. We either come up with something or we are all sunk
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Considering the amazing amount of “transparency” this administration has shown so far, would you really think that this is out of the realm of possibility? Is the administration trying to hide something? Are they compiling an “enemies list”? If so, could the list be used to launch investigations of those on that list? Names forwarded to the IRS? How about the “snitch” website flag@whitehouse.gov?
Wanting to use tracking cookies, which even the ACLU, surprisingly enough, has raised a red flag about, lying about AARP endorsement of the healthcare plan (although they are supportive of it). Lying about not wanting a “single payer universal healthcare plan”, “Townhall” meetings where ALL of the participants are in total agreement with the administrations healthcare plan while other meetings display a totally different attitude by the unwashed, “un-American”, “brownshirt” “mobs”. Accusing opponents of “astroturfing” townhall meetings while actually using 11 year old girls to get their point across.
Yeah……nothing to worry about here I guess.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w222/RidesAPaleHorse/Obamination/BaghdadBobGibbs.jpg
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I only use my email account rarely and do not really understand it all. All I know is I got an email like the one above and I do know enough that there was no other email names on it. I think that means it came directly to me. I have an unlisted phone number and do not want spam emails but what really makes me think is how did they get my little used email address? I am an independent that have spoken out to a few of my neighbors and freinds about my dislike of Obamas policies. One of these neighbors sent an email singing the praises of Obamas policies and I did respond with facts back to that person but that is it. To think that one email sent back to my neighbor some how got me on a list at the white house is very worrisome to me and really makes me think about what is happening to this county where a conversation with my neighbor gets me on a list at the white house. What is next will some one show up at my door or call my unlisted number?
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Jim……….
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w222/RidesAPaleHorse/Obamination/obamawatching.jpg
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I also got one of those nasty emails from the white house just yesterday…You wanna know if its illegal? heck yes it is…
here is why….Collecting data on those who disagree with the Administration is a direct assault on our Constitutional rights and grounds for impeachment. Unlike you i actually did send the white an email stating why i did not support their healthcare plan—If you say you never emailed them and you was on their site? Then they had to collected cookies from your web browsing history such as big time spamers do… that is a form of collecting data…which for an goverment agency is aganst federal law..look it up…The thing that bugs me is that these folk think they are bigger then the law.. and my friends that should bugs yuns just as well….
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I am recently seeing a lot of people, who are originating unsolicited emails, complaining about receiving unsolicited emails from the White House.
Apparently they don’t understand when they ask recipients to forward their email, some where down the forwarding chain someone will forward their email to flag@whitehouse.gov with their originating email address visible.
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LBG1 Reply:
August 15th, 2009 at 11:46
I think you could be right about that aspect, but, while I write about Obama and Obama healthcare on a blog, I’ve never written an email to anyone about Obama healthcare, so I don’t fall into that category.
Another aspect, the White House is refusing to look into the matter and was condescending to Major Garrett when he asked about the list the White House used to send these emails out. Another instance of the type of “transparency” Obama promised.
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Zeros “transparency”
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w222/RidesAPaleHorse/Obamination/Transparency.jpg
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I think you are wrong about this not being illegal. I work for an email marketing company so I can tell you that Axelrod IS in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act.
The people receiving the email do not want it. That is the core of the CAN-SPAM Act. If people never “opted in” to receive these emails, which it seems a lot of them have not, this is violation #1.
If Axelrod was sending this to a group of friends using his personal email address, he would be off the hook. However, this is being sent on a bulk-mail scale and the recipients did not ask to receive it. For him to try and disguise this ad as pleading, personal letter would not fly with a judge.
Also – would like to know where he got the email addresses. The CAN-SPAM Act is very strict about where you get your list. You are not allowed to “buy” or “rent” a list, nor are you allowed to “scrape” emails from Websites (AKA taking every visible email and adding it to your list). If most of these people never signed up on a government Website asking for the emails (and it sounds like they haven’t), Axelrod is indeed a spammer. Where did he get the list?
I could go on. In a perfect world Axelrod would be brought in front of a judge, fined, and maybe even given jail time. He would have to show hard evidence (from paper sign-ups to time-stamped electronic records) of when these people signed up, where and how.
Unfortunately, this guy is part of the Obama administration. He’ll no more see jail time than I’ll win 80 million in the lottery tomorrow. The best anyone can do is make a big noise about it so that Axelrod retreats and knows never to do this again.
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Okay, I think I am breaking this News… The White House has was able to use its propaganda wing to “calibrate” a message to explain the unsolicited email that David Axelrod was sending out about Health Care reform. (I also had this waiting in my inbox and I never signed up for any white house mail) The Official explanation…”it was a third party”
Now, that is not to say a third party actually sent the email the email I received was clearly sent from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The White House instead is claiming a third party must have collected emails and then used those emails to sign up for white house mail.
In my experience, I one time accessed the white house web site to post a message to Obama to please not dismantle health care. That was it. I never signed up for anything beyond that. A while back I started receiving love-notes from President Obama from the white house unsolicited spam for sure but, I wasn’t concerned at the time. Then the Axelrod mail and some chatter in the news made me think about this for a minute and I got pissed. This is BS is it not? This shows terrible decision making on the part of the blind-side marketing sham wow politics that the Obama Administration is using to try to ram through “fundamental change.” If some lefty got a Karl Rove email or one from Dick Cheney the civil rights and liberties people would be screaming in the streets…
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