I Can’t Keep Up
Take the dogs to the park for a half hour, come back, and there are 30 new messages from advocacy groups and campaigns in my email box.
Look- I understand it is the campaign season, but I have a working theory that most human beings will go their entire lives without telling me something truly important. What that means is that there is simply no need for Rose Kaplyniski or however you spell her name at the Boxer campaign to email me five times a day.
Seriously- is spamming people good politics? I’m usually far more inclined to read emails from people who only email me once or twice a week than idiots who send me 10 breathless emails every day.
September 28, 2010 2:53 pm
Posted in: Get off my grass you damned kids
48 Comments
48 Responses
arguingwithsignposts - September 28, 2010 | 2:55 pm · Link
Just got a text message from OFA, speaking of. i unsubscribed from a number of good causes after the 08 campaign because of the incessant emails.
Allison W. - September 28, 2010 | 2:58 pm · Link
don’t you have a junk e-mail email?
Onihanzo - September 28, 2010 | 2:59 pm · Link
Quality over quantity? Signal over noise? Pffft. You forget where you live, sir.
Dork - September 28, 2010 | 2:59 pm · Link
What if we just faxed you our comments/complaints/expectations? Would you pound Jane if she did this?
West of the Cascades - September 28, 2010 | 3:00 pm · Link
Looks like you’re going to need a bigger inbox.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist - September 28, 2010 | 3:00 pm · Link
@arguingwithsignposts: me too. spam isn’t as annoying as phone calls—Al Franken, I told you a year ago to stop calling my house, dammit—but it is irritating.
I got an e-mail from Dianne Antoinette Feinstein telling me she’s supporting “Barbara” and I should, too! I already gave Boxer money, and I plan to give her more, but I wouldn’t give a nickel to Feinstein.
Perry Como - September 28, 2010 | 3:01 pm · Link
Spam works. That’s why there’s so much of it.
Poopyman - September 28, 2010 | 3:02 pm · Link
It’s the big end-of-month push. I delete ‘em as fast as I get ‘em, and it sounds like about the same amount as you.
Bill Clinton, Axelrod, Rahm!, campaign managers, candidates, innocent bystanders… they all spam me. They might as well get in line behind the Nigerian bank manager that’s got a special deal just for me.
ETA: Just got 2 more from Jon Tester and Patrick McGarrity. I mean really, who???
JPL - September 28, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
At the bottom of most emails soliciting money, they have a way to opt out of further emails. It doesn’t mean that you can’t contribute to them in the future but remember if you do, opt out of the emails.
After health care passed, I gave to several candidates through Act Blue. It’s worth the few seconds it takes to stop the emails.
rootless_e - September 28, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
Just for the record, anyone, including John, who took Greenwald’s summary of the DOJ arguments re Alwaki at face value has been deceived.
The DOJ argument essentially boils down to: Alwaki is currently engaged in armed conflict with the USA and the operation of US forces to counter his side are not subject to supervision by courts: e.g. a decision on whether to try to capture or kill him is a purely military/executive decision as long as he continues to be acting as a combatant.
Does anyone really think that a special forces unit in the mountains of Yemen needs a court order to decide whether to use a sniper against a commander of enemy forces.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist - September 28, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
I do find it interesting to see who’s asking for whom. After Reid stepped on his tongue with Park51, I got “Help Harry” emails from the Franken, Sherrod Brown and Whitehouse campaigns (Oh shit, can you guys help me with those liberal internet types?). Jon Tester is asking me today to help Coombs in DE, I guess a Westerner-to-Westerner appeal, or something. I wonder what Blue Dog list I’m on for the odious Feinstein
Cat Lady - September 28, 2010 | 3:04 pm · Link
I’m convinced that one of the reasons Coakley lost was because of inbox/voicemail assault. If I hadn’t been as big of a committed Democrat/Scott Brown hater as there is, the annoyance factor could have easily pushed me to his camp, or to stay home. Especially because she had ignored the whole thing until it got tight, which reeks of desperation, and no one likes the stench of desperation.
Poopyman - September 28, 2010 | 3:05 pm · Link
@Poopyman: And I just got another one – from Nancy Pelosi
(Why am I not permitted to edit my own comment above?)
cmorenc - September 28, 2010 | 3:07 pm · Link
Email you can set filters for.
One thing to never never never never NEVER do if you can at all help it, is give out your phone number with a campaign donation. HINT: political campaigns are among the categories EXEMPT from the “do not call” list.
Feeding a political candidate or organization money is like feeding fresh-grilled salmon to a stray cat, only MUCH MUCH MUCH worse if they have your phone number – with politics, you haven’t just got yourself a cat, he’ll bring a whole herd of cats to your (phone) “doorstep”, mewing incessantly at all hours of day and night for MORE SALMON (money).
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford - September 28, 2010 | 3:09 pm · Link
I received messages from Jan Schakowski and Alexi Giannoulias – the exact same message – the other day minutes apart.
OT: I sent an email message last week about my inability to connect to Balloon Juice from home. This has been the case for about a month. Any idea how I got on the Balloon Juice equivalent of the “do not fly” list?
Persia - September 28, 2010 | 3:09 pm · Link
@Cat Lady: Especially when every email has URGENT in the subject line.
fasteddie9318 - September 28, 2010 | 3:12 pm · Link
ZOMG BREAKING MUST CREDIT FOX; Negro President obsessed with violent, white-hating gangsta rap
RSR - September 28, 2010 | 3:13 pm · Link
The priority inbox feature in Gmail is pretty effective (and you can sort back and forth between standard and priority with one click; it’s not an either/or choice).
asiangrrlMN - September 28, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
@Persia: Agreed. I get tons of these telling me how urgent this that or the other thing is. And, I gotta say, until I see the Democrats actually get a spine in real life, all their tough words don’t really move me. “Can you believe the Republicans said/did this?” Well, yes I can. However, me giving twenty bucks isn’t going to end that problem. You, as a congress person/member of DNC just may be able to do something about it.
I rarely read any of them any more.
@arguingwithsignposts: How are you doing? How’s your fractured wing? And, I can haz pics of Lady Smudge, plz? kthxbai.
fasteddie9318 - September 28, 2010 | 3:14 pm · Link
@Perry Como:
It’s like cold-calling on steroids; the amount of time and effort it takes to spam millions of people is negligible, so even a trivial success rate is worth it.
marcopolo - September 28, 2010 | 3:17 pm · Link
Call me jaded but I get enough email from individuals and groups that I actually want to read (and perhaps even respond to) to occupy pretty much all of the time I want to spend looking at my inbox each day so I just delete any campaign related emails without reading them. I should add that I do not need a prompt to make a donation to a candidate or campaign I support or, indeed, to volunteer some time. Finally, while I hate robocall political phone calls, I have made enough calls myself that when I get a real human campaign worker or volunteer calling me on behalf of their candidate/issue I at least listen politely for 15-30 seconds before thanking them for the call and telling them I am (or more likely am not) interested in volunteering/making a donation or suchlike.
beltane - September 28, 2010 | 3:19 pm · Link
Spam is better than robocalls. We’re getting deluged with them in Vermont, blocked caller id’s spreading slander. Last month, I considered Brian Dubie to be an OK guy I wouldn’t vote for because he’s a Republican. Now I think he’s a coward, a liar, a whore, and a p*ssy. We used to have decent Republicans here; they are now an officially extinct species.
Ruckus - September 28, 2010 | 3:20 pm · Link
I find it interesting that you have gotten ten emails from someone you can’t vote for and I have gotten exactly none from the same person, who I can vote for. I do get emails from Russ, from OFA, from a lot of people I can’t vote for. I even get emails from Jane.
Maybe, just maybe it’s not about the votes. Maybe it’s about the issues.
Nah, if it was me and it was about votes and issues I’d be emailing to people who could actually vote for me.
I know, I know. Call on me. It’s all about the money.
JPL - September 28, 2010 | 3:22 pm · Link
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Several of us had problems. I unplugged the modem for awhile and then started everything back up.
Stuckinred initially suggested that fix but techies came up with other fixes also. They should respond soon.
Brighton - September 28, 2010 | 3:24 pm · Link
Can I have $25?
Senyordave - September 28, 2010 | 3:24 pm · Link
OT, I got this from Alicublog, and I guess this is par for the course from Fox:
http://www.thefoxnation.com/en.....angsta-rap
I assume it fits right in with Obama’s terrorist fist bump.
JPL - September 28, 2010 | 3:25 pm · Link
@fasteddie9318: hahahaha … I guess Fox was not impressed with what the President had to say about their news organization.
If you haven’t read the Rolling Stone article please do so.
Rosalita - September 28, 2010 | 3:26 pm · Link
I unsubscribed or blocked all political emails over the last year or so. The incoming was incessant.
El Tiburon - September 28, 2010 | 3:26 pm · Link
Also new rule:
Political campaigns, when I generously donate to you even though you are out of my state, please don’t call me during dinner or EVER. And when you do call and leave a message, then don’t EVER call back. And stop calling me several times a week. I don’t want to talk to you. Shoot me an e-mail, I know you have it, and if I want to donate again, I will. Or better yet, harass people like John Cole, because it was probably his blog who got me to give in the first place.
If I want to donate more money to your campaign, I will do it on-line. You are pissing me off and making me regret my original donation.
So fucking PISS OFF.
Tsulagi - September 28, 2010 | 3:32 pm · Link
Nope.
You might try something I did. Use an email address when have given campaign contributions. Few years ago that address was swamped. Then given D performance some time ago put it on sternly worded autoreply. Maybe some staff or whomever actually read the automatic reply as the volume has decreased significantly.
arguingwithsignposts - September 28, 2010 | 3:37 pm · Link
@asiangrrlMN:
Hanging in there, arm is more swollen today. really painful to move. waiting for dr. appt. tomorrow.
Lady Smudge – surfing on her iPad.
MikeJ - September 28, 2010 | 3:39 pm · Link
@Rosalita: How did they get your email address in the first place? Why do people actually give out real addresses?
Here’s a trick: if you’re forced to give a valid address (say for a confirmation email) give them:
youremail+personyougavceitto@yourdomain
That is, add a plus sign and who you gave it to inbetween the username and the at sign. Mail will still be delivered and you can procmail everything off to its own folder. You need never open that folder, but you can see how much they’ve sent, or if you do dip into it, you can see other people using the same address that had to have gotten your address from only that source.
General Stuck - September 28, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
Relax Cole, life is nothing much more than one long spam, with intermittent sandwich breaks, orgasms and siestas.
Ruckus - September 28, 2010 | 3:47 pm · Link
@MikeJ:
Nice tip. Didn’t know this. Does this work with all email? I assume that it does as a naming convention.
4tehlulz - September 28, 2010 | 3:51 pm · Link
It could be much worse. Imagine how much paper you’d have to recycle if it wasn’t for e-mail. Spam filtering e-mail is a bit less difficult than regular mail.
Words to Live By « The Half Empty Glass - September 28, 2010 | 3:54 pm · Link
[...] John Cole, on his blog balloon-juice [...]
daverave - September 28, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist:
Same here. I’m sorry that I have voted for DiFi in the past, never again.
bemused - September 28, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link
I get up to five a day from Friends of the US Chamber of Commerce. I think it’s time to remove myself from their mailing list. It was somewhat interesting to read how they were spinning things at first but it’s gotten old.
Wendy - September 28, 2010 | 4:05 pm · Link
I can’t figure out why the mail from the Boxer campaign keeps addressing me as Robert. My name is not Robert. My husband’s name is not Robert. My son’s name is not Robert. No one in my family is Robert except my crazy right wing uncle with whom I haven’t even spoken in a few years.
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim) - September 28, 2010 | 4:27 pm · Link
why not just adjust your spam filter accordingly? Or block the offenders completely?
Xecky Gilchrist - September 28, 2010 | 4:45 pm · Link
Seriously- is spamming people good politics?
I wonder.
And I wonder why there doesn’t seem to be any way to give money through ActBlue without getting a shit-ton of spam. Sure it’s quick to unsubscribe, but is there a way to do so preemptively at donation time?
Billy K - September 28, 2010 | 4:52 pm · Link
It really pisses me off that the by-product of contributing to worthy campaigns is a boatload of spam. Way to abuse your supporters!
I just mark them spam now. Used to feel bad about it, but it’s their fault.
Tom Levenson - September 28, 2010 | 4:54 pm · Link
A-F*****-Men.
I’m giving less than I intend to because of this; and I’m giving primarily to the big committees, if only because i can’t stand (a) the “decision” process of handing over $10 bucks here and $25 there to forty candidates about whom I know little. (Nearby folks—Paul Hodes, Deval and so on, that’s a different matter). And (b) they just don’t stop.
So even if the DCCC and the DSCC and OFA and the rest are inefficient or part of the Rahmspiracy or whatever, it’s just easier to go the Walmart route and call it done.
Cathie from Canada - September 28, 2010 | 5:03 pm · Link
Yes, but weren’t you saying just last week that the Democrats hadn’t been contacting you?
Maybe they read the blog too!
Violet - September 28, 2010 | 6:00 pm · Link
I’ve got a junk email box just for that purpose. Check it a few times a week. Keeps everything annoying out of my “real” email accounts.
HRA - September 28, 2010 | 6:14 pm · Link
I am in WNY -Buffalo area. Last week I received a hefty envelope addressed to me from Angl (NV) I tossed it. So I have no idea why it was hefty or sent to me at all.
Note: I changed my party preference to D over a year ago.
G, on the other hand, is a registered R who now cannot stand the crazies in his party. IOW he does not adhere to party line. The question is why did he not get the letter?
asiangrrlMN - September 28, 2010 | 10:08 pm · Link
@arguingwithsignposts: Ouch ouch ouch. Good luck with the doctor tomorrow. Lady Smudge is as beautiful as ever.
Bill Cole - September 29, 2010 | 9:34 am · Link
@Ruckus: In Re. “Plussed” addresses
Not all, but many. It’s an old trick from the first widely-used mail server (sendmail) that isn’t a formal standard but has been adopted directly or in variant forms by many others over time. I don’t think Hotmail or MS Exchange or Yahoo support it, but GMail does (along with arbitrary additions of periods within the local part of the address) and sendmail is still a very common mail server.
If ‘+’ doesn’t work for you, something else might. The question to ask your email provider is “Do you offer a way to create tagged addresses?” It is actually a good thing that there is no formal standard for tagging because it makes de-tagging addresses a low-yield tactic. Some spammers do attempt de-tagging and some entities that solicit email addresses reject ones with ‘+’ in them, but the diversity of tagging mechanisms in use limits such countermeasures.