One last jab at Bill Napoli.

[beautifulduckweed]

I just noticed that the e-mail form for contacting Napoli via the South Dakota Legislature website allows you to attach files. In a burst of inspiration, I wrote him an e-mail and attached the receipts for my donations to Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice. The e-mail I sent him was as follows:

I just wanted the senator to know that, thanks to his words about abortion and rape as recorded on PBS's News Hour, I've made a donation to Planned Parenthood--specifically, to the fund earmarked for fighting the abortion ban--and become a member of NARAL Pro-Choice. Attached to this e-mail are the receipts for my donations. I only hope they make it through.

Keep up the good work, senator. You're number 1 in our hearts, minds and ovaries.

[My legal name]
Portland, Oregon

As gestures go, this is both more petty but also more concrete than Googlebombing the everloving fuck out of this fuck. On one hand, he probably has aides who screen his e-mail for him, so the odds of his actually seeing this e-mail are slim to none, but on the other hand, I'm doing something (however small and poor the effort may be) to support the organizations that will be doing what they can to challenge this abortion ban.

Those of you who plan to donate or already donate to pro-choice organizations, you might want to try writing to Napoli (and/or Senator Julie Bartling, who was the bill's main sponsor, and/or Governor Mike Rounds, who signed the bill into law) to let them know what you've done, too. Attach the receipts, if you can. It's petty, but by God it feels good to let these assholes know in some way that we're going to fight them every way we can.

Comments

[brittakbd.livejournal.com]

I thought the googlebomb was damn clever. But this is sure good, too.

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Thankee. When the courses of action you're left with are mostly symbolic, as in this situation, then might as well have fun with them, right?

[paraleipsis.livejournal.com]

It accepts file attachments? Seriously?

It's so reassuring that our state governments have decided to get really smart about security in these uncertain times. . .

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can attach files using that e-mail form. It's the same with the governor's contact form. I'm sure hopeful that they have some sort of screening measure in place that scans all attachments and deletes anything iffy. I was very briefly tempted to attach something awful to it, but I figured that the receipts proving I gave money to a bunch of feminist abortionists were probably horrible enough to their senisbilities.

[theotherjay.livejournal.com]

It's a funny thing - a lot of people - i.e., on damnportlanders - said that googlebombing was more juvenile or petty than writing angry letters. To be sure, writing letters is the traditional response to obnoxious behavior by politicians, especially in circumstances when you're unable to vote them out of office any time soon (or, in this case, since we're not even in the same state, ever). But as you say, the main effect of the letter may be salutary. No doubt it'll be catalogued by some agent - real or electronic - probably real, actually, state senators' offices are constituencies are small enough that someone probably reads every letter - and added to a pile of similar opinions - but again, as you're not a citizen of that state, Napoli hasn't much need to care. But he may well care about negative opinions of him on the internet. (Of course, he's such a reactionary old fuck, he may take them as a sign he's doing something right. Again, the main value of the googlebombing campaign is getting the word out.)

I don't know. But I know that supporting positive organizations, and writing to legislators expressing intelligent and well-articulated views, can never be wrong. You rock.

[misshepeshu.livejournal.com]

Just to be clear: I don't think that writing angry letters to politicians per se is petty--just the tone and intent behind my letter in particular :) . I viewed it as even more petty than the Googlebombing only because the Googlebomb is much more visible, though you're right, there's a good chance that a real person will get to read my e-mail at some point, especially for a constituency as small as South Dakota.