My Letter To Obama

I recently read that President Obama reads ten letters a night from the American public, and actually responds to those letters.  I don’t know if it’s true, but I intend to find out.  Here’s a letter that I’m sending to Obama, spurred by this recent article.

Dear Mr. President,

I voted for you. Not only in the final vote, but in the primaries as well, I was on your side. Even in the early stages of your campaign, when you were just an unknown Senator from Illinois, I was rooting for you and defending your positions on so many issues. I have been loyal to you from the first moment I read your official positions on political issues, and realized that this was the candidate I had been waiting for–A politician who truly believed in the ideals of honesty, hope, justice, and freedom.

So it was really a sad moment today when I discovered that your Justice Department plans on continuing the warrantless wiretaps that so enraged the American people under the previous administration.

I can’t say that I understand the position that you’re in—Your job is one of the most important in not only the country, but the entire world…It simply blows my mind just to imagine having that kind of responsibility. And I can definitely understand the logic that goes toward this decision. If you release a warrant saying you’re tapping the wires of suspected terrorists, it will be incredibly ineffective. And the idea that freedoms such as privacy can be suspended in the name of public safety is one that I can follow as well. However, I beg you to reconsider this stance.

The right to privacy is one that every American holds dearly, and it cannot be suspended for a reason as weak as this. The warrantless wiretapping has proven under the Bush Administration to be fairly useless at taking down terrorists. We’ve barely arrested any suspected terrorists since the wiretapping began, and the war against terrorism in the middle-east has barely shown any progress at all. We’re no closer to finding Osama Bin Laden either. So you need to ask yourself, is it really worth the damage it will cause to the constitution to do this? Do we really need this useless tool at our disposal, at the risk of our basic freedoms?

In the end, the decision is yours. I can’t make the choice for you. But keep in mind that your position is yours only by the grace of the American public, and that your obligation is to us. If you ignore the voices of the people now, they may attempt to ignore your voice in the future. There are consequences to every action, and this decision is not exempt.

I do trust you to choose the right path, and I hope you’ll prove to be the President you promised to America.

-Tony

The 7 Most Annoying People On Digg

Digg has grown over the last couple years from a small community of tech enthusiasts sharing nerdy news to a huge internet powerhouse, which has turned the tide of the US democratic primaries, taken down a cult, and made news left and right, spawning several copycat sites. But despite being arguably the most mainstream site of its kind, it still is not free of the countless horrors that spawn in the seedy underbelly of the net. Today, we take you on a virtual safari to show you some of the worst species in the digg community.

7.The Powerusers (Diggitus Eliteus)

Threat Level: 4

These are the most prominent nuisances on Digg, but perhaps the most harmless. In fact, they tend to be fairly beneficial to the community on a whole, but don’t be fooled. They are still a problem. They find articles and submit them, just like your average user, but the difference is that these articles will make it to the front page with little to no effort, while average users are forced to spend hours promoting their submissions, begging anyone and everyone for that one little digg to get them to the front page. They are the alpha-males of the digg herd, and for those beta- to omega-males, this can be quite a frustration.

Feeds on: The devotion of their hordes of fans, and the souls of the damned.

6. Refreshers (Diggitus Obsessi)

Threat Level: 4

Of a slight relation to the Powerusers, these users can be found refreshing XKCD.com and Cracked.com relentlessly at midnight, hoping to be the first to submit an article which will inevitably make it to the front page and getting that tiny taste of fame. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, you’ll see a thousand identical submissions from these automatons. Odds are, they’ll make it to the front page once or twice in their short lifetimes, milk it for everything it’s worth, and then die a slow peaceful death, forgotten like so many one-hit wonders.

Feeds on: Short fleeting moments of pseudo-fame, and cheap frozen dinners.

5. The “Old” Police (Diggitus Geezerus)

Threat Level: 5

These are seen everywhere, disguised as regular users, until somebody submits something that the user saw a year or so ago. Then they will pop out of their hobbit-holes to comment-blast the submission with claims that their submission is ‘old as the internet’, or that it was submitted 2 years ago to digg when nobody actually saw it. They seem to suffer from delusions, thinking that if they’ve seen something, everyone else must have seen it as well. Most often, they complain that things are old only because they are mad at themselves for not thinking to submit it earlier.

Feeds on: Their own inability to comprehend that not everyone has been on the internet since the early 90’s.

4. The Article Snobs (Diggitus Notgonnadiggit)

Threat Level: 7

The Article Snobs come in many forms. They could be seen bitching and moaning that an article was put on two pages to help increase much-needed ad revenue, or whining about how horrible the Daily Mail is, but only after reluctantly and hypocritically digging it, favoriting it, and shouting it to all their friends, so that their spiteful little comments can get seen by more people. They can easily be spotted by their big, sharp, pointy teeth, and refusal to digg this article, because “who cares about some guy’s blog?”

Feeds on: High-end ramen noodles and pure, raw hatred.

3. Obama Lovers and Hillary Haters (Diggitus Changeusa)

Threat Level: 8

These are everywhere now, slowly spreading like some kind of political plague. One cannot look at the front page without at least 10 articles either claiming Obama’s godliness or (ironically) belittling Clinton’s belittling attitude. They are a mutation of the regular user (Who simply likes Obama, not loves), designed to stop at nothing to make sure that everyone knows that Obama is the best thing since Chuck Norris. We get it, you think Obama should be president. Now shut up about it until it comes time to vote. They will digg up any and all articles with a positive light on Obama, then comment the same old stale comments that America needs change, or that Hillary is a bitch. (Which are true, but seriously, STFU already.)

Feeds on: Political articles and pseudo-intellectual debate.

2. The 4chan Rejects (Diggitus Anonymus)

Threat level: OVER 9000!!!!!

CAUTION. If you spot this breed of digger, don’t make any sudden movements, and slowly make your way to the nearest adult. 4chan Rejects can be hazardous to your health.

This is a species becoming more and more common by the day. They are the cancer that’s killing digg, taking it over with LOLcats and demotivational posters. These crude beasts are spewed forth from the asshole of the net, /b/, prepared to regurgitate memes left and right until they become funny, and turn more decent human beings into more mudkip-lieking, facepalming, pedobear-posting abominations. They’re like zombies or vampires, but exponentially less cool. Luckily for you, they’re easy to identify. Just follow the trail of Captain Picards and O RLY? owls until you find someone wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, then block their ass from here to eternity.

NOMS ON: Stale memes, delicious copypasta, and tears of fallen angels.

1. The Flaming Complainers (Diggitus Getthefuckouticus)

Threat Level: 10

These are by far the most annoying people ever to grace the vast plains (and tubes) of the internet. They will complain about any of the other top 7, and even complain about their own kind. Some of the most annoying ones can be found making ‘Top 7’ lists declaring their hatred of other diggers. The more mild sub-species are usually caught commenting about how they think MrBabyMan should quit digg, or moaning about the current political domination of Digg. Several of them will simply just yell at everyone on digg because it’s far to strenuous to find a reason to yell at someone.

Feeds on: The pain and suffering of others.