FACT: "Our country faces its most serious economic crisis since the great depression," begins President-elect Barack Obama's economic plan for recovery.
FACT: The American people elected Obama to be their 44th head of state after a contentious campaign that resulted in a landslide victory last November.
FACT: Hard-working individuals are donating oodles of cash to a Presidential Inaugural Committee for a four-day celebration that will cost the nation's capital $50 million, let alone California taxpayers who are faced with a nearly $2 million price tag to transport L.A. police officers across the country for logistical support.
Did you hear the latest from Obama's idea generating team?
Ten supporters will be selected between now and midnight on January 8th to join the inaugural activities. You and a guest could be flown to Washington, D.C., put up in a hotel, and be part of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
You don't have to donate money, either! Just write an essay on What does this inauguration mean to you? to be entered into the sweepstakes.
I've left Obamaland and entered the Publisher's Clearing House!
But here's the kicker, folks. You knew there'd be a kicker, right?
Whether you donate money or skip straight to the essay competition, you are required to input your name, mailing address, email address, and phone number. I care less about the phone number and mailing address part, but let's focus on the email address.
Quoting the PIC's privacy policy:
...we maintain e-mail lists to keep interested, eligible individuals informed about important topics, and individuals must affirmatively request to join such lists.
We configure our list server software to refuse to divulge the e-mail addresses of our list subscribers to anyone other than those whom we authorize.
However, we are not the author of this software, and are not responsible for any failures in the software to preserve subscriber anonymity.
There are so many things wrong with those three sentences, I'm beside myself. Sadly, I'm guessing not many people filling out those forms now know what I do: Give the team your email address and risk the world knowing.
Maybe other items from your form's submission will also be, uhh, leaked due to server failure. Let's hope not.
Good riddance for Hollywood celebrities balking at the pricetag.
Will you be there? I won't. I'm waiting for someone to step to the plate and deploy a live satellite feed and carry the celebration to the American people, wherever they may be. I might be asking for too much, but if the PIC can afford to fly 20 people to Washington, maybe they can ask the NSA for one of their satellites for the day.
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