petitions

White House shoots down petition to build Death Star

The White House has rejected a proposal to build a Death Star, saying that in addition to its prohibitive construction costs, the current administration does not advocate destroying other planets.

Today's lighthearted official statement came in response to a petition posted in November to the White House's We The People platform that called for the administration to begin construction of a moon-size military battlestation armed with a planet-destroying superlaser by 2016. The petition, which attracted well more than the minimum 25,000 signatures necessary for a response from the White House, suggested that such a project could give … Read more

Anonymous petitions U.S. to see DDoS attacks as legal protest

It's hard to imagine a group that adheres to anarchic ideology would want its actions legalized under U.S. law. But that is exactly what Anonymous is doing.

The loose-knit group of hackers submitted a petition to President Obama this week asking that distributed denial-of-service attacks be recognized as a legal form of protest.

The petition, which is posted on the White House's "We the People" Web site, claims that DDoS attacks are not illegal hacking but rather a way for people to carry out protests online. Similar to the Occupy movement when protesters pitched tents … Read more

Empire strikes: White House to respond to Death Star petition

Isn't it about time the White House had a distraction from the fiscal cliff (whatever that is)? How about the feasibility of building a real-world Death Star?

As of today, a petition calling for the government of the United States to begin construction on a Death Star by 2016 has more than 25,000 signatures on the administration's official public suggestion page, surpassing the threshold that triggers a required response from the White House.

The petition hit the mark today, just a day before reaching its 30-day expiration date. Conveniently, petition creator "John D." of Longmont, Colo., even provided some politician-friendly talking points to promote the idea:… Read more

Should Columbus Day be changed to 'Exploration Day'?

Columbus Day has attracted its share of detractors in recent years among indigenous peoples' groups and others. That's not to mention the widening recognition that Christopher Columbus ended up in the Americas through some remarkably bad navigational skills and then set about conquering its people through slavery, disease, and other little bits of nastiness.

Suburban St. Louis business owner Karl Frank Jr. has always had similar sentiments. While taking in media reports on the death of Neil Armstrong that compared the shy moonwalker to Columbus, Frank says a light bulb went off. He contacted a few nerdy friends and soon a petition was drafted to re-dedicate Columbus Day as "Exploration Day." … Read more

'We the People' goes open-source

The Obama administration's "We the People" online petitions platform has been open-sourced, allowing other individuals or groups to tailor the system for their own use.

The "We thePeople" code was released under the GNU General Public License yesterday, and is now available on GitHub.

Macon Phillips, the White House's director of digital strategy, posted on the official White House blog:

When President Obama talked about We the People at the Open Government Partnership last year, he promised to, "share that technology so any government in the world can enable its citizens to do … Read more

Former factory workers add pleas to sign Apple labor petition

Two former Wintek employees who say they suffered permanent health problems while assembling iPhones in 2009 have come out in support of a petition asking Apple to demand better working conditions at overseas factories.

In a statement today, Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan, who were among those who suffered health problems as a result of exposure to n-hexane, a toxic chemical that was being used in a China factory as a cleaning agent, are asking more people to sign the petition ahead of Apple's annual shareholders meeting tomorrow.

"We have been pressuring Apple, and its new CEO Tim … Read more

Apple labor petitioners to make deliveries again next week

The group that hand-delivered printed petitions to Apple's retail stores last week plans to come back for round two.

Last week, SumOfUs delivered boxes containing some 250,000 printed signatures from its petition asking Apple to require more "ethical" working conditions from its supply and manufacturing partners. In a statement issued this afternoon, SumOfUs said it plans to do it again.

Next Thursday the group is taking what it calls a "distributed" approach, delivering the same petition to Apple's stores anew. However this time, the group is plans to have "hundreds of its … Read more

Cook: Apple's improved working conditions more than anyone

Apple CEO Tim Cook again defended his company's track record on improving working conditions at the manufacturing facilities of its suppliers, noting that it has done more to address the issue than any of its peers.

"No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple," Cook said during an investor conference today.

Cook's comments come amid growing criticism over the working conditions at the factories used to construct hit Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. Much of it was sparked by a New York Times story that highlighted some … Read more

Ethical-iPhone activists deliver petitions to Apple stores

NEW YORK--Activists hand-delivered petitions with a quarter of a million signatures to Apple's Grand Central Terminal flagship store in Manhattan today, reiterating its plea for the company to adopt more ethical standards for the creation of its popular products.

The activists, organized by watchdog groups SumofUS and Change.org, are calling for Apple to pressure its suppliers--particularly the ones in China--to improve the working conditions and follow the same standards it observes in the U.S. That includes being more transparent about its vendors and allowing third parties to audit the quality of the work environment.

Apple has faced … Read more