President Barack Obama Spams

On Monday, February 2, 2009 10:33 AM, I received spam from President Barack Obama. It took awhile for me to figure out how he obtained my email address. I have never emailed or registered with either the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee. Then, I remembered that I had sent an email message to Hillary Clinton after the last presidential primary, encouraging her to take her fight to the Democratic Convention in Denver. My best guess is that she sold or gave my address to them without my permission.

In any event, it was a shock to see email from the President in my inbox. I was incensed that he had the gall to send unsolicited email to me. Then, when I opened it, I became amused.

The silly man sent a lifelong Republican an invitation to host an “Economic Recovery House Meeting” the weekend of February 7th-8th. Its purpose would be to drum up support for the economic stimulus package. Hosts were suppose to show a video with Governor Tim Kaine “outlining the recovery plan and answering questions about what it means for your community.” I could even submit my questions regarding the plan online prior to the meeting.

Oh, I was so tempted to volunteer to host a meeting. This Republican would have had one heck of a good time explaining and reviewing this so-called stimulus package. I thoroughly reviewed the information on the host guides. They gave the suggested agenda and timeframes as well as action plans before, during, and after the meeting. I chuckled my way through the “talking points” for the economic stimulus plan.

However, I resisted the temptation to host one of these meetings. After all, volunteering would only encourage future email from Obama and the Democrats. I get enough spam, thank you, even with a spam filter.

Instead, I am filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This piece of email violates existing anti-spam legislation in two ways. First, it was sent without invitation to someone who has no existing business relationship with the President or the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Secondly, it did not correctly identify the physical address of the sender as required. Finally, the purpose of the email was not clearly defined in the subject line.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), which became effective January 1, 2004, “bans false or misleading header information. Your email's 'From,' 'To,' and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.” This email’s header showed:
From: "President Barack Obama"

However, at the bottom of the email was this information:
“Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org.
This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Democratic National Committee, 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003”

The FTC clearly instructs that the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires that every commercial email “also must include your valid physical postal address.” Now, everyone knows the President’s actual physical address is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., not 430 S. Capitol St. SE, which is where the DNC has its headquarters. Clearly this violates the F.T.C. rules.

Another proviso of the Act “prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.” The SUBJECT LINE of this email was: “What recovery means for you.” One can legitimately debate if this was deceptive. However, the email did little to answer the question posed in the header’s subject. Instead, it primarily focused on this meeting and organizing support for passage of the stimulus package.

Each violation of these FTC rules “is subject to fines of up to $11,000.” Stay-tuned for the outcome of my complaint. If successful, it will be far more beneficial for my personal economic stimulus than anything in the President’s plan.