Have Your Robo-Responder Contact My Robo-Responder and Set Up a Virtual Lunch, Madame Senator

Have you ever been leaving a political website when a pop-up asks you to weigh in on an issue? And have you ever decided it would be just as quick to click a couple boxes indicating your support/opposition as it would be to close the pop-up and be on your merry way? And, seconds after your robo-reply was delivered, have you ever received a robo-response from the politician your electronic form letter was delivered to?

As you'll see after the jump, that's what happened after I came out for/against (can't recall which) the “Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009” (S. 619). Take it away, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Robo-Responder . . .

]
Dear Mr. Coker:
 
Thank you for your letter regarding the
“Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009” (S.
619). I appreciate hearing from you on this issue and welcome the
opportunity to respond.

I
appreciate you expressing your views on the use of antibiotics and have
noted your support for S. 619.* The measure would seek to phase out the
use of critical antibiotics for nontheraputic use in food producing
animals. Currently S. 619, which was introduced by Senator Edward M.
Kennedy (D-MA), is under consideration by the Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee. While I am not a member of that
Committee, I will keep your views in mind should the full Senate
consider this legislation. For more information on antibiotics
resistence, I recommend visiting the Food and Drug Administration's
website at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/anti_resist.html.
 
Again,
thank you for writing. Should you have any further questions or
comments, please feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. office at
(202) 2240-3841. Best regards.

Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

(*Ah-hah! I am FOR the bill. Typical liberal media elitism in action!)

Or is it? Honestly, while I remember filling out some form, I don't recall what it was actually for or that it would be sent to any particular politico. Not that I wouldn't be for . . . what is it again? . . . oh, yes: phasing out the use of critical antibiotics for nontheraputic use in food producing animals. Unless it's the critical antibiotics that are giving my chorizo that totally theraputic zesty flavor. Then I'm going to have to pull an all-out Joe Lieberman and flip-flop on phasing out the use of critical antibiotics for nontheraputic use in food producing animals.

Mmmm, zesty chorizo flavor . . .

Mindlessly filling out an electronic form to take a stand on an issue. Mindlessly receiving an electronic form letter from the senator who received the original electronic form letter. Surely this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they cobbled together our republic. When they weren't ordering their slaves to shoot up their farm animals with critical antibiotics, of course.

Matt Coker

OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.