Joe's Random Ramblings

It is not just some Democrat from Massachusetts who sends spam to a California resident, Texas Republicans can do that as well...
For months, I have received political spam from Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and her supporters.
Now I have received another turd from Newt Gingrich, plugging for somebody who wants to run for Hutchison's Senate seat (paid for by Michael Williams, the idiot in question.)
Even if I would live in Texas (hint to these idiots: I am not), I would never vote for anybody who spams me.
Spammers belong in jail, not in Congress.

Here is the turd in all it's glory (link identifiers etc. redacted):

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/om?[redacted]>
To view this in your browser, click here <http://link.ixs1.net/s/ve?[redacted]>

Email header<http://member.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/mlw_email_header.gif>
Newt: "We need leaders like Michael Williams"

Dear Friend,

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Having been a part of the last effort to retake the congressional majority, I am convinced we don't have to wait 40 years this time to regain power. Democrats in Congress offer the same old, tired recipe of Democrats past -- big government hand-outs, bloated bureaucracy and big-time deficit spending.

The kind of change they offer is simply a return to the discarded practices of the pre-Reagan era.

Our problem is not that Americans are newly attracted to Democrat ideas, but that Republicans simply failed to live up to their own ideas.

Let me illustrate my point this way: while conservatives continue to embrace the conservative label, liberals have been re-marketing themselves as progressives. You can call a used car pre-owned all you want, but I will be just as worried about the engine going out.

We do not need to change our ideas, we need to live up to them. And when I talk about modernizing the Republican brand, I mean using tried and true Republicans principles in new ways to solve new problems.

The key to building a new Republican Majority is not simply branding Democrat policies as the destructive and discredited ideas of the past?but offering real alternatives that meet Americans where they are. And offering new leaders not bogged down by the old fights of the last decade.

We need conservatives willing to engage the Democrats on the field of ideas?willing to speak of a 21st Century conservatism?willing to stand and fight on principle. We need leaders like Michael Williams.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has already announced she will not run for the U.S. Senate again, and may resign her seat in just a few months to concentrate on her campaign for governor. As you can imagine, an open senate seat is a rare commodity, and people of both parties are kicking the proverbial tires to decide if they want to run.

But no candidate brings the energy, the proven conservative ideals, and the ability to take the liberals to task while rallying the grassroots of our party like Commissioner Michael Williams. Will you help send Michael Williams to the U.S. Senate with a contribution of $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 right now? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

As someone who has been elected statewide in Texas three times, Michael caught my eye by advocating the right energy policies for America's future. Unlike the liberals who want to bring fossil fuel exploration to a grinding halt and worsen the economic crisis, Michael wants to expand domestic exploration of both traditional fossil fuels as well as clean, renewable sources.

With regulatory authority over the oil and gas industry as Railroad Commissioner, Michael has strong credentials when it comes to both energy and the environment.

For too long, our party has ceded issues like the environment to the liberals. We are reaping the consequences of our own disengagement on the environment, education, urban renewal, and a whole host of issues liberals call their own.

Michael Williams would be a true game-changer in Washington. Not only is he an expert on carbon policy, he is an articulate spokesman for reforming education policy.

A former Assistant Secretary of Education under President G.H.W. Bush, Michael not only knows the importance of investing in technical subject areas like math and science, but he stood on the firing line as the lead official who opposed racial preferences in college admissions. Friends, for an African-American to stand up to the liberal advocacy groups on a combustible issue like racial preferences at the age of 37 shows rare courage.

But it doesn't stop there. As a member of the U.S. Department of Justice, Michael had a protective detail assigned to him after receiving a death threat for his prosecution of white supremacists in the South.

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Rare courage has come to define Michael Williams. And such courage warrants our support.

I write to you today to ask for your contribution to Michael's Senate campaign. He is not exploring this race, he is in without reservation. Will you contribute $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 to the Michael Williams Campaign for U.S. Senate today? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Imagine the frustration of liberals in Congress debating energy policy with an energy expert, environmental policy with a knowledgeable conservationist, education policy with an education expert, and criminal justice with a courageous former prosecutor at the federal and local level.

They won't know what to do with someone who knows more about those issues than them, and who makes a conservative case for real reform.

As you know, I was a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. Conservative, Reaganesque principles still work in the 21st Century. But our party would be wise to refrain from rhetoric that sounds like we are tied to the past, and advocate a fresh conservatism that, while building on proven conservative principles, provides new ideas and new solutions for America's problems.

The Pelosi Congress is already doing its part to break trust with the American People, turning a stimulus bill into a pork-laden spending free-for-all. The Democrats seem to think that past Republican spending abuses gives them free license to triple the deficit and mortgage our children's future to Chinese banks.

This is fiscal insanity. The honeymoon will be over soon, and then we will be stuck with an amazing legacy of debt and wasteful spending for which this generation should be completely ashamed.

The first shot we can fire in response to the Democrats' spending abuse is to send Michael Williams to the United States Senate.

Will you help fund the first canon shot into the Democrats' firewall? Their fortress may look like it is made of concrete, but just past the outer layer there are large pockets of hot air. If we fight back with principled candidates like Michael Williams, their ivory towers will come crumbling down quickly.

So, what's it worth to you to prevent billion dollar daily interest payments on the debt? To prevent tax hikes on the order of $1 trillion? To elect a conservative who will fight for our values and help us take back the rhetorical turf on the environment, energy, education and the economy?

Is it worth $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 to you? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Interested, but not sure familiar enough with Michael Williams? Take just ten minutes, and watch a portion of his speech to the Republican State Convention in Texas <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]> , which I also attended. You will be sold - that's all it took for me.

Let's get to work, and bring substantive change to Washington, not the sound bite version that is ringing so hollow today. Let's elect Michael Williams to the U.S. Senate.

Your friend,

<http://member.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/mlw_ng_sig.jpg>

Newt Gingrich

P.S. A conservative like Michael Williams comes along only so often. He has the rare courage of someone who has fought the tough fights at a young age. He can take back the Democrats' turf on issues like the environment, energy, education and the economy.

I support Michael Williams. Will you join me by contributing $4,800, $2,400 or $1,000, $500, $250, $100 or $50 to his campaign for U.S. Senate today? <http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Paid for by Michael Williams for U.S. Senate Committee<http://member.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/disclaimer.gif>

And yet another stupid politician who thinks buying email addresses is a good idea...
These politicians don't even check if the person behind the email address is located in their state.
In this particular case, the spam came from some politician in Massachusetts, whereas I am living in California.
Geez, when will these people learn?

The actual spam (and of course, there are tracking tokens in the URLs posted, as every spammer has...):

If you are having trouble viewing this E-newsletter, please visit
[http://tsongas.congressnewsletter.net/mail/util.cfm?gpiv=[redacted]&gen=1]
for the Web Version.
Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, Serving the Fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts

Dear Friends,

My most important duty in representing our district in Congress is to make sure that
I am always listening to the voices of Fifth District residents. I try to do this
whenever I am out visiting our communities, during my Congress on Your Corner
sessions, through telephone town hall meetings, and by reading your letters and
emails. From time to time, I also send out brief surveys to get your thoughts and
opinions on current issues before Congress. If you have a few minutes to let me
know your thoughts on the subjects below, I would very much appreciate it. Your
responses are kept strictly confidential, and I will publish the results of the
survey on my website next week. Also, these are complex subject matters that don?t
always lend themselves to simple answers, so please feel free to expand on your
responses in the large text boxes below, or to email me [link 1] your thoughts
directly.

Best regards,

[image =
http://tsongas.congressnewsletter.net/images/user_images/Tsongas_Signature.gif]

Niki Tsongas

Survey/Question [survey]

Survey/Question [survey]

----------------------
footnotes
----------------------
[survey]
http://tsongas.congressnewsletter.net/mail/util.cfm?gpiv=[redacted]&gen=1
[link 1] http://www.tsongas.house.gov/?sectionid=11§iontree=3,11

Website Address:
http://tsongas.house.gov/

Office Location:
Washington DC Office
1607 Longworth House Office Building | Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3411 | Fax: (202) 226-0771
...

And it is not even possible to email that person from outside her district (unless I enter a zip code within her district):
http://tsongas.house.gov/?sectionid=11&sectiontree=3,11

Regrettably, I am unable to reply to any email from constituents outside of my District.

Oh, and two more things:
This spam was sent to my email account at a university in California, so it should be clear to anybody even just looking at the email address that it is outside of Massachusetts.
Second, the name and the email address are obviously unconnected, again as anybody actually looking at the email address could see. It is "some random name" <completely different name at ...>, i.e., what is typically seen only in spam.

A while back, I reported that the National Federation of the Blind apparently bought email addresses and spams them.
I am saddened to report that they still do that. After a lull, I again got one of their spam emails.
Their members really should put pressure on the leadership to stop this despicable practice.

A journalist from the Washington Post was instrumental in getting a major spam operation disconnected from the Internet.
This company, McColo, not only hosted spammers, but apparently a whole bunch of criminal activity, including child pornography.
It was high time to get these criminals off the Net. The only question I have is why it took so long. Their upstreams, e.g., Hurricane Electric (HE) and Global Crossing, have been told for years that they are supporting criminals. It looks as if being outed in a major newspaper, or the economic downturn, finally resulted in them actually taking notice. But they clearly continue to have a black mark for shielding McColo for years. They should have disconnected this criminal outfit long ago.

As a result of this shutdown, the amount of spam seems to have gone down significantly. Spamcop shows a significant decrease of spam. The spam volume I received went down about 70% as well.

If there ever was a need to show that spammers are the lowest life form on Earth, Eddie Davidson, a convicted spammer who recently escaped from prison, delivered the proof.
This disgusting low-life apparently killed his wife, 3-year-old daughter and then himself.
What a disgusting coward, taking innocent lives.