The US Congress doesn’t understand the Internet

Recently, I received an email from Nancy Pelosi:
Screen shot 2009-08-27 at 12.06.47 AM

Apparently no one explained to her (despite representing Internet central), that scanning your letterhead and pasting it in to your email is a bad idea. It looks worse when it’s on a funny angle.

Having text as images this must be some sort of ADA violation.

Finally, the message lacks an unsubscribe link.

Of course, Speaker Pelosi isn’t the only one with problems. Anna Eshoo, who represents the only slightly gerrymandered California 14th, home to none other than Google and Yahoo, can’t get her web presence together, either.

First, her mailing list is woefully out of date. I left her district almost three years ago, yet I still get emails from her. As with Pelosi, there’s no unsubscribe link. I’ve left her district office staff numerous emails and voicemails, but they won’t remove me from her list.

Second, when you visit her web site, you get an SSL error:
Eshoo Certificate fail
…this certainly doesn’t instill confidence her ability to keep constituent communications secure and private.

Once you submit the form, you get obtuse error messages like this one:
Eshoo form validation fail
…1996 called, they want their form validation code back.

For those wondering what required-prefix means — that’s the formal prefix that precedes your name, such as “Ms” or “Mr.” Which, of course, shouldn’t be required in the first place.

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