The Internet threw its collective weight around and led a public rejection of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed $700 billion blank-check Wall Street bailout.  The online petitions, open sources and incendiary snark came fast and furious from all political corners.

TechPresident’s Micah Sifry documented the response and noted email campaigns from  MoveOn, CredoAction, TrueMajority, and the National Taxpayers Union. 

Sarah Lai Stirland reports that a protest, in which demonstrators plan to dump their trash in front of Wall Street’s Charging Bronze Bull, began with a single email sent by a journalist to a list of friends. Depending on how the federal government proceeds, similar protests could spring up across the country. TrueMajority has even put together “event kits” that provide everything a local organizer needs to demonstrate against the bailout.

Also receiving a lot of attention is the Sunlight Foundation’s Publicmarkup.org, which is described as an “ongoing experiment in preparing legislation more inclusively by opening bills to online, public review.” Proposals from the Treasury Department and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., have been posted in their entirety.

As serious as the financial crisis is, it also provides an ample opportunity for snark. BuyMyShitPile.com is the virtual way to have the federal government pay off those worthless impulse purchases and acquired liabilities. Items submitted include gently used padding for presidential flyboy suit, a 2006 Buffy the Vampire Slayer calendar and a used scent stories player.

Perhaps best capturing the collective contempt for the $700 billion dollar request is The Seminal’s faux Nigerian spam as written by the Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America, one Henry Merritt “Hank” Paulson Jr. The letter reads as follows:

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Henry Merritt “Hank” Paulson Jr. is the United States Treasury Secretary and member of the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors. He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs.