Dibble: Senate IT department to delete 100,000 pro-gay marriage emails
Monday, May 23, 2011 at 12:20 pm
- 18 Comments
Sen. Scott Dibble told Minnesota Public Radio that 100,000 emails sent to legislators by gay marriage supporters were clogging the servers and that the Senate IT department was set to delete them Monday morning. The emails, sent through the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT rights group, chided Republicans and a handful of DFLers who voted Saturday night to put a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the ballot in 2012. Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman said the emails were being help in a spam filter and that his office was workign to get them back into the system.
“Hundreds of thousands of emails have come in the aftermath, so many so that the Republican caucus is deleting them before their members even get to see them,” Dibble told MPR.
Sen. Warren Limmer, the chief author of the anti-gay marriage amendment, said, “Not true. Not true. We aren’t wiping off comments of our constituents. That’s just simply not true.”
Sen. Dibble answered back, “That absolutely is true, and that’s exactly what the secretary of the Senate has told us.”
Secretary of the Senate Cal Ludeman tells the Minnesota Independent that the sheer volume of email coming into the system had caused it to crash on Sunday. By early Monday morning 230,000 emails had flooded in, he said, adding that he ordered the IT department to send a large number to a spam filter.
He said that those emails coming in would not be deleted and that they were working to “filter them back in.”
He wasn’t aware which emails were coming in or which ones needed to be sent to a spam filter.
“We are managing the traffic and they’ll be flowed back into the system,” he said.
Already the flood of emails has rankled some legislators. Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, responded to the emails over the weekend in a manner some thought rude.
Here’s the audio of the exchange between Dibble and Limmer:
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Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter18 Comments
Comment posted May 23, 2011 @ 1:16 pm
I guess the dialog statement was just another Limmer prevarication.
Comment posted May 23, 2011 @ 1:33 pm
OK. Let’s just start flooding their offices with phone calls. It’s actually a lot more fun.
Comment posted May 23, 2011 @ 2:16 pm
Lets face it…this is ONLY the beginning – with over 16 months til the election…you can Imagine the Bile thats gonna be spewed from the Right Wing Wackjobs….Every UGLY Stereotype out there towards the gay community, the Manufactured LIES the Wackjob Fake Religionists come up with……quoting OLD, Outdated,and Proven Lies from Dave Cameron and his Ilk etc….MN you’re in for one ugly UGLY Mess…brought to you by the GOP,and the Wackjob rightwing who’d be More then Happy to Turn American into thier American Taliban Theocracy. I feel sorry for reasonable MN people, and the LGBT people of MN and thier Families / children……the Bile they will witness,and hear will be Numbing. …..pitting neighbor against neighbor, causing Hard feeling that never go away….causing boycotts of businesses…etc etc……ITS GONNA GET VERY UGLY MN. I hope Fair Minded MN populace beats this back..I truly do…..
Comment posted May 23, 2011 @ 2:43 pm
Down the Memory Hole!
Aren’t these e-mails a matter of public record? How can they just delete public input without considering it?
Oh, wait, its the republicans that are in control. Laws and regulations mean nothing if they go against the radical right-wing agenda.
Comment posted May 23, 2011 @ 2:52 pm
@Kevin, Exactly. In fact I can resend each of the e-mails I’ve already sent. But let’s not forget the Archdiocese of St Paul, the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the bishops of Minnesota, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, NOM, Focus on the Family, The Family Policy Council, etc. Who am I leaving out?
Praise Jebus, God hates an internet connection, Amen.
Pingback posted May 23, 2011 @ 4:40 pm
[...] From star reporter Andy Birkey at the Minnesota Independent. [...]
Pingback posted May 23, 2011 @ 10:17 pm
[...] It took 38 of Minnesota’s senators to pass the bill that puts a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage up for state-wide vote, and The PiPress’s Political Animal reports it took around 230,000 email messages to overload the Senate’s email system. Because of the volume, Senate secretary Cal Ludeman has authorized a block and the emails are heading for an archived folder in case any Senator wants to review the emails — or write snarky replies a la Rep. Tony Cornish. Senator Dibble has also also alleged that so many emails have come in that they’re being deleted upon arrival. [...]
Comment posted May 23, 2011 @ 11:54 pm
start commenting on what phone numbers and times, and what emails. so we can all do the same.
Comment posted May 24, 2011 @ 7:28 am
..Awsome Interview Rachel Maddow Talks to the Parents of a GAY Soldier from MN who DIED in the Line of Duty…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlrbiRywDYQ&feature=player_embedded#at=317
Pingback posted May 25, 2011 @ 12:14 am
[...] Dibble: Senate IT department to delete 100,000 pro-gay marriage emails (Minnesota Independent, 5/23/11). The Minnesota Senate was swamped by so many pro-marriage equality emails that it was forced to take swift action: it ordered its IT department to delete them, ostensibly in order to prevent a system crash. [...]
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 7:42 am
The Human Rights Campaign needs to mind their own business. I don’t want them involved in what goes on in my state.
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 7:44 am
At least we didn’t spit on people at the Capitol and jab them with sticks. That’s what the marriage amendment protestors were doing. It’s domestic terrorism.
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 8:27 am
Hey Betty, remember that time when Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people at the Oklahoma City federal building with his spit?
Me neither. Terrorists kill and maim people. Don’t denigrate the deaths of innocent victims of domestic terrorism by grouping your political opponents in with them.
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 8:31 am
It looks like civil rights supporters will have to flood these legislators’ offices with postal mail.
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 8:38 am
***(Betty Rubble) The Human Rights Campaign needs to mind their own business. I don’t want them involved in what goes on in my state.***
It isn’t just “your” state and for that matter, Tennessee is not a sovereign nation. And like it or not, gays are citizens of your state. Your anti-civil rights legislators haven’t found a way to strip them of citizenship. Yet.
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 8:40 am
Oops, sorry about the getting the state wrong — I was in the middle of reading about even worse antics in Tennessee.
Comment posted May 25, 2011 @ 9:06 am
@Betty Rubble-
Can you guarantee no out-of-Minnesota organizations and money will be used to support this ridiculous amendment? The HRC (and SPLC) have done more to protect American’s rights and liberties than the tea party, GOP and all the backers of the amendment combined. Those rights and liberties are for all not just those in the stone age.
Praise Jebus, God hates fair rules, Amen.
Pingback posted May 26, 2011 @ 1:13 pm
[...] According to Senator Scott Dibble, the state’s email system was so overwhelmed by ones and zeros that now they’re diverting everything into spam folders or just deleting them altogether. [...]
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