HellOOOooo! Are we being duped by The Peoples E-mail Network/

[kitkat65]

thepen.us?

I have my opinion but I'll save it until I hear from some people - I just want to know if anybody out there knows who's behind this site.

Most independent organizations use either .org or .com and schools are .edu
and government is .gov

This has .us and I'm curious.

[New Earth]

1. i have gotten one or two emails from this address

and i don't remember signing up for it. i honestly have no idea what it really is, but we can always try google :shrug:

[SharonAnn]

2. No, but I've seen some things from it recently. Can't remember what.

[kerrygoddess]

3. Did a whois search

Steve Angelica
Box 35022
L.A., California 90035 United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: THEPEN.US
Created on: 01-Jun-04
Expires on: 01-Jun-05
Last Updated on: 01-Jun-04
Administrative Contact:
Angelica, Steve [e-mail]
Box 35022
L.A., California 90035 United States

[kitkat65]

5. See this link and tell me what you think

http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/1998/04/pr98045.html
Press Release

Novell Recovers over $13.8 Million Worth of Illegal Software in Settlement
PROVO, Utah -- April 28, 1998 -- Novell, Inc. announced that it has recovered unauthorized copies of Novell's NetWare product with a market value of over $13.8 million in its settlement with Comptek, a Southern California based company. The lawsuit was originally filed in the United States District Court, Central District of California, Western Division against Comptek and its owner, Steve Angelica.


Any chance he’s related to an ANGELICA BIAGGIO who was mentioned in this book?

Brewton, Pete. The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush. New York: S.P.I. Books (Shapolsky Publishers), 1992. 418 pages.
Beginning in 1990, an assortment of articles from the Houston Post found their way into NameBase. In them Pete Brewton described organized crime and CIA connections surrounding the major players in the savings and loan failures, primarily in Texas but also in Florida and California. Brewton met with resistance, first from the Post's lawyers and then, when he expanded the series into a manuscript, from Simon & Schuster. Brewton quit the Post, enrolled in law school, and took his manuscript elsewhere.

The Post series and book are loaded with names of Texas-size wheeler- dealers, but it's circumstantial. There's a little bit on Lloyd Bentsen and sons, a bit more on George Bush and sons, even more on slick operators who appear to be CIA assets, and more still on Mafia-connected deals that involve property flipping as a cover for fraudulent loan schemes using federally-insured funds (your tax dollars). The names come from the records of state and federal agencies and courts, as well as newspaper clippings. The book's title is misleading, as the book itself leaves the impression that this is all business-as-usual for greedy Texans. But unless NAFTA returns the territory to Mexico, where certain Banana Republic of Texas businesses might have more room to deal, it's worthwhile trying to track these fun folks. In that sense, Brewton's contribution is significant.
ISBN 1-56171-203-5

[kerrygoddess]

34. seems doubtful to me

[flyarm]

55. can someone explain this "ignored " to me??? thx ..n/t

[New Earth]

4. ok here is one link, i do remember us going to this site for somethign

might have been a petition or something, but the address starting with http://www.pen....etc sounds familiar
http://thepen.us/

[kitkat65]

6. Am I nuts?

[kitkat65]

7. and considering we've been told that all e-mails should go there

we need to check this out!

[kitkat65]

8. hello? ANyone? Anyhone?

[Firespirit]

9. I think they're mining addresses...

They harangue you to list addresses of your friends if you use them to send a letter. I got the link on another site and used it back in early December to write a message to K/E to ask them to take a more active legal role supporting the Greens' recount, because I was under the impression that they'd shut down their own contact system. (Not so.) The message did get sent to K/E; I received a form letter type reply from K/E. So that much is legitimate.

As I understand it, if you list another person's address for them to contact, then it goes into their system. To test it, I typed in an alternate addy of mine for them to contact, and I started getting mail from them there. So you may start getting messages from them even if you never used them.

I do think they're collecting addresses, for whatever purpose, but I think that's the extent of it.

[RevCheesehead]

10. I feel like I walked in to the middle of a conversation here....

Could you provide a little more detail, please? Some context, as to who they are, what information they are providing, and what they are asking of you would be helpful.

[kitkat65]

11. I don't know who they are that's just the point

But earlier someone had posted that Conyers asked for 1 million e-mails and put the judicial e-mail link to do so

Somebody else came on and said no no don't do that ,send letters to

thepen.us

They were very adamant about it wanted to hid the thread and everything.

If these requests aren't getting to the people they say they are, then we're deliberately being misdirected.

I'll go back and find the names.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I wrote using the service

and promptly got form e-mails back from my representatives who I'd written to. So as far as I can tell the service works and is legitimate.

[New Earth]

13. no, Conyers office really did ask us not to send him a million emails

we killed their inbox that week. i dont' know who referred us to pen.us, but we are not supposed to be sending those millions of emails to Conyers, that part I know is real.

[kitkat65]

20. But who told you that Conyers didn't want the e-mails?

I'm sorry but I haven't been on these boards long enough to have seen the earlier no-send policy.

Did the moderators here tell you or another member?

[TexasChick]

21. From another member through an earlier thread. n/t

Edited for Freeptardian-type spelling.

[New Earth]

22. it was an email sent out

i don't remember who got it, but apparently we got the wrong message - we were supposed to be sending emails to the Republican House members, not Conyers. If Conyers is already deeply involved with the investigation, what the heck is the point in bombarding him with emails about it? this whole 'million emails' thing has been brought up on here so many times, and yes, i guess you weren't here for all those other times.

[BernieBear]

44. I remember the moderators telling us.

[GregD]

54. I spoke to the Judiciary staff

One of their staff called me personally, and confirmed that Conyers did NOT ask for a million e-mails.

[Helga Scow Stern]

17. It is a worthwhile question. But a valuable action tool is worthwhile if

it does in fact serve that purpose, whatever other motives may be involved.

Such tools are very necessary for people becoming politically active. At some level of commitment it hits you and you would do anything, write letters in your own blood if you had too, but at first, when you are used to being in a cuccoon, such tools get a lot more voices heard.

[kitkat65]

14. Here's the threa I'm referring to

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x221250

[New Earth]

15. that was garybeck asking us to send email to pen.us

i'm sure if this email service is a scam, that Gary does not know this.

[Firespirit]

18. I think you need to calm down.

Hooo, this from the person responsible for the "Kerry in Iraq" thread. Oh well.

From all I've seen, the messages get sent to the people that they are supposed to. I really believe that the worst that this site is doing, is collecting e-mail addresses for their own purposes. You might want to look for a privacy statement to see what they reserve the right to DO with all that.

[kitkat65]

23. That wasn't me.

[New Earth]

24. she's talking about herself

regarding the Kerry in Iraq thread.

are you feeling ok tonite? :hi: :tinfoilhat:

[TexasChick]

25. What's going on, Faye? What's wrong with this pen.us, er, whatever it is?

[New Earth]

28. i have no clue

[TexasChick]

32. hmmm, thanks. I don't understand what this person's problem is without

more indepth information.

[kitkat65]

29. Well at least I don't talk to myself. Ha! Or people that aren't there.

I was saying I'm not the one that posted the worried about Kerry in Iraq thread. I have nothing to do with that.

I know I'm coming off as hinky but there's something about this thepen.us that strikes me as off and I'm asking other people what they think.

[New Earth]

33. what?

[TexasChick]

37. Okay, let me explain what Faye meant when she replied about the Iraq

thread. What Faye was telling you is that Firespirit was talking about himself/herself being told that s/he was paranoid too after creating the thread about Kerry in Iraq? Understand? It wasn't about anyone talking to themselves.

[seabeyond]

16. i just used it to write an email about election fraud,

i put in zip and it called up my two senators and my representitive to be able to send my emails to. also it gives an option to send this email site to friends. so maybe this is why you are receiving it in email. maybe a friend of yours used it to send email to senators and rep and then sent you the site to do the same

[Vektor]

19. This is the address I have...

http://69.9.171.129/contest.html
That leads me to the people's email network. I bookmarked it, but haven't used it yet. Is it not ok?

[kerrygoddess]

27. this is on the page

The People's Email Network Welcomes Our Newest Friends!

Thanks to Laura Flanders of The Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio for giving out our home URL, http://www.thepen.us, live over the air on her show Sunday, November 21st, and Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder for doing the same on The Majority Report, Tuesdays November 23th and 30th too! We got a big bursts of traffic both times and made many new friends. And good luck to fighting Jeff Fisher, candidate in the Florida 16th Congressional District, who posted our logo with a link at the top of his own main index page. He's got lots of other great things to do on his page as well. Go, Jeff, go! And be sure to check out our new Issue Outreach Page to find out how you can engage your whole community in the fastest and most effective possible way.

http://69.9.171.129/index.html

[Vektor]

30. That sounds ok...

Doesn't it? If Liberal radio personalities are touting the site on their shows?

[kitkat65]

38. Did you actually hear those radio shows tout this website?

On the Laura Flanders website all it had on their archives was an e-mail from the thepen.us touring their new service

[kitkat65]

35. But that doesn't mean anything.

The thing I'm trying to get to is that there is nowhere on the web site that discloses who they are. You have absolutely no idea who is in charge of sending those letters on.

[Vektor]

49. I'm not sure KitKat65 -

Maybe ask KerryGoddess if she heard anything on those shows. I haven't used the email service. I'll wait and see what the deal is before I do.

[kitkat65]

26. And just because you got an e-mail back doesn't really mean anything, does

it?

I'm not THAT computer savvy but can't you put just any address in the From field?

[Firespirit]

31. I really hate to do this....

'Cause I have a feeling I'm going to lose some people here. And I know it's exposing me as a geek.

The short answer to your question: Yes.

SMTP, the protocol used for sending e-mails, doesn't by default authenticate the From address against the server. It's a big part of why spam is so widespread.

But there's another part of e-mail headers that may be used, the Reply-To address. It's typically hidden in the e-mail header itself and probably won't be shown in your run-of-the-mill e-mail program.

BUT, if you're getting personal OR automatic responses from the correct people, it means that either the From address or the Reply-To address IS correct.

[TexasChick]

39. Hey, we got nothing against geeks!

:hi:

[joevoter]

36. It is always best to fax, email, call directly to the source

that you intend to send it to... I am now sending the Conyers letter my Senator at all of his district offices.

<http://www.vote-smart.org/mystate_government_resources.php>

has good contact links with the fax numbers to district offices...

Fax is best fax fax fax...

[New Earth]

40. why does this all give me that same eerie feeling

as the old CyberNET/Jeb Bush/Jeff Fisher, etc threads? :shrug:

[joevoter]

43. hard to weed through all this stuff

Trying to stay on task...

[Firespirit]

41. .us

The .us domain name is just a standard suffix like .com, etc. It hasn't been available for very long in comparison with the others, which is why it isn't as familiar to you. Every nation has its own suffix, typically called its country code, for web sites; e.g., ".uk" is a British site. .Us just stands for United States. Nothing shady about that part of it.

[Brundle_Fly]

47. and the .us

is fairly unpopular in most corporate driven websites as a .com is prefered, for recognizability.

there is nothing here, please retune your tinfoil to another frequency.

;)

[rodeodance]

48. anybody know of another .us website?

[Brundle_Fly]

50. hmmm

fet.us
clet.us
bigf.us
adore.us

oh ohh

janit.org
carpent.org

[HomerRamone]

56. Coalition Against Election Fraud

http://caef.us/. I work with this organization. (Check it out!) There's nothing wrong with ".us"

[kitkat65]

42. Let me lay it out to you as I see it

1) the web site offers absolutely no reference to who they are

2) what is with the .us ending? How many times have we seen a .us ending? Firespirit thinks it doesn't mean anything which I respect

3) kerrygoddess was able to find the info about Steve Angelica of Los Angelas as being responsible for the site

4) the only thing I found on Yahoo search was the settlement against the southern California Comptek owner Steve Angelica

5) Could the two be the same? Who knows, but let's just say yes for now - sounds like this Steve fellow isn't real honest in business.

6) You're telling me you're getting e-mails back from where you think your letters are being sent to. I'm asking how do you know they're actually coming from there? Firespirit says you can fake a return address.

7) Now as a what if, let's say I have a computer background and no business ethics. I'm able to set up a program that recognizes all these letters and where they're supposed to go to and can send an automatic reply form letter with a fake return address making you think the letter went to where I said it would go, when in fact it hadn't.

8) Let's say I tell all these websites that are talking about election fraud that the best possible way to reach every representative that matters is to use my web site because it's so easy - it'll take care of everything for you. And I'm so great. I'm talking about all the progressive issues. Even the liberal media loves me.

9) and now you can relax, knowing you did your civic duty don't need to do anything else. Why keep signing more petitions? I've already contacted every representative that matters.

But the problem is those communications never got to the people you thought they did, because it's a fraud.

[rodeodance]

45. "Thanks to Laura Flanders ...on Air America Radio for giving out our

Home URL" The site has some support-so it seems.

From the openpen.us website:

.....The People's Email Network Welcomes Our Newest Friends!
Thanks to Laura Flanders of The Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio for giving out our home URL, http://www.thepen.us, live over the air on her show Sunday, November 21st, and Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder for doing the same on The Majority Report, Tuesdays November 23th and 30th too! We got a big bursts of traffic both times and made many new friends. And good luck to fighting Jeff Fisher, candidate in the Florida 16th Congressional District, who posted our logo with a link at the top of his own main index page. He's got lots of other great things to do on his page as well. Go, Jeff, go! And be sure to check out our new Issue Outreach Page to find out how you can engage your whole community in the fastest and most effective possible way.
...

[rodeodance]

46. DU has website on its link site (found though a goggle search)

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/links/pages/Issues_and_Activism/Campaigns_and_Elections/more2.html

..... * The People's Email Network - Very effective to give direct feedback on politics especially election fraud to Kerry, DNC, The Democratic National Committee and The Government Accountability Office. It also has other helpful links to organizations. As noted on their website: "The People's Email Network exists to give you an avenue to more effectively communicate with your legislative representatives." ......

[dzika]

51. One of us could call the number

listed in the Whois database... Just an idea.

[catgirl]

52. KitKat65, you're right to be suspicious

Notice all the calls to "blast" our Senators with e-mails and faxes? This obviously clogs their systems and causes havoc. I've responded on these threads with this and questioned the posters who keep it up. They rarely answer and you'll notice that the same names appear on these threads. There seems to be a "team" working on this freep project.

You should question a suspicious site. Remeber, Conyers sent a letter to all dem Senators. Like they don't know what's going on! Also, there was word that a scam petition was circulating on DU. Thanks for doing the homework.

[roenyc]

53. i save all my stuff in a special election folder--just got this back

hank you for helping to fight for the integrity of Election 2004 and for future election reform!

Whether or not a member of the Senate joins members of the House to object to electors from states that failed to conduct free and fair elections, this effort is a vital one. The declaration confronts our "leaders," and our society in general, by demanding an answer to a simple question:

"Are poll-tax-lines for poor minority voters AND none for affluent, white voters a tolerable circumstance for you, personally. In essence, are you a racist or not?"

Yes, strong stuff. But necessary stuff if we're going to secure our right to have confidence in free and fair elections.

Help spread the word! Ask your friends to go to http://thedeanpeople.org and ask THEIR Senators and Reps to declare their intent!

Cherrs.

Patty

------- Ready to take the next step? Request a Meeting! ------

Are you willing to schedule a face-to-face meeting with one or both of their Senators? If you can't, do you know someone who might? Help us line up at least one meeting at each Senate office.

Sample meeting request:
http://www.unioncountyfordemocracy.org/files/meeting_lautenberg.pdf

We'd like to track and report on visits. If you've requested a meeting, please join the following Yahoo group to post status:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thedeanpeople_projects/

Contact us if you’d like to discuss "talking points" in advance of any meeting.

------ Contact Information ---------

Questions? Suggestions? Comments?

Contact Patty Keeshan at 908 233 8172 or [e-mail]

[crispini]

57. Alternate: www.congress.org

If you're worried about using them to contact your reps, why not just use www.congress.org? It's about as easy as the other one and I've always used them. They have a really good privacy policy.

[bunny planet]

58. You are not talking about the deanpeople website where I signed a petition

a few days ago are you? I hope that was legit. I've been signing so many and sending so many emails I can't keep track. Sometime I hit send before I've done all the reading. So much activism needed, so little time.

[New Earth]

59. no, deanpeople is totally different

[bunny planet]

61. Relief!!!!!

[ccarter84]

60. what is this? anyone can register a .us addy