By Yehuda Ceitlin, COLlive Editor
A petition to President Barack Obama to review allegations of judicial misconduct in the Case of Sholom Rubashkin is apparently suffering from miscalculation.
There were 33,478 signatures to date appealing for this cause on the White House website’s “We the People” petitions service. It is the second most popular petition.
But that number might just be higher as Yossi Gestetner, a PR man and blogger, has discovered.
It was not clear whether miscounts were also made in other petitions as well.
“The petition in favor of Sholom Rubashkin is miscounted by the White House system,” he says and gathered evidence to support his claim.
Signature number 28,996 was mentioned by two separate people, which would mean “the White House system undercounts the actual number of people who petitioned for Rubashkin,” he said.
Gestetner pointed out that number 31,460 was given to someone from New York and another from California; number 30,297 went to some Carol K from Illinois and to someone from California.
Numbers 30,068; 29,590; 29,078; 28,996; 28,708; 28,180; 28,037; 28,000; 27,881; 27,571; 27,415; 27,328; 27,133; 26,991 and many more are all given to two separate people.
It is not clear whether other petitions are sharing the same downgrading fate.
COLlive.com has contacted the White House Press Office Monday afternoon alerting the discrepancy and asking for an explanation. A response has yet to be received.
THE 500 CAMPAIGN
With the Rubashkin petition now in its third week, a campaign entitled “Fortune 500” has been launched with the goal to become number one in petitions gathered in a 30 day span.
The plan is to get 500 people who will commit themselves to getting 25 signatures each.
“The rate of signatures that we are getting is truly amazing especially during this hectic holiday season,” said Danny Finkelman, who produced the “Unity For Justice” music video for Rubashkin.
Rubashkin, former manager of the now defunct Agriprocessors meat plant in Iowa, was sentenced to 27 years after being convicted of bank fraud and other charges, a sentence which was widely decried as unjust and excessive.
The petition calls for the the Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate “prosecutorial misconduct in the case of United States vs. Sholom Rubashkin,” a move supported by 47 Members of the Congress, 75 law professors, including 3 former Deputy Attorneys General.
The deadline is October 22, 2011, with the holiday of Sukkos taking up most of the coming two weeks.
Florida Shliach Rabbi Chay Amar, “A Jewish Star” alum Aaron Holder and Yisroel Amar and Wurzweiler School graduate Zisa Levin star in a video promoting the petition. It was filmed by Farrel Goldsmith. Sound by W4M Studies of Miami, FL:
Although the petition has exceeded the quota of signatures needed for the Obama Administration’s Policy Team to take it into review, Finkelman wants to make it the top petition.
“Can you imagine when at 30 days since the launch we have put R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin as the number one issue of the White House Petition site?”
GET INVOLVED
The campaign has already gotten over 100 volunteers who are actively involved in appealing to the general public. They have taken this issue very personally and are quickly taking this issue to the top, Finkelman said.
To become a member of this group simply email [email protected] and state your willingness to become a member and then gather the signatures.
“Since every person over 13 years old with a valid email address may vote, by engaging 10 heads of households you can quickly have 30 votes or more,” he said.
To sign the petition, go to http://wh.gov/gWM
Mrs. Leah Rubashkin was nominated for the 2011 Jewish Community Heroes contest for her charity and dedication and is leading in the “Volunteer Heroes” category. Vote here
they need as many votes as they can posibly get., vote now!
kol hakavod!
Sluchim need not be afraid to promote this cause to secular mainstream amerca! (aka Balabatim)
once you make a clear to them that 47 congressman & over 50 to legal experts (including former judges) all agree that this case has been mishandled & there must have been some inappropriate (extra-judicial) forces that interfered with the proper execution of (precedent based) justice!
all people care to stand up for justice, & an investigation to ensure equal treatment in this case, without interference from Unions Peta etc
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petitions/popular/0/2/0/
signiture
kein yirbu, still in second place! wow!
Hashem see & shep nachas!
ur disgusting this is amazing
get friends n relatives who are not online to agree to open an email account for them! by agreeing they get part of this major Moitzva!
we all have a relative who is still not online! =)
Second in the nation! out of 199 petitions!!! wow!
lets continue B’Achdus!
keep asking one more friend to sign! each day! =)
Meyer D
Spring Valley, NY
October 11, 2011
Signature # 34,281
Jonathan S
Brooklyn, NY
October 11, 2011
Signature # 34,281
Elimelech L
Brooklyn, NY
October 11, 2011
Signature # 34,318
esther w
Brooklyn, NY
October 11, 2011
Signature # 34,318
Shevach T
Brooklyn, NY
October 11, 2011
Signature # 34,344
Esther L
October 11, 2011
Signature # 34,344
and many many more,,,,,
better be technically safe! & dedicate these email dresses to real adults with their consent
win-win its good for the sake of honesty & the adults who agree to sign it get the mitzvah!
I would just do different names evrytime even if im going to have to make up names!!!!!But i will still let my family know!!!!
dont be left out from this greatest mitzvah!
I was in High School with her…woot woot!
Borcheinu avinu kulanu k’echod!
in the zechus of the ahavas yisroel shown by soo many fellow people, H’ will surely make justice prevail!
No offence and dont take it as anything personal but in this scenereo you make no sense at all, yes we must add in tehilim and learning but why cant you instead of wasting so much time commenting on how not important this is spend 2 minutes and ask a friend to sign?
Lev melachim vesarim beyad Hashem
for a Gezeira (Negative decree) to be lifted on high, G-d waits to see what the masses do & all vote for here below in this world!
ultimately its G-d’s decree, but we can unite & trigger a positive shift, by our unanimous & forceful unity!
why is it that the site shows that its retrieving new signatures every second, yet even after refreshing the page the petition count stays the same?
WOW! This is a gr-8 EASY way to help Shalom and his family! Let us all sign the petition…well we do want Shalom free and with his family, that is right~ Let’ s take advantage of this opportunity. come on…I mean we’ve got NOTHING to lose and we could achieve the Best for our brother!
Yeshar Koach!
but never forget Hashem will do his part as well!
please sign the petition! He’s our own brother!I even wish I could well I cant bec. Im only 12 years old so if You’re 13 then pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee right the petition!
especially your last point! “I’m sure Hashem is pleased by the special effort being made”
Stop making things up!! Nowhere does it say that: “higher ranking” petitions will be addressed more seriously… getting it to first serves absolutely NO purpose! If the justice dept doesn’t want to look into this case, they won’t! whether its first or second or third… The jewish people who care about rubashkin (for the most part) didn’t and won’t vote for obama, and he know that.. I am NOT saying “we have done enough”.. the unity this is causing is great too….But i am smart enough to realize that this is wasted energy, that could be used elsewhere! We HAVE… Read more »
(seems like all the same person, but that’s ok) Points: a) An investigation is what is needed. b) The White House promised to “look into” and give “an official response to every petition” – true. c) It is obvious that a higher ranking petition will be addressed more seriously by the WH. d) This is an investigation the Justice Dept does not want to do. This means that the White House would love to get out of it. But if we make this petition impossible to ignore, they would be very hard pressed to shrug it off. e) Second in… Read more »
He did not get much press. All the press was in the circle of the frum world. There was little if any major expose in the major media.
Like SMR said, the yeshuah will come directly from H-shem and not from them.
You are our inspiration!
Hashem yerachem!
its beutiful to see how klal yisroel unites when a family is in trouble!
AND SHOLOM FREED NOW!
its abit offensive that the post here are explaining to people WHY they should donate an hr…
i hope that 99.9% of fellow brothers & sisters out there need not be persuaded to care & give of their time!
its a sign of a Yiddishe hartz, tobe naturally “Gomlei chasodim & Rachmonim!
if this gross injustice doesnt outrage you or pain you, than there’s a good cause for researching this person’s jewish lineage!
if ppl knew the CHOIV & ZECHUS of PIDYON SHVUYIM theyd do this a few minutes a day!
probably more nachas than actual cash for pidyon shvuyim! this is time & effort!
& to tell others to help!
it dosnt cost $! & is greater than most mitzvos we have the zechus todo
Hashem helps us, proportionate to how much we help others with their needs!
so pls show Hashem that you care enough to donate an hour of your time showing friends you care & they should too
you’ll be thanked & respected! no one will view your request (Hachlata to help sm) as annoying or wrong of you to invite them to join you in this (HUGE) mitzvah of Pidyin shevuyin!
people have to realize that there is a big importance in getting him to be no. 1 bichlal and especially because if obama sees that a petition for a single man has that many votes and is number 1 compared to other petitions for single people then it would make a huge diffrence bipashtus.
It is VERY important that we hit 100,000 votes! The Obama administration that is desperately seeking the Jewish vote WILL look at this differently if there are 25,000 or 100,000!!
In addition the supreme court does not take just any case, they only take cases that are of interest to the public. In a country with over 300 Million people, we need to have more then 25,000 hits to stand out…
wow impresed!!!! you inspired me i didnt get as much as you but your right it does feel good!
I also don’t see the point of running around crazy to get the petition to #1. It’s not a popularity contest. The government has not promised to pay more attention to #1 over #2. It’s not like Rubashking is petition #2738 all the way down the line — he’s #2 and if he won’t receive the proper attention now, being number one won’t make the difference. The whitehouse said they will address the petition even with 5000 votes. Then we did 25,000 because, yes, I understand it adds more validity to it. But past that, if Obama won’t see the… Read more »
Very possible someone might be altering the votes.
Remember what happened to the ‘911’ emergency tapes during the 1991 riots?
They were all erased by some ‘unknown.’
Great security in this country. I feel safer giving a 3-year-old a loaded gun.
What about other security systems?
You can only trust HaShem.
I got the same response…interesting…..
I think it sends a very strong message if this petition became THE cause in the entire nation to garner the most votes! It might help and can definitely not hurt so why not try?? Most of the justice system is out of our hands so if we have this opportunity give me one good reason why we shouldn’t try to take advantage of it?! If this was your own father maybe you wouldn’t think it was so “ridiculous” and “utterly pointless”!
The Supreme Court only accepts a minute percentage of the cases presented before them. Popular opinion definitely makes a difference in this country! PLEASE VOTE NOW…you will have the mitzva of ahavas yisroel, whether you personally understand the benefits or not.
help OUR brother
I’ve tried numerous times to sign & I can’t log on. I think i must be a subversive & therefore blacklisted.
just get some friends or family members with email to sign! ebvry vote adds up! Hashem counts our effort to help another to see how to help us!
I don’t think any of us here are experts in the system. Why throw cold water on it? Kol Hakavod to the volunteers who are able and willing to help.Even if it has only a 1% chance of helping to save his life and his family it is worth it!!
this is surely a sensible strategy to shake things up & get at least an investigation!
the hire ups see this aint going away!! its only getting bigger & more exposed for all to see!!
Obama’s reputation rests on him proving that he takes this thing (called WE THE PEOPLE) seriously!
i decided to donate 1 hr of my time to see how many people i can get to sign the petition!
i told them its a huge MITZVA and wont cost a penny ! only 2min over the phone with me coaching them step by step!
in 1 hour i got 15 sybilings/friends to sign!
FEELS GOOD! = ) now u do it!
these cover up often go up to the highest levels! but surely sooner or later the truth will indeed leek out!
Eric Holder wont investigate if he himself stands tobe implicated
i wounder if Eric Holder himself is possibly apt to be exposed as complicit in the cover-up!
2min a person!
To the heads of this new campaign, Why are you wasting our time? We care very much for SM and everytime you asked us for something (including donations) we pulled through. But this pointless campaign is showing that you don’t respect us and our time. We all signed the petition and we hope the White House keeps its promise to look into the matter. Another 20,000 votes will not mean a thing for them. This is not a popularity contest and the battle for Rubashkin is too important to turn it into one. And to #5: If you need press… Read more »
TO HELP ARE BROTHER
just follow the directions that he shows on the video or get someone to help u thanx
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/10/issa-letter-questions-holders-overall-credibility/
not only will it prob bring almost no press… but, press is of no importance… as if rubashkin hasn’t gotten plenty of press…. how’d that work out?
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BEING #1 IS OF GR8 IMPORTANCE AS IT WILL BRING PRESS COVERAGE
There are numerous petition signatures coming in from outside the USA. When this happens, I believe the IP is recorded and those votes are deleted. You need to be an american resident to vote…We need to make sure that every vote is a REAL one!
To accuse the white house of possibly “rigging” the vote for only rubashkin is not normal…
Also: “Can you imagine when at 30 days since the launch we have put R’ Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin as the number one issue of the White House Petition site?”
Yeh, i can imagine… i (and the whitehouse) will be like, “now what”.. utterly pointless
I saw a change of vote numbers, i wrote down 30536 and within 10 minutes it went to 28196
this is not a contest.. it just needs to have more that 25,000 to be reviewed..
More signatures may be better, but “#1” is of no importance…
this is ridiculous!