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It is clear that the official Whitehouse website "We the People" for submitting petitions is dysfunctional and needs our help.

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All that is currently needed to register and submit a petition on "We the People" is a temporary email address and a fake name. This has led to abuse and spamming of the site.

For example; the multiple petitions for Obama to grant cessation to the States signed by such notables as Anonymous I, anonymous c, thunderbolt c, theman838 j and mailinator.com m etc.

In my opinion, submitting a petition alleging for example to be a "Petition from the American Citizens of the State of Kansas" submitted by a person alleging to be a Richard L, of Alabama that goes on to be signed by others outside the state the petition applies to, including obvious fakes like malinator.com (a site for generating temporary i.e fake email addresses) is, to say the least, an abuse of the site and detracts from real issues that might be presented by those wishing to make use of the site for legitimate purposes.

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There are a few things that might be done.

First there is a Feedback Form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/feedback-petitions

The instructions read: "We the People is a new tool on WhiteHouse.gov and we need your help to make it even better.  Use the form below to send us your feedback and ideas on how we can improve."

If you register on the site and log in it is possible to "Flag" petitions for removal as on Craig's List and similar sites. Under "Terms of Participation" it reads: "As part of the moderation system for We the People, participants will be able to flag a petition if they believe it violates these Terms. You agree to flag only those petitions you believe violate these Terms. You agree not to flag petitions for any other reasons, including your disagreement with the viewpoint reflected in a petition."

Some of the legitimate reasons for Flagging a petition include: "You also agree not to post threats of unlawful violence or harm to any individual or group; obscene, vulgar, or lewd material; defamatory or fraudulent statements; terms commonly understood to constitute profanity or abusive or degrading slurs or epithets; information invading an individual’s privacy; and information that if published would violate criminal law or give rise to civil liability. These categories of material are inconsistent with the limited purpose of We the People and the larger purpose and function of the White House’s website.

I personally believe that a single person posting a petition as a "Petition from the American Citizens of the State of Kansas" by someone who indicates their location to be Alabama is in the least misleading.

Statements such as ""Peacefully grant the remaining United States of America a Pizza Party furnished by Pizza Hut and Papa Johns (unless he keeps laying off his workers) should the State of Missouri succeed with one or both of their petitions to the White House to Secede from the Union." contains false information in that "The State of Missouri" as a body or in some official capacity has not petitioned for any such thing. Likewise, statements such as ""We the people of the state of WI wish to withdraw peacefully from the Union."; "We the people of the great state of Utah,"; "Alaskans now seek to a statewide free election to decide whether Alaska should be a free and Independent Nation." give the false impression that these petitions originate from these States rather than from individuals.

"Peacefully grant the State of Idaho to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government."

This gives the false impression that "The State of Idaho" has made some request to withdraw as well as giving the impression that the country is on the verge of civil war if some action is not taken.

These kind of statements may not constitute fraudulent statements, which itself is nowhere clearly defined in the Terms of Participation, but they are certainly false and misleading and have lead to a flurry of sensational news reports that the States are filing to Secede from the Union.

It would be up to each individual to determine if a specific petition warrants flagging. Use your own judgement. At least the Feedback form might be used to point out the problem and suggest that the  Terms of Participation be more clearly defined and that petitions with false or misleading titles or petitioners who misrepresent themselves can be flagged.

Certainly if an employee of Microsoft started a petition  "We at Microsoft.." in the name of that corporation as a united body there would be grounds for a lawsuit. I don't see that there is much difference where an individual posts a petition as the entire "State of New York" or any other State.

What recourse do I have as a resident of the state when I am lumped in with or implicated in such a petition given that I am part of "The State" and a resident therein? None, other than to start a counter petition which leads to a kind of Flame War in the form of Petitions and counter-petitions and a total loss of decorum inappropriate on an official Government website.

There are additional improvements that can be made I'm sure. There are other Petition Sites on the internet that have worked out such problems and could be referenced for comparison as far as what changes or improvements might be made on the "We the People" site.