Protest of Petitions Online website

This is to protest the website "Petitions Online" for deleting a petition (written in opposition to the Bush administration) allegedly because the author did not submit a full first and last name. The author originally submitted the petition with initials only and the petition was posted on the site. But then the author received an email saying that if a full first and last name were not submitted within 72 hours, the petition would be disabled. The author then submitted a full first name and last initial - and the petition was deleted from the website. This is a discriminatory act of censorship, because in checking other petitions, it is obvious that some authors have provided only one full name, just initials, or an obviously fake name, yet the administrators of the website have chosen to allow those petitions to remain online. Such a "rule" cannot apply to some, and not to others.

Petitions Online also obviously allows the posting of petitions and signatures with grossly offensive content. This is completely unacceptable, and there is no reason why ANY petition or signature on this site should contain any content that may be deemed insulting, racist, vulgar, or offensive in any manner. Any petitions containing such should be disallowed and any offensive signatures should be deleted within 72 hours.

But evidently, Petitions Online does not care about the content of the petitions or the manner in which people sign them; instead, they choose to focus their powers of censorship on whether an author provides his or her entire name, something which makes no difference to anyone and has NO bearing on the content of the petition.

This particular "rule" should be eliminated as the full name of the author is irrelevant to the petition content. Petitions Online should also establish guidelines for posting, and should accept ONLY those petitions with appropriate content, and they should remove any signatures that are obviously fictionalized or are insulting or offensive to the author.