Before the whitehouse "Wethepeople" website, what is the petition mechanism?

[voiceliu]

The whitehouse has issued a petition website, and I noticed that the wording "The idea of petitioning the White House or the government isn’t new, but this online platform is."

Then I have several questions in mind:

1. Since we are a federal country, normally we should file our petition to state government, so in what circumstance do we need to petition to the whitehouse?

2. Before the internet era what is the petition mechanism and how does it excised? Is it effective?

thanks~~

 

[Intense]

In a Federal Republic, at least in theory, Jurisdiction is divided between Local, State and Federal Authorities, unlike China for example where Centralized Authority is top down. You interested in Obama? We can let you have him real cheap.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

If you have faith in Obama and the Federal government, you will never want for anything. Consider the Obamaphone users of the field, they neither toil nor do anything constructive, yet they are cared for and voted for Obama several times this past November

 

[voiceliu]

In a Federal Republic, at least in theory, Jurisdiction is divided between Local, State and Federal Authorities, unlike China for example where Centralized Authority is top down. You interested in Obama? We can let you have him real cheap.

Thanks for your reply...I do not like Obama, since I believe he is a socialist, and we already have so many socialist here in China giving us so many troubles...

But I am curious about the petition mechanism in USA, is there any particular law regarding this or it is just a right from the first amendment? and what is the petition mechanism before the realse of the website?

Is anyone know anything about this?