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White House Petition To Investigate Dodd For Bribery
Walkingshark writes "Chris Dodd's recent statements complaining that congressmen who receive donations from the RIAA and MPAA should toe the line has spawned a firestorm of anger on the internet. Among the bits of fallout: a petition on the White Houses "We the People" site to investigate him, the RIAA, and the MPAA for bribery! This petition gained more than 5000 signatures in 24 hours and is still growing. When the petition reaches 25,000 signatures the White House is obligated to respond to it in an official capacity."
The petition to take the petitions seriously (AKA the "calling shenanigans on "representation" petition) gained the required number of signatures already and was subsequently completely ignored.
Link: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/actually-take-these-petitions-seriously-instead-just-using-them-excuse-pretend-you-are-listening/grQ9mNkN
In theory, when a politician is bribed, he is paid to hold a particular opinion. When he is lobbied, he is paid (indirectly) for someone to be allowed to present their case. In practice, when you have two sides to an argument and one is paying to make its case and the other is not, then the politician does not hear from the other side and so ends up holding whatever opinion the lobbyist presents.
Lobbying wouldn't be such a problem if politicians were less lazy. If they heard from lobbyists and then did some real research on the topic, then lobbying would just do what it was meant to: bring issues to the attention of elected representatives.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Yeah, many of the petitions that have reached 25,000 have gotten a response that amounts to "no comment". It's too bad the media doesn't pick up on these petitions.
That's what lobbying pretends to be. What lobbying really IS, at least in the case of the RIAA and MPAA, is that the lobbyists write legislation, which they then hand over to said staffers along with a check and promise for future campaign help if the congresspeople pass that legislation.
a corporation made up of specialists in a field would know better how things in their expertise work as opposed to politicians (e.g. technology, education, environment, etc.).
The experts really think that an issue is important, then they can lobby as individuals for that issue - whatever it may be.
If only there was a line that can be easily identified between "Corporation that knows what it's doing for the greater good" and "Corporation that is trying to abuse the hell out of the system and/or doing something stupid".
Yes there is a line.
Corporations always do what's necessary to bolster their bottom line and it is always at the expense of people.
By all means, post an example - just one would be more than sufficient since I stated an absolute - of a corporation lobbying on the behalf of the public good AND that is detrimental to their profits.
Just one to blow me out of the water and I'll kiss goatse on the ass.
Really, there are a lot of petitions on there I would think everyone on Slashdot would support. Consider these:
Restore democracy by ending corporate personhood
Reduce the term of copyrights to a maximum of 56 years
End ACTA and Protect our right to privacy on the Internet
You can register and sign all of them in about two minutes. There's absolutely no excuse not to, except apathy. Signing a petition may not change anything, but not signing it is guaranteed not to.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Street_Project
a true 'audit' would be combing through every piece of legislation the congressman voted for, and determining whether or not the $500,000 worth of campaign donations that helped him and his party over the past 5 years were from people who benefited from line items in the bills he sponsored or passed.
and in case you didnt notice, congressman have sweet jobs - massive salaries, free health care, pensions, and, on top of that, after they get through, they get jobs as ---- lobbyists, making untold fortunes using their contacts in washington to keep the gravy train going.
these objections people are raising here about the legitimate uses of lobbying are like someone arguing about the legitimate uses of dynamite in a banking environment.
No need to be so optimistic.. Old world mass media still owns the pipe... If you don't believe me, just look at the types that are still winning elections. I mean, how is this possible? (That's a rhetorical question, no need to answer)
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone