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."

Comments

They've already ignored one qualified petition

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Lobbying vs Bribery

[russotto]

Do you even know what the work means?

So, you're saying that if you and a bunch of people who think like you decided to pool some resources and hire somebody to go to DC and make sure that the staffers working for congressional reps and senators were up to speed on some complex topic that most people don't understand (the better to hope that any voting they do that might impact this thing you care about is based on actual information, and not what someone else told them) ... that's dishonest?

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.

Yeah, I'm an AC - so what.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Yeah, I'm an AC - so what.

[EdIII]

Posting here because this at the top so far.

http://wh.gov/KiE

That is the direct link to sign the petition at the White House website. Still needs 14,000 signatures to go.

Slashdot that petition please :)

Re:Losers

[SoftwareArtist]

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.