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White House Refuses To Comment On Petition To Investigate Chris Dodd

malraid writes "The White House has issued a statement in which they refuse to comment on the petition to investigate Chris Dodd for bribery from the MPAA to pass legislation. The reason given: 'because it requests a specific law enforcement action.'"

14 of 765 comments (clear)

  1. Did anyone really expect anything else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The worst part about this petition and the result, is that it will get basically zero media coverage. All of the mainstream news organizations are tied into SOPA and the lobbyists just as tightly as Dodd.

  2. Re:Executive branch by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He probably didn't break the law, and that's the sad truth. There's a very fine line, maybe a smudge, between being paid for votes, and being paid because you support a platform. They amount to the same thing, at the end of the day, but one is illegal and the other isn't. What he said on Fox news was probably not illegal either, once put in this framework. It would shake my confidence if I ever had any.

  3. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    its not about obama, dammit.

    it wasn't entirely about bush.

    its ENTIRELY about the system and how anyone who enters leaves corrupt.

    money makes the political system work and that's what's wrong.

    stop pointing fingers at one guy. can't you see beyond that (please?)

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  4. Re:Executive branch by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    people growing up, NOW, can realize this. the internet teaches much more of the truth than the textbooks or teachers (are allowed or will).

    we didn't have any kind of internet (not even BBS dialup, at the time) and our means to share info was very local and very limited. we were brought up in near total ignorance. 'trust authority'. all that stuff - that we now know is opposite and untrue.

    today, kids DO have the ability to hear more than one side of the story. well, for as long as the internet remains free...

    I hope that over the next 20 or so years, this generation weeds out the older guys and pushes thru a new style. I have zero hope for today's old rulers, but tomorrow's rulers could actually be from an informed base.

    and sadly, I think the old guys in charge know this, too. they want to milk things as they are for the next 5-25 years, until *they* die out. after that, they don't much care how the world runs. but they do want to keep the world and power base as it is right now.

    the struggle is: do we allow that and for how much longer?

    this is the class war. its real. its simmering, but its growing, to be sure.

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  5. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Your little idealistic plea is nice and all, but I hope you see that you're perpetuating the system.

    Prosecuting one person is a good place to start at ending the systematic corruption. Whining about it and trying to divide attention makes it less likely that anything concrete will ever get started. That's why it's good to "point fingers at one guy". I don't think there's a single person that thinks all of the corruption in the entire system is due to one guy, but we need to direct attention somewhere.

  6. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by Phernost · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Excuse me for butchering the quote, "democracy is two wolves and a sheep discussing what's for dinner, in a republic the sheep gets a shotgun." Since we live in a republic, it seem to be spot on. Not that I agree with it, but sometimes the majority is wrong. Guns probably won't really help solve it in the long run though, lots of guns might.

  7. Re:That's how it works. by gd2shoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I know it won't make you feel any better, but those of us living (and voting) here in the US feel the same way. When all you have to vote for is the lesser of two evils, you still wind up with electing evil. Not every political race deserves such a jaded attitude, but enough of them do to bork the system.

    --
    I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
  8. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by AngryDeuce · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But no, rather than accept that the country will always be messy and that we should do the best we can, you want to burn it all down.

    No, I will not accept that. You want people to just shrug their shoulders and say "Meh, shit's fucked up, shit's always been fucked up, so fuck it?" Bullshit all over that. You be as complacent as you fucking want. I know we can do better.

    I don't want it to come to that point, I really don't. But like I said, I will not be a victim. I'm not going to sit idly by and watch our right to privacy be taken away, our right to free speech taken away, our right to freely move about the country taken away, our right to be secure both in our person and property taken away. Our own government has been doing this to us at a fever pitch for the last fucking decade, not fucking Al Qaeda, not Osama bin Laden, not Saddam Hussein, not Iran, not China. This was our own fucking government doing this bullshit, across all three branches, and the people just repeated the same old litany "Well, if it makes us safer..."

    Fuck that bullshit. No more. Put your hands over your ears and keep repeating "it's not that bad, it's not that bad, it's not that bad..." if that's what you want to do, but forgive me and the millions of other people that actually believe in something better for not being quite ready to bend over and get fucked with the rest of the cattle.

  9. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm a vet who has fought for this country, for our liberties and our way of life

    Unless you're old enough to have mustered out in 1945, this statement is false. You may have fought for something, all right, but it wasn't for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

    At least not for you and me.

  10. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by evanism · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps, AC, you struggle from reading English. It is blunt from my text, and the OP that we are not American, nor do we live in the USA.

    Your language and absolute rejection of critique and the nature of it is EXACTLY my point.

    Nobody here "hates" the USA. We despise the one eyed ignorant and devicive viewpoints.

    Maybe you have trolled me. Point struck then, sir, but I suspect you are a typical citizen. ....And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

    There is one to bake your noodle.

    --
    Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
  11. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by AngryDeuce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    To get my way? I just want to be left the fuck alone! I want the government to stop listening in on my fucking phone calls, stop scraping my instant messages, stop trying to give me the fucking finger in the ass routine every time I have the audacity to get on an airplane, stop handing over my fucking tax dollars to goddamned Wall Street bankers, stop allowing these parasites we call "corporations" to put slaves across the world to work and bring their wares here for nothing while 1 in 5 of us are either unemployed or underemployed, stop allowing our infrastructure here to fucking fall apart while we're helping other countries build....

    The government has been wiping it's ass with the Bill of Rights for decades, but the last few years or so they've been ramping up. They see the writing on the wall. They know the jig is up, so they're making their last ditch cash/power grabs while enough people still have the faith in their government necessary to facilitate it. Once that's gone, it's all over. The locusts will pick up and move on to greener pastures while we fucking eat each other. The Occupy protests are going to look like a block party a year from now.

    I understand your point, I really do, but I truly believe it's too late for that now. We're stuck in a positive feedback loop. There's only going to be more civil disobedience, resulting in more of our rights being taken away, resulting in more civil disobedience, resulting in more rights taken away, resulting in more civil disobedience...you get my point. You may not share my opinions, but to be honest, I'd rather be prepared for that eventuality than not, and since buying more than 7 days worth of food or owning multiple guns is probably enough to get you on some government watch list (if me simply talking about my extreme dissatisfaction with my government as of late isn't enough), I'm probably fucked. But I am not going to be a victim.

  12. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by Tastecicles · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Partisan politics operating under colour of Democracy is an abject failure in its theory but NONE OF YOU SHEEP CAN SEE IT.

    What Partisan politics do is polarise one group of people against another - much as what we're seeing here. RvD, two sides fighting each other instead of fighting the REAL ENEMY which is the criminal element RUNNING YOUR COUNTRY.

    What changes when the regime changes?

    NOTHING.

    Why?

    The promises might be slightly different, but the endgames in any case are EXACTLY THE SAME. Gain at the expense of EVERYBODY ELSE.

    Fuck you lot, as long as you keep consuming and breeding more consumers and continue to buy into the Great Fiscal Lie, then the 1% will continue to divide you and they will continue to control you, all the time further abrogating your rights previously guaranteed by a two hundred fifty-odd year old piece of parchment!

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
  13. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by Mabhatter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because Cheney built up an impressive array of "civil servants" (much like in Torchwood) that are all unelected, highly powerful people. Obama really couldn't do the job without them... Cheney and Rumsfield go all the way back to Nixon. They made impressive gains at shaking out the upper and middle military ranks of officers "disloyal" to the PNAC agenda, along with a few high profile firings, and throwing opponents from their OWN party under the bus as an example.

    In short, Bush was part in creating a stitation where a large part of upper government is established for the next 20 years. There is really little Obama can responsibly do at this point... Fire half the generals during a war? Most of the upper Executive agencies were "packed" in the ranks with people aligned with Cheney's agenda.

    The biggest indicator for me was how in the middle of a "war" the President didn't groom ANYBODY from his OWN party to continue the work? You really gotta hand it to them.

    Philosophically, this is where Neo-Cons are using their "corporate" attitude so they don't have to worry about elections to advance their agenda. Fill the CIA with leaders that will report a "terrorist" under every rock, and the current President has to act on "expert" advice.. The same tounges quiet to Bush's foibles will wag to the press about Obama in a minute. It plays right into the Democrats ideal that people in government want the "best" for "everybody" but they have been played since Clinton and even Carter by the other side packing the ranks of people that are supposed to be experts and non-partisian.

  14. Re:Dying from lack of surprise... by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, it's craptastic that Dodd isn't getting investigated [at least, not publicly].

    Wow, why wasnt this your sentiment when you posted the first time? I think that you are mad that you have to admit it.

    But it's not like the republican's fall all over themselves to investigate fellow republican's when they are in charge.

    There you go, bashing Republicans again...

    You couldn't even go more than one complete sentences without transforming back into a Republican basher. The Democrats and their actions are the ones being discussed, but you can't stand it.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."