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White House Says It Can't Comment On Possible Chris Dodd Investigation

Legal Issues

from the no-surprise-there dept

Wed, Feb 1st 2012 08:00am -

This isn’t a huge surprise, but following the popularity of the petition asking the White House to investigate Chris Dodd (after Dodd’s own statements suggesting that he expects politicians who get Hollywood money to pass Hollywood’s preferred bills no questions asked), the White House has officially stated that it can’t comment on the matter. As per the terms of the White House’s “We the People” petition site, it can refuse to address issues that deal with law enforcement:

consistent with the We the People Terms of Participation and our responses to similar petitions in the past, the White House declines to comment on this petition because it requests a specific law enforcement action.

I’m sure the White House has no interest in getting involved in this in any way, and that if it was actually investigating any of this activity, it wouldn’t want to talk about it publicly until later. Still, I think the petition — and the publicity it got — did serve a key purpose: to highlight the public’s disgust with the MPAA’s form of crony capitalism, and the hubris of folks like Chris Dodd who think that as long as they donate enough money, politicians should be working for the MPAA, rather than the public.

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Companies: mpaa

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Comments on “White House Says It Can't Comment On Possible Chris Dodd Investigation”

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85 Comments
Gabriel Tane (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Word play

Yeeeeeup. Welcome to the dog & pony show of “here, have the choice we give you” illusion of our government at work.

Anyone else notice that the ‘other option’ of the current administration seems to be a constant train-wreck of a contest to see who can be bat-shit crazier, thereby getting more people to vote Obama back in again? Almost like someone out there wants to keep the status-quo as long as possible?

“hey everyone… look how craaaazy your other options are! A bunch of nutty bible-beating scary’s! Those would be much worse than a Kenyan Socialist Commie!”

Now go cast that vote which has never mattered because your election isn’t based on the general popular majority and is instead based on the Electoral College and this whole Primary Party Vote and one candidate-per-party thing is not listed anywhere in the constitution. But never mind that! vote vote vote!!! You’re an American hating TERRORIST who not only doesn’t support our troops, but actively causes them to DIE if you don’t vote. And you hate puppies.

Crap. Dropped my tinfoil hat.

xenomancer (profile) says:

Two Simple Solutions

Since there is already a large support base, there are two simple solutions that this can be rolled over to immediately:

  1. Mass requests to congress (a la SOPA, though maybe a little less pushy)
    • Create a site for action (see americancensorship, this can likely be done over night)
    • Guide the public with unbiased and non-skewed facts
    • Cause at least a congressional inquiry by individual members of congress
    • Cause congress to critically consider who they represent (again)
  2. Mass requests to highest law enforcement authority possible
    • Start with a petition to the whitehouse (FAILED, but try again I guess…)
    • Proceed to the state level (CA, you whore!)
    • Move on to DA’s and ADA’s who have jurisdiction
    • Include racketeering and fraud to the list of possible charges
    • End with a wake up call to the MAFIAA to get their shit in gear (and maybe, you know, innovate a little or serve their customers some)

/lists-are-cool

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Two Simple Solutions

one problem with that, you are asking people who are benefitting from this behavior to investigate it. even if you finally do get someone to look into it i predict you will probably hear something like Our investigation showed no conclusive evidence… which translates to hey have a coke and a smile and shut the fuck up. i mean do you really think anyone at the white house is going to investigate something like this during a run for re-election. come on now, they are taking money off the same people and people just like em

Planespotter (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Really? I thought it showed that people are waking up to fact that multi Billion dollar industries have been buying laws through campaign contributions.

Of course over there in Shillville where you lobbyists live you think that is the norm. One day it’ll bite you in the backside and you’ll be either living off welfare checks or getting cabbage soup from the local kitchen.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

Yeah these kiddies need to go back to their video games and cheetos. We don’t need them paying attention to the way we do business. They get all up in arms with their “moral outrage” to our “corruption” and “back door deals”, well guess waht kids that the real world. A handful of rich powerful people people skull fucking the rest of the world. Stop looking because you won’t like what you see and nothing is going to change because the same people that disgust you are in charge of enforcing the laws and it will be a G-rated day on 4chan before they throw out their free lunch.

Gwiz (profile) says:

Re: Re:

WTG kiddies. Now go back to bed.

You would like that more than anything else at this point wouldn’t you? You fear this new type of activism and wish that the internet populace would go quietly back to watching their cat videos. You fear it because you can never control it or use it, because in order for an uprising like the SOPA protests to happen, the message needs to be righteous at it’s core. About all you can do is try to marginalize and minimize and that is becoming more and more apparent all the time.

Machin Shin (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Really what this shows is that at least 31,034 people see what happened as blatant admission of bribery. I happen to be one of them and I am no longer a child. Whats more I will not shut up because some “old fart” like you tells me to go back to bed.

In fact why don’t you and your friends just go ahead and move to your assisted living communities and leave the rest of us to fix this mess.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

Whoa there, whippersnapper! I’m no youngster and I’m pissed off at these things too.

I contacted my congresscritter, I signed petitions, I boycott, I bore people to tears about IP run amok and what it can mean for this country and them personally.

Don’t fall into the trap of old vs. young. It’s about mindset, not age. It’s about abuse of power and refusal to adapt to market disruption and entrenched players clutching for control at the expense of all others and it enrages me too. The internet is the greatest communication tool to arrive in my lifetime and I know it. Those that would control it know it too, and it SCARES THEM TO DEATH.

Their actions are more easily exposed, they know they’ll go up like flashpaper when the rocks they hide under are flipped and the sunlight hits them. Their own words do them in, and those words never go away, the internet doesn’t forget, the internet keeps it all there, it’s an organism, a collective brain that can’t be lobotomized.

They can’t hide and I think it’s been too long in coming. And I’m old! 😉

JayTee (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Regardless of your statement do you deny that Dodd has gone on the record threatening elected officials and admitting to bribery?

Such an admission of guilt must be investigated no matter who you represent…unless you do not believe in a free and fair society and the application of justice (no matter how rich you are)

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

“Regardless of your statement do you deny that Dodd has gone on the record threatening elected officials and admitting to bribery?”

No, he went on record stating:

(a) donations had been made to the campaign
(b) that they had helped support the person to get elected, and
(c) if they were unable to provide support for their causes, they would stop doing A and B.

Which is pretty much what every group and individual does in donating to a campaign.

Example: If you gave money to the Obama campaign and helped get him elected, and he doesn’t do the things you hoped he would do, perhaps next time you will give money to Ron Paul or Romney. If you state in public “Obama, pay attention to my needs or my next donation is to someone else”, are you threatening anyone, or just stating fact?

The lack of a comment from the Whitehouse on this petition is only that, a lack of a comment. Not commenting doesn’t suggest anything beyond them not having a comment.

31,000 signatures for something that was spewed all over 4chan, reddit, and the like is pathetic, really.

John Fenderson (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

“If you state in public “Obama, pay attention to my needs or my next donation is to someone else”, are you threatening anyone, or just stating fact?”

You are threatening them, of course. But that’s not mutually exclusive with stating a fact.

Dodd’s statement lays bare the overt corruption of the system. That the system is corrupt is not Dodd’s fault, although that he plays the game also makes him corrupt.

The real problem is that campaign donations are so important to politicians that they can be used as bribes in the first place. In a healthy democracy, campaign money wouldn’t have that kind of pull. Voting would.

That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

From a very smart person over on slashdot talking about this…

http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2647875&cid=38887369

No. The petition asked for the wrong thing. (Score:5, Informative)
by tlambert (566799) on Wednesday February 01, @12:19AM (#38887369)

The correct request for a petition would be to impeach Dodd for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The impeachment process may be triggered by non-members. For example, when the Judicial Conference of the United States suggests a federal judge be impeached, a charge of what actions constitute grounds for impeachment may come from a special prosecutor, the President, a state or territorial legislature, grand jury, or by petition.

.

hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States#The_federal_impeachment_procedure

A high crime is one which seeks the overthrow of the country, which gives aid or comfort to its enemies, or which injures the country to the profit of an individual or group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_crimes_and_misdemeanours [wikipedia.org]

Despite that he left office on 3 Jan 2011 and went on to head the MPAA in March 2011, and therefore was not in office, there is precedent for impeaching a government official after leaving office. That precedent is the 1876 case of General William Belknap, who was impeached by a unanimous vote of the House of Representatives shortly after he had resigned for allegedly having received money in return for post tradership appointments (bribery).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W._Belknap [wikipedia.org]

Other precedents also exist. Feel free to consult a real lawyer before submitting the next petition so that a stronger case can be made and actually trigger action.

— Terry

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

someone far cleverer than myself should rewrite the pertition after reading the terms, to make it near impossible for the government to give out a generic bulshit response, use it against them while keeping the spirit of the pertition

i dont know………is that even possible?

My recomendation, be as vague as possible, as that seems to be the only lingo they’ll listen to.

Anonymous Coward says:

But isn't that what the Executive Branch is supposed to do?

You know enforce the laws or at least make sure they are being enforced?

It seems like it would be in the DoJ realm of authority to ensure no backroom deals with a lobbyist were illegal and the only way you do that is to start an investigation. Hell, you already have the confession, what more to you need to prosecute?

Rapnel (profile) says:

Please correct me if I’m wrong here but surely the integrity of this country should take precedent should it not?

Law enforcement action? Oh, please forgive us for seeking remedial steps in an attempt to prevent the reign of madness.

Weapons of mass destruction.. indeed.

Accountability. Integrity. Duty. Justice. Honesty. Truth. Have I left anything relevant off of the “Do Not Disturb” list?

Anonymous Coward says:

can our governments be really this blind to continually brush off issues brought before them by their voters, if they continue this path alot of people gonna get pissed, alot more then we have now, with people realising the potentential the internet provides them when issues arise that they dont agree with, its not gonna go away a-me-rica, well, unless your plan to censor the net succeeds, and yes, i do think they think about it, but they have’nt figured out how to do it without a public outcry

Anonymous Coward says:

I am sure that when Mike read the comments in this post, he laughs his ass off. You guys are so ready with the cross to nail this guy to, that you didn’t even read the post in it’s entirety.

The White House didn’t do anything. They declined to comment on it, because of content. They have no other comments. They have no statements. They didn’t say it has any merit. They didn’t say they support it. They didn’t say anything is happening at all. THEY SAID NOTHING.

What Mike has done is get you guys in a tizzy by setting up the post to make it look like the White House is hiding something, that there is something going on, and they refused to comment on it because there is some sort of ongoing investigation. There is none of that sort of thing that exists, not even a suggest of it.

Mike has got you idiots wrapped around his finger so tight, that when he picks his nose, you guys think he is moving a mountain.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

im so ashamed, how could i have been fooled, mike whyyyyyy??

You’ve shown me the light, hallelujah, Im going back to listening and nodding to everything my goevernment says, because i know at least there i will hear truthfull things on subjects that will affect me in a positive way, and that no preferential treatment will be given to certain entities, and last but not least i know that when we as a people bring an issue up to our governement they will at least have the common decency to respond

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

So, not only did you fail to read Mike’s article, you failed to read the comments as well.

So naturally you pretend that Mike tried to spin-doctor this into a conspiracy coverup, and you assumed that the comments were going in conspiracy theorist mode.

As opposed to…Mike saying that this petition wasn’t expected to go anywhere in the first place, and commenters saying “well that sucks”.

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