You know what Jared592? I thought about your comment after I wrote my letter to my senator and perhaps you are right, perhaps it is unscientific to say that the Consumerist says the RIAA is the worst company in America. But then I thought when do politicians ever listen to scientists? Politicians just put their own spin on data to put their own interests in a positive light. The Consumerist is a site that I read often and I'm always amazed by the content I find here. If I didn't note that my senator, (Diane Feinstein) had accepted $4,000 from the RIAA I probably would not have wrote her letter. Of course I did not only talk about my disapproval of the $4,000, but also in regards to her corruption by voting yes on the latest war funding bill where she says she is disappointed that it was passed, but yet she voted yes for it? She voted yes because her husband makes a ton of money in the defense industry and my digging also shows that Feinstein and her husband just bought a $16 million dollar mansion in SF.
So even if we readers of the consumerist are as you say "pseudo-political e-whiners" the article still made me angry enough to write a letter to her and tell her that I disapprove of her actions and that she has lost my vote. As the end of the article says, don't be afraid to tell your representatives how you feel. How else are they going to know?

This is easily circumvented within many Corporatist environments; give the maximum personal donation? Expect a Christmas bonus that covers your donation cost plus the additional tax you had to pay to make it. Don't give the donation to the bosses favorite? Don't cry when you fail your promotion. Wish to remain anonymous so your boss doesn't know? Sorry, it's public record.

http://maplight.org/

Pogue talks about it here, but makes the same mistake in assuming correlation = causation.

@abbamouse: Thanks for the clarification. I'm a layman at best but am very interested in polysci.

What we need is a database that tracks how much money they get from who(which is already available from opensecrets.org) but then correlates that with their voting history. Then you could make an index of how much any particular politician's votes really are defined by their contributions.

I imagine, for any given congressman, the correlation would be minor, except for those with only a few large donors, or right before an election year. The interesting thing to see would be just what things affect the strength of the correlation the most(I imagine an upcoming election year would be a big one), and if anyone's voting record could be predicted with, say, greater than 90% accuracy, from their past donor history.

Anyways, I dislike the RIAA as much as the next internet user, but to use your own unscientific poll as a means to legitimize naming the RIAA "Worst Company in America" does more harm than good, marginalizing us as a bunch of cheap, spoiled, pseudo-political e-whiners. I'm all for contacting the politicians in your list, but certainly not in a manner as unproductive as what essentially amounts to rage-mailing.

There are valid reasons to write these polticians. Hailing as being from a marginal watchdog website will get your letter binned faster than you can say "Fight the machine, man!" I certainly wouldn't want to read a bunch of form-letter rageahol and wouldn't blame anyone for trashing stuff like that without reading it.

The documentation beside her name lists "Ellen Tauscher for Congress", "Feinstein or Senate", and "Friends of Conrad Burns" as recipients, but no Hillary Clinton.

asherchang: I'm dissapointed with Obama too. I'm sure if he gets elected he'll remember who contributed this money (currently 0.008% of his campaign funds) and pay them some pretty heavy favors!

On the other hand, Orrin Hatch actually does seem to be property of the RIAA. I desperately hope his INDUCE Act never sees the light of day again.

The RIAA is a LOBBYING organization. Giving money to politicians is what they do. trying to get a politician to stop taking money from a lobbyist is like getting your dog to stop breathing air. Highly unlikely.

Vote with your dollars. Support indy music. Go to a concert. buy a shirt. buy your cd's directly from the artist or used.

Connie Mack listed as a Senator representing the Great State of Florida, hasn't been our senator for FIVE years. Our senators are Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson. Only Nelson is listed as receiving funds from the RIAA.

Also, according to opensecrets.org,
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/induscode.asp?code=C2...

the RIAA is the top spender for lobbying activities, though BMI ans ASCAP are two and three respectively.

What I want to know is why they are giving Robert Wexler so much money. He represents Boca Raton. Are a lot of Jewish grannies torrent freaks?

Goodness, that name has become a punchline. From his infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" to his "series of tubes" comment to the secret hold he placed on placed on that Act Obama introduced.

I await his next act of stupidity.

I guess that only happens in nasty middle east countires?

I've sent her notes about other similar topics like BPL (Broadband over Powerlines) which is evil and should never make it here. (Other countries have banned it because of the RF noise it eminates)

all you ham radio operators need to step out of the way. BPL is coming whether you like it or not.

More like "Am I the only one who finds some of these numbers kinda high?" $5000 is the limit for a corporate contribution to a Federal candidate, I believe.

At best campaign contributions buy seats.

Contributions go to congressmen who already share the political views of the special interest group. The money helps get them into power, not to change their voting. As noted previously, most of these type of contributions are pretty miniscule amounts...certainly not enough to change someone's opinions.

If you go to the website of any member of congress and try to leave a message you'll see a note that only those that live in their area will be seen.

And what's with the contact information? Do people expect their politicians to need people to point out every little thing they do wrong? Please, vote for somebody else. This is why there's still war in Iraq.

I bet the money the RIAA gave these guys came out of all the lawsuit winnings.

Either way, let's give 'em hell.