So we made this site with the goal of funding a lobbyist to represent the 99%. The money comes from small pledges of $5 and up. So far we've raised nearly $10k in under a week. We're focusing fund raising efforts on causes.
I'm the founder and lead developer, and I'd love to hear this community's thoughts on the project as well as answer any questions.
Thanks guys!
http://www.wethelobby.com/
We don't feel that lobbying is inherently evil - it is just unbalanced and mis-guided. We wish to cast an example of how lobbying can be positive, as well as provide an argument for it's need to be regulated and more closely watched.
The general constituency of a democracy should not have to pool money just to be heard by it's government, but the current lack of regulations over gov't lobbying have forced the hand of the people.
Also, this was an Onion article: http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-people-hire-highpo...
Life imitates satire.
In the vein of the Onion article, I hope you've been watching the hilarity of Colbert's super PAC.
The Onion stands on the precipice of prescience with their humor. I'm reminded of this article (note the date):
http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nigh...
Direct monetary democracy.
I dismissed the idea as too cynical and possibly illegal? A promise of monetary compensation for your vote is probably illegal. Monetary compensation with a suggestion of what the vote should be is completely different. The payment is not contingent on the action. I'm not sure that the money pool with no named recipient in advance abstracts that away enough.
Taking the money crowd funded means you can accept no other form of donations.
Just a thought, not related to We The Lobby, but perhaps a future project?
Lobbying firms are in fact by law transparent about their finances - but we will also draft agreements with any partners demanding transparency and analysis of any financial data be updated on the site, available to the public.
On top of this, we are setting up a system to update users on the activities of the lobbyists, where they will disclose what they've been up to.
As for "backroom deals" and the like - if you research lobbying, you'll find it's not quite as shady as it's made out to be. It's just controlled by one small portion of the population, which owns a majority of the wealth. We The Lobby wishes to balance that.
I'm an attorney and, although I can't give you legal advice, I can try to steer you in the right direction, presuming you're not already in touch with a lawyer.
Unlike PlainSite, it's open source and AGPL. Also some differences of approach which are hard to summarize here. Happy to collaborate with anyone interested.
