[groby_b]

You've got to see it differently - that means a bill costs about $500K/senator. (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=... for Dick Durbins money influx.)

I wonder if it's possible to buy bills via Kickstarter...

[jamesbritt]

I wonder if it's possible to buy bills via Kickstarter...

Is that legal? Would a PAC or Super PAC be needed first?

[groby_b]

Well, you would need to construct a legal fiction to maintain the pretense that this is above-board. So yes, some PAC-y things will be needed.

And of course you don't buy a bill, you just strongly suggest (with the implied promise of continued donations)

I believe it's called lobbying, but nobody has tried it via crowd-sourcing yet. I should get a patent ;)

[jamesbritt]

I'm wondering what the legal ramifications would be to have a a Kickstarter project that explicitly calls for funds to bribe politicians in order to counter other bribes to politicians.

Kickstarter itself may not even allow (I bet their TOS forbids illegal activity) but the PR might be good to call attention to the problem of lobbyist influence.

[groby_b]

Uh, no. While I like to joke about this, I continue to believe that we can fix problems without illegal activity. Call me a hopeless optimist.

[jamesbritt]

I believe it's called lobbying, but nobody has tried it via crowd-sourcing yet. I should get a patent ;)

Talk to Lodsys.