"The best government money can buy is not a good government at all."

Al Franken on PIPA, lobbying, and campaign finance reform:

Hi. My name is Al Franken. I am a Senator from Minnesota. A proposed bill in the Senate, PIPA, threatens to treat the concept of free speech in much the same way that totalitarian regimes in China, Iran and North Korea do. This bill is why so many internet sites have 'gone black' in protest. It was written for lobbyists to place corporate greed over the fundamental freedoms our nation was founded on, and I support it.

Does my support of this bill mean Lobbyist Money is more important to me than Free Speech?

Would it surprise you to know that, during the 2010 Election Cycle, I accepted at least $88,900 in contributions from members of the Entertainment industry, who are leading the push to have these bills hastily approved.?
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What are you going to do? Complain? Go ahead, see if I care.

I've ignored the advice and warnings of hundreds of experts in Constitutional Law, Free Speech and Technology. Do you think I'll listen to *you*?

The sad truth is that politicians like money. That's why Campaign Finance Reform is such a hot -- and important -- topic.
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A single person can't compete with the hundreds of thousands of lobbyist dollars that candidates typically receive, but together we might be able to.

If you tweet at a Senator or Representative with the hashtag #buythevote, we'll start tracking it. We'll keep a running tally of how many people want their representatives to give back lobbyist dollars before their vote. We'll also track the total number of people and dollars offered to congresspeople for them to represent people, not lobbyists.

There are some sample tweets for you tweeters. I'm more the "tar and feathers" type myself.

Campaign finance reform is never going to be be done by those who benefit from it. Same with crony capitalism. It's going to have to be imposed from outside. A few heads on pikes might be a good start.