Truthdig - Ear to the Ground - Wizards of the Inauguration

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Wizards of the Inauguration

flickr.com / Presidential Inaugural Committee

While Barack Obama banned corporations and big donors from funding his inauguration so as to not trammel the public celebration, the big event’s multimillion-dollar bill is instead being footed by Wall Street executives and other financial employees acting as fundraisers. Abracadabra—no more special interests.

The Wall Street Journal:

President-elect Barack Obama has banned corporations and big donors from funding his Jan. 20 inauguration. But 90% of donations received so far have been raised by well-heeled fund-raisers, including Wall Street executives whose companies have received billions of dollars in federal bailout money.

A total of 207 fund-raisers have collected $24.8 million of the $27.3 million in contributions disclosed by Mr. Obama through Thursday, according to an analysis by nonpartisan campaign finance group Public Citizen commissioned by The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street employees, as a group, have been the biggest single source of these private donations, according to the analysis. Much of their donations—$5.7 million total—has been channeled through financial-services executives who each have bundled together donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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TAGS: campaign capitalism capitol corporations finance funding inauguration money obama soft money swearing in wall street

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By greystone, January 12 at 11:07 am #

“And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
No, no!

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
No, no!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”

Report this

By jersey girl, January 11 at 7:49 pm #

Well they are the ones that paid to get him elected. They are the ones that benefited from his cheerleading their stealing of our pensions and economic future.

Why the hell wouldn’t they be the ones to foot the bill for the party. After all they own him AND us now !

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By Blackspeare, January 10 at 2:28 pm #

During the campaign I was talking to a black acquaintance about the chance for Obama to become president and his remark was interesting. He thought that maybe this wasn’t the best time for a Black president. With the economy tanking, world politics seething(before Gaza) and a myriad of other problems if Obama can’t fix things in four years he’s toast and that will be the end of a Black candidate for a long time.

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By Tim Kelly, January 10 at 1:01 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Ch-ch-ch-changes (we can believe in). The money comes in the back door instead of the front door.

Maybe instead of a big-time celebration Obama could have a quiet (but public) swearing-in session and get down to business on Day One. With financial and economic meltdown, a thousand dead Palestinians killed with American taxpayer-funded “grants” to Israel, and global climate change here and now, it seems like a bad time to throw a party - but then again, that’s a change I don’t believe will happen.

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By bogglesthemind, January 9 at 10:06 pm #

“Wall Street executives whose companies have received billions of dollars in federal bailout money.”

This is trite, but what part of “...received billions of dollars in federal bailout money.” do you think is a molehill, katiebegood?

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By katiebegood, January 9 at 9:40 pm #

Perhaps Obama should hold his inaugural festivities at the local grange hall and make it a pot luck.

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

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By bogglesthemind, January 9 at 6:56 pm #

Come on kids. Didn’t we really know the Promised Land was too good to be true?

I believe Mr Obama will do many good things—but he’s still a politician.