Who's Buying a President?
I like charts, graphs and the like.
Let's take a very cursory look at how Wall Street buys access.
From this chart we can see the top 5 Wall Street influence peddlers paid to their guy in order to garner favorable legislation. I'm sorry, rather they did so out of benevolence. opensecrets.org lists $2,173,703 to the Bush 2004 campaign, whilst Kerry was awarded $528,237.
Remember the Internet ad"Unprincipled" that the Bush team ran in February? We do. That was a major distortion.
Truth is, Bush has taken far more "special interest" money than Kerry.
(Can you really call a GOP candidate taking tobacco money a "special interest?"..I'd argue it's a "regular interest" of the GOP's)
More fun courtesy of opensecrets.org:
Those are some of the numbers.
As Greg Palast so aptly put it: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
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Staying with the literary bestseller topic, I am not at all interested in reading W.J. Clinton's My Life. I think the next tome I am going to read is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present. I know where Zinn is coming from, and I think that a counter to history written by the ruling class is necessary.
****************************************
I know that my spelling, syntax and punctuation have been really awful this week. I blame it on a combination of all-too-cheap rum, and this mind-warpingly slow web connection. See any psychology text for a comprehensive definition of: rationilization :)
Let's take a very cursory look at how Wall Street buys access.
From this chart we can see the top 5 Wall Street influence peddlers paid to their guy in order to garner favorable legislation. I'm sorry, rather they did so out of benevolence. opensecrets.org lists $2,173,703 to the Bush 2004 campaign, whilst Kerry was awarded $528,237.
Remember the Internet ad"Unprincipled" that the Bush team ran in February? We do. That was a major distortion.
Truth is, Bush has taken far more "special interest" money than Kerry.
(Can you really call a GOP candidate taking tobacco money a "special interest?"..I'd argue it's a "regular interest" of the GOP's)
More fun courtesy of opensecrets.org:
Special Interest Money
(Selected Industries)
(Donations to 2004 Presidential Campaign)
Bush Kerry
Paid Lobbyists $960,154 $234,920
Lawyers & Law Firms $7,085,942 $3,474,264
Real Estate $6,678,976 $787,124
Securities $4,820,780 $1,087,925
Health Professionals $3,010,576 $392,187
Insurance $1,850,532 $134,250
TV/Movies/Music $522,725 $475,050
Pharmaceuticals $393,100 $55,650
Telephone Utilities $285,250 $10,000
Health Services/HMOs $171,450 $33,950
Tobacco $107,500 $5,300
Those are some of the numbers.
As Greg Palast so aptly put it: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
****************************************
Staying with the literary bestseller topic, I am not at all interested in reading W.J. Clinton's My Life. I think the next tome I am going to read is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present. I know where Zinn is coming from, and I think that a counter to history written by the ruling class is necessary.
****************************************
I know that my spelling, syntax and punctuation have been really awful this week. I blame it on a combination of all-too-cheap rum, and this mind-warpingly slow web connection. See any psychology text for a comprehensive definition of: rationilization :)
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