Big Money Comes Out for the Inauguration

randall_burns writes "Open Secrets is running an interesting story about major donors to Bush's inauguration. The founder of Dell is one of the high rollers funding Bush's party."

Comments

Money isn't bad

[Anonymous Coward]

But I do wish Badnarick was taking the oath. G Dubya has done some interesting things with politics, but no need to hate. Think that the "Right" sat through 8 years of Clinton. The Left through 8 years of Reagan. Eevrything is equal. And the world hates the US.

Re:Money isn't bad

[Anonymous Coward]

The Left has sat through 90 years of US administrations. Clinton wasn't left; he was only slightly right of centre.

Love the U.S.? Educate yourself about the U.S. gov

[Futurepower(R)]

If you love the U.S., you will educate yourself about what the U.S. government is doing:

Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government

History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories

New York Governor Pataki's statements are equivalent to a declaration of war.

U.S. Federal Deficit by Political Party

Re:What's the point?

[Seumas]

That's interest, because I haven't heard _any_ criticism of Bush. Especially on the radio. In fact, all I've heard is about how stoic and somber he is. How he has a lot on his mind. How he's busy saving the free world from tyranny.

Bush is a bad president because he of the incredible corruption. Just follow the realations and the ties (including family) between him, Saudi's, Halliburton, Fox News, Baseball, energy companies . . . It's just incredible.

I didn't like Clinton. I wanted Bush instead of Gore. But in retrospect, Clinton is looking damn good and Bush is just a mess. Christ, the guy has conversations with God in his head. And he thinks 51% of the votes (and 16% of the country) is a "mandate". Not to mention, as far as he is concerned, I am not a Patriot and I don't deserve to be an American citizen, because I'm agnostic. (Okay, so his father actually said that in the early 1990s and then again in late 2004, but one may presume that since all of the other beliefs between the bushes are similar, this might be too).

Oh, wait - I thought of other reasons that Bush is a bad president.

* John Ashcroft
* Michael Powell

I'm not saying that the Democrat's feces doesn't stink. But it's a conservative turd that's sitting at the desk in the Oval Office at the moment. I can't wait to get the next four years over with and, while I find it incredibly unlikely, hope that the next administration (whatever party they may be) have more respect for civil liberties and the wellfare of someone other than his fat-cat corporate buddies.

It's time to bury this lie

[DesScorp]

I see this quote thrown around quite a bit, so I looked it up on Snopes. Guess what? They've talked about it quite a bit, and no one can substantiate it. The only source for the quote comes from an atheist website. Boy, that's a shock, eh? Bush denies he said it, and the only semi-credible website that referenced it (MSN Encarta) has now removed it. If you've got REAL proof Bush 41 said this, post it.

Can a tax accountant/attorney answer this one?

[HungWeiLo]

Can the corporate contributions to this event be tax-deductable? Are menial wage earners like myself paying for any of this?

Or am I asking something I already know the answer to?

Re:Money is bad

[CrimsonAvenger]

Your final point is incoherent. You believe that corporations give money, but don't expect anything in return. You believe that politicians accept money, but don't expect they have to do anything in return. Which brings up the critical point: If nobody expects anything, why are all these checks being written?

One of the newer fund-raising techniques being used is to:
1) Pick a victim,
2) Write a piece of Legislation that would seriously damage the victim,
3) Start the legislation through the process of becoming law,
4) Visit the victim, making sure that he knows you could be convinced to abandon said legislation for a suitable bribe...er, campaign donation,
5) Wait while victim writes the check,
6) Go back and pull the Bill from the docket,
7) Repeat the following year.

Often as not, it's not the businesses controlling the policitians, but the politicians blackmailing the businesses. Yes, blackmail is such an ugly word, but it frequently fits very well in describing how politicians ask for campaign contributions from businesses.

Re:Money is bad

[miu]

The left is not that simple. I'm more on the liberal side of things in the sense that I believe that human rights need to be protected from business, but I'm anti-abortion after the first month, pro-gun, anti-Israel, pro-separation of church and state, pro-gay marriage/civil-union, and think Moore/Franken/Coulter/Limbaugh and Hollywood liberals are all pompous fools who oversimplify complex subjects for credulous fools.

I said that right continuing to believe that Bush is a good president is an irrational act, it doesn't prevent my seeing that sort of irrationality in the left.