The 1% Election: How to Turn Election Year Into Election Life

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/12

Sometimes words outlive their usefulness. Sometimes the gap between changing reality and the names we’ve given it grows so wide that they empty of all meaning or retain older meanings that only confuse us. “Election,” “presidential election campaign,” and “democracy” all seem like obvious candidates for name-change.

I thought about this recently as President Obama hustled around my hometown, snarling New York traffic in the name of Campaign 2012. He was, it turned out, “hosting” three back-to-back fundraising events: one at the tony Gotham Bar and Grill for 45 supporters at $35,800 a head (the menu: roasted beet salad, steak and onion rings, with apple strudel, chocolate pecan pie, and cinnamon ice cream -- a meal meant to “shine a little light” on American farms); one for 30 Jewish supporters at the home of Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress, for at least $10,000 a pop; and one at the Sheraton Hotel, evidently for the plebes of the contribution world, that cost a mere $1,000 a head. (Maybe the menu there was rubber chicken.)

In the course of his several meals, the president pledged his support for Israel (in the face of Republican charges that he is eternally soft on the subject), talked about “taxes and the economy” to his undoubtedly under-taxed listeners, and made this stirringly meaningless but rousing comment: “No matter who we are, no matter where we come from, we're one nation. We're one people. And that's what's at stake in this election."

Outside his final event, Occupy Wall Street protesters saw something else at stake, dubbing him the “1% president.” The end result from a night’s heavy lifting: $2.4 million for his election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, nowhere close to 1% of what they will need for the next year.

[roseBudd]

1. Bitching about fund raisers is stupid. Adults deal with the reality of the short term, while

planning for the future reality of the long term strategy & tactics.

Never lose sight of who legislated the income inequality.

Hint

It was before Obama was even in the Illinois Stae Senate.

[Fumesucker]

3. Pointing out hypocrisy is never stupid..

It's the hypocrisy that's stupid, pointing it out is a civic virtue.

[roseBudd]

4. It doesn't qualify as hypocrisy until the reality changes. And it will always be the quid pro quo...

not the fund raising

Wall St's quid pro quo has always come from the GOP, regardless of how much money they give to members of the sane party

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/wall-street-helps-boehner-boost-fundraising-as-house-speaker.html

The nays for Gramm-Leach-Bliley

Roll call

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=106&session=1&vote=00105#top

The Nays
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
BIDEN (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Breaux (D-LA)
Bryan (D-NV)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cleland (D-GA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Daschle (D-SD)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Edwards (D-NC)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (D-FL)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerrey (D-NE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Moynihan (D-NY)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Robb (D-VA)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Torricelli (D-NJ)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Wyden (D-OR)

[Jefferson23]

2. K&R