INAUGURATION DAY TEARS - PRAYER - CHALLENGE
What message is Inauguration Celebration Sending?
"Wall Street may be bruised and battered, but it still donated more money than any other U.S. industry to President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural festivities on Tuesday, a study has found.""While Americans are hoping for real change in Washington, many deep-pocketed donors are hoping money still buys them access and influence," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the non-partisan money-in-politics watchdog group.
"If history is any guide, these wealthy individuals, as well as the corporations and industries they represent, may more than recoup their investment in Obama through presidential appointments, favourable legislation and government contracts." (see full report below)
It's actions - not words - that count!
I am becoming more discouraged over the possibility of Obama's ability to bring real and needed change versus continued control by the same old money/power elite.
Yet opinion polls are full of optimism. We need optimism but it should be based on facts and actions. Please LOOK FOR AND ARTICULATE SPECIFIC ACTIONS Obama is taking which indicate real understanding of crisis, real listening to Main Street versus Wall Street, real steps that will predominately address root problems rather than symptoms, not just give bail-outs to the powers that be and a trickle to citizens, not just print more paper dollars!
If Obama were serious,,,he'd halve the partying and go out into the streets and get others to come with him to help those in need.... he'd have Inaugural meetings on TV with America's Main Street rather than dancing the night away at elaborate corporate sponsored parties.
Yes, those who worked hard need to celebrate but celebration can also include doing good...not just drink. eat, dance.... paid for by the very people who are hurting our economy yet taking big tax bail outs.
The financial people surrounding Obama have me even more concerned. I said from the beginning -when others were praising the NY Fed prez choice for Treasury Sec as brilliant - that he was a harbinger and top puppet for those destroying America. Now see that he didn't pay income taxes ... the head of the only permanent seat on FOMC .. the head of the biggest and most influential Fed ... and then all one has to do is look at background ... protégé of Kissinger ... also very closely allied to the vice-chair of AIG ... add in his work with institutions which have hurt economies of world ... then bringing Larry Sommers into the White House - the man who led the fight to dismantle the 1933 law which prevented Wall Street excesses that led to Great Depression. He then fought to replace with laws which allowed insurance. banks. brokers to go into each others business plus opened doors to the widening OTC derivatives etc
While people celebrate Tuesday...I will shed a tear and say a prayer. Obama is NOT acting in manner that puts people first. I am sure the Inauguration Speech will be fine uplifting words and promises. There will be plans and challenges. Yet, look at who surrounds him as he speaks. Look at who is putting together the plans. Look at where the voices of America are included in the specifics and how much versus what the "Big Boys" get.
OUR challenge is to find a way to get past the power stranglehold surrounding Obama and see if he will live and act the message of his campaign. We MUST find ways to help Obama BE the Obama so many people were drawn to, worked for, voted for, and believe in.
So...what are your ideas? How do we break through the tight cordon of the Power/Money Elite?
How do we make American citizen voices the most important lobbying group in Washington?
How do we get visibility of plans, actions and ongoing evidence of results on turning around our economy?
Also, why again do stories such as following appear in UK while skipped in US?
Why aren't there major front page and lead TV stories of the increases in interest rates to American citizens on credit cards, of denial or reduction of working capital loans to small business?
Yet banks get bail outs and are using to buy up other banks and financial institutions. They keep money inside and don't put it to work helping America recover! They thumb their noses at disclosure of their books. They give big bonuses and spend lavishly while recording major loses. The Plunge Protection Team still operates to intervene in the market, supporting the "games".
How can anyone support a Congress or President allowing this to happen?
So on Tuesday ... stop and think of the real principles on which this country was founded and the sacrifices made; then write/call President Obama, and YOUR Representatives and ask them for clear evidence that actions are supporting American citizen well-being not Wall Street and moneyed interests.
Ask if Jefferson was right when he said " "The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." Ask for PROOF that they are taking clear, transparent, verifiable action to address the abuses which are undermining OUR Country.
Then ask what you are going to do to make sure the right changes are made ... that you learn what they are... why chosen.. how they will be evaluated...how your voice will be heard and heeded.
Remember JFK's wise admonition:
"The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves."
Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Study finds battered Wall St. tops Obama inaugural donors
Sat Jan 17, 2009 6:41pm GMT
By Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street may be bruised and battered, but it still donated more money than any other U.S. industry to President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural festivities on Tuesday, a study has found.
The Centre for Responsive Politics said executives of finance, insurance and real estate companies and their family members gave $7.1 million (4.8 million) to Obama's inaugural committee.
Top donors from the world of high finance included George Soros, Ronald Perelman and David Shaw, the centre said.
Bankers and hedge fund managers will mingle with Hollywood stars and Silicon Valley high-technology titans at the swearing-in ceremony for the 44th president, the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and the balls and parties that follow.
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The centre's analysis of inauguration donors was posted on its Web site at www.opensecrets.org.