The Republican convention: Wall Street fetes its political stooges

[NeoConsSuck]

A dank air of corruption hangs over Madison Square Garden. Modern American politics never had a golden age untouched by graft. It was not for nothing that Mark Twain once wrote, “America is a nation without a distinct criminal class, with the possible exception of Congress.”

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The Republican convention will cost some $64 million, paid for by more than 100 corporate contributors and individual billionaires (such as New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and David Rockefeller). The Democratic version cost a mere $39 million.

Some examples of corporate generosity: General Motors offered the Republicans the use of 300 autos, buses and pickups to help transport delegates; Nextel donated wireless phones and Blackberrys; Microsoft provided software devices; Panasonic sent 100 Viera high-definition plasma monitors—costing up to $8,000 apiece—to New York and Boston.

Other large corporate givers include Altria Group (formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and Philip Morris), AT&T, Verizon and pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. Time Warner CEO Richard Parson is holding a $1 million party for the 15,000 journalists attending the Republican meeting.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/renc-s02.shtml