Don't agonize, organize ... that's my mantra. Change won't happen unless you work to make it happen! But sometimes even your best efforts don't provide the results you were looking for. Or sometimes a situation is just so completely outrageous that all you can do is say ... YIKES!
Wapo reports that $20K inaugural tickets are for sale, as Congress debates whether scalping tickets should be a crime.
Selling tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony on the National Mall isn't a crime. At least not yet.
Earlier this week, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to criminalize the scalping of next Tuesday's inaugural tickets. The bill, which would make it a misdemeanor to sell or try to sell tickets to the swearing-in ceremony or create fake tickets, now heads to the House for approval.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, has pledged to require everyone receiving a ticket from her office to promise not to re-sell the passes, or risk having them revoked.
"The Presidential Inauguration is one of the most important rituals of our democracy," Feinstein said in a statement. "The chance to witness it should not be bought and sold like tickets to a sporting event. These tickets are free and they should remain free for the American people."
The committee is distributing 240,000 free tickets through congressional offices, most of which have held lotteries or figured out other methods to give away tickets to constituents (those without tickets can watch the ceremony on one of nearly two dozen Jumbotrons).
Some well-known sporting and entertainment ticket Web sites, such as StubHub and eBay, have agreed not to sell Inauguration Day tickets. But others are still taking part in the lucrative trade.
Inside Sports & Entertainment Group, a New York-based marketing group specializing in hard-to-get tickets for events such as the Oscars and the Super Bowl, is still offering high-priced passes for Obama's swearing-in ceremony, including a $20,000 ticket for a VIP "yellow" area complete with a color-coded map showing how close they can get to the historic event.
An Inside Sports & Entertainment e-mail sent to The Post indicated that swearing-in tickets run $1,750 each for the reserved standing room area behind the Reflecting Pool, $5,500 each for the preferred standing room area in front of the Reflecting Pool and $20,000 each for the VIP area, where there are not necessarily seats.
Hummm ... so what do you think? Should it be a crime to scalp tickets to the inauguration? In tough economic times should we fault people who would trade a glimpse of history for cold hard cash? Inquiring minds want to know.
I have been asked to help spread the word about an upcoming blog event -- the Blog for Fair Pay Day. It's certainly something I can support!
The National Women's Law Center would like you to know that:
Women in the United States are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their white male counterparts.
And for women of color, the numbers are even worse. African-American women earn 63 cents and Latinas earn 52 cents for every dollar paid to white men.*
It’s time to take action.
A bill awaiting a vote in Congress would help women fight for fair pay. Advocates are pushing for the Senate to vote by the end of April, to commemorate Equal Pay Day on April 18.
Raise your voice in support! Sign up to blog on Friday, April 18, about the importance of fair pay for women. Please also ask your readers to urge to their Senators to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act. We’ll send you a reminder as the date gets closer.
Get out your pocketbook Ethel, it's gonna be an expensive race to the White House!
Looks like the new kid on the block is doing okay in the fundraising department. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign announced that he's raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of the year, putting him just shy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, who made a splash with her announcement Sunday that she had drawn a record-breaking $26 million.
Obama appears to have surpassed Clinton in several ways: He reported donations from 100,000 people, double the 50,000 people who gave to the New York senator's campaign. He raised $6.9 million through donations over the Internet, more than the $4.2 million that Clinton raised online.
Donors can give a total of $2,300 for the primary and $2,300 for the general election, and you can bet the candidates will be seeking every penny they can get.
Politics is an expensive business, and individuals with the big bucks can change the political landscape faster than you can say "Quark"! Just ask Colorado entrepreneur Tim Gill -- the founder of Quark, a desktop publishing software company.
Gill, a 53-year old snowboarder, retired a few years ago and has spent much of his time -- and money -- advocating for gay rights.
After selling the firm, he started the Gill Foundation, which has invested $110 million nationwide in gay causes over the past decade. The Gill Action Fund threw $15 million into a dozen states during the 2006 midterm elections, targeting 70 politicians regarded as unhelpful to gay causes: 50 went down. And the fund is helping transform the political face of Colorado.
Impatient with the lack of gay rights progress this past decade, Gill is pushing hard to end injustice and inequality by the end of the next decade. And recognizing that most anti-gay initiatives are born at the state level, Gill has developed a national political strategy based on successes in Colorado. "They've taken an in-state model and applied it to the entire country," says Denver political analyst Floyd Ciruli. "Gill [and his people are] incredibly strategic. They simply don't waste money. They put their funding where they can take control of legislatures." ... They're taking significant contributions and putting them brilliantly in legislative environments where a few seats changing will change the entire control of a state."
So there you have it ... from the highest office in the land, to a state legislature money talks! I still have to believe that individuals can, however, make a difference -- if they are motivated to do so. Because in the end, when you stand in the voting booth to cast your ballot, we are all equal .... well, unless the vote you cast is via Diebold.
Wapo reports that $20K inaugural tickets are for sale, as Congress debates whether scalping tickets should be a crime.
