The White House Correspondents Dinner:

The Top 1% Parties Like it's 1929!

~ By Bud Meyers

One blogger writes, "Why is Hollywood invited to the White House Correspondents Dinner? What was Lindsey Lohan doing there? I wasn’t aware she had been allowed off house arrest. It is both sickening and disgusting that our elected officials (on both sides of the aisle) fraternize with Hollywood, who pick their pockets for special interests.

Hollywood has billions of dollars -- they should spend their own money. If they were politicians it would be called pork barrel spending, and it looked alive and well at the Correspondents Dinner. When did actors become important people?

This Correspondents Dinner was everything I loath about the people who reside inside the beltway. It was excessive, immature, elitist, and down right mean. And guess what...all of our children get to pay for the elite, lavish, and elegant affair. What is very clear is that The White House Correspondents' Dinner was nothing more than a party for the top 1%." - by J.T. Walters, April 2012.

Personally, I could care less about the Hollywood celebrities, but I do wonder about elected politicians and the media rubbing elbows together like that --- especially since the Fourth Estate is supposed to be guarding the hen house.

The White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) was founded in 1914 by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor that a Congressional committee would select which journalists could attend press conferences. (Official website)

The WHCA's annual dinner, begun in 1920, has become a Washington, D.C. tradition and is usually attended by the President and Vice President and held on the evening of the last Saturday in April at the Washington Hilton.

The press corps, in turn, hobnobs with administration officials, even those who are unpopular and are not regularly cooperative with the press. Increasing scrutiny by bloggers has contributed to added public focus on this friendliness.

In recent years, the dinners have drawn increasing public attention each year as the entertainers draw more interest, and the guest list grows "more Hollywood".

This has led to an atmosphere of coming to the event only to "see and be seen." This usually takes place at pre-dinner receptions and the red carpet walks, and then at the after-dinner parties hosted by various media organizations, which are often a bigger draw, and can be more exclusive than the dinners themselves.

Think of the Academy Awards.

This year the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington, DC on April 28, 2012 brought together U.S. President Barack Obama and the "who's who" of the top 1% -- Hollywood celebrities, news media personalities, comedians, fashion models, CEOs and Washington correspondents -- and featured comedian Jimmy Kimmel as the host.

The event's featured guests included the likes of Lindsay Lohan ($1 million from Playboy), ex-con Martha Stewart (net worth $650 million), model Sofia Vergara (net worth $16 million), Steven Spielberg (net worth $3 Billion), Reese Witherspoon (net worth $80 million), Kevin Spacey (net worth $50 million), Sigourney Weaver (net worth $40 million), Elle MacPherson (net worth $45 million), Arnold and Maria Schwarzenegger (he's worth $300 million), trust fund baby and reality TV star Kim Kardashian ($35 million), Diane Sawyer ($40 million), Mariah Carey ($500 million) and many, many more.

For some odd reason I believe the Rock Star and "Man of the People" Donald Trump was conspicuously absent, but one of the heirs to his fortune, his daughter Ivanka, was.

Can't all those people afford to host their party?

Michael Cavlan of the Occupy Movement recently met with his opposite counterparts in the Tea Party on April 11th at the University Club in St Paul, Minnesota.

He noted in his speech that elected officials from both parties were colluding, all while pretending to hate each other. He also pointed out how both political parties were run by elites who marginalized and demonized the voices of dissent from within their own ranks (including "progressives"), and he noted that all kinds of preconceived notions about each other were being shred asunder by this meeting.

Michael Cavlan also noted that the media attempts to marginalize us all, and pointed out the idea of what can be called the “false left-right ideals” that are in place to keep us separated and divided...in the classic case of "divide and conquer".

He talked about being a left wing supporter of the Ron Paul Campaign For Liberty. He also noted that the Tea Party had been co-opted by the Republican Party establishment and that the Occupy Movement was fighting to make sure that they were not similarly co-opted. As he talked, Michael Cavlan noticed many heads nodding in agreement, from both Occupy members and the Tea Party members.

The White House Correspondents Dinner, "The Top 1% Party of the Year", exemplifies this. Shame on them all for partying like it's 1929 on the taxpayers dime while millions of Americans are still suffering from the aftermath of the Great Recession.

A few of the guests..

George Clooney - Net Worth $160 million

Reverend Al Sharpton, worth $5 million, may have been one of the poorest people at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner) Leon Panetta's net worth is classified.

Ivanka Trump (Net worth $150 million) with Bud Meyers (Net worth $0)

Wolf Blitzer of CNN - Net worth $16 million

Piers Morgan ($20 million) and Goldie Hawn ($60 million)

Woody Harrelson - Net worth $65 million

Jim Cramer of CNBC's "Mad Money" - Net worth $100 million

Eliot Spitzer - Net worth $50 million

Read my post Goldman Sachs: Hookers, Thugs and Private Eyes to see how Jim Cramer and Eliot Spitzer are connected (and also see my post What "we" Earn & what "they" Earn to see what other celebrities are worth.

Click photos below to enlarge

Fiddling While Rome Burns

Welcome to the 69th Annual Congressional Dinner

The WHCA elects four officers and five board members from within its ranks once a year. 2010-2011 Officers: David Jackson of USA - Today, President - Caren Bohan of Reuters, Vice President - Steve Scully of C-SPAN, Secretary - Doug Mills of The New York Times, Treasurer. 2010-2011 Board Members: Carol Lee, The Wall Street Journal - Michael Scherer, Time - Julie Mason, Politico - Don Gonyea, NPR - Ed Henry, Fox News. "A double Irish with a Dutch sandwich" - No more separate company accounting and Paul Ryan's "territorial tax" for corporations! The middle-class has lost enough jobs to outsourcing already!