USA TODAY: OBAMA PICKS DONORS FOR TOP POSTS

UPDATED BELOW...

USA TODAY:

More than 40% of President Obama's top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic postings in countries such as France, Spain and the Bahamas, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Twenty of the 47 fundraisers that Obama's campaign identified as collecting more than $500,000 have been named to government positions, the analysis found.

Overall, about 600 individuals and couples raised money from their friends, family members and business associates to help fund Obama's presidential campaign. USA TODAY's analysis found that 54 have been named to government positions, ranging from Cabinet and White House posts to advisory roles, such as serving on the economic recovery board charged with helping guide the country out of recession.

Nearly a year after he was elected on a pledge to change business-as-usual in Washington, Obama also has taken a cue from his predecessors and appointed fundraisers to coveted ambassadorships, drawing protests from groups representing career diplomats. A separate analysis by the American Foreign Service Association, the diplomats' union, found that more than half of the ambassadors named by Obama so far are political appointees, said Susan Johnson, president of the association. An appointment is considered political if it does not go to a career diplomat in the State Department.

That's a rate higher than any president in more than four decades,

THIS CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION IS TYPICAL OF THE CHICAGO MACHINE AND OF BREZHNEV, CASTRO, CHAVEZ AND THE LIKE.

PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA THINKING HE WOULD HAVE A TRANSPARENT AND HONEST ADMINISTRATION WERE FLAT OUT DUPED.

[ASIDE: THIS REPORT AND AP'S HONEST ANALYSIS OF THE WASTEFUL STIMULUS PACKAGE MAKES ME HOPEFUL THAT MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE SEEING THROUGH OBAMA'S FACILE CHARMS.]

UPDATE: HALF AN HOUR LATER AND INSTAPUNDIT FINDS THE STORY...