Angry in the Great White North

From the Telegraph:

The Irish rock star, Bono, has been angered by Senator Hillary Clinton's use of a U2 concert this week to raise funds for her political campaign coffers - even though he is a good friend of her husband, Bill.

"U2 concerts are categorically not fund-raisers for any politician. They are rock concerts for U2 fans," said his close associate, Jamie Drummond, who runs Data, the Third World advocacy group set up by Bono with Sir Bob Geldof.

Mrs Clinton, the frontrunner to be the Democrat candidate for the White House in 2008, is charging 18 guests $2,500 (£1,400) a head to join her in a luxury box for the sold out show in Washington on Wednesday. Despite U2's public criticism, she is pressing on with the fund-raiser, which will bring in $45,000 for an outlay of about $7,000 on the box, and her staff are unapologetic.

This is not the first time Bono and his activist friends have been annoyed with people using his celebrity to make a buck. Remember Live 8?

eBay UK has banned the sale of Live 8 tickets after public outrage and Bob Geldof's strong criticism of the auction site.

Geldof, the Live 8 organiser, called for a worldwide boycott of eBay describing the site as an "electronic pimp".

Hundreds of pairs of tickets -won in the text lottery for the July concerts- were being advertised on the site, attracting bids of several thousand British pounds each.

Live 8 will feature performances by Pink Floyd, The Who, Paul McCartney, U2, Sting and Velvet Revolver.

As we all know, Bono and Geldof are pushing hard for industrialized countries to dramatically increase aid to poor countries, especially those in Africa.

But the money has to come from somewhere, and to try to limit the legitimate means by which people can earn money that could be used for aid seems at odds with their goals.

And someone has to authorize the delivery of this money, and to try to restrain the legitimate means by which these friends of increased aid can earn the money needed for a political campaign seems to undercut their efforts.

I guess I don't understand rock-star-turned-activists.