The Soros Threat To Democracy..UPDATE AND BUMP: Hillary Rodham $oros tied to dirty, defunct Dem group
Officials of a defunct pro-Democratic group that was hit with a near-record campaign-finance fine last month hold strong ties to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, documents show.
At least four persons who worked for the America Coming Together (ACT) fundraising group, which the Federal Election Commission recently fined $775,000, work directly for the Clinton campaign or hold top positions with consulting firms hired by it.
In addition, the group’s former president, longtime Clinton aide Harold Ickes, has been identified as a volunteer adviser to the Clinton campaign. In FEC filings, the campaign listed a debt to Mr. Ickes of more than $2,000 for travel-related costs.
Bryan adds:
ACT was the big union group that George Soros donated $10 million to toward defeating President Bush in 2004. Hillary cannot plausibly claim to not know that ACT was both connected to Soros and that it was the third most heavily fined election law violator in US history. And she hired much of its top tier to help run her campaign.
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George Soros is known for funding groups such as MoveOn.org that seek to manipulate public opinion. So why is the billionaire’s backing of what he believes in problematic? In a word: transparency.
How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely “NASA whistleblower” standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros’ Open Society Institute , which gave him “legal and media advice”?
That’s right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros’ flagship “philanthropy,” by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI’s “politicization of science” program.
That may have meant that Hansen had media flacks help him get on the evening news to push his agenda and lawyers pressuring officials to let him spout his supposedly “censored” spiel for weeks in the name of advancing the global warming agenda.
Hansen even succeeded, with public pressure from his nightly news performances, in forcing NASA to change its media policies to his advantage. Had Hansen’s OSI-funding been known, the public might have viewed the whole production differently. The outcome could have been different.
That’s not the only case. Didn’t the mainstream media report that 2006’s vast immigration rallies across the country began as a spontaneous uprising of 2 million angry Mexican-flag waving illegal immigrants demanding U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, egged on only by a local Spanish-language radio announcer?
Turns out that wasn’t what happened, either. Soros’ OSI had money-muscle there, too, through its $17 million Justice Fund. The fund lists 19 projects in 2006. One was vaguely described involvement in the immigration rallies. Another project funded illegal immigrant activist groups for subsequent court cases.
So what looked like a wildfire grassroots movement really was a manipulation from OSI’s glassy Manhattan offices. The public had no way of knowing until the release of OSI’s 2006 annual report.
Meanwhile, OSI cash backed terrorist-friendly court rulings, too.
Do people know last year’s Supreme Court ruling abolishing special military commissions for terrorists at Guantanamo was a Soros project? OSI gave support to Georgetown lawyers in 2006 to win Hamdan v. Rumsfeld ” for the terrorists.
OSI also gave cash to other radicals who pressured the Transportation Security Administration to scrap a program called “Secure Flight,” which matched flight passenger lists with terrorist names. It gave more cash to other left-wing lawyers who persuaded a Texas judge to block cell phone tracking of terrorists.
They trumpeted this as a victory for civil liberties. Feel safer?
It’s all part of the $74 million OSI spent on “U.S. Programs” in 2006 to “shape policy.” Who knows what revelations 2007’s report will bring around events now in the news?
OSI isn’t the only secretive organization that Soros funds. OSI partners with the Tides Foundation, which funnels cash from wealthy donors who may not want it known that their cash goes to fringe groups engaged in “direct action” ” also known as eco-terrorism.
On the political front, Soros has a great influence in a secretive organization called “Democracy Alliance” whose idea of democracy seems to be government controlled solely of Democrats.
“As with everything about the Democracy Alliance, the strangest aspect of this entire process was the incessant secrecy. Among the alliance’s stated values was a commitment to political transparency ” as long as it didn’t apply to the alliance,” wrote Matt Bai, describing how the alliance was formed in 2005, in his book “The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.”
Soros’ “shaping public policies,” as OSI calls it, is not illegal. But it’s a problem for democracy because it drives issues with cash and then only lets the public know about it after it’s old news.
That means the public makes decisions about issues without understanding the special agendas of groups behind them.
Without more transparency, it amounts to political manipulation. This leads to cynicism. As word of these short-term covert ops gets out, the public grows to distrust what it hears and tunes out.
The irony here is that Soros claims to be an advocate of an “open society.” His OSI does just the legal minimum to disclose its activities. The public shouldn’t have to wait until an annual report is out before the light is flipped on about the Open Society’s political action.
Please take the time to read:
Democracy: George Soros is known for funding groups such as MoveOn.org that seek to manipulate public opinion. So why is the billionaire’s backing of what he believes in problematic? In a word: transparency.
George Soros: The Man, The Mind And The Money Behind MoveOn
The Left: The smear ad published against Gen. Petraeus has drawn attention to its sponsor, MoveOn.org. But the fingerprints of the group’s chief financial backer, George Soros, were all over it. Who is this man and what is he up to?
Election 2008: MoveOn.org once crowed that it had bought and owned the Democratic Party. With the Senate now blasting its tactics, that’s an open question. But not, apparently, for Democrats running for president.
September 26, 2007 - 10:07 PM on September 26th, 2007
James Hansen Exposed as Soros Hack
James Hansen, the media’s favorite “scientist” who was purported to be a NASA “Whistleblower” is now revealed to be a partisan political hack – bought and paid for by George Soros.
PRIOR POST : Geor…
September 26, 2007 - 10:50 PM on September 26th, 2007
This is the kind of political gamesmanship and media manipulation designed to peddle lies and propaganda to the sheeple.
It is very effective and extremely dangerous. The American Left is clearly the enemy of America.
September 26, 2007 - 10:53 PM on September 26th, 2007
JAMES HANSEN has been one of the biggist fanatics about this GLOBAL WARMING poppycock and making big time threats against the skeptics and GEORGE SOROS is a big time threat to our nations soventry these are evil planning men and as everybody knows WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN. THE SHADOW KNOWS
September 26, 2007 - 11:12 PM on September 26th, 2007
Amen snowy!
Robert, I’m beginning to see why Al wanted to end the debate before it began…as with the Hsu scandal, so comes another with Soros right in the middle!
September 27, 2007 - 06:19 AM on September 27th, 2007
Soros is a man who has actually been kicked out of Britain. He’s dangerous and Hitleresque in his style. Why the dems don’t see that is beyond me. Other than keeping an eye on him is anyone watching him to see that he doesn’t commit crimes. What he’s doing to our political landscape is outrageous. How can we counter it? Roberts right it is DANGEROUS and could ultimately lead to ruin Americas way of life.
September 27, 2007 - 07:36 AM on September 27th, 2007
In my opinion, George Soros is probably the biggest single threat to America that there is right now, perhaps only eclipsed by the GWOT.
September 27, 2007 - 07:47 AM on September 27th, 2007
If we had an MSM that was honest they would expose Soros for what he is to the American people. The media would expose how through money Soros has extended his tentacles into and is damaging our national politics.
But the MSM itself is so corrupted now it is effectively incapable of doing anything useful. At the highest levels control is consolidated in a few hands; at the editor level it is warped by zealous idealogues severely afflicted with the mental illness of Leftism.
September 27, 2007 - 07:48 AM on September 27th, 2007
The more I see and hear about this guy the more I tend to agree with you Ted. There was a guest on O’Reilly’s show last night (can’t remember her name) who stated that in her opinion the left with it’s media bias (and buy off) is oppressing the free speech of the right. Talk show hosts are being smeared by these Soros funded organizations and republicans as well. He is effectively shutting us down and succeeding in many ways.
When american citizens don’t even get a full picture of the truth it’s hurtful to our society and I fear in the end it will be too late. As for terrorists they will exploit this hole in our system.
September 27, 2007 - 08:02 AM on September 27th, 2007
6- Ted, I provided the extra links in the post because I thought you would find them interesting. You have long maintained the sentiments you expressed in 6…I am only now beginning to see exactly what you were talking about
September 27, 2007 - 08:04 AM on September 27th, 2007
8- Market manipulation is his specialty….betting against currency is his forte
September 27, 2007 - 08:50 AM on September 27th, 2007
9.
I will look into them when I have time at home. Thank you for the Kudos.
September 27, 2007 - 12:31 PM on September 27th, 2007
A bigger threat than shillery or B. Hussein Obama?
hmmmm, maybe.
September 27, 2007 - 01:03 PM on September 27th, 2007
Where did my posts go from this thread?
September 27, 2007 - 01:16 PM on September 27th, 2007
PCD, you and Bon Bon talked about him in another thread, but that was it today…I’ll check my mailbox again, but in all the messages, you refer to $oros in the Rather lawsuit post!
September 27, 2007 - 01:50 PM on September 27th, 2007
14, Ok, Pam, thanks. Soros is vermin who has tentacles into everything.
September 27, 2007 - 02:25 PM on September 27th, 2007
Soros and his financed minions are attacking opposition candidates at the local level now. They target various strategic positions and come in with plenty of money to run smear campaigns the opposition cannot hope to match.
It is a ruthless, evil tactic but it works.
This monster and his minions is as much a threat to the future of America as terrorism is.
September 27, 2007 - 03:23 PM on September 27th, 2007
In a word Hitler incarnate. Take away debate and intelligent argument, use character assasination at every level of politics and you no longer have a representative republic.
Soros is scary.
September 27, 2007 - 11:33 PM on September 27th, 2007
Soros is also the principle source of funding for the IANSA. IANSA is the Britain based anti gun ownership organization. It was going to hold a HUGE convention at the UN last summer, but when the NRA flooded the UN with post cards demanding that the conference be cancelled, it was reduced to a one day do nothing meeting. A meeting that the IANSA head (I believe her name is Rebecca Peterson) more or less slinked out saying that they would have better luck next time. George Soros and Peterson have said that US citizens should not be exempt from UN gun control regulations despite what the US Constitution may say.
Considering that Soros has been convicted of at least one Felony for financial crimes, does anyone have any doubt that he is crooked? Seeing as he made his billions in currency speculation, I have to wonder how much he made when the dollar took a dump last week. With enough money at stake, this whole thing could’ve been an attempt to bring down the US economy. If the Dems gain a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and the White House, that wouldn’t be so hard to do considering their current plans to bankrupt the country.