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Transparent Blog, Not brought to you by Soros.
Author: Raine    Date: 10/21/2010 12:48:49

In order to provide full financial transparency, today's Blog has not been funded with a grant from George Soros.

“I’m basically not a party man. I’d just been forced into that situation by what I considered the excesses of the Bush administration,” he said in the interview. “I think they are pushing the wrong policies, but I’m not in a position to stop it. I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.”

That decision, and similar ones by other big-time Democratic financiers, has contributed to a lopsided flood of money to outside groups in favor of Republicans during the midterm elections.

The $1 million donation by Mr. Soros to Media Matters will not alter that calculus. But it could signal a return to greater participation by him during the 2012 presidential campaign. And it suggests that liberals intend to continue pressing their case against the flow of undisclosed money into political campaigns.

“We are especially pleased that in this moment of hidden right-wing billionaire money corrupting our democracy, Mr. Soros, upon deciding to support our efforts, quickly and transparently has made that support public,” the statement from Media Matters says.
The Right Wing will be exploding today, I can guarantee it. You see, George Soros has donated $1,000,000 to the media watchdog group, Media Matters. Expect many right-wing paid trolls to call in on Momma, Thom, Ed, and Randi's shows claiming something along one of two lines: 1) He's a foreigner injecting money into the political process and 2) He destroyed 2 countries by manipulating their currency.

The thing is, George Soros isn't funneling money to manipulate the political process or political campaigns here in America. That can't be said of the US Chamber of Commerce and the GOP. They won't disclose where the money is coming from. Media Matters, unlike News Corp, has not donated to the RNC or any Political Campaign. Remember Fox News wants to be considered a "Fair and Balanced" media outlet. For them to be donating money to ANY political party is at best disingenuous, at worst, pure propagandizing.

And let's mention the Koch Brothers for a moment-- Who have met with Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries US Chamber, even Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election.
Interestingly, the Koch meetings are managed by Kevin Gentry, an executive who doubles as a staffer in the Koch Industries lobbying office in Washington and as the key point person who helps deliver Koch charitable foundation grants. As ThinkProgress has documented, Koch Industries has dramatically boosted its own profits by using conservative front groups to manipulate public policy. The fusion between the “intellectual” conservative movement and big businesses opposed to regulations and accountability has a history in America dating back to the New Deal. During the thirties, the Du Pont family and other wealthy interests organized an assortment of “Liberty League” front groups to try to defeat New Deal agenda items and repeal President Roosevelt’s Social Security program. Now, corporations fund groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — both had representatives at the Koch meeting — to further their lobbying agenda. The American Enterprise Institute even changed its name from the New Deal-era American Enterprise Association to try to dispel the notion that they were nothing more than a glorified business trade association.

As the memo states, Beck has addressed this regular gathering of conservative corporate executives in previous years. Past Koch meetings have included various Republican lawmakers, including DeMint, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as speakers.

(bold-face mine...)

Oh and don't forget Richard Melon Scaife:
Richard Mellon Scaife is a billionaire contributor to the Republican Party and right-wing think tanks, one of the most influential men behind the right wing today. Scaife has helped establish their biggest institutions and supported some of their most radical ideas.

Scaife was a primary source of money used to fund attacks against Bill Clinton during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky eras of his presidency. He has also been known to purchase mass quantities of conservative books (especially those published by Regnery Press) to push them up the bestseller lists.

Among the right-wing organizations substantially funded by Scaife are the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Judicial Watch, Cato Institute and a working group within his American Spectator publication called the "Arkansas Project," whose specific aim was to locate and create dirt on the Clintons in order to smear them, in hopes of removing Clinton from office.

People for the American Way estimates that the Scaife Foundations have channeled in excess of $340 million to right-wing groups over the last thirty years, more than any other individual.

Scaife has a long history of supporting attacks on organizations and institutions which refuse to kowtow to right-wing interests. For example in 1985 Scaife reportedly financed most of retired Gen. William Westmoreland's libel suit against CBS over a documentary, "The Uncounted Enemy". This documentary claimed that he deliberately underestimated enemy troop strength in Vietnam (Morning Call, (Allentown, PA), March 1, 1985, Westmoreland Suit backed by Mellon Heir, Associated Press).

Scaife has been criticized by sections in the media for attempting to corrupt the practice of journalism and dilute it with a very specific agenda.


So I apologize for a rather lame blog today, but I've seen the George Soros Bogeyman play before. It's always the same. It's a broken record, and I for one am sick of the projection.

and
Raine
 

17 comments (Latest Comment: 10/21/2010 18:02:07 by Raine)
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