Talk Straight

Soros Linked to Over 30 Major News Organizations; ABCNEWS Amanpour sits on board…or We’re not biased. We just do what our master tells us

When liberal investor George Soros gave $1.8 million to National Public Radio , it became part of the firestorm of controversy that jeopardized NPR’s federal funding. But that gift only hints at the widespread influence the controversial billionaire has on the mainstream media. Soros, who spent $27 million trying to defeat President Bush in 2004, has ties to more than 30 mainstream news outlets – including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Associated Press, NBC and ABC.

Prominent journalists like ABC’s Christiane Amanpour and former Washington Post editor and now Vice President Len Downie serve on boards of operations that take Soros cash. This despite the Society of Professional Journalists’ ethical code stating: “avoid all conflicts real or perceived.”

This information is part of an upcoming report by the Media Research Centers Business & Media Institute which has been looking into George Soros and his influence on the media.

The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to “strengthen the progressive infrastructure” – “progressive” being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

The ProPublica stories are thoroughly researched by top-notch staffers who used to work at some of the biggest news outlets in the nation. But the topics are almost laughably left-wing. The site’s proud list of  “Our Investigations” includes attacks on oil companies, gas companies, the health care industry, for-profit schools and more. More than 100 stories on the latest lefty cause: opposition to drilling for natural gas by hydraulic fracking. Another 100 on the evils of the foreclosure industry.

Throw in a couple investigations making the military look bad and another about prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and you have almost the perfect journalism fantasy – a huge budget, lots of major media partners and a liberal agenda unconstrained by advertising.

One more thing: a 14-person Journalism Advisory Board, stacked with CNN’s David Gergen and representatives from top newspapers, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster. Several are working journalists, including:

• Jill Abramson, a managing editor of The New York Times;

• Kerry Smith, the senior vice president for editorial quality of ABC News;

• Cynthia A. Tucker, the editor of the editorial page of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

ProPublica is far from the only Soros-funded organization that is stacked with members of the supposedly neutral press. 

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Is Media Matters Breaking The Law In Its War On Fox News…or We’re not partisan, we just hate Republicans

Media Matters, the George Soros-backed legion of liberal agit-prop shock troops based in the nation’s capital, has declared war on Fox News, and in the process quite possibly stepped across the line of legality.

David Brock, MM’s founder, was quoted Saturday by Politico promising that his organization is mounting “guerrila warfare and sabotage” against Fox News, which he said “is not a news organization. It is the de facto leader of the GOP, and it is long past time that it is treated as such by the media, elected officials and the public.”

To that end, Brock told Politico that MM will “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to disrupt his commercial interests …” Murdoch is the founder of Fox News and a media titan with newspaper, broadcast, Internet and other media countries around the world.

There is nothing in the Politico article to suggest that Brock, who was paid just under $300,000 in 2009, according to the group’s most recently available tax return, plans to ask the IRS to change his organization’s tax status as a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation.

Being a C3 puts MM in the non-profit, non-commercial sector, and it also bars the organzation from participating in partisan political activity. This new, more aggressive stance, however, appears to run directly counter to the government’s requirements for maintaining a C3 tax status.

Since Brock classifies Fox News as the “leader” of the Republican Party, by his own description he is involving his organization in a partisan battle. High-priced K Street lawyers can probably find a federal judge or a sympathetic IRS bureaucrat willing to either look the other way or accept some sort of MM rationale such as that it is merely providing educational information about a partisan group.

But in the IRS application for 501(C)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation status, Section VIII, Question I asks the applicant: “Do you support or oppose candidates in political campaigns in any way?” (Emphasis added).

Under Brock’s definition of Fox News, it appears he is setting MM on a course of actively opposing all Republican candidates. Brandon Kiser at The Right Sphere blog argues that this new statement of MM’s mission means it must change its tax status.

Beyond the partisanship issue, explicitly declaring that your purpose as a tax-exempt non-profit public foundation is to interfere with the commercial interests of somebody else’s legal business enterprise falls nowhere within the scope of purely educational activities.

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Soros’ Media Matters Attacks Conservative Muslim Activist…or we don’t like what you say so you’re irrelevent

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., will hold his much-anticipated hearing on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response” next week.

One panelist who plans to testify at the hearing is Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a former Navy Lieutenant Commander and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization whose missions is to promote Islam’s compatibility with democracy and American values, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and gender equality.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser

In addition, the AIFD opposes political Islam and supports Israel, saying “we feel it is necessary to make a foundational position statement regarding the state of Israel. We stand in support of the existing unqualified recognition of the state of Israel behind internationally recognized borders.” The group also supports the creation of an independent Palestine, saying “we also separately stand in recognition of the need for the completion of the formation of an independent Palestinian state on the current ”occupied territories” living side by side next to the established state of Israel.”

In advance of his testimony, George Soros-funded Media Matters has attacked Jasser as a “conspiracy-touting credential-free star witness” of King’s upcoming hearing, dismissing him as a “physician and former U.S. Navy medical officer with no background in law enforcement or public policy.”

“What Jasser lacks in expertise, he makes up for in ties to right-wing media figures, appearances in documentaries that have been rejected by PBS and the New York Police Department, and a willingness to call Muslim civil rights groups with which he disagrees ‘fronts’ for the Muslim Brotherhood,” Media Matters writes.

As conservative blogger Dan Riehl notes, having an expertise in a particular policy area is often not a requisite for providing testimony before Congress:

What Jasser is, is engaged, active and interested in calling out fellow Muslims perceived as not having America’s best interests at heart. We know this from simply observing the behavior of organizations such as CAIR, and others. Though often subtle, what those groups do is trumpet a Muslim identity politics, or Islam, over an American identity and straight-forward dedication to American exceptionalism and our Constitution. Jasser offers a competing view. For that and that alone, the Left now seeks to silence him. …

If one wants absolute proof that MMFA’s attack on Jasser is utterly ridiculous, one need look no further than the case of Cindy Sheenhan. Not only did the Left do everything it could to make her a media star, there were never any complaints from Media Matters when she was called to testify before Congress. If the knock on Dr. Jasser is that he has no background in law enforcement or public policy, what was Sheehan’s background in military strategy, international relations, or public policy that qualified her to offer testimony? The answer is none, of course. The only difference is that Sheehan agreed with the Left and the likes of Media Matters. …

Aside from Sheehan, did Media Matters ever question Democrats’ invitation to have comedian Stephen Colbert testify on farm subsidies, or actor Ben Affleck’s apparent expertise on the Congo?

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Citizen Soros: Funding Anti-American Films With Tax Payer Dollars…or the black hand is in your pocket

Soros is also bankrolling a documentary that celebrates left-wing terrorists who plotted to napalm Republicans at the 2008 GOP convention in Minnesota. Even worse, you too are bankrolling the film through your taxes.

A trailer for the left-wing film Better This World suggests that it depicts David Guy McKay and Bradley Neil Crowder as idealistic activists who, according to the official blurb, “set out to prove the strength of their political convictions to themselves and their mentor.” In fact McKay and Crowder are convicted domestic terrorists who manufactured instruments of death calculated to inflict maximum pain and bodily harm on people whose political views they disagreed with.

You can be sure that if it was right-wing terrorists who were plotting to attack the Democratic National Convention, whoever foiled the conspiracy would be immortalized in film, literature and song as a savior of democracy.

“If you flip the equation around and it had been a group of conservatives threatening to use force to prevent those on the Left from meeting, everyone would expect the government to infiltrate them and they would also expect the FBI to stop them and charge them with crimes,” said Brandon Darby, who helped the FBI thwart the planned attack. The movie, which is expected to be released this year, attacks Darby, a true American hero who undermined the conspiracy by alerting the FBI. Filmmakers Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega twist the facts to argue that Darby, a former revolutionary activist, manipulated McKay and Crowder into becoming would-be mass murderers.

It’s an easily disproved lie. During sentencing, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis went out of his way to make a specific legal finding that McKay obstructed justice by falsely accusing Darby of inducing him to manufacture the incendiary devices.

…Of course, it should surprise no one that Hollywood loves this kind of story with its anti-American overtones. HBO gave a grant to the filmmakers to produce their pro-terrorist propaganda. So did the Soros-funded Sundance Institute. After Soros’s foundation, the Open Society Institute (OSI), gave Sundance’s Documentary Film Program $4.6 million in 2002, it gave the institute another $5 million in 2009.

Taxpayers also underwrite Sundance’s adventures in social justice indoctrination. According to nonprofit tax returns (known as IRS Form 990s), the Sundance Institute has taken in $11,240,081 in government grants since 1997. It is unclear which governments made the grants because the 990 forms lump all the grant-making governments together.

The federal government has given $1,350,000 to the institute since 2000, according to USAspending.gov. All but $5,000 of the money was from the National Endowment for the Arts. (The $5,000 grant was from the State Department.) It’s not clear if the $1,350,000 is part of the $11 million-plus figure for all government grants.

Upon receiving the most recent OSI grant, Sundance founder Robert Redford obediently genuflected before Soros. “Sundance Institute has supported documentary storytellers since its beginning,” said Redford. “The recognition of that history by George Soros and the Open Society Institute, and the continuation of our relationship over time, speaks to our shared belief that culture—in this case documentary film—is having a profound impact in shaping progressive change.”

Soros himself has acknowledged he is interested in the movies because “[d]ocumentary films raise awareness and inspire action.” He hails cinema for its power to manipulate audiences. OSI has been underwriting “social justice” documentaries since 1996. In 2001 Soros let Redford’s Sundance Institute take over management of his Soros Documentary Fund, which has since rechristened the Soros/Sundance Documentary Fund.

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Former SEIU Exec Joins Center for American Progress Action Fund…or Doin’ it all for Big Daddy Soros

The woman known as the “Queen of Labor” is living up to her promise to focus on “building a sustaining progressive infrastructure.”  Anna Burger, former SEIU Secretary-Treasurer, has just joined the board of directors at the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP Action).

CAP Action is a sister organization to the liberal think tank, Center for American Progress.  While the Center for American Progress focuses on developing new policy ideas and on “critiquing the policy that stems from conservative values,”  CAP Action focuses on how to put those policies into action – by organizing liberal grassroots groups, labor unions and other progressive partners as advocates.

John Podesta, Chairman of the Board of Directors for CAP Action, offered the following statement in the organization’s December 9th press release:

“The Center for American Progress Action Fund is pleased to welcome Anna Burger to our Board of Directors. She has been a longtime friend of the Center for American Progress and CAP Action and we’re very happy that she has agreed to help us advance our mission by serving in this new capacity.

Anna Burger has been fighting hard for progressive ideas and policies for nearly 40 years, including the visionary leadership she has provided for the progressive movement over the past decade. We face numerous opportunities and many challenges over the next two years and look forward to Anna’s help in charting our course. As we continue to push for an economy built on a strong middle class that works for all Americans, Anna’s continued leadership and experience could not come at a more important time.”

In addition to her previous post at SEIU, Burger has held many prominent positions that have played significant roles in advancing the progressive movement, including:

• Former Chair of the Change to Win Federation, the labor coalition founded in 2005 by “reformers” who notoriously split from the AFL-CIO  to build a stronger, more progressive labor movement, based on the organizing model. (Burger resigned this post when she retired from SEIU)
• Current Board of Directors, Progressive States Network, alongside other directors such as Media Matters’ David Brock, MoveOn.org’s Wes Boyd, ACORN’s Steve Kest, AFSCME’s Lee Saunders and CAP’s John Podesta.
• Board of Directors of defunct They Work For Us/Working for Us, alongside other directors such as SEIU’s Tyrone Freeman, MoveOn.org’s Eli Pariser and Thomas Mattzie, and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.
• Board of Directors of Economic Policy Institute, alongside other directors such as former managing director of Soros Fund Management and fellow Democracy Alliance board member Robert Johnson, The American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner and Robert Reich, and most of Big Labor’s most prominent leaders, including former SEIU president Andy Stern.
• Member of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board

Burger also maintains her position as Vice-Chair of the Democracy Alliance, a collaborative network of elite donors that plans and provides funding to carefully selected organizations that currently, or will be created to, serve a specific purpose within the progressive infrastructure. The organization was formed in 2005 after Rob Stein’s infamous presentation titled “The Conservative Message Machine Money Matrix”, which detailed the conservative movement’s funding and management network and sparked an appeal for a permanent progressive infrastructure.  Among the earliest beneficiaries of the Democracy Alliance were Media Matters and the Center for American Progress.

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Soros Tells Progressives: Prepare to Bail on Obama…or cut the puppet’s strings when it no longer entertains

Quoting “several Democratic sources,” the Huffington Post reports that billionaire George Soros may be encouraging his fellow progressives to funnel their money away from President Barack Obama — that is, unless Obama can deliver for their cause.

During a small, “private” meeting of the Democracy Alliance Tuesday afternoon, Soros reportedly told the well-funded, progressive-minded crowd that the Obama administration might not be their best investment:

According to multiple sources with knowledge of his remarks, Soros told those in attendance that he is “used to fighting losing battles but doesn’t like to lose without fighting.”

“We have just lost this election, we need to draw a line,” he said, according to several Democratic sources. “And if this president can’t do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else.”

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Meet Tina Tchen-Michelle Obama’s new Chief of Staff?…or another Soros puppet looks at the White House

Nearing the midpoint of Michele Obama’s inaugural term, there is a reported shake-up going on amongst the first lady’s senior staff.  Obama’s chief of staff, Susan Sher, is reportedly stepping down after having been on the job for just under a year and a half.  Before her White House stint, Sher served as Obama‘s superior at the University of Chicago Medical Center and as an attorney for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s administration.

Stepping into Sher’s shoes is another close confidante of the Obamas: Tina Tchen.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Among the many moves afoot, Tina Tchen, who is responsible for working with outside groups, is preparing to move to the East Wing to serve as First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, according to two Democrats close to the White House.

It’s part of a shuffle that gives the White House a chance to consider how it wants to organize itself for the coming two years, when it will face a more hostile, more Republican Congress. Interim Chief of Staff Pete Rouse is studying how to reorganize the place so it is ready for the next stage.

Tchen may be filling a new position, but she is no newcomer to Washington politics.  Tchen has been a longtime friend and political ally of the Obamas and is close friends with White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, another Chicago veteran associate of the first couple.

Tchen has led of the White House Office of Public Engagement, an operation overseen by Jarrett which, among other things, fought for Obama’s failed Chicago Olympics bid last year.  The office was also implicated for representing the White House in taxpayer-funded efforts to recruit artists and produce projects to advance the Obama agenda.

In addition, conservative author Michelle Malkin has pointed out that Tchen also worked as a “high-powered campaign finance bundler” for the Obama camp in 2009 and “personally raised more than $200,000.”

According to White House visitor logs that have been made public, Tchen has also personally met with infamous liberal financier George Soros.  Tchen was just one of a handful of White House senior staff members to have one-on-one meetings with Soros.  The billionaire also met privately with director Larry Summers and David Lipton, both of Obama’s White House National Economic Council.

A “Jonathan Soros”, purportedly George Soros’ son Jonathan, also logged a personal White House visit with First Lady Michele Obama in May.

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George Soros profiting off controversial new TSA scanners…or the black hand is grabbing your junk

Be sure and read Tim Carney’s Examiner column today on the politically-connected lobby for the controversial new TSA scanners that are upsetting airline employees and travelers everywhere. Carney notes that a company called Rapiscan got a $165 million contract for the new body image scanners four days after the underwear-bomber incident this past Christmas. Not surprisingly, Rapiscan is politically connected, observes Carney:

Rapiscan got the other naked-scanner contract from the TSA, worth $173 million. Rapiscan’s lobbyists include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee. When Defense Daily reported on Price’s appropriations bill last winter, the publication noted “Price likes the budget for its emphasis on filling gaps in aviation security, in particular the whole body imaging systems.”

Then this morning Carney also noted that former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff was flacking for Rapiscan.

As for the company’s other political connections, it also appears that none other than George Soros, the billionaire funder of the country’s liberal political infrastructure, owns 11,300 shares of OSI Systems Inc., the company that owns Rapiscan. Not surprisingly, OSI’s stock has appreciated considerably over the course of the year. Soros certainly is a savvy investor.

Note that OSI Systems CEO is Deepak Chopra, but it appears to be a different Deepak Chopra than the more famous liberal new age guru.

Groups Funded by Soros Network Back Soros…or C’mon, He’s just a nice old dude. Look at the money he just gave us!

The Soros-funded Media Matters and the Soros-funded Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ) social justice group have both mysteriously sided with George Soros and denounced Glenn Beck’s unique brand of pro-Israel anti-Semitism in his “The Puppet Master” expose.  Incidentally, The Shefa Fund, which merged into JFSJ, was as critical of Israel as Beck has been supportive.  On Thursday JFSJ President and CEO Simon Greer published a letter on the group’s website aggressively denouncing Beck.  On Friday, Greer went on MSNBC for some more denouncing.

What Greer left out of his letter and what both Greer and Olbermann omitted was that the group Greer leads has received at least $350,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute in the last two years – $150,000 in 2009 and $200,000 in 2010.  Like a lot of “social justice” organizations, and/or progressive astroturfing outfits, Jewish Funds for Justice lists among its activities “investing in low-income communities and grassroots organizations,” “organizing” and “congregation based community organizing,” “advocacy,” and “a social change strategy developed by Saul Alinsky.” Also among the principles that JFSJ promotes are economic radicalism and wealth redistribution.

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Democrat ‘08: Communist Manifesto…or how to wage a bullet free war

On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida read a list of 45 Communist goals into the Congressional Record. The list was derived from researcher Cleon Skousen’s book “The Naked Communist.” These principles are well worth revisiting today in order to gain insights into the thinking and strategies of much of our so-called liberal elite.

1. U.S. should accept coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. should be willing to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

These encapsulate the Kennan Doctrine, which advocated for the “containment” of communism. Establishment figures supporting the amoral containment policy at least implicitly worked with the communists in scaring the wits out of the American people concerning atomic war.
President Ronald Reagan undid the doctrine when he took an aggressive stand against the Evil Empire by backing freedom fighters from around the world that were struggling against the left-wing communist jackboot. As a result, the Soviet Union and its satellites imploded, a considerable and unexpected setback to the international communist edifice.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the U.S. would be a demonstration of “moral strength.”
The nuclear freeze advocates supported a freeze on American nuclear development only. Rarely were Soviet nukes or those of other nations mentioned in their self-righteous tirades. The same advocates now call for reducing American military might, claiming that there is something immoral about America preserving its military pre-eminence in the world.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

Today, there are calls to end the embargo on the slave island of Cuba, there were complaints about the embargo against Iraq, and the U.S., not Saddam Hussein, was blamed for the suffering of the Iraqi people. Would they have advocated for free trade with Hitler and his National Socialist regime?

5. Extend long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

Such aid and trade over decades contributed greatly to the left-wing communist liquidation of over 100 million people worldwide, according to the well-documented “Black Book of Communism.”
This aid and trade marks a shameful chapter in American history. Without the aid and trade, the left-wing international communist behemoth would have imploded on its own rot a lot sooner and umpteen millions would have been saved from poverty, misery, starvation and death.
7. Grant recognition of Red China and admission of Red China to the U.N.

Not only did President Jimmy Carter fulfill this goal but he also betrayed America’s allies in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iran, Afghanistan, Angola and elsewhere.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

There are still American intellectuals, and elected members of Congress, who dream of an eventual one world government and who view the U.N., founded by communists such as Alger Hiss, the first secretary-general, as the instrument to bring this about.
World government was also the dream of Adolf Hitler and J.V. Stalin. World government was the dream of Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers.

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

While the idea of banning any political party runs contrary to notions of American freedom and liberty, notions that are the exact opposite of those held by the left-wing communists themselves, nevertheless these goals sought to undermine the constitutional obligation of Congress to investigate subversion. The weakening of our government’s ability to conduct such investigations led to the attack of 9/11.
It is entirely proper and appropriate for our government to expect employees, paid by the American taxpayer, to take an oath of loyalty.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.

In his book “Reagan’s War,” Peter Schweizer demonstrates the astonishing degree to which communists and communist sympathizers have penetrated the Democratic Party. In his book, Schweizer writes about the presidential election of 1979.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

This strategy goes back to the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union by Fabian Socialists Roger Baldwin and John Dewey and Communists William Z. Foster and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn among others.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations that are under Communist attack.

The success of these goals, from a communist perspective, is obvious. Is there any doubt this is so?

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings,” substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. ” Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

24.Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural and healthy.”

This is the Gramscian agenda of the “long march through the institutions” spelled out explicitly: gradual takeover of the “means of communication” and then using those vehicles to debauch the culture and weaken the will of the individual to resist. Today those few who still have the courage to advocate public morality are denounced and viciously attacked. Most Americans are entirely unwitting regarding the motives behind this agenda.

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

This has been largely accomplished through the communist infiltration of the National Council of Churches, Conservative and Reform Judaism, and the Catholic seminaries.

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state”
Replacing belief in the creator with belief in the earthly man-controlled State.

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
And replace our nation of “laws, not men” with royal decree emanating from appointed judges and executive orders. Replace elected officials with bureaucrats.

30. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

Obliterating the American past, with its antecedents in principles of freedom, liberty and private ownership is a major goal of the communists then and now.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Public ownership of the means of production, the core principle of totalitarianism.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

Turn America into a socialist police state.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

The Soviets used to send “social misfits” and those deemed “politically incorrect” to massive mental institutions called gulags. The Red Chinese call them lao gai. Hitler called them concentration camps.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose communist goals.
Psychiatry remains a bulwark of the communist agenda of fostering self-criticism and docility.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Done! The sovereign family is the single most powerful obstacle to authoritarian control.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

Outcome-based education, values clarification or whatever they’re calling it this year. (Hillary’s book - “It Takes a Village”)

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a “united force” to solve economic, political or social problems.

This describes the dialectical fostering of group consciousness and conflict, which furthers the interests of authoritarianism.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
The results of this successful campaign are increasingly obvious in the world today.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the U.S. cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

This would mark a complete subversion of our Constitution and an end to representative sovereign government as we know it, which is the whole idea.

Via Atlas Shrugs

Soros-Funded Film Embraces Liberal Terrorists Who Plot to Kill Republicans…or it’s the feel good movie of the year

Radical philanthropist George Soros is bankrolling a documentary that celebrates left-wing terrorists who plotted to napalm Republicans at the 2008 GOP convention in Minnesota. Even worse, you too are bankrolling the film through your taxes.

You can be sure that if right-wing terrorists were plotting to attack the Democratic National Convention, whoever foiled that conspiracy would be immortalized in film, literature and song as a savior of democracy…

A trailer for the left-wing film Better This World suggests that it depicts David Guy McKay and Bradley Neil Crowder as idealistic activists who, according to the official blurb, “set out to prove the strength of their political convictions to themselves and their mentor.” (Note: There was a functioning trailer when I wrote this post a few days ago, but it no longer appears to be working. -MV) In fact McKay and Crowder are convicted domestic terrorists who manufactured instruments of death calculated to inflict maximum pain and bodily harm on people whose political views they disagreed with. 

The movie attacks a true American hero, Brandon Darby, who undermined the conspiracy by alerting the FBI. Filmmakers Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega twist the facts to argue that Darby, a former revolutionary activist, manipulated McKay and Crowder into becoming would-be mass murderers…

Of course, it should surprise no one that Hollywood loves this kind of story with its anti-American overtones. HBO gave a grant to the filmmakers to produce their pro-terrorist propaganda. So did the Soros-funded Sundance Institute. After Soros’s foundation, the Open Society Institute (OSI), gave Sundance’s Documentary Film Program $4.6 million in 2002, it gave the institute another $5 million in 2009.

Taxpayers also underwrite Sundance’s adventures in social justice indoctrination. According to nonprofit tax returns (known as IRS Form 990s), the Sundance Institute has taken in $11,240,081 in government grants since 1997. It is unclear which governments made the grants because the 990 forms lump all the grant-making governments together.

The federal government has given $1,350,000 to the institute since 2000, according to USAspending.gov. All but $5,000 of the money was from the National Endowment for the Arts. (The $5,000 grant was from the State Department.) It’s not clear if the $1,350,000 is part of the $11 million-plus figure for all government grants.

Upon receiving the most recent OSI grant, Sundance founder Robert Redford obediently genuflected before Soros. “Sundance Institute has supported documentary storytellers since its beginning,” said Redford. “The recognition of that history by George Soros and the Open Society Institute, and the continuation of our relationship over time, speaks to our shared belief that culture—in this case documentary film—is having a profound impact in shaping progressive change.”

Soros himself has acknowledged he is interested in the movies because “documentary films raise awareness and inspire action.” He hails cinema for its power to manipulate audiences.

Not too many people seem aware that Soros has long been a player in Hollywood. As Rondi Adamson reported in “George Soros, Movie Mogul: ‘Social Justice’ Cinema and the Sundance Institute,” (Capital Research Center’s newsletter Foundation Watch, March 2008), OSI has been underwriting “social justice” documentaries since 1996. In 2001 Soros let Redford’s Sundance Institute take over management of his Soros Documentary Fund (since rechristened the Soros/Sundance Documentary Fund).

The preeminent funder of the American left has been buying up media properties for years in order to drive home his message to the American public that they are too materialistic, too wasteful, too selfish, and too stupid to decide for themselves how to run their own lives.

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George Soros Declares War Against Fox News…or I can do anything cause I’m like God

Billionaire currency titan George Soros, long a patron of liberal political causes in the United States, is giving $1 million to Media Matters in what he says is an attempt to stop the growing popularity of Fox News.

The money, Soros said, is designed purely to “to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast.”

The donation was all the more notable since Soros, who has donated to MoveOn.org and other liberal political websites, said earlier this year that he was holding back from giving to Democrats in the midterm elections because the Republican “avalanche” in the midterm elections was nearly impossible to stop.

The donation itself seems to buttress a long held theory by Fox commentators – that the liberal Media Matters has been under the control of Soros’ money for some time. Soros has repeatedly denied that until Wednesday, when he announced his gift, Politico reported.

Fox News host Glenn Beck, meanwhile, has accused the group of being a “left-wing George Soros-funded media machine” and claimed it called him a jihadist.

But Soros still denied the allegations that he had funded Media Matters before Wednesday.

“Despite repeated assertions to the contrary by various Fox News commentators, I have not to date been a funder of Media Matters,” Soros said. “However, in view of recent evidence suggesting that the incendiary rhetoric of Fox News hosts may incite violence, I have now decided to support the organization.

“Media Matters is one of the few groups that attempts to hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast. I am supporting Media Matters in an effort to more widely publicize the challenge Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse in our democracy.”

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‘Pro-Israel’ J Street co-Founder call creation of Israel “An Act That Was Wrong”…or we do what we do to keep that Soros money a’comin

As if we need further evidence that the left-leaning “pro-Israel” lobbying group J Street is a complete mess, the blog “Mere Rhetoric”  has posted a video  showing J Street co-founder Daniel Levy calling the creation of Israel in 1948 “an act that was wrong.”

Levy made the comments at a forum for Arabic news organization Al Jazeera last May. He said that he personally believed that the Holocaust “excused” the wrongful establishment of the Jewish state, but added that “there’s no reason” why Palestinians should think that the creation of Israel was justified.

“I believe the way Jewish history was in 1948 excused – for me, it was good enough for me – an act that was wrong. I don’t expect Palestinians to think that. I have no reason – there’s no reason a Palestinian should think there was justice in the creation of Israel,” said Levy during the panel discussion.

Video of Levy’s remarks appeared online on Tuesday, after J Street claimed his words were initially taken out of context by bloggers. The group’s “Myths and Facts” page insisted that “far-right blogs” were “misreporting” what Levy said at the event. However, the newly released tape disproves this allegation.

From J Street’s “Myths and Facts” page:

In an answer to a question on a panel he appeared on in Doha, Qatar, Daniel argued in favor of progressive Zionism. He did not call Israel’s creation “an act that was wrong.” He believes that the events of the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem included acts that were wrong, but that could be excused for him by the particular and unique moment in Jewish history that we were living through in 1948:

“I believe that where Jewish history was in 1948 excused, for me – it was good enough for me – an act that was wrong.”

Daniel went on to say that he sees no reason why Palestinians would agree with his response to that history, “I don’t expect Palestinians to think that.”

As Daniel Halper notes at the Weekly Standard, “J Street’s ‘Myths and Facts’ page has in fact been used for promoting myths rather than dispelling them.”

After The Washington Times reported that J Street helped coordinate meetings between Judge Richard Goldstone – the author of a virulently anti-Semitic UN report – and congressional leaders, the J Street website denounced the story as politically-motivated “fiction.” Even after the Times posted audio of interviews with J Street leaders admitting that the group facilitated the meetings, J Street refused to ‘fess up to the charges.

For years, J Street’s “Myths and Facts” section also claimed that the group had never received funding from anti-Israel philanthropist George Soros. But another investigation by the Times last month revealed that the organization has actually taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the liberal financier. J Street eventually admitted to the lie, but not before angering some of the reporters it had repeatedly misled.

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Soros sitting out midterms…or they’re no longer useful so let them die

Many wealthy Democratic patrons, who in the past have played major roles financing outside groups to help elect the party’s candidates, are largely sitting out these crucial midterm elections.
 
Democratic donors like George Soros, the bête noire of the right, and his fellow billionaire Peter B. Lewis, who each gave more than $20 million to Democratic-oriented groups in the 2004 election, appear to be holding back so far.
 
“Mr. Soros believes that he can be most effective by funding groups that promote progressive policy outcomes in areas such as health care, the environment and foreign policy,” said an adviser, Michael Vachon. “So he has opted to fund those activities.”

For Mr. Soros, who was also a big donor in 2006 and 2008, it is a matter of being more focused on pushing to get the policy outcomes he wants than on the electoral process, Mr. Vachon said.

Mr. Soros gave $5 million each last year to organizations supporting the health care overhaul and the climate change bill, Mr. Vachon said. He also contributed $1.25 million this year to America Votes, an umbrella organization for a variety of liberal-leaning groups, which focuses on the voter mobilization that Mr. Soros has supported over the years.

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