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George Soros: odd man out at the billionaire's club (three-bagger barf alert)
ST PETERSBURG TIMES ^ | April 18, 2004 | ROBYN E. BLUMNER, Times Perspective Columnist

Posted on 04/18/2004 6:48:05 AM PDT by Liz

Billionaire George Soros is my hero.

I'm not used to looking up to rich people as a rule. You know, getting a camel through the eye of a needle and all. But the 73-year-old retired hedge fund operator who is the 28th richest person in the world, with an estimated worth of $7-billion, is like no other really rich guy I know. Soros has used his fortune to seed democracy around the world.

By giving away nearly $5-billion globally, much of it to grass-roots organizations throughout the former Soviet bloc, the Hungarian-born Soros - who barely survived the Nazis and Soviets as a teenager - has helped raise voices for freedom in teetering democracies. The groups he funds shore up respect for minority rights, individual freedom and self-determination in countries that are in danger of reverting to authoritarianism and repression. Soros is even credited with playing a key role in the ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, by underwriting the student group, Otpor, that organized the opposition.

But rather than be lionized as a man who, like a modern-day Moses, opens societies and leads people out of their enslavement to the state, Soros is the villain du jour on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and other conservative forums. The National Republican Senatorial Committee declared him a "left-wing radical" pushing an "extremist agenda on America," Fox television host Bill O'Reilly denounced him as "one far out character" and the Wall Street Journal accused him of angling to become "the biggest bankroller in Democratic politics."

Soros is getting all this unflattering attention because he supports a freedom agenda at home as well as abroad.

While most progressive funders put money into services for the poor and disabled - acting to patch the threadbare social safety net - Soros invests more like conservative givers: in research, thinkers and efforts to change public policy. He puts money into the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization promoting the sensible reform of the nation's drug laws. His Open Society Institute provides grants to numerous organizations promoting equal rights for homosexuals, including efforts to defeat a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. His giving has helped put state voter initiatives on the ballot to legalize medical marijuana and divert first-time drug offenders to treatment rather than jail; and his money has worked to defend legalized doctor-assisted suicide in Oregon.

Rather than being "far out," a number of the initiatives he sponsored passed by wide majorities.

But what is really making America's right wing nutty is Soros' targeting of President George W. Bush for defeat. Soros has a pretty good nose for tyrants and he smells one in Bush. "America under Bush is a danger to the world," he says, and he has pledged $10-million to America Coming Together and $2.5-million to MoveOn.org to effect "regime change" at home, as MoveOn snappily puts it.

This has Republicans steamed. They think everyone with a deep pocket outside Hollywood should be one of theirs. How dare Soros not be supportive of the Bush tax cuts that will make him and his ilk even richer. How dare he not want to continue Bush's push toward the dismantlement of environmental protections and fair wage-and-hour laws, all to the good of big business. He's violating club rules.

All this conservative stomping of feet makes it seem as though Soros' money is distorting the public debate, when in truth it is the hundreds of millions of dollars contributed by the right that is doing so. Soros' dollars in the United States are a pittance compared to what is given to plant conservative ideas on the national radar. A new report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a nonprofit group that monitors charitable giving, finds that sustained and massive contributions by right-wing foundations to advance a conservative political agenda are having their desired impact. While liberal and centrist foundations tend to give money for direct services to the poor, the report says that givers on the right home in on making the political landscape friendlier to their views.

Between 1999-2001, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy found, conservative foundations gave away $254-million in public policy grants. The money is used to nurture a range of organizations all existing to promote a conservative agenda.

Think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation provide right-wing scholars who package positions for use by Republican lawmakers. Conservative periodicals and broadcasters are underwritten to spread the word.

Advocacy groups, such as Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, are funded to lobby Washington and generate grass-roots support. It is all coordinated to promote conservatism on every front.

Forget Soros. Richard Mellon Scaife, who has been called the "financial archangel" for the "intellectual underpinnings" of the conservative movement, has directed over $340-million into right-wing causes in the last 30 years. And how about the Coors family - remember Contra beer? - a major supporter of endeavors by Pat Robertson, Paul Weyrich, co-creator of the Moral Majority, and Schlafly. There are many more deep-pocket givers here than on Soros' side.

Soros is a lightning rod because he doesn't toe the rich-guy right-wing line. But a world without him would be a much more intolerant and oppressive place. If there is a heaven, he's one of the few billionaires getting in.


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: billionaires; moveoutorg; soros; tidescenter; tidesfoundation
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I'm not used to looking up to rich people as a rule. You know, getting a camel through the eye of a needle and all. But the 73-year-old retired hedge fund operator who is the 28th richest person in the world, with an estimated worth of $7-billion, is like no other really rich guy I know. Soros has used his fortune to seed democracy around the world.

Oops. She forgot to mention all the currency scams and government coups Soros has precipitated via his "democracy (puke) projects and she forgot to add how "tolerant and compassionate" liberal Soros is (gag).

1 posted on 04/18/2004 6:48:05 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz
Soros has used his fortune to seed democracyMarxian Socialism around the world.
2 posted on 04/18/2004 6:50:57 AM PDT by MegaSilver
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To: Liz
Soros is one of the biggest enemies of America on the face of the earth! What is more scary is that he has teamed up with another enemy of the Republic - Hillary Rodham Clinton!
3 posted on 04/18/2004 6:52:00 AM PDT by TrueBeliever9 (aut viam inveniam aut faciam (where there is a will - there is a way)
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To: MegaSilver
Thank you for pointing that out, main streem media always fails to mention this somehow.
4 posted on 04/18/2004 7:01:03 AM PDT by Camel Joe (Proud Uncle of a Fine Young Marine)
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To: Liz
Soros was so understandably traumatized by the Nazi holocaust that he sees Nazis where they are not and fails to see them where they are.
5 posted on 04/18/2004 7:11:40 AM PDT by Savage Beast (My parents, grandparents, and great grandparents were Democrats. My children are Republicans.)
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To: Liz

6 posted on 04/18/2004 9:14:05 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist
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To: MegaSilver
Soros has used his fortune to seed democracyMarxian Socialism around the world.

Thank you...I was thinking the very same thing!

7 posted on 04/18/2004 9:14:45 AM PDT by Heff ("Liberty is not America's gift to the world, it's the Almighty's gift to humanity" GW Bush 4/12/04)
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To: Liz
This crap is typical of this socialist columnist, Robin Blumner, a former ACLU lawyer. Anything written by her should come with an automatic bart alert.
8 posted on 04/18/2004 9:16:15 AM PDT by shortstop ( Win One For the Gipper)
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To: shortstop
It's a three-bag barfer alright, as we dutifully noted.
9 posted on 04/18/2004 9:40:57 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz
Soros is the forerunner to the Antichrist.
10 posted on 04/18/2004 9:44:25 AM PDT by MarMema
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To: Liz; monkfan; kosta50; DTA; joan; Lion in Winter; getgoing; RussianConservative
The groups he funds shore up respect for minority rights, individual freedom and self-determination in countries that are in danger of reverting to authoritarianism and repression. Soros is even credited with playing a key role in the ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, by underwriting the student group, Otpor, that organized the opposition.

Soros works closely with Ziggy Brzezinski in many traditionally Orthodox countries to bring in euthanasia, abortion, and gay rights. Romanian Orthodox monks have organized large protests at his presence there, and Moscow finally booted him over a claim about office rent.(Snicker, snicker.)

In Ukraine Soros and Ziggy have fought the church by trying to "westernize" Ukrainians and use them to bring down Russia. Soros and his death movement were very active in Serbia and Bosnia as of last year.

Ziggy, who once said that after the fall of the USSR the only remaining enemy of the west was the Orthodox church, is finding us to be a more formidable opponent in Eastern Europe than he had counted on. And so is Soros.


11 posted on 04/18/2004 9:55:05 AM PDT by MarMema
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To: TrueBeliever9
Soros has also teamed up with Teresa Heinz Kerry - I've been investigating the money trail of the 9/11 families at the 9/11 Commission hearings. They belong to an organization called Peaceful Tomorrows. Peaceful Tomorrows is funded by the Tides Center. Teresa Kerry is chairman of a two Heinz endowments (one is an endowment, and other is a foundation) and is on the board of a third. All three Heinz organizations give to the Tides Center. The Tides Center is a ultra-liberal money laundering organization. When big charities (cough, cough) don't want their money trail exposed, they give to the Tides Center. The Tides Center in turn gives money to over 200 organizations. Sort of a United Way for socialists, eco-wackos, environmental terrorists, queer activists, pedophiles, anti-war and anti-American organizations. George Soros also gives heavily - millions - to the Tides Center, through is own conduit called the Open Society Institute. The Tides Center denies that any Heinz money goes to Peaceful Tomorrows. But the Tides Center won't say specifically what organizations it funnels Heinz money. It really doesn't make any difference, because almost all of the organizations that the Tides Center grants money to should raise the hair on the back of your neck.

See this thread for more information:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1118987/posts

If anyone wants to help me investigate the money trail, send me an e-mail.

12 posted on 04/18/2004 9:55:54 AM PDT by PattonReincarnated (Rebuild the Temple)
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To: All
Project on Death in America expanded to include initiatives all over eastern Europe.
13 posted on 04/18/2004 9:57:21 AM PDT by MarMema (Killing isn't medicine)
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To: MarMema
Project Death in America

"Many Americans who worry about the unravelling of our social and moral order will not be persuaded by political campaigns for drug-legalization and medical marijuana use. They also will wonder why a man as successful as George Soros is so consumed by this issue. Their disturbance will only be deepened when they become aware of another Soros passion: euthanasia. In 1994 Soros introduced to the public his Death in America project. He observed , ' America, the land of the perpetually young growing older is an embarrassment, and dying is a failure. Death has replaced sex as the taboo subject of our times. People compete to appear on talk shows to discuss the most intimate details of their sex lives, but they have nothing to say about dying, which in its immensity dwarfs the momentary pleasures of sex." Soros provided $15 million in initial funding for Project Death in America (PDIA), whose headquarters are located at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons."

"Project Death in America (PDIA) is a grant making foundation that supports euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Its mission is "to transform the culture of dying."

"In 1995 the PDIA funded 43 programs, and it selected 13 faculty scholars "to begin forming a network of doctors that will eventually reach into one-fourth of America's hospitals and lead to ... the creation of innovative models of care and the development of new curricula on dying." The Director of PDIA is Kathleen M. Foley, M.D., who is the chief of pain service at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center."

I have researched this extensively and I can tell you that Soros is well entrenched in the euthanasia movement in this country.

14 posted on 04/18/2004 10:02:38 AM PDT by MarMema (Killing isn't medicine)
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To: PattonReincarnated; Grampa Dave
I would be interested in helping, especially with the training camp you mention.

I think a network here should be started to keep track of Soros in general. We could perhaps have an ongoing thread of investigative work to follow his funding as best we could. Freepers excel at this, as you know.

How about starting a thread and enlisting some freepers who really want to bring down Soros? Count me in.

15 posted on 04/18/2004 10:06:12 AM PDT by MarMema (Killing isn't medicine)
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To: MarMema
Soros is one of the Devil's Anti Christs causing evil throughout America.
16 posted on 04/18/2004 10:34:49 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Gorelick+the Clintoons+al Querry equal a Clear and Present Danger to Americans!)
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To: PattonReincarnated
Contack back hoe for his indexing on Soros.
17 posted on 04/18/2004 10:42:41 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Gorelick+the Clintoons+al Querry equal a Clear and Present Danger to Americans!)
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To: PattonReincarnated
This link provides you with the search on articles posted on Free Republic about George Soros. If you post any articles, please enter the keyword Soros.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/k-soros/browse
18 posted on 04/18/2004 10:45:44 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Gorelick+the Clintoons+al Querry equal a Clear and Present Danger to Americans!)
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To: Liz
George Soros-Mr. Lucifer...a good background read on this lying crook.

http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc0209/soros.htm
19 posted on 04/18/2004 10:47:43 AM PDT by eleni121 (Preempt and Prevent---then Destroy)
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To: PattonReincarnated; xzins; Salem; Happy2BMe; dennisw; yonif
Thanks for the input! You are right on! PattonReincarnated - we could use some Patton reincarnated in this country!

PING for everyone else - keep your eye on Soros/Hillary and Soros/Widow Heinz!

20 posted on 04/18/2004 11:53:25 AM PDT by TrueBeliever9 (aut viam inveniam aut faciam (where there is a will - there is a way)
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