Well, yes, actually, it is me.
So don't piss me off.
Posted on 04/19/2005 7:32:27 PM PDT by Cableguy
George Soros told a carefully vetted gathering of 70 likeminded millionaires and billionaires last weekend that they must be patient if they want to realize long-term political and ideological yields from an expected massive investment in “startup” progressive think tanks.
The Scottsdale, Ariz., meeting, called to start the process of building an ideas production line for liberal politicians, began what organizers hope will be a long dialogue with the “partners,” many from the high-tech industry. Participants have begun to refer to themselves as the Phoenix Group.
Rob Stein, a veteran of President Bill Clinton’s Commerce Department and of New York investment banking, convened the meeting of venture capitalists, left-leaning moneymen and a select few D.C. strategists on how to seed pro-Democratic think tanks, media outlets and leadership schools to compete with such entrenched conservative institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Leadership Institute.
Senior Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials were quietly briefed about the meeting in recent weeks. DNC Chairman Howard Dean was aware of it, in part though his friendship with Stein, but one senior DNC source said the organizers “kept that list [of attendees] kind of tight.”
Sarah Ingersoll, de facto spokeswoman for Stein’s Democracy Alliance, said it was “a very preliminary meeting of committed donors interested in building a community to support progressive infrastructure.”
The Democracy Alliance will act as a clearinghouse and is expected to channel much of its money to new organizations and existing ones such as John Podesta’s Center for American Progress and David Brock’s Media Matters for America.
The money details are several weeks away. “There aren’t dollar figures at this point,” Ingersoll said. Soros, a Hungarian-born financier who donated more than $23 million to pro-Democratic 527 groups last cycle, gave the main presentation, said Ingersoll, who declined to name the other presenters.
“Primarily, we’re looking at making recommendations and thinking through with these donors on how they can form an alliance,” she added. “This is about creating a network of individuals to share information to be effective in whatever they do going forward.”
Participants were tight-lipped, saying they wanted to keep media expectations low, even suggesting that the Scottsdale gathering was too insignificant to report. Other participants included former White House press secretary Mike McCurry and New Democrat Network president Simon Rosenberg. Andy Rappaport, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and reliable investor in liberal causes, did not attend the meeting, his spokeswomen said.
Ingersoll said funding transparency is a priority, which she said would contrast with some right-wing groups.
But transparency was not on display among the Scottsdale participants contacted by The Hill. Details of the meeting remained sparse.
Most of the participants had already seen Stein’s slick presentation titled “The Conservative Message Machine’s Money Matrix,” which lays out how right-leaning donors have funded and invested in organization that churn out conservative ideas. Stein unveiled his presentation at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last year, at an event hosted by Rosenberg and NDN.
Ingersoll denied that progressives are merely trying to replicate Heritage and Fox News.
Another source at the meeting said that it was important for existing progressive groups to coordinate their activities and to avoid the turf wars that have riven progressive causes in the past.
One source at the DNC with direct knowledge of the agenda said that the Phoenix Group had three specific goals at the outset. It wants to create liberal think tanks, training camps for young progressives and media centers.
Despite the general recognition that progressives are several years behind conservatives, liberal activists are confident that technology will help them close the gap. “Technology may allow us to do in a few years what it took the other side 40 years,” the DNC source said.
But the Phoenix Group is not beholden to the political calendar, and several sources insisted that four-year electoral exigencies were not motivating the project. Indeed, part of the reasoning in keeping D.C. consultants away from Scottsdale was to shield the high-tech donor base from political operatives, who are always eager for quick dollars to buy media points and fund direct mail.
“This is bigger than that,” the DNC source said
A billion dollars of lies will not beat one cent of truth.
I guess these guys never heard of the constellation of center-left think tanks such as The Brookings Institute, The Democratic Leadership Council, The Institute for Policy Studies, and advocacy groups like People for the American Way, The Alliance for Justice, the ACLU, etc., etc.
Norman Lear is muttering to himself "What am I, chopped liver?"
"Soros says be patient ('massive investment in “startup” progressive think tanks')"
I say bring it on, let them waste their money. Conservative values are a grass roots movement fed up with liberal lies, distortions, motives and forty years of destroying our country.
Now that the cats out of the bag and we see them for what they really are…It will not falter because some socialist, liberal, millionaire, crybaby, wackos think that by throwing money around they can influence us like they can their liberal socialist ilk.
In the end they are only hurting themselves and furthering our cause against them. The harder they come the harder they will fall.
All we can do now is continue to do our part to drive the point home and watch in amusement as the libs cry and spit as they lose power and credibility.
We truly live in an amazing country. So with that said…MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AMERICA!
The thought has occurred to others. Soros is of Jewish descent, though he's an athiest. He's attempting to "bring peace to the world"--there are a lot of weird hints. I did expect someone better-looking and charismatic, so that lets Soros out.
I am being patient...I'm waiting for Soros to die.
The Dems are the party of the working man and working families. Many of these working men were invited to this billionaires conclave.
LOL! It's funny how antiquated claims like that sound today.
I would not worry about these boobs trying to write the new Constitution. They have find a way to implement the new Constittuion.
Recall that at the same time Norman Lear was producing TV's All In The Family---a diatribe against conservatives---he was organizing People for The American Way and compiling dossiers on conservative groups.....a homegrown Stasi, you might call it.
The change agents in Hollywood are aimed at conservatives and now we know now---with the events surrounding The Passion of The Christ---they are bent on marginalizing and destroying Christianity.
Soros is continuing a national trend, and taking it global.
Unfortunatley, it is still their matra. I hear my Union thug friends say it all the time. I always ask them how hard Ted Kennedy has ever worked in his life? That shuts them up but then I get hit by a pipe wrench.
imagine how weak these schleps would be WITHOUT Soros, Ted Turner, Michael Moore and all the other BIllioniare anti-capitalists out there.
"What this guy was saying was outright socialism..."
Try substituting "socialist" or even "communist" every time you see or hear the word "progressive" and you'll get the general picture of how the liberal left is approaching things now.
Ingersoll said funding transparency is a priority, which she said would contrast with some right-wing groups.
But transparency was not on display among the Scottsdale participants contacted by The Hill. Details of the meeting remained sparse.
The only problem is that Soros is absolutely horrible with people, and the antichrist was supposed to be amazingly charming.
It's not you, is it?
Well, yes, actually, it is me.
So don't piss me off.
What are they talking about?
Soros and goons think conservative success is based on quick manipulation, tricks and nefarious "tactics". It's what they do, not what we do. And they want to do it better. They don't get it. It's about ideas that connect with real people. Not tactics that trick people.
Liberals think their message isn't getting out -- that CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR, NBC, PBS, and all newspapers but two aren't enough.
These are the same people who thought "Air America would work. If dems could buy votes they would win, but if they have to earn the trust of the people, they'll have to cheat to win. And maybe, just maybe, that's what this is about.
So Soros is going to use a top-down club of millionaires to create a bottom-up movement of citizens. That should work out wonderfully.
They have been doing it for over 50 years, and it seems to be working just fine. Or are you under the impression that everything is just hunky-dory in our country?
Don't buy PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE.
It only enriches that liberal prick Peter Lewis.
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