Media Matters for America funder Bill Benter emerges as financial sponsor of pro-Hagel ads

One of the funders behind an ad campaign promoting Chuck Hagel’s nomination to head the Pentagon is also a major donor to the liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America. Hagel, who President Barack Obama tapped Monday as his nominee to head the Defense Department, is already under fire from critics who say he “has sought to distance the United States from Israel” during his career. According to a Foreign Policy magazine report Monday night, a substantial ad campaign aimed at swatting such attacks on Hagel is already underway, and gambling magnate Bill Benter

A professional gambler’s luck at the track has generated a big payday for Democrats.

Bill Benter, the king of Hong Kong’s horse racing circuit, has pumped nearly $400,000 into liberal coffers in the last three election cycles. He is also a member of the shadowy Democracy Alliance, which requires full members to donate at least $200,000 to a select group of liberal nonprofit organizations and Super PACs, including Barack Obama’s Priorities USA and the Center for American Progress.

The group does not disclose its members or its recipients, and Benter’s current status within the organization is unknown. However, documents obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon suggest he has played a large role in the Alliance.

“One of the things that has made the Democracy Alliance attractive in recent years is the fact that it’s become involved in electoral politics,” elections expert John Samples said.

The Alliance has become increasingly involved in helping Obama win a second term. The group launched in 2005 to fund nonprofit start-up organizations, such as Media Matters, to move the party leftward. However, following Republican gains in the 2010 midterm elections, Vice President Joe Biden begged the group to consider Super PACs and campaigns for “favored status” within the group. The Alliance obliged, but not without losing several members, including billionaire cofounder Peter Lewis.

http://freebeacon.com/democracy-alliance/bill-benter-the-horse-lord/

The connections between J Street and the Dark Side of the Middle East are becoming more and more evident. Recently it was revealed that the anti-Zionist George Soros was a large contributor, although J Street had categorically denied that until now. But even more interesting was the fact that the single largest contribution to J Street in 2008-9 — $811,697 came from an unknown woman in Hong Kong, Connie Esdicul. Here she is with my favorite martial arts guy:

J Street, the phony ‘pro-Israel’ lobby which consistently takes positions opposed to Israeli interests — such as opposing sanctions on Iran, calling for an immediate cease-fire at the beginning of the Gaza war, favoring negotiations with Hamas — was severely criticized for taking money for its PAC from people associated with Arab and Iranian interests. But the majority of its funding was still assumed to come from liberal Jews.

There has always been a suspicion that George Soros, the anti-Zionist billionaire who was involved in the creation of J Street as an ‘alternative to AIPAC,’ also provided some of the funding. But both parties realized that a relationship with the anti-Israel Soros could be the kiss of death for J Street, and so both Soros and J Street denied that he was a major funder.

Now it has become clear that this was a lie. In a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, Eli Lake writes,

Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.

The contributions represent a third of the group’s revenue from U.S. sources during the period. Nearly half of J Street’s revenue during the timeframe — a total of $811,697 — however, came from a single donor in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, named Consolacion Esdicul.

http://fresnozionism.org/2010/09/

Benter is listed as having made $136,300 of political contributions in the 2008 cycle, mostly to Democratic politicians and causes (including, of course, Soros’ MoveOn.org). But he also gave $2,300 to the presidential campaign of antisemitic wacko Ron Paul.

Now it begins to get surreal. Benter is a mathematician:

He employed a variety of econometric modeling techniques to examine an important financial market — the horserace betting market in Hong Kong. He developed a successful computer-based econometric model to forecast outcomes in this market.

http://fresnozionism.org/2010/09/

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