Posted on 08/20/2004 9:38:39 PM PDT by kattracks
[snip]A quick look at the top politically active 527 groups tells us why. The top two 527 committees in terms of fundraising are Media Fund and America Coming Together, which have raised a combined total of $55,032,938. Both of those groups, of course, are dedicated to defeating Mr. Bush in November. Numbers three and four on the list, the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, have raised $30,310,503. Not surprisingly, the Service Employees send 89 percent of their contributions to Democrats, while the American Federation donates 98 percent. Moveon.org, a venomous anti-Bush group that once briefly displayed an ad comparing Bush to Hitler, comes in at number five, with receipts totaling $9,086,102.
[snip]
Individual donors have also thrown their weight behind Mr. Kerry. Billionaire George Soros, for example, has poured $12.6 million thus far into various 527 groups seeking the defeat of Mr. Bush, including $2.5 million to Moveon.org and $5 million to America Coming Together. Peter Lewis, another prolific donor, has thrown $2,995,000 to America Coming Together and $2.5 million to Moveon.org. Stephen Bing, a controversial figure from Shangri-La Entertainment, has donated almost $7 million to America Coming Together and to the Media Fund. So when it comes to surrogates doing the "dirty work," Mr. Kerry's allies outraise Mr. Bush's hands down. But will Mr. Kerry condemn the "dirty work" of Moveon.org or America Coming Together? We won't hold our breath.
So Mr. Kerry's complaint about Mr. Bush hiding behind surrogates is yet another flip-flop. His policy seems to be that using surrogates to do the "dirty work" is alright, so long as their attacks aren't aimed at Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
btt
A) That's PRESIDENT Bush.
B)What is the largest amount anyone has given Swiftboat Vets?
Check these out...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/07/kerry.exley/
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/07/moveon.ads/
2nd link... note the name Joseph Sandler... He is not only a MoveOn.org lawyer, but also General Counsel for the Kerry Campaign, as proof, read this document:
http://humaneventsonline.com.edgesuite.net/unfit_pdf.html
Now whose signature do you see at the bottom? Hmmmmm...
Actually, it isn't so much a flip flop on Kerry's part as an outright and blatant disregard for the facts and of his own involvement with similar situations and organizations.
But he's done this before... Like Vietnam, Cambodia, and his Senate record.
His policy seems to be that using surrogates to do the "dirty work" is alright, so long as their attacks aren't aimed at Democrats.
Bang!
For many years, Soros did not involve himself greatly in US politics, but that changed under President George W. Bush. In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, Soros said that removing Bush from office is the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death" for which he would be willing to sacrifice his entire fortune. Soros gave $3 million to the Center for American Progress, committed $5 million to MoveOn.org, while he and his friend Peter Lewis each gave America Coming Together $10 million. (All are groups working to support Democrats in the 2004 election.)
Soros has been criticized for his large donations, as he also pushed for the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 which was intended to ban "soft money" contributions to federal election campaigns. Soros has responded that his donations to unaffiliated organizations do not raise the same corruption issues as donations directly to the candidates or political parties.
Soros has contributed money to the Million Mom March.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
I pray he gives his whole fortune to a losing cause. The Sift-vets have done so much with so little in comparison to this moron.
blessings, Bobo
Hollyweird stars have been on stage with Scarry. Then they gave money to moveon. There is a connection there.
Hmm. Seems there is more collusion between Kerry and those leftist 527's than there is with Bush and the SBV.
Trying to sicc the FEC on the Swift Boat Vets was a VERY BAD MOVE on the part of the Kerry campaign, especially when what you just posted is out there. A very bad and STUPID move, indeed!
AMMO!!!!
Great find, oolatec! Thanks for posting these links.
Wolf Blitzer had Tad Devine, Kerry's campaign strategist, on this afternoon and asked him repeatedly if the Kerry folks had any hard evidence of connections between SBV's and the Bush campaign. Wolf stated he'd spoken to a couple of reporters responsible for the NY Times article and they'd admitted they had no hard evidence to substantiate their claims. Devine could provide no hard evidence either.
This, on the other hand, looks like some mighty good evidence of connections between MoveOn.org and the Kerry campaign.
And the noose tightens another notch. heh heh heh!
Looky here!!
Great links!!!!!
bttt
Major Garrett, on Fox News last night gave great details about Kerry or DNC guys that are working for 527's and vice versa, 527 guys now working for Kerry.
He said Kerry Campaign's FEC complaint was trying to link somebody to Rove from a 1996 relationship.
On the other hand, the anti-Bush 527's have 17 personnel who can be linked to Kerry/DNC or who now work for Kerry and were at one time part of a 527.
Can I ask a question?
I'm in Ireland, and I don't understand the meaning of 527's in a US political context. Can you explain?
Reflecting on those comments this year, Kerry said they were too harsh. "I think some of the language that I used was a language that reflected an anger. ... The words were honest, but on the other hand, they were a little bit over the top," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in April. *** Source
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Unfit for Command [Excerpt] Kerry's testimony to the Fulbright Committee was a carefully orchestrated piece of political theater. Fulbright wanted a presentable, young Kennedy-esque face to put on the antiwar effort, and Kerry wanted a national forum from which to launch his climb to political celebrity. Ted Kennedy helped arrange Kerry's testimony with Senator Fulbright at a private fundraising event held at the home of Democratic senator Philip A. Hart of Michigan.
………Once Kerry learned that he would have the chance to give testimony before the committee, he recruited the assistance of Adam Walinsky, a speechwriter noted for his work with Robert Kennedy. Walinsky drafted the speech and coached Kerry on its delivery. The only image Kerry wanted us to see was a myth: a young man with a burning passion for the truth, the leader forced to sleep on the ground, the man answering his country's call to be where he was urgently needed, before a committee of the United States Senate where the senators and America were urgently waiting for his firsthand criticism of the war. He porceeded to level his charges: [End Excerpt]
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I'm beginning to wonder how long this political theater was in the making.
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Kerry's World: Father Knows Best****……….As early as prep school, John Kerry showed signs that he shared his father's suspicions about America's cold war foreign policy. In a debate at St. Paul's in the late '50s, he argued that the United States should establish relations with Red China. During his junior year at Yale, he won a speech prize for an oration warning, "It is the specter of Western Imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating." And, when he was tapped to deliver a graduation speech in 1966, he used the occasion to condemn U.S. involvement in Vietnam, intoning, "What was an excess of isolationism has become an excess of interventionism."……….***
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John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by William Fulbright, in April 1971. Photo UPI
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A frame grab shows Vietnam war-era Swift boat veteran Ken Cordier speaking during a television commercial over Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry 's war record. Kerry asked the Federal Election Commission August 20, 2004 to force Republican critics to withdraw the ads challenging his military service, and accused the Bush campaign of illegally helping coordinate the attacks. Photo by Swiftvets.Com/Reuters
Thanks Radu. Bump!
Currently, the FEC only requires a 527 group to file regular disclosure reports if it is a political party or political action committee (PAC) that engages in either activities expressly advocating the election or defeat of a federal candidate, or in electioneering communications. Otherwise, it must file either with the government of the state in which it is located or the Internal Revenue Service.
Many 527s run by special interest groups raise unlimited "soft money," which they use for voter mobilization and certain types of issue advocacy, but not for efforts that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a federal candidate or amount to electioneering communications.
The key here is the last sentence - express advocacy. For instance, if the SBVT ad ended by saying "Vote for Bush" or "Vote against Kerry", that would be illegal. Thus you can trash the hell out of someone, compare him to Hitler, say his mother was a prostitute, etc., but you can's say "Vote for him" or "Vote against him".
Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Thank you John McCain and Russ Feingold.
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