80 liberals each pledge $1 million - hope to copy success of think tanks run by conservatives

Houston Chronicle ^ | August 7, 2005 | THOMAS B. EDSALL

[Cincinatus' Wife]

WASHINGTON - At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up during the last three decades.

[kcvl]

Steven M. Gluckstern is a founding managing director of Azimuth Alternative Asset Management, LLLP, a global alternative asset management company based in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1998, he co-founded Capital Z Partners, and 10 years earlier, he was a founder of Centre Reinsurance, which was subsequently acquired by the Zurich Financial Group in 1993. Prior to entering the world of business, Gluckstern spent seven years as a teacher and school administrator. After he received his Ed.D. from the University in 1974, he founded the CHOICE program at Scarsdale Jr. High School, an alternative educational curriculum still in use today. He subsequently was a principal at the Community School in Tehran, Iran, and superintendent of schools in Telluride, Col. In 2001, a $1.7 million gift from Gluckstern was used to help endow two professorships: the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professorship in Education Policy and Reform, honoring Dwight Allen, former dean of the School of Education; and the Robert L. Gluckstern Distinguished Professorship of Physics, recognizing Gluckstern's father, Robert, who was professor and head of the department of physics and provost at UMass Amherst during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to his doctorate from UMass Amherst, Gluckstern holds an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from Amherst College.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.......................Alliance chairman Steven Gluckstern, a retired investment banker, said President Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry after millions were put into pro-Democratic "527" groups caused many contributors to think that a dramatically new approach was needed. ...............

I don't doubt he sees an angle to put some money in his pocket. Thank you for the information in Post #40. Most interesting.

[CasearianDaoist]

Say, this is a great find: Kudos to you.

I particularly like this bit:

PETA has a powerful DVD with shocking undercover videos documenting chicken abuse

Quite a peckish lot, I'd say.

I will forgo the obvious pun about "foul play," but will remark that I am surprised that the reporter managed to restrain himself here.

Too funny.

If our civilization survives these idiots and common sense prevails, some cultural historian somewhere in the future will have a high old time rooting around in the lunacies of our age.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Good grief!!

[sphinx]

The current Democratic Party ISN'T about doing what is right, it's about getting power back and running our lives, the way they see fit.

Agreed. The current democrats are pretty pathetic. I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of their meetings, where they must go around a room full of people -- every one of whom has his/her own kids in private school -- rehearsing their answers as to why school choice is a bad idea.

My point is, they know what they're doing here is a corrupt sellout. And they know the primary victims are their own base voters. It's the same on investment accounts. All the prominent 'rat pols have their own money in 401(k)'s and know the benefits. All of them can read the polls that show every demographic group except current retirees favors reform, with support rising the younger and/or more financially literate a voter is. That is the future. On the other side, there is the short term politics of scaring a dwindling number of old folks -- and the terminally dimwitted (just check DU) -- with bogeymen. How much longer will dems stay locked into the stupid side of this argument?

I don't predict that Hillary will do these things -- I don't think she's that bright or independent. But she should if she wants to be president. Sooner or later, some prominent democrat will break ranks. These are emperor's new clothes issues. I am astonished the dems have conceded them to us for so long.

[kcvl]

Gluckstern also is a businessman with a clear focus on the bottom line. And local officials will be facing off across the bargaining table with a man whose rise -- to the top echelon of one of the world's biggest insurance conglomerates, to political big-donor lunches with President Bill Clinton and to global deal-making with some of Hong Kong's top tycoons -- has not been without controversy.

Indeed, over his rapid 10-year rise to fame and fortune in the insurance industry, Gluckstern's out-of-the-box financial approaches and corporate tactics have occasionally rankled accounting regulators, industry competitors, environmentalists, legislators and even some of his own shareholders.

Just last year, for example, his company -- in an unusual use of a 1994 statute that a Zurich affiliate had a hand in drafting -- reeled in the biggest tax subsidy in Connecticut history, $190 million in tax credits for moving 400 jobs from Manhattan to Stamford. The deal was so controversial that legislators threatened to block it by retroactively amending the law until Zurich agreed to make a $12.5-million economic development grant.

[kcvl]

January 18, 1998

In 1995, for example, $70,000 in contributions to the Democratic National Committee bought Gluckstern a seat at Clinton's right hand during a controversial lunch with big donors at which the president praised them for helping fund an early ad blitz through a "soft-money" loophole.

More recently, Gluckstern was Zurich's point man in an attempted rescue of Peregrine Investments Holdings, a controversial Hong Kong investment bank with strong ties to the People's Republic of China.

Gluckstern grew up in Amherst, Mass., the son of a psychologist and a physicist. He began his professional career as a teacher.

[CasearianDaoist]

Gee, it gets even better. From the golf article:

The first meeting she'll seek, she said, will be with Chuck Fruit, senior president of worldwide media and alliances for Coca-Cola, the world's No. 1 soft-drink company.

What hilarity! One cannot make this stuff up. Bet Chick got his position purely based on his name. I know I would hind that moniker hard to resist if I were looking to hire a "senior president of worldwide media and alliances." Take that, Tropicana!

Now i have to ask: If we could get Mr Chuck Fruit to hitch up with the PETA crowd over at KFC, would they "throw in the fowl?"

[Supercomputer One]

Wisdom always flows through the zeitgeist to the righteous. Repentance is free. Money doesn't buy honour or integrity.

"Paying" for wisdom without prayer, vigilance and right action is akin to ripping up $100 bills whilst standing in a tornado.

[Supercomputer One]

In the Philosophical Supermarket of Life groups like PETA are in the Nearly-Use-By Date Throw Away Bin.

[Larry Lucido]

$80 million, huh? How will we ever match that? Let's see, bumping my FR contribution up another $5.00 a month should just about do it.

[stacytec]

My guess would be that his tenure was before the fall of the Shaw. At one time, Tehran had many western-style schools.

[kcvl]

Ann S. Bowers is the Chair of the Board and the founding Trustee of the Noyce Foundation. Previously, her career was in human resource management in California's Silicon Valley. She was the first Director of Personnel for Intel Corporation and the first Vice President of Human Resources for Apple Computer.

[Dallas59]

Democratic "Think Tank"

[Cincinatus' Wife]

From your fine research, it looks like these aren't your run-of-the-mill LIBERALS, it's really a global, socialist think-tank with Gluckstern at the helm to turn over the U.S. government to our enemies.

[kcvl]

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION

GLUCKSTERN


http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=NY&last=GLUCKSTERN

[kcvl]

More Campaign Contributions...

GLUCKSTERN


http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=VI&last=GLUCKSTERN

[CasearianDaoist]

Sometimes I do fantasize that all of this will just be seen as some sort of bizzare and momentary dementia in our nation's development. Sort of like the onset of puberty, or one's Senior Prom.

I imagine a wise and learned professor 300 years hence going over all of this with a group of college freshman, who after gleefully pointing out lunicies like PETA, Andy Warhol, Global Warming and the Democrat Party, sits back and chuckles over the disbelief of his charges.

It would be sort of like how we react when we hear about our ancestors beating on drums to chase away solar eclipses.

Of course, there are other times when I think that they will prevail, and that reasonable behavior shall pass from this earth, at least in public life.

It is amazing what silliness our civilization can get up to these days. It is no wonder the Chinese and the Mullahs are so arrogant.

[gpapa]

All the liberal major philanthropic foundations, with literally billions spent, tried for years to compete with the dominant conservative think tanks. It did not work then or now. $80 million is chump change comparatively speaking.

[kcvl]

November 2003

support glaad.org

Hi Folks,

I'm going to cut to the chase this month, so that you'll have a few minutes to check out some of the great new features at GLAAD.org.

Big News! At last month's board meeting, Board member Judy Gluckstern and her husband Steven announced a $250,000 gift to GLAAD, and they designated $50,000 specifically to the Digital Initiative. This represents the single largest board member gift to GLAAD in its 18-year history, and we are tremendously appreciative.

Judy and Steven are longtime major donors, and Judy joined the board in early 2003. She brings with her a tremendous wealth of board experience.