Russ Feingold, Bought and Paid For with Sorosgeld [UPDATED x4]

19Oct/100

Russ Feingold, Bought and Paid For with Sorosgeld [UPDATED x4]

Hey, who needs JournoList? The usual suspects are all down with the meme that Secret Donors are corrupting the political process and responsible for the enormous wave of indignation that's about to come crashing down on the Proggies.

Never mind that Democrats are receiving more foreign cash.

Never mind that Obama's election campaign was taking unverifiable donations hand over fist.

Never mind the McCarthyism of the claims against the eeeeeevil and scary US Chamber of Commerce.

Never mind that the DoJ has dragged its feet on the disenfranchisement of military voters in Illinois, New York, and possibly elsewhere, or that it seems to think it's legitimate for Latin American nations to join as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against a state that has national security and constitutional implications.

You'll find a perfect, fact-free expression of the meme in Salon writer Dan Gillmor's atrocity from earlier today:

It's beginning to penetrate the public consciousness that the 2010 elections are being purchased, mostly for Republicans, by a shadowy group of wealthy cowards. These anonymous buyers are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into attack ads, mostly against Democrats, via organizations that launder their money into an increasingly corrupt political system.

There's not much anyone can do about it during this election cycle. The response time of the people being attacked has been slow, at best, while journalists have been in typical form, discovering the problem too late to matter. The campaign season is essentially over, and what was plainly going to be a big Republican gain could well become a rout, no small thanks to the opinion launderers and their paymasters.

But unless we want our nation to be entirely governed by puppets, on strings wielded by people who stay entirely in the shadows, we'll need to find a way to put a hard stop to this -- or force the anonymous cowards into the open where we can learn who's doing the manipulating.

Salon's also got another piece up, reinforcing this face-saving mendacity, but speckled with at least some facts.

Nothing about Harry Reid's dirty milk deal.

And it's funny how takers of the Sorosgeld, like J-Street and others, seem reluctant to admit it, as though they were embarrassed.

Remember the WaPo's plans for a series of access "salons" (not the same as the online rag)?

Compare those piles of insinuation, though, to Jeffrey Lord's well-researched expose on Russ Feingold, Soros, the WaPo and a Bush judicial nominee. Read it. Understand it.

And then tell Joan Walsh's gaggle of shills where to put it.

UPDATE: WaPo partially redeems itself with this.

The U.S. Chamber says it receives about $100,000 from its affiliates abroad (out of an operating budget of about $200 million), none of it used for political campaigns. Compare that to one of the largest labor unions in America, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is spending lavishly to elect Democrats. The SEIU claims 100,000 members in Canada. According to SEIU's 2008 constitution, dues include $7.65 per month per member that must be sent to the SEIU International in the United States. This means that the SEIU takes in nearly $9.2 million per year from foreign nationals -- almost 10 times the amount the Chamber receives from its affiliates abroad.

I mean it's just so . . . "stupidly." Axelrod is gone, gone, gone after Nov. 3.

RE-UPDATE: Soros funding 100 NPR political reporters for the election.

RE-RE-UPDATE: Obama, whose wife was last seen violating the law at a Chicago polling place (of which, despite being a genius lawyer and daughter of a precinct captain, she was unaware), is now letting the SEIU know that he's okay with their violation of FEC regulations.
Broward County, FL corruption machine breaking down.

RE-RE-RE-UPDATE: Davids Medienkritik smashes Der Spiegel regurgitation of all the excuses.

Article summary: Obama is not a bad president, BUT:

* Expectations were too high
* "The Haters" - Obama's evil, irrational, white, hate-monger, gun-nut, tea party opponents - are too loud and have instilled too much fear
* The media is dominated by Fox News and other (rational and unbiased) media (such as MSNBC and the New York Times) are ignored by the gun-nuts in middle America
* Health reform did not go far enough
* Obama could have re-educated Americans in other policy areas, but ran out of political capital
* Americans oppose expansion of government - even though they expect things from government - (which automatically means they oppose ALL government and have no right to ever expect anything from their government)