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Forum nameOkay Activist Archives
Topic subjectThe Phoenix Group: 70 millionaires manipulating political policy.
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=30184
30184, The Phoenix Group: 70 millionaires manipulating political policy.
Posted by Expertise, Thu Apr-21-05 03:11 PM
Why isn't this news in the MSM? Oh; because they aren't Republicans. I suppose this is the "good" rich.
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http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/042005/soros.html

Soros says be patient
By Hans Nichols


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 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
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Sports and Politics are all found here:

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30185, like Richard Mellon Scaife and the Arkansas Project were in the MSM?
Posted by 40thStreetBlack, Thu Apr-21-05 03:18 PM
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Nurse Roberts: She googled your ass.

Dr. Kelso: Don't you use your street lingo on me!
30186, they were.
Posted by Expertise, Thu Apr-21-05 03:22 PM
__________________________
Sports and Politics are all found here:

http://expertise.blogdrive.com
30187, To the extent that Soros is?
Posted by stravinskian, Thu Apr-21-05 03:38 PM

Hell naw!
30188, during the Clinton Administration, yes.
Posted by Expertise, Thu Apr-21-05 03:50 PM
he was a subject of all of their conspiracy theories.
__________________________
Sports and Politics are all found here:

http://expertise.blogdrive.com
30189, In the same sense that...
Posted by stravinskian, Thu Apr-21-05 03:59 PM

Soros is the subject of all of yours.
30190, there's no conspiracy theory.
Posted by Expertise, Thu Apr-21-05 04:11 PM
All I mention is the cash that Soros and a number of other groups are willing to spend in order to defeat the Republican Party. If there was a Republican group that organized like this with the kind of influence and money that Soros, Lewis and others have you guys would bust a nut yelling about how they're trying to take over the world.

Oh yeah; you already have one. It's called PNAC.
__________________________
Sports and Politics are all found here:

http://expertise.blogdrive.com
30191, Even then,
Posted by stravinskian, Fri Apr-22-05 05:54 AM

Hell naw!
30192, you're delusional
Posted by 40thStreetBlack, Thu Apr-21-05 04:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------
Nurse Roberts: She googled your ass.

Dr. Kelso: Don't you use your street lingo on me!
30193, RE: The Phoenix Group: 70 millionaires manipulating political policy.
Posted by sunngodd, Thu Apr-21-05 03:19 PM
Getting together to invest in think tanks wouldn't be big news even if it was conservatives doing so, most people don't care about this kind of stuff.

Maybe some of these think tanks can think of ways to chart their own course rather than copying conservatives.

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“The Negro pays for what he wants and begs for what he needs.” -Kelly Miller
30194, if you think that's all they're doing.
Posted by Expertise, Thu Apr-21-05 03:24 PM
you're terribly naive.

Soros didn't put $23 million into 527s just to create policy analysis reports. And the funny thing is, he wasn't the biggest donator.
__________________________
Sports and Politics are all found here:

http://expertise.blogdrive.com
30195, so what are the other purposes behind this meeting?
Posted by sunngodd, Thu Apr-21-05 03:29 PM
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“The Negro pays for what he wants and begs for what he needs.” -Kelly Miller
30196, "funding transparency is a priority..
Posted by tohunga, Thu Apr-21-05 03:28 PM
...which she said would contrast with some right-wing groups."


this is a crucial point.
30197, RE: The Phoenix Group: 70 millionaires manipulating political policy.
Posted by AquamansWrath, Thu Apr-21-05 03:29 PM
Please... Republican millionaires have been running shit for the last two presidencies... and you say nothing.
Here's a tip... when your rich...your are neither a democrat or republican... your rich. In Bush's case a rich Nazi devil.
30198, RE: The Phoenix Group: 70 millionaires manipulating political policy.
Posted by mesthebronzeman, Thu Apr-21-05 03:55 PM
that much is true, the rich rule america not the government
30199, RE: The Phoenix Group: 70 millionaires manipulating political policy.
Posted by The Hammer Man, Thu Apr-21-05 03:56 PM
..the rich people are the government.
30200, lol at you crying foul
Posted by johnny_domino, Thu Apr-21-05 04:49 PM
glass houses and all that. Come on now.
30201, this shit's a Palestinian uprising in the Louvre.
Posted by tohunga, Thu Apr-21-05 05:19 PM
30202, Well, somebody's got to fund the lefties.
Posted by Battousai, Thu Apr-21-05 05:25 PM
What did expect, bake sales?
30203, cry me a river
Posted by son_of_mr_hankey, Thu Apr-21-05 07:49 PM
*
30204, phony left vs right propaganda piece from uncle expertise
Posted by 3X, Thu Apr-21-05 10:19 PM
yawn...........
30205, that NIGGA is a true NEGROW...i.e. NEED 2 GROW
Posted by , Thu Apr-21-05 11:32 PM

I am not available because I am playing a computer game that takes up the whole screen.

http://www.myspace.com/losangeleague