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Thread: Is Bush On His Way Out?

  1. #1
    CrumbCat's Avatar Cachaça or Cachaça
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    Billionaire Soros
    takes on Bush
     

    Ousting president ‘central
    focus of my life,’ he says


     
    By Laura Blumenfeld
    THE WASHINGTON POST

    NEW YORK, Nov. 11 —  George Soros, one of the world’s richest men, has given away nearly $5 billion to promote democracy in the former Soviet bloc, Africa and Asia. Now he has a new project: defeating President Bush.
            “IT IS THE central focus of my life,” Soros said, his blue eyes settled on an unseen target. The 2004 presidential race, he said in an interview, is “a matter of life and death.”
          Soros, who has financed efforts to promote open societies in more than 50 countries around the world, is bringing the fight home, he said. On Monday, he and a partner committed up to $5 million to MoveOn.org, a liberal activist group, bringing to $15.5 million the total of his personal contributions to oust Bush.
         
    ‘A DANGER TO THE WORLD’
          Overnight, Soros, 74, has become the major financial player of the left. He has elicited cries of foul play from the right. And with a tight nod, he pledged: “If necessary, I would give more money.” 
            “America, under Bush, is a danger to the world,” Soros said. Then he smiled: “And I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.”
          Soros believes a “supremacist ideology” guides this White House. He hears echoes in its rhetoric of his childhood in occupied Hungary. “When I hear Bush say, ‘You’re either with us or against us,’ it reminds me of the Germans.” It conjures up memories, he said, of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit (“The enemy is listening”): “My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me,” he said in a soft Hungarian accent.
          Soros’s contributions are filling a gap in Democratic Party finances that opened after the restrictions in the 2002 McCain-Feingold law took effect. In the past, political parties paid a large share of television and get-out-the-vote costs with unregulated “soft money” contributions from corporations, unions and rich individuals. The parties are now barred from accepting such money. But non-party groups in both camps are stepping in, accepting soft money and taking over voter mobilization.
          “It’s incredibly ironic that George Soros is trying to create a more open society by using an unregulated, under-the-radar-screen, shadowy, soft-money group to do it,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson said. “George Soros has purchased the Democratic Party.”
          In past election cycles, Soros contributed relatively modest sums. In 2000, his aide said, he gave $122,000, mostly to Democratic causes and candidates. But recently, Soros has grown alarmed at the influence of neoconservatives, whom he calls “a bunch of extremists guided by a crude form of social Darwinism.” 
            Neoconservatives, Soros said, are exploiting the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to promote a preexisting agenda of preemptive war and world dominion. “Bush feels that on September 11th he was anointed by God,” Soros said. “He’s leading the U.S. and the world toward a vicious circle of escalating violence.”
         
    ‘THE SOROS DOCTRINE’
          Soros said he had been waking at 3 a.m., his thoughts shaking him “like an alarm clock.” Sitting in his robe, he wrote his ideas down, longhand, on a stack of pads. In January, PublicAffairs will publish them as a book, “The Bubble of American Supremacy” (an excerpt appears in December’s Atlantic Monthly). In it, he argues for a collective approach to security, increased foreign aid and “preventive action.”
          “It would be too immodest for a private person to set himself up against the president,” he said. “But it is, in fact” — he chuckled — “the Soros Doctorine.”
          His campaign began last summer with the help of Mort Halpern, a liberal think tank veteran. Soros invited Democratic strategists to his house in Southampton, Long Island, including Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta, Jeremy Rosner, Robert Boorstin and Carl Pope.
          They discussed the coming election. Standing on the back deck, the evening sun angling into their eyes, Soros took aside Steve Rosenthal, CEO of the liberal activist group America Coming Together (ACT), and Ellen Malcolm, its president. They were proposing to mobilize voters in 17 battleground states. Soros told them he would give ACT $10 million.
          Asked about his moment in the sun, Rosenthal deadpanned: “We were disappointed. We thought a guy like George Soros could do more.” Then he laughed. “No, kidding! It was thrilling.”
          Malcolm: “It was like getting his Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”
          “They were ready to kiss me,” Soros quipped. 
    Before coffee the next morning, his friend Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corp., had pledged $10 million to ACT. Rob Glaser, founder and CEO of RealNetworks, promised $2 million. Rob McKay, president of the McKay Family Foundation, gave $1 million and benefactors Lewis and Dorothy Cullman committed $500,000.
          Soros also promised up to $3 million to Podesta’s new think tank, the Center for American Progress.
          Soros will continue to recruit wealthy donors for his campaign. Having put a lot of money into the war of ideas around the world, he has learned that “money buys talent; you can advocate more effectively.”
          At his home in Westchester, N.Y., he raised $115,000 for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. He also supports Democratic presidential contenders Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.).
          In an effort to limit Soros’s influence, the RNC sent a letter to Dean Monday, asking him to request that ACT and similar organizations follow the McCain-Feingold restrictions limiting individual contributions to $2,000.
         
    ‘WATCHDOGGING HIM CLOSELY’
          The RNC is not the only group irked by Soros. Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, which promotes changes in campaign finance , has benefited from Soros’s grants over the years. Soros has backed altering campaign finance, an aide said, donating close to $18 million over the past seven years.
          “There’s some irony, given the supporting role he played in helping to end the soft money system,” Wertheimer said. “I’m sorry that Mr. Soros has decided to put so much money into a political effort to defeat a candidate. We will be watchdogging him closely.”
          An aide said Soros welcomes the scrutiny. Soros has become as rich as he has, the aide said, because he has a preternatural instinct for a good deal.
          Asked whether he would trade his $7 billion fortune to unseat Bush, Soros opened his mouth. Then he closed it. The proposal hung in the air: Would he become poor to beat Bush?
          He said: “If someone guaranteed it.”
         
          © 2003 The Washington Post Company

  2. The Drawing Room   -   #2
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    I said it here before the IRAQ war, and I will emphasize it again. (and I wish I hadn't change my opinion after the war started, but now I am back with my original opinion stated here). Bush is not good. Let Saddam "do his thing", leave them wallowing in their own quagmire. It is their country, who are we to tell them what to do.

    Now BUSH has caused the USA to lose its integerity will all other countries. Who the hell is going to trust the USA anymore. I know I wouldn't. The entire time that Bush was fussing with the Saddam thing, the real threat was North Korea. Too late now. China and Japan are very nervous about North Korea, and if they would need help from the USA, they probably wouldn't ask the USA.

    Clinton would have never assumed weapons of mass destruction as 100% until real proof existed, and then he'd find a calm way to resolve thae Iraq situation. Not waste billions of dollars. My dollars. The gov. taking my hard earned money to do crap like that. The gov is so greedy, they spend 50 cents in postage to tell me I owe them 25 cents.

  3. The Drawing Room   -   #3
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    Prior to Bush's visit to Britain next week, his security advisors have demanded that there must be no anti-war demonstrations during his visit. What sort of reception would such demands receive if they were made in the US?

    I suspect that his security advisors are going to be politely told to go and fuck themselves, to make a serious effort to block such demonstrations would be political suicide. But one wonders if this is merely a last minute exercise to try to find a reason to cancel the visit. We shall have to wait and see.
    .
    Political correctness is based on the principle that it's possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

  4. The Drawing Room   -   #4
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    Originally posted by lynx@12 November 2003 - 20:41
    Prior to Bush's visit to Britain next week, his security advisors have demanded that there must be no anti-war demonstrations during his visit. What sort of reception would such demands receive if they were made in the US?

    I suspect that his security advisors are going to be politely told to go and fuck themselves, to make a serious effort to block such demonstrations would be political suicide. But one wonders if this is merely a last minute exercise to try to find a reason to cancel the visit. We shall have to wait and see.
    And of course the very fact he demanded this, means that we will demonstrate...

    Until this came to light, i had absolutely no interest (and neither did my colleagues) of going on another protest..... now we have 2 coachloads travelling to London to protest.




    An It Harm None, Do What You Will

  5. The Drawing Room   -   #5
    Originally posted by Rat Faced@13 November 2003 - 04:02
    Until this came to light, i had absolutely no interest (and neither did my colleagues) of going on another protest..... now we have 2 coachloads travelling to London to protest.



    count me in, when will this take place. i have to be in london next week for a bus meeting.

  6. The Drawing Room   -   #6
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    bush is unf. also just a human - that is sad. yes, maybe there is hope...
    hehe... If economy would not rise too much he should worry about reelection ...
    cause he promised to improve economy...

    ~nice dreams...

  7. The Drawing Room   -   #7
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    off topic:david your pm's that you sent me didn't show up proplerly so i have no idea what you said in the 2nd and 3rd pm's . i would have sent a pm instead of spamming this thread but that would have led to more pm's that were mostly blank. i can edit this post and paste the pm's if needed.


    sending fiery missiles in manker's japan's general direction.

  8. The Drawing Room   -   #8
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    Originally posted by nikita69+12 November 2003 - 22:19--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (nikita69 @ 12 November 2003 - 22:19)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Rat Faced@13 November 2003 - 04:02
    Until this came to light, i had absolutely no interest (and neither did my colleagues) of going on another protest..... now we have 2 coachloads travelling to London to protest.



    count me in, when will this take place. i have to be in london next week for a bus meeting. [/b][/quote]
    November 20th...

    But shhh..... its already been banned, so dont tell anyone

    Never seen interest in a protest take off so quick...if they&#39;d kept their mouths shut there would have been a couple of hundred, now there&#39;ll probably be thousands.


    An It Harm None, Do What You Will

  9. The Drawing Room   -   #9
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    Originally posted by Rat Faced+12 November 2003 - 23:36--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Rat Faced @ 12 November 2003 - 23:36)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
    Originally posted by nikita69@12 November 2003 - 22:19
    <!--QuoteBegin-Rat Faced
    @13 November 2003 - 04:02
    Until this came to light, i had absolutely no interest (and neither did my colleagues) of going on another protest..... now we have 2 coachloads travelling to London to protest.




    count me in, when will this take place. i have to be in london next week for a bus meeting.
    November 20th...

    But shhh..... its already been banned, so dont tell anyone

    Never seen interest in a protest take off so quick...if they&#39;d kept their mouths shut there would have been a couple of hundred, now there&#39;ll probably be thousands.

    [/b][/quote]
    I think you can probably put those figures together.

    I reckon at least 200 thousand.
    .
    Political correctness is based on the principle that it's possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

  10. The Drawing Room   -   #10
    that date fits perfect in my schedule.

    off topic, hehe, u think if we sent an email to bush with a hash link to all resources of IRAQ, he&#39;d get KL++ and dld it? hehe

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