[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 14 (Wednesday, February 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E94-E95]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GEORGE SOROS' INFILTRATION OF CPAC
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HON. MARK E. SOUDER
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, George Soros, the radical liberal financier
who dedicated himself to defeating President George W. Bush in the last
election, has taken a lesson from Jack Abramoff.
As much of Abramoff's pernicious lobbying technique has come to
light, we've seen how he was adept at manipulating certain conservative
organizations to pursue a decidedly anti-conservative agenda, namely
the promotion of gambling. By working hand in hand with the Traditional
Values Coalition, TVC, for example, he was able in 2000 to undermine
conservatives' best effort to outlaw on-line gambling. Proxy
organizations played a fundamental role in Abramoff's strategy.
Since 1974, the American Conservative Union has held the Conservative
Political Action Conference, or CPAC, which is billed as a 3-day
meeting for thousands of conservative activists and leaders to discuss
current issues and policies and set the agenda for the future.
[[Page E95]]
I myself have addressed the conference in the past.
One can imagine a conservative's surprise to read on the CPAC 2006
agenda that a representative of the Marijuana Policy Project, MPP, is
slated to moderate--yes, moderate--a panel Friday discussing drug
policy. For those who are unacquainted with it, the pro-marijuana MPP
has been funded by Soros in the past. Also represented on the panel is
the Drug Policy Alliance, which is Soros' principal pro-drug arm.
Incidentally, the moderator himself is a convicted drug dealer.
What on earth were the CPAC organizers thinking? Why would the
American Conservative Union allow extremist liberals like George Soros
and Peter Lewis--who is responsible for most of MPP's funding--to
access a meeting of conservatives? And, in exactly whose estimation
would there be balance in a debate moderated by the MPP?
Thanks to Accuracy in Media Report Editor Cliff Kincaid, these are
just a few of the questions that the CPAC organizers now face. I'd like
to submit into the Record his article of February 7, 2006, entitled
``Soros Infiltrates Conservative Movement.'' In exchange for a
donation, is this 32-year-old conservative conference turning itself
into a Soros proxy organization just like Abramoff's TVC?
Over the last number of months, we've been surprised to learn how one
such as Abramoff was able to exploit conservatives for his own
purposes. Surely in this environment we can't miss seeing it when it's
happening once again.
[From Accuracy in Media, Feb. 7, 2006]
Soros Infiltrates Conservative Movement
(By Cliff Kincaid)
Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation has pulled
out as a speaker at the Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC), which begins in Washington, D.C., on
Thursday, because a ``mini-debate'' she was scheduled to
appear in had been stacked against her. As it now stands, the
event will feature two advocates of drug legalization, both
of them funded by leftist billionaire and anti-Bush activist
George Soros.
Having put most of the left-wing political movement and
many liberal Democrats on his payroll, it is apparent that
Soros is now working to manipulate the conservative movement.
It is surprising that CPAC is facilitating his scheme.
A convicted inside trader who specializes in manipulating
the currencies of the nations of the world, Soros is usually
depicted as a ``philanthropist'' who believes in an ``Open
Society.'' Hence, the name of his major funding mechanism,
the Open Society Institute. In the Soros view, of course, an
``open society'' means encouraging behavior that undermines
the traditional values and culture of America. This is hardly
``conservative.''
In addition to promoting drug legalization, his causes
include open borders, gay rights, abortion rights, opposition
to the death penalty, lighter sentences for criminals, and
assisted suicide. He tried almost single-handedly to buy the
White House for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential
election by spending over $20 million on controversial
``527'' organizations promoting his candidacy. On foreign
policy issues, Soros is a big backer of the U.N. and opposes
the Bush Administration's war in Iraq and handling of the war
on terrorism.
The scheduled Friday CPAC event on ``A Conservative Drug
Policy'' was to feature a mini-debate between Ethan Nadelmann
of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and Calvina Fay. The
``moderator,'' hardly unbiased, was scheduled to be Rob
Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). The Soros Open
Society Institute has given the DPA millions of dollars,
including $2.5 million in 2004 alone. MPP has been funded by
Soros as well as Peter Lewis, chairman of the Progressive
Corporation, who was arrested in New Zealand several years
ago after customs officers found marijuana in his luggage.
Lewis, who gave $340,000 to MPP in 2004, is also a major
funder of the ACLU.
Court documents show that Kampia himself was convicted in
1989 and sentenced to prison for possessing and intending to
distribute marijuana.
While paying thousands of dollars to appear at a
conservative conference, MPP is selling $500 tickets to a
March 30 fundraising ``party'' at the Playboy Mansion.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner provided the seed money for the
drug legalization movement, which is now underwritten mostly
by Soros and Lewis.
``Playmates will be available to give tours of the mansion
grounds as you enjoy great music and comedy in one of
America's most renowned settings,'' says MPP's website. A
member of the ``host committee'' for the Playboy event is
Tommy Chong, who participated in pro-marijuana movies as part
of the ``Cheech and Chong'' team and served nine months in
prison for selling drug paraphernalia. You won't need an NSA
surveillance program to know what's going on in the
Playboy Mansion on March 30.
When Calvina Fay saw that the CPAC ``debate'' had been
stacked against her, she pulled out. However, her group will
still have a booth at CPAC. So will the Drug Policy Alliance.
Later in the day, after the ``debate,'' Kampia's MPP will
host an event for all CPAC attendees and guests on why the
war on drugs should not target marijuana users. It is not
known if Playmates will appear.
The Drug Policy Alliance also participated in CPAC last
year, boasting that Executive Director Nadelmann was ``well-
received'' and ``appeared on several conservative radio shows
coinciding with the conference.''
This is troubling because DPA and MPP are part of a major
deception campaign to convince people that marijuana is
harmless or even has medical benefits. Accuracy in Media last
year disclosed the existence of documentary evidence that the
``medical marijuana'' movement is a fraud that exploits sick
people. Video footage of a pro-marijuana event showed Ed
Rosenthal, formerly of High Times magazine, speaking to
dozens of marijuana activists. ``With all the talk about
medical marijuana, I have to tell you that I also use
marijuana medically (laughter),'' he says. ``I have a latent
glaucoma, which has never been diagnosed (more laughter). And
the reason why it has never been diagnosed is because I've
been treating it (laughter). . . But there is a reason why I
do use it. And that is because I like to get high. (cheers,
applause). Marijuana is fun.''
Another video excerpt showed Richard Cowan, former director
of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws, saying that ``The key to it [legalization] is medical
access because once you have hundreds of thousands of people
using marijuana medically under medical supervision the whole
scam is going to be blown. . . Once there's medical access
and if we continue to do what we have to do--and we will--
then we'll get full legalization.'' Not surprisingly, a
Federal investigation of ``medical marijuana'' clubs and
dispensaries in California has found they had been used as a
cover for drug dealing and money laundering.
At the same time, evidence of a connection between
marijuana and mental illness continues to mount. The
influence of marijuana figures in the sensational murder case
of Colin Roger Cotting, a 16-year-old in Alaska who allegedly
raped his stepmother, beat her to death with a baseball bat,
and stuffed her in a freezer. The murder resulted from a
dispute when Cotting was confronted by his stepmother about
his marijuana use. Cotting told police that he was too stoned
on marijuana to remember what had happened.
In a case that received national attention, Joseph Smith,
the convicted killer of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, tried to
blame his criminal behavior on using drugs, including cocaine
and marijuana.
British newspapers are now covering a sensational case of
``cannabis psychosis,'' involving a music producer, Lisa
Voice, who ``was viciously assaulted in her home by a family
friend who had been made psychotic by the drug,'' as the
London Sunday Times noted. She suffered a broken jaw, broken
nose, collapsed lung, and eye injuries, and has already had
11 medical operations to rebuild her face and head. The
attacker had been smoking marijuana since the age of 15 and
believed he was getting subliminal messages from television.
In Britain, penalties for the use and possession of
marijuana had been lowered after the drug had been
reclassified. But Dr. Shahrokh Mireskandari, lawyer for Lisa
Voice, was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying, ``Let
government ministers who say cannabis is a harmless drug come
and explain that decision to Mrs. Voice and her many doctors.
Cannabis should never have been reclassified and people such
as Mrs. Voice now face a lifetime of pain because of the
dangers of this drug.''
So why is CPAC giving Nadelmann, Kampia and their ilk a
platform?
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