SwiftVets.com

[fortdixlover]

I regret to inform readers of modest means that a full anti-Bush pro-Kerry two-page ad today by billionaire George Soros appeared. This is a man who has pledged his fortune to altering a U.S. presidential election.

The full-spread "ad" appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 5, 2004 (page A10-A11) and likely many other large newspapers and is entitled in large bold letters:

"WHY WE MUST NOT RE-ELECT PRESIDENT BUSH"

What follows doesn't take much expertise to fisk for the leftist, internationalist, pro-Kerry screed that it is:

"My name is George Soros. I made billions as an investor and businessman."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros
... Despite his carefully groomed media image, Soros is a controversial figure. Although he has become extremely wealthy as an international investor and currency speculator (his fortune in 2004 was estimated at US$ 7 billion), he freely acknowledges that the current system of financial speculation undermines healthy economic development in many underdeveloped countries ... "But it was in France that Soros got into trouble with the authorities. In 1988, he was asked to join a takeover attempt of a French bank. He declined, but he did buy the bank's stock. Last year [2002], a French court ruled that was insider trading."

"This is not an ordinary election. It is a referendum on President Bush's first term in office."

I think it's more a referendum on what we want to do about Islamofascist terrorism.

"He ran on a platform of humble foreign policy in 2000. Then came 9/11, the Bush doctrine of preemptive military intervention and the invasion of Iraq."

Bush has the wisdom to realize that humility in the face of the onslaught of 9/11 is an inappropriate response that will end up getting us killed.

"If we re-elect him now, we endorse these policies and we shall have to live with the consequences. As I shall try to show, we are facing a vicious circle of escalating violence with no end in sight."

Mr. Soros produces the classic leftist "moral equivalency" and "vicious circle of violence" argument. In his amoral mind, measures protective of our future are no better than the terrorists' slicing of passenger's throats, butchering of the 9/11 pilots, and then slamming aircrafts full of innocent passengers into buildings filled with innocent workers.

"But if we reject him at the pools, we shall have a better chance to regain the respect and support of the world and break the vicious cycle. Our future depends on it."

Again, the traditional leftist-internationalist mantra. Why, exactly, do we need respect from "the world"? Aren't there an awful lot of tyrannical, repressive, and murderous regimes around "the world"? Do we need their respect? Isn't it far better for us - and for the people enslaved in this countries - if they feared us?

"why should you listen to me? Not because I have a lot of money - although it helps pay for this advertisement- but because I have an unusual background and experience that may help throw some light on our predicament. I was born in Hungary, lived through fascism and the Holocaust, and then had a foretaste of communism. I learned at an early age how important it is what kind of government prevails. I chose America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil liberties and an open society ... I have set up a network of foundations which currently spends about 450 million dollars a year all over the world. I have learned quite a bit about promoting democracy."

In a bizarre twist on Argumentum ad verecundiam (argument or appeal to authority), here we see Mr. Soros claiming to BE the authority as a result of his trauma, great wisdom and and deep pockets. Do I see "elitist" in there?

"A FULL AND FAIR DISCUSSION IS ESSENTIAL TO A DEMOCRACY. When George W. Bush was elected president, and even more more after Sept. 11, I saw that the values and principles of open society needed to be defended at home."

When Bush was elected president, it reflected the vaues of an open society operating under the rule of law. Mr. Soros, has your traumatic exeriences in those concentration camps so degraded your judgment that you are now so paranoid as to suggest a close U.S. presidential election, decided by the the courts against your favored party, is a breach of values and principles of an open society?

Sept. 11 led to a suspension of the critical process so essential to a democracy- a full and fair discussion of the issues. President Bush silenced all criticism by calling it unpatrotic."

He SILENCED ALL criticism? A Google search shows millions of articles since 9/11 critical of Bush. TV and radio have conducted hundreds of thousands of hours of critical material, broadcast to hundreds of millions. Here you have the freedom to publish two-page spreads in national newspapers of the type I am responding to. Just where is the "silencing", Mr. Soros?

At this point, Mr. Billionaire, you've lost your credibility. Mr.Soros, your statement a prima facie example of Dicto simpliciter ("spoken simply", i.e., sweeping generalization). This is the fallacy of making a sweeping statement and expecting people to believe it true.

If you can't learn to publush facts that can be vetted using common sense, rules of debate, and resources such as Google (are you able to use the Internet, Mr. Soros?), then please spare intelligent people of Western culture your leftist internationalist hysteria.

I can't go on in this critique; there are over a page and a half more of Leftism Poster Boy bullcrap. Someone else will have to finish it.

Let's see how once again the power of the Little Guy (e.g., SwiftVets) via the Internet can nullify the power of the leftist, internationalist billionaires like John Kerry and his benefactor George Soros.

-- FDL

[Wynne]

I haven't seen this ad. But my feeling is that only the die-hard Kerry supporters will respond to it favorably. Anybody else -- most people not being multi-billionaires -- will find the whole idea of such an ad disgusting and will react to it very negatively. I'm glad there is a Conservative Group following Soros around on his speaking tour this month. The guy is a snake who has never done one positive thing for anybody and made all his money from manipulating currency. Can't believe we gave somebody like this American citizenship.
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TRUTH IS ALWAYS THE VICTOR

[fortdixlover]

[Bill Levinson]

I am also Jewish and I loathe (tfui!) Soros and everything he stands for.

http://www.stentorian.com/politics/soros.html
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--Bill
http://www.stentorian.com/politics/kerry Growing dossier on John Kerry's lack of character, ethics, and integrity. Free leaflets, Election 2004

[skygod325]

Well said FDL. There should always be a common sense rebuttal to this left wing dribble.

Good Job
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"All the Way!"

[fortdixlover]

[Chuck Z Ombie AC2000]

People still buy newspapers?
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John Kerry, R.I.P. (Rot In Paris)