Gift Hub

Funding American Greatness

"Do you not think I have just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age, had conquered so  many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable?" - Julius Caesar upon reading of the exploits of Alexander the Great

I went to see my friend and colleague, Smoky Joe, Senior Fellow at Rooster Foundation: Crowing in the New American Century. I had hoped to talk about doing some sort of Values-Based Planning deal with their wealthy contributors, but I found Joe with his head down on his desk, weeping, and flailing with his fists.  "Dr. Joseph Goebbels was dead at age 48, Phil," he said, "and look at me at 51.  What have I accomplished that is memorable?" I reassured him that many of his phrases (like "Operation Iraqi Freedom") have been memorable and he still has more than a year to do to America what his hero did to Berlin.  He brightened immediately and went back to his typing. It was a press release, I believe, to be read on Fox News about doing God's work in Iran.  My fundraising idea will have to wait, I guess. I wonder if Bill O'Reilly is a good values-based planning prospect? If we can't cure these people, at least we can make a buck off them. When it comes to advancing my own career, I am transpartisan. Every funder has a right to his or her own values. It is all subjective, anyway. The main thing is to offend no one, make an honest buck, and live well among the ruins.

Presidential Advance Manual

The White House has a a 103 page operations manual, The Presidential Advance Manual, on how to silence or quarantine dissent at Presidential speech sites. 

The document also recommends drowning out protesters or blocking their signs by using what it calls "rally squads." It states: "These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators. The rally squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors (USA!, USA!, USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site."

The document offered advice on how to recruit members for such squads: "The rally squads can include, but are not limited to, college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities."

Hence my concern with "civility" and accepting the "frame" provided to us by the Main Stream Media and the Pundits in the Think Tanks. The "New Normal" is not acceptable. Blogging is one the few venues where our voices can be heard without being blocked, drowned out, quarantined or framed out. Let's not censor ourselves simply to make life easy for "rally squads" and our Patriotic Leaders on the Hustings. It is a Free Country after all. Or, did I fail to read the Presidential Directive  suspending the Bill of Rights in Time of War?

Media, Think Tanks, Money, Philanthropy and Democracy

A little clip in honor of Conrad Black and his friends in Washington, DC.

The Times on Edward's Foundation - More to the Story

Could the NY Times be sabotaging the upstart, John Edwards? Last time we had a populist run he was taken down with that sound-bite about the scream. By the time we are done, two members of the Party of Davos will compete for our votes. Some will cheer the victor, others will boo, but most will accept that "the people have spoken." How do we vote against the whole neoliberal charade?