I'm sure I'm not the only one reading this who just received a robo-call from "Freedom's Watch" attacking Kay Hagan for her stance on illegal immigration. But that call has absolutely nothing to do with illegal immigrants and everything to do with their fear that Kay won't be a puppet like Liddy Dole, helping them wage perpetual war in an effort to establish an American Empire.
Although Freedom's Watch was established in 2007 to promote the surge in Iraq, it's basically a construct to continue promoting the views and goals of PNAC (in exile) and the hawkish, ultra-right pro-Israel lobby:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/...
Freedom's Watch, the "$200 million mouthpiece for military action",[10] was "hatched" in March 2007[9] at the "winter meeting" of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in Manalapan, Fla., where keynote speaker Vice President Dick Cheney[9][11] "accused the Democrat-led House of Representatives of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger."[12][13] The RJC was described in 2005 as "a big money pro-Israel lobby group[14] linking Jewish-American neoconservatives to the Christian Right and Israel's Likud government."[15][9][16]
Freedom's Watch "denies coordinating its activities with the White House", Don Van Natta Jr. wrote September 30, 2007, in the New York Times, although "many donors and organizers, including Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary, are well-connected" to the Bush administration.[9] It should also be noted that in November 1998 the Republican Jewish Coalition took then-Texas Governor George W. Bush on his first tour of Israel, with "the 43rd president [emerging] as one of the most pro-Israel figures in American political history."[15][17][18][19]
Freedom's Watch receives a lion's share of its funding from Nevada casino gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has also recently become a (yellow) newspaper publisher in Israel, promoting the ultra-nationalist views of Likud:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/...
Adelson is one of several prominent conservatives and board members of the Republican Jewish Coalition funding Freedom's Watch, a new White House front group[5] which on August 22, 2007, began "a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to urge members of Congress who may be wavering in their support for the war in Iraq not to 'cut and run'."[6]
Freedom Watch's ad buys target both Porter and Heller in Nevada—to the tune of $202,110.[7]
As of July 2008, Adelson had reportedly spent at least $30 million on political activities in the 2008 election cycle.[8]
A Boston native, Adelson is the CEO of Las Vegas Sands.[9] On August 17, 2007, the Associated Press reported that William P. Weidner, President/COO/Director of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a Las Vegas, Nevada, resort and casino and another Freedom's Watch supporter, said that Adelson, who "keeps a home in Massachusetts and pays taxes in the state," had been lobbying local officials "to legalize casino gambling" in Massachusetts.[9]
Adelson's foray into the "news" business in Israel takes the form of a free daily (see propaganda) called Yisrael Hayom, an agenda-driven rag that is trying to mold the Knesset into a body that will shun any peace efforts with Palestine. As the New Yorker reveals, getting Bibi Netanyahu back in power is the first step:
http://www.newyorker.com/...
In the Israeli media world, Israel Hayom is referred to as Bibi-ton, because many believe that it serves as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu, whose nickname is Bibi, and who has long received extraordinarily negative press coverage in Israel. Israel Hayom journalists are reportedly under strict orders not to speak publicly about their paper. "What their spokespeople say is, there is a need for more balanced journalism in Israel, like what Fox News says in the U.S.," one academic told me. "But, yes, the paper’s objective is to make Bibi Netanyahu Prime Minister," he went on, stressing that that goal was not quixotic. "In Israel, newspapers have a large impact on the public mind."
The editor of Israel Hayom, Amos Regev, is a Netanyahu supporter, and he recruited several well-regarded journalists. One was Dan Margalit, formerly of Ma’ariv. Margalit was for many years one of Olmert’s closest friends but broke with him over his handling of the 2006 Lebanon war. Well before the current corruption investigation of Olmert, Israel Hayom was filled with anti-Olmert articles. Its specialty is vitriolic headlines, such as "THE ASS-COVERING OF THE GOVERNMENT."
Last January, Nahum Barnea—a political columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, who is one of Israel’s preëminent journalists—wrote about Adelson in his media column, The Seventh Eye. Adelson, he said, "is a great admirer of Israel, and knows better than any Israeli what is best for this country. When it comes to his views on the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, he is a right-wing extremist, who is convinced that Israel is governed by a corrupt, unpatriotic, and illegitimate government. . . . Billionaires with a political agenda spell trouble in any kind of media outlet, but in Israel—where the political system decides on matters of existential importance—all the more so." Barnea noted that the publishers of Ha’aretz, Yedioth Ahronoth, and Ma’ariv exert influence over the general political outlook of their respective papers, but that many articles in each paper represent a different point of view. "Adelson’s project, on the other hand, publishes only what Adelson himself would want to read—if he could read Hebrew, that is," Barnea wrote. "The same agenda, day in, day out, relentlessly. This is the stuff propaganda is made of, not journalism."
The true nature of Freedom's Watch was shamelessly revealed by Ari Fleischer in an interview with ABC news:
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, one of the group's board of directors, said the group was formed to provide a counter-argument to the successful anti-war voices.
"There's been a three-year silence from conservatives and others who believe in peace through strength," Fleischer told ABC News. "The cavalry is coming, we're going to help to get that message out," he said.
If anyone in the N.C. mainstream media is reading this, the people of North Carolina need to be informed of the nature of this organization. By them running radio spots and robo-calls dealing with illegal immigration, they are cleverly masking their real purpose--the continuation of a war a resounding majority of North Carolinians oppose, and the spreading of this war to include Iran and other targets of opportunity. You know what you need to do.
As far as I'm concerned, this attack against Kay Hagan by the neocons is a badge of honor, and has solidified my support of her candidacy.
Help Kay on the phone:
http://www.kayhagan.com/...
Help Kay with your donation:
https://secure.actblue.com/...