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jackovesk
4th July 2011, 19:31
The Tentacles of Megas: Reaching from the Government to the Emasculated Watchdogs

Friday, 1. July 2011

Who Controls Who with What?

The mega billionaires of the mega corporations directly influence and control the mega public servants – think from presidents down to presidents’ appointees. Some aptly refer to these ‘megas’ collectively as the shadow government. The mega billionaires of the mega corporations set up mega foundations to channel, centralize and control grassroots dissent and activism in order to shield and protect their mega interests. The little watchdogs turned lapdogs and activists turned puppets run the nitty gritty errands, and do their dirty work under the pretense of activism and watchdog-ism for their mega masters while they dream of becoming mega NGOs. If we get past the illusions, all that pretense, and the entire smoke and mirrors settings, we see a mega country ruled and run by these mega elites and their errand boys making mega profits and with every passing day becoming even more mega. But that is a big ‘if.’ Because the mega tentacles of these megas have also wrapped themselves tightly around educational channels and media outlets – coercing them into producing mega lies and more illusions.

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Have you had enough mega? I have. I am sick and tired of fighting megas everywhere and feeling like Don Quixote day in and day out. Whether it is elected representatives being bought out by the megas, thus mainly representing the megas, or, mini megas down the ladder in the media pumping more smoke into the atmosphere already filled with smoke and mirrors, I am sick of megas. So let’s put megas in general aside for a while and discuss a few specific examples. Since our series deals with self-proclaimed transparency and government whistleblowers NGOs funded primarily by a handful of megas, let’s talk about these megas, their tentacles in the government and wrapped around these NGOs. Let’s talk about Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and their mega masters: Soros, Carnegie, Rockefellers and Ford.

It is one thing to have big corporations set up foundations to help with…let’s say the homeless and with setting up soup kitchens to feed the poor or maybe even funding art projects. However, it is an entirely different ball game when the corporation foundations who are heavily entrenched in high-level governmental positions start funding, thus influencing and controlling, the NGOs’ that claim to be government watchdogs. I mean come on, you have a powerful billionaire X who finances elected officials and presidents big time, who places his J, K, L, M, N men and women in the government, and turns around, funds and controls government watchdog NGOs who are supposedly watching, investigating, and reporting on that same government that is financed and managed by their master, billionaire X.

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Carnegie Corporation is one of POGO’s primary donors. This mega contributed $350,000 in 2008 and $400,000 in 2010 to POGO. That’s a lot of zeros, no? Okay, at the same time, Carnegie is a major supporter of White House presidents and in return, the presidents are very grateful to Carnegie, so grateful that they like to handpick their appointees from (or maybe be given their list of appointees by) Carnegie Corporation. Let’s check out a few Carnegie-Executive Branch appointees; let’s take a look at a few Carnegie men and women in US government and other related institutions; shall we?

Richard Celeste

Celeste served as a Director of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Celeste with Thomas Kean (co-chaired the 9/11 Commission) co-chairs the Homeland Security Project for The Century Foundation. He also sits on the board of the Independent Strategic Assessment Group, United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which is the military command over the USA established in the wake of the attacks of September 11.

Thomas Kean

Speaking of Thomas Kean, the co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, let’s note his position as the current Chairman of the Carnegie Corporation and how he has been the trustee of the Corporation for several terms.

Vartan Gregorian

Gregorian served as president of Carnegie Corporation and a trustee. In June 2009 President Obama appointed Gregorian to the President’s commission on White House Fellowships.

Sam Nunn

Another Carnegie man, Mr. Nunn is currently an informal advisor to President Obama. He is married to Coleen O’Brian who used to be employed by the CIA.

William J. McDonough

Another Carnegie Corporation Trustee, William J. McDonough served as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from July 1993 to July 2003. He has been a director of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1995.

***Other noteworthy Carnegie men and women with high-level executive branch/White House roles include Condoleeza Rice, Thomas Pickering, and Vannevar Bush.

You see, the last thing these Carnegie Corporation-Foundation-Government men and women would want is independent, fierce, and ‘real’ government watchdog organizations on their back. It simply wouldn’t work for them. Naturally, these megas would want to own and control the watchdogs; they would want to emasculate and tame the watchdogs – turning them into their lapdogs.

Let’s look at another mega donor with stakes at what government watchdogs so. The Ford Foundation is the second-largest philanthropy in the United States, with more than $10.5 billion in assets and $500 million in annual giving. It celebrates its 75th anniversary of philanthropic leadership in 2011. Well, this mega, in 2010, gave POGO $450,000. There are way too many Ford men and women who’ve been in high-level government positions, so I will just take a couple of examples from the present administration:

Luis A Ubinas

Luis A. Ubiñas is president of the Ford Foundation. He joined the board of Electronic Arts in November 2010 and has been nominated by President Obama to serve on the U.S. Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiation.

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Timothy Geithner

Obama appointed Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner’s father, Peter F. Geithner, was the director of the Asia program at the Ford Foundation in New York in the 1990s. During the early 1980s, Peter Geithner was in charge of the Ford Foundation’s microfinance programs in Indonesia, where he oversaw the work of Mr. Obama’s mother, who developed the organization’s microfinance programs in Indonesia.

One of the excuses provided by POGO for giving that ludicrous award to the worst president in US history when it comes to government transparency and whistleblowers was: we wanted to gain access to White House, have the President’s ear for our noble government watchdog agendas. I would say that through their mega masters, their donors, POGO has way too much access to (and coziness with) the government. Wouldn’t you?

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Then we have megas such as the Rockefeller Dynasty. POGO receives big dollars not only from the Rockefeller foundation, but also from their family members individually. Remember that Rockefeller Senator we‘ve had in the Senate for years? Well, he has never been ‘really’ touched by POGO, even when he participated in allowing (and keeping secret) the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping of Americans. Now add to that the extreme fondness of the Rockefellers when it comes to President Obama, and you’d expect they’d double or maybe even quadruple their grants to POGO for presenting their boy with a ‘Transparency Award.’

Here is one Rockefeller family member supplementing the Rockefeller foundation’s grant to POGO as an individual:

Alida Rockefeller Messinger

Ms. Rockefeller- Messinger has been contributing over $10,000 annually to POGO as an individual donor. She is Senator Jay Rockefeller’s sister, and is listed as a major contributor to Obama’s inaugural committee.

And here are a couple of Rockefeller- Obama men:

William Daley

Mr. Daley is Obama’s Chief of Staff. Daley used to work for JPMorgan Chase. The Chase-side of JP Morgan has long been known as “David Rockefeller’s bank” and the Rockefeller influence has continued after Chase merged with JP Morgan in 2000.

Ariel Pablos-Méndez

He was appointed by Obama as the Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID. At the time he was serving as Managing Director at the Rockefeller Foundation

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As for Mr. Soros and his Open Society Institute? That mega happens to be the daddy of all POGO mega masters. Mr. Soros’ Grant to POGO topped all donors at $700,000 (“This grant was co-funded with the Transparency and Integrity Fund). I don’t believe I need to provide too much when it comes to Mr. Soros’ support of our current president during his presidential campaign, spilling over to his post presidency inauguration. Do I?

For Obama’s Inauguration, Mr. Soros gave the maximum $50,000 individual contribution, as did four members of his family, for a total Soros donation of $250,000.

The Soros family gave a collective $60,000 to Obama, and that was only for his primary challenge. Mr. Soros’ tentacles, including MoveOn.ORG, provided millions of dollars worth of services for Obama’s presidency campaign.

With all of this would mega Soros want his boy truly watched? Did he deem that transparency award as an ingredient for his boy’s next election run? I’d say considering his mega investments in this boy, he certainly would; wouldn’t you?

Of course we have POGO’s ‘Anonymous’ donors. Are they megas? Unfortunately for us, and maybe fortunately for POGO, we have no way of knowing, since this transparency-watchdog organization has declared them secret aka anonymous. I would say watch that POGO site. Probably the number of listed ‘Anonymous’ donors will go up, or, the list of their mega donors will disappear all together. Maybe we should consider giving POGO one of their kind of transparency awards for the sake of irony.

*Our investigative researchers Julia Davis & Bill Bergman have contributed to this series.*

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/07/01/the-tentacles-of-megas-reaching-from-the-government-to-the-emasculated-watchdogs/

Positive Vibe Merchant
4th July 2011, 23:12
Again, stellar work Jack!