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  1. #1
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    Koch Sponsors Pro-Amnesty BuzzFeed Event

    Koch Sponsors Pro-Amnesty BuzzFeed Event


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    by Lee Stranahan 10 May 2013 459 post a comment
    An event touting itself as an evening of immigration reform discussion with a "diversity of opinion" turns out to be slanted heavily towards "comprehensive immigration reform." The BuzzFeed Brews Special Edition: Immigration Summit, sponsored by the Charles Koch Institute, will take place Tuesday, May 14th from 6 PM - 8 PM Eastern Time. The Charles Koch Institute is an educational offshoot of the Charles Koch Foundation.

    It's an unusual pairing: BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith has a reputation for liberal bias (he recently blamed "the right" for conditions of Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic) will be the moderator; Charles Koch, founder of the libertarian CATO Institute, is one of the people most reviled by the left.
    The goal of the event is described as follows:
    [W]e believe one of the best ways to turn conversations into solutions is through the challenge of assumptions and exchange of ideas. Our event on immigration aims to do just that by bringing together a diversity of opinions for a thoughtful dialogue.
    At first glance, the panel appears diverse: the six invitees include a Democrat politician, a Republican politician, two members of conservative organizations, one from a liberal Hispanic/Latino organization, and one from a libertarian think tank.
    Looking closer, however, five of the invitees are strongly in favor of the comprehensive immigration reform/amnesty package being put forward by the "Gang of Eight" in Congress. Only one guest--from The Heritage Foundation--has been critical of the proposed immigration reform package. Additionally, an illegal immigrant who is an award-winning journalist will be assisting in broadcasting the event.
    Here's the lineup:
    Clarissa Martinez, Director of Immigration & National Campaigns at National Council of La Raza: NCLR has been funded by George Soros's Open Society Foundation, describes itself as "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States," and has been a major supporter of the current immigration reform bill. La Raza and Ms. Martinez were directly involved in a controversial memo that granted de facto amnesty by changing ICE policy in 2012. Ironically, La Raza joined with the NAACP and other institutional left to protest in front of the Koch Industries offices months ago, accusing the Kochs of savaging democracy.
    Mario Lopez, President at Hispanic Leadership Fund: The group describes itself as center-right and says its mission is "strengthening working families by promoting common-sense public policy solutions rooted in free enterprise, limited government, and individual freedom." The group is strongly supportive of "comprehensive immigration reform."
    The advisory board of the Hispanic Leadership Fund includes Grover Norquist, who has been strongly critical of the recent Heritage Foundation report that claims that the proposed 800+ page immigration reform bill will have a long-term cost of over $6 trillion. Lopez was involved in what some are calling a "smear of immigration hawks" when he launched a guilt-by-association attack on Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies for supposedly not sharing conservative policy goals.
    Joaquin Castro: A freshman Democrat congressman from Texas and the twin brother of San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the keynote speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Their mother, Maria "Rosie" Castro, was a community organizer and helped found the socialist, anti-Anglo political group La Raza Unidas (The Race United), whose goal is the "the Liberation of Aztlan, and that Aztlan is composed of five southwestern states; California, Arizona, Nuevo Mexico, Tejas and Colorado." Joaquin has done a number of talk show appearances and has been described as "the unofficial ambassador on immigration for the Obama Administration."
    Luis G. Fortuño, former Governor of Puerto Rico: A Republican, he is on the Advisory Board of the Hispanic Leadership Fund. In 2007, he supported Gang of Eight member Jeff Flake's STRIVE act (co-sponsored with Democrat Luis Gutierrez) that included amnesty, saying, "Only a comprehensive immigration reform plan like the STRIVE Act will help us achieve an effective, lasting, and viable solution to the immigration issues facing our nation."
    Jose Antonio Vargas will be live-tweeting the event. Although he's not a panelist, Mr. Vargas is a participant and is mentioned promimently on the website advertising the event. He's a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, as well as an undocumented alien who revealed his illegal status over a year ago. He discusses his status as an unrepentant illegal alien in an essay on his blog entitled Not Legal, Not Leaving.
    Alex Nowrasteh, Immigration Policy Analyst at The Cato Institute: CATO has been helping to push the immigration reform bill and has been a harsh critic of The Heritage Foundation's report. CATO touts the fact that Nowrasteh's criticism of the Heritage report was cited on MSNBC. Nowrasteh was also cited by Jennifer Rubin's roundup of Heritage critiques: "[He] accused Heritage of not following years of their own work, which has striven to look at the impact on behavior of changes resulting from reforming the tax code and other innovations." Breitbart News revealed Nowrasteh's involvement in coordinated emails with Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform attacking the Heritage report.
    Derrick Morgan, VP of Domestic & Economic Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
    The mix of Buzzfeed and Charles Koch would be unusual on almost any other issue but the not-so-subtle goal of the event as demonstrated by its lineup has not gone unnoticed even beyond conservative circles. Dave Weigel notes in Slate:
    [A]s a veteran of the Koch-funded Reason magazine, I can report that the libertarian brothers have always put their money behind immigration reform. Maybe that complicates their newfound (well, 3-year-old) role as all-purpose rich guy demons; they're sponsoring a night of debates intended to nudge along immigration reform.
    Expect plenty of nudging at the Koch-sponsored BuzzFeed Brews event; a night of exhibition insider baseball where BuzzFeed Ben Smith underhands softballs to his pro-immigration reform panelists, who will do their best to drill them right at The Heritage Foundation.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...uzzFeed-Eventv
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  2. #2
    Senior Member AuntB's Avatar
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    I can't tell you how many times in the last month good republicans have gone after me because I dared to disclose he truth about the KOCH Bros. Misguided conservatives are all taken in at the idea the Kochs might buy some big newspapers and they're singing the praises of their rich 'saviors'...they simply can't hear that the Kochs have ALWAYS been pro amnesty....contributed hugely to Marco Rubio and hire GRover Norquist to do their bidding...ATR got millions from the Kochs last year & millions from KArl Roves' pac who gets money from the KOCHS. They're for every free trade, cheap labor agreement and same sex marriage.
    What is it going to take to get the conservative base to look at FACTS!??
    http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=Koch
    Want to make people angry? Lie to them.
    Want to make them absolutely livid? Tell 'em the truth."



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  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    AMNESTY OPPONENTS REFUSE TO GET 'BENSMITHED' AT BUZZFEED FORUM



    by TONY LEE 11 May 2013, 3:08 PM PDT 154POST A COMMENT

    Republicans, especially conservatives who hold positions antithetical to those favored by the mainstream media, may finally be learning that there is little to gain from participating in forums and events run by liberal and mainstream media organizations that often aim to hurt conservatives and make them look like ridiculous caricatures.

    After Breitbart News' Lee Stranahan reported that an educational arm of the Charles Koch Foundation was sponsoring a May 14th BuzzFeed immigration summit, a BuzzFeed sourcetold Robert Costa of National Review that more than 20 Republicans who opposed amnesty were invited--and they all declined.

    “We tried for weeks to get a member of Congress opposed to the proposed immigration overhaul to join us and, for a variety of reasons, they all declined,” said Ashley McCollum, BuzzFeed's spokesperson. “We’re pleased Heritage agreed to participate in our panel, and we have an open invitation to members who are more skeptical of changing immigration law.”

    Besides the representative from Heritage, there will be no one at the summit who opposes amnesty. There will also only be one Republican politician--Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno--who supports immigration reform, which means even Republican politicians supportive of the bill may be realizing there may be more to lose than gain from such forums.

    Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal immigrant who has crusaded for amnesty, will reportedly be live-tweeting the event. It would be safe to assume Vargas would viciously pick apart the words of any politician opposed to amnesty in attendance. And that conservative opposed to amnesty, while being engaged at the event, would not even be able to respond in real time.

    After the 2012 election, Republicans and conservatives may finally be learning the uselessness of such forums on the opponent's turf.

    In a January 2012 Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, a former Clinton spokesman who regularly talks to Paul Begala, James Carville, and Rahm Emanuel on a daily basis to coordinate strategy, asked Republicans, Mitt Romney in particular, about birth control without warning or context. What he was doing, unbeknownst to Republicans at the time, was planting the seeds for what would germinate into the so-called "War on women" meme that would in part help re-elect President Barack Obama.

    Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin had warned Republicans about being wary of the mainstream media repeatedly in 2011. She said Republicans did not owe the media anything and should not cooperate with organizations whose sole intent is to make Republicans look bad. With new media, traditional gatekeeper outlets are not needed to disseminate a politician's or an organization's message.

    But after the 2012 election, Republicans still seemed to have not learned these lessons, as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) gave an interview to Rolling Stone in which the reporter asked him questions about the age of the earth.

    As Breitbart News' John Nolte immediately pointed out after the interview was published, Republicans "can't change the media's behavior. We can only change our own behavior."

    By rejecting invitations to the BuzzFeed immigration summit, Republicans and conservatives seem like they are finally starting to change their behavior and learn from their past mistakes.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...BuzzFeed-Forum



  4. #4
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    Heritage Pulls Out of BuzzFeed Immigration Summit

    by A.J. Delgado 13 May 2013, 10:40 AM PDT
    breitbart.com

    On Sunday evening, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith announced that The Heritage Foundation has dropped out of the BuzzFeed Brews immigration summit taking place this Tuesday. Heritage’s Derrick Morgan, the only immigration reform critic among the various participants, is replaced by the Daily Caller’s Mickey Kaus.

    Heritage faced an onslaught of criticism this past week regarding Dr. Jason Richwine, the Heritage senior policy analyst who co-authored Heritage’s new study on the immigration bill’s fiscal costs, over statements in his doctoral thesis regarding Hispanics’ IQ. On Friday, Richwine resigned from Heritage.

    BuzzFeed is also under fire, however, for the lopsided nature of the event, tilted heavily with immigration reform supporters.

    Kaus, replacing Heritage’s Derrick Morgan, has written extensively against the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. The event remains skewed, however, with Kaus serving as the sole immigration reform skeptic among the seven participants.

    UPDATE: When contacted by Breitbart News for comment on his inclusion in the summit, Mickey Kaus responded: "I'm happy to participate. Ben Smith seems to actually want to mix it up. We'll see what happens."

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...gration-Summit
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