Non-Partisan
March 16, 2005
USA Today is running a poll that says about 62-percent of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction. Normally we would be happy to receive the news that Iraqis prefer the idea of burgeoning democracy to that of a dictatorship, but then we saw how the poll was presented:
"The poll, by the International Republican Institute (IRI), [is] due to be made public Wednesday... The IRI is a non-partisan, U.S. taxpayer-funded group that promotes democracy abroad."
A little research on the IRI turned up this information:
- All 24 of the organization’s board members, including its president, are Republicans.
- The IRI is the indirect product of a new agenda of democratic globalism spearheaded in the late 1970s by neoconservatives.
- The IRI came to fruition in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a new U.S.-led effort to promote free-market democracies around the world.
- George A. Folsom, IRI's president and CEO, was a member of the Bush-Cheney Transition Team.
- Millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money channeled through the IRI funded groups opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez during the years preceding a failed April 2002 coup against the Venezuelan President.
- When it was falsely believed that the coup was successful, Folsom rejoiced over Chávez' removal from power. "The Venezuelan people rose up to defend democracy in their country."
- The IRI supplied aid to opposition groups in Haiti.
So, we have a Republican-led and controlled group, one that perpetuates the Neo-con agenda of unilateral nation building, conducting a poll that serves its own interests by justifying the Iraq war as necessary means to a democratic society. Again, here's USA Today's presentation of the poll:
"The IRI is a non-partisan, U.S. taxpayer-funded group that promotes democracy abroad."
Infuriating? Yes. Dishonest? Possibly. Surprising? Hardly, especially considering the current culture of bought-and-paid-for-news-reports that are being disseminated by the Bush administration.
Is there nothing that can be done about this? Here's a start. Go to StopFakeNews.org to petition the FCC to investigate this flagrant abuse of the Free Press. And how about sending some letters to USA Today telling them to stop being shills and get back to doing what they do best: Making colorful graphs and pie charts.
Posted by msmoderator at March 16, 2005 07:45
http://forums.airamericaradio.com/weblogs/ms/archives/2005/03/wednesday_1.html#comments
Posted for Christy
March 16, 2005
USA Today is running a poll that says about 62-percent of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction. Normally we would be happy to receive the news that Iraqis prefer the idea of burgeoning democracy to that of a dictatorship, but then we saw how the poll was presented:
"The poll, by the International Republican Institute (IRI), [is] due to be made public Wednesday... The IRI is a non-partisan, U.S. taxpayer-funded group that promotes democracy abroad."
A little research on the IRI turned up this information:
- All 24 of the organization’s board members, including its president, are Republicans.
- The IRI is the indirect product of a new agenda of democratic globalism spearheaded in the late 1970s by neoconservatives.
- The IRI came to fruition in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a new U.S.-led effort to promote free-market democracies around the world.
- George A. Folsom, IRI's president and CEO, was a member of the Bush-Cheney Transition Team.
- Millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money channeled through the IRI funded groups opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez during the years preceding a failed April 2002 coup against the Venezuelan President.
- When it was falsely believed that the coup was successful, Folsom rejoiced over Chávez' removal from power. "The Venezuelan people rose up to defend democracy in their country."
- The IRI supplied aid to opposition groups in Haiti.
So, we have a Republican-led and controlled group, one that perpetuates the Neo-con agenda of unilateral nation building, conducting a poll that serves its own interests by justifying the Iraq war as necessary means to a democratic society. Again, here's USA Today's presentation of the poll:
"The IRI is a non-partisan, U.S. taxpayer-funded group that promotes democracy abroad."
Infuriating? Yes. Dishonest? Possibly. Surprising? Hardly, especially considering the current culture of bought-and-paid-for-news-reports that are being disseminated by the Bush administration.
Is there nothing that can be done about this? Here's a start. Go to StopFakeNews.org to petition the FCC to investigate this flagrant abuse of the Free Press. And how about sending some letters to USA Today telling them to stop being shills and get back to doing what they do best: Making colorful graphs and pie charts.
Posted by msmoderator at March 16, 2005 07:45
http://forums.airamericaradio.com/weblogs/ms/archives/2005/03/wednesday_1.html#comments
Posted for Christy
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:24 PM
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