Teresa - They're At Her Again

[sandnsea]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_610679.html

My response:

The right just can’t get enough of whipping on Teresa Heinz Kerry. To hear their caterwauling, you would think she was another Granny D, ready to get out her walking stick and hoof it across the country in her Chanel espadrilles. Here’s this petite and graceful woman who barely speaks above a whisper, transformed into another Emma Goldman by the ridiculous right; ridiculous because you certainly can’t call yourself rabid while you’re going after a seventy year old grandmother.

The most recent hit on the “left-wing philanthropist” comes in a book called “Radical Gifts”, which follows the equally charming “57 Varieties of Radical Causes” from the same author. And while one would like to think that outlandish claims that are found in this book would only circulate in the bowels of the basement brigade, Bill Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review proved his complete lack of a shred of decency by actually granting an interview with the guy.

The writer’s diatribe is based on a somewhat peculiar accusation that the Heinz Foundation shows “no diversity” in the organizations they choose to fund. I always find it comical when our right wing defenders of freedom react in disdain when someone makes a free choice to believe differently than they do. Teresa Heinz doesn’t have to have diversity in funding, she isn’t the government.

Now wait until you find out what Teresa and some of the “Hate America Left” organizations are up to. First off, of all things, she is trying to “radicalize the state of Pennsylvania”. Well, we new she was ambitious! But you will never believe the devious means she is using. She is actually supporting groups who promote democracy by running successful campaigns that “increased voter registration (and) increased voter turnout.” Look Out Pennsylvania! And do you know why she was doing this – why to support her husband’s run for President in 2008. Yes the Radical Ms. Heinz is so stupid that her strategic plan to win the 2008 election was to pour money into a state that her husband had already proven he could win.

Of course, it doesn’t stop there. You know the leftists always start with the children and Teresa is no dummy there either. Shockingly, her foundation gave $140,000 to an “organization that trains Pittsburgh school children to advocate on behalf of environmental groups”, and $100,000 to a group that had 8,000 children ”protest in favor of socialized medicine”. That’s right, a woman with her hands on the controls of a $500 million dollar charity – decides to economize on her plot to radicalize the children of Pennsylvania, and only goes in for a measly $240,000. Now this is a direct quote, and it just had to be included, “In terms of the radical side of where she s giving, she s given several hundred thousand dollars to Pittsburgh-based radical organizations. The two noted are the Three Rivers Community Foundation and the Thomas Merton Center.” What “radical” activities are they training Pittsburgh children to do? Well the “Artists Upstairs” brought a Nagasaki and Hiroshima bomb exhibit, speakers and workshops to the Children’s Museum. Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest worked to improve the health of trees. GASP trained Allegheny County residents in using air monitoring equipment. And Rainbow Rising created safe spaces for the GLBT community.

Which brings me to the wildest claim of all, that her money has even begun to go to groups that are “pro-pedophilia and gay porn films”. Seems the Heinz Foundation gave money to the 2006 Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, whose showings included “Whole New Thing” and “Loving Annabelle”. Pro pedophilia? Gay porn? Well, not quite — unless you consider every movie portraying forbidden love a pedophilia porn film. Ridiculous.

What is the continued obsession with Teresa Heinz Kerry that spawned the need for two books to portray this genteel woman as a crazed anarchist? Apparently this is work the media should have done in 2004, work that would have uncovered the truths of the radical agenda of Ms Heinz. Truths we wouldn’t know even now, “except through the work of an obscure right-wing blogger”, well, according to that blogger anyway. In other words, if he didn’t write about someone as famous as Teresa Heinz, he’d still be just another obscure right-wing blogger. Hope he enjoys his 15 seconds.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?p=123

[karynnj]

1. You summed it up

The thing that is strange is that the right wing must still feel threatened by the Kerrys. That paper is essentially a vanity press for Richard Mellon Scaife - who throws 20 to 30 million into it a year. He attacked Teresa and John Heinz years ago. (It was someone from his paper who she told to "shove it" right before the convention.

The thing that is stupid about this article is that other than the completely bogus porn issue, is that it really shows how far out the writer is. From the idiotic rant that this was "Republican" money - when in fact, Teresa and her sons are the only descendants (and the grandfather's as well - as Senator Heinz was an only child) and Senator Heinz was in agreement on the environment and the other issues Teresa funds. The idiocy of complaining that she donated money to Boston for the convention is insane. It is completely legal.

I bet most people can read between the lines and will see that she is funding a ;ot of important things. It is strange that such a graceful, soft spoken woman has to deal with this hate. But, I also think that most Pennsylvanians know her - and I met a Republican woman who switched to the Democratic party to vote for Kerry - her reason was that he has to be an upstanding, man with no sleaziness or she wouldn't have married him. That ultimate validation was likely why the RW smeared her as much as her husband.

[TayTay]

2. It gets more interesting

FrontPageMag.com, which "employs" the editor who wrote that book was started by David Horowitz. He is an extreme RW wingnut. He is funded by, surprise, Scaife Foundation money.

In 2005, The Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC,) a Horowitz site, got $150,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

CSPC changed it's name to David Horowitz Freedom Center in 2006
David Horowitz Freedom Center got $300,000 from Sarah Scaife Foundation in 2006
David Horowitz Freedom Center got $300,000 from Sarah Scaife Foundation in 2007.

Source: http://www.scaife.com/sarah.html

So, we have a writer attacking THK for giving out money from a Foundation to support causes that might be considered political. This comes from a writer at a site that is supported by money from a Foundation that gives out grants to political organizations. Can these people even spell hypocrisy?

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=106">Southern Poverty Law Center tracks RW nut groups. They have this to say about the parent org for FrontPageMag.com

Center for the Study of Popular Culture
www.cspc.org

David Horowitz, a former leftist born again as a right-wing conservative, founded the Center for the Study of Popular Culture in 1989, and is also the editor of the Net publication FrontPageMagazine.com.

Although he makes much of his past working for civil rights for blacks and others, he more recently has blamed slavery on "black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs" — a selective rewriting of history. He also claims that "there never was an anti-slavery movement until white Christians — Englishmen and Americans — created one." That, of course, is false. Critics note that Horowitz is ignoring everything from the slave revolt led by Spartacus against the Romans and Moses' rebellion against the Pharaoh to the role of American blacks in the abolition movement.

He has attacked minority "demands for special treatment" as "only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others," rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism.

Earlier fundraising tracking of Horowitz projects here: http://www.aaupuc.org/horowitz.htm

[sandnsea]

3. Is that the Horowitz pos? lol.

I didn't make the connection. So it's like a big old circle...

[TayTay]

4. Yup. They never give up.

And this is yet another way for the Scaife owned Pittsburgh Tribune to "screw" with THK.

They never learn or give up, no matter how ridiculous or hypocritical they become.

[Mass]

5. Apparently, JK is becoming too powerful for some people, if I believe

the silly (and sometimes vicious) attacks we are seing again. This one is
probably represent a slow news day for US News.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/02/16/did-john-kerry-represent-an-art-thief.html

[karynnj]

6. That is ridiculous

The fact is that the case that Kerry actually represented him on - was assigned to his partner by the court. Kerry actually did an exceptional job from the accounts in the past. All concluded the man was innocent of the murder that he had been convicted of. That clearly does not make Kerry responsible for him forever.

This article is written in a very misleading way - but adding in just enough of the truth at the end that it can't be called inaccurate. You may be right on their motives. It really does seem that there is a systematic not giving him credit on the many good things he was instrumental on, while either negatively stereotyping him or trying to show him in a bad light. I wonder if part of it is the fact that he was one of the first politicians to speak of fixing the banking problem giving more concern to the tax payers than to the bankers or the assignment of the Communications and Technology subcommittee.

(The owner and editor-in-chief of this magazine is Mort Zuckerman, who was often on one of the Sunday talk shows. http://bfeldman68.blogspot.com/2009/02/hidden-history-of-mort-zuckermans-us_02.html He is a neo-con and obviously pro wall street. This is another case, like Scaife, of a RW person of great wealth buying a paper and influence. It is really not surprising he dislikes the honorable Senator.)

This really says it all:
"David Halberstam told EXTRA! that he saw Zuckerman as "a sad little man...who likes to think of himself as a journalist but doesn't have any earthly idea what a journalist really is." Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, on the other hand, said that "Mort Zuckerman is obviously the most important journalist in Washington." (Washington Post, 4/29/91) " from a 1995 article. http://www.fair.org/extra/9301/zuckerman.html

[Mass]

9. Nearly as ridiculous are the suggestions that Kerry should not be in the ME

because he is infringing on Hillary Clinton's job seen on GDP.

[karynnj]

10. Amazing - and he's only done that for 24 years!

I wonder though if the problem is that they see that she is being used mostly for two purposes - to administer the bigger state department and to be a mostly ceremonial goodwill representative to the world, with others doing the heavy diplomacy, which she has never done, in troubled spots. The latter is a good use of her "star power", as the media designates it, and name recognition. This may be unfair, but it is my reaction to the public events she has been part of. (Seriously, seeing HRC, uncomfortable on an Indonesian equivalent to MTV, was likely not what some saw as her role.)

[ladym55]

7. I often wonder if the attacks on THK are because she is smart and independent

And to many right-wingers, that is so very threatening.

And the Kerrys go forward doing their thing ... living out their values with courage ... and the mean-spirited, hate-filled, and small-minded expend massive amounts of energy to kick mud at them. They are so very tiresome.

[karynnj]

8. The good thing is that the mud never sticks - because the Kerrys

are living out those good values.

I think they are also fueled by a very odd sense of entitlement - with their constant reference to this being "Republican money", though from his record, Senator Heinz shared those same issues with his wife.