When the Dixie Chicks, the Pope, and the billionaires are against you...

...it means your time is up:

George Soros, one of the world's richest men, has given away nearly $5 billion
to promote democracy in the former Soviet bloc, Africa and Asia. Now he
has a new project: defeating President Bush.
"It is the central focus of my life," Soros said, his blue eyes settled
on an unseen target. The 2004 presidential race, he said in an
interview, is "a matter of life and death."
Soros, who has financed efforts to promote open societies in more than
50 countries around the world, is bringing the fight home, he said. On
Monday, he and a partner committed up to $5 million to MoveOn.org, a
liberal activist group, bringing to $15.5 million the total of his
personal contributions to oust Bush.
"America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," Soros said. Then he
smiled: "And I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is." Soros
believes that a "supremacist ideology" guides this White House. He
hears echoes in its rhetoric of his childhood in occupied Hungary.
"When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it
reminds me of the Germans." It conjures up memories, he said, of Nazi
slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit ("The enemy is listening").
"My experiences under Nazi and Soviet rule have sensitized me," he said
in a soft Hungarian accent.
In past election cycles, Soros contributed relatively modest sums. In
2000, his aide said, he gave $122,000, mostly to Democratic causes and
candidates. But recently, Soros has grown alarmed at the influence of
neoconservatives, whom he calls "a bunch of extremists guided by a
crude form of social Darwinism." Neoconservatives, Soros said, are
exploiting the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to promote a
preexisting agenda of preemptive war and world dominion. "Bush feels
that on September 11th he was anointed by God," Soros said. "He's
leading the U.S. and the world toward a vicious circle of escalating
violence." Soros said he had been waking at 3 a.m., his thoughts
shaking him "like an alarm clock." Sitting in his robe, he wrote his
ideas down, longhand, on a stack of pads. In January, PublicAffairs
will publish them as a book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy" (an
excerpt appears in December's Atlantic Monthly). In it, he argues for a
collective approach to security, increased foreign aid and "preventive
action."
Asked whether he would trade his $7 billion fortune to unseat Bush,
Soros opened his mouth. Then he closed it. The proposal hung in the
air: Would he become poor to beat Bush? He said, "If someone guaranteed
it."

Um, you know George, I come a lot cheaper than $5 million. Feel free to throw some of that slippery green my way.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 11, 2003 at 08:30 AM | Permalink