Leftist watch

By Clarice Feldman

Independent Sector, a supposedly nonpartisan nonprofit organization helping other nonprofits be ethical, has been on the Fannie Mae take.

Reader TS brings the following to my attention:

Independent Sector received the following grants from the Fannie Mae Foundation

Independent Sector
Washington, DC $10,000 approved in 2005
Support of the 2005 Annual Conference for leaders of the entire nonprofit sector, including foundations, nonprofit organizations, and corporate community involvement programs nationally

Independent Sector
Washington, DC $10,000 approved in 2002
Support of the Third e-Philanthropy Conference, 'The Power of the Internet to Expand Giving, Volunteering, and Community Building,' for nonprofits and philanthropists nationwide

Independent Sector
Washington, DC $5,000 approved in 2001
Support of the 2001 Annual Conference for leaders of the entire nonprofit sector, including foundations, nonprofit organizations, and corporate community involvement programs nationally.

Independent Sector
Washington, DC $25,000 approved in 2000
Support of the 2000 Annual Conference for leaders of the entire nonprofit sector, including foundations, nonprofit organizations, and corporate community involvement programs

The head of Independent Sector is Diana Aviv, also associated with the new Middle East lobbying effort, The JStreet Project. Other persons of note on the JStreet Project are:

Sheldon Drobny

Co-Founder, Nova M Radio, Air America Radio

Robert Greenwald

Brave New Films

"During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Greenwald has made a series of short viral videos, the first of which are "Fox Attacks: Obama" and "The Real McCain". The former video was seen 225,000 times on its first week on YouTube.[5]"

Matt Stoller

OpenLeft.com
Stoller began the Townhouse email group, a group which coordinates the outpourings of left bloggers.

David Bernstein of the Volokh Conspiracy notes of the JStreet group:

Has any political organization squandered its credibility as quickly as J Street, a new organization that promotes itself as a peacenik alternative to AIPAC? Supposedly, the machers at J Street thought that AIPAC was not properly representing the Jewish community's views on Israel because AIPC too "right-wing." It's become obvious, however, that the J Street founders' problem with AIPAC is not that it's too right-wing (in fact, despite claims emanating from left-wingers about AIPAC's "right-wingedness", AIPAC rarely deviates from supporting current Israeli government policy, and its leadership has been largely Democratic for decades--the architect of AIPAC's prominence beginning in the 1980s was former Ted Kennedy staffer Tom Dine), but that it is too nonpartisan; AIPAC, as a nonpartisan pro-Israel lobby, cooperates with both Republicans and Democrats, exactly as a non-partisan lobby should. J Street, it turns out, wants to be an adjunct of the Democratic Party, and apparently wants to discredit pro-Israel Jews who cooperate with the Republicans.

h/t: Ed Lasky