Richard Mellon Scaife Page

Who is Richard Mellon Scaife?

Sources: Salon Magazine; Atlanta Journal Constitution; N.Y Times; Article by Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post; Slate Magazine; and several other news sources

UPDATE: During the GOP convention in Philadelphia, artists were rounded up and arrested before they ever got to leave their building (the 'puppet warehouse') They had the intention of protesting against Bush via street theater. They were INFILTRATED by the PA State Police, accused of being terrorists (there was paint thinner and wire in the warehouse used to make puppets but classified initially as bomb making materials). In investigations by the ACLU and the Philadelphia Inquirer, it was revealed that the PA Police infiltrated the group on a tip from a 'Scaife funded' organization -- that basically accused the group of being 'communists' (because a small communist group had donated $200 for materials to build the puppets). Scaife is scared to death of the anti-global trade/fair trade message that this group was really going to talk about. He sees it as a direct threat to his personal wealth (as was discussed in lengthy Washington post articles about his background).

What was most alarming to me about this episode was that the far right culture war, funded by people like Scaife to silence the left, used PUBLIC AGENCIES such as the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Police departments to forward a POLITICAL AGENDA OF SILENCING DISSENT. As taxpayers, we should expect our police agencies to be fair and to not take sides with regard to what a person's beliefs are. People should not be arrested for their BELIEFS. This is ultimately why municipal judges in Philadelphia dismissed all the cases (over 450, with the exception of 12 provable misdemeanors) in the Philadelphia convention crackdown. There was no evidence against these people. They were rounded up to prevent them from expressing themselves, as they have a right to do in a free country. The far right"

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