The Bob Filner Biography the Left Wants to Hide

Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax FightersRichard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters, Undesignated 17 Comments

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It occured to me that even many of my knowledgeable allies are not fully familiar with the historical degree of affiliation Bob Filner has with socialist and communist organizations. His background speaks for itself.

Below is a comprehensive summary of Filner’s red-tinted political affinity for collectivist, tyrannical government.  It’s clearly a biased piece, but that does not mean it is inaccurate. Many links are provided, and similar summaries are available with a Google search.  As the chain letters say, “share this with others” (the author encourages such sharing).

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http://keywiki.org/blog/?p=1553

Congressman Bob Filner – “red diaper baby” and socialist sympathizer

Cross posted from New Zeal Blog

Bob Filner is a Democratic Congressman for California’s 51st District. Without doubt he is one of the most far left members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

This is not surprizing, as Bob Filner’s father, Joseph Filner, was once a leading member of the Communist Party USA.

In the 1940s Joseph Filner, when not changing baby Bob’s red diapers, was running a bakery business and serving as secretary of the Pittsburgh Communist Party.

After WW2, Joseph Filner entered the scrap metal business. He founded the Stainless and Alloy Corporation of America, eventually expanding its scope of operations worldwide and becoming a major agent for Soviet products and technology in the West.

One of Joseph Filner’s early business colleagues was Stanley Levison, a secret Communist and treasurer and money launderer for the Party.

Joseph Filner never forgot his socialist roots. In his later years, he used his wealth to create a charitable foundation, the Frieda Foundation, through which he gave to many leftist causes, especially programs to “rid the world of the threat of nuclear annihilation.”

In the 1980s Joseph Filner was a member of the far left American Committee on East-West Accord, a Washington, D.C.based tax-exempt “independent educational organization”, with the stated aim of “improving East/West relations, with special focus on U.S.-Soviet relations.”

Joseph Filner also endorsed the Kennedy-Hatfield Nuclear Freeze Resolution which was introduced in the Senate on March 10, 1982.

After beginning adult life as an early ’60s student radical, and as a college professor Bob Filner decided to run for Congress.

One of the people who campaigned for him was Andrew Young, then the far left mayor of Atlanta, Ga. Young remembered, Joseph Filner well. At one point, he told a campaign rally that he supported Bob Filner’s candidacy not only because of their shared Democratic viewpoints, but also, quite simply, “because of his daddy.

Bob Filner entered congress in 1990 and a year later was a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a grouping of far left Congressmen organized by openly socialist independent Congressman Bernie Sanders and Democratic Socialists of America.

Bob Filner went on to form a very close relationship with D.S.A. – the U.S’s largest Marxist-based organization, which endures to this day.

In August 1996, over 300 people attended the San Diego Hearing on Economic Insecurity, “a forum intended to hammer home to a message to our elected officials that working America is hurting and to demand that government take corrective action.”

Bob Filner addressing the San Diego Hearing on Economic Insecurity

For two hours, a panel that included Congressman Bob Filner (D), California Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny, and five candidates who may soon hold seats in Congress and the California Assembly listened while a steady stream of local people told their stories. Testimony came from workers, seniors, welfare mothers, men and women seeking work and students soon to join … “

The Hearing, involved groups such as the Gray Panthers, the ultra-radical National Lawyers Guild, Welfare Warriors and labor unions, but was initiated as a project of San Diego Democratic Socialists of America.

However the main work in organizing and publicizing the hearing was carried out by DSA members…San Diego DSA realized that an effort of this magnitude needed a full time paid organizer. We were fortunate to be able to hire Stephanie Jennings, a veteran supporter and organizer of progressive action…. Stephanie kept in close touch with Boston DSA, with Alan Charney and Michele Rossi and DSA national office, with Chris Riddiough in our Washington DC office and with Tim Parks, Eric Vega and Duane Campbell in other California chapters.

Bob Filner even donated his campaign office to DSA phone bankers, soliciting support for the event;

Congressman Bob Filner donated the use of his campaign office for a week of nightly phone banking by DSA volunteers..

In November 1999, Bob Filner attended D.S.A’s national convention, conveniently held in his home town of San Diego, where he had the honor of introducing his old comrade Bernie Sanders to the assembled socialists.


In 2004 San Diego Democratic Socialists of America supported Filner’s successful Congressional race.

Meanwhile, San Diego DSAers are involved in progressive Democrat Bob Filner’s 51st CD reelection race

DSA supported Filner again in 2006.

San Diego DSA produced an email recommendation sheet for the membership covering all races and propositions on the November ballot, a popular tradition of the local that people ask for as elections approach. Activist members there went precinct walking for Representative Bob Filner.

In 2008 Bob Filner attended a San Diego DSA function organized for City Council candidate Stephen Whitburn.

SD-DSA held a forum with about 20 participants on “DSA, the Left, and the Presidential Election.” They organized a fundraising event in April for City Council candidate Stephen Whitburn, which was attended by Congressman Bob Filner and raised about $1000

On Oct. 26, 2009, Bob Filner spoke alongside fellow Congressional Progressive Caucus members, Jared Polis and the D.S.A. affiliatedJan Schakowsky at the JStreet 2009 Conference.

JStreeters Bob Filner and Jared Polis

JStreet is a leftist Jewish organization that, according to its website, “was founded to change the dynamics of American politics and policy on Israel and the Middle East”.

JStreet has several Democratic Socialists of America members within its leadership and is regarded by its opponents as one of the most dangerous anti Israel groups in the country. They charge that JStreet’s real purpose is not to help Israel, but to help steer U.S. foreign policy away from supporting Israel to the benefit of that country’s Palestinian and Arab enemies.

In February 2010, the first JStreet-sponsored congressional mission toured Israel, Jordan and Palestinian-controlled areas. Five members of Congress participated in the tour; Lois CappsBill Delahunt, Bob Filner, Mary Jo Kilroy and Donald Payne.

It was stated that the mission “will meet with Israeli government and opposition leaders as well as key regional leaders, including Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The delegation will travel widely in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan taking a close look at the situation on the ground through the eyes of policy makers and civil society leaders.”

All members of this delegation came from the far left side of Congress and one, Ohio Democrat freshman Mary Jo Kilroy, has been a confirmed member of Democratic Socialists of America.

This was not Bob Filner’s first effort at international bridge building.

In February 2002 a delegation of leftist California Democratic Party Congressmen and women including Sam FarrDiane Watson, Bob Filner and Mike Thompson, together with singer Carole King, visited Havana as part of the “latest effort to change U.S. policy toward Cuba.”

Carole King serenaded Fidel Castro with “You’ve Got a Friend” at a weekend dinner, replete with wines from Napa and Sonoma.

The delegates said their dinner with Castro at the Palace of the Revolution stretched from 9 p.m. Sunday until about 4:30 a.m. Monday. During the meal, King also performed a new song, “Love Makes the World.”

Daddy Joseph Filner, wherever he is now, is surely proud that baby Bob has yet to change those red diapers.

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Comments 17

  1. Post
    Author

    My “tweet” of this inflammatory Filner post earned me this response from left wing CityBeat propagandist/editor David Rolland:

    “Finally unfollowed @SD_TaxFighters because his extremist rhetoric makes him irrelevant. Feels good to purge.”

    This is proof positive of the veracity of the title of this piece:
    “THE BOB FILNER BIOGRAPHY THE LEFT WANTS TO HIDE”

    One can almost picture Rolland sitting there with his fingers in his ears. Or covering his eyes. Or whatever.

    We need to share this Filner bio with others!

  2. Did Rolland dispute the veracity of anything you wrote about Filner?

    RIDER RESPONSE: No, but this was Twitter. Hard to detail rebuttals. He just ran for the hills.

    Funny, he has no problem periodically smearing Carl DeMaio. Somehow he is offended when the favor is returned. FACTUALLY returned.

  3. Post
    Author
  4. Richard, Is there any MSM source for that account of the Castro meeting? It sounds like a parody of the brainless left serenading a notorious human rights abuser.

    I saw KeyWiki attributed the story to Fox News. But those on the left would dismiss it due to the source, without even examining its veracity.

    RIDER COMMENT: Fair question, Brad. But I’ll leave to others to dig deeper in such matters. I’m just scratching the surface (and apparently drawing blood), publicizing Filner’s left wing history.

    My hope is that some pro-DeMaio independent expenditure campaign runs with this “outing” of Filner’s past. Just blogging ain’t enough.

  5. Which reporter will – rightfully – ask Mr. Filner if he believes in socialism? [crickets]

  6. Rolland-

    RR is on TV at a minimum of once per week, plus radio spots. Calling him “irrelevant” is about as truthful as the majority of your writing. Like him or not, he has a built a pure grass-roots audience that loves his message of freedom and free markets.

    I love the image Rider portrays of you sitting there covering your eyes and itching to type up a fabricated hit piece on DeMaio, as opposed to actually acknowledging Filner is an all-out socialist.

  7. You know, Walt Disney’s father was a socialist too.

    But that’s not important right now. We recently had a president who was not only president of a labor union, but it was a labor union filled with Hollywood people. I can also post pictures of him dining with Communist leaders and even hugging them.

  8. Post
    Author

    Bill, did Disney speak at the Socialist Party conventions? Did Reagan?

    Would they have joined the Congressional Socialist/Progressive Caucus and remained a member for decades – a group claimed by the Socialist Party as “their” caucus?

    Would they have chosen to party hardy until 4:30 AM with Fidel Castro in 2002 — singing songs to him — a bloodthirsty tyrant who imprisoned, tortured and murdered many countrymen for being nothing more than artists and homosexuals?

    Sorry Bill, rationalize all you want, to no avail. Bob Filner has been comfortably ensconced in a gerrymandered congressional seat for so long he forgot to keep his longstanding coercive socialist leanings secret. Now ALL San Diego voters get to learn about Comrade Filner in all his glory.

  9. This post illustrates the value of diversity in alternative media.

    Judging from Rolland’s comments, he will not allow SD CityBeat to seriously investigate the charges in the KeyWiki hit piece* against Filner. (It would be interesting to see what would happen if a CityBeater proposed to do so). I expect CityBeat will at most make some reference to the hit piece* just to ridicule dem crazy rightwingers.

    (*By “hit piece,” I mean an article deliberately biased against a candidate; not that the article is necessarily inaccurate.)

    That’s hardly surprising. SD CityBeat’s overwhelming goal in this mayoral election is to defeat DeMaio. It cannot afford to publish journalism, even if truthful and unbiased, that seriously undermines this goal. Its readership and advertising base would rebel.

    Likewise, I do not expect SD Rostra posters to publish hit pieces against DeMaio, because most Rostra posters lean toward DeMaio. They are not going to help Filner.

    To find those hit pieces against DeMaio, I will read SD CityBeat.

    In making this parallelism, I emphasize that Rostra does have a difference with SD CityBeat in its approach to advocacy journalism; Rostra’s posters are more ideologically diverse and are freer to disagree with the prevailing sentiment among its readership.

    As for Rolland, we all know his true objection to the Filner hit piece is not its “extremist rhetoric”, but that it hurts the campaign against DeMaio. (For CityBeat, this is much more a campaign against Carl Demonic DeMaio than for Filner).

    My ironclad prediction for the election: SD CityBeat will publish plenty of “extremist rhetoric” of its own against DeMaio.

  10. When a political and social movement, like socialism, has been such an utter failure in eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, its followers have no choice but to rebrand their beliefs. Socialists have renamed their beliefs, not changed them, and have hidden themselves in the Democratic Party under the code word ‘progressive’. So when Filner calls himself a progressive, he is being completely honest.

  11. “When a political and social movement, like socialism, has been such an utter failure in eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, its followers have no choice but to rebrand their beliefs. Socialists have renamed their beliefs, not changed them, and have hidden themselves in the Democratic Party under the code word ‘progressive’. So when Filner calls himself a progressive, he is being completely honest.”

    Spoken almost like Joseph McCarthy. Good job.

    Teddy Roosevelt used the word “progressive”. I guess he was a Commie too, since you seem to have the two mixed up.

    Regardless, this is a loser talking point. Filner has to be the least exciting politician since Gray Davis.

  12. Bill:
    Since Bob Filner is neither embarrassed nor ashamed of his Marxist background why are you?

    RIDER COMMENT: Good point, Mole! I’m just publicizing what Filner has been opening doing for decades. Clearly he’s a proud socialist, though he can’t join their party as he’s ALREADY a member of the Socialist-Lite Party.

  13. “Bill, did Disney speak at the Socialist Party conventions? Did Reagan…….?”

    Fair game. Start your critique of Filner there, without going into whatever his father did or didn’t do.

  14. Post
    Author

    Sorry Bill. You don’t get to set the limitations on what I present on Filner.

    It’s funny. Politicians often tout their parents’ background and guidance when they figure it’s a positive point to make with voters. But when parents are commie activists, that shouldn’t be mentioned by opponents — it’s “unfair” and “in no way” influenced the candidate’s viewpoint.

    Bill, if you are THAT sensitive, perhaps you’ve been imploring the labor union slime balls viciously attacking DeMaio to follow your rules of decorum. Why do I doubt that such is the case?

  15. I know I don’t get to set the limitations on what you present on Filner, but I can comment on it.

    Simply put, if you want to defeat Filner, I’d go after his policy, not his dad.

    I’m not aware of the labor union attacks, but I’ll do a Google search and check it out.

  16. Bill:
    When one looks at the Marxist records of Bob Filner and his father, Joseph, it is obvious that the Marxist son did not fall far from the Marxist tree of the father. Most father/son relationships that share beliefs are proud of such relationships. Why do you believe Bob Filner should or wants to hide this shared belief system? Are you speaking for them or just yourself?

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