Billionaire brothers buy the Tea Party, Palin & possibly Alaska’s Joe Miller
By Linda Kellen-Biegel
Monday, the blogosphere went crazy over the online release of August 30th’s edition of The New Yorker Magazine. The attention was over an excellent piece of investigative reporting on Koch Industries and the owners/brothers, Charles and David Koch:
The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline. Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill, and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among the richest men in America. Their combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
This isn’t just another story about a couple of captains of industry. These billionaire brothers are unique in in how much of their money they spend on right-wing political manipulation…much of which is trying to maximize their profit:
Americans for Prosperity Foundation—an organization that David Koch started, in 2004—held a different kind of gathering. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit called Texas Defending the American Dream took place in a chilly hotel ballroom in Austin. Though Koch freely promotes his philanthropic ventures, he did not attend the summit, and his name was not in evidence. And on this occasion the audience was roused not by a dance performance but by a series of speakers denouncing President Barack Obama.
The piece is a 10-page expose of the Kochs as the funders of right-wing attack groups, “think tanks” (aka: propaganda machines), “grass root organizations” and PR firms. Their political influence stretches back to the 80′s. They were the ones who provided the money for the organizations in the 90′s to which then-First-Lady Hillary Clinton referred as the “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
Rob Stein, a Democratic political strategist who has studied the conservative movement’s finances, said that the Kochs are “at the epicenter of the anti-Obama movement. But it’s not just about Obama. They would have done the same to Hillary Clinton. They did the same with Bill Clinton. They are out to destroy progressivism.”
The Kochs created “think tanks” like the Cato Institute and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. They found those weren’t enough so they began funding fake “grass roots” organizations like “Citizens for a Sound Economy,” the group that funded organizations to torment the Clintons and eventually morphed into “Americans for Prosperity” that now funds tea party organizations. But no one knows for sure how many organizations they fund or exactly how much they donate. However, tax records show that the amounts that are public are staggering:
Only the Kochs know precisely how much they have spent on politics. Public tax records show that between 1998 and 2008 the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation spent more than forty-eight million dollars. The Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, which is controlled by Charles Koch and his wife, along with two company employees and an accountant, spent more than twenty-eight million. The David H. Koch Charitable Foundation spent more than a hundred and twenty million. Meanwhile, since 1998 Koch Industries has spent more than fifty million dollars on lobbying. Separately, the company’s political-action committee, KochPAC, has donated some eight million dollars to political campaigns, more than eighty per cent of it to Republicans. So far in 2010, Koch Industries leads all other energy companies in political contributions, as it has since 2006. In addition, during the past dozen years the Kochs and other family members have personally spent more than two million dollars on political contributions. In the second quarter of 2010, David Koch was the biggest individual contributor to the Republican Governors Association, with a million-dollar donation. Other gifts by the Kochs may be untraceable; federal tax law permits anonymous personal donations to politically active nonprofit groups.
…
But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”
Unlike other wealthy donors who have become known over the last several years (like Democrat, George Soros) the Koch brothers are unique in several ways: 1) Their donations to further their “libertarian” ideals are also in line with furthering their business’s bottom line (anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-social programs), 2) They try to hide their participation, even lie about it, and 3) They have been doing this on a long-term plan to shift public sentiment towards a positive corporate environment. The article discusses this as a “long-term, unified campaign to change public opinion”…a campaign that may be coming to fruition this year:
The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to “educate,” fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement. Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist and a historian, who once worked at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based think tank that the Kochs fund, said, “The problem with the whole libertarian movement is that it’s been all chiefs and no Indians. There haven’t been any actual people, like voters, who give a crap about it. So the problem for the Kochs has been trying to create a movement.” With the emergence of the Tea Party, he said, “everyone suddenly sees that for the first time there are Indians out there—people who can provide real ideological power.” The Kochs, he said, are “trying to shape and control and channel the populist uprising into their own policies.”
Closer to home, our own “celebrity” has been the beneficiary of Koch money.
While in 2010 the photograph depicts Sarah Palin speaking at an Americans for Prosperity event, In 2009/10, it was rumored that Americans for Prosperity also provided funds for Palin’s “Going Rogue” bus tour.
Back when Sarah was still Governor, a Koch-funded paper surfaced, claiming that there was no connection between polar bear populations and climate change effects on their environment.
Although the paper was thoroughly debunked by actual experts on Arctic sea ice and polar bears, many of the front groups funded by Koch and Exxon rebroadcast the study widely, creating public confusion. The matter came to a head when Sarah Palin and her officers in the Alaskan government referenced the Soon/Baliunas polar bear paper
before it was even published in Alaska’s formal protest of efforts to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Both Soon and Baliunas have served as spokespeople, advisors and/or board members of multiple Koch-funded climate denial groups over the past decade.
“Before it was even published…” So Sarah Palin already had a connection.
There is also mounting evidence that Palin’s bread-and-butter, Fox News, has a cozy relationship with Koch money.
This election, Alaska candidate for US Senate Joe Miller is being endorsed and pushed heavily by Sarah Palin. He is also receiving an amazing amount of support on a national level by appearing multiple times on Fox News and receiving most of his financial backing from an organization called the Tea Party Express. According to the campaign finance reports at the Federal Election Commission website, the Tea Party Express (Our Country Deserves Better PAC) as of August 23 has spent a TOTAL of $560,175.98 on Joe Miller’s campaign.
Over half-a-million bucks on an unknown Senate candidate from Alaska…and interestingly enough, HE MAY BE THE ONLY CANDIDATE THEY ARE FUNDING!
In August 2009, it was reported in Talking Points Memo and the Washington Times that “Americans for Prosperity” helped launch the Tea Party Express’s trip across America with further assistance from FreedomWorks (Dick Armey’s organization that was formed from the split of Koch group, Citizens for a Sound Economy). Most Tea Party Express events are put on in collusion with what they call the “American Grassroots Coalition.” These include Koch Industry founded and/or funded organizations.
Even without the funding ties, this attempt at a coup in Alaska’s Senate race is the modus operendi for organizations run/funded by Charles and David Koch. Per The New Yorker article:
By 1993, when Bill Clinton became President, Citizens for a Sound Economy had become a prototype for the kind of corporate-backed opposition campaigns that have proliferated during the Obama era. The group waged a successful assault on Clinton’s proposed B.T.U. tax on energy, for instance, running advertisements, staging media events, and targeting opponents. And it mobilized anti-tax rallies outside the Capitol—rallies that NPR described as “designed to strike fear into the hearts of wavering Democrats.” Dan Glickman, a former Democratic congressman from Wichita, who supported the B.T.U. tax, recalled, “I’d been in Congress eighteen years. The Kochs actually engaged against me and funded my opponent. They used a lot of resources and effort—their employees, too.” Glickman suffered a surprise defeat. “I can’t prove it, but I think I was probably their victim,” he said.
I took a look at Joe Miller’s latest campaign disclosure. Of the over $283,000 he has raised, $103,000 came out of his own pocket, $5,000 came from SarahPAC, and $174,000 came from individual contributions both inside and outside Alaska. However, this is dwarfed by the over $560,000 used towards Miller’s campaign by the completely-outside-and-corporately-influenced Tea Party Express. That’s half-a-million dollars from ONE organization. According to the Murkowski campaign, there is no 527 or any other group providing anything like that kind of money to them.
I fear that giving Joe Miller a “win” will only encourage these organizations to replicate this experiment again-and-again across this country…in states where (not so coincidentally) Koch Industries has a business interest. And the Koch brothers have gotten away with a lot of this because their business is privately owned. With the SCOTUS “Citizen’s United” ruling, corporations can now get in the act and won’t even need to do this secretly.
Perhaps the ONLY issue anymore should be working for publicly-funded elections.
Americans for Corporations is what it should read. We need campaign donation reform big time. Candidates should be supported by the people who support them and who cast a ballot not some self serving entity.
Government reform on many levels is what is needed. It seems like more money and time is spent on campaigning, endorsing and lobbying than is spent actually governing.
Especially in the last 10 years or so. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it has gotten a whole lot worse. I’m not sure how we stop it, though. Doesn’t campaign financing reform have to be passed by Congress? And they are the problem. None of them really want to take a stand and cut back on the cash cows that corporations have become.
There is a bill in Congress that has already passed the House but was filibustered in the Senate that would address the issues in the wake of the Citizens United decision. It is called the DISCLOSE Act (DISCLOSE = Democracy is Served by Casting Light on Spending on Elections) It would simply require full disclosure of political contributions both cash and in-kind. GOP-ers in the Senate blocked it but Schumer, Feingold and Wyden are fighting to bring it to the floor again and pass it. Call your Senators and urge them to support this important bill (or maybe stop blocking it!)
The other thing to work for is, of course, public financing of campaigns at all levels.
Ultimately we need to amend the US Constitution to give Congress the authority to regulate political speech: there are at least three bills proposed that would do just that — one by Paul Hodes (D-NH), one by Donna Edwards (D-MD), and another by my own Congressman Kurt Schrader (D-OR). Contact your Representative and try to get them on board.
So how do you reform government? These corporate tools that get elected have no incentive to bite the hand that feeds them. Why crack down on the coal mines or BP or the egg industry with their chicken concentration camps when those guys pay the bills? The American political system is melting down. There are too many ignorant, fearful people in this country getting all their info from FOX news. The one tiny bright spot in the Alaska primary results is that Eddie Burke is going down . . . it wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d won.
I’m pretty fed up with the world today.
I know exactly what your mean.
Palin still loves her some tax cuts for the rich- more than ever, in fact- but it’s been ages since she has pushed repealing capital gains taxes as a cure-all for everything that ails the economy. Perhaps it’s just too complicated to explain.
As a side note according to the Mat Su Borough tax assessment on her new 9000+ square foot house buildt last year , the assessment value on that structure is only $5500…that is not a misprint. Hope that assessor goes and takes a look at what is sitting on that lot.
Now THAT’S a very special tax assessment – for very special people!
UGH.
I’ve long agreed with that; special-interest-funded politicians / elections are arguably the biggest threat we face as a democracy today.
I’m an American. I have one vote and a legal limit as to how much I can spend to support my views. Mr. or Ms. American Corporation Owner should also have only one vote, and an equal legal limit on how much they can spend to support THEIR views. The corporation itself is NOT an American citizen, any more than my house or car or anything else I own is a citizen.
I can’t beLIEVE there are people who have a problem seeing this.
me neither. i am just sick about it..
me neither. i am just sick about it. i am getting to the point that i don’t even want to look at Mr. and Mrs. Bozo America as i go about my day. sometimes you just know, by the look of them, that they are idiots. i just do whatever it is i am doing and until they prove me that they are thinking, reasonable human beings not facsimiles, not two dimensional single-celled mammals. i refuse to be a fool.
There are at least 5 people who have a problem seeing this, and they’re in the Supreme Court.
I agree with you, Linda. Publicly-funded elections may the only way to salvage our system from the tatters left by the Citizens United decision.
Not every corporation is run by ruthless greedy people, but as long as the corporate Articles of Incorporation list the primary mission of the corporation as “to maximize profits for the shareholders,” everything from shipping jobs overseas, cutting benefits and wages for workers, cutting retirement donations, and buying politicians will remain tools of the trade for ambitious or large corporations.
Ben & Jerry’s (before Ben & Jerry transformed itself into a publicly-traded as opposed to a private corporation) did not have the same inherent greed built into its corporate “birth certificate” (Articles of Incorporation). They capped salaries in proportion to the lowest paid worker. Once they went public, the employees,who were given shares in the corporation from the get-go decided they wanted a more tradition corporate structure. Those proportionate salaries (e.g., the CFO couldn’t earn more than X-number of times the money the lowest-paid worker earned) went out the door as did the founders.
We need more original Ben & Jerry entrepreneurs. But until we get them, we need to find alternative ways to limit corporations dominating our political system, promoting candidates who benefit them alone.
Publicly-funded elections would do just that. Besides, wouldn’t it be instructive to see how various candidates used the same amount of money to achieve their goals? We’d learn a lot from how they handled their campaigns – lessons that might be applicable to the how they would govern.
Bonus – we’d probably get a lot less media ads as well. Hurray for the thought!
BTW, I submitted a comment in an earlier posting about the Koch brothers in response to a link someone else had submitted – the link to the article and our comments to that link support your post today.
To bad this story was not released sooner….the more coverage, the better.
I started writing as soon as I saw the article when it came out yesterday but motherhood, wifehood, puppy-owner-hood and gardner-hood kept me from finishing it until this morning. I wish this had been in the New Yorker last month.
story has been around for a long time. It’s just hard to keep up with all the 24/7 corruption.
It was around in bits a pieces on various blogs. The New Yorker did a great job in tying all of the evidence together in one package.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, Bill O not being fair and balanced?!
He never talks about the brothers, but he makes George Soros out to be the big bad, contributor to the Democratic Party. It also sounded like the republicans had nobody who contributed in the same way, now we know differently.
And Bill O never told us..
These are scary men, they have and will continue to great damage to our country.
Every time BillO or any of his gang scream and point fingers at someone for some infraction of their high level sense of propriety, its a pretty clear indication that someone in their own three ring circus tent is doing the same only ten times worse.
These sound like the kind of business people who would hold out for LESS money.
The Koch money makes Soros look middle-class. His wealth doesn’t come close.
So right, Linda, so right! I get so frustrated when I hear the right-wingers attack Soros when they themselves have access to more money. The Koch money is not the only right-wing treasure chest. Such hypocrisy — or ignorance! Great post.
I wonder if and how Murdoch funnels to our “esteemed” politicians? (How ’bout Ted Turner, too also?)
It’s ignorance perpetuated by FAUX News. Unfortunately, most of the FAUX News listeners only get their news from FAUX and don’t know the difference. The bias of FAUX News needs to come up front and center so the listeners know it’s NOT “Fair and Balance”. The problem again is the listeners don’t believe anything else they hear unless it comes from FAUX. I listened to FAUX and the so called left media and FAUX is far more biased then anyother news organization. You will never see anything negitive about Sarah, and of course, they didn’t tell their listeners they donated a million dollars of the Republican Govenors Assn.
Faux noise is watched by the mentally challenged and supported by big (get out of our way Government and regulations: ie: CONGRESS) Corporations and their shills the “lobbyists” .It is sick how the C-Street and also too…Koch(roach)-organizations pander to the mentally challenged. Their political beggars need to be OUTED!
AKM and Blue Oasis, Merci. Merci pour tous ( sorry for any fr. sp) Tout et reign? not in this life corporate f-ers!!!!!!!!!!!!
Outside money was a major factor in Scott Brown getting elected here – get out and vote Alaska!!
good chance that voting machines played a big role in scott brown’s election and a last minute cooked poll putting him ahead. Coakley should have contested the election – she was a poor candidate.
Touchscreen voting machines have been a problem here in Kansas. When I and others protested about inconsistencies we observed and experienced, the primary response we got was “oh, well, we just don’t have the money to fix it (get paper trails as part of the voting process).
We need both campaign finance reform and voting machine reform (printers attached to the machines so the voter gets a copy of his or her voting choices and the voting precinct gets a copy) if we are to ensure integrity in our process.
Agree. Meanwhile, Kobach is running to save us from voter fraud. Which is nonexistent in Kansas. Unless of course he knows something we don’t and has found a way to play the system to his own favor. Ya think?
I agree she was a poor candidate, or certainly ran a very poor campaign, but she’s a good AG. In the long run I hope a lesson was learned about assuming an automatic “D” vote in MA. I hope the Dems come up with a better candidate to run against him in 2012.
this a daggone shame!!! the republican supreme court judges ought to be; arrested, indicted, convicted, jailed and executed for treason. they have literally destroyed this country in one fell swoop. the majority owner of Flux Noose should join them….miserable beings!
Bush knew what he was doing when he nominated Alito and Roberts and got Roberts appointed Chief Justice. I am so glad Obama, when he was Senator, voted against both of them in the confirmation process. President Obama knew even then that Bush was stacking the deck with ultra-conservatives who favored big business over small business and individuals.
Those particular Bush appointments made me sick at the time. And now we are stuck with them for longer than I care to think about.
bubbles, this is almost verbatim what I said when they selected the unelected W to be our president. I never referred to him as president (like George Carlin, I called him governor, since that was the only position to which he’d been elected), because he did not win the 2000 election.
Now, the corporatist former mayor of NYC, Rudy Giuliani, has a new cable movie (Giuliani’s 9/11), which is sure to paint him as a hero, which is totally FALSE. He was personally responsible for many deaths, primarily of firefighters, on 9/11, because he refused to take action to replace radios that prevented firefighters and police from communicating with each other. He kept the chiefs of both police and fire with him as part of his personal bodyguard on 9/11. He’s a disgusting, evil, hateful person. We have to make sure he’s not the 2012 candidate against our president, who, for all his faults, deserves a second term.
Damn right Zxyomma!!
Why is it when the politicians and the corporations don’t do their jobs, it’s the regular folks who suffer and die:
9/11
Katrina
Deepwater Horizon
Unfortunately, the replacements Obama has made were not for any of the conservative justices and I don’t know of any planning to retire. They are relatively young, I think the make-up of the court will remain this way for a while. Maybe Thomas is getting up there in years? We can only hope!
Imagine anyone like Palin appointing justices.She would appoint Tawd and RAM, maybe even Piper.
It would be nice if we could kill this at it’s root – stop buying Brawny, Dixie, Georgia Pacific, Stainmaster Carpet, and Lycra products. If for no other reason than to stop supporting this ilk.
Thanks for sharing this information. Whoa…how corporations rule the world!
Very Nice Post, Linda!!!!!!
The decent people of America are being shoved under the bus by people who would sell their souls for money. Doubt if God would want it to be called “God’s Country” with these creeps ready for the takeover. A Cabal of “Evil-Doers” to quote the last White House occupant, President Inarticulate, and all cozy with one another.
It would seem that the “War On Knowledge” just might win and then morph into the “War On Enlightenment, Progress, Tolerance, Education, and Goodness”.
I’m glad I’m a senior and won’t have to experience the total destruction of what was once, and for a short time, a pretty nice world.
Unfortunately, I’m beginning to agree with you. I’m glad I’m a senior, too. It’s hard to see any way out of this except total destruction. But, I hope the powers that be don’t stop trying. These people have convinced a lot of honest people on the right that they are right. They have bought and paid for them and it is really sad. I guess all we can do is to keep trying to educate the opposition but it’s a thankless job.
Isn’t it amazing how so few can do so much damage?
It sure is, but the flip side is also true: a few people can make astounding progress for good as well. However, I believe that the masses have to be ready for constructive change. The world has been evolving in a positive fashion overall. We just have bumps, setbacks, and reverses every so often. there is so much I am grateful for being alive in the 21st century because things have gotten better for most of us.
And one of the big things is the internet. Just think of all the information we can get now. Heck, we wouldn’t have been able to read this post so easily even ten years ago. It is my hope that with technology advancing so much every day everyone will be able to see the truth. That is, unless “they” take away access to the “tubes.”
The Koch’s distribute many products we buy at the grocery store. I found a list several months back and actually changed the brand of toliet paper I was buying! Every little bit helps.
Yes, I also noticed several brand names in this article…Brawny paper towels, Dixie paper cups and a few others. I will make it a point to find out what other things they distribute and cross them off my list, too. After all there are many choices when we go to the store and if we get enough people behind us, it has to affect their bottom line somewhat.
i found this…..http://www.facebook.com/ego_redirect.php?p=AAAAAwAgACAAAADXGsGnnspRFjhnsUXwRig2GnYfG34nzOJ42nK5mvrc40fQrtNxO1uOyLD4jwfJy3QrwRoPT8xwrB-DE86gu-RIt-TKSMIawNh0cDVEndIcSVETTEx63hAGfR8NZidlLozKTEplXsPoa5an9VjJnVdV1EP_jDllsgMD76dAivSC_4ssmpim5gFLae99TxOUsK1W35TcMxPzaBzFu1h5XZd32De2ovUq8wIqtNassZ5rXk3bCTsuwiJoHaifu9vUOwTbJoNw03Z90WLj4sTCmYWh2OMMFRlshIlCXIfeFxwc1gmoL1tJEVMc7w428-iPf7Un6NvxO0FWWL3cpPvbdGoMxLoLXFt05qw0UVIoWE8Pk-vQcPto6LJL0rbkbC39Wt-V
i am sure there may be more. what i need is for a pup with more skillz than me to find out more…help!
ruh roh. that didn’t work…i looked under http://www.worldofkoch.com….Brawney paper towels is one because they own Georgia Pacific. who knew?
Northern toliet paper too!
One of the commentors had a short list following the article.
http://www.greenfudge.org/2010/03/31/help-greenpeace-take-down-koch-industries-and-their-climate-denial-accomplices/
And they ‘own’ Lycra? They own my no panty line underwear??????????? EEEwwwweewwew.
May I suggest cotton? It’s the fabric of our lives.
but they put lycra in that, to. Is spandex a lycra product?
Ha, we always knew $P was getting big money from somewhere (she sure as hell doesn’t spend her own). And now, Joe Miller. What the hell is in the water up there?
BTW, I’ll never eat Cherry Garcia again, damn it. [crying]
It’s like we’re in a warped time machine mirroring the Robber Barons and “Titans of Industry” of yesteryear; Vanderbilts, J.P.Morgans, Rockerfellas, Astors etc. It’s ironic that those old names conjure images of “elite”– “bluebloods”–”uppercrust”… and the Kochroaches scrape the bottom of the intellectual-political-barrel as well as preying on the ignorant hillbillys and mentally challenged voters this country has to offer.
What’s it going to take to burst the fauxnoise, koch(roach), teabagger, $ over American lives bubble?
Our Republican Supreme Court idiots must be taking their cues from Dr. Kervorkian as well as Dr. Strangeglove and possibly Tom Cruise. (kidding about Dr. Strangeglove)
Dr. StrangeGlove was the Mets first baseman, Dick Stuart. StrangeLove: Dick Cheney. BTW is Mr. Cheney still in the hospital.
No. After two solid weeks of surgery, they never did find a heart so they just sent him home with some aspirin and told him to avoid stress.
Thanks for the excellent post, Linda.
I wonder if the Kochs’ interest in the Murkowski-Miller race could be more about keeping Sarah Palin’s credibility afloat and less about any specific reason to want to defeat Murkowski.
This is relevant to the big business is destroying stuff department. Today’s Democracy Now featured David Kirby and his book on the poultry and pig industry. Very scary and depressing!
http://tinyurl.com/37or3as
Dr. Strangeglove indeed. (The Bomb is our actual reality; $ over human and biologic life on this planet as we know it. Damn I’m scared.)
Linda i loved this post……you are on the ball lady. i wish the Kocks…er Kochs and Rupert would take a look at this and just sit quietly for a moment to realize that their time here on earth is just about done. the future is not theirs. this is the twenty-first century and we (those of us who were born at the beginning and the middle of the last century are guests)…
http://wimp.com/centuryenlightenment/
Bubbles I am with you not so knowledgeable about searching. I do believe that Koch industries had some thing to do with the Marshall family from Texas and they were big into oil and may be directing money into the California Governors race.JMO
fascinating link, there, bubbles!
many thanks for enlightening me
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-23-2010/the-parent-company-trap
Hee hee, between the Kochs and Alwaleed that pretty much sums U.S. up ! The sad part is I don’t think people like the Palins even realize they are tools.
She hasn’t a clue…the poor, silly dingbat.
She thinks she’s all that.
holy mackerel!!! Ed Schultz just had a segment about the rally Beck, Palin and the Kochs are hosting at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28. to provoke African-Americans into anger. his guest, Mr. Papantonio, just tore Palin and Beck a new one and he talked about the $100,000,000 the Kochroaches have donated to the teabags and their hags. go Ed Go!!!!
Ah, here is the thing… Once on the take, always on the take and they will want more and more!
I’ve only looked at the FEC filings a little bit, but The Tea Party Express is funding more candidates than just Miller. Bart Stupak and Sharon Angle have both been beneficiaries.
On the link provided by AKM you may look up http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00454074 a listing of Tea Party Express filings. A summary is given at the end, under quarterly reports. Make sure you click the link to see the Full Report, otherwise you’ll only get the front page. You’ll see Schedule A, showing who has given to them and Schedule B, showing disbursements.
So, some industrious mudpup may feel like taking a look at who is benefiting from the Tea Party Express and which candidates the Koch brothers are supporting/financing in this election.
Rachel Maddow has done various segments on Koch – Did a quick search for ‘Rachel Maddow and Koch’
Rachel Maddow on Koch posted March 31, 2010 by firedoglake – Energy giant Koch Industries’ lock on health care AstroTurf – http://tinyurl.com/2caayjg
9th richest in US on Forbes list
TPM April 16, 2010 – Maddow on Koch ‘Caught Red Handed’ backing Tea Partiers – Koch sent a pre-emptive alert to the press that they didn’t fund tea parties – prior to the Tax Day Tea Party rally!
http://tinyurl.com/2dwtklh
guess this is the time where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer!!!!! no doubt they will be buying up all the real estate down in florida at bargain basement prices. sad!!!!!!
The Koch brothers created the tea party. Their role was exposed shortly after Rick Santelli’s rant on CNBC, which supposedly kicked off the “grassroots” movement. The article exposing the truth would only be published by Playboy, which soon removed it from its website. The original 2/27/09 article received some initial progressive blog support and can still be found here: http://www.alternet.org/media/129656?page=entire
A small portion: What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.
The Kochs may be the reason why Sarah Palin spoke at the Bethel Life School in Wichita. The school is private and has about 200 students so I doubt if the school could have afforded the Palin speech fee.
Oh .
Not able to take all this in right now…
Think I’m going to be sick…
And the tea partiers STILL don’t get that these people are using them to ultimately deregulate industry so they can accumulate more wealth and power.
Since there are no “Supermans” to conquer the “Lex Luthors” of the world and esp. in our own damn country …guess we (the smart) people have to do some MORE things than we’re already doing.
No more (KOCHroach) Brawny towels for me! Already stopped T.V…. Vote. God I am Pissed.
Blue Diva, thank you for your wonderful update. Really. I can’t ant won’t read every piece of news… so when u or AKM or Gryphen mention something , I am sure to read up on it.
Thank you AKM, Linda and all the readers and Mudpups. (to the n-th degree)
I am grieving for Alaska this morning. I may soon be grieving for my country.
We need to get really, really, busy.
I wonder if the tea baggers know the Koch’s would throw them under a bus in a heart beat to get what they want? I know many of the tea baggers are on Social Scurity and Medicare and would be the first to be screwed by the anti-government Koch machine.
How much money is enough for these greedy scum bags?
Yes…I so agree older and wiser…we need to get busy real fast
and then as soon as we get some good folks in…on to what can, and in fact the only thing that can save our democracy…CAMPAIGN REFORM
Another organization to watch out for that the Koch brothers own is: The Institute for Justice. http://www.ij.org Their goal is to get rid of all occupational licensing. They also want to get rid of eminent domain. Check out their political information.
We know scara is for sale. She is cheep. She is a creep. May God in her wisdom blast her.
Lisa gets over two million from special interest lobbyists like Patton Boggs and you speculate the Tea Party Express is a conspiracy by two brothers.
How much did Lisa pay you to reprint this dribble?
I Have a Dream v Restoring Honor
MLKKK
We are in bizarro world.
If you were alive when Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” civil rights speech, than history has repeated itself in your lifetime. This time around a negative has been draped across the earlier version of our nation. It’s been proclaimed from the public airwaves & seeped into the hearts of many people that most of what King stood for is now wrong. Those who tout this are going to try to complete their circular logic and claim King’s legacy as their own. It’s sad & pathetic. It’s in step with the undoing of critical thought & advancing the tyranny of mediocrity. It signals the event horizon from which the U.S. citizenry may never recover the control of discourse & whatever semblance of democracy we shared as a nation. Mega corporate barons are funding their mouthpieces to remake history in their image. No matter how inane their double talk hate speak is, their relentless delivery of it controls the popular mindset. Too many people buy it at face value. Others have to spend their precious time & effort speaking against it.
It’s sad Glen Beck claims his “Restoring Honor” event on the anniversary of “I Have a Dream” is accidental. This is a quid pro quo of the most vile kind. It’s nothing short of, “there’s a black man in the White House, so I’m gonna co-opt MLK’s legacy.” Beck & Palin represent a new KKK – the backward thinking vanguard of institutional racism that made the government response to Katrina worse than the hurricane/engineering failure disaster. His snake oil solipsism & her yammering yapping signal new lows in U.S. discourse & the unraveling of the fabric of our nation. His twisted psychological projection that Obama is the one with deep-seated racial hatred, & Palin’s recent “shackled” tweet speak volumes about their attitude. It’s sad MLK’s niece has bought what they’re selling & is scheduled to speak at the event. Don’t be fooled for a second by the appearance of token African Americans driven by ego, greed, or misdirection to appear at this rally under the guise of supporting our military. The far right is against the common man. They’re against the common good. They’re against worker unions. They’re against nature. They’re for those who sold our economy out from under us. They use historical terms they don’t fully understand to deride attempts to improve the plight of the poor. They’re false idols – leaders with no plans. They’re pro war & anti peace.
Beck, Fox/Stazi, Rush, & the rest of the Koch’d up radical right have more in common with Goebbels than they have with King. To state otherwise is to be hoodwinked or in on it. Draping this shameful “Restoring Honor” charade in a salute to the military only shows the depth of their treachery. The call to support the troops has superseded all other lessons the US populace learned from our war on Vietnam, but it’s far from the only lesson learned. What the right learned is don’t let the media report honest direct images of war dead (theirs or ours) to the folks back home, & quell all dissent from the get go (recall all the literal shouting down of anyone who knew before it began the war on Iraq was immoral). Corporate interests that pull the strings of government & profit from war control much of the media. Yet they have half the populace convinced otherwise. Under the guise of protecting the delicate sensibilities of the U.S. news consumer, real images & accounts of war are withheld from interrupting the flow of entertainment. What the left learned from the Vietnam era is if you stick your neck out for peace you get a bullet in your head.
MLK spoke against war. On the anniversary of his inclusive national civil rights vision Beck, Palin & whoever else shows up will skew it through the looking glass. Those who follow Fox/Stazi news down the rabbit hole to have a tea party with the devil will spew vile vitriol. It’s not enough the deck of cards of Congress & the Supreme Court are stacked against the commoner’s ability to pursue liberty, happiness, housing & healthcare. Citizens United v Federal Election Commission will go down in history as the landmark decision to dismantle our government & national unity to a greater degree than Brown v Board of Education served to make it cohesive & inclusive.
Yes, not all the rabid Rush/Fox/Stazi Republican Tea Party followers are white, but the overwhelming majority are. What these flag waving, gun toting, bible clutching jingoist followers of this negativity of the new evil don’t stop to ask themselves is how a governor who quits mid term has any political clout, or why the people our military kills have darker skin than they do. They don’t consider how improbable it is that it’s so black & white how everything Obama does is “wrong.” The right wing pundits advance an endless veneer of emotion-based cynicism repeating pronouncements they clearly know aren’t accurate & posing questions to which they know the correct answers don’t advance their agenda. Their mesmerized followers cheer every hateful jab, no matter how illogical, no matter that the the pundit who delivers it may have said the opposite last week or the day before. These are the same sheep who didn’t so much as bo-peep when the Patriot Act sopped up civil rights. Accepting election results only applies when their candidates are victorious. Freedom for them only applies to their kind & their religions.
August 28, 2010, will go down as the day the hoods came off. Beck & Palin say they’re reclaiming civil rights, when they & their ilk are the ones aiming the hoses at Muslims & Mexicans. If you didn’t notice it when G. W. Bush was appointed instead of elected, if you didn’t notice it when lies were told to substantiate an unjust war on Iraq, if you didn’t notice it during TARP, then notice it now. Subverting democracy, siphoning & whole hearted looting of the U.S. treasury into the controllers of the military financial corporate regime, speaking with hate, racist fascists are thriving. They’re throwing a pep rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Perhaps ole Joe should be as concerned with accepting out of state bribes as he is with “DC operatives”. What a hypocrite-SHOKKER!
just lately started to go on Mudflats..I will now be going on your online site..very often.
You are writing very important true pieces. This Koch brothers situation is very important to
know about ..it has not been given enough attention in the press..period. The New Yorker..
the New York Times..and finally some Alaska press situations. There true story is very important
for Alaskans and for any citizen of the USA. They are being very effective with the less informed
voters in America..behind from the start this tea bag party a party of zero answers to anything
and zero answers to anything..people like Joe Miller..good grief..he comes out with such unworkable
far out retric more and more..Palin..Beck ..his rally for not God..someone said..he wants to be
God himself..pretty close..Palin ..did not anyone learn..never makes any sense. maybe we comment
people should forget the verb..sad..unless it is a death situation..and just get real..and say..
stupid..not informed …so much talk about the Obama and his adminstration…look at what he
inherited..the problem is not so much Obama ..the big problem is not well informed voters period..
or one would not see these voters at the Beck rally in such numbers or Fox news with their ratings.