JimGuy wrote:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all
Who are the Kochs?
>The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industryespecially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers corporate interests.
In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amhersts Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States.
........from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change.
........They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation.
........And she noted that Americans for Prosperity had provided Tea Party activists with lists of elected officials to target. She said of the Kochs, Theyre certainly our people. Davids the chairman of our board.
........Americans for Prosperity has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movements inception.
****political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to educate, fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, theyhave helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement
....... Another former Koch adviser said, Theyre smart. This right-wing, redneck stuff works for them. They see this as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves.
.....As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America. Charless goal, as Doherty described it, was to tear the government out at the root.
....... Libertarian Party platform called for the abolition of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., as well as of federal regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Energy. The Party wanted to end Social Security, minimum-wage laws, gun control, and all personal and corporate income taxes; it proposed the legalization of prostitution, recreational drugs, and suicide. Government should be reduced to only one function: the protection of individual rights. William F. Buckley, Jr., a more traditional conservative, called the movement Anarcho-Totalitarianism.
.....A 2004 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group, described the Kochs foundations as being self-serving, concluding, These foundations give money to nonprofit organizations that do research and advocacy on issues that impact the profit margin of Koch Industries.
.....David Koch told New York that he was unconvinced that global warming has been caused by human activity. Even if it has been, he said, the heating of the planet will be beneficial,
......Koch Oil of a widespread and sophisticated scheme to steal crude oil from Indians and others through fraudulent mismeasuring.
......The Kochs continued to disperse their money, creating slippery organizations with generic-sounding names, and this made it difficult to ascertain the extent of their influence in Washington.
...... For example, at the same time that David Koch has been casting himself as a champion in the fight against cancer, Koch Industries has been lobbying to prevent the E.P.A. from classifying formaldehyde, which the company produces in great quantities, as a known carcinogen in humans.
......Koch Industries has been a large funder of members of Congress who have stymied the E.P.A., requiring it to defer new regulations
And it goes on. Read the article. Its a long one but you seem to have time.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/1008... (
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No one should be allowed to accumulate that kind of money or power.