The Ides of March in Kochistan

The Koch Brothers, the Hannibel Lecters of Politics, without the class, have been busy scrubbing Wikipedia and Google about their more nefarious activities and past. The two are walking adverisements for high estate taxes and the Rico Act. The good brother, William, referred to his brothers as running a "criminal enterprise". The poor lobbyists for Koch Industries in Madison have been running around state listening to their bosses being invoked in every speech. Apparently, they have been cornering speakers who mention the Brothers asking "Why did you mention them?"

I've come to the conclusion that the Kochs really don't have any ideology. They are sociopaths who want to be able to do anything they desire. The tip-off was David Koch's throw-away comment in the Jane Mayer piece in the New Yorker that he was an "anarchist." You have to feel sorry for people who had their father and came from demon seed. Imagine if you always have to air-brush your father's fervent anti-Americanism and his admiration for Benito Mussolini. But there is no governing philosophy behind them except the desire to act as marauders.

Let's take the staggering fact that they fund all anti-climate change programs in various conservative think tanks and even footed the bill for the anti-carbon emissions referendum in California. You know they don't personally believe this. It's simply because they do not want any regulations on their oil business. The damage this has done is turn the Republican Party, which supported climate change legislation, totally around that they now are all climate change deniers.

I'm convinced that the kerfuffle over their little exclusive retreat with Clarence Thomas and Glenn Beck to plot the downfall of Barack Obama was simply a social attempt for them to pick up some class. They wanted to meet Clarence and Glenn, not vice versa. That's their idea of social climbing. Can you imagine? At least their gay brother Frederick has some style, although collecting nude photos of Yul Brynner is a bit tacky. But he does have a beautiful Modigliani.

Now the Koch-funded think tank ALEC has provided the legislative templates for all the anti-collective bargaining bills throughout the Midwest. Each of the states are implementing their agenda in their own way. I'm surprised that Gov Kasich in Ohio doesn't allow them to frack so that the Cuyhauga River can start burning to the sea again. Would they invite Randy Newman to their next Get The Black Man Party? Then he could sing Sail Way.

You would think with their minions shuffling off into the night through a tunnel that things would be quiet in Wisconsin. But no, the mistress of Poor Randy Hopper had to have her photo and bio scrubbed from the lobby shop she works for. His wife did sign the recall petition after all. His Republican constituency is furious with him because once the story went viral, it turns out he hasn't lived in his district for over a year.

The Democrats are claiming they have reached 45% of the signatures needed to recall 8 of the Republican Senators. Early polling suggests that Democrats will be able to take back the Senate by picking up at least three of these seats, even Hopper's.

Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald should become an honorary Koch for his utter classlessness. Fitzgerald already took away the Democrats' parking places, their xerox privileges and some of their staff. Now, he has e-mailed that when the legislature is back in session the Democrats will not bbe able to have positions on committees or vote in committee. Classy,heh?

Secretary of State LaFollette, descendent from Fightin' Bob, will not print the anti-union bill until the 21st as is legal. But Governor Walker wanted it done today. Meanwhile, the unions are using the time to secure the contracts they had already negotiated.

Governor Scott Walker, who is considered a dead man walking,showed up to speak at the Lincoln-Reagan Republican dinner and was greeted by several thousand protestors. He now travels around the state with a large police escort. This is a small state. Just to give you a contrast--Maine used to have a Governor Angus King and he would drive around the state on a motorcycle without the need of any security or escorts.

You know the Governors went a bridge too far when the unions joined a rally in rural Wisconsin sponsored by the Sierra Club. The group consciously tagged it Hard Hats and Tree Huggers Together.

Bill O'Reilly of Tiller, Tiller, the Child Killer Fame,said on Fox News that liberals should apologize for the death threats against the Republicans in the state. But the problem is that these threats are coming from Republicans and independents who feel betrayed.

Milwaukee is now complaining that the infrastructure is collapsing. Remember the Governor was the county commissioner until a few months ago.

I wonder if Randy Hopper is going to seek sanctuary from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He was after all the point man to kill the Child Victim Bill, which protected the Catholic Church from a host of cases against pedophile priests. And Randy did his job--he killed the bill.

The department of the state government that registers retirements reports that the first four days of March they recorded more teacher retirements than the same month last year. Because of the budget cuts for education in Madison, scores of younger teachers are leaving the profession because they can't afford the job. Maybe they should walk down the street to the Koch Brothers' new lobby office and get a job there. The University of Wisconsin is seeing more early retirment of professors and staff because older personnel want to save the pensions and medical benefits they currently have. This is how a very successful educational system gets destroyed.

Now back to Ohio, John Kasich delivered his state of the state address to thousands of protestors. Remember Kasich barely beat Strickland and trumpeted his commitment to transparency. Yesterday he notified the press that he did not want them to disclose his budget. What is he going to do if the Cleveland Plains Dealer does it--waterboard the reporter or detain him like Bradley Manning. This is the same guy who ruled that everything of his plan Jobs for Ohio is secret and that no businesses who received government contracts should be known. It's not coincidence that Kasich has the lowest approval rating of a new Ohio Governor in history.

Perhaps, the best that would come out of this is for President Obama to appoint Gov. Strickland as the new DNC Chair since he will need the state for re-election.

Meanwhile in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder ran on a platform of bipartisan cooperation and invoked past Republican governors who were moderates. He turned on a dome when elected. You would think that a state which has only seen jobs creating by President Obama through the rescue of the car industry and the development of solar and battery power would want to remain friendly with the people who created the only jobs in 20 years in the state. But no,the Governor decided to cut business taxes dramatically and increase them on the middle class.

But that's really not the issue. Michigan has passed legislation that would allow the Governor to unilaterally declare a locality, town, city or school district a financial emergency and suspend the democratic rule and bid out its management to either a coporation or city manager type. The Democrats, who are in a minority, tried to suggest that whoever or whatever assumed these positions would earn less than the Governor. The motion was defeated. Now the Governor is free to auction off Michigan to private corporations. I think we should demand Koch Industries buy the whole state . Then their subsidiary Georgia-Northern could clear cut all the Michigan forests.

Where does Dixie Cups go for their reputation back? After all they existed before they would bought by the evil brothers.