The Kochs Are Just Kooks.

( Weird post alert--the Koch Google masters have destroyed the original paragraphing) The Koch PR machine is now in full, fighting mode. First,they have been trying to scrub all web references to the Koch families dubious past. Now, they are trotting out Charles and David both to media outlets to help them sanitize their political activities. First we had the New York Times write about David Koch's bequest to MIT to create a Koch Center to study cancer. Now we have conservative websites and magazines challenge Democrats who received Koch funds and projecting that it is the Left which has double-standards. After all, didn't the Koch Brothers donate $60 million to the ACLU to kill the Patriot Act? Didn't David Koch criticize George W as prolifigate and his war in Iraq a policy failure? These are just a couple of eccentric guys with money to burn. The latest salvo in the effort to rehabilitate the Kochs is the piece in the Weekly Standard by Matthew Continetti, the conservative author of a book that says the leftwing media was out to get Sarah Palin. Matthew spent alot of time around Koch followers and the two wayward brothers. From the piece, you don't know who is crazier--Charles or David? Charles is perceived by the Koch groupies as the business theorist, the hard-nosed capitalist, while David is the charitable one. But both reveal the inner venom that Fred, their father, was known for. Before we get to their remarks about President Obama, we should recall that the Koch family has hated every President starting with FDR. We don't have a historical record for previous ones. Fred, the Dad, helped fund the original teaparties against FDR, a ladies' league that protested that FDR was a socialist. Fred's political hero, according to his own words, was Benito Mussolini. When he cofounded the John Birch Society,Dwight David Eisenhower was Ike The Kike for these phony patriots. According to David Koch's own memories, it was Dad that repeatedly warned him against the government--namely ours. Then we had David run as Vice-President on the Libertarian Party against President Ronald Reagan. Now we have both Koch brothers attack retroactively George W. Bush. So why should anyone be surprised that they hate another American President? This family invented the Hate America First movement. It was only last month that Charles Koch wrote glowingly about Canada and its wonderful economic policies. I wonder what he would say after the Harper Government fell. So now we come to President Barack Obama. Just a recap: President Obama has initiated tax cuts for small businesses, bailed out the auto industry, kept tax cuts from the Bush period,kept government at the same size per GDP as Eisenhower,failed to prosecute the major Wall Street fraudsters,bailed out the health insurance industry through healthcare reform,provided loans to clean energy companies, and on and on and on. All this in two years. American corporations are making record profits--historical records. The wealthier are getting even more obscenely wealthy. And read any leftwing blog of other ways Obama has been pro-business. And how accomodating he has been to the Chamber of Commerce, who spent a future on the 2010 midterm elections just to defeat anyone who identified with the President. So what does the Einstein of the Koch Brothers, David, say about President Obama. President Obama is "the most radical President we've ever had as a nation... and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any President we have ever had." Dad Fred is rolling over in his grave--FDR had that title. Charles says that he doesn't believe that Obama is a Marxist but "he's internalized some Marxist models." David explains that President Obama's father "was a hard core economic socialist in Kenya. So he (Obama) had sort of anti-business, anti-free enterprise influences affecting him almost all his life." Just for the record, President Obama's father was a technocrat in the first Kenyan government and probably did indeed believe a type of third world socialism. The government he served confiscated the white farm lands and allowed virtually every business to remain in white hands and conduct business as usual. Hardly, the great socialist experiment. Also, President Obama only saw his father a few times in his life and was not old enough to hear sermons about economics. David is all upset that the prank caller to Governor Scott Walker "stole his identity." He also said that the protestors at the Rancho Mirage confab with Clarence Thomas and Glenn Beck were "very, very extreme" and "very, dangerous". All you have to do is look at the Youtube and find this is truly a menacing crowd of anarchists and bomb-throwers. Sort of like the marching cows in Wisconsin. My advice to the Kochs is to study Marlon Brando in the Formula and John Huston in Chinatown to learn how to be great meglomaniacs. My advice to opponents is to keep up the pressure and flash mob them so Americans will act as the Amish and shun them.

Correction--CDC Not Defunded--Yet

I got ahead of the vote yesterday. The defunding of CDC hasn't been brought to the floor of the House yet. So call your congresscritters and let them know you don't want the plague.

Paul Ryan did respond to Harry Reid's statement of social security and said he was "flabbergasted". Yes, of course, Social Security didn't add to the deficit but a bipartisan reform would "assure the markets." No comment.

Forbes' author Unger posted a nifty piece on their policy blog which outlines when and why corporations and the wealthy adopted a state by state policy like in Michigan and Wisconsin. He said the strategy was adopted shortly after Citizens United. The first prong was to defund unions so that the corporate money would dwarf any ability of unions to counter their political power. This, Rachel Maddow has outlined several times on her show. Unger says that the wealthy and corporations decided that taking care of the unfortunate simply led to an "indulged" country and that the country can not afford it anymore. (Note: the Clinton years left a surplus and projected surpluses for the outyears.)

Unger does write that these people believe that if we are to afford the wars we must fight,we can not coddle the poor and unfortunate. That is why, for instance, if you look at tax proposals in the state of Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin you will see that taxes on the lower classes and seniors are increased but corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy are cut. Unger doesn't support this. He just points out studies that demonstrate the catastrophic effect of these policies on the middle class and the poor. He wonders whether the business climate will really be improved. He ends his blog with a note that societies that opt for such disparities of wealth always fail. This is in Forbes, The Capitalist Tool.

For further reading, you might pick up a copy of Thomas Hartmann's "Unequal Protection--How people Became People--and How you Can Fight Back." He has revised the book to include an analysis of the Citizens United case.

If you want an overview of the war against America, Senator Bernie Sanders' speech is now out in paperback--"The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of our Middle Class". (Nation Books)

Toto, we are not exceptional anymore. Amnesty International has issued statements on various American issues before--the death penalty, Bush's Torture policy, the treatment of Bradley Manning. But I've not seen a systemic blast at the United States as was issued yesterday. Amnesty urged several US States to abandon planned legislation that would drastically restrict workers' rights. "States including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee have proposed bills severely limiting collective bargaining of trade union members. A similar bill was passed in Wisconsin on Friday."

Amnesty continues," State governors must withdraw support for these measures which, if adopted,would violate international law. The US has an obligation to uphold the rights of American workers--including the specific right to organize and bargain collectively."

The sad thing is that the United States was instrumental in drafting the ILO Conventions and other international standards for labor relations.
Also conventions on basic human rights. Ah, forget it.

A Kaiser poll is out that shows 51% of Americans either want to keep the healthcare bill or expand it.

An AP/ Washington Post poll is out that shows 53% of Americans approve of same sex marriage , while 44% of them are against. This is a dramatic increase from 2004 when only 32% approves.

Henry Waxman went snopping around and found that the Pentagon overpaid Howard Sargeant , a billionaire oilman and Republican donor, $200 million for oil supplies during the Iraq War. And you wonder why we keep going to war. It's a money making machine.

Maybe, this is why NPR was defunded. NPR investigative reporters did a detailed piece on how major corporations, particularly Google, used offshore tax havens to escape American taxes. The reporters estimate that America loses about $60 billion a year. It's an excellent story with nice elements of color.

But if the IRS can not collect corporate taxes,they can audit you if you or your partner had an abortion. Mother Jones did an excellent piece on the recent House bill prohibiting government funds for abortions. The IRS would be required to pursue taxpayers on how they paid for their abortions and answer a whole questionnaire. The article documents this accurately. Remember the adage that government is overhead. Well,I guess the GOP wants to create more of it. Is there not a privacy issue here? Forget it.

President Glenn Beck addressed the nation yesterday about the re-alignment of the world and the crisis in Japan. I worry about him doing this more frequently because his audience--what remains of it--will actually believe he is President. If he does it more frequently, that means Roger Ailes is conditioning his audienece to accept a Mormon for President. One sympathetic to corporate interests. I wonder whether he has anyone in mind.

Charles Koch is the one to watch, not David. David is the doofus brother, I'm convinced. The family are isolationists but Dad founded the John Birch Society to go after domestic enemies. And it seems Charles is still at it. Does anyone remember the DVD "Obsession: Radical islam's War Against the West". This truly horrible DVD was slipped into Sunday papers here in Virginia just prior to the 2008 campaign. It was meant to send a message not to vote for you know who. Funded by Charles. Why I mention it is that there is another little Koch campaign that the Obama Administration is funding the creation of mosques abroad. Totally untrue but go for it. This is another project of the teaparty crowd.

And people criticize President Obama for going to Rio? A trip that has been planned for over a year and had been recommended to anyone interested in American relations with Latin America.

Sunday Afternoon at the Last Manatee

If Dana Milbank can go through one month without mentioning Sarah Palin,then I will restrain myself over the next week from raving about the budget battles. Those patriotic Americans--Chris Smith and Michelle Bachmann--refuse to agree to any budget that doesn't eliminate the funding for Planned Parenthood. In fact, Bachmann has taken this theme up to raise funds for her PAC.

Let's hear it for Hapless Harry Reid who finally told the truth about the House's Budget. "It's the worst budget and worst written piece of legislation in U.S. history."

With the entire Mideast in flames,the House's elimination of foreign aid is even more prescient than ever before. It's sort of like Mitt Romney declaring how poor Obama is at creating jobs just as the jobs news shows over 250,000 private sector jobs having been created.

On the economic front, Robert Reich is right that the United States would have to create about 330,000 jobs per month through 2014 to get to 6.5% unemployment. With the Republican controlled states throwing hundreds of thousand public sector workers out of a job, we will not make it.

Give the Wisconsin demonstrators some kudos for keeping their sense of humor. After Fox ran footage of union strife with palm trees in the background, demonstrators have placed inflatable palm trees around the Capitol building. The democratic legislator who was tackled by police at the Capitol was actually tackled by police brought in from rural communities about 150 miles away by Scott Walker. Nice job, Rachel Maddow for this bit of news.

Congratulations to Rachel Maddow for her big bump in ratings. Good news for some of us but bad news for the state of the news in the United States. People are turning in so they can get some real news for a change as the major networks have stopped covering the Wisconsin and Midwest wars against the public sector. The Ohio parade for choice today got no coverage. It reminds me of the anti-Iraq war demonsotrations when compared to the teabaggers.

Let's hear it for David Koch. He's anti-Iraq war, pro gay marriage and pro legalizing medical marijuana. The New york Times decided to suck up in covering his MIT Koch Cancer Center. David is concerned that federal funding will be cut from programs on prostate cancer. Apparently he suffers from it and wants a cure found instead of treating his own. He also claimed that the hoax call to Scott Walker was identity theft. Now he can't call Senators because they'll believe it's a hoax. His good brother claimed on 60 Minutes that his other two libertarian brothers run their business like a criminal enterprise and that they can't stand anything they can't control.

Someone has to tell the Pentagon's spokespeople to stop using the term "The Left" when referring to any of their critics. This isn't the George W years. Really, honest to god human beings can be concerned about the treatment of the alleged Wikileaks leaker without having a political position. Keeping a detainee stripped and naked in solitary with all the lights on should raise concerns. This is especially true when this was being done for months prior to last week's charges being brought.

Charles Koch, the other evil brother, penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal explaining their position. A fascinating piece from a businessman. He hails Canada keeping the percentage of government spending below 15% of GDP, instead of our 25%. He waxes on about Canada's boom economy. What he doesn't tell the readers is that Canadians have guaranteed health care and a defense budget that is miniscule compared to the United States. This was all before the conservative Harper Government. In fact, part of Obama's argument for his health reform bill was that we were spending as a society some three times what Canada does in terms of % of GDP. If you add the national security budget,you have your difference. Another thing missing from Charles'op-ed is that Canadian banks had better controls and regulations so they didn't melt down like ours. In other words, he likes a regularted business environment that spends less on defense and provides all citizens with healthcare. Sounds good to me.

Another rainy day patriot is the CEO of 3M, who accused Barack Obama of being anti-business. He says he will move his company somewhere like Mexico or Canada where they appreciate business. Clever man. If he does, let's pass a law that all CEOs and executives must move to that country and pay their income tax. What he was suggesting was that 3M should benefit from NAFTA , while those in the headquarters benefit from the low personal income taxes. So boycott Post-Its.

Oh yeah, I forgot--it's now official--Barack Obama in two years created more private sector jobs than George W. Bush did in eight. By the end of 2011, he's be close to suprassing both Bushes' in job creation. I know you've heard this alot on television.