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.

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.

If The Hippies Cut Off Their Hair,I Wouldn't Care*

* Jimi Hendrix,paratrooper and Barack Obama's father

How much cooler can President Obama become now that he's the illegitimate son of Jimi Hendrix? Jack Cashill in his new book "Deconstructing Obama" posits the view that Ann Dunham met a left-handed guitarist named "Johnnie" in Seattle in 1960 and had an affair with this person, who later became Jimi Hendrix, whom we also are told loved to have affairs with white women. Ann Dunham would have been two years older than Jimi at the time and she was living in Seattle at the time.

If true this would damage the great birther myths that Obama was a Muslim by birth as originally argued by Daniel Pipes.

But Cashill isn't so sure. You see he spent alot of time researching David Horowitz' bugaboo--Communist poet and jazz critic Frank Marshall Davis, who has been mentioned in Obama's autobiography. Horowitz also maintained that Obama was a Stalinist as influenced by Davis, a man who was exiled by the Communist Party USA to Hawaii. Cashill thinks there is more to this. Davis wrote an autobiographical book under an assumed name about his amorous advantures. Sort of a radical Frank Harris. In it he talks about affairs with white teenagers. Cashill claims to have discovered nude shots taken by Davis, one of which he thinks is Ann Dunham. He suggests Davis may have gotten Ann pregnant with Barack but the time-line doesn't pan out. Instead, he suggests that Davis sexually molested Obama.

Cashill is the genius who discovered that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's "Dreams of my Father". So he must be credible.

Maybe the Hendrix connection is true. Obama is left-handed. He's been great for the American Indians. Perhaps Obama remembered that Hendrix was part Cherokee. Will the Hendrix family give Obama his part of the royalties now that the family has finally secured rights to all of Jimi's work?

Factional fighting has broken out in birtherland. There is a new theory about why Obama's birth certificate is sealed. You see he was adopted when Ann Dunham married her second husband, an Indonesian, so that Obama became known by an Indonesian name. This name would have been considered alien to Americans--Obama's mother was always thinking about the presidency--so these papers were hidden. The author argues that Obama's birth certificate were changed to reflect this new name. Of course, Barack Hussein Obama was simply accepted as another normal American name.

Jerome Corsi and World Nut Daily have a new DVD out about Obama's eligibility to be President. They use the original birther scheme. I'm sure you will have the DVD show up in the mail during the 2012 election time.

But it may not get there. Newt Gingrich claims that Obama's refusal to defend DOMA is an impeachable offense. See, it's unlike Ronald Reagan refusing to defend a "legislative veto" passed by Congress because it would be unconstitutional. The Christian Right is up in arms about this and has started beating the drumbeat for impeachment on DOMA. Don't worry there will many more reasons by the time Obama is done.

Another Georgian--Bobby Franklin, a Republican in Georgia, has introduced a new bill which would require that women who have had miscarriages be tried for homicide. On the flip side, Nebraska and Iowa are introducing bills that would make it justifiable homicide to murder to protect unborn fetuses. You can run the awful scenarios out in your mind--abortion providers, women killed by outraged husbands and lovers. Here in Virginia, our House of Delegates limited abortion rights by adopting a law that requires the procedure to be done in a hospital, not a clinic. The clinics would have to have corridors to fit a full-sized hospital gurney. Some progressive blogger remarked that a woman would have to be right of the Westbro Baptist Church to support any Republican.

Radio D.J. asked Donald Rumsfeld whether he and Dick Cheney were "Lizard people from outer space who eat human flesh." Rummy didn't respond so I guess it's right.

Montana's Democratic governor Brian Schweitzer has patented a VETO cowbrand to use on all "the Republican's lunatic bills." Schweitzer has vowed to veto anything that doesn't deal with creating jobs. The Montana Republicans have drafted bills to outlaw homosexuality,nullify federal laws,and God knows what's next.

As I wrote before, Americans would actually believe that the House vote to repeal the healthreform bill would mean that it actually was repealed. 20% believe this is true and another 25% are not so sure. The Federal judge's decision to uphold the law makes it 3 to 2 so far. But as Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly points out ,media coverage has been overwhelmingly on the two decisions against healthcare, even though the three affirming it are more legally sound and well-argued.

What do Emma Goldman and David Koch have in common? Both are self-proclaimed anarchists. You can look it up as Casey would say.

Remember all the fuss made about Armand Hammer, the owner of Occidental Petroleum? Edward Jay Epstein wrote an entire book proving that Hammer's father, who was a physician to Lenin, was a KGB agent as was Armand. The Right used this against All Gore because Gore's father was Hammer's business partner. Conservatives even pressured Nancy Reagan not to invite Armand Hammer to the White House. Then, why isn't there a fuss about the Koch Brothers?

Fred Koch made his fortune first in Stalin's Russia building refineries and then later hooked up with his German relatives in Nazi Germany. While he later claimed that his falling out with Stalin was because he "purged engineers", he would later state he supported Benito Mussolini for the way he dealt with unions,a trait that lives on in the family. But then he emerges in the 1950s to fund, if not create the John Birch Society, which focused its attention on Communist China and American politicians. Shouldn't some red flags go up on this? Kim Philby was thought to be a Tory who backed Franco while he was a KGB agent all the time. Why should anyone take Fred Koch's account of his Soviet and Nazi German years at face value. After all he was livid at the American oil industry for "stealing his patents" and had every reason to resent the American system. What better way to discredit these people, who were conservative Republicans, then to create the John Birch Society and discredit all conservative thought?

As I wrote last year, the Koch Brothers adhere to a type of libertarianism, which is known as Anarcho-Fascism,first generated by a German thinker about the time their father was politically involved back here in the States.

This stuff makes the Koch Brothers helluva lot more interesting and nefarious than George Soros.

One of the more interesting Koch relatives is an aunt in Germany named Ilse Koch, formerly Kohler. Ilse was married to SS Col.Karl Otto Koch ,who was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald. He was later investigated for improper conduct that included corruption,fraud, embezzlement, drunkeness, sexual offences and murder. And that was by the Gestapo, not us. Ilse was a "specialist in making artifacts from human skin"--an actual technical title in German.

Ilse became known as the "Bitch of Buchenwald". She was accused of making souvenirs from the skin of murdered inmates with distinctive tattoos. She was investigated by the Gestapo when she built an indoor sports arena costing 250,000 marks. She was suspected of embezzling SS funds and murdering certain inmates in an attempt to cover up her crimes. She was later tried for war crimes by an American military tribunal in 1947. She was charged with "participating in a criminal plan for aiding, abetting and participating in the murders at Buchenwald." She was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

She only served two years. General Lucius Clay , the interim governor of the American Zone in Germany, pardoned her. That should be investigated--why? The Germans themselves were outraged and international pressure was brought so that she was re-arrested in 1949 and tried before West German courts for 135 cases of murder. She was sentenced to life in 1951. She committed suicide in prison in 1967.

Our war commander was naturally Dwight David Eisenhower,which the John Birch Society called "Ike The Kike". I wonder if there are any connections. Also why was the John Birch Society allowed back into CPAC this year--a quid pro quo for Koch money?

One of the sources for Glenn Beck as he has said openly is David Koch. Perhaps his infuence on him is what has suddenly turned Commentary magazine and other conservatives suddenly against him. Morning Joe openly denounced him this week and his conspiracy theories, saying that politicians and people involved in politics could get hurt. Commentary took after him on the whole issue of Reform Judaism and even though they acknowledged Reforms Jews were "lamentably" liberal, they sense the Kossacks were coming with Beck's continued assaults on rabbis and his list of the Nine who govern the United States,eight of whom are Jews. It's Richard Trumpka who might be the clue to the origins of this nonsense. Of east European stock, Ilse Koch would have put his family into the gas chambers for racial impurity.

But let's suppose the Koch Brothers are simply billionaire businessmen. Why would you have the PR people for your business respond to the new Scot Walker was punked by the Buffalo Beast pretending to be David Koch by denouncing "leftists"? This was the strangest response I've seen a business give to any situation. So I guess leftists don't buy Brawny Paper Towels or use any Dixie cups? A little too sensitive--heh?

Oh by the way, Scott Walker says that unions must pay more for their pensions. Taxpayers don't pay for their pensions. Those were actually givebacks over the years in Wisconsin for wage cuts. Also the pension funds--until Walker--were in fine shape. The problem is that he wants to use them to shore up the budget.

The Wisconsin scene gets even more interesting. Democratic Senators, who cooperated with Republican Tommy Thompson for three terms, have contacted him to pull Walker off the union-busting part of the bill. Walker ordered, then didn't order the state police to seal off the Capitol but they refused, saying they would sleep there with the protestors. Dick Morris waved around a poll of his own saying it was good news for Walker--but it showed that nearly 55% of the state opposed what he was doing. The Governor had to leave a tavern last night because the owner insisted on it--he was being booed so loudly it interferred with others' dining pleasure.

It was really classy--that Assembly vote at 1am to pass the union-busting bill. The vote was called and it was closed within seconds. The videos of the Democrats shouting "Shame" had to do with the process, more than the bill itself.

The RNC sent around a fund-raising letter--I received one--that asked for money to fight Obama and his Union Bosses. The national campaign to bust unions seems to be sputtering a bit. Chris Chrissie,Mitch Daniels and even Kasich of Ohio have backed away for now. Rick Scott backed away almost immediately but now he wants collective bargaining stripped from the Florida constitution. Michigan's Snyder, who was mentioned in the Walker fake Koch call, isn't biting at the union business at all.

Poland's own Solidarnosc sent a long letter to Wisconsin in support of their public service unions. Wisconsin union members have been circulating videos of Ronald Reagan saying "everyone has the right to belong to a union", a tape he made in support of Solidarity. Remember Walker believes that Reagan's busting of the air traffic controllers led to the end of the Communist Bloc. Most people think that Poland's own Solidarnosc played a pivotal role in cracking the East Bloc.

I know I feel safer knowing that Jimmi Hendrix's son is in the White House.