by Odd Man Out
Thanks to the Citizens United debacle created by the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s no exaggeration to say that people such as Charles and David Koch are in a position to severely damage what’s left of our electoral process. From Robert Greenwald of Alternet:
The truth is that the billionaire brothers bankrolling the conservative movement are using their wealth in a way that should be terrifying to anyone who thinks democracy is about more than pulling a lever every two years and letting rich folks take care of the rest.
Accordingly, here are 10 facts that every American should know about who the Kochs are and what they’re doing to our country.
1. Koch Industries, which the brothers own, is one of the top ten polluters in the United States – which perhaps explains why the Kochs have given $60 million to climate denial groups between 1997 and 2010.
2. The Kochs are the oil and gas industry’s biggest donors to the congressional committee with oversight of the hazardous Keystone XL oil pipeline. They and their employees gave more than $300,000 to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2010 alone.
3. From 1998-2008, Koch-controlled foundations gave more than $196 million to organizations that favor polices that would financially enrich the two brothers. In addition, Koch Industries spent $50 million on lobbying and some $8 million in PAC contributions.
4. The Koch fortune has its origins in engineering contracts with Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union.
5. The Kochs are suing to take over the Cato Institute, which has accused the Kochs of attempting to destroy the group’s identity as an independent, libertarian think and align it more closely with a partisan agenda.
6. A Huffington Post source who was at a three-day retreat of conservative billionaires said the Koch brothers pledged to donate $60 million to defeat President Obama in 2012 and produce pledges of $40 million more from others at the retreat.
7. Since 2000, the Kochs have collected almost $100 million in government contracts, mostly from the Department of Defense.
8. Koch Industries has an annual production capacity of 2.2 billion pounds of the carcinogen formaldehyde. The company has worked to keep it from being classified as a carcinogen even though David Koch is a prostate cancer survivor.
9. The Koch brothers’ combined fortune of roughly $50 billion is exceeded only by that of Bill Gates in the United States.
10. The Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs accused Koch Oil of scheming to steal $31 million of crude oil from Native Americans. Although the company claimed it was accidental, a former executive in this operation said Charles Koch had known about it and had responded to the overages by saying, “I want my fair share, and that’s all of it.”
Flipping channels last night looking for something, anything that might be of value I landed on an OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) somewhat sensationalized account of last years Joplin tornadoes funded by… The David Koch Foundation. The Kool-Aid is pervasive, queue theme from Twilight Zone…
And now for a question that may or may not have to do with the reach of the Koch brothers. Who the hell is Hilary Rosen and why is she identified as a Democratic strategist? Doesn’t she work for FOX news(?). Doesn’t FOX pay her a salary? Isn’t she also a paid lobbyist for the recording industry (RIAA)? Isn’t she a Hillary Clinton operative? You don’t suppose that Hillary is trying to sabotage Obama’s campaign do you? Aren’t the Koch brothers closely tied to FOX? Didn’t Hillary Clinton hold an audience with the Koch brothers while she was running for the presidency in 2008?
Their decades of effort to destroy democracy in America is all the reason I need.
Imhotep, I don’t agree with your analysis of Rosen’s ‘motives’, nor do I agree that she’s some sort of undersover Clinton operative, although I do recall she was a staunch Clinton supporter in ’08.
Besides any of that, what she said about Ann Romney was essentially true, if taken in the proper context. Mrs. Romney chose to be a homemaker, raise five boys, because she didn’t HAVE to work like so many millions of other women have HAD to do, and in many cases, WANT to do. Ann married into the ‘silver spoon’ class, and that’s the point Rosen was trying to make. Period. Had nothing at all to do with Hillary Clinton, etc….., etc,,,,,