The super PACs American Crossroads and its nonprofit affiliate, Crossroads GPS, plan to spend $300 million. The super PAC Restore Our Future has already given Mitt Romney a lot of money, but their target is $150 million. Adding Americans for Prosperity to the list, the aim is $850 million, and that is just the contributions through the super PAC’s. That doesn’t include the money funded for all the high level voter suppression, as in the bills the Michigan governor is trying to pass to suppress democratic votes. That doesn’t count the voter suppression in Florida, either. These Koch-following Republicans are actually, and outwardly, trying to depress votes, legally. Let's not forget, Koch sent out a letter to all employees telling them who to vote for. Will non-compliance cost an employee their job? Only time will tell. When in American history was it ever imagined that the leaders of a state would try to curtail the vote of the public? When did this behavior become acceptable? Why are we allowing it?
The Koch brothers are well on their way to being the highest bidder for our highest and most respected political position, the presidency. Yes, they are buying it. The Supreme Court appointing the last Republican president was bad enough. The Koch brothers are thieving, chemical dumping, union busting, governor owning, integrity lacking, brothers who have brainwashed the public into blindness. They are stealing our democracy.
Now, back to the Tea Party, did you see a word written about the good that Americans for Prosperity has done to further your fundamental goals? I would have written about them, if there were some, but they simply aren’t there. I cannot find a link that would make one believe that Americans for Prosperity cares about abortion rights, gay rights, religious rights, or any of the other rights you are constantly using God against. They do care about racism, just as the elder Koch father did, through his beliefs linked to the John Birch Society, but there was nothing that would further your holy agenda. You have been duped, ironically, by your own judgment. I can’t feel sorry for you, but I do feel sorry for the condition you and your judgments have put our entire nation in.
Before you bash me, and I know you will, do research on the Koch brothers agenda yourself. Then hang your head in shame. You’ll see, you were just a pawn, and you were manipulated by the brothers, who laugh at your fundamental beliefs. You gave them the power to make us all choke on the power of the elite.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Clav
Jeez, if they're that bad for the nation, Obama should send out a Seal team to capture and remove them, as he did with OBL.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos -
From 1958 to 2009, the John Birch Society was considered too extreme to be allowed to actively participate in Republican party affairs - but in 2010 they were a co-sponsor of CPAC. The GOP has gotten more extreme than it ever was - ever! Clavos, you KNOW in your gut that Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush 41 would all stand ZERO chance in today's GOP - they'd be run out of town based on their socialist policies!
How long are you going to keep your head in the sand?
3 - Pam Messingham
They are economic, legistrative, and environmental terrorists.
4 - Clav
They are economic, legistrative, and environmental terrorists.
So treat them like terrorists. Send the Seals after them and get rid of them.
5 - Pam Messingham
I don't have a problem with that...but they are super billionaires, Clavos, seems everyone is in their pocket.
6 - Clav
Glenn,
You say:
you KNOW in your gut that Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush 41 would all stand ZERO chance in today's GOP...
To which I reply: the only one in that list I'd give a chance to is Reagan -- I guess that means that if I were a Republican, I'd stand with their mainstream.
My head's not in the sand, Glenn, you just see it that way, because in your heart you know YOU are correct, and I'm grievously wrong.
Miami is full of beggars at intersections, especially in the winter, when the snowbird beggars come down to escape the cold. Normally, I ignore them while stopped for a traffic light, but yesterday, I saw a man to whom I gave a donation. Why? He was different: he was clean, he didn't need a shave or a haircut, he walked proudly, and his clothes, while definitely not new, were clean and pressed. His sign said simply, "Lost my job. I have two children to feed." He was believable, and his appearance seemed to indicate he wouldn't spend any money donated on booze or drugs, so I gave him several dollars.
Obviously, I don't see the world your way.
7 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos -
About the guy on the street, I would probably have done the same, for the same reason. It wouldn't be the first time or the last for either of us.
But would you agree with me that the GOP is more to the right than ever before? I think I can back that statement up, but I'd like to hear your take on it.
8 - Igor The Magificent!
Good article, Pam!
Give'em hell!
One can understand the avarice of the rich and powerful, but what is hard to abide is the self-destructiveness of the peasant republicans.
Hey you suckers! The Koch's won't even give you a scrap as they pass you by. They'll take everything you've got and then spit on you for being so stupid as to believe them and surrender voluntarily.
Oh well, you'll be stylishly anti-liberal as you perish. Thinking that you are some kind of conservative. Good for you!
9 - Pam Messingham
Glenn, in 2012 their conference was put on by the Koch's...along with speaker Rick Santorom, A.L.E.C, Americans for Prosperty, and Charles Koch institute...all in one...they head it all...seek and you will see their name behind the entire radical right movement.
10 - Pam Messingham
Oh and Igor: Thanks!
11 - Arch Conservative
"The Koch's won't even give you a scrap as they pass you by."
Igor the Depedendent pretty much sums up the liberal, leftist mindset. Waiting around for someone else to give you what you need rather then venturing out into the world to take from it what you need or want.
Oh and this article is so novel. Koch Brothers? Really? That's the best you could muster up Pam?
Let's see what you moonbats have to say after this Tuesday when Scott Walker beats Tom Barrett like a union owned rented mule. Maybe after a union membership drops a few more point across the board in this nation a couple of the public union hot shots that have been extorting their private workforce counterparts for so long will finally see the writing on the wall and put a gun in their mouths. Baby steps to making this world a better place.
Cue the inane leftist rhetoric about unions representing "working people" and the "middle class" despite the fact that not even one out of ten in the private work sector is a union member.
12 - Pam Messingham
You know, Arch, that is the mindset that has gotten this hate war, splitting American's, going. I am so sick and tired of people attaching the Koch keyword banter, handouts, to liberals. It used to be tree huggers, how pathetic. If you can open your eyes you will see that your own party is RAPING you of your rights so THEY can take FROM you. No handout involved, utterly TAKE. The Koch bros, the best I can come up with? Like I said, research them first before you bash, because you will see everything the Republican party is doing and everything they have bashed the current president over, leads back to Koch. The Florida voter suppression, Koch, Scott Walker, Koch, Privatization, Koch. Illegal horrendous chemical dumping...Koch...of course they want you to believe just as you do....and I'm sure you make them proud. This isn't inane leftis rhetoric...do the research before you open your mouth.
13 - Arch Conservative
Pam, anyone with an ounce of sense can see that BOTH major parties have been complicit in the downfall of this once great nation. Please don't mistake my loathing of the contemporary leftist ideology as some sort of tacit, wholesale endorsement of the GOP. I have as much use for George Bush and John Mccain as I do for Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, which is to say none.
When one gets past the obvious, that both parties are basically in it for themselves, what we are left with is a population with varying degrees of different socioeconomic worldviews. In the broadest, most generalized terms your point of view comes from the left. You believe in the maximization of big government and the minimization of personal accountability, responsibility and merit while I on the right believe in the maximization of personal accountability, responsibility and merit and the minimization of big government.
Are there corrupt and ammoral actors in our capitalist system? Of course. But other than bitching about them what have you personally done yesterday to better your own life Pam? What will you do today? What will you do tomorrow?
14 - Pam Messingham
First of all, don't tell me what I believe in because you have no idea. I believe in TOTAL accountability, transparency. That is the purpose of the entire piece. The entire GOP is Koch laden. Everywhere you turn it goes back to the billionaires and their agenda. That is my point and my purpose. If just one person will open their eyes and see what is happening with the Koch's/exxonmobile and such, then maybe, just maybe we can take back our lives.
I agree, it isn't just the right, but the right are huge contributors. They buy into the entire "no handout" primise, like it's our social programs that have gotten us here. They think that the GOP is the vote for God, and you know it. I, also, agree that both sides aren't much different. That was quite proven with Obama signing the NDAA law. I was never a Barack supporter, so don't try to say I'm just defending my "hand out" President under liberalism, it simply isn't so.
I do have to say that the lies being pumped out of the GOP are horrendous and you don't see that from the "other side." The truth is, I was writing a piece for a city in Michigan that is undergoing the immeninant placement of a Financial Manager. I ran across another Michigan city, under an EFM that is selling their education system to the lowest bidder. In doing research for that peice, no matter where I went, I was led back to the Koch brothers. It made me want to puke, quite frankly, to know that our entire voting system and political system is being bought by the Kochs and their supporters.
I blame Clinton for NAFTA, but I was suprised that the Koch's were behind that too. When you understand the power of A.L.E.C and the American's for Prosperity and so so many other Koch Interprise control arms, you see the trail, you see the reason and the destruction in whole.
It's scary. It makes me sick. It isn't about one corrupt player in the game, that would be easily removed, it is about the billionaires USING the people with smoke screens, to get their way.
The Koch's found a ton of power in the Christian fundimentalists that believe they are voting for God, a tactic W used, probably fed by Koch as well. I doubt those men have ever prayed a day in their life.
These people are old money...they are the entitled, not the working man. You talk about Scott Walker? The guy is a criminal. There are taped conversations where a mock David Koch called Walker. He thought he was talking to David himself. He sold the people out and laughed about it. Leftist bullshit? or truth? Truth painted as leftist bullshit so the people won't believe it.
To be a true American today you can't believe Fox News, first off, it's owned, along with many other stations. I write for local papers and my editors talk about how controlled we are in media. I tried to find the germany march video that I had watched the night before where the police joined the protesters. As soon as the videos were put up, they were removed.
Don't think for a second that anything I write is to support a party, it isn't. I think we need a new party, the Constitutionalist Party, or The Labor Party.
The lobbyists are out of control and they are funded by...you know it, the Koch's. When you look at the millions they have spent in fines for polluting our land with chemical dumps, without ever thinking of finding a different resource, then you see all the bills against preserving the environment, the truth exposes itself once again, then research those bills, who pushed for them, go to ALEC and again...exxon/koch do it over and over again.
As for what I do to better my own life? I wrote this peice to better my own life, to better my childrens lives, to better every single American's life, if just a few will open their eyes and see what "they" are doing to us. We can close our eyes and blame the liberals, or Obama, which is what the conservatives like to do, with Lies, I may add, or your can research it yourself, find the truth, and then, and only then, you can question why I am bitching. I'm not bitching, I am simply telling people the truth,...and American's today...they can't tell the difference...they are too lazy or one sided to research anything. Then, they whine when things go bad.
I guess you don't get it...I'm trying to better all of our lives, even the people that are too blind to see...even yours.
15 - Arch Conservative
Blah, blah blah, Same shit different day.
I assume that you're familiar with the Theory of Evolution and you may be surprised that I, a mere knuckle drugging tool of the Koch Brothers would even bring it up.
However the theory of evolution holds that those who survive and flourish are those that can make the necessary adaptations within themselves to adjust to their ever changing environment.
So unless you have either a really big gun, a really big wallet or a once in a generation ability to communicate with and motivate the masses (I suspect you have none of these)you maybe better off examining how the Theory of Evolution may be practically applied to your life. Life is too short to do what you're doing now. I know this. It's why I've been posting so infrequently.
But I drop by to check in and am treated to:
"you KNOW in your gut that Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush 41 would all stand ZERO chance in today's GOP"
As if FDR, Truman, Kennedy, LBJ or Carter would be accepted by today's Dem party.
But then Glenn always has been the posterboy for what I'm speaking of.
16 - Pam Messingham
It's like this, first of all, why do you have to insult Glenn? There is not reason, and I bet you're wrong on the Kennedy, Truman and FDR thing. Carter, well, that's a different story, he was too good of a man to be a politican. Don't blah blam my comments, it isn't the same shit, different day...it's just the ears that are listening to it. They can't hear. You are right though, if you don't have a BIG gun, or a shit ton of money...you are going to be left, like the rest of us, a slave to the super powers. Heaven forbid, don't try to change or fight for our rights, lets just hand it over to them...that thought process makes me sick. Evolution isn't about natural selection, don't confuse the two. What you are talking about is natural selection. My kind will phase out, I will not get on my knees to anyone! I can't and won't cry Uncle to slavery in America.
That's what it's coming to, in the name of the Almighty God.
17 - Pam Messingham
And furthermore, how UnAmerican of you...to exquate our FREEDOMS with natural selection. What a shame that you lack the honor to try to protect our rights, to fight for them, to be what is American, not what it is to be on your knees. Wow, you're just a follower, I assume?
18 - Arch Conservative
"Heaven forbid, don't try to change or fight for our rights, lets just hand it over to them...that thought process makes me sick."
I'm just as aware as you how unfair and ammoral the world can be. I guess the difference between you and I is that I don't believe there's much we can do to change it on a global scale. Money and power, throughout the whole of human existence on this planet has pretty much been where it's at when it comes to influencing the human existence for the masses.
Unlike you though I try not to obsess on it to much (and for all I know you may only obsess upon it when on this website). Life is short and you have to make your own happiness where and when you can. Maybe there will come another day when there is a second bloody revolution in this nation, maybe it may even be global and sitting on the sidelines will not be a feasible option for any of us. But that day is not yet here and as a father of two I consider my efforts best directed into adapting to how the world presently works rather than fighting the good fight day in and out to correct the injustices. Selfish? Maybe but like I said, life is short. So I think I'll just try to show those I come into contact with in my daily life the respect I'd like to be treated with and consider myself a halfway decent person. I'll leave the heavy lifting Martydom for better men than myself.
Oh and as for Glenn. He's earned the insults by his steadfast refusal to even attempt to be objective.
19 - Glenn Contrarian
Hah! ARCH is griping about ME not being objective! Apparently he doesn't have a mirror in his house!
Arch, FYI we progressives would LOVE to have an FDR or Truman around for both were very progressive for their times and weren't afraid to stand up for what is right - particularly Truman, who:
(1) ensured equality for blacks in the military (which ticked off the conservatives),
(2) got our economy back on track after the post-war recession (by raising taxes),
(3) passed the GI Bill that allowed so many of our veterans to go to college, and
(4) stopped MacArthur from from starting a nuclear war (and was vilified by the Republicans for firing MacArthur after doing so).
I'd be somewhat hesitant for JFK based on Vietnam, but he may very well have been tricked on what really happened with the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and he certainly was misled by his advisers when it came to the Bay of Pigs...but he truly showed his character in the Cuban missile blockade where he forced Khrushchev to blink, and he was all for the Civil Rights movement.
So you're completely off base when you think we wouldn't accept them. We Progressives have stuck by our principles since Teddy Roosevelt went trust-busting...and Obama is NOT a true progressive, as I pointed out in my most recent article that shows he's the most CONSERVATIVE president since Eisenhower!
But it's glaringly obvious that not a single GOP president from Eisenhower to Bush 41 would be given a passing glance from today's GOP based on their economic policies alone. And based on economic policies, the only two that would are Hoover and Bush 43...and if you have the least knowledge of history, you'd recognize that they have something in common - ECONOMIC DISASTER.
When it comes to what Pam is trying to tell you, do you really think it's right to allow people to put as much money as they want into an election? Do you really? Because the Koch brothers have stated they will spend as much as 400M to ensure Obama's defeated. Thanks to YOUR boys in the Supreme Court, our democracy - which was questionable before - is now very much an oligarchy. The rich have more power now than ever before...and by opposing those who would have stopped this from happening, you and every other Democrat-hating conservative helped to ensure that. Way to go, Arch! How far we have fallen since Teddy Roosevelt went trust-busting and the courts were saying that money is NOT free speech!
And for Pam - don't worry about Arch insulting people - he's just a pot that thinks everyone else are kettles that are just as black as he is.
20 - Pam Messingham
That's what I mean Glenn. The Koch's don't even try to hide the fact that they are buying the election. I was just thinking about all the soldiers that died in the name of freedom. It sickens me. Through the years, son's, daughter's, mother's, father's, brother's, sister's, neice's, nephew's, grandparents, friends, aunt's, uncle's, and friends have been lost by American's that have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms. Now, the real terrorists, the real threat to our American freedom, lies in the hand of our own. American Greed. They want to destroy all, including the land, in the name of power and free enterprise. I'm sure those soldiers would be happy to hear someone say...it's natural selection...how many years could they have had with their loved ones if they thought that way.
Hey Glenn, Vietnam began in the fifties, long before Kennedy. I guess people don't realize that we became involved in that by another US broken promise to Ho Chi Minh to help defend them against French control...that was in the forties. Are you using the escalation of troops in Vietnam under Kennedy? Just asking
21 - Clav
The first significant (battalion size units and above) escalation by america was in August of 1965, under LBJ. I know, because my battalion of combat engineers and the First Infantry Division, the Big Red One, went over together; the first units to go over -- on a TROOPSHIP, NO LESS -- 28 days from Oakland to Cam Ranh Bay, where we bivouacked in sand dunes.
22 - Bill
Pam, I just googled tea party movement images. Of the page after page of images of people carrying posters , I don't see any in reference to god or abortion, or fundamentalist ideas. Maybe I missed it, but iI don't think it is as prevalent as you make it out to be. Show me some of the images that would indicate what you're saying. Oops there's one that says, "In God We Trust, Not Government" Is that fundamentalist?
I'm not necessarily a tea party person, but of what I get from them is that they :
1) Don't like the war
2) Don't like big government
3) Don't like taxes
4) Don't like socialism
5) Don't like politicians giving themselves such a great deal
6) Don't like bailouts
7) Love the constitution
8) Like being able to carry a gun
9) Love liberty
As far as pouring money into something. Who is that who funds the climate change movement. Who funds planned parenthood?
As far as I can see, not too many people make a living at tea partying.
By the way, I don't care what you do to your body, nor do I think it should be governed. Also I realize that CO2 has increased at Mauna Loa 75 parts per 1,000,000 since the 50's and I'm a little concerned, but not overly.
23 - Pam Messingham
None of us like war, none of us like big government, none of us like taxes, and I'm so sick of hearing this socialism crap I want to puke, none of us like that either. All politicians give themselves too much, bailouts (ie: gifts to corporate America that result in $16.5 billion with stock bought by W in AIG fall into this catagory, don't they...much different than a $38 billion dollar loan + interest that has been paid in full) in and to big government as for Bush are totally unexceptable, The constitution if loved so much, shouldn't be trashed and abolished by using religion, abortion, and gay rights against Americans, I love my gun, too, I love my freedom too, and we should fund planned parenthood, its much less costly than the oil subsidies at $24 billion a year. The Tea Party members do not carry signs that say "I am a Christian Fundamentalist" but "In God we trust" tells the story in whole...thanks for making your own point....~Pam
24 - Glenn Contrarian
Bill -
Look at all the first-world nations, and except for the oil-rich nations of the Middle East, all the first-world nations have something in common: every single one of them are socialized democracies. Every single one of them fits the description of what the Tea Party calls a "nanny state".
Why is that, Bill? Why is it that ALL first-world nations (other than OPEC nations) have significant social safety nets? Why is it that not a single first-world nation has what the Tea Party would call a "small government"? There's lots of nations that DO have small governments...and they're all third world nations.
Why is that, Bill?
25 - Pam Messingham
We are the ONLY first world nation without healthcare. We look like a third world country to so many people anymore. We have became backwards and ignorant in our own bliss. We have dummied down education...sold out our jobs...we are a mess...