• David Koch,  Julia Brownley,  Tony Strickland

    CA-26: Julia Brownley Channels the Koch Brothers to Raise Funds

    Julia Brownley for Congress e-mail donation request

    I just received this in the ol’ e-mail box from Julia Brownley who is running for Congress here in Ventura County.

    Democrat Brownley is using scare tactics of the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party Caucus (whatever that is) to scare the campaign cash dollars out of her supporters.

    The Koch Brothers are rich and right-leaning businessmen who do contribute to campaigns – so what? Many businessmen do – right and left.

    But, you see Julia, is a LEFT-WING Ideologue who thinks that Nancy Pelosi and George Soros are OK buddies, but businessmen like David Koch and the grass-roots Tea Party are evil.

    Just say NO to Julia Brownley and her Santa Monica extremism.

    I will vote for Republican Tony Strickland.

  • Charles Koch,  David Koch,  Oil Severance Tax,  San Francisco Chronicle

    Koch Derangement Syndrome Watch: San Francisco Chronicle Facilitates Hysteria For Oil Severance Tax Supporters

    Greenpeace is flying a blimp over Rancho Mirage, California to protest the Koch Brothers

    I mean, where do they get this stuff that David and Charles Koch are involved in an any type of ballot measure regarding a California oil severance tax? After all, this is a major California newspaper and where’s the beef?

    To Peter Mathews, the political timing seems perfect. A gallon of gas costs more than $4, the five largest oil companies have made $30 billion in profits this year, and California’s higher education system is losing at least $1.4 billion to help balance the state’s gargantuan budget deficit.

    The political science professor at Cypress College, a community college in Orange County, drove to UC Berkeley on Friday to begin gathering support for a ballot measure to tax oil companies on the petroleum they extract in California and send the money – about $2 billion a year – to public schools.

    But should his measure qualify for the November ballot, Mathews and liberal groups worry that a pair of deep-pocketed brothers could emerge to fight the initiative: Charles and David Koch (pronounced “coke”) of Kansas, who have used the billions they’ve made in the oil industry to try to reshape national politics in their conservative, free-market image.

    “They’d probably weigh in because (the tax) would represent another burden on business,” said Peter Foy, a Republican Ventura County supervisor and chair of the California chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which David Koch co-founded.

    Sorry, but neither Supervisor Foy nor does the San Francisco Chronicle know what Koch Industries or David or Charles Koch will do. They really don’t. Moreover, Supervisor Foy’s organization is NOT funded by Koch Industries. Supervisor Foy is NOT a spokesman for Koch Industries or either of the Koch brothers.

    Why?

    Well, the Kochs have NO oil refining operations in California and their companies are NOT involved in oil extraction (spelled oil drilling in California or anywhere else for that matter). They are involved with oil refining (after the oil comes out of the ground) and NOT in California. Can THIS be any more clear?

    The last time the oil severance tax was on the California ballot, I believe was in 2006, Proposition 87. It was an expensive, initiative ballot proposition which I voted against. How much do you think the Koch’s contributed to its defeat?

    NOTHING. What makes anyone think they would contribute to a campaign for a new oil severance tax measure? One, in which they have NO interest. Does this make any sense?

    The Chronicle points out that California is the ONLY oil producing state that does not have this oil severance tax in place already. California lags behind the other states, so why would the Koch’s involve themselves because of a fear that this oil tax may spread to other states?

    No, this whole exercise is an attempt by the LEFT to DEMONIZE the Koch Brothers so they can raise money from their Moonbat/Far Left donors. If I were them and the San Francisco Chronicle, I would be looking at Chevron who gave $30 Million and Aera Energy $27 Million to help defeat Proposition 87 in 2006. But, then again, those companies actually employ voters in this state and perhaps they are just too hard to make into a BOOGEY MAN.

  • Charles Koch,  David Koch,  George Soros

    Outrage Alert: George Soros Sponsoring Two Events to Remake the Financial Order and Media

    The MSM or Lamestream Media were all over Charles and David Koch for their political conference in Rancho Mirage, California but where is the reporting for George Soros, darling and funding sponsor for the Far LEFT two conferences this weekend?

    Apparently, megalomaniacs need schedulers.

    Just ask George Soros. The left-wing billionaire is helping fund two major conferences that start on the same day, in two different locations just a three hours apart by car. Two liberal events packed into one long weekend. God created the world in six days. Apparently, Soros, who sees himself as “some kind of god,”needs just a long weekend to start remaking today’s world in his image.

    The emphasis of both conferences is a familiar one to American voters – change. Soros wants to begin changing the global economy in one event. In the other, his flunkies want to “Change the world. Change the media.”

    Now that is change you can believe in. Sadly, those who actually report the news must believe in it because they sure as heck aren’t reporting on Soros or either event. And that’s even though staffers or even executives from Reuters, the Financial Times, NPR, PBS, The Washington Post and other major media outlets are speaking at one event or the other.

    But, George Soros is on the LEFT and not the RIGHT – so I guess, it is not reportable – even though the media organizations are featured speakers.

    How hypocritical is this?

    Read more – especially about remaking the media or should I say have the government pay for it. Recognize the cast of characters from the California Koch protests?

    Just down the road in Boston, a Soros-funded media conference is trying to manipulate that emerging order as well. Close to 350 left-wingers from a variety of organizations are gathering there for the National Conference for Media Reform.

    That “change the world” conference includes two commissioners from the FCC, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders, four Democratic representatives, the head of Columbia University, and assorted left-wing journalist types, from Salon’s Glenn Greenwald to disgraced former MSNBC host David Shuster, who now works for a Soros-funded investigative operation.

    The rest of the list reads like a “Who’s Who” of left-wing organizations and talking heads, including the president of PBS, a senior vice president with American Public Media, an Al Jazeera English executive, the president of the Newspaper Guild – CWA and Washington Post columnist Rob Pegoraro. Many others have Soros connections, such as:

    Common Cause, which has been going after conservative Supreme Court justices who have some connection to the Koch brothers. Common Cause seems immune to similar investigations of their own gravy train.

    Columbia Journalism Review’s Dean Starkman. He is chief of the review’s “The Audit” section and a 2006 Katrina Media Fellow with the Open Society Institute, the primary Soros charitable foundation.

    Free Press, which is holding the conference. Free Press has received more than $1 million from Soros since 2003 and has 18 presenters pushing for things like “strong public media” or an extremely expensive national broadband plan they quaintly describe as “universal access to communications.”

    Think Progress’s Koch-hating Lee Fang. Think Progress is a project of Democrat John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, which was founded with Soros money. Fang is on the panel for: “Real Issues vs. Astroturf: Confronting the Koch Brothers,” and makes the laughable claim “this is not about liberals versus conservatives” when the entire goal of the left is to shut down the Kochs to defund the right.

    Everywhere you they go in Boston, they’ll be making more left turns than NASCAR. It’s an event filled with lefties dissatisfied that the news media aren’t even more liberal, and their goal will be to make that happen. Whether it’s “Beyond Pronouns: Creating Real Stories About Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People” or pushing for illegal immigrant rights, the conference is a predictable liberal take on pretty much everything.

    But the over-arching theme is getting government to fix the media. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, whose school also includes the well-known and partly Soros-funded Columbia School of Journalism, is one of several speakers advocating for increased government funding for media. He called for federal funding of the media in a 2010 Wall Street Journal piece with the terrifying headline: “Journalism Needs Government Help.” Bollinger pushed for the creation of a public media that combines NPR, PBS and Voice of America. He also wants to “end to the regulation of ‘indecent’ language and images in broadcast programming” and return to the Fairness Doctrine.

  • Charles Koch,  David Koch,  Democrats,  GOP

    Hypocrisy Alert: Democrats Now Following Republicans into Undisclosed Donor Field

    The Los Angeles Times has the story about how independent political organizations which can accept unlimited cash and not disclose its donors are being formed by the Democrats for the next election cycle. And, remember how the LEFT criticized the Koch Brothers out in Palm Springs?

    Democrats putting together new independent political organizations for the 2012 campaign are embracing a model that will allow them to conceal their donors — the very tactic for which they criticized Republicans in 2010.

    Majority PAC, a new group aimed at electing Democrats to the Senate, and American Bridge 21st Century, which will serve as a research hub, are being organized as so-called super political action committees that can raise unlimited amounts of money from contributors whose donations are reported to the Federal Election Commission. But both are also affiliated with nonprofit 501(c)(4) social welfare groups that can raise money from undisclosed donors and give money directly to super PACs.

    The same dual structure is being considered by Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, two former White House aides who are likely to launch their own independent expenditure effort in support of President Obama’s reelection, according to people familiar with the plans.

    What is good for the goose is also good for the gander, I suppose. But, why not cut the pretense and allow anyone to give unlimited amounts of political contributions as along as they are timely disclosed on the internet?

    Then, all of the machinations can go by the wayside.

    Otherwise, it is just hypocrisy.

  • Charles Koch,  David Koch,  Georgia Pacific

    Union Leader Says a Boycott of Koch Industries Georgia Pacific is a Bad Idea

    Greenpeace is flying a blimp over Rancho Mirage, California to protest the Koch Brothers

    Well, DUH.

    A number of organizations are advocating a boycott of the products that come from companies owned by the Koch family. This is problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it could potentially hurt the wrong people.

    The Koch brothers own Georgia Pacific. It is an American consumer goods company that makes everyday products like facial tissue, napkins, paper towels, paper cups and the like. Their plants are great examples of American advanced manufacturing. Incidentally,

    GP makes most of its products here in America. The company’s workforce is highly unionized. In fact, 80 percent of its mills are under contract with one or more labor union.  It is not inaccurate to say that these are among the best-paid manufacturing jobs in America.

    This presents a dilemma and a paradox. While the Koch brothers are credited with advocating an agenda and groups that are clearly hostile to labor and labor’s agenda, the brothers’ company in practice and in general has positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.

    While some companies are running from investment in American jobs, The Koch brothers’ Georgia Pacific just reached agreements with its primary union in the paper industry to invest more than a half a billion dollars in capital to essentially create two state-of-the-art machines that conserve fiber and energy at two separate union mills.

    While certainly there are disagreements from time to time on what the right pension program is, or right wage increases and incentives, or the right formula for health care cost sharing, ultimately we end up with negotiated solutions.

    So the problem for the advocates of a boycott against Koch is that it can only marginally hurt Koch, and the workers who are the epitome of what advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States ought to look like, would be the first casualties of a boycott. Of course, this will eventually drive a wedge between groups that are otherwise in political alignment.

    If consumers pick alternate products (because people will still use toilet paper), in many cases, the substitute will be from a company with a track record that is much less friendly to the values of the workers who would, as a result of the boycott, become the collateral damage. The Koch brothers’ lifestyle will not dramatically change; there are no shareholders that will become concerned; the company is privately owned. The stock won’t plummet either — there is none.

    The Koch Brothers believe in capitalism and free markets. This also includes collective bargaining and organized labor.

    I don’t see why Charles and David Koch are demonized by the LEFT – unless you don’t believe in capitalism. They are businessmen, run very good business enterprises and have ideas in which they will put their money where their mouths are. Oh yeah, and a great deal of charity donations, including cancer research and the fine arts.

    Kind of the American way, no?

  • Charles Koch,  David Koch,  Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee,  Harry Reid

    Hypocrite Democrat Sen. Harry Reid Forgets Koch Industries Gave Dem Senatorial Committee 30K While Dissing Them in Fundraising Letter

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. gestures during a news
    conference on Capitol Hill in Washington Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010

    OOPS. Cowboy poet enthusiast and Senate Majority Leader sends out this letter to the Democratic faithful today:

    Dear xxxx,
     
    We should be trying to put Americans back to work, not trying to put public radio out of business.
     
    Attacking labor unions…waging war on women’s rights…defunding NPR…repealing health care reform. The anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-Obama Republican agenda just proves that their priorities are seriously out of whack. How is any of this supposed to create jobs?
     
    Senate Democrats are fighting back each and every day. But with only a slim four-seat majority, we have no margin for error. If Republicans can knock just a few bricks free from our firewall, they’ll force through their extreme agenda faster than you can say “Koch brothers.” With the GOP on the attack and with 23 Democratic-held seats to defend, we have no time to spare. We must act now to keep our majority standing strong. I need your help!
     
    The DSCC must raise $150,371 by our March 31 FEC deadline to keep the Republicans at bay. Our March Match means you’ll be matched dollar for dollar – your $300 contribution will only cost you $150. Please click here right now to contribute! I’m not satisfied with playing defense. Democrats are ready to move this country forward by investing in our future – rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, and focusing on innovations that will create not just jobs, but entire industries.
     
    And a year after President Obama signed health care reform, we’re unwilling to let Republicans put health insurance companies back between you and your doctor.
     
    We’re ready to go on offense, waging a tough grassroots campaign to preserve our majority, standing strong with Democratic incumbents and recruiting top-flight challengers to take on vulnerable Republicans.
     
    We have to put our money where our mouth is – and that means we need your support at this critical moment. Ninety percent of the DSCC’s donations come from individuals giving less than $200. And during our March Match, your $300 gift will only cost you $150 – every dollar will be matched!
     
    The DSCC needs to hear from you immediately in order to meet its $150,371 goal by March 31 – so please click here and make a contribution right now.
     
    Senate Democrats are standing up strong against the GOP’s backward priorities. But we can’t stand alone, not with Republicans and their special interest allies pouring more resources into breaking down our firewall every day.
     
    And with just 8 days to go until the March 31 deadline, a $150,371 goal to meet, and a dangerous Republican agenda to defeat, we need you now more than ever.
     
    Thank you,
     
    Harry Reid
     
    Paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, dscc.org <http://dscc.org> , and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

    Well, nice move, Dingy Harry to diss a donor who gave your Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $30,000 during the last campaign cycle.

    So, Harry is the DSCC going to send the money back?