tea party

Fri, 2010-09-03 10:47Brendan DeMelle
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Koch Industries Donates $1 Million To Prop 23 Effort To Kill California Climate Law

David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers bankrolling the front groups behind the Tea Party and climate denial movement, have added another 'cause' to their philanthropic endeavors, donating $1 million to the Proposition 23 fight to kill California's landmark 2006 climate change legislation.

Koch subsidiary Flint Hills Resources LP handled the laundry duties on this one, but the directive surely came from the heads of the Kochtopus empire - billionaires David and Charles Koch.

The Kochs have found themselves under an uncomfortable spotlight lately after a thorough investigation by The New Yorker revealed the brothers' extensive funding of a network of groups that catapulted the 'grassroots' Tea Party into play, as well as their financial backing of a sprawling network of climate denier groups that makes even ExxonMobil blush.

The Los Angeles Times blog 'Greenspace' first reported Flint Hills Resources donation towards the Proposition 23 bill last night, noting that the effort was launched by two other oil industry players, Texas-based refinery companies Valero Energy and Tesoro Corp.

Read more: Koch Industries Donates $1 Million To Prop 23 Effort To Kill California Climate Law
Mon, 2010-08-23 14:15Brendan DeMelle
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The New Yorker Exposes Koch Industries "Kochtopus" Behind Tea Party and Climate Denial Machine

The New Yorker has published a must-read article exposing the long reach of the "Kochtopus" network set up by Koch Industries to fuel the Tea Party and fund the climate denial machine.  

Written by investigative journalist Jane Mayer, the piece titled "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging war against Obama" explores the decades-long efforts of brothers David and Charles Koch to manipulate and deceive the public on issues ranging from climate change to cancer-causing chemicals. 

Koch Industries has done far more than even ExxonMobil to fund the climate denial machine in recent years, and media coverage about numerous Tea Party and GOP candidates who deny the science of climate change confirm that the Kochs' reach has infected national politics in unprecedented ways.

The lengthy New Yorker article covers many interesting new angles about the Kochs' influence-peddling empire, and adds to a growing body of research about Koch Industries' anti-science, anti-democratic activities.

Building upon the research from Greenpeace's excellent Koch report earlier this year, Jane Mayer expands on Koch's role in funding climate deniers and anti-science think tanks, not to mention the Tea Party. 

Head over to The New Yorker to read the slimy details.  

Read more: The New Yorker Exposes Koch Industries "Kochtopus" Behind Tea Party and Climate Denial Machine
Fri, 2010-05-14 14:58Brendan DeMelle
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Nature Pens Scathing Editorial On Virginia A.G. Cuccinelli Witch Hunt of Michael Mann

In a scathing rebuke of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s witch hunt relating to the work of climatologist Michael Mann, the highly-regarded journal Nature this week published an editorial called “Science subpoenaed” that condemns the latest political attack on a climate scientist and calls into serious question Cuccinelli’s motives.

AG Cuccinelli, a former Republican state Senator, earlier this month launched a ridiculously over-the-top inquiry demanding that the University of Virginia turn over a massive number of documents and personal communications related to Professor Mann’s work and government contracts.  Cuccinelli demands to see eleven years’ worth of Mann’s emails and other correspondence with climate scientists, and all available documents, computer code and data relating to Mann's research on five different state and federal grants.

Echoing The Washington Post, which published a similar editorial lambasting Cuccinelli’s “witch hunt” of Professor Mann, the Nature editorial similarly slammed the AG.

Read more: Nature Pens Scathing Editorial On Virginia A.G. Cuccinelli Witch Hunt of Michael Mann
Mon, 2010-04-19 12:45Richard Littlemore
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Tea Party Supporters Wealthier, More Educated - Still Bitter

Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more educated than average Americans, and they are more likely than the average to declare that their personal financial situation is fairly good or very good, according to a new poll by the New York Times and CBS News. They also are inclined to approve of Medicare and Social Security. Yet they remain mad as hell and determined to blame President Barack Obama for all that irks them about America.

There is a creepy consistency to these polls that suggest the real problem with the political conversation in America is not rooted in economic malaise. Rather, it rests at the feet of a fractured and biased media.

That, at least, is the only way I can explain why people who are better off and, on balance, satisfied with the country's most controversial forays into "socialism," remain outraged at the performance of their government and determined to blame all of its failings on a guy who took office just weeks before Tea Party protests began - at which time when the wars were already started and the economy was already on its face.

Read more: Tea Party Supporters Wealthier, More Educated - Still Bitter
Mon, 2010-04-12 12:17Brendan DeMelle
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Tax Day Tea Party Features Lord “Hitler Youth” Monckton and Cast of Koch Industries’ Favorites

Lord Christopher Monckton, infamous for his “Hitler Youth” comments at the Copenhagen climate summit, is among the guest speakers at this week’s Tax Day Tea Party in Washington, DC.  Organized by FreedomWorks, the sister organization of Americans for Prosperity, the Tax Day Tea Party at the Washington Monument will also feature appearances from FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey and President Matt Kibbe, right wing publisher Andrew Breitbart, Texas Congressman Ron Paul and Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.

With a cast of characters this deep, sparks are sure to fly.

Lord Monckton has continued the crazed rampage he started at the Americans For Prosperity event at the Copenhagen climate summit, where he repeatedly called American college students advocating for clean energy the “Hitler Youth” and “Nazis.” Monckton took it way too far when he told Jewish student Ben Wessel, whose grandparents escaped the Holocaust, “I am not going to shake the hand of Hitler youth.” 
Despite extensive video evidence, Monckton went on to lie to the Associated Press, claiming that he never uttered those words.  More recently, Monckton called President Obama a “monster” during his speech at a GOP fundraiser in Wisconsin, which followed another of his paid appearances for Americans for Prosperity.

Read more: Tax Day Tea Party Features Lord “Hitler Youth” Monckton and Cast of Koch Industries’ Favorites
Fri, 2010-04-09 16:31Brendan DeMelle
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Bachmann and Palin Hold Climate Denier Summit In Minnesota

The GOP’s wonder twins, Sarah Palin and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), turned the Minneapolis Convention Center into climate denier central this week, offering up a huge helping of enthusiasm for dirty energy, as Palin stumped for Bachman’s re-election bid.

The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire blog reports that “tea party fervor hit a fever-pitch” as the GOP’s “best-known females offered the thousands in attendance a lot of red meat and a healthy dose of girl power,” entering the stage to Martina McBride’s “This One’s For the Girls.”

The “Drill Baby Drill” babes had the grand old partiers all aflutter as they displayed their “mutual admiration”:

“She is so much one of us,” Bachmann said of Palin, “And as absolutely drop dead gorgeous this woman is on the outside, I’m here to testify that she is 20 times more beautiful on the inside.”

Palin responded in equally creepy fashion, recalling their first meeting in Alaska:

“I knew that we’d be buddies when I met her when she said, ‘Drill here, drill now.’ And then I replied, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and then we both said, ‘You betcha!’”

Geez, wish I had been there to witness that thrilling moment.

Read more: Bachmann and Palin Hold Climate Denier Summit In Minnesota

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