Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck, Big Business Leaders Meet to Plot 2010 Election

by Lee Fang

Posted by Lee Fang on @ 7:14 am

Article printed from speakeasy: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy

URL to article: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/20/health-insurance-banking-oil-industries-met-with-koch-chamber-glenn-beck-to-plot-gop-wins-in-2010-election/

This post first appeared on Think Progress.

In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups, political campaigns, think tanks, media outlets and other anti-government efforts through a twice annual meeting of wealthy right-wing donors. He also confided to Moore, who is funded through several of Koch’s ventures, that his true goal is to strengthen the “culture of prosperity” by eliminating “90%” of all laws and government regulations. Although it is difficult to quantify the exact amount Koch alone has funneled to right-wing fronts, some studies have pointed toward $50 million he has given alone to anti-environmental groups. Recently, fronts funded by Charles and his brother David have received scrutiny because they have played a pivotal role in the organizing of the anti-Obama Tea Parties and the promotion of virulent far right lawmakers like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). (David Koch praised DeMint and gave him a “Washington Award” shortly after the senator promised to “break” Obama by making health reform his “Waterloo.”)

While the Koch brothers — each worth over $21.5 billion — have certainly underwritten much of the right, their hidden coordination with other big business money has gone largely unnoticed. ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry — from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons — working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012. According to the memo, David Chavern, the number two at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fox News hate-talker Glenn Beck also met with these representatives of the corporate elite. In an election season with the most undisclosed secret corporate giving since the Watergate-era, the memo sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar corporations and much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo describes the prospective corporate donors as “investors,” and it makes clear that many of the Republican operatives managing shadowy, undisclosed fronts running attack ads against Democrats were involved in the Koch’s election-planning event:

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in rolling back President Obama’s enacted reforms. Several companies impacted by health reform, including Allan Hubbard of A & E Industries, a manufacturer of medical devices and Judson Green, a board member of health insurance conglomerate Aon, were present at the meeting. Other businessmen at the meeting, like Omaha Burger King franchiser Mike Simmonds, are owners of fast food stores which have fought efforts to provide health insurance to their employees. Many corporate attendees of the meeting represent the financial industry impacted by Wall Street reform. For instance, attendee Bill Cooper is the CEO of TCF Financial, a corporation involved in the mortgage banking industry. Cooper recently filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Wall Street reform. Other financial industry players in the meeting hail from firms ranging from Bank of America, JLM Investment, Allied Capital Corp, AMG National Trust, the Blackstone Group and Citadel Investment. Annie Dickerson, a representative of Paul Singer, a powerful hedge fund manager who also gives tens of millions to Republican causes, was present. In addition, Koch Industries itself has a hedge fund and other financial derivative products in its portfolio of interests, which include oil pipelines, coal shipping, asphalt, refineries, consumer goods, timber, ranching, and chemicals.

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in preventing progressive reforms promised by President Obama. Several executives at the meeting have an incentive to stop Democrats and President Obama from addressing climate change and enacting clean energy reform. The meeting included oil executives from Aspect Energy, Murfin Drilling, Anschutz Company, GeoPark Holdings, Smoky Oil, and several members of Koch’s various subsidiaries. The meeting documents explicitly state that funding efforts to curb “climate change alarmism” were discussed.

– Fred Malek, Karl Rove’s top fundraiser for his $56 million attack ad campaign against Democrats, attended the meeting, along with leaders of other secret attack groups. Heather Higgins, who leads the Independent Women’s Forum, a shadowy group that has spent millions of dollars in attack ads on health reform, attended the meeting. So did Gretchen Hamel, a former Bush flak who now runs an attack ad group called “Public Notice” that runs ad which denounce spending programs.

– Participants collaborated with infamous consultants who specialize in generating fake grassroots movements, as well as experts on how corporations should take advantage of Citizens United. One session, about how to “mobilize citizens for November,” involved a discussion with Republican strategists Tim Phillips and Sean Noble, anti-union leader Mark Mix, and longtime Koch operative Karl Crow. Phillips — a veteran astroturf lobbyist who previously managed a deceptive grassroots lobbying campaign to help the Hong Kong-based Tan family maintain their forced abortion sweatshops in the Mariana Islands — now leads the day-to-day operations of Americans for Prosperity, the group ThinkProgress first reported to have helped organize many of the initial Tea Party rallies against Obama. Americans for Prosperity, founded and financed by David Koch, has a field team of over 80 campaign staffers spread out around the country, and additionally plans to spend $45 million dollars worth of attack ads against Democrats. Shortly before the planning meeting, Crow authored a campaign finance memo explaining that because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, he advised specifically that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 501(c)(6) and Americans for Prosperity’s 501(c)(4) can “now use general treasury funds to produce communications materials opposing or supporting specific candidates” and corporations can aggressively pressure their employees to vote a certain way.

The memo notes that participants in the 2010 election planning meeting “committed to an unprecedented level of support.”

Interestingly, the Koch meetings are managed by Kevin Gentry, an executive who doubles as a staffer in the Koch Industries lobbying office in Washington and as the key point person who helps deliver Koch charitable foundation grants. As ThinkProgress has documented, Koch Industries has dramatically boosted its own profits by using conservative front groups to manipulate public policy. The fusion between the “intellectual” conservative movement and big businesses opposed to regulations and accountability has a history in America dating back to the New Deal. During the thirties, the Du Pont family and other wealthy interests organized an assortment of “Liberty League” front groups to try to defeat New Deal agenda items and repeal President Roosevelt’s Social Security program. Now, corporations fund groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — both had representatives at the Koch meeting — to further their lobbying agenda. The American Enterprise Institute even changed its name from the New Deal-era American Enterprise Association to try to dispel the notion that they were nothing more than a glorified business trade association.

As the memo states, Beck has addressed this regular gathering of conservative corporate executives in previous years. Past Koch meetings have included various Republican lawmakers, including DeMint, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as speakers.

After ThinkProgess published its exclusive investigation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce revealing that the Chamber has been actively fundraising from foreign corporations for its 501(c)(6) account used to run a $75 million attack ad campaign, Chamber lobbyists found common cause with Beck and many of the conservative talking heads. Shortly after our investigation, Beck hosted an on-air fundraiser, asking his audience to give to the Chamber. Casual observers might have been surprised by the Chamber’s swift alliance with Beck (Chamber executives appeared on the Beck radio program and sung Beck’s praises on the Chamber blog), who has compared Obama to Adolf Hitler and called the President a “racist” who has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” By telling his listeners to give money to the Chamber, Beck, who owns a media company worth more than $32 million dollars and an experimental Mercedes Benz, essentially told his working class viewers to give their wages back to their employers. However, Beck never disclosed his long working history of discussing political strategy with America’s largest corporations. The Koch memo clearly shows that Beck has been collaborating with the Chamber, as well as other titans of industry, for years. In his latest appeal for support to the Chamber’s foreign-funded trade association, which already counts JP Morgan and ExxonMobil as dues-paying members, Beck yesterday told his audience that the Chamber simply “defends the little guy.”

Click below to view a letter inviting corporate executives to attend the next Koch meeting in January, along with a list of the sessions held by Koch for the last meeting in June of 2010. An attendee list of the June, 2010 meeting is attached at the bottom of the document:

CAPAF interns Salvatore Colleluori, Riley Waggaman, and Ben Kaldunski contributed to this post.

Some of the donors at the Koch meeting were longtime Bush fundraisers, like Cintas Corporation CEO Dick Farmer and wholesale executive Art Pope. However, many names appear to be relatively new to conservative movement “investment.”

Here’s a listing of the attendees:

Name(s)	Industry	Notes
Jack and Rose Marie Anderson	Finance	Culver Corp, Rose Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation- Financial Advisor
Neil Anderson and Amy Fisher-Smith		Runs Rose Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation
Phil and Nancy Anschutz	Investment	Industrialist, Owner, Weekly Standard, Examiner newspapers
Cliff Asness	Investment	AQR Capital Management
Nate and Lynda Bachman	Finance	The Bachman Group-Financial Advisor
Whitney Ball	Think Tank	Owner of a firm that helps corporations give anonymous gifts to front groups
Michael Barone	Media	Fox News
Frank and Kathy Baxter	Banking	Ambassador Frank E. Baxter is Chairman Emeritus of Jefferies and Company, Inc., a global investment bank focusing on mid-cap companies.
Steve and Betty Bechtel	Engineering	Owns the Bechtel Group (Corporation), Largest engineering company in United States
Glenn Beck	Media	Fox News
Bernard and Margaret Blasingame	Manufacturing	President and owner of Aqua Dynamics Systems, Inc
Alan and Lisa Boeckmann	Oil	CEO Fluor Corporation
Boysie Bollinger	Shipping/Commerce	Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Bollinger Shipyards
Patrick and Paula Broe	Real Estate	Founder and CEO of Denver-based real estate asset management firm, The Broe Group
Arthur Brooks	Think Tank	President, American Enterprise Institute
David and Ann Brown	Think Tank	Heritage Foundation
John Bryan
Bob and Martha Buford	Oil	C. Robert Buford has been President and owner of Zenith Drilling Corporation
Tim Busch
Shelby and Nell Bush	Energy	Vice President, Legal and Administration – Hillwood Energy
Tim Carney	Media	Political Columnist, Washington Examiner
Charlies and Marla Chandler
David Chavern	Lobbyist	Executive Vice President and COO at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
John Childs	Insurance	Chairman and CEO of J.W. Childs and Associates
Paul and Lea Clifton		Runs Robert and Marie Hansen Family Foundation
Susie Coelhoe	Media	founder and CEO of Susie Coelho Enterprises Inc.
Bill Cooper and Kristen Tollefson	Finance/Banking	CEO of TCF Financial
Dino and Joan Cortopassi
Joe Craft	Coal	Joseph W. Craft III is president, chief executive officer and director of Alliance Resource Partners LP
Alex Cranberg	Energy	Aspect Holdings, LLC – Chairman
Jeff Crank	Americans For Prosperity / Radio Pundit	AFP State Director
Karl Crow	Policy Analyst	Capital Research Center
Eric Crown and Isabella King	Technology Sales	Sell Technology Equipment
Kevin Crutchfield	Coal	Kevin S. Crutchfield serves as Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Coal Sales Co., LLC.
Ravenell and Beth Curry
Jim and Shirley Dannenbaum	Engineering	Mr. Dannenbaum, Chairman of Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation
Veronique de Rugy	Think Tank	Senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center
Rich and Helen DeVos	Business	Founder and CEO of Amway
Annie Dickerson	Business	CBRE analyst
Ned and Nancy Diefenthal
Jim and Dorothy Patterson	Oil	Gulf Stream Petroleum
Dan and Kellie Peters	Non-for Profit	Daniel S. Peters is president of the Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation in Cincinnati, Ohio
Tom Petrie	Banking	Co-founder of BofA Merrill Lynch Petrie Divestiture Advisors
Dixon and Carol Doll	Technology	Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM
Karl and Stevie Eller	Advertising
Ron and Kris Erickson	Retail	Ronald A. Erickson is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Holiday Companies
Melvyn and Suellen Estrin	Natural Gas	Director of WGL Holdings INC
Dick Farmer
Peter Farrell	Biomed	Founder of Resmed
Jim and Zibbie Ferrell	Fuel Oil	Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. engages in the distribution and sale of propane and related equipment primarily in the United States.
Dave Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Bob Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Steve Fettig	Natural Gas	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Jerry and Nanette Finger	Banking	Managing Partner, Finger Interests LTD
Richard Fink	Koch Industries	Director of Georgia-Pacific, EVP of Koch Industries
Budd and Lauri Florkiewicz	Manufacturing	Foam Fabricators
Charlie and Kaye Lynn Fote	Finance	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fotec Group LLC
Randy and Jean Foutch	Oil	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Laredo Petroleum, Inc.
Foster Friess	Investment	Mr. Foster Stephen Friess is the Founder and Chairman of Friess Associates, LLC
Steve and Polly Friess
Jerry and Leah Fullinwider	Energy/Petroleum	Vice Chairman, Hillwood International Energy, L.P.
Richard and Leslie Gilliam	Coal	Richard Gilliam has been President of Cumberland Resources Corporation since 1993.
Susan Gore	Think Tank	Founder, Wyoming Liberty Group
Oliver and Carolyn Grace Jr.	Med and Telecom	President and chief executive officer of Anderson Group, Inc.,
Judson and Joyce Green	Energy and Med	Mr. Judson C. Green is the President and Chief Executive Officer of NAVTEQ Corp.
Ken and Anne Griffin	Investment Banking	Founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group
Gretchen Hamel
Fred and Jane Hamilton	Oil	Mr. Frederic C. Hamilton served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of BHP Petroleum, Hamilton Oil Company and various Hamilton Oil Corporation subsidiaries and affiliates
Bob and Mary Sue Hawk	Communications	President of Hawk Communications
Dick and Ethie Haworth	Retail	Head of Haworth Furniture, Multi-national corporation, 3rd largest corporate furniture company in US
Robin and Barbara Hayes	Government	Former NC Congressman
Dan and Carolyn Heard	Manufacturing	Executive Officer of John H. Carter Co.,
Diane Hendricks	Manufacturing	Husband of Ken Hendricks
Steve and Regina Hennessy	Auto Sales	Auto Sales
James and Heather Higgins	Think Tank	Independent Women’s Forum
Paul Hill	Oil	Paul J. Hill serves as the Chief Executive Officer and has been President of Harvard Developments Inc. since 1978. Mr. Hill serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of The Hill Companies.
John and Joan Hotchkis	Education	Board of Directors for Teach for America UC Berkley
Allan and Kathy Hubbard	Chemicals and Manufacturing	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, E & A Industries, Inc.
Stan and Karen Hubbard	Communications	Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.
Ethelmae Humphreys	Think Tank	Cato Institute
Manley and Mary Johnson	Political Consultant
Merritt Johnson
Gerry and Priscilla O’Shaughnessy	Oil	Gerald Eugene O’Shaughnessy Co-founded Geopark Holding Limited in 2002.
Michael O’Shaunessy	Technology	Petters Consumer Brands, LLC develops consumer electronics and appliances.
Tim O’Shaughnessy	Media	Hungry Machine, Inc., doing business as LivingSocial.com, is a social discovery and cataloging network.
Marshall Johnson
Kyle and Kirsten Johnstone
Mike and Beth Kasser	Real Estate	President, Holualoa Inc
Ken and Randy Kendrick	Education/Technology	Chairman, Datatel
Phil and Joanna Kerpen	Advocacy Group/Think Tank	VP of Policy, Americans for Prosperity
Gerry and Kathryn Kingen	Restauranteur	Red Robin, Happy Guests Int’ll
Scott Kirkpatrick	Investor	Teton Capital
Charles and Liz Koch	Koch Industries
Chase and Annie Koch	Koch Industries
David and Julia Koch	Koch Industries
Elizabeth Koch	Koch Industries
Bob and Cindy Koch	Koch Industries
Bob Kohlhepp	Manufacturing/Services	Vice Chairman, Cintas Corp.
Dennis Kuester	Banking	Retired CEO of M&I Bank
Andrew Kupersmith	Consultant	MD, Cardiology Consultants
Andre Lacy	Investment	Chairman, Lacy Diversified Industries
Ken and Elaine Langone	Retail	Invemed, Home Depot
Jay and Sally Lapeyre	Services	Laitram Corp
Ken and Frayda Levy	Investment	JLM Investment Mgmt
Tom Love	Retail	CEO, President, Love’s Country Stores
Bob Luddy	Manufacturing	President, Captive Aire Systems
Fred and Marlene Malek	Investment Management	Thayer Capital Partners
Elaine Marshall		Homemaker
Pierce Marshall	Administrative Management	MAROPCO
Preston Marshall
Bill Mayer	Health Care	MD, Mayer & Cope Family Practice
Glen and Diane Meakem	Business Solutions	CEO, Freemarkets Inc.
Ed Meese	Think Tank	Heritage Foundation
Lew and Suzy Meibergen	Goods/Services	President, Johnston Enterprises/WG Johnston Grain Co
Don and Deede Meyers	Attorney	Self Employed
Jerry and Caroline Milbank	Investment Management	CEO/Principal, Milbank Winthrop & Co.
Jack and Goldie Miller	Retail	CEO/President, Quill Corp.
Mark Mix	Advocacy Group	President, National Right to Work Committee
Joe and Mary Moeller	Koch Industries	Vice Chairman
Steve Moore	Media	member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board
David Murfin	Energy	President, Murfin Drilling Co.
Walter and Suzette Negley
Mina Nguyen
Larry and Polly Nichols	Energy	Executive Chairman, Devon Energy Corp
Sean Noble	Front Group	Americans for Prosperity
Tim and Teresa Oelke	Advocacy Group/Construction	Teresa – State Director of Americans for Prosperity, Tim – Crossland Construction Corp
Eric O’Keefe	Front Group	Sam Adams Alliance
Kurt and Nancy Pfotenhauer	Media	President of MediaSpeak Strategies/former political commentator on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC and former Senior Policy Advisor and National Spokesperson with the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign
Tim Phillips	Advocacy Group	president, Americans for Prosperity
Ramesh Ponnuru	Media	National Review magazine
Art and Kathy Pope	Goods/Services	Senior Exec, Variety Wholesaler
Russ Roberts	Attorney	Roberts, Ashby & Parrish
Corbin and Barbara Robertson	Energy	President, Quintana Minerals Corp
Richard Roder and Karin Hsu	Construction Management	CEO, Cmt-Construction Management
Gary and Kathleen Rogers	Goods	Former CEO, Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream
Durk Rorie	Manufacturing	United Air Specialists
Chris Rufer	Goods/Manufacturing	Morningstar Company
Peter Schiff and Martha O’Brien	Investor	Schiff: Euro Pacific Capital Inc.,
Steve and Christine Schwarzman	Financial Services	CEO/founder, Blackstone Group
Rick and Sherry Sharp	Retail	Former CEO, Circuit City
Mike and Lin Simmonds	Services	CEO, Simmonds Restaurant Mgmt
Peter Smith	Services	CEO, Service Group of America
Dick Strong	Investment Services	Strong/Corneliuson Capital Mgmt
Michael Sullivan	Investment Services	CR Intrinsic Investors
Ray and Ladeline Thompson	Manufacturing	President/CEO, Semitool
Lynn Tilton	Investment Management	CEO, Patriarch Partners LLC
Dave and Melanie True	Oil	Partner
Steve Twist	Consultant	Rose & Allyn PR Consultants
Jim and Gayla Von Ehr	Research/Development	CEO, Zyvex Corp
Rick and Debra Waller	Manufacturing	Owner, Rollmeister Inc
Peter Wallison	Think Tank	Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Bill and Sarah Walton	Real Estate	Allied Capital Corp
Lew and Myra Ward	Oil	Ward Petroleum Corporation owns and operates wells. It engages in oil and gas exploration and production. The company was founded in 1963 and is based in Enid, Oklahoma.
Dick Weekley	Real Estate	Weekley Properties
Fred and Susie Wehba	Real Estate	Bentley Forbes Real Estate
Nestor Weigand and Darcy Buehler	Real Estate	JP Weigand & Sons Real Estate
Dick and Mary Beth Weiss	Life Insurance	Wells Fargo, Hawthorne Rances
Howard and Rhonda Wilkins	Insurance	Diversified Insurance
Don and Sue Wills	Oil
Larry and Lorraine Winnerman	Real Estate	Win Win Enterprises
Joe Woodford
Earl Wright	Finance	AMG Natinal Trust
Karen Wright and Tom Rastin	Energy/Manufacturing	Tom Rastin, vice president of marketing and engineering, Ariel Corp – Karen Wright, Ariel CEO
Cliff and Susan Yonce	Investment Banking	Goldman Sachs
Fred and Sandra Young	Services	Diversified Search, LLC provides senior-level executive and corporate board search services in the United States and internationally. It provides recruitment services for various organizations in consumer and industrial, education, not-for-profit, arts and culture, financial and professional services, business, healthcare and human services, life sciences, media and entertainment, sports and leisure, energy and utilities, private equity, retail, and technology and communications industries.

In Memorium

Laura Nyro
October 18, 1947 - April 8, 1997

Laura, I know that maybe this is the wrong, wrong time
But Laura where did that magic go
It’s so hard, it’s so cold down here
Did you have to leave me behind?
I wish that I could make it
But how I love to shuffle (how I love to shuffle)
Baby let’s swing
Now I love to shuffle
Ever since I heard you sing (since I heard her sing)
-- Todd Rundgren, "Baby Let's Swing"

Click here to listen to the incredibly rare and beautiful duet of Kenny Rankin and Laura Nyro singing "Polonaise."

Obama's record at half term

The "Politifact" feature of the St. Petersberg Times has rightly won a Pulitzer Prize for filtering the baloney from what passes for political discourse in the 21st century U.S. of A. Take a look at Mr. Obama's record so far in keeping campaign promises. So where's the message machine?

The politics of delusion

As any of you who have found yourself at this blog more than once, I count myself unapologetically among the small army of Todd Rundgren cultists. So I was rather surprised when I chanced upon a tribute to Todd R. on a right wing blog site that canonized The Gipper himself, yes, the original bag man of the New Robber Baron era, Ron Reagan. Of course said blogger's tribute doted on Todd's 70's era (the apotheosis of his true hero's golden era).

As you may know, I am no Reagan fan. So, cantankerous liberal that I am, I posted a dissent (no screed, no profanity, just good clean dissent about the true legacy of ol' avuncular Ron).

Of course, my post was gone within minutes. So I posted again. Poof - censored again.

So there you have it. In my experience, it is only right wing bloggers who expunge all dissenting comments from their posts. And that, my friends, is truly their version of democracy.

Quote of the Week

"Truth is, there are only two things that the United States is not running out of: Rich people and bullshit."
-- Bill Maher

And while you're at it, read the whole article "When Will Obscenely Rich A**holes Stop Crying About Taxes?" by Bill here.

Toddstock

This is (pro parte) why I love this guy! Wish I'd been there.

Why I'm Voting Tea Party

A tip o' the Mirsky hat to I'm Voting Tea Party.

Even if Barack Obama is left-handed.

Now, go there and buy a T-Shirt to wear at the Oct. 30 Stop the Insanity rally in DC.

Finally, Something So Right

President Obama just appointed populist hero Elizabeth Warren to establish and lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau!!

This is the boldest step Obama's taken so far to rein in the big Wall Street banks. And it's a major victory for grassroots progressives who rallied for Warren.

The banks fought to keep her out of this job—and now that she has it, they'll do whatever they can to keep her from exercising her full authority. That's why we need to get the word out—to make sure she has the grassroots support she needs to aggressively police Wall Street.

Top Five Things You Should Know About Elizabeth Warren

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was her idea. Here's why she thinks this agency is so critical: "It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance your home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting your family out on the street."¹

2. The Republicans are so scared of her, they tried to pass a law blocking her from leading the agency. Republicans in Congress and the big Wall Street banks have always been against Warren leading the new consumer agency. Republicans even offered an amendment that was widely understood as designed to block Warren. That amendment failed.²

3. She is one of the most prominent, successful and fierce female lawyers in America. Coming from working-class roots, she graduated from high school as a debate star at 16. She finished law school when she was nine months pregnant. And she has repeatedly been named one of the 50 most influential female lawyers by the National Law Journal and was twice nominated as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People (among other honors).³

4. She spoke truth to power about the failed foreclosure program. The Home Affordability Modification Program was supposed to save homeowners from losing their homes but has left many deeper in debt than they were before. Warren used her position on the Congressional Oversight Panel to bring the voices of these disaffected homeowners right to the decision makers in the administration and demand accountability. ⁴

5. She may have actual superpowers. She once calmed a crowd at an NBA game with her encyclopedic basketball knowledge. She explained the financial meltdown so clearly to Jon Stewart that he said it made him "want to make out with" her. And there's a viral cowboy rap video about her.⁵

Here is Elizabeth Warren's reaction to the news, with more information on her new role:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90375&id=23486-630415-1N8frLx&t=4

Sources:

1. "Making Credit Safer: The Case for Regulation," Harvard Magazine, June 2008
http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/05/making-credit-safer-html

2. "GOP Tried To Block Elizabeth Warren From Heading Agency She Proposed," Huffington Post, October 27, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90368&id=23486-630415-1N8frLx&t=5

3. "Elizabeth Warren," Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren

4. "Elizabeth Warren is Bostonian of the Year," The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90369&id=23486-630415-1N8frLx&t=6

5. "How HAMP Makes Elizabeth Warren The Only Choice For Consumer Protection," The New Deal 2.0, July 22, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90370&id=23486-630415-1N8frLx&t=7

"Got a New Sheriff," Main Street Brigade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0vCgMRX0o

"Elizabeth Warren is Bostonian of the Year," The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90369&id=23486-630415-1N8frLx&t=8

"Jon Stewart to Elizabeth Warren: Let's Make Out," Talking Points Memo, January 27, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90371&id=23486-630415-1N8frLx&t=9

A tip of the Mirsky hat to Moveon.org for the above.

Who Are The Kings of Corporatocracy Bankrolling and Manipulating Half-Wit Tea-baggers?

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country."
~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816

Their names are Koch (pronounced "Coke"), the third generation scions of Wichita-based Koch Industries, the largest privately-held corporation in America. While their wealth began with oil (and still provides a giant share of their billions), they are the owners of such familiar brands as Northern tissue, Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups and Vanity Fair napkins. Their held companies have also been frequently named in various incidences of industrial water and air pollution.

With personal wealth valued (each) at somewhere around 14 or 15 billion dollars (putting them somewhere around the 19th richest people on the planet), the philanthropic arm of their privately held mega-corporation, ensconced in three Koch Family Foundations, is used in ways largely byzantine and secretive to pursue a hard right-wing, corporatist agenda that ultimately serves their selfish interests.

In what follows a great family tradition (afterall, Papa Fred, from whom these self-espoused "self-made" men inherited their initial fortune, was one of the founders of the John Birch Society in 1958), the Koch Brothers have pumped millions of dollars into mass-producing fake grass-roots organizations all across the country, including Patients United Now (anti-health care reform), Hot Air Tour (anti-global warming), Free Our Energy (pro-offshore drilling), No Stimulus (tried to kill Obama's economic recovery plan) and Save My Ballot Tour (tries to keep workers from joining unions), via Americans for Prosperity, their umbrella front factory. These pseudo NGOs manufacture all sorts of hoked-up studies, alarmist talking points, deceptive attack ads, divisive hate messages, celebrity and religious endorsers, and a menagerie of media stunts, all meant to stymie any progressive legislation that would inconvenience their corporate agenda. Most recently, they are pouring millions into an effort to kill California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32) via a ballot proposition. And David Koch made a $15 million dollar gift to the Smithsonian Institution to fund a disingenuous display on climate change that whitewashes its industrial causes and devastating effects - in essence, more than flirting with junk science. And this is our National Museum of Natural History and science!

And it is Americans For Prosperity Foundation that bankrolled Glenn Beck's theater of the absurd tea bagger love fest two weeks ago in DC. While Charles Koch quietly minds the store at Koch Industries HQ in Wichita, the younger and flashier former playboy David lives high on the hog in New York City, where he has become something of a high-rolling patron of the arts and likes to deny any connection to the Tea Party.

Before Koch Bros. partner-in-slime Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation began providing a daily entourage of televised right wing enablers with the common touch, Charles Koch started the Cato Institute in 1977, the intellectual arm of libertarian corporatist blather.

While there are clearly some Tea Party members who applaud the Libertarian goals of ending all corporate regulation, and dismantling Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the vast majority of tea baggers are just ill-informed, easy to manipulate nitwits. They are utterly clueless to how they are being used to create an America that they probably would not want to live in. Blind them with religion, mesmerize them with televised ideological propaganda masquerading as fact, and like Pavlov's dogs, they will rally at your will to cut their own throats.

Now, someone try and "refudiate" that.

Know thine enemy; a Koch Brothers Bibliography:

Jane Mayers's New Yorker article: "Covert operations: the billionaire brothers who are waging a a war against Obama."

Yasha Levine's New York Observer article "7 Ways the Koch Bros. benefit from corporate welfare."

Jim Hightower: "Two Multibillionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit"

The coming attack on Social Security

You gotta love John Boehner, GOP House Minority Leader. For one, does anyone else on Planet Earth have orange-tinted skin? Bad tan, Johnny Boy. Sen Boner - opps, my bad - is leading the charge to do what Rethuglicans do so well - namely, insure that Bush's outrageous tax cuts for the rich remain in place, while raising the retirement age for us less wealthy joes and janes to ... ready? 70. Yeah, imagine waiting until you are 70 to collect full benefits. So, first, let's hear this George Hamilton wannabe avoid stating his true plans on Meet the Press:



Now, there's something you should know about Social Security. Everything the Teabaggers and their enablers on Fox News say about SS is JUST WRONG!

Top 5 Social Security Myths

Myth #1: Social Security is going broke.

Reality: There is no Social Security crisis. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.6 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T'). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.¹ After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits—and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers' retirement decades ago.² Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.

Myth #2: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.

Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts. Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than they did 70 years ago.³ What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly—since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half.⁴ But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.

Myth #3: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.

Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed. But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share. If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.⁵ Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.⁶ But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.

Myth #4: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs

Reality: Not even close to true. The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.⁷ The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market—which would have been disastrous—but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.

Myth #5: Social Security adds to the deficit

Reality: It's not just wrong—it's impossible! By law, Social Security's funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.⁸

Sources:

1."To Deficit Hawks: We the People Know Best on Social Security," New Deal 2.0, June 14, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89703&id=22140-630415-bWfTPFx&t=4

2. "The Straight Facts on Social Security," Economic Opportunity Institute, September 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89704&id=22140-630415-bWfTPFx&t=5

3. "Social Security and the Age of Retirement," Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89705&id=22140-630415-bWfTPFx&t=6

4. "More on raising the retirement age," Washington Post, July 8, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89706&id=22140-630415-bWfTPFx&t=7

5. "Social Security is sustainable," Economic and Policy Institute, May 27, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89707&id=22140-630415-bWfTPFx&t=8

6. "Maximum wage contribution and the amount for a credit in 2010," Social Security Administration, April 23, 2010
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/240

7. "Trust Fund FAQs," Social Security Administration, February 18, 2010
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html

8."To Deficit Hawks: We the People Know Best on Social Security," New Deal 2.0, June 14, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=89703&id=22140-630415-bWfTPFx&t=9


OK. So how do the people in the street feel about slicing and dicing their retirement safety net?



News Corp. (parent company of Fox News) has just made an over 1 million dollar contribution to the Republican war chest. If we let the bastards take back either house of congress, we will have only ourselves to blame.

A Sarah moment

That Sarah Palin has even an iota of momentum as a candidate for ANYTHING at once astounds, saddens and frightens me. Sure, I know that a resounding majority of voting age Americans find the thought of President Palin ridiculous, but that tea-bagging 25-30% (all armed to the teeth) who think she is some sort of "breath of fresh air;" how fucking stupid can they be? Every now and again, the real vacuum at the heart (and mind) of Barbie the Fascist reveals itself. Watch below as Ms. Palin interacts with one of her former constituents who actually thinks. Kathleen Gustafson placed a sign near a Palin rally in Alaska that said "Worst Governor Ever."



Isn't it amazing how the how the wingnuts invoke the "constitution" all the time, as if they have ever read the document? Did you notice Palin's reaction when her critic revealed that she was a teacher? That speaks volumes about the America people like Palin envision.

Oh, and by the way - the sign was torn down by one of Plain's entourage. So much for the constitution.

Sensible liberalism means never having to say you've been had

IHOTFM

Guess what? Corporations DO rule the world

The Gulf disaster, beyond the hideous truth revealed about our unwillingness to even begin to address our strung-out, monkey-on-its-back, petroleum-as-heroin, over consumptive economy; beyond the likely transformation of the Gulf of Mexico into one huge dead zone - makes it abundantly clear who is calling the shots across much of this tottering globe. David Korten called it in 1995 with the publication of his first book, "When Corporations Rule the World" (see below for excerpts from this prescient book). Fifteen years later, they do; they really do.

In his new Rolling Stone article, "The Spill, The Scandal and the President," subtitled "The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years – and let the world's most dangerous oil company get away with murder," Tim Dickinson details how Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar kept the Bush "Easy Oil" policies in place, failed to bring Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) into line, which continued to function like a wholly owned subsidiary of the oil industry, and ultimately give the green light to BP's deep water drilling.

Little has stemmed the tide of the corrupting influence of corporate lobbyists on the political process other the apportioning of the money along different party lines.

The BP disaster is just the the the most current "in your face" example of just how the rise of massive multi-nationals has had dire effects on our nation and on the planet itself. Whether it be AT&T's subversive campaign to end Net Neutrality, the right wing Supreme Court's decision that allows corporations to spend unlimited funds on partisan political advertising, the corporate agenda, enabled by Wall Street and facilitated media empires like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., have become adept at manipulating "Main Street" rage to turn against the very forces that could potentially inhibit the continuing rise of unbridled corporate power.

Like the late, great George Carlin said: "That's why they call it the American Dream. You have to be asleep to believe it."

Earth's three socio-ecological classes
OVERCONSUMERS 1.1 billion > US$ 7,500 per capita (Cars-meat-disposables) SUSTAINERS 3.3 billion US$ 700 - 7,500 per capita (Living lightly) MARGINALS 1.1 billion Travel by car and air Eat high fat, high calory meat-based diets Drink bottled water and soft drinks Use throw-away products and discard substantial wastes Live in spacious, climate controlled, single family residences Maintain image conscious wardrobe Travel by bicycle and public surface transport Eat healthy diets of grains vegetables and some meat Drink clean water plus some tea and coffee Use unpackaged goods and durables and recycle wastes Live in modest naturally ventilated residences, with extended/multiple families Wear functional clothing Travel by foot, maybe donkey Eat nutritionally inadequate diets Drink contaminated water Use local biomass and produce negligible wastes Live in rudimentary shelters or in the open. Usually lack secure tenure Wear second hand clothing or scraps
Based on Alan Durning's How Much Is Enough, Worldwatch Institute.

In the quest for economic growth, free market ideology has been embraced around the world with the fervor of a fundamentalist religious faith.

Assault of the Corporate Libertarians

Proponents of corporate libertarianism regularly pay homage to Adam Smith as their intellectual patron saint... Ironically, Smith's epic work The Wealth of Nations, which was first published in 1776, presents a radical condemnation of business monopolies sustained and protected by the state.

The Betrayal Of Adam Smith

We should be more than skeptical of an economic model that calls on us to give up all loyalty to place and community, says we must give free reign to securities fraud and corporate monopolies and deny workers the right to organize, and tells the poor to run faster and faster after a train they have no chance of catching—so that a few hundred thousand people can become multi-millionaires by destroying nature and depriving others of a decent means of livelihood.

Economic Myths

Communism called for all power to the state. Market capitalism calls for all power to the market—which in a globalized economy means rule by global corporations and financial markets. Both ideologies lead to the concentration of power in distant and unaccountable institutions.

Markets are for People

So sacred have growth and free trade become in our modern culture that only rarely do we find the courage to ask why they should be given precedence over the needs of people and nature?

An Economic System Out Of Control

Needless to say, it hasn't been easy to create an economic system able to produce 358 billionaires while keeping another 1.3 billion people living in absolute deprivation. It took long and dedicated effort by legions of economists, lawyers, and politicians on the payrolls of monied interests to design and implement such a system. It required a radical altering of the dominant culture and the restructuring of many important institutions. It will take a similarly committed effort on the part of civil society to design and put in place an economic system supportive of economic justice and environmental sustainability.
A Citizen Agenda to Tame Corporate Power, Reclaim Citizen Sovereignty, and Restore Economic Sanity

Thanks to http://deoxy.org/korten_index.htm

Based on documents from http://treesandpeople.lbutv.slu.se/welcome.html

Also see:

Gangs Of America

The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy

The Corporation

Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power

Chris Hedges: The Christian Fascists Are Growing Stronger

Chris Hedges posted a piece at truthout.org today that I find alarming to say the least. The rise of the far Christian right wing, its influence in our military, in the halls of Congress, and the culture at large belies their numbers. While it is easy to marginalize the christofascist movement, they manage to to pack an extraordinary punch far beyond their demographics, in no small part through their opportunistic enablers like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. To wit, the recent decision of the Texas School Board to adopt "white-washed" history books and a curriculum that champions the likes of Sen. Joe McCarthy, Phyllis Schafly, and conveniently ignore Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, even Thomas Jefferson.

"Tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement known as the Christian right, have begun to dismantle the intellectual and scientific rigor of the Enlightenment. They are creating a theocratic state based on "biblical law," and shutting out all those they define as the enemy. This movement, veering closer and closer to traditional fascism, seeks to force a recalcitrant world to submit before an imperial America. It champions the eradication of social deviants, beginning with homosexuals, and moving on to immigrants, secular humanists, feminists, Jews, Muslims and those they dismiss as "nominal Christians"—meaning Christians who do not embrace their perverted and heretical interpretation of the Bible. Those who defy the mass movement are condemned as posing a threat to the health and hygiene of the country and the family. All will be purged."

For example, The Family, of whom most Americans have never heard, is a secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians that centers on a Washington, D.C., townhouse. Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet has written extensively about the influential group in his book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. From the book:

"Senator Sam Brownback (R., Kansas), chair of a weekly, off -the-record meeting of religious right groups called the Values Action Team (VAT), is an active member, as is Representative Joe Pitts (R., Pennsylvania), an avuncular would-be theocrat who chairs the House version of the VAT. Others referred to as members include senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee (the powerful conservative caucus co-founded back in 1974 by another Family associate, the late senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska); Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa); James Inhofe (R., Oklahoma); Tom Coburn (R., Oklahoma); John Thune (R., South Dakota); Mike Enzi (R., Wyoming); and John Ensign, the conservative casino heir elected to the Senate from Nevada, a brightly tanned, hapless figure who uses his Family connections to graft holiness to his gambling-fortune name. Some Democrats are involved: representatives Bart Stupak and Mike Doyle, leading anti-abortion Democrats, are longtime residents of the Family's C Street House, a former convent registered as a church and used to provide Family-subsidized housing for politicians supported by the Family. A centrist occasionally stumbles into the fold, but the Family is mostly conservative. Family stalwarts in the House include Representatives Frank Wolf (R., Virginia), Zach Wamp (R., Tennessee), and Mike McIntyre, a hard right North Carolina Democrat who believes that the Ten Commandments are "the fundamental legal code for the laws of the United States" and thus ought to be on display in schools and court houses."

Hedges suggests how the failures of traditional liberalism have opened the door to this movement. The diverse comments left by readers of the piece are as interesting as the article itself. Given the influence of Christian hyper-conservatism among the brass of our armed services (I have a family member who is a high ranking officer and the religious fervor of some his colleagues whom I have met is astounding), a quiet, militaristic coup in the future, especially if we continue to wallow in economic uncertainty, and as climate change transforms global politics and security suddenly becomes no longer unthinkable.

Paranoia? Perhaps so. But I agree with Hedges; we ignore the rise of this stealthy, serpentine and very unsilent minority at our peril.

The price of oil

East Grand Terre Island, LA, June 3, 2010.
There's a bird in there somewhere.

The cost of war

With a trillion dollars we could...

But some are more equal than others

Reading between the Republican Lines

Maybe we do live in the "post-truth" era. But ultimately, one has to conclude that the future of our republic depends on keeping the percentage of citizenry who willingly switch off their their higher brain functions to a manageable 18% (the estimated size of the worst components of Tea Party movement - the ones whose hatred of Barack Obama trumps any rationality, who rail against their "high taxes" when, in fact, Obama has LOWERED the tax burden on the middle class). A newly invigorated Democratic leadership (yes, health care reform was anything but universal health insurance, but give them some credit) is now going after the financial industry, and actually showing a modicum of teeth in the proposed legislation.

Both the Dem and GOP rhetoric positions both parties as being on the side of "Main Street" and their opponents as in the hip pocket of Wall Street. Well, in our post-modern age, is it possible that they are both right? Guess again. The Rethuglican leadership are following the line-by-line strategy of a rather odd-looking political consultant named Frank Luntz. In January, Mr. Luntz wrote in a memo widely circulated in GOP circles: “Frankly, the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout.” Uhhh, anyone remember who was in power when the Big Bank Bailout was conceived?

In a 17-page memo titled, "The Language of Financial Reform," Luntz urged opponents of reform to frame the final product as filled with bank bailouts, lobbyist loopholes, and additional layers of complicated government bureaucracy.

"If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that in many ways led to the economic crash must never be repeated," Luntz wrote. "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."

Luntz continued: "Ordinarily, calling for a new government program 'to protect consumers' would be extraordinary popular. But these are not ordinary times. The American people are not just saying 'no.' They are saying 'hell no' to more government agencies, more bureaucrats, and more legislation crafted by special interests."

In other words, take advantage of angry tea-baggers failure to look below the surface of Fox News' articulation of reality. Or, in one 3-letter word: LIE!!!!!!!!!!!! Just as they did with health care (position pieces courtesy of the same Mr. Luntz).

So of course, that stalwart senator from Kentucky, he of the weakest chin on Capitol Hill (and that ain't easy), Mitch McConnell, gets right out there spinning the rhetoric.

As Paul Krugman tells us: "It’s a truly shameless performance: Mr. McConnell is pretending to stand up for taxpayers against Wall Street while in fact doing just the opposite. In recent weeks, he and other Republican leaders have held meetings with Wall Street executives and lobbyists, in which the G.O.P. and the financial industry have sought to coordinate their political strategy.

"And let me assure you, Wall Street isn’t lobbying to prevent future bank bailouts. If anything, it’s trying to ensure that there will be more bailouts. By depriving regulators of the tools they need to seize failing financial firms, financial lobbyists increase the chances that when the next crisis strikes, taxpayers will end up paying a ransom to stockholders and executives as the price of avoiding collapse.

"Even more important, however, the financial industry wants to avoid serious regulation; it wants to be left free to engage in the same behavior that created this crisis. It’s worth remembering that between the 1930s and the 1980s, there weren’t any really big financial bailouts, because strong regulation kept most banks out of trouble. It was only with Reagan-era deregulation that big bank disasters re-emerged. In fact, relative to the size of the economy, the taxpayer costs of the savings and loan disaster, which unfolded in the Reagan years, were much higher than anything likely to happen under President Obama.

"To understand what’s really at stake right now, watch the looming fight over derivatives, the complex financial instruments Warren Buffett famously described as “financial weapons of mass destruction.” The Obama administration wants tighter regulation of derivatives, while Republicans are opposed. And that tells you everything you need to know.

"So don’t be fooled. When Mitch McConnell denounces big bank bailouts, what he’s really trying to do is give the bankers everything they want."

Whose country is it anyway?

These sorts of facts seem to be the in the blindspot of your average teabagger. Read it and weep. Thank you, benarmbruster for posting this for all of us to see.

Last week, Forbes magazine published what the top U.S. corporations paid in taxes last year. “Most egregious,” Forbes notes, is General Electric, which “generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.” Big Oil giant Exxon Mobil, which last year reported a record $45.2 billion profit, paid the most taxes of any corporation, but none of it went to the IRS:

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

Mother Jones’ Adam Weinstein notes that, despite benefiting from corporate welfare in the U.S., Exxon complains about paying high taxes, claiming that it threatens energy innovation research. Pat Garofalo at the Wonk Room notes that big corporations’ tax shelter practices similar to Exxon’s shift a $100 billion annual tax burden onto U.S. taxpayers. In fact, in 2008, the Government Accountability Office found that “two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005."

Meet The New Boss

Obama Authorizes New Gas Drilling Off US Coasts
President Obama has unveiled a new plan to open up large swaths of the Atlantic, Gulf and Alaskan coasts to offshore oil and gas drilling for the first time in decades. On Wednesday, Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said drilling permits would be issued along the East Coast from Delaware to the central coast of Florida. New areas of the southeast Gulf Coast will also be open to drilling, as will the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska. Speaking at Andrews Air Force Base, Obama said the plan would help lead the US toward energy independence.

Judge: NSA Wiretapping Program Illegal
A federal judge has ruled the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program was illegal and in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the federal district court in San Francisco ruled the government illegally intercepted the phone calls of an Oregon-based Islamic charity called Al Haramain in 2004. Both the Bush and Obama administrations had tried to dismiss the suit claiming a trial could result in the release of state secrets. But Judge Walker rejected the state secrets argument. Attorney Jon Eisenberg said the ruling marks an “implicit repudiation of the Bush-Cheney theory of executive power.”

Obama Appoints Pesticide Executive to Top Trade Post

And food justice advocates are criticizing President Obama’s recent appointment of a top pesticide industry executive to a key trade position. The executive, Islam Siddiqui, was named the US Trade Representative’s Chief Agricultural Negotiator in a spate of recent appointments. Siddiqui is a former vice president and lobbyist at CropLife America, a group of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto and Dow Chemical. A coalition of over eighty environmental, family farm and consumer advocacy organizations had campaigned against his nomination.

Study: Homeowner Program Favoring White Borrowers
A new survey from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has raised new questions about the Obama administration’s $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program. The program is designed to provide financial incentives for mortgage lenders and servicers to reduce monthly payments for struggling homeowners. The survey found white homeowners are almost 50 percent more likely to receive a loan modification under the mortgage program than African Americans or Latinos. Meanwhile, loan servicers foreclose on delinquent African American borrowers more quickly than white or Latino borrowers.

News briefs courtesy of Democracy Now!