I worked on Capitol Hill for a long time, and I do not consider myself naive about the inner workings of Washington. But even I was surprised by two revelations this week exposing the amount of money the oil industry is spending to buy political influence.
The first eye-opener came from recently released lobbying numbers. The OpenSecrets blog reported that the oil and gas industry poured $174 million into the political system in 2009. That’s eight times more than the green groups.
What did the oil and gas industry get for its money? A handful of Senators who blocked all attempts by the Senate to pass a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill that would have made fossil fuel industries start cleaning up their global warming pollution.
This week’s second revelation made that difference abundantly clear. Jane Mayer wrote an investigative piece in the New Yorker about the brothers David and Charles Koch who run Koch Industries -- the biggest corporation you’ve never heard of -- and who have spent more than $100 million on anti-government causes.
Koch Industries owns oil refineries and 4,000 miles of pipeline, and was named one of the top 10 air polluters in the nation in a 2010 UMass-Amherst report. The Kochs’ political donations are often aimed at promoting their libertarian views, but they also directly benefit their own profit margins. They have donated millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that fight environmental regulation and seed doubt about climate science. In fact, a Greenpeace report called them a “kingpin of climate science denial.” And though green groups tend to paint ExxonMobil as the worst of the worst when it comes to lobbying against climate legislation, Koch outspent even ExxonMobil.
One of David Koch’s pet projects is the group Americans for Prosperity, a group he founded and funds but positions as a grassroots movement. An ad for one of its training sessions for Tea Party activists says, “The voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests. But you can do something about it.”
But when Americans for Prosperity hosts at least 80 events protesting climate legislation, is it really acting in the interest of average Americans or the interest of oil industry donors?
When it funds an attack ad against Representative Betsey Markey from Colorado because she supported climate legislation last summer that would have brought 30,000 jobs to her state, who is it benefiting?
And when the group pledges to spend an additional $45 million before the midterm elections, is that money really coming from grassroots activists, or from deep corporate pockets? These fat cats pretend to fraternize with the ordinary folks who dangle tea bags from their tri-cornered hats, but, in fact, they are just using activists to put a populist face on their industry agenda.
Manipulating other people’s fears about the economy when you are a billionaire -- I would call that the depth of cynicism. But considering those billionaires are getting in the way of climate solutions, clean energy and green jobs in America; I have to instead call it dangerous.
(The Koch family ... the money behind the make the rich richer movement that owns the GOP. - promoted by mooncat)
The following is an excerpt from a recent article in The New Yorker titled "Covert Operations." You simply must read the entire article.
"The Republican campaign consultant said of the family’s political activities, “To call them under the radar is an understatement. They are underground!” Another former Koch adviser said, “They’re smart. This right-wing, redneck stuff works for them. They see this as a way to get things done without getting dirty themselves.” Rob Stein, a Democratic political strategist who has studied the conservative movement’s finances, said that the Kochs are “at the epicenter of the anti-Obama movement. But it’s not just about Obama. They would have done the same to Hillary Clinton. They did the same with Bill Clinton. They are out to destroy progressivism.”
1. REPEAL THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM)
2. PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY OR PHASE IT OUT ALTOGETHER
3. END MEDICARE AS IT PRESENTLY EXISTS
4. EXTEND THE BUSH TAX BREAKS FOR THE WEALTHY AND BIG OIL
5. REPEAL WALL STREET REFORM
6. PROTECT THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OIL SPILL AND FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES
7. ABOLISH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
8. ABOLISH THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
9. ABOLISH THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
10. REPEAL THE 17th AMENDMENT
End Medicare and Social Security, let the banksters run roughshod over working people, end direct election of Senators and shelter BP and their cohorts from lawsuits -- do you think voters in Aderholt's district know what the Tea Party really stands for?
Creative messaging from Democrats -- tell people what the opposition really wants to accomplish. These are not popular ideas. Main headers of the Republicans' Contract On America:
1. REPEAL THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM)
2. PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY OR PHASE IT OUT ALTOGETHER
3. END MEDICARE AS IT PRESENTLY EXISTS
4. EXTEND THE BUSH TAX BREAKS FOR THE WEALTHY AND BIG OIL
5. REPEAL WALL STREET REFORM
6. PROTECT THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OIL SPILL AND FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES
On June 26, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-212 in favor of HR 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Only eight Republicans - we'll call them the "Enlightened Eight" - voted "aye." These Republicans were Mary Bono-Mack (CA-45), Mike Castle (DE-AL), John McHugh (NY-23), Frank LoBiondo (NJ-2), Leonard Lance (NJ-7), Mark Kirk (IL-10), Dave Reichert (WA-8), and Christopher Smith (NJ-4).
Republicans voting for cap and trade in the year of the Tea Party? You'd think that they'd be dumped in the harbor by now. Instead, they're all doing fine. In fact, to date, not a single one of these Republicans has been successfully primaried by the "tea party" (or otherwise). Instead, we have two - Castle and Kirk - running for U.S. Senate, one (McHugh) who was appointed Secretary of the Army by President Obama, and five others - Bono-Mack, LoBiondo, Lance, Reichert, Smith - running for reelection.
Rep. Lance actually was challenged by not one, not two, but three "Tea Party" candidates. One of Lance's opponents, David Larsen, even produced this nifty video, helpfully explaining that "Leonard Lance Loves Cap & Trade Taxes." So, did this work? Did the Tea Partiers overthrow the tyrannical, crypto-liberal Lance? Uh, no. Instead, in the end, Lance received 56% of the vote, easily moving on to November.
Meanwhile, 100 miles or so south on the Jersey Turnpike, Rep. LoBiondo faced two "Tea Party" candidates - Donna Ward and Linda Biamonte - who also attacked on the cap-and-trade issue. According to Biamonte, cap and trade "is insidious and another tax policy... a funneling of money to Goldman Sachs and Al Gore through derivatives creating a carbon bubble like the housing bubble." You'd think that Republican primary voters in the year of the Tea Party would agree with this line of attack. Yet LoBiondo won with 75% of the vote.
Last but not least in New Jersey, Christopher Smith easily turned back a Tea Party challenger - Alan Bateman - by a more than 2:1 margin. Bateman had argued that "Obama knows he can count on Smith to support the United Nations' agenda to redistribute American wealth to foreign countries through international Cap & Trade agreements and other programs that threaten our sovereignty." Apparently, Republican voters in NJ-4 didn't buy that argument.
Across the country in California's 45th District, Mary Bono-Mack won 71% of the vote over Tea Party candidate Clayton Thibodeau on June 8. This, despite Thibodeau attacking Bono-Mack as "the only Republican west of the Mississippi to vote for Cap and Trade." Thibodeau also called cap and trade "frightening," claiming that government could force you to renovate your home or meet requirements before you purchase a home. Thibodeau's scare tactics on cap-and-trade clearly didn't play in CA-45.
Finally, in Washington's 8th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Dave Reichert has drawn a Tea Party challenger named Ernest Huber, who writes that Cap and Trade "is widely viewed as an attempt at Soviet-style dictatorship using the environmental scam of global warming/climate change... written by the communist Apollo Alliance, which was led by the communist Van Jones, Obama's green jobs czar." We'll see how this argument plays with voters in Washington's 8th Congressional District, but something tells us it's not going to go over any better than in the New Jersey or California primaries.
In sum, it appears that it's quite possible for Republicans to vote for comprehensive, clean energy and climate legislation and live (politically) to tell about it. The proof is in the primaries.
Sounds like a titillating prelude to a Revolutionary War film, right? Not quite, just a few choice lines from tea-bagger extraordinaire, right-wing darling and treason-inciting Congressional candidate Rick Barber’s recent television ad. Although if you follow the script, you’d think Barber was running to be the Grand Dragon of an insurgent, violence-prone militia group rather than a representative of the people of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. He sure has a flair for the dramatic, though… I guess you could call him a drama queen. Barber embodies everything that the Tea Party seem to represent - and no, that’s not a compliment - and his campaign has been rife with treasonous, violence-spurring, divisive rhetoric, stemming back to the dark day he announced his candidacy (January 6, 2010):
“…our federal government is spending our country into financial ruin.” Where was Mr. Barber when George W. Bush was spending like Paris Hilton on a shopping spree?
“I’m here because the Democrats in Congress are spending my six-year-old daughter’s money before she’s even had the chance to earn it.” I wasn’t aware that we had amended the tax code to include taxing first-graders. I’m assuming Mr. Barber wasn’t paying attention when the prescription drug benefit was enacted, tax cuts were passed, and two astronomically expensive wars were launched under George W. Bush, none of which were paid for.
Barber also sniped at Congressman Bobby Bright, insisting he should have “been a hero” and should have denounced the recent stimulus package. I suppose this means Barber would have opposed helping his OWN constituents? Does anyone else find it humorous how so-called conservatives relentlessly condemn federal spending even as they hold out their OWN hand asking for federal money for their district?
Those who are regular visitors to this space know that I post stories across the country, and to do that I have to follow stories from a number of states.
Because I post at Kentucky's Hillbilly Report, I've been paying particular attention to the Rand Paul campaign, and the news from the Bluegrass State (via "The Rush Limbaugh Show") is that Paul's planning to write his own balanced budget proposal for the Federal Government.
But there's a catch.
He doesn't plan on doing it until after the election.
Well, now, why in the world would a guy who's running for office based on his really good ideas want to hold back the best one?
Sometimes I think America is the proverbial child-star-gone-bad of nations: we have a crippling addiction, but we still won't go to rehab.
We are hooked on burning dirty fossil fuels like cavemen, and no matter how many times we hit rock bottom -- deadly coal mining accidents, the uncontrolled oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and American soldiers risking their lives overseas -- we won't embrace the safer, smarter, cleaner path of renewable energy.
Change shouldn't be this hard.
That is the message behind a new ad campaign launched by NRDC's Action Fund this week. The ad urges senators from both sides of the aisle to put America back in control of our energy future.
Americans want change: a recent poll found that seven in ten Americans think clean energy legislation must be fast-tracked in the wake of the catastrophic Gulf oil spill.
Yet our elected officials haven't delivered the clean energy that voters want. Too many lawmakers fear that if they vote for a clean energy future, they will fall prey to populist mood swings come November. But they are mistaken and here is why:
1. Support for clean energy and climate action is not a flash in the pan. President Obama made clean energy one of the three planks of his platform. His energy policies have been vetted, reviewed and fleshed out through the longest presidential campaign in history and into his administration.
And all the while, clean energy has remained popular with American voters. So much so that Tea Party candidates now talk about it themselves. Most of their claims are bogus, but it is revealing that they haven't left clean energy on the cutting room floor.
2. Tea Party candidates are like the streaker at a football game. They get a lot of attention for their bold, rebellious positions, but after you get a closer look, you want to turn your head away. Their catchphrases simply don't hold up to scrutiny, never mind a 24-hour news cycle.
Rand Paul sounded good in his 30-second campaign spots, for instance, but just days after he won the primary, he started saying business owners should be allowed to kick people of color out of their establishments. After seeing Paul on The Rachel Maddow Show or Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric, viewers start to realize that Tea Party slogans don't always make for sound governing policy.
3. The Tea Party is today's rebranding of conservative Republican voters. It baffles me that people talk about the Tea Party as if it were something new, when in fact it is just the latest packaging of the radical right. We have seen this before and we know how it ends: people who identify with the radical group of the day are people who already vote and who will continue to vote for the most conservative candidate. This is not a new batch of voters up for grabs, and therefore, there is no point in pandering to them.
4. Angry voters may scream the loudest, but that doesn't make them powerful. It is human nature to pay attention to the loudest person in the room, but that doesn't mean you have to like them. The official Tea Party page on Facebook has only 200,000 fans. The "Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck" Facebook page has 280,453 fans.
Right now, every politico is trying to figure out how to win in November, and some are getting distracted by the noise of the radical right. The truth is that these people have been angry for a long time and they will be angry long after lawmakers leave Congress. It is how they live their lives. And while they have extra visibility right now, it looks like most elections will be decided on issues particular to each state, not Tea Party anger.
5. People will vote for lawmakers who create jobs, growth and security. In the end, winning elections and governing the nation is about making people's lives better. Passing clean energy and climate legislation will do that. It could generate nearly 2 million jobs, put America at the forefront of the global clean energy marketplace, strengthen national security and reduce dangerous pollution.
Now is not the time to be bullied. It is the time for lawmakers to stand up and put America on a path to a cleaner, better future. This kind of change isn't hard at all.
We don't have a lot of time for a big discussion today, but I wanted to take a second and talk about basic Federal Government economics as they apply to Rand Paul.
It is his stated vision to reduce the size of Government...and it is an undeniable reality that the vast majority of the Federal Budget is focused on only a few areas of spending.
Today, we'll quickly run through that economic reality, and we'll challenge Dr. Paul to tell us where he stands.
"The enemy is in Washington, D.C., because they want to change our country to what it was - I take that back - to what it is, to something we have not known in this country before," Phillip said during a recent debate at the University of North Alabama. "You can call it socialism, you can call it Marxism, you can call it what you like."
I was not feeling well when I got there; someone had shoved a golf ball in my ear during the night before, and commitments kept me in Killen all morning. So I had decided to leave the video camera at home, and I was only half-able to hear John Hargett rambling into a defense of the "blow for freedom" that is the Citizens United decision.
Instead of the camera, I carried an Army flag. A couple of people stopped me to compliment it; but as I didn't feel up to conversation, I didn't explain that to me, the Army flag refutes extremism because it bears a combination of democratic and republican weapons.
It was warm -- a wet, April in Alabama kind of warm -- and the crowd was assembled on courthouse steps just a dozen paces from the confederate monument. A woman announced the tea party would not tolerate hateful or obscene signage, and asked that we report suspicious characters to police or event staff. Two signs directly in front of her bore lame attempts at racial code, one of them referring to Obama as a "long-legged mack daddy" and the other as "Leroy Husein" (sic).
We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad! You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President. You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy. You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted. You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
As Mr. Paul Harvey used to say... You didn't get mad ...when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us; when we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war; when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq; when you found out we were torturing people; when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn't get mad when... we didn't catch Bin Laden; you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed; we let a major US city drown; we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich, ; using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare, an advantage which cost 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.
You didn't get mad when the deficit hit a trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark. You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans - oh hell no!
I would like to express my appreciation to a dear, close friend who sent me this material. I cannot claim authorship, but I completely agree with what has been said. Chew on it awhile...
(Countrycat also risked her sanity to cover the Tea Party Express in the (federally funded) Rocket City -- watch for her report later. - promoted by mooncat)
On an Easter Sunday, the Tea Party Express rolled up to the Huntsville Space & Rocket Center and held a revival for right-wing insanity before a crowd of about three hundred. John Bircher books and "FOX News Fan" t-shirts were among the swag for sale along with the usual buttons and folderol.
I saw four African-Americans, all of them either vending or performing. With a style straight out of southern Pentecostal tent shows, the audience was exhorted to its feet with a gospel of lies and fearmongery. Victoria Jackson played her ukulele to applause.
All of this happened directly underneath the space shuttle mock-up, a monument to America's $275 billion federal spending program that built the most complex machine in human history.
Mo Brooks was there to press flesh with those suffering from terminal irony deficiency.
Temporary AL-05 Congressman Parker Griffith and his new best friend, Congressman John Boehner, weren't the only attractions in Huntsville, AL on Monday.
The labor unions in North Alabama also held their promised monthly news conference demanding their money back from Griffith. Just a few minutes later, Griffith and Boehner held a "press availability."
The Griffith/Boehner event was pretty short - by design it appears. An LIA member was in the hotel lobby and watched as the Congressmen's "handlers" prepped them for the presser. If only we'd had a camera handly for that one! The Congressmen were told by a finger-waving staffer to "keep your answers short and non-committal" and "don't take many questions."
It seems like everywhere you look these days, someone’s trying to spread...The Fear.
All around us...in every town...on every corner...a massive Army Of Fear is standing by, according to the Messengers, ready at a moment’s notice to obey the dictates of some unappointed Czar or another.
Just ask Glenn Beck: concentration camps for the white people, jackbooted stormtroopers ready to snatch the guns from your cold dead fingers...Socialist Government-Controlled Healthcare That Threatens Your Not Socialist Medicare...it’s all coming, my friends—and unless we organize, as a community, to return to the values of the Founding Fathers, The Government, meaning that awful Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and George Soros and all the other Evil Community Organizers, will win.
There’s no government, we’re told, like no government.
You know who would find all of this fear of self-government just entirely bizarre?
The Founding Fathers.
In today’s conversation we’ll consider the fundamentals of American patriotism, we’ll ask one of those Founding Fathers how he saw the role of Government—and we’ll toss in a few words from Abraham Lincoln, just for good measure.
Temporary Alabama Congressman (and noted political adulterer) Parker Griffith has been telling the media that "liberals" were behind yesterday's protest at his poorly-attended, low-dollar fundraiser with Congressman John Boehner:
h/t to Go Blue and the Decatur Daily:
“I am standing by my principles, and I will not be deterred by these liberal groups that are intent on ramming through a health-care reform package that is bad for our country and opposed by the vast majority of the American people,” he said.
He said he would work with Boehner to stop President Barrack Obama’s health care plan.
Perhaps if he hadn't chosen to huddle in the back of a vehicle and sneak into his own fundraiser, the good doctor would have noticed the plethora of TEA party activists, Mo Brooks supporters, and Les Phillips supporters. Surely, Congressman Boehner would liked to have seen the sign that - all things considered - asked him rather politely to leave town.
Perhaps if he took the time to read the press release or even watch a few minutes of news coverage, the doctor-turned-funeral-home-owner-turned-TURNCOAT-Congressman might have noticed that Ms. Christie Carden of the Huntsville TEA Party group was the principle organizer.
Note to Parker.... It's not wise to ignore or annoy these people. They're out for blood: yours. And not one Democrat in the 5th district would donate a drop to save you.
PASS THE POPCORN!
More photos on the flip. Ask yourself: do some of these people appear to be liberals to you?
With a crowd of about 400 sign-waving, chanting protesters outside the Huntsville Marriott this evening, temporary Congressman Parker Griffith (R-Liar) and his new best friend, Congressman John Boehner, decided that discretion was required.
They pulled in quietly, snuggled together in the back of an SUV (they left the same way: incognito) and were whisked into a no-press-allowed "fundraiser" that can't have raised many funds. It was held in a room not much larger than my living room/kitchen. Let's just say that AL-05 citizens weren't exactly beating down the doors to get in...
A source on the inside says that our turncoat Congressman and Alabama's most famous political adulterer called the demonstration outside an "embarrassment." Once again, we see Parker twisting language - or perhaps being so damn stupid he just can't get it right.
An embarrassment? Not for the bi-partisan group of folks that I would never have believed could have even amicably stood on a street corner waiting for a traffic light to change - much less spent an entertaining hour or so snapping photos of each other, exchanging email addresses, and reminding each other that we're all best friends. At least until June 1st!
No, Parker: the protest crowd was not an "embarrassment" but rather "embarrassing" for a clueless Congressman who thought that all he had to do was announce his own Epiphany during the Advent season and be welcomed with open arms by the people who- just a year earlier - had called him a killer and lover of terrorists.
When this year's edition of the thesaurus comes out, no doubt the noun "Idiot" will have "Parker Griffith" listed as a synonym. As will a large number of other nouns: liar, con artist, and more.
Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comment thread and view a few photos on the flip. We have lots of video and pictures, but I need my dinner. I'm only posting a few tonight.
Update:Since it's the end of a long, long, satisfying day, I'm going to piggieback on countrycat's post with a few of my own observations, below. The photos at the end of the post that look like they were taken by a phone camera are mine, and they were. -- mooncat
1) The turnout was fantastic. I know it far exceeded my expectations and those of several other organizers. This morning Dale Jackson was telling his listeners that we needed at least 100 to 200 people there to make an impact -- and I'm not sure either Christie Carden or I were confident we could turn out a crowd like that. As it turns out, we had twice that many.
2) There was no trouble whatsoever between the Tea Party/Republicans and the more liberal elements of the crowd. Although labor officially just held a press conference and didn't participate in the protest, I saw several labor folks holding signs. It was a very good humored and genial crowd. For a while I was standing near a Republican woman who was surrounded by liberals (you could tell by the signs) but she was good natured about it. We agreed that this once we could stand side by side in pursuit of a better Congressman.
3) Speaking of labor participation, Alabama AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Al Henley really took a chunk off Parker Griffith. Al came prepared with all his facts and figures on Parker and laid into him good and proper. Unfortunately, my video of that went home with someone else tonight, but it's worth waiting for.
4) The AFL-CIO was generous enough to donate use of their conference area at the Marriott to the protest organizers for a presser of our own. They even stayed around to provide a cheering section. This truly was a consortium of groups on the left and on the right -- maybe even the middle -- who have found common cause against Griffith.
5) The Mo Brooks supporters were out in force. Mo worked the crowd himself and gave an interview or two. He stopped and had a nice chat with my family -- can't help but think he did himself some good with the activist right tonight.
6) There were some Les Philip supporters, as evidenced by buttons.
7) Democratic candidates did not attend the protest, although Mitchell Howie sat in on both press conferences.
8) This was a lot of fun. One foul-mouthed guy drove away from the hotel and yelled some ugly stuff out the window as he passed down the line of protesters. That was the only unpleasantness I saw. There were lots of chants of "No more Griffith" and even "Liar, liar, pants on fire." Liberals need to stop worrying so much about the possibility of looking silly and do more events like this one.
9) Many thanks to Christie Carden, Linda Haynes, the Alabama A&M Democratic Club and all the others who made this protest a success. I really feel like Griffith and Boehner know they got their asses kicked today in terms of PR.
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Surely, Congressman Boehner would liked to have seen the sign that - all things considered - asked him rather politely to leave town. 
They pulled in quietly, snuggled together in the back of an SUV (they left the same way: incognito) and were whisked into a no-press-allowed "fundraiser" that can't have raised many funds. It was held in a room not much larger than my living room/kitchen. Let's just say that AL-05 citizens weren't exactly beating down the doors to get in... 
