Al Jazeera's investigative report on the Koch brothers. Real. Good. Stuff.

[Maraya1969]

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8879

Al Jazeera English's Bob Abeshouse and Yasmeen Qureishi have put together an investigative report on the out-sized influence of the Koch Brothers on American democracy. The documentary premiered on AJE this week, and both starts and ends with the "Secret Koch Tapes" we exclusively published last month in a series of articles at Mother Jones and here at The BRAD BLOG.

There are a number of noteworthy points in this investigative look at the Kochs, co-owners of Koch Industries, the nation's second largest private corporation (the giant oil conglomerate inherited from their father), and how they are spending just some of the extraordinary $18 billion increase in personal wealth they've enjoyed over just the last three years under the tyranny of the Obama administration.

But among the interesting points revealed here, is the fact that this detailed exposé, a behind-the-scenes examination of two of the most powerful puppeteers behind American democracy, comes not from the far larger and better funded corporate news networks here in the U.S., but from from Al Jazeera. Go figure...

I just realized that this is not so much a good read as it is a good video. The video is very good. I am 1/2 way through it.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Kocks are no different than organized crime and should

be investigated under the RICO Act
and the politicians that buy into their schemes

[Maraya1969]

2. I'm hoping that people post that video on FB and tweet

it/email etc. It came out in Oct. and I didn't see it until tonight. I did not know how far reaching their plans were and how systematic they were. The good thing is I think they screwed it all up by going with the tea party gig and that all failed.......after about 4 years now. We need to catch them sooner in their acts though, like these governor union stripping plots.

I want to know how they can get some guy so mad that he would deface a petition, (in WI today or yesterday) to re-call Governor Scott Walker when the guy probably was not in the 1% and basically is acting against his own self interest initially, (before he actually commits a felony for the Koch brothers and Scott Walker by defacing the petition page by scratching out people's names)
What do they tell these people to get them to do their dirty work?

[nxylas]

5. We know what they tell these people

What they tell these people is blasted at us constantly, via Fox News and the EIB network. I'd say Free Republic as well, but you can choose not to visit that site, whereas if you ever venture out in public, chances are you'll have had one of the other two media outlets I mentioned forced on you against your will at some point.

[oldhippydude]

8. actually i noticed something in the last couple of days..

this whole thing about "voter fraud" that the ALEC folks are pushing.. perhaps its because i'm in New Mexico, and one of the 8
US attorneys fired by the Bush administration for not persuing voter fraud, David Iglesias is from here... for those who dont remember the 06 campaign.. Iglesias was a wistleblower of sorts, and implicated Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. with phone messages trying to force the issue... Karl Rove was cited as the architect behind this activity..

if we follow the money, it's pretty obvious that what we see happening now in politics, has been on the drawing board for a long time, and as we might have suspected, the trail leads right back to the Bush administration.. the Koch influence ultimatly goes back to the John Birch Society of the 50's and 60's.. it seems to me, that we on the left, often get caught flat footed with these events for a couple of reasons.. first of all, we are not conspiracy oriented as are the right wingers.. in fact the whole right wing belief system is based on interlocking conspiracy theories.. and as importantly we no longer have the 4th estate of an independent press to expose the knowledge to daylight..

as far as the how can they question.. thats really pretty easy, a thouseand radio station, and fokkks news stirring the hate with misinformation.. you get abortion doctors killed, unions busted, anything you want.. the folks who listen to propoganda, are told how smart they are, with a healthy dose of God and faux patriotism

(dyslexic contributor miss my spell checker)

[freshstart]

16. yes! you've got it oldhippydude!!

But, you missed Ron Paul's association with them. The missing link...the Conservative Caucus. The members of the Conservative Caucus created ALEC and the "shadow cabinet" that Ron Paul was involved in circa 1977. Check out google news archives, you'll see it.

Paul Weyrich & Woody Jenkins
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alec

Paul Weyrich & Woody Jenkins
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tKYkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=L0QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3046,2812910&dq=paul+weyrich+shadow+cabinet&hl=en

Same group created "shadow cabinet" Ron Paul was in
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YdIfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NNYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4123,986276&dq=ron+paul+shadow+cabinet&hl=en

And now...check this out, I have the full article, but even the summary is telling:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/681680162.html?dids=681680162:681680162&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Dec

[oldhippydude]

19. thanks for the info

funny thing how Hillary was shouted down in the 90's for the mention of a "vast right wing conspiracy".. turns out she grossly underestimated them.. i don't see a hell of a lot of difference between todays Repulicans, and the "heroes of the Turner diaries"

[freshstart]

21. You are very welcome.

You know what is going on. On other threads, it is a battle. Check out the video of Howard Phillips on this one.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10172252

[oldhippydude]

22. funny how that name gets around..

one of my first jobs out of school.. was working in the War on Poverty programs, started by LBJ.. yes i'm Familiar with Howard co- founder of Y.A.F... Howard was Nixon's hatchet man who closed us down.. has been in that right wing lobby-griftophere every scince

[freshstart]

28. I know

and I don't understand why more attention isn't paid to him. I've researched all of the "conservative caucus" members and they have been a problem for years and behind a lot of our current day problems...but not too many seem to pay them any mind. I just don't understand it.

[oldhippydude]

29. the whole right wing griftoshere

is one big family.. composed of lobbyists, foundations, and think tanks.. there are hundreds, if not thousands of Howard Phillipses out there, again follow the money.. we could include in that list , Watergate burlars, and folks like Ollie North.. while the players have had pretty much anonimty in the past, the cover is being removed by a new generation of whistleblowers.. the bad news is that you have to hit sites like this to find it. the function of a free press has entirely compromised..

along those lines too.. folks in top level of the progoqanda arm, Rush, Beck, hannity et el.. make millions of dollars a year.. 1000 radio stations, and their own televison network, plus the infrastucture of the Christian right (pretty much mirrors of the politcal arm) all add up a lot of disinformation..

the good news of course is mostly the young, but us old farts too, are no longer buying the paradigm..our numbers are growing..

[freshstart]

30. Yes, you are right.

They all work together, even though they pretend to fight amongst themselves at times. The current agenda seems to be that "government is bad." While there are problems, government is our representation; without it, where would that leave us?

It is good that more people are getting involved, one day maybe we'll have government where it should be on the side of the 99%.

[Voice for Peace]

23. why don't Kochs back Ron Paul?

[freshstart]

27. Do you mean with money?

They gave Rand money recently, you can find that on opensecrets.org under Koch Industries, they were one of his biggest contributors.

I believe they do support Ron Paul but hide the money. Ron Paul knows that the Democrats are on to the Kochs. They were early contributors to Ron Paul, but it seems they've hidden the money recently.
#10 in this article.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vOxYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HFcMAAAAIBAJ&dq=koch%20ron%20paul&pg=2817%2C3848869

However, if you look on the Ron Paul's FREE website, you'll see they are all Koch funded groups.
http://www.free-nefl.com/html/nefl.html

And we have Ron Paul to blame for the reason we can't track all of the money in politics, he was a plaintiff on the side of Citizens United.
http://www.law.stanford.edu/publications/projects/campaignfinance/collection/paul/paul.11.6.pdf

[truedelphi]

25. David Iglesias has been one of my heroes ever since

he got fired for not being on the "right" side of things, as afar as the Bush Administration is concerned.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

10. If you compared them with Al Capone, they would probably laugh. Capone was a piker.

[hootinholler]

14. I think the Republican party satisfied the RICO threshold long ago

Especially before Cap'n Jack was still on the loose. What was done with hiring away DOJ employees who were tasked with investigations (google Rep Jerry Lewis) supported this view.

The Koch Bros are certainly two kingpins in the scheme.

[burrowowl]

3. K&R Al Jazeera does some good stuff!

[oldhippydude]

4. k

this is too important to get buried in the threads and ignored!!!

[freshwest]

7. So let's kick it. K & R.

[Douglas Carpenter]

6. chilling to say the very least

[bluedigger]

9. That was pretty good.

Shared on fb. Nice summary of their recent activities and the effect they are having, well paced, and not too drawn out.

[ensho]

11. kick

nt

[northoftheborder]

12. Kick. for reading and listening later. thanks for posting

[RevStPatrick]

13. Fascinating...

Kick to check out later.

[tabatha]

15. AJE has put together some really good reports.

[rhett o rick]

17. k&r

[NorthCarolina]

18. Very interesting, thanks. Recommend. nt

[PufPuf23]

20. kr nt

[tavalon]

24. Al Jezeera's investigative reporting on just about everything is stellar or

at least better than the pretend journalism in this country. They are my go to site for news.

[Kolesar]

26. Who better than Al Jazeera to criticize the tyranny of the energy industry?

The reporters are ballsy.

[cbrer]

31. Vote for Obama

Obviously he's the pick of a very creamy crop...