What The Koch Brothers Say Online But Won’t Say Under Oath
Why will Charles and David Koch produce a video about their position on the Keystone XL oil pipeline and not testify before Congress about it? The Koch brothers have refused to answer questions about how they stand to profit from the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700-mile long boondoggle that would cut through six states and damage American homes and farmland.
The Koch brothers have an attack-dog website of their own, KochFacts.com, which they have used defensively and reflexively to attack me and others who’ve questioned or investigated the Koch brothers’ vast $100 billion business. The Koch brothers refuse to testify in Congress about their interest in the pipeline, but they’ll make a web video asserting their innocence.
We took the Kochs’ video retreat and added a few facts from the historical record.
Maybe the Koch brothers prefer to let their allies in Congress speak for them? House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Ed Whitfield…
Hauling The Koch Brothers Into Congress
Imagine Charles and David Koch testifying, under oath, in Congress.
Even though the billionaire oil industry brothers continue trying to dodge accountability, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) invited the Koch brothers to testify and answer a few simple questions about how the Kochs are positioned to gain financially by the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a 1,700-mile long boondoggle that would make the Koch brothers even richer.
There’s ample evidence linking the Kochs’ business to the Canadian tar sands, which is the dirtiest energy in North America. Indeed, the Koch brothers’ stand to be among the pipeline’s biggest beneficiaries. Even the Koch brothers’ website confesses to being a party to tar sands oil.
The Koch brothers are doing whatever they can to avoid testifying in Congress, despite the fact…
Bloomberg Exposes Koch Brothers
The radical commies at Bloomberg have published a sweeping expose of the Tea Party-funding behemoth Koch Industries, claiming that standard practice at the company includes bribing government officials around the world, secretly selling technology to Iran, and general contempt for the legal and ethical constraints by which people normally operate:
In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.
“I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.”
She immediately notified her supervisors in the U.S. A week later, Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries dispatched an investigative team to look into her findings, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November…
The Koch Brothers Echo Chamber Attacks Social Security
Senator Sanders connects the dots between the Koch brothers and the attacks on Social Security. This video, part of the Brave New Films‘ Koch Brothers Exposed campaign, investigates the millions of dollars that the Koch brothers spend to create an echo chamber to take away our Social Security. Read more about the right wing echo chamber at Alternet.
Help spread the word so we can expose the Koch brothers and protect our Social Security.
Tell Secretary Clinton To Say No To The Kochs
The Koch brothers stand to make millions from a pipeline that would carry the dirtiest oil on Earth through six states, one of America’s most important aquifers and almost 2,000 miles of American homes and farmland.
Congressional Republicans are trying to force the Obama administration to approve the pipeline with grandstanding hearings starting Monday, but gas prices would actually increase and construction would put American communities in danger. Another video from the Koch Brothers Exposed campaign:
Because the oil pipeline crosses an international border, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can intervene and stop this now. Share our petition and help reach the goal of 50,000 individuals telling Secretary Clinton to say No to the Kochs and Yes to protecting Americans at http://kochbrothersexposed.com/tellclintonno
Charles Koch Buys Right to Choose Economics Professors at Florida State University
This via the St. Petersburg Times:
A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting “political economy and free enterprise.”
Traditionally, university donors have little official input into choosing the person who fills a chair they’ve funded. The power of university faculty and officials to choose professors without outside interference is considered a hallmark of academic freedom.
Under the agreement with the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, however, faculty only retain the illusion of control. The contract specifies that an advisory committee appointed by Koch decides which candidates should be considered. The foundation can also withdraw its funding if it’s not happy with the faculty’s choice or if the hires don’t meet “objectives” set by Koch during annual evaluations.
Florida Seniors Fight The Billionaire Koch Brothers (Video)
Meet three Florida seniors who rely on Social Security and are fighting back against the Koch brothers attempt to make them homeless:
What Would Abbie Hoffman Do To Stop The Koch Brothers?
Robert Greenwald is something of an expert on Abbie Hoffman, having directed Steal This Movie!. He’s also behind the Koch Brothers Exposed campaign.
Robert answers his own question at Huffington Post:
He levitated the Pentagon, brought down Lyndon B. Johnson, shamed Richard Nixon, challenged Wall Street and pioneered a cultural revolution.
Sometimes I still hear his Brooklyn meets Boston accent when I think about Abbie Hoffman, his family or his legacy. I directed Steal This Movie to capture what I consider to be Abbie’s greatest gift: using satire and culture to impact and inspire people to take action. Steal This Movie was the last narrative film I did, and Abbie inspires me to this day…
How To Boycott The Koch Brothers
As Jane Mayer’s New Yorker Magazine piece argues, the Koch brothers prefer to stay in the shadows because they do not want the products they manufacture to become widely associated with their controversial and self-serving political agenda. With recent protests in Madison spotlighting their war on workers and the middle class, however, many people have found themselves wondering if any of the products they buy have been bankrolling these corporate douchbags.
Here is a list, compiled at the DailyKos:
Georgia Pacific Products: Angel Soft toilet paper • Brawny paper towels • Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups • Mardi Gras napkins and towels • Quilted Northern toilet paper • Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper • Sparkle napkins • Vanity fair napkins • Zee napkins • Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
Georgia Pacific Building Products: Dense Armor Drywall and Decking • ToughArmor Gypsum board • Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood • Flexrock • Densglass sheathing • G/P…
Robert Greenwald Vs. The Koch Brothers
Robert Greenwald, the leading activist documentary director, has his sights firmly lined up on the increasingly controversial brothers Koch. The first of a series of short films from Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation appears below, and he explains why this is top priority in a blog at Huffington Post:
Today Brave New Foundation announces our latest campaign. A campaign where we will take on one of the single greatest threats to our democracy: The Koch Brothers.…
Caller Posing As Major GOP Contributor Dupes Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Well, we knew Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was morally and intellectually challenged, but a recent phonecall, as discussed in this expose in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides some dramatic new details …
Madison — Gov. Scott Walker, believing he was talking to prominent financial backer David Koch, revealed to a Buffalo, N.Y., blogger Tuesday his strategies to deal with public-sector unions and to lure Democrats boycotting the Senate back to Wisconsin.
In the 20-minute talk, he also likened his tough stance to take away most bargaining rights from public workers to former President Ronald Reagan successfully combating the air-traffic controllers union three decades ago.
“That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall in the fall of Communism because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn’t a pushover,” according to the recording.
He said he told his cabinet, “This is our moment. This is our time to change the course of…
Bill Moyers: Welcome To Plutocracy!
Bill Moyers
Mr. Moyers delivers his take on what went wrong, where it’s leading, and what to do about it. Take it as you will, but I think it nails the big issues right to the wall for all to see. Via TruthOut:
Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.
I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn’s life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian. The difference between a journalist and an historian is that the historian knows the difference. George Bernard Shaw once complained that journalists are seemingly unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. In fact, some epic history can start out as a minor incident. A young man named Paris ran off with a beautiful woman who was married to someone…
