Koch brothers are behind the government shutdown

[pscot]

The vast right-wing conspiracy is alive and prospering.

WASHINGTON — Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.

Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.

It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government

....

The current budget brinkmanship is just the latest development in a well-financed, broad-based assault on the health law, Mr. Obama’s signature legislative initiative. Groups like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are all immersed in the fight, as is Club for Growth, a business-backed nonprofit organization. Some, like Generation Opportunity and Young Americans for Liberty, both aimed at young adults, are upstarts. Heritage Action is new, too, founded in 2010 to advance the policy prescriptions of its sister group, the Heritage Foundation.

The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, have been deeply involved with financing the overall effort. A group linked to the Kochs, Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, disbursed more than $200 million last year to nonprofit organizations involved in the fight. Included was $5 million to Generation Opportunity, which created a buzz last month with an Internet advertisement showing a menacing Uncle Sam figure popping up between a woman’s legs during a gynecological exam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?hp&_r=0

[gopiscrap]

1. That wouldn't surprise me.

[fasttense]

2. I think the Koch brothers would fund Hitler himself if Hitler promised to destroy America.

The Koch brothers hate everything about American democracy and have been trying to stamp it death ever since they were born.

[KansDem]

26. The Koch Brothers father, Fred, made a killing off Stalin's need for gasoline...

So totalitarian regimes are't new to them.

Of course, after securing a fortune from ol' Joe, Fred came to despise communism.

[2naSalit]

31. He was also

a lead character in the J. Birch Soc. The rotten apples haven't fallen far from the tree.

[KansDem]

35. That's right! J. Birch Soc. and the infamous "Wanted JFK" poster...

(John F. Kennedy) Original "Wanted for Treason" Handbill. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th President. On November 21, 1963 "Wanted for Treason" handbills were distributed on the streets of Dallas, before Kennedy's scheduled visit. These handbills bore a reproduction of a front and profile photograph of the President and set forth a series of inflammatory charges against him. Robert A. Surrey was eventually identified as the author of the handbill. Surrey, a printing salesman employed by Johnson Printing Co. of Dallas, had been closely associated with General Edwin Walker. Walker was known for his right wing political views and for having been an assassination target of Lee Harvey Oswald in April 1963. Bernard Wiessman, responsible for the black-bordered "Welcome Mr. Kennedy" advertisement in the November 22 Dallas Morning News, also an associate of Walker's and a prominent John Birch Society member, testified to The Warren Commission that he saw a copy of one of these handbills on the floor of Walker's car shortly after November 22nd. The commission found no evidence of any connection between those responsible for the handbill and Oswald or the actual assassination. However, Oswald attended a meeting held by Walker in Dallas one month before the assassination. An original 9" x 12" "Wanted for Treason" handbill, has uneven toning and age spotting. These handbills are excessively rare there are only three others known to exist.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5708828

Truly rotten apples...

[fasttense]

39. Funny how those who make or inherit fortunes want so much to destroy

the very society that allowed them their fortune.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. What surprises me

is that the rest of the 1% is willing to allow the world economy to collapse. Where is their outrage?

[elleng]

4. Headline of the story: A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning,

and the story names others than kochs as being involved. Surely a vast right wing conspiracy, and not limited to 2 guys.

'Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan.

Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed “blueprint to defunding Obamacare,” signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups.'

[grasswire]

5. I wish the NYT could have gotten a copy of that blueprint.

IMO, Meese has been behind a whole lot of our troubles. Still evil, after all these years.

[elleng]

6. Indeed, still evil.

[C_U_L8R]

7. These are two terrorists that...

I hope the NSA is keeping a close eye on.
I bet there's been some pretty seditious communications going on
between Charles, David and their paid-for clowns in the GOP.

[RC]

27. Ain't a gonna happen.

A similar mind set is in charge of the NSA.

[C_U_L8R]

30. Yeah I was afraid of that

but I can dream

[2naSalit]

32. Likely also

funded by them. Probably reports to them as well.

[LiberalEsto]

8. What I don't understand is WHY affordable healthcare is so odious to them?

All the bleating about freedom and "train wrecks" is camouflage for their hidden agenda.

Is it essentially that they want to finish destroying the middle class?

Is it to increase insurance industry profits?

Is it to make many Americans too weak and sick and broke to fight back against their plans?

Is it to reduce the population so it would be easier to control those who remain?

[grasswire]

9. It isn't about obamacare

That's just an excuse. A battering ram.

They are using obamacare as a battering ram to implement their attack on government.

[pscot]

10. They're nuts

Their old man was nuts. He thought Ike was a commie. It runs in the family.

[elleng]

11. Not sure, but a big part is that it's PrezO's plan, LibEst.

I recall no specifics of Hillary (+Bill's) plan, so can't compare, but as I recall, she went about fashioning it in a rather ham-handed manner.

IMO, smart insurers and health care providers should be pleased that their markets will grow as a result of the ACA. Many, among the fools, failed to follow the debate that went into fashioning this one, and are still referring it to 'socialized medicine.) (Like Medicare, and the VA and Tricare systems, right??? ) So I do think its primarily anti PrezO.

[Tippy]

13. The answer to all your qustions is YES

[Blanks]

16. Here is why.

Environmental health. If we have expanded health care. Then we will be able to identify 'clusters'. Places where a lot of people are sick because of an environmental factor.

If you watch the documentary 'Koch Brothers Exposed' you'll see that there is a place (a lot of them probably exist) in Arkansas where they discharge toxic chemicals to a drainage channel. The property owners that live adjacent to the creek are dying off.

The freedom that they (tea party types) are pushing for is 'freedom from environmental regulations'. If health care is expanded and people are becoming ill because of environmental violations - they will pay for both the environmental clean-up and the health care.

This is what tea baggers are working for when they start complaining about government over reach. They think they're trying to get the homeowners association of their ass for the plastic building in their back yard, what they ARE fighting for is the defunding of the EPA.

I worked for the county appraiser's office in a rural county in Kansas. I had to knock on doors to tell people that I was measuring their house. To a lot of people - the GOVERNMENT is one big organization. I did this back in the early 90's. I'm sure the people who were disgusted with what WE (the government) were doing at that time - are now tea party members.

If they define what they are fighting for in vague terms and agree with how wrong the government is in whatever you're pissed off about - then you can get a lot of people supporting your crusade, and when the mission is complete, and the EPA is gone - you just have to convince them that its the liberals fault that you're dying of cancer from a toxic environment.

[LiberalEsto]

28. Your explanation makes a lot of sense

I'm sure they (Kochroaches, Meese, etc) have multiple reasons for trying to derail affordable healthcare, but I can understand why environmental health is one of the key reasons.

The Kochroaches own lots of paper mills and sell paper products like Dixie cups. Paper mills discharge untold amounts of noxious by-products, including dioxins, into public rivers.

For example, Maryland currently has the highest cancer rate in the nation and I suspect the fact that many of us in the DC area get our drinking water from the Potomac may be a significant factor in that cancer rate.

There are paper mills and other polluters (I don't know who owns them, the Koches aren't the only people who run paper mills) upstream from the water intake points of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which supplies a great deal of the Washington DC area's drinking water.

"The Upper Potomac River Commission operates the Westernport Wastewater Treatment Facility. The Facility treats industrial waste from a paper mill in Westernport, Maryland, as well as municipal sewage from Westernport, and Luke, Maryland, and Piedmont, West Virginia."
Link: http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/35interc/08up.html
I'm sure this wastewater treatment plant, built in 1960, is unable to remove dioxins and other chemicals from the river.

"Water quality improvements at the Westvaco Paper Mill at Luke have resulted in much improved water quality in the North Branch over the past several years." Link: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/recreational/fwhotnbrpotomac.html
I doubt they're removing dioxins and other chemicals.

And on the Shenandoah, which runs into the Potomac:
"Friday, March 18, 2011
Ox Paperboard being sued
A paper mill in Halltown, West Virginia has jeopardized human health, jobs, and water quality near Flowing Spring Run and the Shenandoah River for at least four years, releasing pollutants that cause fish kills and other environmental problems. Today, two clean-water advocates announced that they have sued the mill’s owners, Ox Paperboard, LLC, in order to stop the pollution.The advocates, Shenandoah River keeper Jeff Kelble and Potomac River keeper Ed Merrifield, have tried to work with Ox Paperboard to stop the pollution since 2009.“Ox took over a bankrupt plant that recycles cardboard, so we gave them plenty of time to turn their operation around,” Kelble says. “But we can’t overlook pollution on this scale anymore.

Thousands of people who swim and boat here are in danger, so are the jobs and health of people downstream.”“Ox Paperboard made empty promises as its pollution continued to suck the oxygen out of our waters” Merrifield says. “Four years is enough time to wait, we are now forced to take legal action.”The lawsuit, filed by local attorney Christopher P. Stroech, Esq. and Arnold & Bailey, PLLC, alleges that the paper mill has violated its pollution permit in every month of a 30 month period ending in June, 2010. The average violation for one measure of pollution was nearly 3000% more than permits "allowed.The measure, known as Biological Oxygen Demand or BOD, involves the release of organic material that sucks oxygen out of water as it decomposes. Decreased oxygen levels leads to fish kills and other environmental problems.Kelble and Merrifield have had ongoing contact with Ox Paperboard for two years prior to filing the lawsuit. In November, 2010, the Riverkeepers sent Ox Paperboard a written warning that a lawsuit would follow in 60 days if pollution concerns were not addressed.Kelble is living proof that fish kills hurt the local economy. In 2005, he closed his guide business after a string of fish kills left few fish around for catching.“The beauty of our region is found in the waters that provide drinking water, jobs, and recreation for so many people. I’m just working to protect that tradition,” Kelble says. "
Link: http://www.thecharlestowncrier.com/2011/03/ox-paperboard-being-sued.html

Known sources of Potomac River contamination

(1) PCB contamination is associated with the AVTEX Fibers Superfund Site in
Front Royal, VA.
...

(2)Mercury contamination of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River stems
from chemical processing activities at the DuPont Plant in Waynesboro, VA.
...

(3) Dioxin contamination in the North Branch of the Potomac River was derived
from effluent from a Westvaco paper mill in Luke, MD. Fish advisories were put
in place by Maryland and West Virginia in 1990. In reaction to the advisories,
Westvaco has spent 40 millions dollars putting controls in place to reduce the
level of dioxins being discharged. No remediation has been performed and fish
advisories remain in place as water quality monitoring continues.
...

"There is no question that the mercury, PCBs and dioxins will remain in the
sediments for quite some time and have the potential to be a chronic source of
contamination for local aquatic biota and source waters for local downstream
communities. "

Link:http://www.potomacriver.org/drinkingwaterdocs/dcswap/Chapter%205_redacted.pdf

Not long after I moved to Maryland in 1990, the Washington Post ran an article about the high cancer rate and pointed out that paper mill and other pollution in the Potomac might be one cause. The Post has never mentioned this since then, probably because don't want to step on any toes since they either own or contract with paper suppliers for their print editions

[Blanks]

37. Good post. Worthy of its own thread IMHO.

Here's a link to a story about the documentary that I mentioned and a little more detail about the community.

I think you can see how I might stumble upon the opinion that this is why the Koch brothers are fighting Obamacare. If the people who live in this poor community all have access to health care - it would be easier to link the environmental abuses at their plants to the illnesses that pop up.

Incidentally engineers that go to work for the ADEQ (Arkansas department of environmental quality) start at about half the salary as engineers that start at the highway department. I'm sure it's one of the reasons that the Arkansas state legislature was targeted and turned red.

Step one: Snip the balls out of environmental enforcement and whatever you do - don't let these poor people go to the doctor. If too many people are sick from the same thing the CDC will get involved. It takes a long time for them to die (particularly without any health care).

After all money is way more important than life.

[Triana]

12. Says Bernie sanders and Walden (R), too - it's true.

See here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023791553

The United States has been taken over by Tea Party Terrorists. This is why President Obama cannot and must not give in to or negotiate with them. It's not about Obamacare. It's about our Democracy/Democratic Republic. Our way of governing - our government - and the entire nation - is being held hostage and having its life threatened by a minority of extremist terrorists.

[Tippy]

14. BINGO!

[The Wizard]

21. It was treason yesterday. It's treason today and it will be treason forever. (NT)

[PeoViejo]

15. A Criminal Conspiracy?

could be.

[Kablooie]

17. And we have to go through this again next year BEFORE the election.

[graywarrior]

18. Of course they are!

[QuestForSense]

19. You forgot Christie.

[graywarrior]

20. He took up too much space...lol

[WillyT]

22. K & R !!!

[zentrum]

23. The coup d'etat was completed with Citizen's United

Roberts is part of this plot which has been in the works ever since the Powell Doctrine, written when Powell sat on the Reagan Supreme--aimed at undoing the New Deal.

Koch's spent 286M in unreported funding during the election of 2012 to demonize The ACA in the key bagger southern states. That's a huge amount of propaganda. It deeply terrorized the confederate states who now see this battle as saving the republic.

Fascism is in the Koch Brothers blood stream--since their dad founded the John Birch Society.
With enough money, John Birch is now calling the shots in Washington and in effect, the world.

Soft, slow coups are hard to educate about and hard to fight. Boiling frogs. Shock doctrine.

[2naSalit]

33. +93,000,000!

[randr]

24. One thing Koch roaches can not stand

is the light of day.

[OldEurope]

25. They get help.

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/06/tea_party_radicalism_is_misunderstood_meet_the_newest_right/

[jsr]

29. Recommend

[snagglepuss]

34. k and r

[Bill USA]

36. recommended!!

[blkmusclmachine]

38. GOPee to America: F/CK YOU

America, Meet Bathtub.