Tag Archives: political parties

The Birth of the Kochtopus

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Every Thing You touch Dies and you don't Care Monsanto kills butterflies
We came, we saw, we destroyed, we forgot
 then we remembered
Meanwhile, the US and EU have neglected carbon capture, to use CO2, to grow algae
and distill methanol, at the site, of any furnace,
while the US exports her drug war,
featuring hemp,
as a Schedule I controlled substance, while crack, smack, speed, and Zimmy’s Adderall are on Schedule II.  The deuces can’t be used, to make thousands of products,
which threaten fossil fuel media, timber, et al cartel profiteering.
An updated summary of the charming record of US foreign policy. Since the end of the Second World War, the United States of America has …
Attempted to overthrow more than
 
50 governments, most of which were democratically-elected.
Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in
20 countries.
Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least
30 countries.
Dropped bombs on the people of more than
30 countries.
Attempted to assassinate more than
50 foreign leaders.
On July 9, 2011 a demonstration in front of the White House, the theme of which was “Stop Bombing Libya”. http://www.globalresearch.ca/arguing-libya-another-war-another-myth/25821?print=1
The vast majority of the Kochs’ political spending was not sent directly to political parties or candidates, found Lewis and his colleagues, but instead toward nonprofits, lobbying and universities. The discrepancy is striking: only $8.7 million went directly to political parties and candidates, while $53.9 million went to lobbying, $41.2 million to nonprofit organizations and an annual libertarian conference, and $30.5 million to US colleges and universities. Combined, the Kochs spent more than $14 on lobbying, nonprofits and education for every $1 they gave directly to politicians. – See more at: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8UFLtE4uzo
Dear-Rocky-Mountain-Oilman
New Financing Tool
The Supreme Court handed the Kochs an important weapon in a 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo. The court opened two loopholes in a two-year-old campaign finance law that had placed tight controls on what candidates, parties, and private individuals could spend on campaigns: A candidate could spend an unlimited amount of his or her money running for office, and an individual was free to spend an unlimited amount of money promoting candidates so long as the spending was not coordinated with them.
The next three years witnessed the birth of the Koch political apparatus. Charles Koch sought to recruit like-minded businessmen who would invest in the libertarian cause, an embryonic version of the Koch-supervised donor club that poured $400 million into the 2012 campaign.
“Charles was giving as much to the Libertarians as he was paying out in dividends,” William told The Times in a 1986 interview. “Pretty soon we would get the reputation that the company and the Kochs were crazy.”
Money and Passion
In March 1979, Mr. Clark declared that he would seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination. A lawyer for Atlantic Richfield Corporation, he was the candidate many libertarians had been waiting for: polished, substantive and well spoken.
The goal was “to try to run somebody who looked like an actual politician, a normal person, not your typical ‘Star Trek’ convention wannabe like most party members were,” recalled Bruce Bartlett, a supply-side economics expert who volunteered as a speechwriter for the Clark campaign.
But a Clark presidential campaign needed money and a running mate. The Kochs could provide both. If one of the brothers joined the ticket, he could — thanks to the Buckley loophole — donate as much as he wanted to the campaign, finally giving the ticket enough cash to run ads and seek a ballot spot in all 50 states. David Koch announced his candidacy in August 1979.
The post-Watergate campaign finance law “makes my blood boil,” Mr. Koch wrote in a letter to party members. He had a simple proposal: “As the Vice-presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party I will contribute several hundred thousand dollars to the Presidential campaign committee in order to ensure that our ideas and our Presidential nominee receive as much media exposure as possible.”
A Vice-Presidential Pitch
This is the second page in a two-page letter from David Koch offering his candidacy for Libertarian nomination for Vice President.second-page-of-a-2-page-letter-from-Koch-offering-his-candidacy
http://respriv.org/birth-kochtopus/