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POLITICS: LOBBYING :
POLITICS: POLITICAL GROUPS :
ENVIRONMENT :
PROPAGANDA :
INDUSTRIES: PETROLEUM :
ORGANIZATIONS: THINK TANKS:
Rethinking the Think Tanks
Rethinking the Think Tanks
How industry-funded "experts" twist the environmental debate.
By Curtis Moore
Sierra Magazine
Sierra Club
<http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200207/thinktank.asp>
"You know us better than you think," boast the ads of Koch Industries, a
conglomerate owned by reclusive billionaire brothers Charles and David
Koch. And its true: Most of us have unknowingly wolfed a burger ground
from Koch beef, ridden on tires made from Kochs Trevira polyester, or
escaped the rain beneath a roof covered with Koch asphalt.
But theres a darker side to the boast. Turn on National Public Radio most
any afternoon, leaf through a newspaper or news magazine, watch a
congressional hearing, or surf the Internet, and you will likely encounter
the thoughts of Charles and David Koch (pronounced "coke"). The views will
seem to be coming from an independent think tankthe Cato Institute or
Citizens for a Sound Economy, for example. Yet behind these groups stands
the brothers vast fortune: Koch Industries is the nations second-largest
privately owned company and the largest privately owned oil company, with
annual revenues of more than $30 billion. Charles cofounded Cato in 1977;
in 1986 David helped launch CSE. The brothers are following in dads
footsteps: Fred Koch was a charter member of the ultraconservative John
Birch Society in 1958.
Today, Koch moneyand cash infusions from corporate allies such as Exxon,
Philip Morris, General Motors, and General Electricfunds industry-friendly
messages that fill our airwaves and editorial pages, and influence
outcomes in the halls of Congress and courtrooms across the country.
Consider, for example, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Washington,
D.C.based organization bolstered by periodic bursts of funding from both
cofounder David Koch and brother Charles. CSE is often described as a
"consumer group," but according to internal documents leaked to the
Washington Post, 85 percent of CSEs 1998 revenues of $16.2 million came
not from its 250,000 members, but from contributions of $250,000 and up
from Koch Industries as well as other corporations, including U.S. West
and Philip Morris.
What kind of exposure can such money buy? In 1995, for instance, CSEs $17
million budget (made possible that year with grants from the Kochs, Archer
Daniels Midland, DaimlerChrysler, and General Electric, among others) was
spent producing more than 130 policy papers, delivering them to every
single congressional office, sending out thousands of pieces of mail, and
getting coverage of its viewpoints in more than 4,000 news articles around
the nation. CSEs representatives have appeared on hundreds of radio and
television shows and published 235 op-ed articles. What do they tell us?
Among other things, that "environmental conservation requires a
commonsense approach that limits the scope of government," acid rain is a
"so-called threat [that] is largely nonexistent," and global warming is "a
verdict in search of evidence."
Cato Institute - Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group
Read more about the Cato Institute
<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/
polluterwatch/koch-industries/cato-institute/#a0>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/239ouhh>
Find more recipients of Koch foundation money
<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/
polluterwatch/koch-industries/cato-institute/#a1>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/2ezen2t>
March 31, 2010 $1,028,400 received from Koch foundations
2005-2008[Total Koch foundation grants 1997-2008: $5,278,400]
GreenPeace
<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/
polluterwatch/koch-industries/cato-institute/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/24kkted>
The Cato Institute is focused on disputing the science behind global
warming and questioning the rationale for taking action.
The organization's 2009 "Handbook for Policymakers" on global warming
begins with the suggestions that Congress should "pass no legislation
restricting emissions of carbon dioxide" and "inform the public about how
little climate change would be prevented by proposed legislation."
Robert Bradley, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, is also a
founder and the CEO of the Institute for Energy Research.
FACTSHEET: Cato Institute
<http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=21>
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington DC, was
founded in 1977 by Edward Crane and Charles Koch, the billionaire co-owner
of Koch Industries, the largest privately held oil company in the U.S.
The Cato Institute holds regular briefings on global warming with known
climate 'skeptics' as panelists. In December 2003, panelists included
Patrick Michaels, Robert Balling and John Christy, all of whom believe
that the current scientific understanding of climate change is
inconclusive. Cato held similar briefings on climate change in Washington
in July 2003 and 2002. (C. Coon, & Erin. Hymel (2003) Sound Policy for the
Energy Bill, Heritage Foundation Reports, 23 September. ) According to
People for the American Way, Cato has been funded by: Philip Morris, R.J.
Reynolds, Bell Atlantic Network Services, BellSouth Corporation, Digital
Equipment Corporation, GTE Corporation, Microsoft Corp- oration, Netscape
Communications Corporation, NYNEX Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Viacom
International, American Express, Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank,
Citicorp/Citibank, Commonwealth Fund, Prudential Securities and Salomon
Brothers. Energy conglomerates include: Chevron Companies, Exxon Company,
Shell Oil Company and Tenneco Gas, as well as the American Petroleum
Institute, Amoco Foundation and Atlantic Richfield Foundation. Cato's
pharmaceutical donors include Eli Lilly & Company, Merck & Company and
Pfizer, Inc. (http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=9261)
Between 1985 and 2001, the Institute received $15,718,040 in 112 grants
from only ten conservative foundations: Castle Rock Foundation (reformed
Coors Foundation), Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, Earhart
Foundation, JM Foundation, John M. Olin Foundation, Inc., Claude R. Lambe
Charitable Foundation, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Sarah Scaife
Foundation, Carthage Foundation, David H Koch Foundation.
(http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?51)
The Cato Institute is a member of the State Policy Network 4/04
Rortybomb
Synergy Between Cato and Koch Industry Lobbyists on the FinReg bill?
<http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/
synergy-between-cato-and-koch-industry-lobbyists-on-the-finreg-bill/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/26vu84l>
Id highly recommend Jane Mayers New Yorker piece, Covert Operations: The
billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama, about David and
Charles Koch, lifelong libertarians that have quietly given more than a
hundred million dollars to right-wing causes. Here they are helping to
create the Cato Institute:
In 1977, the Kochs provided the funds to launch the nations first
libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute. According to the Center for
Public Integrity, between 1986 and 1993 the Koch family gave eleven
million dollars to the institute. Today, Cato has more than a hundred
full-time employees, and its experts and policy papers are widely quoted
and respected by the mainstream media. It describes itself as nonpartisan,
and its scholars have at times been critical of both parties. But it has
consistently pushed for corporate tax cuts, reductions in social services,
and laissez-faire environmental policies.
And here is David Koch talking about how they hold a serious amount of
ideological control over the institutions they fund, which many believe to
be the Tea Party infrastructure as well (my bold):
The Kochs have gone well beyond their immediate self-interest, however,
funding organizations that aim to push the country in a libertarian
direction. Among the institutions that they have subsidized are the
Institute for Justice, which files lawsuits opposing state and federal
regulations; the Institute for Humane Studies, which underwrites
libertarian academics; and the Bill of Rights Institute, which promotes a
conservative slant on the Constitution. Many of the organizations funded
by the Kochs employ specialists who write position papers that are
subsequently quoted by politicians and pundits. David Koch has
acknowledged that the family exerts tight ideological control. If were
going to give a lot of money, well make darn sure they spend it in a way
that goes along with our intent, he told Doherty. And if they make a wrong
turn and start doing things we dont agree with, we withdraw funding.
The article discusses the battle of regulation between the government and
Koch Industries via Koch intermediaries over environmental regulation and
global warming. Sadly, presumably because of space but also because its a
very shadowy, private battle to follow, this fight also occurred over
financial reform. Its not well reported, but subsidiaries of Koch
Industries are major players in derivatives financial markets.
Koch Facts
Koch Industries
<http://www.kochind.com/kochfacts/default.aspx>
John Birch Society and opposition to communism
Fred Koch, who died in 1967, was a supporter, not a founder, of the John
Birch Society in the 1950s. His anti-communist sentiment stemmed from time
he spent in the Soviet Union between 1929 and 1932 when his engineering
company designed and built oil cracking units to be erected in refineries
in the U.S.S.R. Fred found the Soviet Union to be "a land of hunger,
misery and terror." Virtually all the Soviet engineers he worked with were
purged by Stalin, who exterminated tens of millions of his own people.
This experience, combined with what his Communist associates told him of
their methods and plans for world revolution, caused Fred Koch to become a
staunch anti-communist.
A Reporter at Large
Covert Operations
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
by Jane Mayer
The New Yorker
<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer>
With his brother Charles, who is seventy-four, David Koch owns virtually
all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas,
whose annual revenues are estimated to be a hundred billion dollars. The
company has grown spectacularly since their father, Fred, died, in 1967,
and the brothers took charge. The Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska,
Texas, and Minnesota, and control some four thousand miles of pipeline.
Koch Industries owns Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific
lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and Lycra, among other products. Forbes ranks
it as the second-largest private company in the country, after Cargill,
and its consistent profitability has made David and Charles Kochwho, years
ago, bought out two other brothersamong the richest men in America. Their
combined fortune of thirty-five billion dollars is exceeded only by those
of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower
personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and
much less oversight of industryespecially environmental regulation. These
views dovetail with the brothers corporate interests. In a study released
this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amhersts Political Economy
Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters
in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the
company as a kingpin of climate science denial. The report showed that,
from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to
organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting
a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups.
Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many
Obama Administration policiesfrom health-care reform to the
economic-stimulus programthat, in political circles, their ideological
network is known as the Kochtopus.
Cato and the Liberaltarian Diaspora
by E.D. Kain
Balloon Juice
<http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/08/24/
cato-and-the-liberaltarian-diaspora/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/26fkbsk>
A number of bloggers seem to agree that something is afoot at the Cato
institute; the departure of Brink Lindsey and Will Wilkinson quite
suddenly and on the heels of the now-infamous Koch brothers piece is all
too much at once to dismiss outright. That being said, if it is a purge it
is hardly over. A number of other similarly honest left-leaning
libertarians work at Cato still (Julian Sanchez, Radley Balko, Jason
Kuznicki just to name a few and Glenn Greenwald has put together material
for them as well) and so far, if there is a purge, it hasnt been terribly
widespread.
Libertarians may run Senate candidate in Kentucky to Take Votes From Rand
Paul
Submitted by bobbyw
24 on Wed, 05/26/2010 - 13:45
in Rand Paul 2010
Daily Paul
<http://www.dailypaul.com/node/135909>
FRANKFORT, Ky. The Libertarian Party is considering running a candidate
in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, saying GOP nominee Rand Paul the son of a
former Libertarian presidential candidate has betrayed the party's
values.
Party Vice Chairman Joshua Koch said Wednesday that Paul has been a black
eye for Libertarians because of stands he's taken on issues, including his
criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Koch said Paul is not a Libertarian. He called Paul and his Democratic
opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, "faces of the same bad
coin."
Rand Paul's father was the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1988. He
is currently a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
Cato Institute
Right Wing Watch
<http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/cato-institute>
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank that often works in
coalitions with right-wing groups. Cato's extensive publications program
deals with a host of policy issues including budget issues, Social
Security, monetary policy, natural resource policy, military spending,
government regulation, international trade, and myriad other issues. While
the Cato Institute has increased its ties to right-wing policymakers over
the years, it often reveals it's libertarian philosophy in addressing
government intrusion into privacy issues, recently calling the proposed
federal marriage amendment "unnecessary, anti-Federalist, and
anti-democratic."
Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington DC 20001-5403
Website: http://www.cato.org
Cato Institute
Source Watch
<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cato_Institute>
The Cato Institute is a non-partisan libertarian think tank headquartered
in Washington, D.C. The Institute states that it favors policies "that are
consistent with the traditional American principles of limited government,
individual liberty, and peace." [1] Cato scholars conduct policy research
on a broad range of public policy issues, and produce books, studies,
op-eds, and blog posts. They are also frequent guests in the media.
Cato was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane and Charles Koch, [2] the
billionaire co-owner of Koch Industries; the largest privately owned
company in the United States. Though diversified, the company amassed most
of its fortune in oil trading and refining. [3]
Contents
1 Overview
2 Funder of Like-Minded Think Tanks
3 Positions
3.1 Support for Social Security Privatization
3.2 Cato & Civil Liberties
3.3 Cato & Marijuana
3.4 Cato and the tobacco industry
3.5 Immigration
3.6 Call for elimination of ballot referendum disclosure requirements
3.7 Cato and Water Policy
3.8 Cato and Climate Change
4 Funding
4.1 Corporate sponsors
4.2 Foundation support
5 Personnel
5.1 Board of Directors
5.2 Notable members in the media
6 Contact Information
7 Articles & sources
7.1 Related Sourcewatch articles
7.2 External resources
7.3 References
7.4 Other Cato Websites
7.5 External articles
Overview
Cato argues for the abolition of the welfare system, against the U.S.
government pursuing an interventionist foreign policy, in favor of civil
liberties and limits on executive power, and in favor of more relaxed
immigration policies and for a more deregulated healthcare system.[4] The
Cato Institute is named after Cato's Letters, a series of libertarian
pamphlets that Cato's founders claim "helped lay the philosophical
foundation for the American Revolution."[5] Its stated mission is "to
broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of
the traditional American principles of limited government, individual
liberty, free markets, and peace" by seeking greater involvement of the
"lay public in questions of public policy and the role of government."[5]
In the preamble to its 2006 annual report, Cato's President and CEO,
Edward H. Crane and Chairman, William A. Niskanen, argue for a limited
role of government. "The list of reasons why it is not smart to turn to
government to solve social and economic problems is, if not endless,
extensive. Yet, despite a truly horrendous record over the decades, the
politicians of both major parties reflexively assume that the state is the
proper vehicle for solving problems," they wrote. Crane and Niskanen
describe Cato as embodying a "classical liberal/libertarian
philosophy."[6]
Cato's work has a strongly ideological flavor, but the institute has not
consistently aligned itself with either major political party. Although
the Institute has close ties with elements of the Republican Party, it has
often been critical of Republican officeholdersespecially President Bushin
recent years. Cato scholars criticized the 2003 decision by U.S. President
George W. Bush to go to war with Iraq, prosecution of the war on drugs,
giving federal money to faith-based organizations, and the decision of
President George H.W. Bush to fight the first Gulf war. The Cato Institute
has argued repeatedly against the Republican party on spending issues.
[7][8][9][10] Democratic politicians have likewise received criticism from
Cato scholars. For example, President Obama's stimulus legislation has
received strong criticism from Cato personell. [11]
Funder of Like-Minded Think Tanks
<snip>
Case Study: The Koch-funded ClimateGate Echo Chamber
GreenPeace
<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/
polluterwatch/koch-industries/case-study-the-koch-funded-c/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/28oax3n>
On this page Page - March 29, 2010 In November 2009, anonymous hackers
illegally obtained and disseminated thousands of personal emails from
climate scientists housed on the server of the University of East Anglia.
The emails spanned 13 years of correspondence and a handful of selected
emails were taken out of context by a number of climate-denier
organizations. These organizations, many part of the Koch Web, claim the
emails prove a conspiracy of scientists and cast doubt on the scientific
consensus on human-caused climate change.
This incident, dubbed "ClimateGate" by climate-denier groups, has been
distorted and repeated many times by conservative media and blogs since
late November 2009. Twenty organizations, roughly half of the Koch-funded
groups profiled in this report, have contributed to the "ClimateGate" echo
chamber. Among the most vocal groups are organizations that received over
$1,000,000 from Koch foundations since 2005, including Americans for
Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute.
ENVIRONMENT: Behind the Climate Skepticism Curtain: The Koch Family and
the Cato Institute
By Te-Ping Chen | April 01, 2009, 11:04 am
The Paper Trail
The Center for Public Integrity
<http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/1246/>
The name of huge oil conglomerate Koch Industries didnt appear anywhere on
the ad the Cato Institute placed in the The Washington Post and other
major papers Monday and over the weekend. But the ad which questioned
existing science on climate change has Kochs imprint all over it.
Bigger in size than either Microsoft or AT&T, Koch Industries tends to fly
under the public radar screen. Yet as the Center has previously reported,
Koch which owns refineries that can process over 800,000 oil barrels a
day, and operates some 4,000 miles of pipeline is a prolific political
donor. Today, Koch is the second-largest privately held company in
America.
While Koch has a long history of pushing libertarianism through its
grant-making, more recently, the company has established itself as an
aggressive opponent of climate legislation and a major funder of climate
skeptics including the libertarian Cato Institute.
Co-founded by Charles Koch in 1977, in recent years, the Cato Institute
has hosted numerous D.C.-based briefings featuring various climate
skeptics. A briefing book Cato distributed among members of the 107th
Congress dismissed the Kyoto protocol and further asked, Is the way the
planet warms something that we should even try to stop?
Though Catos funding has diversified since its early days, its thanks to
Koch that the think-tank exists at all: According to Gregg Easterbrook, in
its early years, the largest portion of the Cato Institutes bills were
paid by Charles Koch.
While Cato takes the battle for public opinion on global warming to the
pages of the Post, Koch has conducted a quieter scrimmage behind the
scenes.
Monday, Aug 23, 2010 15:24 ET
"Liberaltarians" out at Cato
Is the Koch-funded libertarian think tank no longer interested in finding
common ground with liberals?
By Alex Pareene
Salon
<http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/23/liberaltarians>
Brink Lindsey and Will Wilkinson are leaving the Cato Institute, one of
the more prominent libertarian think tanks. Lindsey was the Institute's
vice president of research. Wilkinson, a Cato scholar, edited their
website. Their departures are notable because they were two of Cato's most
prominent "liberaltarians."
<snip>
Considering the number of anti-libertarian policies the conservative
movement fights for, it seems slightly odd that libertarians would act as
an arm of that movement. But I think the answer is sort of obvious: While
some outlets, like those leather jacket-wearing rebels at Reason, just
tend to go after whoever's currently in power, most of the big libertarian
institutions are funded by vain rich people. And these vain rich people
care a lot more about tax policy (specifically a policy of not having to
pay taxes) than they do about legalizing drugs or defunding the
military-industrial complex. And if they're keeping the lights on at Cato
and AEI, they want Cato and AEI to produce research that relates more to
hating the IRS and the EPA than to hating the NYPD or the FBI.
And Cato was born as a Koch family pet project. As in the Koch family that
is bent on the political destruction of Barack Obama.
Koch Industries multibillionaire Koch brothers bankroll attacks on climate
change science and policy
Posted on Thursday, March 18, 2010
Climate Science Watch
<http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/
koch-brothers-and-climate-change-denial_machine/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/3xdlown>
Taking stock of the Koch Machine, Part I
ShareNew 0by sandlapper
Thu Aug 17, 2006 at 08:40:14 PM PDT
To see the scope of Charles and David Koch's invisible reach into modern
American life, and their influence in modern - and future - American
political life especially, requires a wide lens. And you have to stand
pretty far back to get it all in the picture.
Daily Kos
<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/17/234014/285>
From Promoting Acid Rain To Climate Denial: Over 20 Years Of David Kochs
Polluter Front Groups
The Wonk Room
<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/01/
koch-pollution-astroturf-2deca/>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yb8q44h>
The founder and chairman of Americans for Prosperity is oil baron David
Koch, who is one of the richest men in the world because of his oil,
chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. Koch Industries
is a major polluter with an atrocious record of sloppy operations.
According to the EPA, Koch Industries is responsible for over 300 oil
spills in the US and has leaked three million gallons of crude oil into
fisheries and drinking waters. They were fined a record $35 million
dollars and an additional $8 million in Minnesota for discharging into
streams. But AFPs recent crusade against the EPA is just the latest in
Kochs twenty-year campaign to have unrestricted power to pollute. Below is
a timeline with snapshots of Kochs long running campaign to distort
science, orchestrate fake grassroots campaigns, and defeat environmental
protections. Click MORE for the timeline:
1977:
Davids brother Charles Koch founds the libertarian think tank, the Cato
Institute.
<snip>
March 31, 2010 | 85 comments
Who Funds Contrariness on Climate Change?
Greenpeace is accusing one of the U.S.'s largest conglomerates of sowing
confusion around scientific assertions behind climate change
By Evan Lehmann and Climatewire
Scientific American
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/
article.cfm?id=who-funds-contrariness-on>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/yh7afh4>
Greenpeace is accusing one of the nation's largest conglomerates of sowing
confusion around scientific assertions behind climate change, a broadside
that comes amid waning public engagement on human-caused emissions.
Koch Industries, a sprawling private corporation based in Wichita, Kan.,
and run by two brothers, is the primary sponsor of the "climate denial
machine," the environmental group asserts in a 44-page report.
A company spokeswoman said Greenpeace is mischaracterizing Koch's efforts
to facilitate "an open and honest airing of all sides" on the climate
debate.
Koch subsidiaries own refineries, oil pipelines, fertilizer facilities,
coal and cement transportation systems, and other industrial operations.
The company also has several foundations through which it gave $24.9
million to conservative groups between 2005 and 2008, the report says.
"The combination of foundation-funded front-groups, big lobbying budgets,
[political action committee] donations, and direct campaign contributions
makes Koch Industries and the Koch brothers among the most formidable
obstacles to advancing clean energy and climate policy in the U.S.,"
Greenpeace says.
The group calls Koch the "financial kingpin of climate science denial,"
saying the brothers, Charles and David Koch, who jointly own 84 percent of
the company, have replaced Exxon Mobil Corp. as the leader in stirring
controversy around climate conclusions.
Greenpeace portrays the company's efforts as a secret campaign to keep
climate doubts pinging around an "echo chamber" that includes groups like
the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise
Institute.
Inside Koch's Climate Denial Machine
By Kate Sheppard
Thursday April 1, 2010 9:28 AM PDT
Mother Jones
<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/04/
inside-kochs-climate-denial-machine>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/ycjtegk>
Whos behind a multi-million dollar campaign to seed doubt about climate
change? Its not just Exxon and Chevronits also Koch Industries, an oil and
gas giant that most people have never heard of, according to a new report
from Greenpeace. Koch's extensive funding of anti-climate work makes it
the "financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy
opposition," says Greenpeace.
The Kansas-based company and its affiliates and foundations spent almost
$25 million on "organizations of the 'climate denial machine'" between
2005 and 2008, according to the report. Koch Industries and the Koch
family also spent $37.9 million between 2006 and 2009. "Although Koch
intentionally stays out of the public eye, it is now playing a quiet but
dominant role in a high-profile national policy debate on global warming,"
the report concludes.
<snip>
The report lists 35 organizations who have directly or indirectly received
money from Koch Industries, affiliates, or Koch family foundations. They
include the libertarian think-tank Cato Institute, which received a $1
million grant from the Kochs. Cato runs the climate-change-denial site
GlobalWarming.org, and is suing the Environmental Protection Agency to
block its finding that climate change threatens human health. The Koch
family has also directed more than $5 million to Americans for Prosperity,
which has campaigned against efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. They
have also supported Citizens for a Sound Economy (which later merged with
another group to form FreedomWorks).
"Tea Parties": an astroturfed Koch family movement (FreedomWorks,
Instapundit, Rick Santelli)
24Ahead.com: Immigration and Politics
<http://24ahead.com/tea-parties-astroturfed-
koch-family-movement-freedomworks-in>
A shorter URL for the above link:
<http://tinyurl.com/y8z3ona>
What hasnt been reported until now is evidence linking Santellis tea party
rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine,
from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns
(called astroturfing) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire
funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the
Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the
political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement
took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced
quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that's because it was.
...his February 19th call for a Chicago Tea Party was the launch event of
a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli
served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some
of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has
ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of
the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of
rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and
Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch,
was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.
The Brothers Koch: Rich, Political And Playing To Win
NPR
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129425186>
The brothers also have created several neutral-sounding groups like
Citizens for a Sound Economy which staged media events to oppose
President Clinton's proposed Btu tax on energy and Citizens for the
Environment, which called many environmental problems, including acid
rain, "myths."
David Koch founded the group Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which
has been linked to the Tea Party training hundreds of activists in Texas
and hosting talking points for Tea Party activists on its website.
Jane Mayer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, profiles the brothers and
their political connections in the Aug. 30 issue of the magazine. Her
article "Covert Operations" describes how the brothers' political
interests "dovetail with [their] corporate interests."
August 23, 2010
Categories:Misc.
The Koch money
Politico
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0810/The_Koch_money.html?showall>
The Kochs have long operated behind the scenes, though it was no secret
that they underwrite much of the libertarian movement, from Reason to the
Cato Institute to the Insitute for Justice.
One dramatic claim:
Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a
nonpartisan watchdog group, said, The Kochs are on a whole different
level. Theres no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer
dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of
lawbreaking, political manipulation and obfuscation. Ive been in
Washington since Watergate, and Ive never seen anything like it. They are
the Standard Oil of our times.
The story is full of interesting detail about the low-profile Kochs,
including the repeated claim that Charles is intensely personally involved
in running the ideological outfits, and sniping at him from unnamed Cato
staffers. And the story also shows the overlap between their corporate
agenda the EPA is a Koch Industries irritant and their giving.
The rough thesis is that "by giving money to 'educate,' fund and organize
Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a
mass movement."
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
Right-wing media rush to defend Kochs
August 25, 2010 11:52 am ET 89 Comments
Media Matters
<http://mediamatters.org/research/201008250023>
Following a New Yorker article that reported on David and Charles Koch's
funding of "stealth attacks" on the Obama administration, right-wing
media, including recipients of the Kochs' largess, have rushed to defend
the Kochs.
Right-wing media rush to Kochs' defense following New Yorker article
Wash. Examiner's Hemingway -- who has been funded by Koch -- calls article
a "shameful attack" on Kochs. In an August 24 post, The Washington
Examiner's Mark Hemingway wrote that The New Yorker article was a
"shameful attack," "sensationalist," and "laden with bias an [sic]
distasteful innuendo." In his post, Hemingway also noted:
In the interest of disclosure, I should note that for the past few summers
I have mentored young journalists as part of a program funded by the Koch
family. I have been paid a largely inconsequential honorarium for my
significant investment of time. I can honestly say that I wouldn't do this
if I didn't believe in the program, and as for the Koch brothers'
supposedly covert war, I will note that if I had any doubt about who I was
working for, the program is called the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow
Program.
Erickson: New Yorker article part of a "coordinated character
assassination against Koch Industries and the Koch brothers." In an August
23 post, RedState editor-in-chief Erick Erickson wrote that the article
"is a coordinated character assassination against Koch Industries and the
Koch brothers for daring to use their money to prevent the destruction of
the American economy at the hand of a bunch of effete socialists in the
White House." Erickson further wrote:
<snip>
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
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Temple University
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