Personally,
I find your post intelligent, factual, and refreshing.

Of course I have an open mind and don't rely on right wing blogg-sites to get my information. I find them despicable in their misleading propaganda.

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And yet they continue to read this, and the many other articles of factual evidence, and then claim it isn't true.
Claim it is misleading and false.

It is important that people realize the Tea Party is not/was not a grassroots event.
It was orchestrated with the intent to mislead a lot of well intentioned Americans.
It was premeditated!

This is just another example of the domestic threat which threatens the American standard of living.
Another example of the Republican Party taking the side of corporations over the people.

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I say the labor unions were the largest obstacle facing globalist toward making globalization a reality.

I think you're putting the cart before the horse.

Of course!
I would expect a response like that when you don't agree with the results.

It's hard to accept when one is in the minority.

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Hi Liz.

He also did this on Feb 21, 2009,



Of course the Republicans sued in the SC and had all limits lifted. Even those that were there before.

Thanks to them Foreign Corporations have more power in our Gov policies than we do.

Obama wanted a public option.

We got we got because of the party of no!

We were lucky to get anything at all.

I'm sure your view point is represented there.
And represented accurately!

Tea Party Funding Koch Brothers Emerge From Anonymity
By Peter Fenn

Posted: February 2, 2011


Few in America had heard about the third-richest Americans, brothers David and Charles Koch, until just recently. Aside from David Koch’s gifts to the Lincoln Center in New York and the naming of a theater after him, few outside a small, elite circle would recognize the name or know how to pronounce it. (“Koch” as in “coke”)

For decades, they were under the radar. They and their father had amassed an incredible fortune, mainly in the oil business. Their privately held company revenues last year were estimated at $100 billion. Each brother is worth $21.5 billion. That is a very big “B” in both cases.

For many years, they have been involved in politics but not terribly open or transparent about it. It is true that David Koch ran as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket, to the right of Ronald Reagan. According to New York Times columnist Frank Rich, “his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the FBI, the CIA, and public schools.” Since the Libertarian party’s 1 percent showing in 1980, David Koch has very much been behind the scenes, until now. [See who donates the most to your member of Congress.]

Jane Mayer, of The New Yorker, in her 10,000 word piece last August, peeled the cover off the onion of the Koch brothers' empire. And she focused not only on their personal wealth and family, but on their political empire building.

It was not, and is not, easy to get the details on the extent of their tentacles. They funnel money through 501c3 tax-exempt foundations, and they give money to other foundations, lobbying organizations, and right wing think tanks. They have PACs; they support candidates. Only a small portion of what they control do they divulge.

But it has now come out how involved they have been in funding Tea Party groups, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy ($12 million). [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the Tea Party.]

We do know, from Mayer’s reporting, that the Koch brothers have personally given over $2 million to candidates over the last 12 years, their PAC has contributed $8 million to candidates, and they have spent $50 million on lobbying. The Charles Koch Foundation has given $48 million, and another foundation they control gave $28 million. David Koch’s foundation gave more than $120 million. According to Mayer, $196 million dollars in total was distributed in the last 10 years to conservative causes and institutions.

That all, as they say, is not chicken feed, and it begs the question: How in the heck did they stay under the radar for as long as they did?

Part of the reason is that much of what they did was not reportable but, more important, until recently they were not pouring the millions into campaigns through advertising and expenditures allowed due to the Citizens United Supreme Court case. [Read the U.S. News debate: Is the Citizens United decision hurting democracy?]

Now, to the paranoia. These folks would make Richard Nixon’s enemies list look tame. This could be a movie akin to George Clooney’s Michael Clayton.

This past weekend the Koch brothers hosted a conference in Palm Springs that resembled an armed camp. Private Koch security was everywhere—manning every doorway and stairway within range of the conference. Reporters were confronted by private security guards and told to leave or they would be arrested, and a Common Cause official had his lunch reservation canceled and was told to check out of the hotel by Koch’s security detail. Young environmental activists were slapped with $100,000 law suits for demonstrating and engaging in pranks. A Politico reporter describes being thrown out and threatened with “a night in the Riverside County jail.”

All this while hiring an army of lawyers, PR flacks, political consultants, and pollsters to protect their “empire.” Everywhere there were folks spinning. Even reporters, who had been paid by Koch, attended the conference to “report” on what they “learned.” Well, Lord knows they have the money.

My guess is that anonymity will not be the Koch brothers’ middle name any longer.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/Peter-Fenn/2011/02/02/tea-party-funding-koch-brothers-emerge-from-anonymity

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If this is so why do the conservatives/Republicans/Tea Partiers continue to bury the truth about the Koch brothers huge financial and organizational contributions to the Tea Party?

Though Americans are still deeply divided over the health care law, a clear majority disapprove of a Republican plan to choke off funding for it, according to a new CBS poll.

In the poll, 55% of respondents said they oppose the plan to block health care funding, while only 35% said they support that proposal.

Having failed in their efforts to repeal the law outright, some Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) have suggested scuttling President Obama's signature achievement through the legislature's power to appropriate funds. By blocking funding for some of the law's provisions, Congress could in effect cancel out pieces of the law without actually repealing them.

Yet the poll suggests that Republicans, who have at times framed the midterm elections as a referendum on the health care bill, would actually be bucking public opinion if they go ahead with their plan to cut off health care funding.

That result comes despite strong opposition to the law overall. In the same poll, 51% of respondents disapproved of the law, while only 33% approved of it.

When it comes to repealing the law, though, public opinion is far more mixed. While most Americans aren't happy with the law, polls suggest that only about one in five want to see the whole thing scrapped.

The CBS poll was conducted February 11-14 among 1,103 Americans nationwide. It has a margin of error of 3.0%.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/most-americans-oppose-gop-efforts-to-block-health-care-funding.php?ref=fpb

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Hi Loy!

Thousands protest Wisconsin anti-union bill


MADISON, Wis. — Thousands of teachers, prison guards and students descended on the Wisconsin Capitol on Wednesday to try to preserve the union rights of public employees in the state that was the first to grant collective bargaining to government workers more than a half-century ago.

The new Republican governor, Scott Walker, is seeking passage of the nation's most aggressive anti-union proposal — a plan that would all but eliminate the bargaining process for most public employees.

The sweeping measure was moving swiftly through the GOP-led Legislature and would mark a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which passed a comprehensive collective bargaining law in 1959 and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.

The Statehouse filled with as many as 10,000 demonstrators, and many Madison teachers joined the protest by calling in sick in such numbers that the district had to cancel classes.

As protesters chanted outside his office door on the second consecutive day of demonstrations, Walker insisted he has the votes to pass the measure, which he says is needed to help balance a projected $3.6 billion budget shortfall and avoid widespread layoffs.

Walker said he appreciated the concerns of protesters, but taxpayers "need to be heard as well." Although he said he was open to making changes, he promised not to do anything that would "fundamentally undermine the principles" of the bill.

"We're at a point of crisis," the governor said.

A budget committee was expected to consider the proposal later Wednesday. Republicans intended to offer substantive changes, but details were not immediately available. The full Legislature could begin voting on it as early as Thursday.

In addition to eliminating collective bargaining rights, the legislation would also make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage — increases that Walker calls "modest" compared to those in the private sector.

'Kill this bill!'
More than 13,000 protesters gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday for a 17-hour public hearing on the measure. Thousands more came Wednesday. Some stood outside the governor's door, chanting "Recall Walker now!"

More than 1,000 protesters, many of whom spent the night in sleeping bags on the floor of the Rotunda, shouted "Kill this bill!" on Wednesday.

"I'm fighting for my home and my career," said Virginia Welle, a 30-year-old teacher at Chippewa Falls High School. She said she and her husband, who is also a teacher, each stand to lose $5,000 a year in higher pension and health care contributions.

Welle said she could never get that money back since the unions would be unable to bargain over benefits under Walker's plan.

There were some indications Wednesday that support for the plan may be waning among Republicans who control the Legislature.

Senate Republicans met in secret to discuss the bill. Asked where the GOP stood, Sen. Dan Kapanke of La Crosse told The Associated Press, "That's a really good question. I don't know."

On Tuesday, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reported that several members of the Green Bay Packers — who are part of the National Football League Players Association — came out against Walker's plan.

"As a publicly owned team we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans," reads a statement signed by seven current and former players. "It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work."

Protests having effect
The protests have been larger and more sustained than any in Madison in decades. Dozens of protesters spent the night in sleeping bags on the floor of the Rotunda. A noise monitor in the Rotunda registered 105 decibels at midday Wednesday — approximately the same volume as a power mower or chainsaw.

Beyond the Statehouse, more than 40 percent of the 2,600 union-covered teachers and school staff in Madison called in sick, forcing the superintendent to call off classes in the state's second-largest district. No other widespread sickouts were reported at any other school.

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.Prisons, which are staffed by unionized guards who would lose their bargaining rights under the plan, were operating without any unusual absences, according to a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

Walker has said he would call out the National Guard to staff the prisons if necessary. A union leader for prison workers did not immediately return messages.

Scott Spector, a lobbyist for AFT-Wisconsin, which represents about 17,000 public employees, said the demonstrations were having an effect on lawmakers.

Union representatives were attempting to sway key moderates for a compromise, but Democrats said the bill would be tough to stop. Democrats lost the governor's office and control of the Legislature in the November midterm elections.

"The Legislature has pushed these employees off the cliff, but the Republicans have decided to jump with them," said Sen. Bob Jauch, one of 14 Democrats in the 33-member chamber.

While other states have proposed bills curtailing labor rights, Wisconsin's measure is the most aggressive anti-union move yet to solve state budget problems. It would end collective bargaining for state, county and local workers, except for police, firefighters and the state patrol.

Protesters targeted the budget committee's public hearing Tuesday to launch what Vos called a "citizen filibuster," which kept the meeting going until 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Two floors below the hearing, dozens of University of Wisconsin-Madison teaching assistants and students poured into the Capitol rotunda late Tuesday evening, putting down sleeping bags and blankets. Many were asleep on the floor when the hearing ended.

Workers' rights part of state history
Wisconsin has long been a bastion for workers' rights. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was founded in 1936 in Madison.

But when voters elected Walker, an outspoken conservative, along with GOP majorities in both legislative chambers, it set the stage for a dramatic reversal of Wisconsin's labor history.

Under Walker's plan, state employees' share of pension and health care costs would go up by an average of 8 percent. The changes would save the state $30 million by June 30 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Unions could still represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Walker has threatened to order layoffs of up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.

Wisconsin is one of about 30 states with collective bargaining laws covering state and local workers.

Walker has argued that the concessions are moderate compared with those suffered by many other Americans during the recession. Democratic opponents and union leaders say his real motive is to strike back at political opponents who have supported Democrats over the years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41624142/ns/politics-more_politics