Ted Cruz and Koch brothers embroiled in shadowy Tea Party scheme

[Coyotl]

Ted Cruz and Koch brothers embroiled in shadowy Tea Party scheme
Meet the right-wing group masquerading as a mainstream nonprofit -- but pushing extremist laws across the country
Josh Eidelson - Nov 15, 2013 05:30 AM PST - http://www.salon.com/2013/11/15/ted_cruz_and_koch_brothers_embroiled_in_shadowy_tea_party_scheme/

A national conservative network (whose backers include the Koch brothers, event sponsors include Facebook, and alumni include Ted Cruz) misrepresented its agenda and activities, and reaped the benefits of mainstream respectability and nonprofit status — while coordinating across states to push a hard-right agenda and enrich its corporate backers — a new report alleges.

Specifically, the report by the Center for Media and Democracy focuses on the State Policy Network, a little-known network. “What we uncovered through our investigation is that SPN along with its affiliates amount to $83 million just flooding into the states to push and promote this agenda …,” CMD director Lisa Graves told reporters on a Wednesday call. “And that money is on the rise.” The paper was released Wednesday along with a set of state-level reports on SPN affiliates, authored by affiliates of the progressive network ProgressNow.

The CMD report accuses SPN affiliates of mounting “coordinated efforts to push their agenda, often using the same cookie-cutter research and reports, all while claiming to be independent and creating state-focused solutions …” It charges that, “Although SPN think tanks are registered as educational nonprofits, several appear to orchestrate extensive lobbying and political operations to peddle their legislative agenda to state legislators, despite the IRS’ regulations on nonprofit political and lobbying activities.”

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[G_j]

1. and ALEC again rears it's ugly head,

"The CMD report also cites numerous SPN ties to the better-known ALEC, including a grant from Donors Capital Fund, which Mother Jones called the “dark money ATM of the conservative movement,” specifically to fund SPN member groups to participate in an ALEC gathering. SPN or its member groups sit on eight ALEC task forces; the largest number are in the Task & Fiscal Policy and Education groups. According to CMD, SPN’s annual meeting in September included representatives from Koch Industries, the Charles Koch Institute, the Charles Koch Foundation and several Koch-backed right-wing groups like Americans for Prosperity.

CMD suggests that SPN’s billionaire backers may not be motivated by ideology alone. “Be it the Koch brothers and environmental policy, the Waltons and minimum and living wage laws, or the Bradley Foundation and education privatization,” charges the report, “SPN funders end up being a ‘client’ to the think tanks, receiving a service – influencing state legislators and promoting a right-wing agenda – that benefits them.”"

[Berlum]

2. Right-wing Republicon OCCULTISM

As usual.

[Blue Owl]

3. Lumps of pure Koch in that tea

n/t

[TomCADem]

4. The MSM, Of Course, Ignores The Oligarchs Running The GOP

...imagine Dorothy not noticing the man behind the curtain.

[Scuba]

5. Kick.