Kansas media ignores Koch story

[proud2BlibKansan]

Hence, the reason the Kochs still have so much power.

After 30 years of dealing with their crap, I am so thankful to Rachel Maddow and the New Yorker magazine for their coverage of the Kochs.

he New Yorker story detailing how Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries have secretly manipulated U.S. politics through groups like Americans for Prosperity has gained national attention (see below). But in Kansas? Crickets.

Koch Industries is based here and has formed its own network of front groups to influence Kansas politics, yet a search this morning of the websites of four major Kansas newspapers - The Kansas City Star, Wichita Eagle, Topeka Capital-Journal and Lawrence Journal-World - turned up no references to the story. No stories, no editorials, no blog posts, nada.

http://www.domeontherange.org/2010/08/kansas-media-ignores-koch-story.html?spref=fb

T

[RKP5637]

1. Probably afraid of retribution... n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. The Kochs probably own the media

[RKP5637]

4. Yep, I bet there is some type of linkage there. n/t

[ShockediSay]

3. I think these guys are Fascists

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

A Reporter at Large
Covert Operations
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
by Jane Mayer
August 30, 2010

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 Koch—who, years ago, bought out two other brothers—among 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 industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s 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 policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

[activa8tr]

6. I think some extreme libertarians, (like these two) look likeFascists, but

really they are closer to John Birchers, extreme capitalists, anti-union, anti-enviromental controls, anti-most government that doesn't ensure and protect huge profits for those few lucky rich capitalists like them.

Authentic Fascists actually LIKE government control which not only ensures the rich (white) stay rich, but want a pervasive government control that ensures few others can ever rise to power to topple them, through whatever means, (military and other strong-arming).

[ShockediSay]

7. You think these guys don't have heavy hands on the levers of government

which (with all due respect to your posit)allows them to take all they can get, which allows the laissez faire philosophy that corporations can literally get away with murder and larceny?

[activa8tr]

8. I agree with you half way. The true Fascists are involved unabashedly

with the government. These cowards hide their influence, which, I agree with you, is no small amount of power over elected officials.

So we can agree, sort of. These guys, in my humble opinion, are cowards, extreme libertarians, (sort of like extreme Christians) who profess their desire to "stay out of government" but to make government conform to their most selfish inner theocratic desires.

Both these types are very dangerous to our democratic republic, since there is little check on their powers and influence.

[Hannah Bell]

5. koch manipulation of politics starts the generation before, with dad's founding/funding

of the john birch society.

The society was established in Indianapolis, Indiana on December 9, 1958 by a group of 12 led by Robert Welch, Jr., a retired candy manufacturer from Belmont, Massachusetts...One founding member was Fred Koch, founder of Koch Industries, one of the largest private corporations in America...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society