Have a koch and a $mile ? ? ? ?

The right-wing-billionaire-zealot brother$ koch are about to fully engage their database war on the rest of the civilized world.

Feature article in today's GuardianUK reveals the details:

The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.

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The database will bring together information from a plethora of right-wing groups, tea party organisations and conservative-leaning thinktanks. Each one has valuable data on their membership – including personal email addresses and phone numbers, as well as more general information useful to political campaign strategists such as occupation, income bracket and so on.

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At their most recent billionaires' gathering in Vail, Colorado in June, Charles Koch described next year's presidential contest as "the mother of all wars". A tape of his private speech obtained by Mother Jones said the fight for the White House would be a battle "for the life or death of this country".

Exhorting the 300 guests in attendance to open their sizeable wallets and donate to the Koch election coffers, he went on: "It isn't just your money we need. We need you bringing in new partners, new people. We can't do it alone. We have to multiply ourselves."

"We have to multiply ourselves."

Not unlike rats in a garbage dump . . . .


(Alison has more on how everything really does go better with koch here.) 

99% Action from Home . . . .

Something we all can do from home to annoy the 1%:



H/T BTO

Them what has . . .

THE CORPORATE MATRIX, as reported by BOINGBOING's Cory Doctorow, consolidates wealth and wealth control to a disturbing degree, in an article, "Densely-linked cluster of 147 companies control 40% of world's total wealth":

When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a "super-entity" of 147 even more tightly knit companies - all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity - that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network," says Glattfelder. Most were financial institutions. The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.

A CORE OF 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships. Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20. H/T — SCANNER.

Coming to Canada Soon ? ? ? ? Part II . . . .

Thanks to an email "heads up" from good friend Joylene, the following CBC "The Current" broadcast was brought to my attention.

Chris Hedges was interviewed on the November 2nd show and it blew me away. Hedges gives - in a 26-minute interview - the cause, effect and chilling prediction of the "Death of the Liberal Class" - the title of his new book.

With history on the side of what occurs in the Excited States soon creeps across the 49th parallel, the broadcast and Hedges' book are well worth paying attention by Canadians.

Forewarned is forearmed?

Let's hope so . . . .

H/T Joylene

Corporations are people too!

PR Watch : "After the US Supreme Court declared that corporations have the same rights as individuals when it comes to funding political campaigns, the self-described progressive firm, Murray Hill, Inc., took what it considers the next logical step: running for office in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District."

Washington Post : "In Maryland, independent candidates are not required to be registered voters. They can qualify for the fall ballot by collecting enough signatures from voters in their district -- about 4,500, in this case."

As a five year old company, Murray Hill Inc. does not meet the minimum age requirement of 25 however so a "designated human", the company's CEO, has been chosen to represent them.

The corporate candidate has its own Web site, a Facebook page with nearly 6,000 fans, and the online ad above that has drawn more than 187,000 hits.

“Vote for Murray Hill Incorporated — the best democracy money can buy.”

Heh. Well done.

Hollow "Victory," Mr. President . . . .

Check out Matt Taibbi and Robert Kuttner on Bill Moyers Journal Friday night.

They explain the clusterf_ck in Washington for what it is: a sell-out to Corporate America. What a surprise, eh?

It's about 30 minutes, but well worth it. The dems and the "o-team" need to pay attention. S'pecially the comments regarding rahm.

I knew that guy was gonna be trouble, and guess what ? ? ? ?

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Matt Strikes Again . . . .

My apologies for missing the release of this a couple of days ago, but "better late than never," right?

Matt Taibbi's "Sick and Wrong" Rolling Stone article is finally available online. Check it out for his take on the USofexpensivehealthcare's fiasco in the attempt to "reform" the health care system. As usual, his writing style is perfect, and his insights/sources are a wealth of information. Too bad the rest of the MSM doesn't have the same level of journalistic quality.

Some highlights:

Without a public option, any effort at health care reform will be as meaningful as a manicure for a gunshot victim.
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Leading advocates of single-payer, including doctors from the Physicians for a National Health Program, implored Baucus to allow them to testify. When he refused, a group of eight single-payer activists, including three doctors, stood up during the hearings and asked to be included in the discussion. One of the all-time classic moments in the health care reform movement came when the second protester to stand up, Katie Robbins of Health Care Now, declared, "We need single-payer health care!"

To which Baucus, who looked genuinely frightened, replied, "We need more police!"

The eight protesters were led away in handcuffs and spent about seven hours in jail.
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But one of the immutable laws of politics in the U.S. Congress is that progressives will always be screwed by their own leaders, as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted that "private insurance will not be able to compete with a government option." This is a little like complaining that Keanu Reeves was robbed of an Oscar just because he can't act.
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Even more revolting, when Pelosi was asked on July 31st if she worried that progressives in the House would yank their support of the bill because of the sellout to conservatives, she literally laughed out loud. "Are the progressives going to take down universal, quality, affordable health care for all Americans?" she said, chuckling heartily to reporters. "I don't think so."

The laugh said everything about what the mainstream Democratic Party is all about. It finds the notion that it has to pay anything more than lip service to its professed values funny.
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And finally:

Then again, some of the blame has to go to all of us. It's more than a little conspicuous that the same electorate that poured its heart out last year for the Hallmark-card story line of the Obama campaign has not been seen much in this health care debate. The handful of legislators — the Weiners, Kuciniches, Wydens and Sanderses — who are fighting for something real should be doing so with armies at their back. Instead, all the noise is being made on the other side. Not so stupid after all — they, at least, understand that politics is a fight that does not end with the wearing of a T-shirt in November.

Read the whole article and judge for yourself.

Send it to your friends south of the 49th. Perhaps they'll put the T-shirts away and start demanding their basic human rights . . . .

H/T BTO

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

UPDATE: Robert Reich weighs in on what Obama must demand from Congress.

Money for Vote$ . . . .

The answer to the question asked at the end:

"Whoever contribute$ the mo$t $$ to my re-election campaign!"

Silly voter. What was he thinking ? ? ? ?

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)