Day: February 8, 2011

Verbatim

Buck Banks

And nobody yet has, nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and um, no, not, not real um enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And um, in these areas that are so volatile right now because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And um, we do not have all that information yet.

— Celebritician Sarah Palin®, criticizing President Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt — we think.

I read that answer several times, and I still really don’t know what she’s saying.

— White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, quoted by USA Today, responding to Sarah Palin’s weekend criticism of President Obama on Egypt.

House Energy Committee Has Become a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Oil Billionaire Koch Brothers

Jon Ponder
Koch-GOP Industries leadership team, from left: Bosses Charles, David Koch and their able assistants, House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Energy Chair Fred Upton
Koch-GOP Industries leadership team, from left: Bosses Charles, David Koch and their lackeys, House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Energy Chair Fred Upton
logo-koch-ind
A partial list of recipients of Koch Industries “investments” in the 2010 midterm elections:

House Leadership:

  • Speaker John Boehner, Ohio, $20,000
  • Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va., $20,000
  • National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, Texas, $20,000
  • House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp, Mich., $17,500
  • House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, Wisc., $20,000
  • House House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Darrell Issa, Calif., $12,500

House Energy Committee Republicans
Six of 22 donations to committee members by the Koch brothers:

  • Chairmain Fred Upton, Mich., $20,000
  • Chairman Emeritus Joe Barton, Texas, $18,000
  • Rep. John Shimkus, Ill., $18,500
  • Freshman Rep. Michael Pompeo, Kansas, $43,500
  • Tea Partyist Rep. Morgan Griffith, Va., $5,000
  • Tea Partyist Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Ill., $5,000

House Energy Committee Democrats
Two of of five donations to committee members by the Koch brothers:

  • Rep. Mike Ross, Ark., $15,500
  • Rep. Dan Boren, Okla., $13,500

(List continues below)

In the 2010 midterms, Californians rejected wealthy, self-funded candidates for governor and the U.S. senate at least in part because voters were leery of candidates who felt they could “buy” the election in order to achieve power. In the Florida governor’s race and the Wisconsin U.S. Senate race voters made the opposite decision. There is every reason the swing voters who put Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Ron Johnson into office will soon regret those votes, but at least these candidates were elected, as much as is possible these days, in the open by a fair vote.

But while no one was looking, oil billionaires David and Charles Koch — behind-the-scenes funders of the tea party astroturf mobs — and their front group, Americans for Prosperity spent a little over $41 million during the election, quietly buying dozens of members of Congress, lock, stock and barrel.

Since the elections, the Kochs have taken control of their latest acquisition — the House of Representatives — with their first order of business being a directive to House Speaker John Boehner to populate the House Energy Committee, which regulates their core business, with members beholden to the new bosses.

The Kochs hate publicity, and this maneuvering has been done with utmost secrecy. So it must have been unpleasant for the brothers and their minions in the GOP on Sunday when the Los Angeles Times published a story about their purchase of the energy committee on its front page above the fold:

[…]

Lockyear on Texas’ Hidden $27 Bil Deficit: Someone Turned on the Lights in the Bar and Texas ‘Doesn’t Look So Pretty Anymore’

Jon Ponder

Someone just turned the lights on in the bar, and the sexiest state doesn’t look so pretty anymore.

– California Treasurer Bill Lockyear, a Democrat, reacting to news that Texas had been hiding a $27 billion deficit for over a year while both Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry and California GOP candidate for governor Meg Whitman lambasted California’s deficit and touted Texas as a “miracle” of fiscal responsibility.