Tea Party Sugardaddies

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The Tea Party's Sugardaddies

It turns out that the Tea Party and various right-wing think tanks are being backed funded by a couple of billionaire oil tycoons. Charles and David Kock (pronounced "coke") own Koch Industries a conglomerate based in Wichita Kansas with an estimated income of 100 billion dollars. The Kochs own oil refineries in Alaska, Texas, and Minnesota, as well as pipelines, and also Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups, Georgia pacific lumber, and Stainmaster carpets.

The Kochs are funding groups with names like "Americans for Prosperity" which promote a pro-corporate agenda of low taxes and less regulation. The Kochs are also deniers of global warming, funding groups like the Cato Institute which spew out denyer propaganda.

Koch Industries has a record of negligence and malice. It has been found guilty of more than three hundred oil spills. It has also been found liable for the deaths of two Texas teenagers in a gas pipeline explosion.



There you have it folks. The Tea Party, far from being a grassroots movement, is really just "astroturf," funded by billionairs like the Koch's, so they can continue to pollute and make tons of cash. The Koch's are not only bad for democracy, they are a menace to life on the planet.

The End of Iraq?

The departure of the last US combat brigade from Iraq means that, hopefully, no more Americans will die in Iraq. The problem is that Iraq doesn't have a real government. Nouri Al Maliki's Shiite regime is turning into a klepto-theocracy. That country is more divided than ever along ethnic and religious lines. Iraq will eventually fall apart just like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Those three countries were created at the end of World War I by politicians and diplomats who thought it "logical" to draw this border here and that border there. But they neglected to consult with the people who were going to live under the new arrangements. So it's no surprise that these "invented" states eventually collapsed.

When the end does come it's not going to be pretty. But hopefull we will learn the lesson we should have learned back in 1975. We have no business telling other countries how to manage their affairs.

Digital TV: Why Did They Bother?

It's been more than a year since the introduction of Digital Tv. Remember all the talk about more channels and supposedly, more choice? Instead we have RTN, with its constant reruns of Magnum PI, The A Team, and Knightrider. Then there's "This" network with it's constant showing of B-movies from the 1980's. It's like who cares?

It's seems that digital tv was just another corporate scheme to make us the consumers buy new equipment with money we could've used to othe purposes. If a show like Magnum now looks like a "classic" it's only because today tv shows are nothing but dreck. There isn't a single show on network tv that I actually enjoy watching. If it weren't for PBS I probably wouldn't watch tv at all.

No Matter How You Raise Them

Remember Rudolph Giuliani, the tough guy prosecutor turned New York Mayor who allegedly cleaned the city up? It turns out that his daughter, Caroline, was caught shoplifting $100 worth of cosmetics. Some people might say that the girl had a troubled upbringing. It's true that Rudy's treatment of his ex-wife and children mark him as a jerk and a creep. It's funny how rightist stilly claim to be upset by Bill Clinton's extra-curricular dallying. Compared with Giuliani, Clinton looks like Ward Cleaver. So much for the fakery of "conservative family values."