College Republican Reunion 2010: Old cronies unite to kill climate change initiative
This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. For months the California Republican Party has been paying professional petition gatherers to get enough signatures to put up a ballot initiative to repeal AB 32, California's climate change legislation passed in 2006. At the eleventh hour, they succeeded.
Now that they've succeeded, huge contributions are flowing into California to make sure the measure passes. In the name of "corporate speech", Tesoro has contributed $500,000, Occidental Petroleum $300,000 and Valero Energy has contributed $1,000,000.
Those are the ones we know about. Then there's the "Adam Smith Foundation."
The Adam Smith Foundation is a Missouri 501(c)(4) organization. It was organized in 2007. The Board of Directors is a fairly unknown bunch: Kurt Killen, William Clark Hardin IV, and John Elliott.
John Elliott is a mid-level player and associate of former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt. Matt Blunt is the son of Rep. Roy Blunt, who is closely linked to Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, and the rest of the Republican graft gang. Were it not for the Abramoff connection, Roy Blunt would be sitting in John Boehner's minority leader seat today.
William Clark Hardin IV is another director. You can read more about him here.
And then there's Kurt Killen. He's the one who is most interesting to me. Kurt Killen served in 2003-2004 as an officer of the Missouri Republican Party. Mainstream, straight up Republican who loves Boy Scouts, libraries and...Rep. Sam Graves, at least enough to donate to him. In fact, Graves is the only candidate I see any donations going to from Killen in 2008-2010. Sam Graves is an interesting fellow. He also has ties back to Abramoff and his Gang of College Republicans. Major donors include the Busch family, Tony Rudy (the convicted Abramoff crony), and Sheldon Adelson. Oh, and Kurt Killen has been a member of the Citizens Club for Growth since 2004.
In 2010, Sam Graves has received four times as much in campaign contributions from corporate PACs as he has from individual donors. But the donor who caught my eye is KochPAC.
To review, we have a 501(c)(4) organization incorporated in Missouri. Its stated purpose is to "promote conservative principles and individual liberties in Missouri." (2008 990 filing) On December 31, 2008, its net assets were $5,300 and 2008 contributions were $30,000. In April, 2010 this same organization cut a check for $498,000.00 to fight a California Ballot Initiative.
One of the directors is a member of the Club for Growth and other directors have ties back to the Missouri Blunt machine, Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, and KochPAC.
Who do YOU think wrote the check? Here are your choices:
- Club for Growth
- Koch Industries
- Citizens United
- All of the above
And even more ties that bind...here.
I could get a little more excited about this if I saw more effort to expose the failings and corruption of the Dem Congress, Senate and President in the Gulf, this is small beer in comparison.
Can you believe them saying the air is safe to breathe, the fish to eat and the water to drink?
told me is so.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
being an Independent, I got nobody in power to cheer for, nobody to make me feel good about my choices, nobody to identify with how smart and fashionable "we" are compared to the "others"
you can romance Ralph Nader. Such is your lot.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
You probably think those us us who spun out of Freeways at high speed in a Corvair were joyfully imagining we were practicing for stunt parts in a Hollywood chase scene.
Many of us have long followed Ralph since GM made him a rich autistic political savant.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
i lurve MY cORVAIR!!!11
me-oww!
with an overheated air cooled engine right behind and below your butt!
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
:) Who needs heated seats? I blow my nose in the general direction of the intentional seat heaters.
me-oww!
It doesn't handle any worse and is no less safe than a Porsche of the same vintage.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
memories. One of my dad's partners had a bathtub Porsche. I had a huge crush on the guy, who was very cute and funny too. It was a double crush, one on him, one on the car.
me-oww!
in a Pontiac Bonneville.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
did he notice.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
it was a hood ornament he'd never noticed before.
me-oww!
It was on the hood all night, but he went to work the next day before I got up and it was all gone by the time he got back.
I do know he didn't mention seeing it before he passed out on the barcalounger
before supper. But he rarely talked during "Gunsmoke" and forbid all conversation during "Have Gun Will Travel."
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
for their collection of stolen hood ornaments.
("Paladin, paladin, where do you roam?")
me-oww!
I was my father's remote control.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
call bullshit on the objections, or lack thereof, point out lack of due process, malfeasance and misfeasance. We watched every week, and it annoyed him so much, he finally went to law school.
I called bullshit on Paul Drake's car phone, which had a curly corded handset, just like our home phone.
me-oww!
He had no use for gay lawyers on TV.
Or colored people. He watched Palladin and the Cartwrights despite their Chinese help.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
While my dad did watch Perry Mason, he also made sure I watched Benny Hill and Monty Python while I was growing up.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
Perry Mason was as close to American Kabuki as television ever got.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Like the opening riff to Turning Japanese.
'Hop Sing is in the house' warning music.
me-oww!
which character name was more racist,
Hop Sing on Bonanza or Hey Boy on Palladin.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
The "Oh look it's a Chinaman!" music that accompanied his every entrance...and I watched Paladin as well, and don't have much of a memory of 'Hey Boy.' However, at least Hop Sing had a real fake name.
me-oww!
La plus ca change.. Screw it. Ca change jamais.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
with the language the French forced you guys to learn when you signed their articles of surrender.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
how the hell that happened. As a genetic product of both sides of the fracas I've found French useful. Particularly when visiting my oh so distant cousins down New Orleans way where a few words of French opens some amazing culinary and entertainment possibilities.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
you got the ooo lala too.
me-oww!
any more than fries.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
but somebody is going to have to explain to me how the French around New Orleans managed to develop such an amazing and varied cuisine while their northern cousins peaked out at poutine. A few brief words overheard at a gas station between my father and I in French got us an invitation to a local wedding that was truly phenomenal and an annual invitation to return. Now how cool is that.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
by petition.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
who monitor us from above will object to the use of this site's bandwidth for social networking. Sorry Karoli. From time to time order breaks down.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
climate then.
Did I mention I was born in California? Lived right near Santa Anita. Every fall we would sit on our front porch and watch the San Gabriels burn down. Talk about your climate change.
Momma used to say the little man next door who came over all the time when Dad was away on business did so because he liked her cooking.
It was many years before Dad told me the man I knew as Uncle Felipe was a jockey.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
But the long explanation is the many many cultures from all around the world that ended up marooned in the Caribbean, from colonial days, empire days, and plain old piracy and buccaneering.
Whenever I hear "Club for Growth" I always think "Hair Club for Men".
I just love it when these fucks from Missouri send boatloads of cash to affect the electoral process in CA. The Mormons did it with Prop 8 and they didn't even have to leave Utah.
Assholes
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
I'm sure the teabaggers will be moaning about outside agitators trying to influence a local election...
[**crickets**]
My conspiracy sense is tingling...
The Mormon Church still owns a great deal of property in Missouri, especially around Independence, Mo., where many Mormons believe that Christ will set up His kingdom on earth.
"When are we going to stop trying to tell elected officials what to do. Our job is to spend the taxpayers' money the best way we can." -- Tommy Watkins, Justice of the Peace, Crawford County, Arkansas
the tablets. Kansas City, on the other hand, is simply in the wrong state.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
HERETIC.
They claim it's Missoura...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Club for Growth sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDk_ZfYuyfY
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
to straighten out the mess the Extreme Court handed us in its latest betrayal of the nation. Somewhere in the work of that convention is going to have to be an amendment granting the citizens both the right to unseat lifetime appointed judges for any reason the electorate deems cause, by a simple majority vote in national referendums, and we need the ability to also reverse any supreme court decision by a simple majority vote, to also be held in national referendums.
Thanks to the fascist wannabe's on the court, America is entering a death spiral. Welcome to Amerika. We are running out of time and positive options for correcting things.
Ah yes , the silver spoon fed , totally brainwashed Nazi youth .These evil swine certainly fulfilled their duty .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
those groups, like the GOP in general, can do all the TV ads they want but what gets initiatives on the ballot and then gets them passed, like the ones bankrupting CA now, are the right wing talk radio stations that were licensed to operate in the public interest but instead lie and distort in unison, broadcasting those think tank talking points like paul reveres in reverse.
meanwhile the people who end up getting punked have no idea because they can't listen to those stations because it hurts their heads to do so and listening to music while they blog political is so much more pleasant.
wake up america- those corporate think tanks that have destroyed democracy since reagan killed the fairness doctrine have nothing once progressive groups realize all they have to do is cut samsons hair by finally taking their picketing and boycotting to the local GOP power centers - the limbaugh/hannity megastations. no one pays attention when we do it at the state capitols it's time to change tactics and finally get dem reps and presidents backs where it counts the most.
local sponsors, including many university sports programs, are essential sponsors of the 1000 radio stations that spew the uncontested coordinated repetition from these think tanks and allow them to undermine democracy. they need to be asked WTF?
http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.dailym...
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