The Tea Party - Ideology Sources, Funding, and Network

 This article details the involvement of the Koch Brothers with the Tea Party. It is a long and very worth your time and effort to read and digest.  If you want to understand the Tea Party, where it came from, and how it is funded read this entire article.  There are some key names in here that show up over time.  Remember them and when you read other articles in the future make the connections. 


Personally, I have mixed feelings about the Tea Party, the Koch brothers and the agenda being pushed.  I embrace many Libertarian values and much of their agenda.  However, we should all understand where the messages are coming from, who is crafting them, their goals, and who is ultimately behind these seemingly disparate groups that are tied together in many complex and interesting ways. 

Strongly recommended use of your time to read and understand. 

The billionaire Koch brothers’ war against Obama: newyorker.com

Comments

Keith said…
I also heard of these brothers just last week on NPR. The problem is that you cannot help but agree with some of their positions and oppositions. And I guess if I had the kind of money and investments that they own, I would be pretty paranoid that somehow a swing to the left would erode that money and along with it power to make things happen. Loss of control. On the other hand how does their efforts or the abscence of their manipulations affect us the avergage citizen. They gain support by selling the idea that they are one of "us", when in fact we are and will continue to be members of their hierarchy of serfs allowed to share in the benefits of the world they create depending on the level we have achieved in the hierarchy. Not that that is a bad thing as long as we realize what is actually happening. Again as in every article that drags the Global Warming issue into the argument, there is the denial that climate change is taking place. Making it a debate as to whether there is warming or not when the real argument is whether it is caused by human activity and this bogus CO2 redherring. There is no doubt that there is climate change taking place. It is a cycle between glaciations and interglacials that has been taking place at least 4 times in geologic time. Again the argument should not even mention the word Global Warming. It is Pollution that we should be concerned with. Acidification and warming of the oceans not this nebulous term Global Warming that should be the concern. As long as the debate keeps us from focusing on the real issue I guess it delays any real action and the flow of money can continue unabated. Their support of arts, music, and other public endeavors complicates the argument further. Are these not good things bringing them strong plus's in the public opinion column. How can we kick them around when they do so much good. That is how we grant concessions on their environmental pollution. Perhaps it is some sort of effort in achieving karmic balance.
Sojka's Call said…
Keith - I agree with everything you said and had most of those same thoughts when reading and pondering the article about the Koch's. One item and name to look out for is Grover Norquist. He has been one of those behind-the-scenes guys that goes way back. He was part of the Gingrich contract with America, has close ties with Rove, and some really interesting associations with Muslims.

I have been doing some research this morning on him and found he got an Islamic guy named Faisal Gill, who did not disclose association with a known terrorist during his appointment process, appointed as pol­icy direc­tor for the Depart­ment of Home­land Security’s intel­li­gence divi­sion. His ties were then discovered and he was briefly removed as director but then reinstated. Norquist also has ties to the Ground Zero mosque, and some troubling ties to 9/11.

When I see Norquist involved with the Koch's you wonder who is using who. Are the Koch's being duped and used by Norquist? Are they really collaborators? To what end? Are they really trying to bring a third party up? Is it all a way to discredit the whole third party idea in the US for at least another generation?

One thing I have gleaned is that the Koch's and Norquist play for keeps and for the long-term - like 30 to 50 years and longer.

Global Warming debate: I hear you! The world is warming but that is not the question (i agree with you). I cannot figure out why this debate is confused seemingly on both sides. Maybe it is as simple as you state and has to do with mis-directing people from the real issue - pollution. It does seem the GBW debate has deflected discussion about pollution almost completely.
Keith said…
Interesting your assessment of their undermining the Third Party concept. I would thing the dupers are the ones with the most money. Grover Norquist sounds like a loyal lieutenant or maybe a front man. It all seems like something out of a political intrigue novel. Bottom line is they are oil guys and are using whatever means necessary to preserve monitary and political power. Are they connected with the Bilderberg Group? I am going to do a little googling myself to see what thread comes up.
Sojka's Call said…
Check this link out.......... http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-467-fifth-column-part-iv/

There is lots of info here. One passage particularly interesting was...........

1. Begin­ning with more infor­ma­tion about the Islamists asso­ci­ated with GOP king­maker Grover Norquist, the pro­gram high­lights the appoint­ment of Faisal Gill—a Norquist protégé—to a sen­si­tive intel­li­gence posi­tion with the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity. Note that Gill, in turn, is closely asso­ci­ated with Abdu­rah­man Alam­oudi, an inti­mate of the Al Taqwa milieu. “The pol­icy direc­tor for the Depart­ment of Home­land Security’s intel­li­gence divi­sion was briefly removed from his job in March when the Fed­eral Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion dis­cov­ered he had failed to dis­close his asso­ci­a­tion with Abdu­rah­man Alam­oudi, a jailed Amer­i­can Mus­lim leader. Alam­oudi was indicted last year on terrorism-related money-laundering charges and now claims to have been part of a plot to assas­si­nate Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdul­lah.” (“How Secure is the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity?” by Mary Jacoby; Salon.com; 6/22/2004; p. 1; accessed at: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/06/22/gill/print.html .)

2. It is fright­en­ing to note the infor­ma­tion to which Gill’s appoint­ment has given him access. “After a flurry of inter­a­gency meet­ings, how­ever, Home­land Secu­rity decided to leave the pol­icy direc­tor, Faisal Gill, in place, accord­ing to two gov­ern­ment offi­cials with knowl­edge of the Alam­oudi inves­ti­ga­tion. A White House polit­i­cal appointee with close ties to Repub­li­can power bro­ker Grover Norquist and no appar­ent back­ground in intel­li­gence, Gill has access to top-secret infor­ma­tion on the vul­ner­a­bil­ity of America’s sea­ports, avi­a­tion facil­i­ties and nuclear power plants to ter­ror­ist attacks. [Empha­sis added.]” (Ibid.; pp. 1–2.)

3. “The FBI raised con­cerns with Home­land Secu­rity offi­cials in March after dis­cov­er­ing that Gill had failed to list on secu­rity clear­ance doc­u­ments his work in 2001 with the Amer­i­can Mus­lim coun­cil, the offi­cials said. The advo­cacy group, which was con­trolled by Alam­oudi, has been under scrutiny in an inves­ti­ga­tion of ter­ror­ism financ­ing. The lead agent in that inves­ti­ga­tion works for an arm of Home­land Secu­rity. Gill’s omis­sion of the infor­ma­tion on his ‘Stan­dard Form 86’ national secu­rity ques­tion­naire is a poten­tial felony vio­la­tion. There is no evi­dence, how­ever, that Gill has taken any action to com­pro­mise national secu­rity.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)


Tons of other info showing many GOP/Arab connections. The Bush/Bin Laden connection is not unusual and has been downplayed in the media.
Keith said…
Note the date it was published, 2004. The ground work for all of this was laid during the Bush Regime. What of Obama? Where does he stand regarding all of these schenagnegans? He is the muslim that everyone hates or wants to hate, but with this info is it just disinformation? Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Not so simple. Clearly if much of the population becomes as distrustful of all sides of government as I am becoming there lis sure to be trouble. It means that there are no choices.
Sojka's Call said…
That is why I believe the master planners put the Tea Party in motion and put Obama in as Prez. Both moves were to create outlets for everyone's frustration and create a false hope that something better this way comes, instead, we get more of the original. So, now both the far right and far left have (had) something to believe in if only for a while. Don't worry, new drugs, wars, personalities, sports seasons, movies and TV shows are coming your way to entertain and make you forget, at least for a little while......
Anonymous said…
There is a great analysis of Obama's failings from a progressive point of view in this week's The Nation http://www.thenation.com/article/37165/kabuki-democracy?page=full .

While I support the libertarian view of social issues, which is basically live and let live, I reject libertarian economics. While the idea that one's labor, and its fruits are his own and that any attempt of government to take it away si theft, is a tempting one, the actual following of this philosophy to its logical conclusion leads to a world that is not very nice to live in. It is a world where people like the Koch brothers amass vast power and use it to keep the rest of us in a position where it becomes less and less possible to achieve upward mobility.

The simple fact is that "the system is rigged, and it is rigged against us (progressives.)" That and people like the Kochs, Norquist and Rupert Murdoch make it extremely difficult to achieve progressive reform no matter what the majority of voters want. In this climate it's far easier to cut taxes for rich people and loosen regulation on business than to create initiatives that actually help average people.
Cameron said…
The government spends so much on implementing different environmental programs for the country. But the people just keep on destroying the environment so the result, nothing. International business loans companies still keep on helping the government in promoting the big change in the environment.

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