"Anonymous" Open Letter To Koch Brothers

“Hello, Anonymous calling for the enemies of democracy. Are the Koch Brothers in?”
 
This warms my Trotskyite heart: After posting the following “open letter” to Koch Industries, effectively putting them on notice and asking the American and European population to stop buying their products, the politically motivated hackers of “Anonymous” have already begun to make good on their threat, as last night and this morning the Koch-supported rightwing political organization, Americans for Prosperity’s website was knocked offline several times. If an elite hacker was able to get into the intranet of Koch Industries, they could probably really disrupt their business for a few days. Let’s hope they cause maximum chaos for these evil bloodsuckers. (I hope Fox News is next. THAT would be the best thing ever, wouldn’t it?)

Here is the text of the letter:

Dear Citizens of the United States of America,

It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch—the billionaire owners of Koch Industries—have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back.

Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most recently started to manipulate the political agenda in Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process. The Koch’s have helped to fuel the unrest in Wisconsin and the drive behind the bill to eliminate the collective bargaining power of unions in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state’s power supplies.

The Koch brothers have made a science of fabricating ‘grassroots’ organizations and advertising campaigns to support them in an attempt to sway voters based on their falsehoods. Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are just a few of these organizations. In a world where corporate money has become the lifeblood of political influence, the labor unions are one of the few ways citizens have to fight against corporate greed. Anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen-workers of Wisconsin, or the opportunity to fight for the people in America’s broken political system. For these reasons, we feel that the Koch brothers threaten the United States democratic system and, by extension, all freedom-loving individuals everywhere. As such, we have no choice but to spread the word of the Koch brothers’ political manipulation, their single-minded intent and the insidious truth of their actions in Wisconsin, for all to witness.

Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people, whose rights and liberties are being systematically removed one by one, even when their own government refuses to listen or worse - is complicit in these attacks. We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries’ paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.

U.S. Product Boycott List

Vanity Fair [not the magazine, the napkins and “classy” paper plates -RM]
Quilted Northern
Angel Soft    
Sparkle
Brawny
Mardi Gras  
Dixie        

European Product Boycott List

Demak’Up
Kitten Soft
Lotus / Lotus Soft
Tenderly
Nouvelle Soft
Okay Ktchen Towels
Colhogar
Delica
Inversoft
Tutto

To identify these brands, please look for the following logo anywhere on the packaging:
 

 
Anonymous.

We are Legion I We do not forgive I We do not forget I Expect us

via dangerousminds.net

We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us

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Not All Fat Is The Same

via notadinnerparty.tumblr.com

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Seventeen Small Business Tax Cuts and Counting

Here's the list of 17 small business tax cuts that President Obama has signed into law --

From the Recovery Act, HIRE Acts, and Affordable Care Act:

1. A New Small Business Health Care Tax Credit

2. A New Tax Credit for Hiring Unemployed Workers

3. Bonus Depreciation Tax Incentives to Support New Investment

4. 75% Exclusion of Small Business Capital Gains

5. Expansion of Limits on Small Business Expensing

6. Five-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses

7. Reduction of the Built-In Gains Holding Period for Small Businesses from 10 to 7 Years to Allow Small Business Greater Flexibility in Their Investments   

8. Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief to Allow Small Businesses to Keep Needed Cash on Hand

From the Small Business Jobs Act:

9. Zero Capital Gains Taxes on Key Investments in Small Businesses

10. The Highest Small Business Expensing Limit Ever– Up to $500,000

11. An Extension of 50% Bonus Depreciation

12. A New Deduction for  Health Care Expenses for the Self-Employed

13. Tax Relief and Simplification for Cell Phone Deductions

14. An Increase in The Deduction for Entrepreneurs’ Start-Up Expenses

15. A Five-Year Carryback Of General Business Credits

16. Limitations on Penalties for Errors in Tax Reporting That Disproportionately Affect Small Business

And from the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act:

17. 100 Percent Expensing

via whitehouse.gov

Since coming into office in January 2009, President Obama has signed legislation that created or extended 17 small-business tax cuts and credits.

Let's use facts when we debate.

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Context

A unionized employee, a Tea Party member and a corporate CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches out and takes 11 of the cookies, then says to the Tea Party member "look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."  — Dialogic

Pictures, 1000 Words, And Media Bias

New media’s role in Egypt was a little overrated – how much tweeting and facebooking was actually done when the dictator could just shut off the internet?

But could new media’s role in Wisconsin be underrated? From which news organization do you think I’m cribbing this most impressive shot most fully capturing the impact of the latest 70,000+ protest in the snow in Madison? ABC? CNN? FOX?Correct, none of the above.

via foknewschannel.com

If this were a Tea Party rally with 1/10th the people, it would be on more news programs. The mainstream media is whiffing at covering what democracy really looks like.

"The MSM had to be dragged into covering the Wisconsin protests. They ignored it for as long as they could possibly get away with it. The protesters just wouldn’t back down. Their numbers grew from 10,000 to 30,000 to 75,000 to 100,000 to 150,000 on 2/26.

But anytime 3 teabaggers gathered, there was instant coverage w/ the most glaring, unrelenting spotlight shone on their “grassroots movement” by every single national & cable TV station, reporter, pundit, & newsprint. Young people don’t rely on TV to get their news. They don’t know who David Gergen or Gloria Borger are…..& they don’t care."

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Sunday Morning Bias

Three Sunday Shows Fail To Include Democrats As Featured Guests

Last Sunday also tilted heavily toward GOP voices. This Sunday the trend continues. Three Sunday shows -- Fox, CBS, and NBC -- locked out Democratic voices as featured guests:

Fox News Sunday: Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR)

CBS Face the Nation: Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

NBC Meet the Press: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

via washingtonmonthly.com

Liberal media, indeed.

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"Job Killing": The GOP Has A Bo{eh}ner For It

The budget fight is frustrating in identical ways. The discussion has generally focused on what House Republicans want (their $61 billion in brutal spending cuts), why they want it (they allegedly want to address the fiscal mess they created during the Bush years), and what they're prepared to do to get their way (shut down the government).

But the discourse rarely gets around to that other question: what would happen if Republicans actually got their way? It's heartening, then, to see the New York Times editorial board take a look at the consequences of the GOP plan.

In a recent report, economists at Goldman Sachs estimated that the House cuts would reduce economic growth by 1.5 percentage points to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of 2011. That would devastate employment. As a rule of thumb, each percentage point drop in growth means a loss of 1.2 million jobs. [...]

[M]ost of the cuts would be counterproductive. Annual spending on education through high school is cut by 12 percent, or nearly $6 billion (since the cuts would be squeezed into the rest of the current budget year, they are even deeper on an annualized basis).

Those cuts include reductions to Head Start that would remove 218,000 children from the program and cuts to elementary education that would hit 2,400 schools and nearly one million students. Pell Grants for college would also be cut by nearly $6 billion. Transportation investments would be cut by 9 percent, or $8.1 billion, including $2.7 billion from rail, $1 billion from highway spending and $675 million from public transit. Americorps and other community-service programs would be eliminated, although their benefit to society surely exceeds their $1.2 billion cost. Since national service programs are matched by $800 million from foundations and other sources, that would be lost, too.

The list goes on. Small businesses would be hit by a 9 percent cut, or $84 million, to the Small Business Administration. Homeowners facing foreclosure and other Americans with legal problems would be hurt by a $70 million cut to legal aid. Financial regulators would endure deep cuts that would cripple their ability to carry out the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. That's asking for another financial crisis.

via washingtonmonthly.com

The GOP are the true "job killers". Bush was the undoubted master of it. All those tax cuts produced what? Prosperity? Nope, just a huge deficit.

When asked about massive worker lay-offs if Republicans succeed, Boehner said, "so be it".

Making the economy worse, on purpose, may be the goal of Republicans, but America needs real leadership and not horse-race politics by the media and feigned fiscal concern until 2012 by the GOP.

Republican irresponsibility got us into this mess, it won't get us out.

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Walker Sucks Koch

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CNN gets sign-bombed.

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Fox News Chief, Roger Ailes, Urged Employee to Lie

It was an incendiary allegation — and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie two years earlier to federal investigators who were vetting Bernard B. Kerik for the job of homeland security secretary.

Ms. Regan had once been involved in an affair with Mr. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner whose mentor and supporter, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, was in the nascent stages of a presidential campaign. The News Corporation executive, whom she did not name, wanted to protect Mr. Giuliani and conceal the affair, she said.

Now, court documents filed in a lawsuit make clear whom Ms. Regan was accusing of urging her to lie: Roger E. Ailes, the powerful chairman of Fox News and a longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani. What is more, the documents say that Ms. Regan taped the telephone call from Mr. Ailes in which Mr. Ailes discussed her relationship with Mr. Kerik.

via nytimes.com

It was only for Homeland Security, that is something Right Wingers don't care about. They should not be upset. Why would the Fox Narrative crowd get upset about covering up for a corruptible felon to hold such a powerful job? I'm sure they have some fictional relationship in the 1960's to obsess on

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Single Payer On The Horizon?

"The director of MassHealth — the state-run Medicaid plan that insures nearly 1.3 million Massachusetts residents — seems to think consumers would be better off with single payer."

The Washington Monthly

Something to keep an eye on.

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Politically Polarizing Unions

“In case you haven’t noticed, the state of Wisconsin has been making some noise of late. Yet somehow, a week-long fight over collective bargaining rights for union workers has morphed into a politically polarizing smack down between opposing voices with the landscape of American media.”

If you listen to the Right Wing, they’d have you believe these Unions are out to destroy America and can be linked to chaos around the World. What is happening in Wisconsin is a peaceful movement that CNBC’s Rick Santelli equated to a national security threat. WTF? Glenn Beck goes full mental. Check out the video.

“Although Beck may believe so, the protests have nothing to do with religion, Karl Marx or terrorism. They are about the voice of the American middle class; a collective voice arguably being muted by bickering broadcasters.”

via liberalsarecool.tumblr.com

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Obama Administration Will No Longer Defend Defense Of Mariage Act [DOMA]

President Obama has instructed the Justice Department to no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the legal prohibition on federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that the  department will stop defending the policy because it has now been challenged in the Second Circuit, "which has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated."

"After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny," he said. "The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President's determination."

via cbsnews.com

Equality is spreading around the world.

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GOP Loves Crushing American Labor

via liberalsarecool.tumblr.com

Individuals and the groups who use collective bargaining do so to protect themselves from the rich and powerful who want to exploit them for labor. This is not theory, this is experience.

We did not get to our present America without much hardships. We put safeguards in place to protect the present and future generations from repeating those hardships.

It now seems the Republicans and Tea Partiers have forgotten those lessons and want to exploit the laborers again. Why? Because there is a Democratic President?

Do they want to stunt the economy just to kneecap the recovery brought on by Obama in the wake of the destructive Bush years?

Are they willing to make such drastic power grabs just for politics? I think we know the answer. - Douglas/LiberaslAreCool

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The Revenge Of The '94 GOP Oligarchy

via huffingtonpost.com

The Huffington Post's Senior Political Editor Howard Fineman, along with The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball" tonight to discuss the House GOP's recent budget cuts and the possibility of a government shutdown.

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Bernie Sanders: "We Ain't All In This Together"

Let us remember those who voted for the unpaid wars, the unpaid Bush tax cuts, the unpaid Prescription Part D, and ran up the massive deficits, are same people who are now complaining about debts, all the while passing massive unpaid tax cuts to the rich and undermining health care reform that actually cuts the deficit.

What The GOP Said To Me

pantslessprogressive:

ilyagerner:

Three months ago, I remember being told that Americans making $250,000 a year were just salt of the earth types, barely scraping by in lower-middle-class existence. The value of the dollar must have skyrocketed in the meantime, because now I’m told Wisconsin teachers (starting salary: $25,222; average: $46,390) are lazy, overpaid parasites.

Ah yes, like Professor Todd Henderson, who complained in September that he couldn’t afford a tax hike. His family’s income was $400,000 a year. Salt of the earth, indeed.

via liberalsarecool.tumblr.com

The GOP confuses making money for working hard. And hard working, lower income persons collectively are a threat to the GOP. They might get what they earned and deserve.

Divide and conquer, at all costs, at all sense of double standards and hypocrisies, is the GOP modus operandi.

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Collective Bargaining For Teachers And Test Scores

via liberalsarecool.tumblr.com

Only 5 states do not have collective bargaining for educators and have deemed it illegal. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows:

South Carolina - 50th
North Carolina - 49th
Georgia - 48th
Texas - 47th
Virginia - 44th

The South has a sickening proud history of exploiting labor. #complete_scum

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