Progressive Calendar 04.07.11
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu)
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 07:08:08 -0700 (PDT)
              P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R   04.07.11

1. White privilege   4.07 9am
2. Eagan peace vigil 4.07 4:30pm
3. Northtown vigil   4.07 5pm
4. Climate refugees  4.07 5:30pm
5. Walker rummage    4.07 6pm
6. Immigrant         4.07 7pm

7. Glen Ford     - The Obama disaster, at home and abroad
8. Ted Rall      - Fool us twice? Can Obama get reelected?
9. David Korten  - Greed is not a virtue
10. John Farrell - Koch's web of influence
11. ed           - Old King Koch

--------1 of 11--------

From: lydiahowell [at] comcast.net
Subject: White privilege 4.07 9am

FRI.Apr.7, 9am:KFAI: WHITE PRIVILEGE CONF. on "Catalyst"
KFAI Radio SPRING 2011 PLEDGE DRIVE! Pledge on "Catalyst" by calling
(612)375-9030
FRI. APRIL 7, 9am on KFAI's "Catalyst: politics & culture"
90.3fm Mpls 106.7 fm Sty.Paul ONLINE: www.kfai.org/catalyst

Dr. Lisa Albretch, U of MN sociology professor and activist on the 12th
annual White Privilege Conference in MInneapolis. What is white privilege?
How does racism and privilege operate in the era of President Obama? What
kind of anti-racism needs to built in the 21st century? (Conference info
below)

12th Annual White Privilege Conference White Priviledge Conference: Hosted
by Minnesota Justice Collaborative April 13-16, 2011, Sheraton Bloomington
Hotel, Minneapolis

www.whiteprivilegeconference.com
http://whiteprivilegeconference.com/promo_video.html ,

WPC is a conference that examines challenging concepts of privilege and
oppression and offers solutions and team building strategies to work
toward a more equitable world. The WPC provides a yearly forum for
critical discussions about diversity, multicultural education and
leadership, social justice, race/racism, sexual orientation, gender
relations, religion and other systems of privilege and oppression.


--------2 of 11--------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <family4peace [at] msn.com>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 4.07 4:30pm

PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest corner of
Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs and
candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends south
of the river speaking out against war.


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From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 4.07 5pm

NORTHTOWN Peace Vigil every Thursday 5-6pm, at the intersection of Co. Hwy
10 and University Ave NE (SE corner across from Denny's), in Blaine.

Communities situated near the Northtown Mall include: Blaine, Mounds View,
New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Spring Lake Park,
Fridley, and Coon Rapids.  We'll have extra signs.

For more information people can contact Evangelos Kalambokidis by phone or
email: (763)574-9615, ekalamboki [at] aol.com.


--------4 of 11--------

From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Climate refugees 4.07 5:30pm

Film Screening: "Climate Refugees"
Thursday, April 7, 5:30 p.m. University of Minnesota, Mayo Memorial
Auditorium, 425 Delaware Street Southeast, Minneapolis.

The quickly submerging islands of Tuvalu in the South Pacific,
drought-affected regions of Sudan, storm-susceptible coastlines of
Bangladesh, and rapidly expanding deserts in China are forcing millions of
people to relocate beyond their borders. Filmmaker Michael Nash spent two
years traversing the globe, visiting areas where rising sea levels are
threatening millions of people's survival. Strong visuals and potent
testimony from the victims, politicians, scientists, relief organizations,
and authors in "Climate Refugees" help sound the alarm for instituting new
policies and working together to create solutions to cope with the
imminent crisis of climate change. Discussion to follow. Free and open to
the public. Sponsored by: the University of Minnesota's School of Public
Health. FFI: Visit www.sph.umn.edu.

[Koch Bros don't care about climate refugees. -ed]


--------5 of 11--------

From: lydiahowell [at] comcast.net
Subject: Walker rummage 4.07 6pm

Walker Church Rummage Sale needs donations NOW-- you can take things to
the church or call them. Sale starts this Thursday!!
Walker Community Church 3104 - 16th Ave So Minneapolis 612-722-6612

From: Walker Church <walkerchurch [at] usfamily.net>

It's beginning to look like a Rummage Sale is about to happen. But guess
what??? We need more stuff... We had an awesome bunch of volunteers today
and have almost everything put out that we have, so we have room for ever
more. We can use almost everything.

Please make sure what you bring in is clean, has all its parts and is in
working order . Hope to see you all before or during the sale. Any
questions give Terri Parks a call @ 612-559-2857 or call the church.

Rummage Sale April 7-10
Thursday 6 pm to 9 pm
Friday noon to 8 pm
Saturday 9 am to 4 pm
Sunday noon to 3 pm bag sale


--------6 of 11--------

From: Meredith Aby <riot369 [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Immigrant 4.07 7pm

Panel: Latino & Immigrant Voices on Repression and Solidarity
Thursday, April 7 at 7:00 pm@ U of M Scott Hall Room 4, 72 Pleasant Ave
SE, Minneapolis.

Join us for a panel of Latino and immigrant leaders speaking out about FBI
& grand jury repression against anti-war and international solidarity
activists.  The speakers will make connections between the current case of
repression against 23 anti-war activists (see www.stopfbi.net for more
info) and the many kinds of repression faced by the Latino community - the
repression against Latino political movements like the Chicano movement in
the 1960s and the Puerto Rican nationalist movement, as well as the
criminalization and targeting of millions of Latino immigrant workers.

We'll explore how these things are connected and what we can do to build a
movement to stop the criminalization of dissent and the criminalization of
our communities.  SPEAKERS include:  ANH PHAM, Anti-war and immigrant
rights activist, among those whose homes were raided September 24, 2011 &
received subpoena to a grand jury for her anti-war & international
solidarity activism.  MANUEL BARRERA, Professor, Metro State University.
FRANCISCO SEGOVIA, Immigrant rights activist, community organizer.
VERONICA MENDEZ, CTUL Organizer.

 Sponsored by Committee to Stop FBI Repression and Students United.  Info:
612-379-3585 - StopFBI.net <http://stopfbi.net/>


--------7 of 11--------

The Obama Disaster, at Home and Abroad
By Glen Ford editor
BLACK AGENDA REPORT
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27841.htm

April 06, 2011 - BAR - When you predict disaster, it's no fun being right.
Since long before Barack Obama was elected president, we at Black Agenda
Report have said that this center-right corporate politician is a War
Democrat whose foreign policy objectives - if not his rhetoric - are no
different than George Bush's. With Obama's expansion of Bush's wars and
his opening up of a new, North African front, in Libya, we have been
proved catastrophically right - right, to the point of tears.

When we said that Obama was a tool of the Wall Street bankers that backed
his candidacy to the hilt, and that he would repay them with trillions in
return, we were right - more right than even we imagined. We said that
Obama was obsessed with trying to forge a grand alliance with the
Republicans, and would wage an internal war against Black people's
interests and the left wing of the Democratic Party to do it. All that has
come to pass. When the GOP took control of the U.S. House last November,
we said it marked the "End of the Age of Obama", and that the "best
outcome that could result is that the Republicans overreach and, in their
white nationalist triumphalism, make it impossible for President Obama and
congressional Democrats to reach an accommodation" with them. The GOP is
over-reaching, while Obama has already sacrificed trillions in social
spending trying to split the budget difference with Republicans who
persist in seeking total victory. Obama has nothing to argue about with
the GOP, having himself placed the entire Democratic social welfare legacy
on the chopping block for the sake of deficit reduction. As we said back
in November, gridlock - shutdown - a real battle and test of wills over
people's programs, is better than Obama's slick and slimy style of
calibrated surrender.

The Obama disaster has forced those of us on the Black Left to organize
around solid principles and to look at the political actors in our own
communities with a much colder and unforgiving eye. So we now have the
Black Is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations, that
brooks no compromise with Obamite imperialism and servitude to Wall
Street. We have allied ourselves with others on the Left, who are holding
a major anti-war mobilization in New York City on April 9, and in San
Francisco on April 10. Last week, the first Black-led anti-Obama
demonstration in Harlem took place, outside a gentrified restaurant where
Obama was hosting a $30,000 a plate dinner.

Nellie Bailey, of Harlem Fightback Against Wars at Home and Abroad,
challenged hundreds of protesters to "seize the moral high ground that
has slipped away under the false illusion that Barack Obama represents the
interests of working class people, much less working class Black
people."

Professor of Africana Studies, Bill Sales, asked, "How can Obama represent
us, when he compromises with people who are trying to beat our brains
out." Obama, said Sales, "is a moderate Republicrat corporate lawyer.
Don't drink the Kool-Aid."

Charles Barron, a New York City Councilman, said the "last straw" for
him was when Obama called up the president of South Africa demanding that
former Haitian President Aristide be prevented from returning to his
homeland. In a debate three years ago, Councilman Barron told me that he
supported Obama, despite misgivings, because he wanted "to give a
brother a shot." Well, Obama has proven he ain't no brother. He has shot
his wad, and Black America will be a healthier place when he is gone.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to
www.BlackAgendaReport.com .


--------8 of 11--------

Fool Us Twice? Can Obama Get Reelected?
by Ted Rall
Published on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

NEW YORK - Usually I don't care about political horseraces. Yet I am
fascinated by Obama's reelection bid. Never mind what's good for the
country. I'm dying to hear him make his case for another four years.

I don't pretend to be able to predict the future. But I have a rich
imagination - and I still can't begin to guess how the president can
convince a majority of voters to choose him over the Republican nominee
whether he be Mitt Romney or she be Michele Bachmann.

Obama is good with words. But what can he possibly say for himself after
this first fiddling-while-Rome-burns term?

The president only has one major accomplishment to his credit: healthcare
reform. However - assuming Republicans don't repeal it - it doesn't go
into effect until 2014. Which, from Obama's standpoint, actually helps
him. After people find out how it transforms the First World's worst
healthcare system into something even crappier and more expensive, they'll
be burning him in effigy.

"Socialized" (if only!) healthcare has driven away the Reagan Democrat
swing voters who formed half of Obama's margin of victory in 2008. Unless
the GOP nominates some total loon (hi Michele) or past-due retread (what
up Newt) these ideological reeds in the wind will blow Republican.

The other major component of the Obama coalition, young and reenergized
older liberals, see ObamaCare as a right-wing sellout to corporations.
Nothing less than single-payer would have satisfied them. On other issues
it seems that Obama has missed few opportunities to alienate the
Democrats' liberal base.

"The combination of Afghanistan and Libya could bring a bitter end to the
romance between Democratic liberals and Obama," Steve Chapman writes in
Reasonmagazine. "Many of them were already disappointed with him for
extending the Bush tax cuts, bailing out Wall Street, omitting a public
option from the healthcare overhaul, offering to freeze domestic
discretionary spending, and generally declining to go after Republicans
hammer and tong."

Chapman predicts a strong primary challenge to Obama's left flank -
someone like Russ Feingold.

Lefties are also angry about Obama's other lies and betrayals: keeping
Gitmo open, signing off on assassinations and even the torture of U.S.
soldiers (PFC Bradley Manning), redefining U.S. troops in Iraq as "support
personnel." Just this week he reneged on his promise to get rid of Bush's
kangaroo courts and put 9/11 suspects on trial.

Everyone - left, middle and right - is furious about his Herbert
Hoover-like lack of concern over the economy. While the multimillionaire
president blithely talks about a recovery as he heads off to golf with his
wealthy friends, unemployment is rising and becoming structural. Obama
will surely pay for the disconnect between reality (no jobs, shrinking
paychecks, hidden inflation) and the rosy rhetoric coming out of the White
House and U.S. state media.

What, exactly, will be Obama's 2012 sales pitch? I seriously want to know.
Think about it: how many other presidents have been so disappointing that
they had to distribute lists of their accomplishments so their supporters
would have talking points?

Among the highlights of one of these enumerations going around the
Internet are:

"1. Ordered all federal agencies to undertake a study and make
recommendations for ways to cut spending.

"5. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when
the body arrives at Dover AFB.

"14. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research."

I'm in favor of these things. (Although I'm not sure why, with real
unemployment over 20 percent and the NSA rifling through my email, I
should care about numbers 76 - "appointment of first Latina to the Supreme
Court" - or 86 - "held first Seder in the White House." Really?)

Will micro-mini-accomplishment lites be enough to pry liberal asses off
the sofa on Election Day? I think not. On the Big Issues That Really
Matter - war, the economy, civil liberties - Obama is a right-wing
Republican. He's only a Democrat on the little stuff. Liberals won't turn
out big for Obama in 2012.

That goes double for the youth vote, a big bloc for O in 2008. From
student loan debt to unemployment (which hits Americans under 30 even
harder than other age groups), Obama hasn't delivered. They'll sit on
their hands.

"We've always known that lasting change wouldn't come quickly or easily,"
began Obama's official campaign announcement.

"Always known"?

Remember those Soviet-style "Hope" and "Change" posters from '08,
presenting the skinny Columbia grad as a postmodern Messiah for a nation
ravaged by eight years of Bush? Just guessing, but somehow I doubt Obama's
propaganda would have gone over as easily with the caption "Change That
Won't Come Quickly or Easily."

"It begins with us," will apparently be one of the slogans for Obama-Biden
2012.

That's the problem Obama faces next year. In 2008 he told us it was going
to begin with him.

Copyright 2011 Ted Rall, Distributed by Universal Uclick/Ted Rall
 Ted Rall is the author of the new books "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central
Asia the New Middle East?," and "The Anti-American Manifesto" . His
website is tedrall.com.


--------9 of 11--------

Greed is Not a Virtue
by David Korten
Published on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 by YES! Magazine

David Korten: Profit-centered market fundamentalism has become a national
religion.

This is the fourteenth of a series of blogs based on excerpts adapted from
the 2nd edition of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real
Wealth. I wrote Agenda to spur a national conversation on economic policy
issues and options that are otherwise largely ignored. This blog series is
intended to contribute to that conversation. .DK
***

We humans are living out an epic morality play. For millennia humanity's
most celebrated spiritual teachers have taught that society works best and
we all enjoy our greatest joy and fulfillment when we share, cooperate,
and are honest in our dealings with one another.

But for the past few decades, this truth has been aggressively challenged
by a faith called market fundamentalism - an immoral and counter-factual
economic ideology that has assumed the status of a modern state religion.
Its believers worship the God of money. Stock exchanges and global banks
are their temples. They proclaim that everyone does best when we each seek
to maximize our individual financial gain without regard to the
consequences for others.

In the eyes of a market fundamentalist, to sacrifice profit for some
presumed social or environmental good is immoral. The result is a public
culture that proclaims greed is a virtue and sharing is a sin.

Having established control of the institutions of the economy, media,
education, government, and even religion, market fundamentalists initiated
a global social experiment to test their theory. The results are now in.

The prophets of the older faith traditions were right. Our common future
depends on rediscovering their truth and redefining our public culture and
governing institutions accordingly.

The following are some of the more visible elements of Wall Street's
global campaign of moral perversion.

.It uses control of media outlets, advertising, and politicians to shape
and spread a global culture of individualistic greed, material
self-indulgence, ruthless competition, and moral irresponsibility.

.Through the pursuit and celebration of financial gain at any cost, it
provides role models for immoral behavior.

.It undermines democracy and the legitimacy of government by buying
politicians to do its bidding.

.It uses student loan programs to get the best and brightest youth mired
in debts they can repay only by selling themselves to jobs that serve Wall
Street interests.

.It buys up and monopolizes control of the world's land and water
resources in anticipation of extracting monopoly profits by charging what
the market will bear as scarcity increases.

.It uses its financial power and creative accounting skills to manipulate
markets and obscure market signals, as when helping governments hide their
debt or helping corporate CEOs hide their insider bets against the future
of their own companies.

.It buys the deeply discounted debt obligations of hapless underwater
homeowners and countries on the open market and then demands full value
payment from governments or philanthropists who step in to lend a helping
hand to the afflicted.

.It puts in place global rules requiring that if a government introduces
regulations that prevent a foreign corporation from harming or killing
people with its toxic products or discharges, the country's government
must compensate the corporation for the profits it estimates it will lose.

By capitalism's perverse moral logic, if a person sells toxic assets by
knowingly misrepresenting them as sound, the fault lies not with the
misrepresentation of the seller, but rather with the lack of due diligence
on the part of the overly trusting borrower. When the assets prove
worthless and threaten both the solvency of both the seller and the
borrower, the logic says the party responsible for the misrepresentation
has a moral obligation to demand redress from the government, "Buy my
toxic assets at face value and make me whole so that I return to my trade
in toxic assets, or I will be forced to stop lending and crash the
economy".

Step back to take in the big picture, and it turns out Wall Street market
fundamentalists have proclaimed the seven deadly sins of pride, greed,
envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth to be virtues. In turn they have
proclaimed the seven life-serving virtues of humility, sharing, love,
compassion, self-control, moderation, and passion to be sins against the
market.

There is a widespread sense that with Wall Street's apparent recovery, the
window of opportunity for serious structural change has passed. Such a
judgment, however, is premature. Far from closing, the window of
opportunity for serious change continues to widen as public awareness of
Wall Street corruption grows and true and appropriate moral outrage
builds.

Most psychologically healthy adults recognize in their heart of hearts the
moral perversion of the old economy, but may fear to speak up because so
many experts - including even some religious leaders - continuously assure
us in so many words that greed is good, even that God wants us to be
financially rich and financial wealth is a mark of God's favor.

If all who share a mature moral consciousness find the courage to speak
the simple truth that greed is driving us to collective self-destruction
and cooperation is essential to our common salvation, we can put the
perversion behind us and secure the future of our children.
--
This Agenda for a New Economy blog series is co-sponsored by CSRwire.com
and YesMagazine.org based on excerpts from Agenda for a New Economy, 2nd
edition.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
 David Korten is co-founder and board chair of  YES! Magazine, co-chair of
the New Economy Working Group, president of the People-Centered
Development Forum, and a founding board member of the Business Alliance
for Local Living Economies (BALLE). His books include Agenda for a New
Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, The Great Turning: From
Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When
Corporations Rule the World.


--------10 of 11--------

Koch pollution in MN
"The Koch refinery in Minnesota is designed to process heavy "high-carbon"
Canadian crude oil, and is fed by a pipeline from Canada. Koch "is among
Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters," the
company says, with a trading and supply office in Calgary and a terminal
in Hardisty, Alberta. Much of the oil comes from the mining of oil sands,
which have a particularly heavy carbon footprint because the process
releases greenhouse gases from peat lands and boreal forest, and requires
a great deal of energy to heat and sweat the oil out."

Koch's Web of Influence
by John Aloysius Farrell
Published on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 by Center for Public Integrity
Common Dreams

Koch spends tens of millions trying to shape federal policies that affect
their global business empire

At an EPA hearing last summer, representatives from Koch Industries argued
that moderate levels of the toxic chemical dioxin should not be designated
as a cancer risk for humans.

When members of Congress sought higher security at chemical plants to
guard against terrorist attacks, Koch Industries lobbyists prowled Capitol
Hill to voice their opposition.

And when Congress moved to strengthen regulation of the financial markets
after recent collapses, Koch Industries - a major commodities and
derivatives trader - deployed a phalanx of lobbyists to resist proposed
changes.

Charles and David Koch, the owners of the country's second-largest private
corporation, are libertarians of long standing, who contend that
government regulations, taxes and subsidies stifle individual initiative
and hamper American competitiveness. In recent years, the Kochs have
played an increasingly public role as financial angels for conservative
causes, politicians and foundations

What's not so well-known is the activity of Koch Industries in the
trenches in Washington, where a Center for Public Integrity examination of
lobbying disclosure files and federal regulatory records reveals a
lobbying steamroller for the company's interests, at times in conflict
with its public pose.

The money that Koch (pronounced "coke") has spent on lobbying in
Washington has soared in recent years, from $857,000 in 2004 to $20
million in 2008. The Kochs then spent another $20.5 million over the next
two years to influence federal policy, as the company's lobbyists and
officials sought to mold, gut or kill more than 100 prospective bills or
regulations.

Oil is the core of the Koch business empire, and the company's lobbyists
and officials have successfully fought to preserve the industry's tax
breaks and credits, and to defeat attempts by Congress to regulate
greenhouse gases.

But Koch's diversified interests, and thus its lobbying activities, extend
far beyond petroleum. Koch companies trade carbon emission credits in
Europe and derivatives in the U.S. They make jet fuel in Alaska from North
Slope oil, and gasoline in Minnesota from the oil sands of Canada. They
raise cattle in Montana and manufacture spandex in China, ethanol in Iowa,
fertilizer in Trinidad, nylon in Holland, napkins in France and toilet
paper in Wisconsin.

According to the most recent Forbes magazine rankings, Koch had $100
billion in revenues in 2009 - on a par with corporate giants like IBM or
Verizon - and stood a close second to Cargill Inc. on the list of the
largest private US companies. The firm has 70,000 employees, and a
presence in 60 countries and almost every state.

Koch's decision to pour millions into lobbying Washington has put them
high on the list of corporations whose lobbyists work the corridors of the
nation's capital. Last year, Koch Industries ranked in the top five -
roughly on a par with BP and Royal Dutch Shell - in lobbying expenses
among oil and gas companies, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.

These totals do not include the work of the trade associations that Koch
uses to represent its interests in Washington. There's a major industry
group called the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, and
obscure organizations like the green-sounding National Environmental
Development Association's Clean Air Project, whose membership lists Koch
and two of its subsidiaries (Georgia-Pacific and Invista) with a dozen
industrial giants like ExxonMobil Corp., General Electric Co. and Alcoa
Inc.

Koch's lobbyists are known on Capitol Hill for maintaining a low profile.
There are no former U.S. senators or House committee chairmen on the
payroll. The firm had 30 registered lobbyists in 2010, many of whom are
Washington insiders with previous experience as congressional staffers or
federal agency employees.

Gregory Zerzan is a good example. Zerzan was a senior counsel for the
House Financial Services Committee before serving as an acting assistant
secretary and deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department
during the George W. Bush administration. Zerzan then worked as counsel
and head of global public policy for the International Swaps and
Derivative Association before joining Koch Industries as a lobbyist.

Koch clout is augmented by campaign donations to parties and candidates
for federal office - $11 million in the last two decades, according to the
Center for Responsive Politics - and generous gifts from three family
foundations to universities and conservative organizations and interest
groups.

According to IRS records, the Koch foundations are essential donors
(having given $3.4 million from 2007 through 2009) to the Americans for
Prosperity Foundation, a nonprofit known for its support of the Tea Party
movement. Among the organizations that have each received a million
dollars or more over the last five years from Koch foundations are the
Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and two conservative think tanks
at George Mason University in Virginia: the Institute for Humane Studies
and the Mercatus Center.

The Kochs primarily donate to conservative candidates and causes but have
given more than $1 million in the last decade to the liberal Brookings
Institution. And among politicians they supported last year was Andrew
Cuomo, a Democrat elected governor of New York with $87,000 from the Koch
family.

The emergence of "the Koch web - political action, campaign giving,
funding of groups engaged in political action and campaigns, conferences
to expand political and policy influence - is a striking phenomenon," said
Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise
Institute.

The Center asked Koch Industries and its lobbyists in Washington, in a
dozen emails and telephone calls over more than two weeks, to comment on
the firm's lobbying efforts Koch's representatives declined the
opportunity.

But in a March 1 column in The Wall Street Journal, Charles Koch defended
his and his company's practices. "As a matter of principle our company has
been outspoken in defense of economic freedom," Koch wrote. "This country
would be better off if every company would do the same. Instead, we see
far too many businesses that paint their tails white and run with the
antelope".

Ethanol
The Koch brothers are renowned as free market libertarians. But as a major
trader in energy and financial markets, Koch Industries also knows how to
hedge.

As its corporate officials and  publicists decried ethanol as a costly
government boondoggle, the Kochs bought four ethanol plants in Iowa in
recent months, with a combined annual capacity of 435 million gallons. In
Washington (where ethanol tax subsidies cost the Treasury some $6 billion
annually) Koch representatives lobbied Congress on ethanol and other
biofuel subsidies.

"New or emerging markets, such as renewable fuels, are an opportunity for
us to create value within the rules the government sets," Flint Hills
Resources President Brad Razook told his employees in the January company
newsletter.

Koch Industries. status as an ethanol player goes beyond its new Iowa
plants. Koch blends ethanol and gasoline nearby, in its Minnesota
refinery. By its own account, the company's subsidiaries, Flint Hills and
Koch Supply & Trading, currently buy and market about one-tenth of all the
ethanol produced in the United States.

The Kochs seem to have recognized that their actions might seem
hypocritical and in a January 2011 newsletter the company tried to explain
things to employees who have been "scratching their heads and wondering:
what is going on?"

"After all, ethanol production is heavily subsidized, mandated and
protected," Koch Industries acknowledged, "while Koch companies openly
oppose such government programs".

Realism had won out. The company has the "capabilities necessary to be
successful in the ethanol industry," the newsletter explained. The new
ethanol plants "fit well geographically with several other FHR assets,
including fuel - terminals, a widespread distribution network that
includes Iowa, and the Pine Bend [Minnesota] refinery."

"We are not going to place our company and our employees at a competitive
disadvantage by not participating in programs that are available to our
competitors," Razook assured Koch employees.

The company has a history of pragmatism in commercial affairs. Koch was a
pioneer importer of Russian oil to the United States, including a 2002
shipment of Russian crude that Koch sold to the U.S. government to help
fill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And though it opposes a
cap-and-trade solution to global warming for the United States, Koch makes
money trading emissions credits under a similar program in Europe.

Nor is ethanol the only form of corporate welfare Koch Industries
supports. As it ventures into biofuel production, and uses alternative
fuels to power its plants, the company has its lobbyists working "to
expand the [tax] credit for renewable electricity production" made from
biomass.

Georgia-Pacific, the company reported in 2008, was responsible for more
than 10 percent of all the renewable biomass electricity generated in the
U.S.

Toxic
Koch's efforts to limit regulation of toxic substances illustrate the
breadth of its lobbying operation.

In 2004 Koch Industries purchased Invista, a subsidiary of DuPont, known
for manufacturing Lycra, Stainmaster carpets and other textiles and
fabrics. In 2005, as part of the same corporate diversification and
expansion strategy, Koch Industries bought the giant wood and paper
products firm, Georgia-Pacific, adding Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft
toilet paper, Dixie cups and dozens of factories and plants to its
holdings.

Koch has since worked, on Capitol Hill and in various regulatory
proceedings, to dilute or halt tighter federal regulation of several toxic
byproducts that could affect its bottom line, including dioxin, asbestos
and formaldehyde, all of which have been linked to cancer.

Dioxin is released from incinerators, hazardous waste treatment, pesticide
manufacturing, paper plants and other sources. With 165 manufacturing
facilities across the United States, Georgia-Pacific "has a significant
interest in and will be significantly impacted," by the EPA's decisions on
dioxin, Koch officials told the agency in April 2010.

Hundreds of workers would have to be hired, and trucks and earth-moving
equipment leased or purchased. And "of the limited number of hazardous
waste landfills operating in the United States, very few are willing to
accept dioxin-containing soil," the company noted.

"Treatment and disposal of dioxin-containing soil is already a
challenging, expensive and capacity-limited problem that would only get
worse if additional volumes were generated".

It's been three decades since the environmental catastrophes at Love
Canal, N.Y., and Times Beach, Mo., introduced the American public to the
dangers of dioxin. But in the EPA hearing at the Washington Hilton last
July, toxicologist John M. DeSesso, a consultant speaking on behalf of
Georgia-Pacific, told the agency that the scientific studies on common
levels of exposure are still inconclusive. He urged further study.

The Environmental Working Group and a number of public health
organizations, meanwhile, chastised the EPA for dragging its feet, and
reminded the agency panel that another arm of the federal government, the
U.S. National Toxicology Program, and the World Health Organization have
already classified dioxin as a known human carcinogen.

"Twenty-five years after publishing its first assessment of dioxin . the
EPA has yet to establish a safe daily dose for human exposure" for "one of
the most-studied of all chemical pollutants," the EWG told the panel. "It
is EPA's responsibility to address this problem with resolve . without
regard to pressure from special interests who stand to benefit financially
from weak standards and regulations".

It isn't just dioxin that has drawn Koch's interest. On Capitol Hill, and
in regulatory proceedings, Koch lobbyists and officials have resisted
tighter government regulation of a gallery of toxic and carcinogenic
substances, like asbestos, formaldehyde and benzene.

"GP strongly disagrees with the [National Toxicology Program] panel's
conclusion to list formaldehyde, a natural component of every cell in the
body, as a human carcinogen," wrote Traylor Champion, the firm's vice
president for environmental affairs, in a February 2010 letter.

"Costly control requirements are being mandated on sources that have
insignificant levels of HAP (hazardous air pollutants) emissions," a
Georgia-Pacific environmental health and safety manager, James Eckenrode,
complained to the EPA in November 2008, when it sought to apply tougher
air pollution standards on the firm's manufacture of resins and
formaldehyde.

Through its Flint Hills Resources subsidiary, Koch Industries operates a
refinery near Fairbanks, Alaska. "Refineries in Alaska are geographically
isolated from the rest of the U.S. market such that benzene extraction and
sale into the petrochemical market would be infeasible," the company
argued in 2006, when the EPA proposed new clean air limits on benzene.
"Benzene reductions to levels proposed in this rule would either require
extensive and economically prohibitive capital upgrades at our facility or
would result in a significant reduction in gasoline production".

When Koch Industries purchased Georgia-Pacific, it inherited a titanic
liability regarding asbestos. Georgia-Pacific had used asbestos to make
gypsum-based drywall products, and starting in the 1980s the firm became a
target for more than 340,000 claims by plaintiffs who said they suffered
lung and other diseases, including mesothelioma, a deadly cancer. By 2005,
the company was spending $200 million a year and had to build a $1.5
billion reserve fund for asbestos liabilities and defense costs.

In a 2008 Koch Industries publication, General Counsel Mark Holden griped
that "many of those claims are an outright abuse of the legal system .
that often involve people who are not sick . all because of over-zealous
litigators and a legal system that gives them perverse incentives".

The number of new claims has dropped with tougher federal safety
standards. But in the 110th Congress Koch lobbyists still sought to sway
members on legislative proposals intending to restrict the use of asbestos
and improve public knowledge, even Senate Resolution 462, which called for
a "National Asbestos Awareness Week".

Global warming and low carbon fuel standards
It's in the Kochs' commercial interest to preserve America's reliance on
carbon-based energy sources. Despite recent diversification, Koch remains
a major petrochemical company with refineries in North Pole, Alaska;
Corpus Christi, Texas; Rosemount, Minn., and Rotterdam in the Netherlands;
an array of chemical plants; a coal subsidiary (the C. Reiss Coal Co.) and
4,000 miles of pipelines.

So it is not surprising that, when the Obama administration and the
Democrats on Capitol Hill proposed to regulate the emission of greenhouse
gases in recent years, Koch Industries responded with a fervent
counteroffensive.

"Oppose government mandates on carbon reduction provisions . [and]
provisions related to climate change, and oppose entire bill," Koch
lobbyist Robert P. Hall wrote, listing his goals on the 2008 lobbying
disclosure form.

The firm's lobbying expenditures soared in 2008 as Koch Industries and its
subsidiaries - Georgia-Pacific, Invista, Flint Hills Resources, Koch
Carbon, Koch Nitrogen - peppered the EPA and members of Congress with
objections. Several worked on measures that would strip the EPA of the
power to regulate greenhouse gases through the Clean Air Act.

Koch-supported groups like the National Environmental Development
Association's Clean Air Project joined the effort. In a recent meeting,
five Koch representatives joined colleagues from ExxonMobil,
ConocoPhillips, Eli Lilly and other NEDA-CAP members to register concerns
with EPA officials over the proposed mandatory reporting rule for
greenhouse gas emissions, the record shows.

Koch's lobbying efforts on climate change are matched by a public
campaign. Via three foundations - the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, the
Charles G. Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Foundation - funded and
administered by Koch family members and employees, the Kochs have donated
several million dollars in recent years to think tanks and groups that
have sought to discredit climate science and EPA's efforts to reduce
greenhouse gases.

"Why are such unproven or false claims promoted?" the Koch Industries
company newsletter, Discovery, asked in an article on global warming
entitled, "Blowing Smoke".

"Scientists have . perverted the peer review process, doing everything
possible to prevent opinions contrary to the alarmist view from being
heard," the article said. Humans should adapt to global warming, not try
to slow or stop it, the newsletter recommended. "Since we can't control
Mother Nature, let's figure out how to get along with her changes".

In early March, members of the Republican-led House Energy and Commerce
Committee - many of whom had received campaign contributions from Koch
employees and PACs last fall - voted to bar the EPA from regulating
greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Their action has been endorsed
by Speaker John Boehner and Republican House leaders.

Of particular concern to Koch lobbyists in Washington, according to their
disclosure forms, are measures to encourage or require the use of
low-carbon fuels. These sources of energy, in their manufacture and use,
contribute less than other fuels to global warming.

The Koch refinery in Minnesota is designed to process heavy "high-carbon"
Canadian crude oil, and is fed by a pipeline from Canada. Koch "is among
Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters," the
company says, with a trading and supply office in Calgary and a terminal
in Hardisty, Alberta. Much of the oil comes from the mining of oil sands,
which have a particularly heavy carbon footprint because the process
releases greenhouse gases from peat lands and boreal forest, and requires
a great deal of energy to heat and sweat the oil out.

"Canadian crude generates more greenhouse gas emissions" and so low-carbon
standards "would cripple refiners that rely on heavy crude feedstocks,"
the Koch Industries website notes. "It would be particularly devastating
for refiners that use heavy Canadian crude".

When lawmakers in Washington and states like California sought to address
global warming by requiring the use of low carbon fuels, Koch Industries
responded. Koch lobbyists listed the legislation as a lobbying priority on
Capitol Hill. And in California, where a wide-ranging series of measures
to slow climate change were launched by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Koch joined the fight to defeat them.

A Koch subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources, donated a million dollars in
support of Proposition 23, an unsuccessful attempt funded by Koch and
other energy companies last year to stall implementation of the low-carbon
standards and other remedial climate measures in California.

Energy industry tax breaks
Koch lobbyists spend much of their time, according to their disclosure
reports, fighting attempts by members of Congress to curb price-gouging,
windfall profit-taking and speculation in the oil industry. To this same
end, Koch officials worked to dilute a 2009 Federal Trade Commission rule
governing manipulation of the energy markets.

Meanwhile, Koch has lobbied to preserve some of the oil industry's coveted
tax breaks and credits.

One benefit is known as the Section 199 deduction, approved by Congress
several years ago to help the hard-pressed U.S. manufacturing sector. In
light of the oil and gas industry's hearty profits, the Obama
administration and members of Congress have sought to end the Section 199
subsidy for energy firms and save the U.S. Treasury $14 billion over 10
years. But Koch lobbyists and trade associations have worked to preserve
the deduction.

Another industry tax break that drew the support of Koch representatives
is the venerable "LIFO" (last-in, first-out) accounting rule. It allows
energy companies effectively to raise the value of their existing
inventory (and thus pay lower taxes on profits from sales) when the price
of oil soars.

Under LIFO, the oil in a company's inventory, no matter what it actually
cost, is valued at the cost of the last-acquired (usually highest-cost)
barrel. The LIFO rule has been a target in recent years for both Democrats
and Republicans in Washington, who would like to raise revenue without
raising taxes.

Bush tax cuts
Koch lobbyists listed the expiring Bush tax cuts as a lobbying objective
last year, and the Koch brothers were among an elite, relatively few
Americans who profited when the income tax cuts for those earning more
than $250,000 a year were extended in a year-end deal.

Another of the Bush tax breaks had special meaning for the Koch brothers.
Charles Koch, 75, and David Koch, 70, are tied for fifth place, each with
a net worth of $21.5 billion, in the latest Forbes rankings of the
wealthiest Americans. Included in the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts was
a proposal to reduce the federal estate tax. The Kochs have, historically,
been players in an ongoing effort by wealthy families to curb or eliminate
the tax on inheritances.

The final tax deal reached by the White House and Republicans in Congress
in December set the estate tax at 35 percent. That makes the new rate
considerably more favorable than during the Clinton (55 percent) or even
the Bush (45 percent) years, and the lowest it's been since the 1930s. If
one of the patriarchs should die while the new rate is in effect, it would
save the Koch family billions of dollars.

Terrorism and national security
Another major preoccupation of Koch Industries lobbyists during recent
sessions of Congress was the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, a
federal effort to identify and regulate chemical facilities that could be
vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

In 2009, the House passed legislation that would toughen the standards,
and require manufacturers like Koch to use safer chemicals and processes
to add another level of protection and minimize the effects of toxic
releases from terrorist attacks or catastrophic accidents.

Koch opposed the changes, claiming they "increase cost and regulatory
burden while shifting focus away from security and toward environmental
considerations". The chemical security provisions were listed as lobbying
targets by Koch representatives in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

According to EPA records, Koch has four facilities that use chlorine
dioxide - in Palatka, Fla.; Zachary, La.; New Augusta, Miss.; and Camas,
Wash. It has an Invista plant that uses formaldehyde in LaPorte, Texas.
Its Flint Hills refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, uses hydrofluoric acid
in refining gasoline.

Mandatory use of safer technology would "result in even more job losses
and higher consumer prices as American manufacturers struggle to comply,"
Koch contends in a statement on the chemical safety standards on its
website. The House legislation would "restructure, and likely add
additional cost to security programs currently in place for Koch
companies' facilities".

Financial regulation
Koch pulls no punches when assigning the blame for the great financial
meltdown of 2008: It was the government's fault, not the markets.

"Almost all of these problems (and much of the current chaos) are, at
their root, the result of political failure," said Steve Feilmeier, the
chief financial officer for Koch Industries, at the height of the crash.

It is not surprising, then, that Koch Industries - a major player in
international trading markets - resisted increased regulation and spent
heavily on lobbyists who worked to shape the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and other
vehicles for financial reform. The Koch lobbyists focused, in particular,
on provisions aimed at regulating systemic risk in the financial markets,
and the use of derivatives.

Koch Industries started out trading crude oil more than four decades ago,
but its trading group has since branched into commodities, derivatives and
other risk management products.

In that time, the market for trading derivatives and swaps in the energy
industry has gone largely unregulated. And in past Congresses, Koch
lobbyists labored to preserve the exemption, known as the "Enron
Loophole," that excused energy commodity contracts from regulation.

But the Dodd-Frank law gave the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and
the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to craft new rules to
subject traders in the energy industry to increased regulation and
transparency, capital and margin requirements, and supervision by a
derivatives clearing house. Koch lobbyists worked to favorably shape the
bill, and have not stopped working since it was passed.

Within a few weeks after President Obama signed the legislation, Koch
lobbyist Gregory Zerzan had secured a coveted meeting with SEC
Commissioner Troy Paredes, a Bush appointee, and his counsel, Gena Lai, to
discuss how the government would implement the law.

 2011 Center for Public Integrity.


--------11 of 11--------

    Old King Koch

    Old King Koch
    Was a sleazy old soak,
And a sleazy old soak was he;
    He called for his pipe,
    And he called for his coal,
And he called for his diddlers three!
And every diddler, he had a wet diddle,
    And a very wet diddle had he.
"Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee," went the diddlers.
    Oh, there's none so rare
    As can compare
With King Koch and his diddlers three.

    Old King Koch
    Was a jerk-off old joke,
And a jerk-off old joke was he;
    He called for his wipe,
    And he called for his vole,
And he called for his piddlers three!
And every piddler, he had a hot piddle,
    And a very hot piddle had he.
"Pee piddle pee, piddle pee," went the piddlers.
    Oh, there's none so rare
    As can compare
With King Koch and his piddlers three.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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