Walker Punk'd By Climate Activists

(Tipped by JMG reader BKMN)

PFAW Vs Scott Walker

Airing Today In Iowa

Via press release:

Today, the Agenda Project Action Fund - known for hard-hitting ads such as “Romney Girl,” “Republican Cuts Kill,” and “Granny Off the Cliff” — launched a new campaign with American Family Voices targeting Governor Scott Walker’s ties to the Koch brothers. The campaign includes ad buys in Iowa and DC. “Puppet for President” is the first in a series planned against Walker which will focus on his relationship with the billionaire Koch brothers. The series will paint Walker as a bought and paid for PUPPET of the GOP mega-donors. “Americans are fed up with the influence of money has on our political leaders and they will vote accordingly,” said Agenda Project President Erica Payne. “Our goal is to highlight the most egregious offenders and force them to pay a political price. The relationship between the Kochs and Governor Walker is an embarrassment to our democracy.”

Walker will announce later today.

David Koch: I'm A Social Liberal

Via ABC News:

“I’m basically a libertarian, and I’m a conservative on economic matters, and I’m a social liberal,” Koch told ABC News’ Barbara Walters during an interview for her special “The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2014″ that aired at 9 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC. Koch, who supports abortion rights and gay marriage, said he isn’t concerned with candidates he supports who don’t share some of his views. He said his primary concern when choosing a candidate to support is their fiscal policies.

When Walters pointed out that Koch pours millions into the campaigns of candidates that oppose liberal social positions, Koch said, "Well, that's their problem."

IOWA: Koch Brothers Attack Dem Senate Candidate With Talking Chickens

Via Breitbart:

A new ad featuring talking chickens threatens to further place embattled Iowa Senate Democratic candidate Rep. Bruce Braley on the defensive for attempting to sue his next-door neighbor over chickens she uses as therapy animals for autistic children. The viral ad, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), comes just eight days before Braley, a lawyer, faces off with Republican rising star Joni Ernst in a race that political analysts say could alter the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. The new ad features two barnyard chickens located “Somewhere in Iowa” mocking Braley’s unneighborly behavior as being out of touch and just “Not very Iowa.”

Chris Christie To Koch Brothers: I've Already Lost 85 LBS, So, You Know, 2016

Via the New York Times:

Behind closed doors at David Koch’s Upper East Side apartment Friday night, Gov. Chris Christie told conservative donors that he has shed 85 pounds since undergoing weight loss surgery last year. The governor’s appearance – inside Mr. Koch’s sprawling 18-room duplex – was strictly off limits to the press, but a guest told us that Mr. Christie was pressed by donors about his health. He did not reveal his current weight, although he said he understood he had to slim down if he wanted to move beyond Trenton. And he brought the house down with a joke: “A doctor once told me you have to have the right relationship with the food you eat. And believe me, for many years, I had a great relationship with the foods I ate.” As he eyes a 2016 presidential bid, Mr. Christie has been assiduously courting Mr. Koch, founder of the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, the beneficiary of the event.

According to a recent polls, Christie trails Hillary Clinton by nine points in a prospective 2016 match-up.

AFL-CIO: Meet The Koch Sisters

New From MoveOn.Org

Koch Brothers Outfit: Gays Should Oppose Immigration Because They'll Get TB

According to the Koch Brothers' Franklin Center, gays should oppose immigration because HIV+ people are at risk of contracting tuberculosis from "illegals."

Somewhere over the rainbow, people with AIDS are dying from tuberculosis. The illegal border-crossers from Central America have a high incidence of TB on their side of their rainbow, and are bringing it into the United States. One demographic that is particularly vulnerable to catching TB and should be made aware of this health hazard is members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. As the border crisis continues with no apparent resolution, more and more unaccompanied minors flood the U.S. are coming from Third World countries. Their health was not good when they started and has deteriorated due to the arduous journey. According to a Department of Homeland Security report, holding facilities for illegal immigrant children are becoming disease-ridden with TB, scabies, chicken pox and respiratory infections. After a stay in holding facilities, these children are being transferred all across the U.S. and they are taking their communicable baggage with them.

With the Heritage Foundation, the Franklin Center is a sponsor of the Breitbart Awards, which last year honored wingnut shrieker Michelle Malkin.

MISSISSIPPI: Tea Party Leader Arrested In Nursing Home Photo Scandal

A Mississippi Tea Party leader and two other men have been arrested for conspiring to take a photo of GOP Sen. Thad Conchran's wife, who is under care for Alzheimer's in an adult treatment facility. Last week a blogger was arrested for taking the photo.

Authorities say the vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party and two other men conspired with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran. Mark Mayfield of Ridgeland, an attorney and state and local tea party leader, was arrested Thursday along with Richard Sager, a Laurel elementary school P.E. teacher and high school soccer coach. Police said they also charged John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg, but he was not taken into custody because of "extensive medical conditions." All face felony conspiracy charges. Sager also was charged with felony tampering with evidence, and Mary faces two conspiracy counts. The arrest of Mayfield, well-known in political, business and legal circles, caused shock in Mississippi, in a criminal case and election that already had Mississippi in the national spotlight.

RELATED: You'd think the teabaggers would back off of Cochran in light of this scandal, but yesterday the Koch brothers' FreedomWorks posted an ad which "exposes" Cochran because he once said something nice about President Obama.

TRAILER: Citizen Koch

Clip description:

In this searing exposé on the state of democracy in America and the fracturing of the Republican Party, Academy Award®-nominated directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water; co-producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 & Bowling for Columbine) follow the money behind the rise of the Tea Party. CITIZEN KOCH investigates the impact of unlimited, anonymous spending by corporations and billionaires on the electoral process, featuring stories of life-long Republicans whose loyalty is tested when their families become collateral damage in the GOP fight to take organized labor out at the knees. Alternately terrifying and funny, CITIZEN KOCH is an essential and powerful portrait of our political times.

Koch Brothers Vs Columbus Zoo

The famed Columbus Zoo, which is often ranked as the nation's best, is under attack from the Koch Brothers.

Americans for Prosperity is sending out mailings this week urging Franklin County residents to vote “no” on Issue 6, the permanent, 1.25-mill property tax that would raise $32.7 million a year for the zoo. The group is supported by Charles and David Koch, billionaire brothers from Kansas whose wealth comes from oil and gas, chemical, paper and other industries. The zoo tax would replace a 0.75-mill levy that expires at the end of 2015 and brings in $18.9 million a year. It would cost homeowners $44 a year per $100,000 of property value. The current levy costs $21 a year. The group’s mailing calls it a “money grab” that would be “a 105 percent property-tax hike.” John Kulewicz, co-chairman of the zoo levy campaign, said that “falsely implies that our entire tax bill will go up” when the zoo levy is less than 1 percent of the overall residential property tax. He said the campaign hasn’t decided whether it will file a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission about that wording.

The vote is May 6th. (Tipped by JMG reader Gustav)

Ed Shultz Slams Right Wing Talkers For Earning Millions From Conservative Groups

New From The Koch Brothers

Koch Brothers Vs Sen. Kay Hagan

From the Koch Brothers astroturf group Americans For Prosperity: "Best friends Barack Obama and Kay Hagan support the same things, and often say the same things. So you'd think Senator Hagan would be here to greet the President when he arrives in her state. Instead? She's hiding out in DC."

Koch Brothers Vs Obamacare

"Americans For Prosperity" is an astroturf group invented by the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers.

"WTF, Koch Brothers?"

(Tipped by JMG reader Elroy)

Creepiest Anti-Obamacare Ads Ever?

Courtesy of the Koch Brothers:

Generation Opportunity, a Virginia-based group that is part of a coalition of right-leaning organizations with financial ties to billionaire businessmen and political activists Charles and David Koch, will launch a six-figure campaign aimed at convincing young people to “opt-out” of the Obamacare exchanges. Later this month, the group will begin a tour of 20 college campuses, where they plan to set up shop alongside pro-Obamacare activists such as Enroll America that are working to sign people up for the insurance exchanges. Generation Opportunity intends to host events at college football tailgate parties festivals, where “brand ambassadors” (read: hot young people) will pass out beer koozies that read “opt out,” pizza and literature about the health care law. Some events may have impromptu dance parties with DJ’s, complete with games of cornhole and competitions for prizes, organizers said. Their message: You don’t have to sign up for Obamacare. And they want students to sign a pledge not get insurance plans set up by the law.

Even the hardcore teabaggers are upset, saying that these ads only makes them look stupid.

LAUNCHED: Crowd-Sourcing Ploy To Outbid Koch Brothers For Tribune Papers

Mediaite reports:

In an attempt to make sure neither the Koch brothers nor Rupert Murdoch obtain ownership of the Tribune Company and its major assets like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, a liberal group has started a crowd-funding campaign to raise enough money to outbid both potential buyers and, in their belief, “take back the media.” “The only people who are bidding on [the Tribune Company] right now are infamous right-wing Billionaires,” the campaign says, “who are likely to pay something around a $660 Million pricetag to control a big slice of trusted news media.”

So far they've raised $32K.

New "Buycott" App Launched

A new app has been launched which will tell shoppers if the product being considered was made by a Koch Brothers corporation or if its makers have opposed labeling requirements.

“When you use Buycott to scan a product, it will look up the product, determine what brand it belongs to, and figure out what company owns that brand (and who owns that company, ad infinitum),” a description of the product states on Buycott’s website. “ It will then cross-check the product owners against the companies and brands included in the campaigns you've joined, in order to tell you if the scanned product conflicts with one of your campaign commitments.” The campaigns set up on the app include Avoid Koch Industries, which targets companies linked to the billionaire Koch brothers, who, the page’s description notes, have “spent $61.4 million fueling climate change denialism” since 1997.

 Among the Koch products are Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups, and Quilted Northern toilet tissue.