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Koch Brothers “Prank” No Laughing Matter
Embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker came under fire today after news broke about statements he made in a 20-minute phone call from a Buffalo, NY-area alternative news reporter posing as David Koch, a billionaire whose PAC directly supported Walker and who has given millions to groups that have run ads to aid Walker's rise to the state's highest office. (Listen to the call here.)
As the Center for Media and Democracy has reported, the Koch PAC not only spent $43,000 directly on Walkers race, but Koch personally donated $1 million to the Republican Governor’s Association which spent $5 million in the state. Besides the Governor, Koch Brother’s has other “vested interests" in the state.
They include Koch Pipeline Company, which operates a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin. It also owns Flint Hill Resources, which distributes refined fuel through pipelines and terminals in Junction City, Waupun, Madison and Milwaukee. Koch Industries also owns the C. Reiss Coal Company, a power plant company located in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan.
The Koch brothers opened a lobby shop in Wisconsin two days after Walker was elected, and many protesters have suspected that the “budget repair bill” provisions allowing the no-bid sell-off of any state-owned heating, cooling, or power plant, plus new rules on pipeline transport may be of interest to Koch. The company has denied any interest in these assets. Transcript Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns.
Pink Slips as Poker Chips Raises Legal Concerns
At the start of the conversation Walker eagerly reports on all he is doing: First, he tells the fake Koch brother about a plan to change Senate rules on pay to reel-in the out-of state Democratic senators who are holding out to protect collective bargaining. The new rule would force the Senators to pick up their paychecks in-person. This rule was passed in a partisan vote in the Senate yesterday--a move that went unnoticed by the mainstream press. The fake Koch asks Walker how they might get others in Senate to vote to stop collective bargaining. Walker responds that he's involved the Justice Department in investigating whether the union is paying the absent Democratic senators to remain out of state, or providing them with food, shelter, etc., saying it would be an ethics violation or potentially a felony. Wisconsin legislators are well aware of these rules and have already stated they are using their own money while they are out of state.
But the Governor also explains how he is going to layoff thousands of Wisconsin workers as a tactic to get the Democrats to cooperate: “So, we’re trying about four or five different angles. Each day we crank up a little bit more pressure. The other thing is I’ve got layoff notices ready, we put out the at-risk notices, we’ll announce Thursday, they’ll go out early next week and we’ll probably get five to six thousand state workers will get at-risk notices for layoffs. We might ratchet that up a little bit too.”
The move has been called “despicable” and “ruthless “ and “sickening.” But most importantly, if he is choosing to lay off workers as a political tactic when he wasn’t otherwise planning to do so then it is not just morally repugnant but legally questionable. State and federal contract and labor law has protections against this type of abusive behavior and inappropriate quid pro quo.
This morning the Capital Times quotes the state’s former Attorney General: “There clearly are potential ethics violations, and there are potential election-law violations and there are a lot of what look to me like labor-law violations,” said Peg Lautenschlager, a Democrat who served as Wisconsin’s Attorney General after serving for many years as a U.S. Attorney. The head of the state teacher's association, Mary Bell, reminds us: “he literally planned to use five to six thousand hardworking Wisconsin taxpayers as political pawns in his political game. He actually thought through a strategy to lay people off – deny them the ability to feed their families – and use it as leverage for his political goals."
Kids and Hired Thugs
Walker also says he considers then rejected the idea of hiring trouble makers to disrupt the rallies which have been packed with elementary school children and highs schoolers. When fake Koch says “We’ll back you any way we can. But what we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.” Walker says: “we thought about that," but he rejected the idea in case it back-fired. He didn’t want to “scare the public into thinking maybe the governor as to settle to avoid all these problems.”
Wisconsin Ethics Rules
Wisconsin has the toughest ethics law in the nation. Public officials are prohibited from soliciting or receiving anything of value if it could reasonably be expected to influence or reward official actions. The rules against “pay to play politics” say a public official is prohibited from taking official action in exchange for political contributions or anything else of value for the benefit of a candidate, political party, or any person making certain candidate-related communications. You can’t even take a cup of coffee from a lobbyist.
Earlier in the call, Walker had asked the fake Koch for help “spreading the word,” especially in the "swing districts," in defense of his determination to break the unions and help get calls in to shore up his Republican allies in the legislature. Walker benefited from a high-dollar "issue ad" campaigns by groups funded by Koch group before the election. Americans for Prosperity, which Koch chairs, promoted and funded a couple thousand counter-protestors last Saturday.
On the same day that the scandal broke here in Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity went up with a $342,000 TV ad campaign in support of Walker – an enormous sum in a state like Wisconsin. If such ads are effectively coordinated with the Governor's office they may be subject to rules requiring greater disclosure of expenditures and contributors.
Toward the end of the call, the fake Koch offers to fly Walker out to California, after they "crush the bastards," and show him "a good time," to which Walker responds with enthusiasm in his voice "All right, that would be outstanding." But, Wisconsin rules bar state officials from taking action for something of value. After Walker agrees to the junket, the fake Koch adds, "And, you know, we have a little bit of a vested interest as well" to which Walker responds, "Well that's just it."
Conclusion
So, while Walker did not apparently not recognize Koch's voice, he certainly recognized his name, eagerly recounting his efforts to crush collective bargaining in Wisconsin to an out-of-state billioniare backer and thanking him for all Koch had done for him. The entire conversation raises ethical concerns that warrant much closer examination, especially with Wisconsin's tough pay to play rules. A week ago the Center for Media and Democracy filed an open records request for the Governor's phone records, email records, and other communications. Perhaps these records will help us understand all the influences behind the Governor's recent radical actions.
Wisconsin is not Illinois, it has a reputation for being a squeaky clean state and lesser scandals have brought down political officials. Governor Walker likes to complain of “outside agitators.” Hard to imagine an agitator with more influence and money than the Koch-family.
72 Comments so far
Show AllWell, if the Right can send its little videographers into places like Acorn and Planned Parenthood and selectively edit-out anything that might NOT look incriminating (or solicited on their end), it's good to see the Left set up these bastards and expose them for the amoral, sociopathic opportunitists that they are.
Bravo!
Hopefully nobody will be swayed by Walker's threat to lay off employees since Walker will be laying off far more employees if his bill is passed.
Although the labor issues are a huge part of Walker's scheme, his bill also includes selling off public power generation plants and other public assets without even going through a competitive bidding process. This is the epitome of crony fascism.
As a Madisonite (Madisonian) who works 3rd shifts, thus making it difficult for me to get to the square often, (mornings are REALLY cold here now) I have been doing more researching and facebooking on this that I have been down marching.
This bill is so thoroughly evil...
It would allow Walker, who dropped out of college with a 2.1 GPA to get rid of all the administration of UW (one of the best schools in the nation) and replace it with a staff of his choosing and no oversight.
Just think about the long term impact of that a second.
here's a lost of some of the other horrors and where in the bill they are that has been floating around:
- Allows the State to take out an additional 200 million in loans, putting the State further into debt. Page 30, section 63
- Cuts off all State aid to Municipalities. Page 135-136 Section 9211, Page 58, section 148
- Cuts off all State Aid...... to Public K-12 Schools, "About 900 Million dollars total" Page 135-136 Section 9211, Page 58 Section 148
- Cuts off State aid to University Wisconsin Schools "This will cause the tuition at UW's to go up 26% over the next two years" Page 135-136 Section 9211
- The state will lose 46 million in Federal Grants to Public Transit. "the Federal Government requires that public transit workers have collective bargaining" Page 63-109, Sections 163-314
- Allows the state to take 28 million from Employee Trust Fund. "This is the State Employee's Pension Fund, they will use the money to pay the States portion of the State Employee 's Medical and Pension contributions until 2013" Page 125, Section 9115
- In 2013, the State will no longer pay anything towards the State Employee's Medical and Pension Fund, State Employee's will be required to pay the entire cost of Medical and Pension."Roughly 1500 per month for each State Employee" Page 58 Section 62.623
- Limits the right to collectively bargain for all employees who are not public safety employees (general employees) to the subject of base wages. Page 63-109 Sections 163 - 314
Dear herdpoisening,
Would you be willing to put all this into a letter to the editor of your Madison newspaper? I think it would help clarify things for people especially if they are on the fence.
Good work, herdpoisoning. Thanks for the reports.
Bravo indeed! Of course I'd also highlight the fact that while the right needs to edit their videos and whatnot to make their oppo's look bad, all other's need to do is let the right wing speak in what they think is a 'friendly' environment. No need to edit the scumsucker here, he blatantly brags that he's a villain.
hi sioux hope you are well
let's just point out how much in tune with the nazis the coke boys are
in the 30's the propaganda minster goebbels specialized in this exact kind of media manipulation, so the coke boys are paying homage to their aryan idols in no small way
check it out here:
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goebmain.htm
hitler expressed in mein kampf his admiration for how the british used mass media to suck the americans into the first world war
he also admired how this little nation - britain - was able to control so much of the world by the use of subterfuge, sabotage and war
of course most of the british royalty were in complete agreement with the nazis eugenics programs, which were mostly funded by the rockefellers right into 1941
henry ford got the national guard to shoot american workers in ann arbour michigan
general patton and macarthur fired upon ww1 vets on the mall in wahsington dc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
amerika kills for a living - always has and always will
unrerported in the corporate media is the level to which all the arabs identify amerika and its terrorist bankers as their true enemy, followed closely by israel
despite amerikan propaganda bullshit most arabs are supportive of iran and its nuclear program
back to the cokeheads - they are scum, slime and are quite probably sexual perverts and that is in the finest tradition of amerika every step of the way
also unmentioned in any of the coverage of their hateful shenanigans is the fact that they don't pay any taxes
they love amerika so much that they steal every dime they get their slimy paws on
why aren't they in jail right beside the bankster terrorists on wall street
numbnuts walker should be assigned to cleaning out their shit bucket every day in prison right beside them
let's be inspired by true democracy as displayed by the arab men and women and take back this country before it is completely fucked up
Medmedude writes: "let's just point out how much in tune with the nazis the coke boys are."
Yes, indeed. The ultimate battle in Wisconsin and other state capitals is between the corporate powers like the Koch brothers who are driving this nation deeper and deeper into fascism, and the working class that has finally stood up to them and demanded instead a democracy of, by and for the people.
Everything conservatives have been doing for many years--Citizens United, the war on public education, unnecessary corporate-profit-driven wars, the attempts to destroy the voices of working class Americans, etc.--have as a common denominator a relentless attempt to replace what little is left of our democracy with corporate fascism (a redundant term--since all corporate controls of government are fascist).
Within a few days, I believe the protests will finally be framed in the context of whether or not the American people are ready to stand up to the corporate powers that have been steadily replacing the form of government the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us with a form of government that has much more in common with the ideas of Hitler and Mussolini.
Wisconsin is fighting for much more than the working middle class, although that in itself is worth every bit of energy they have expended in this effort. They are fighting to remove the fascist noose that has been tightening around this nation's democratic institutions for at least 30 years.
I couldn't be prouder of my midwestern friends and relatives who are finally taking it to these Naza bastards and their political cronies.
Well said......................ditto.
Your thanks are appreciated. We here in Madison know what we are fighting against here. If we can have literally tens of thousands of people out in sub-freezing weather for, uh, I think we are on day 12 now I would hope that you realize that it is not that people are too apathetic.
If this isn't setting off sparks in your area, unless you are living in isolation, then it is not "Americans" who are too apathetic.
We are the heartland and we are doing it.
In sub-freezing conditions, children to the elderly.
Madison is a city of 235,000 approximately.
We had between 60-80,000 people in the street last Saturday, this Saturday will be more.
We realize that this is a struggle for the right to representative government in a post- Citizens United world. This is a battle for what America is about. Madison is just one small town, in a relatively small state - we have less than 6 million people total!
If you say "It can't happen where I am, people are too apathetic", look in the mirror.
www.usuncut.org has been set up, I don't know who by, but its a tool to organize actions against spending cuts that tie them to corporate tax cuts and bank bailouts. Get a public display of resistance going in your area. They are calling for nationwide actions this Saturday, lots are already planned.
Um, didn't the Founding Fathers bequeath to us a government in which African-Americans were property, men who didn't own property and all women couldn't vote, Native Americans were driven off their lands and slaughtered, etc.? Same story back then as now, a few rich people calling the shots. Other than that, I agree with what you say.
with all due respect.............. too hard to "take back", this country. As they are just now ,getting our "guns" focused on the middle eastern/ african target of choice. Maybe, now would be the "right time", however too many armaments and tools ,still fit the bill ,to use on the domestic population. So sad..................
If Americans had half the courage of Libyans....
Thank you Ian Murphy. I normally don't condone such actions like this. However there were important facts to be confirmed so the public know it. After all a college student altered a video and the MSM ran with it without confirmation. I have been very low keyed with folks I discuss issues with until this matter was confirmed more. Hopefully this may result as a piece of history and and turning point to push back the "Ultra Conservative - Mean Spirited" mindset that has been driving US Politics.
Now if we could find the brave soul to call Tim Kaine, DNC chair, and probe his opportunistic psyche to see how he supports collective bargaining in Wisconsin but denied it to Virginians while he was governor, as did Warner (senator now and governor before Kaine) on back to the Democrat who signed the bill that criminalized public sector collective bargaining in 1993. The only Democratic candidates I have known who supported public unions (or, to be honest, unions of any kind) in Virginia died off a decade or so ago.
Is Kaine experiencing some sort of born-again Democratic experience? Seems as though it should begin with an apology at home, at the very least.
Walker, like most true believers, believes any means to an end is justified.
Trouble with this philosophy is: how do you know where the means will stop before it destroys anything to believe in?
Arrest them all, for bribery, corruption, abuse of power, and assualt on democracy while we're at it.
Absolutely.
My understanding is the paperwork that will force an investigation with subpoena power was filed this morning.
Looks like another Koch-sucking repugnant has been exposed. Surely his benefactor will have position for him as soon as he finds himself unemployed. This kind of loyal help is hard to come by in America.
Amen, Siouxrose! It made my day to hear that an agent provocateur suckered Walker into publically revealing that he is just a servant of the "ol' boy network'. CD regulars already knew that, but maybe a few naive centrists had their eyes opened for them.
Walker on Koch is like a drug addict on coke!
What a timid piece of writing.
What this cleverly orchestrated conversation between fake Koch and Walker brings to the light of day is that there are conspiracies against the working people of this country by elite interests of the ruling class.
sometimes understatement is more effective than a sledge hammer. At any rate, I'm sure most readers got the grift. sorry
We need to obtain more recordings of Republicans talking among themselves, lamenting about how they can't get good help anymore, and it's all the fault of unions, liberals, Democrats, and Communists -- like what's the difference (indeed, except that Communists better recognize the stakes). Once the public hears the GOP going on like the Penguin:
"I played the pinhead puppets of Gotham like a harp from hell!"
nobody from the right could get elected dog catcher.
But don't think that elections can solve our problems with the Qadaffis of capitalism ("This is MY country") on Wall Street.
Corruption [Koch-Sucking] Example [Quoted from article] -
""The Koch brothers opened a lobby shop in Wisconsin two days after Walker was elected, and many protesters have suspected that the “budget repair bill” provisions allowing the no-bid sell-off of any state-owned heating, cooling, or power plant, plus new rules on pipeline transport may be of interest to Koch. The company has denied any interest in these assets."
Bottari sez: "... if (Wanker) is choosing to lay off workers as a political tactic when he wasn’t otherwise planning to do so then it is not just morally repugnant but legally questionable."
***
See: Rove, Karl
And now for the other side:
John Avlon
"The Wisconsin protests are proving that the era of unhinged politics is not over. If anything, the hyperpartisan hysteria seems to be catching, with Democratic lawmakers in Indiana running for the hills while a new round of union protests swamps the statehouse in Ohio."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/12589_wisconsinprotestsriseoftheleftwingnutsacrossindianaohio;_ylt=AkDomGEU6HhtV3_.1KM3mcCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTU5aDRzMG1tBGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5YmVhc3Q
Thus the actions of Gov. Walker are justified despite the fact that,
"Wisconsin has the toughest ethics law in the nation. Public officials are prohibited from soliciting or receiving anything of value if it could reasonably be expected to influence or reward official actions. The rules against “pay to play politics” say a public official is prohibited from taking official action in exchange for political contributions or anything else of value for the benefit of a candidate, political party, or any person making certain candidate-related communications. You can’t even take a cup of coffee from a lobbyist."
Thus, violation of law in the battle against "hyperpartisan hysteria" is no vice, and certainly NOT an example of "hyperpartisan hysteria," certainly not on the part of Mr. Avlon and the Daily Beast.
who was it who said that 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice', again? Some nut on the right wasn't it?
Barry Goldwater.
Vice is no extremism in the defense of liberty!
Extremism is no liberty in the defense of vice!
Liberty is no defense in the vice of extremism!
Defense is no extremism in the liberty of vice!
...
give me the liberty to defend my vice...
is that extreme?
"give me liberty or.....give me vice----I don't want to die, or eat a dill pickle. I just want to ride my motor-sickle.
The right wing won't be happy until they can reduce the working class to absolute serfs. Some of these right wingers would just love to jail or kill off the union activists as they do in some Central and South American countries. The billionaire libertarians and right wing nuts have successfully implemented the divide and conquer ploy between the working class folks; between various unions, between union and non-union workers, between the public and private sector work forces. This is why what is going on in Wisconsin and other states is so heartening. Bravo to the brave prankster who exposed Walker and the Kochs for the frauds which they are. So far, it would appear that the prank tape has not been altered or edited in a biased way; Walker cooks his own goose with his own words, not by any selective editing as was the case with the ACORN situation. There is a strong possibility that the Koch brothers with all their billions and an army of lawyers may go after the man who impersonated Koch. Even if they don't win in court, they would have forced the impersonator to spend lots of his own money in self-defense. On the other hand, maybe the Kochs will leave things alone since they do have a lot to hide. Or the brothers Koch may just hire goons and thugs (ex-Blackwater employees) to terrorize and intimidate the Koch impersonator.
I think it important to point out the flattery implicit in luring voters to the rightwing against their own interests: that somehow they will be exempt, because of their personal qualities, from the wrath that is to come.
Great. More silly, clever childlike games. Nothing new learned here. Not saying for a moment I condone the money grubbing bastards (both sides), but what'd ya expect the Guv to say to the guy? "Bug off"? Now this shit will escalate from both weasely sides resulting in an uptick in Maddow's ratings and a few more paper rags being sold.
Please, this is so asinine. Grow up, children.
O.K. then, let's, as you say, "grow up". First learn to write without vague expletives.
Next, try and look at confrontations as a conflict of goods. This means, first seeing the good in what each side is trying to accomplish. The employees want worker's rights to fair and just employment - good. The Governor wants to balance the budget - good.
However, in this recorded conversation proves that his intention is not to balance the budget, it's to break the back of the workers and the union. So he lost all his claim to any high-ground via his own comments.
Your comment sounds like most opinionated replies I hear, full of words such as asinine, bastards, silly, rags. Tired adjectives don't construct an argument.
moonpie:
Your comments sound like something from the Wall Street Journal, USA Today or the Washington Post op ed pages. There is nothing silly or childlike about what the Koch impersonator exposed about Walker. What's going on is deadly serious, namely the destruction of unions. You talk about money grubbing bastards on both sides. Are you saying that teachers, firemen, emergency workers, prison guards and other public sector workers are comparable to actual money grubbing greedy bastards like the Koch brothers and Pete Peterson? The right wing billionaires have already escalated things to the point of total catastrophe; they caused the financial meltdown and now they are using that as an excuse to sock it to working class Americans and what's left of the union movement.
It would be expected that Walker would abide by the laws of the state he was elected to serve. This phone call proves that he does not, instead behaving in a felonious manner. He will likely be going to prison over this. - And this is "asinine?"
.In middle ages societies remained stable for a longtime despite torture and exploitation by churches and civilan authorities. Main reason were the worldview shaped by the church and the kings through their medium ( church tecahings,glorification of and creation of myth around kings and church leaders) and lack of alternate information sources. The obviously dishonest,false,and exploitative argumnets and explanations were accecpted as divine truth. T
US has already entered this phase of regression.
The concept of God" was torn and turned upside down back then but they believed it anyway.
Today , the concept of capitalism and democracy and free market have been turned upside down same way.
RE: Scott Walker
Memorize and repeat the following mantra: "Criminal conspiracy with intent to defraud the people of Wisconsin."
For Koch Brothers, change "Wisconsin" to either USA or Earth.
Even the Green Bay Packers are against him. In WI, and after just winning the Super Bowl, this is a pretty serious thing.
Professional sports has always basically been external to my reality, but for the next few years at least, I will be rooting for the Packers. :)
Madison was just so very much the wrong place to try this in, especially after we all watched the Egyptians win last week.
To say that this is no laughing matter shows the author doesn't realize that the American middle-class is at war. The elite in America want to destroy the framework that built and sustained the middle-class over the last century. That's the unions. The unions are the backbone, and the heart of the middle-class. They reach across race, gender and religion. But decades of anti-union legislation, H1B visas, and outsourcing of jobs shows that the elites think that they can live without a middle-class. That’s because they don’t see America as a country. To them America is a company, and its business is Empire. Empires don’t have middle-classes.
Hoa Binh
"Empires don’t have middle-classes."
That's an intersting assertion, and it might be true for many pevious Empires, but it's false for the Anglo-Saxon Empires as both generated a Middle Class that conciously or not supported the goals/actions of their Empire. For the US Empire, this is proven quite well by William Appleman Williams's whole body of work, particularly his "Roots of the Modern American Empire" and "Empire as a Way of Life."
Empires bring contradictions that must bring down middle classes. Because unions are the only force in history that has ever raised wages, it became incumbent upon the empire to bring down the unions first. Unfortunately in the name of the patriotism of the empire, the unions themselves engaged in political efforts that undermined themselves.
Remember that "soviets," the nominal political units of the USSR were themselves labor unions. US business and government interests were united in their intent to keep unions from becoming political institutions in their own right.
The Soviet in Russian culture was the name for the village council of elders for hundreds of years prior to the name being appropriated by the Bolsheviks. As for the history of employee unions, most became corrupt when their leaders were bought; and in many parts of the world, unions were political constructs utilized to keep the workers under control, not to work for their rights. Modern empires have shown it to be very easy to control the populace and convince the middle class they have nothing to fear from the government--that's what 1984 was all about. There's a book out there titled "The Imperial Middle" you might want to explore along with the Williams books I cited.
' Empires don’t have middle-classes.'
The British certainly did have one during their Empire. Of course that middle class was much smaller than the present day one. I'd agree with you if you'd said that Empires seek to limit the size of the middle class, but that's really just a quibble. There is no doubt (in my mind) that the rich wingnuts in the states want to have only rich and only poor, with no one in between.
See that's what I thought when I first heard the tape...How many laws did this guy just break? None of what Walker said could possibly be legal? Right?
But the main stream media didn't mention anything about illegality...Not that I'm surprised...
The law has been so muddied in our “Post 9-11, New Normal” world, they just seem to do whatever they want, no questions asked...To me, what Walker and The Koch Brother's are up to is way beyond simple ethics and election law...Or even labor relations law for that matter...
I see it as an obvious “Crime Against The State”. Sometimes I feel like such a Puritan for saying so, which is hardly the case...And with the “Citizens United” decision, who the hell knows what the law is anymore...
I hope there is an investigation of Walker, but I don't expect it to go anywhere. Obama and Eric Holder won't even prosecute a certified and self confessed
“War Criminal”. We're in a tough spot...When you're left with absolutely no confidence at all in our Justice System your options are few...
None of which I'm particularly keen on, but if it's there, it's there...
Sorry, I couldn't resist, (again).
"War Criminal" ='s War Criminals, ie.) Bush, Cheney and Dumbsfeld.
Accepted...