Authoritarian State Yet?

[geek tragedy]

94. You are lying, and blatantly so.

The Koch Brothers are partisan Republicans and movement rightwingers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers#Mitt_Romney

Mitt Romney[edit source | editbeta]In July 2012, David H. Koch hosted a $50,000-a-person ($75,000 a couple) fundraising dinner for 2012 Republican Party Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, which was the subject of protests.[11][49][50][51][52]

William Koch, the younger brother of Charles and David, gave $1 million to Restore Our Future, a super-PAC backing Romney.[11] During the 2008 presidential race, David Koch donated $2,300 to Romney.[11]

The Koch Brothers run Americans for Prosperity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Prosperity#Events

Since 2007, the AFP Foundation has hosted the "Defending the American Dream Summit," which is now the second largest annual gathering of conservatives in Washington, DC (the first is the Conservative Political Action Conference). Topics have included government spending and taxation, health care reform legislation, economic policy, and proposed energy legislation. Presidential candidates who attended the inaugural event included Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson. 2,000 people attended the 2011 summit.[17]

To "send a message to the bureaucrats that energy rationing will kill jobs, raise taxes, and crush our freedoms,"[18] AFP created the Cost of Hot Air Tour, a nationwide tour that included webcasts from the United Nations meetings COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009[19] and COP16 in Cancun in 2010.

In 2008, in the same city (Austin, Texas) and at the same time (July) as the liberal Netroots Nation conference, AFP hosted RightOnline, a conference of conservative bloggers and activists that aimed to develop conservative social media strategies.[20][21] RightOnline has since become an annual event, with 1,500 attendees in 2011.[22]

In 2011, in conjunction with Sarah Palin,[23] AFP helped lead a counterprotest in Madison, Wisconsin, where Governor Scott Walker's budget and labor-law initiatives had drawn considerable opposition in the streets. President Phillips said Walker's proposed cuts were necessary and "represented the start of a much-needed nationwide move to slash public-sector union benefits."[24] After the budget reforms in Wisconsin passed, the AFP Foundation initiated an advertising and town-hall effort called "It's Working!" to promote them.[25]

Also in 2011, AFP sponsored the first debate among the Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire. Candidates who participated included Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain.[26]

AFP announced plans to participate in a rally protesting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act during the Supreme Court's oral arguments regarding the constitutionality of the law.[27]

...


In August 2010, the Democratic Party and the Obama White House argued that AFP and the AFP Foundation are a de facto political action group, thus violating their tax-exempt status.[50] President Obama said: "Right now all around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it's a big oil company, or a big bank."[51] The administration later called AFP a "special-interest front group run by the oil billionaire Koch brothers," who it said are "obsessed with making Barack Obama a one-term president."[27] In response, Phillips called the idea that AFP is taking money from foreign sources "ludicrous."[52] He also noted that following the President's statement, AFP saw an increase in financial contributions, explaining that "they know if the president of the United States is attacking you because you're opposing his agenda, you're probably doing something that's effective."[52]

Also in August 2010, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) filed a complaint against AFP for running political advertisements that allegedly constitute intervention in political campaigns. A spokesman for the AFP Foundation said the DCCC complaint was a "nuisance complaint to intimidate" and was without merit.[53] On May 6, 2011, the Federal Election Commission dismissed the complaint.[54]

A May 2012 ad criticizing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was rated by the nonpartisan fact checking organization PolitiFact.com as one of "the sneakiest" of the election cycle to that point. Claims from the ad were judged to be "Mostly False",[55] "False",[56] and "Pants on Fire",[57] the organization's lowest rating of truth. A separate analysis of the entire ad showed problems with the truth of every one of the ad's

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/08/2262831/koch-brothers-obamacare-misinformation/

Americans for Prosperity — a conservative group funded by the Koch brothers — is spending millions on ads that aim to turn Americans against the Affordable Care Act, just as government officials prepare to enroll the uninsured in the law’s new health care exchanges beginning on October 1. The campaign will eschew attacks on President Obama in favor of a new non-ideological tone that could appeal “young women” who watch the Food Network, “Law & Order,” and “Good Morning America.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/obama-team-fires-back-at-koch-brothers/2012/02/29/gIQA3UXbiR_blog.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/05/02/koch-fight-obama-ramps-up-attack-vs-billionaire-brothers/