Did you really think Koch/AFP couldn't get any worse? F*ck Sandy victims!

[KingOrfeo]

From The Nation:

David Koch Now Taking Aim at Hurricane Sandy Victims

Lee Fang on December 22, 2012 - 2:35 AM ET

Billionaire David Koch’s prime political organization, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), having failed in its $125 million quest to oust President Barack Obama, is now aiming at a slightly less sophisticated political target: victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy was the second most costly in American history, leaving 100 lives lost, over $50 billion in devastation and tens of thousands of damaged or destroyed homes. Legislative efforts to help those who survived Hurricane Sandy’s wrath will reach a major stumbling block.

Earlier this week, AFP, which is chaired by Koch and believed to be financed by several other plutocrats from the New York City region, released a letter warning members of Congress not to vote for the proposed federal aid package for victims of the storm that swept New Jersey, New York City and much of the surrounding area in October. An announcement on the group’s website says that the vote next week for the Sandy aid package will be a “key vote”—meaning senators who support sending money for reconstruction could face an avalanche of attack ads in their next election. Already, opposition to the bill is growing, although it passed one procedural hurdle last night.

There is some legitimate criticism with aspects of the legislation, including the fact that some of the money will go to non-Sandy related reconstruction efforts in disaster areas. For AFP, however, the whole bill must die and victims of the storm deserve no help from the government.

Koch’s top deputy in New Jersey, a surly gentleman named Steve Lonegan, who heads the local AFP state chapter, called the aid package a “disgrace.” “This is not a federal government responsibility,” Lonegan told reporters. “We need to suck it up and be responsible for taking care of ourselves.”

It seems particularly cruel that the Koch political machine would use its vast network of paid activists and professional operatives to kill this bill. For one thing, this is David Koch’s community. From his Upper East Side apartment, Koch lives only a subway ride away from the devastation in Red Hook. Notably, Koch’s group gave away free gasoline during the election in a wide-scale anti-Obama stunt, yet had nothing to give to the victims of the storm. Now, Koch, one of the richest men in the world, is actually trying to take something away from them.

There’s another wrinkle to this political assault on the aid request that makes it even more heartless. (No, it’s not the rather arbitrary decision to target this piece of federal funding over others. Recently, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta identified $74 billion in unnecessary military spending, but AFP has not demanded that the government immediately axe these funds.)

The other tragedy of Koch’s decision to target Sandy aid is that his company is one reason we will increasingly face extreme weather events like hurricanes, flash floods, droughts and fierce storms. The Koch brothers, David and Charles, sit atop one of the world’s largest privately held conglomerates. Koch Industries is a sprawling company with interests in commodity speculation, timber, oil refining, ethanol production, chemicals, pipelines, consumer products, and fertilizer, among others. The Koch empire, by one estimate, has an annual carbon footprint of 100 million tons.

Not only does Koch’s business contribute to climate change through massive carbon emissions, as Greenpeace reported, Koch is the largest financier of climate denial political organizations and media groups. (As an aside, unlike AFP, Greenpeace ignored partisan politics and sent many of its workers to Queens to assist with relief efforts.)

Steve Lonegan, the AFP New Jersey staffer now crusading against federal support to his disaster-stricken state, led the effort to persuade Governor Chris Christie to reject a New England regional system to reduce carbon emissions. In a self-discrediting opinion column for The Times of Trenton last year, Lonegan mocked the overwhelming scientific data that projects global warming will lead to increased hurricanes (emphasis added):

It’s disturbing enough to realize the leading supporters of this reckless, irresponsible [cap and trade] scheme not only advance their argument under the banner of wild-eyed claims about increased rates for hurricanes and tornadoes due to global warming, for which there is no valid scientific proof—such increased rates have occurred regularly over the centuries.

As I’ve written, Koch’s political machine has largely used “conservative” and populist political efforts to advance their bottom line. Koch Industries makes a fortune by avoiding having to repay society for contributing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Before AFP fought efforts to regulate carbon emissions, the group (then known as Citizens for a Sound Economy) blasted efforts to curb acid rain and asthma-causing dust from factories, using much of the same rhetoric and hard-edge tactics. It lost those battles; but in recent years, it has won major policy debates, especially on climate change.

In this instance, there’s no payout to Koch Industries. Instead, it appears the fight over the Sandy relief money is yet another proxy battle with President Obama and his party. If the bill is significantly sliced apart, or even blocked, Democrats will have a difficult time finding the funds to pay for other programs over the course of next year.

Regardless of the politics though, it’s just kind of sad that a man worth $31 billion would spend his money this way.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

It is full of pork including payoffs to Alaska.


This is why we are going off a fiscal cliff in more ways than one. Nobody, but nobody wants to behave rationally when it comes to spending money that we have to borrow.

 

[islandman]

The House should reject the Superstorm Sandy Unemployment Relief Act as it stands. Strip out the unrelated spend, vilify those who attached said spend to it and get back to helping people instead of the usual politics BS. I don't care if said spend is a pittance in the greater scheme of a $60B bill.

It's the principle of the matter and right now, it's all we've got left.

 

[miles]

It is full of pork including payoffs to Alaska.


This is why we are going off a fiscal cliff in more ways than one. Nobody, but nobody wants to behave rationally when it comes to spending money that we have to borrow.

We'll all be speaking Chinese soon.

 

[richard_daily]

We'll all be speaking Chinese soon.

Thanks to Koch and the Waltons.

 

[islandman]

Thanks to Koch and the Waltons.

Pretty sure that if Mrs. Miles was Chinese and able to fund his lifestyle he'd be fluent too.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Thanks to Koch and the Waltons.

HOW DARE YOU!!! Those are both prestigious families that make your life possible you peasant!!!

Besides who the fuck want's to hire some spoiled ass american for 35-40k a year, that will hit my Christmas bonus by 0.7% are you fucking insane???

Send as many of their jobs to the 3rd wold slave encampments as soon as possible.....freedom....liberty...the american way.

 

[koalabear]

Some day people will wise up and stop funding people stupid enough to live in flood plains.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Some day people will wise up and stop funding people stupid enough to live in flood plains.

Point...I always wondered why no one ever looked at the Katrina victims and said "Well....what in the mother fuck did you think was going to happen ya fucking morons??"

 

[RobDownSouth]

The victims of Hurricane Sandy made poor lifestyle choices, and should not depend on the government for a handout.

They need to be moar bootstrappy.

 

[JackLuis]

Some day people will wise up and stop funding people stupid enough to live in flood plains.

Yeah, but then Congress would starve.

 

[Comshaw]

It is full of pork including payoffs to Alaska.


This is why we are going off a fiscal cliff in more ways than one. Nobody, but nobody wants to behave rationally when it comes to spending money that we have to borrow.

You want to stop that? Give the president line item veto power OR make it illegal to attach anything to a bill that is not directly connected to the subject of that bill OR better yet, both. Make the rules such that each appropriation of congress must stand or fall on it's own merits. But neither will ever happen. There are way to many politicians who profit (politically and monetarily) from handing out that kind of candy to their supporters.


Comshaw

 

[Squibbs]

The GOP's motto is 'Profits before People'.

 

[richard_daily]

HOW DARE YOU!!! Those are both prestigious families that make your life possible you peasant!!!

Besides who the fuck want's to hire some spoiled ass american for 35-40k a year, that will hit my Christmas bonus by 0.7% are you fucking insane???

Send as many of their jobs to the 3rd wold slave encampments as soon as possible.....freedom....liberty...the american way.

They are leeches on society. They funnel money away from working people through legal and illegal means, and right wing authoritarians actually defend them, even though they're stealing from them too.

We've effectively returned to the 1900s, and these are the new Carangies and Pullmans.

 

[islandman]

You want to stop that? Give the president line item veto power OR make it illegal to attach anything to a bill that is not directly connected to the subject of that bill OR better yet, both. Make the rules such that each appropriation of congress must stand or fall on it's own merits. But neither will ever happen. There are way to many politicians who profit (politically and monetarily) from handing out that kind of candy to their supporters.


Comshaw

Line-item veto was ruled unconstitutional some 10 years ago.

 

[Comshaw]

Some day people will wise up and stop funding people stupid enough to live in flood plains.

That's a really smart idea!! But why stop there? Let's add anyone who builds in an area that is subject to hurricanes or typhoons, a forest fire prone area, earthquake zone, any place close to a volcano or volcanic caldera, in any part of a tornado zone or any place that's subject to flooding because of torrential rains, a neighborhood or city section that has been deemed crime ridden or any place that is within reach of a tsunami. We can save lots of money that way! fucking A! A brilliant idea that!


Comshaw

 

[koalabear]

That's a really smart idea!! But why stop there? Let's add anyone who builds in an area that is subject to hurricanes or typhoons, a forest fire prone area, earthquake zone, any place close to a volcano or volcanic caldera, in any part of a tornado zone or any place that's subject to flooding because of torrential rains, a neighborhood or city section that has been deemed crime ridden or any place that is within reach of a tsunami. We can save lots of money that way! fucking A! A brilliant idea that!


Comshaw

Thanks for confirming you are an idiot.

 

[Comshaw]

Thanks for confirming you are an idiot.

Thanks for confirming you don't have enough gray matter for an intelligent response. So what part of my post wasn't in the same vein as your's? Your premise was if anyone builds in an area where nature can do you harm ( a flood plain), you shouldn't expect help. What's the difference between that and the list I posted? Come on, I know it hurts your head, but you can do it. Sound it out slowly and you'll manage.


Comshaw

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

http://capitaltonightny.ynn.com/2012/12/cuomo-scorns-house-gop-for-stalling-on-sandy-aid/

"Cuomo is also urging lawmakers to use the time they are in Washington negotiating the so-called “fiscal cliff”
to take up the aid package as well–essentially instructing them to walk and chew gum at the same time."

 

[koalabear]

Thanks for confirming you don't have enough gray matter for an intelligent response. So what part of my post wasn't in the same vein as your's? Your premise was if anyone builds in an area where nature can do you harm ( a flood plain), you shouldn't expect help. What's the difference between that and the list I posted? Come on, I know it hurts your head, but you can do it. Sound it out slowly and you'll manage.


Comshaw

Thanks for confirming you are an idiot.

 

[islandman]

Go ahead, koala.

Answer the man's question.

Without hiding behind smileys.

 

[BotanyBoy]

They are leeches on society. They funnel money away from working people through legal and illegal means, and right wing authoritarians actually defend them, even though they're stealing from them too.

We've effectively returned to the 1900s, and these are the new Carangies and Pullmans.

Oh I agree with you 100%...that comment was complete sarcasm.

 

[BotanyBoy]

The victims of Hurricane Sandy made poor lifestyle choices, and should not depend on the government for a handout.

They need to be moar bootstrappy.

No...they should have bought flood insurance.....kinda like people from north TX up through Nebraska buy hail/tornado insurance.

 

[Comshaw]

Sirprise!!! Sirprise!!! Sirprise!!! Did you and Vet play on the same play ground as kids? Your grade school comebacks and lack of originality point to that. I'll leave you the last word and I'll expect at least a font size five on your,"Oh Yea? The same to you!" response.

Comshaw

 

[koalabear]

Go ahead, koala.

Answer the man's question.

Without hiding behind smileys.