Walker Paying Back the Koch Brothers in Wisconsin With Union Busting and No-Bid Power Plant Sales
As Think Progress' Lee Fang discussed with Cenk Uygur today, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is doing more than just busting the unions in his state to help out the Koch brothers. There is also a provision in the budget plan that would allow the state to give no-bid sales of state owned of power plants to his corporate donors.
Koch Industries Slashed WI Jobs, Helped Elect Scott Walker, Now Orchestrating Pro-Walker Protest:
A number of the big business interests standing with Walker are beneficiaries of his administration’s tax giveaways. But the greatest ally to Walker is the dirty energy company Koch Industries. In response to the growing protests in Madison, Koch fronts are busing in Tea Party protesters to support Walker and his union-busting campaign. Last night, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz reported on the involvement of Club for Growth and the Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity in the pro-Walker protest scheduled tomorrow. [...]
Koch Industries was one of the biggest contributors to Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, funneling $43,000 over the course of last year. In return, Koch front groups are closely guiding the Walker agenda. The American Legislative Exchange Council, another Koch-funded group, advised Walker and the GOP legislature on its anti-labor legislation and its first corporate tax cuts.
According to the EPA, Koch businesses are huge polluters, emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests.
In Budget Bill, Wisconsin Gov. Walker Pushing for No-Bid Sales of State-Owned Power Plants:
Andy Stern frames the debate in Wisconsin correctly as a 15-state power grab to take away worker’s rights. Under the cover of a fiscal crisis created by Wall Street and a deep economic recession, right-wing politicians in Wisconsin and elsewhere are trying to pin the blame on public employees and strip them of their bargaining rights. This is a power grab.
But this wouldn’t be a Republican power grab without some profit-taking for corporate allies, now, would it? [...]
As Mike Konczal explains, this would allow the state to make no-bid sales, overriding public interest concerns, of heating, cooling or power plants. This rider is just an invitation to corruption, and part of a familiar pattern of selling off state-owned property to fill a budget gap in the short term, with disastrous consequences in the long term. See the sale of Chicago’s parking meters. Hat tip to Ed from Ginandtacos on this one, who writes:
If this isn’t the best summary of the goals of modern conservatism, I don’t know what is. It’s like a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism. Extra bonus points for the explicit effort to legally redefine the term “public interest” as “whatever the energy industry lobbyists we appoint to these unelected bureaucratic positions say it is.”
He rightly connects the Koch Brothers, who have been active in purchasing power plants and who basically funded Scott Walker’s gubernatorial run, to this rider. This is corporate cronyism of the worst order.
The Crotch brothers need to be dealt with. The first step is letting people know what filthy, greedy, evil, American hating, fascist, POS scum sucking bast**ds they really are.
Now that the Robber Barons are coming out of the shadows and into the light, it is time for the good people to send these 1890's regressives back to the gates of hell from which they came.
Only the brian-dead Teabagger morons will miss them.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
thrown into traffic.
Link on the Koch and power assets sale. http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
Max Keiser on Revolts: Americans Joining Middle East Uprising Trend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Usl1v7u40
Good watch, he touches on Wisconsin, this is one everyone can agree with.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
The oligarchs are on the attack. The Koch brothers are leading the charge.
You want to become a serf ?
Get on the phone folks. Spread the word. People need to know.
No neo-feudal regime for me ! No neo-feudal regime for you !
Might i recommend a visit to Wisconsin. There's clearly lot's of nice people in Madison.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
No bid contracts?
Sounds like he's been reading Dick Cheney's playbook.
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
$43K for the entire year ...?
Jeez not exactly a high-end prostitute is he ...?
...that's a weekend in Reno for that Estavez Brother ...
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
There's high paying gigs in the private sector awaiting the Walkers as a reward for his public service.
The whole family will be richly rewarded for Walkers treachery to the working class.
Beer-i.e., God's Sweet Nectar- is a magic drink that makes you smarter, stronger, and more sexy.
-S. Colbert
with Nos. 2 and 3 getting their cuts in the deal...
and what's with No. 5?
wanker need some advice from a good hair dresser...
first, quit with the jet black - makes that bald spot stand out even more...
I am particularly amused by the redefinition of the term 'public interest' to mean whatever Walker does.
What do you suppose he intends to do to the poor and the elderly once he takes complete control of Medicaid in WI.
and privatizing many fundtions certainly worked well in the creation of a friendly democracy in Iraq.
If only Bush had not compromised and allowed so many unqualified poor people to
purchase homes they could not afford, we would not have had the economic crisis which allowed the Kenyan ururper and his ACORN/AFSCME thugs to take our country away temporarily.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
down at the poor, instead of up at the banksters? the REAL cause of the economic crisis?
is scapegoating that easy? are you somehow complicit then?
why, yes... yes you are...
you wouldn't notice Walker's bald spot.
And snark is as easy as scapegoating. REAL.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
The amount donated to Walker's campaign from the scary Koch brothers, $43,000, works out to 0.47% of the total amount Scott raised. (equals less than one percent, for the decimal challenged) link
I don't have the time or inclination right now to do the research, but I would guess that Gov Walker was a conservative Republican who supported limiting union power and reducing regulation before he ever heard of the Koch's.
more likely, he's been groomed from the beginning...
like: Koch Industries Slashed WI Jobs, Helped Elect Scott Walker, Now Orchestrating Pro-Walker Protest
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/18/business-...
and
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/21/zombie-jo...
...
They make modest visible donations, but the fact is they are pulling the strings every other way they can, including with back door deals.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
You do realize that the real money doesn't come until after he leaves office and is hooked up with a sweet gig. The old revolving door. Politicians don't make their money in office. Their time in office is only used to guarantee a high paying job as lobbyists or what have you.
Scott Walker is set for life as well as his whole family.
Nothing he can use.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
... the Koch Brothers, who have been active in purchasing power plants ...
oh, so THAT'S why the EPA must be eliminated... among others...
Koch? Not surprised.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
koch-suckers...
Fascism (pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is an authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2][3][4] Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy
Republicans by any other name.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
as Corpora-Fascists a couple years back. Whenever I just used the term Fascist, people got confused and started thinking only of Nazis and war and ovens.
The corpora-fascists and the banksters are still working hard to steal the rest of what they couldn't get in '08. And, that's a big part of what the union busting is about. The Teatards just haven;t gotten the message.....
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Corpora-Fascists.
I always use the term. When somebody looks confused, I then quote the Webster definition of a fascist, which sounds exactly like today's republican party.
To see the looks on the faces of wingnuts and Teabirchers as they process the fact that I have just described them to a tee - is priceless.
Usually they will say something like "so fascism is something that is only associated with corporations and the privagte sector?" When I say yes, they really look lost.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Thank you, teabaggers was getting tawdry and somewhat non-descriptive........beyond the obvious.
The first casualty of republicanism is the truth.
Party politics are not only undemocratic, they are antidemocratic.
Try Teabirchers also.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Any truth that Walker who doesn't have a degree got kicked out of Marquette?
i heard he was "asked to leave" because of cheating... grapevine anyway...
Kind of like Loughner?
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/scott-wal...
What's to stop politicians from rewarding big campaign donors with Americas infrastructure?
At what point is the line drawn?
Privitising public infrastructure seems like a big invitation for corruption.
Links from around the webs.
Turnpike looks to privatise toll collection
Thursday, December 16, 2010
BY KAREN ROUSE
STAFF WRITER
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority will seek proposals from private companies to take over toll collection duties on the turnpike and Garden State Parkway after the new year, agency officials confirmed Wednesday....
http://www.northjersey.com/news/111958849_Tur...
Obama Calls For ‘More Creative’ Ways to Pay For Infrastructure:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/11/02/obama-c...
Arizona making way for creation of private toll roads:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/1...
Part I - Toll Roads, Privatization, and Taxes – Connect the DOTs:
http://www.unbossed.com/index.php?itemid=274
Will Private Toll Roads Help Get Us Where We Want to Go?
http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/02/will-priv...
Business: Private Toll Roads Show the Way:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9...
Roads To Riches
Why investors are clamoring to take over America's highways, bridges, and airports—and why the public should be nervous :
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/...
For Sale: America’s infrastructure:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/arti...
America's infrastructure fire sale:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_I...
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
U.S. infrastructure for sale to foreigners
State, local officials gathering for seminar to learn 'how-to'
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=39563
Beer-i.e., God's Sweet Nectar- is a magic drink that makes you smarter, stronger, and more sexy.
-S. Colbert
I could easily see our Armed forces for sale. And once Koch buy social security and medicare I can see that being phased out 24 hours after he buys it!
I have been telling the morons this for years.
I am waiting for the GOP to privatize oxygen next.
And the useless bluedogs are with the psychotic republicans on this sh**t.
Why things will be much better if we skim 35% off the top and give it to billionaires, and eliminate the jobs to pay for it.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Similar posting and reposting of this evil Koch Brothers plot has surfaced all over the progressive blogosphere yesterday and today.
Guess those evil Koch Brothers were plotting back in 2005, too!
http://www.jsonline.com/business/116204654.html
"Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to sell heating and cooling plants could generate hundreds of millions of dollars, but stronger pollution rules that govern the aging facilities could make them less attractive to potential buyers.
The budget repair bill that Walker, a Republican, unveiled Friday would empower the secretary of administration to sell heating and cooling plants at state facilities, including prisons and University of Wisconsin campuses.
It's unclear what the market value of the plants would be. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau analyzed a similar proposal in 2005 and estimated the value of the 34 plants at $235.9 million, offset by $83.9 million in debt.
A similar proposal was inserted into the 2005-'07 budget by Republican Rep. Scott Jensen. The plan, vetoed by then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, would have led to the outsourcing of 271 state government jobs."
The difference between 2005 and 2011 versions is that in 2005 the sale was mandated.
In this bill the sale or lease is permitted and the no-bid provision added. I guess that may be because an ongoing EPA investigation into the state power plants may turn these "assets" into "turkies." They may need a fire sale.
BTW, this article on the sale provisions is a week old. Great find, ginandtacos. Great repetition without investigation blogospherians! Reality based forever.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
...the Kochs have been in the energy infrastructure business in WI for some time.
From AlterNet:
I don't think they've purchased all of that in the last 6 years.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Georgia Pacific primarily makes paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, and plywood.
A pipeline may supply power plants. It does not operate them. Same with coal. You missed that they own a Wisconsin Coal company.
None of this connects the evil Kochs to the 2005 proposal. In Texas Republicans have been trying to force the sale of the public agency power plants of the Lower Colorado River Authority since it was created back when LBJ was around...as a Congressman.
Many of these bloggers state definitively or repeat that the Kochs are in the power plant business. The best I could find is that they financed one in San Diego through their financial services affiliate. But they don't seem to own or operate any. I could be wrong. And they may have plans.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
How many of those paper mills have their own small power plants, like this one, owned by... guess who?
The Wisconsin-owned plants we're talking about are the same size- smallish- plants that supply power to prisons and colleges. Sell the plants off- or simply shop out the management- to...whomever...and then pay them to sell the power back to you at market rates? Can't possibly see anything going wrong there.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
...to the highest bidder, but no-bid contracts. No one could lose in that deal, right?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Koch got that plant in Muskogee when they bought Georgia Pacific in 2005. Guess they moved quickly and inserted that provision in the Wisconsin budget bill the same year.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Georgia Pacific mill in Green Bay. The plot thickens.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
How about those mills in Wisconsin? On-site power plants? How long have they owned them? How long have they owned and operated power plants?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
for the Kochs and focus on Scott Jensen.
The original provision in 2005 was authored by Scott Jensen, who is apparently a Repub poobah of some standing. He directed the assembly Republican caucus from 87-90 then was Tommy Thompson's Chief of Staff. He got elected to the Assembly and was Speaker from 1995 to 2002, virtually the entire time current Governor Walker served in the same body. Jon Gard, who he helped elect while working for the caucus, succeeded him. Gard was followed by Mike Huebsch. Huebesch was still in the Assembly when he resigned to become head of the Administration Department under Walker. This is the Department that gets to sell the power plants if the budget bill passes.
Sometimes locals can have stupid ideas all on their own. And keep pushing them.
Both Jensen and Huebesch were early backers of Walker for Governor. Early on rumors circulated that Walker had hired Jensen, despite his conviction in a scandal, to help balance the budget by raiding the teacher and state retirement funds. Walker denied it. Politifact labeled it false. Ironically, the faked news article used in spreading the rumor back in early January quoted Jensen saying that police and firefighters would be safe in his plan. Turns out to be real prophetic for a false rumor.
If the Kochs really wanted into the electric power plant business in a big way they have the money to play at a lot bigger level than this.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
I'm not spending a whole lot of time trying to make that connection. Don't have to. From your J-S link above:
So they pulled the plug on biomass. Someone who owned a big chunk of the natural gas pipeline would stand to benefit if more of those plants now owned by the state were sold off, and those plants were also switched over from coal to natural gas. Someone...
Sure, the Kochs could fry bigger fish, but why spend all sorts of time on a single marlin when you can cast your nets out a few times and get as much, if not more, value in haddock?
Not to downplay Jensen's role, ricky, but you seem to be suggesting that Walker's relationships with Jensen and the Kochs are mutually exclusive. Maybe they aren't.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
provision was inserted in the bill as payback to the Koch's is nonsensical. And while your theory about them making money by owning plants that convert from coal to gas is interesting, it would seem to me that either fuel works fine since they produce and transport both.
This deal, which one more time was proposed and vetoed in 2005 before Koch acquired Georgia Pacific and its mill based coal plants late that same year, is a typical Republican state legislative privatization proposal.
By the way, the biomass conversion at UW-Madison was pegged at a cost of $250 million
and had other problems as well. But say, don't paper products companies like Georgia Pacific have the potential to produce biomass fuel, too. Gee, those Koch bros have us coming and going in all directions. http://www.jsonline.com/business/82008452.html
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
...incomplete, but from what I can tell, they've been in energy a lot longer than they've been in the paper business.
Like this partnership formed with Entergy in 2000:
I
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
I think the energy trading business (An Enron type business) was sold to the suckers at Merrill Lynch in 2004. The two companies had a partnership in pipeline operations that attracted FTC regualtory action.
But I still don't think Koch ever got into the power plant operation business on its own or in partnership with anyone else.
Don't we have someone with a blackboard who can keep track of this. They can use the other side for Soros.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
As already pointed out by a diarist on DK, Koch already owns these businesses in Wisconsin: http://www.kochind.com/...
# Flint Hills Resources, LLC, through its subsidiaries, is a leading refining and chemicals company. Its subsidiaries market products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, olefins, polymers and intermediate chemicals, as well as base oils and asphalt. A subsidiary distributes refined fuel through its strategically located pipelines and terminals in Junction City, Waupun, Madison and Milwaukee. Another subsidiary manufactures asphalt that is distributed to terminals in Green Bay and Stevens Point.
# Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. operates a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin, part of the nearly 4,000 miles of pipelines owned or operated by the company.
# The C. Reiss Coal Company is a leading supplier of coal used to generate power. The company has locations in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan.
If they're able to purchase energy facilities/power plants (no doubt for pennies on the dollar), that gives them ownership of sources of raw materials, a mature distribution system, and the facilities to generate, and of course sell, power to end users. Sounds like a good old fashioned vertical monopoly. Far from nonsensical, this sounds like a great deal for Koch.
If they can get emasculated public employee unions along with this, so much the better, especially since they might well be inheriting public employees when purchasing state-owned energy facilities. It's much easier to get rid of them if the union is powerless.
or does that photo of Charles Koch kinda look like Stephen Colbert might in say 30 years???
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
is that all they paid for the turd, of course then he has to, if he doesn't do what they want they'll sick the teabaggers on him.
The first casualty of republicanism is the truth.
Party politics are not only undemocratic, they are antidemocratic.
Am I stupid or are the same bunch that has been running this country into debt for the last 30 years , now claiming they can fix the problem by crapping on every working person in the country ?
I'm not stupid, I've seen this coming for years. You can jump out of a ditch , but you can't jump out of a well !
They dug this well by selling tax cuts to the greedy, morality to the mortified, guns and war to the rednecks and scared.
It took Reaganomics 30 years to put us in the right spot to slash and burn any social program they can. At the same time that they did this to us , they on the other hand have made mountains of wealth. We once used our navy to guarantee safe passage for American made goods all over the world. Now they us it to police sea lanes bringing oil and goods back from their foreign plants.
The cabal that controls these politicians [employees ] have think tanks to create their talking points, and a media machine second to none in the world. The kool-aid they serve , if you can't control your urge to sin, is very addictive. Knowing there are people that vote contrary to their own self interest is stupefying.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling these people stupid. Stupid people fail at cognitively putting the logic together. Given the propaganda used on these people they are ignorant of the facts. Democrats need to drive the narrative!!
When my kids were in school, I figured out that , if you want your kids to learn. stop answering question and start asking questions. How did we get a 40 hour week? How did we get a pension? How did we get so fucking broke?
mlg51
From Walker's Wiki bio:
"In 1993, he won a special election to fill a vacant seat for the 14th District, representing Wauwatosa, an edge city west of Milwaukee.[13] During that campaign, he backed welfare reform and opposed the expansion of mass transit.[14] He supported a cap on state spending and said that the law on resolving labor disputes with local government employees needed to be reformed.[14"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Walker_(politician)#Wisconsin_State_Assembly
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
considered legal bribery. The Koch brothers have bought themselves a governor to do their bidding. How convenient. How can anyone believe this is ethical or in any way appropriate? Filthy rich people donate huge amounts of money to the governor's campaign AND fund an advisory board. Why are so many Americans so flippin ignorant about the Republicans? I was so angry watching the evening news last night trying to make it sound like the Walker's entrenched position had ANYTHING to do w/the budget.
but I thought the majority of voters in Wisconsin had a lot more sense than they've shown. Wisconsin has traditionally been blue collar and agriculture...how did it come about that so many people have voted against their own best interests? I'm wondering how many of the people who are going to get screwed by this (until it is thrown out in the courts) voted for these corrupt asshats, and Walker in particular? The Tea Baggers have been played like violins. People need to stop trying to get their information from FOX, CNN and the other propagandists.
We had the cheapest electric power in the nation until our Republican Governor Marc Racicot sold Montana Power. Our power rates doubled and thousands of Montana Power Employees lost their pensions. People who invested in Montana power enjoyed the best returns of any public owned utility in the nation. They lost everything. Good luck Wisconsin.
... of voting the Repugs back in is coming home to roost. The United States has without a doubt the stupidest people in the free world. The country with the biggest constituents voting against their own well being.
Where is the rest of the unions in this country. They fucked it up once when Reagan fired all the air controllers by not issuing a nationwide strike... now they're going to fuck it up again by not doing anything AGAIN. It this was happening in France you'd see riots in the streets by the millions.
Yes. And you can't fix stupid.
People were angry because the democrats didn't produce or save enough jobs because of republican obstruction. So obviously, they threw out the democrats and put in the most extremist GOP facsist nutjobs to replace them since nazi Germany.
Hoping for more jobs and a fairer shake, the American imbeciles did the following:
-Threw out one of the only non corrupt voices of the people - Russ Feingold, and replaced him with a GW Bush idiot clone.
-Voted in Pat "Club for Fascism" Toomey, and rejected a progressive navy admiral Joe Sestak.
-Threw out the greatest voice for the people in congress - Alan Grayson, and replaced him with a rightwing working class hating goon.
-The list is endless of course.
Like George Carlin said, it's not the politicians who suck, they are just taking the morons to the cleaners, it's the people who elect them that suck.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
I just can't get over one fact that seems to be ignored over the years. There will always be politians who will take compaign contributions, read "legal" bribes. One thing I have never understood was how cheap the amount was. The Koch brothers have bought a Governor for less than $1000 per month. They are in a position to take over public utilities that would have cost them million, if not billion to acquire or build. How much will that make with this? Who knows, but it will be a lot more than $43,000. Many year ago there was a scandal with some U.S. Senators who were given, in return for key votes in the Senate, suits, double and single breasted suits from some Korean Businessmen. The literally sold their vote for the clothes on their back. How cheap can that be.
Declaring Wisconsin is broke
Scott Walker now wants to revoke
The bargaining tables
For no union labels
Are things that goes better with Koch.
News Short n' Sweet by JFD8
http://twitter.com/JFD8
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