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As Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was about to sign their union-busting right-to-work-for-less bills into law, Chris Matthews spoke to UAW President Bob King and the State Director of the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity's Scott Hagerstrom. Matthews attempted to get Hagerstrom to come clean about who "signs his paycheck" and despite repeated badgering from Matthews, refused to acknowledge that AFP is just a front group for the Koch brothers.

He just works for a grass roots organization, like the Red Cross don't you know! And they have lots of donors. He didn't want to talk about their one big one though. Here's more on Hagerstrom and his remarks back in February of 2011 from Think Progress: Koch Front Group Americans For Prosperity: ‘Take The Unions Out At The Knees’:

In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual conference, Americans For Prosperity-Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and its allies like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) efforts. Speaking at CPAC’s “Panel for Labor Policy,” Hagerstrom said that AFP really wants to do is to “take the unions out at the knees”:

HAGERSTROM: It’s easy to go out there and fight taxes and increased regulation, you know we send out an action alert on taxes to AFP and we get thousands of people to respond. You send out one on a more complicated issue and it just doesn’t quite resonate…We fight these battles on taxes and regulation but really what we would like to see is to take the unions out at the knees so they don’t have the resources to fight these battles.

Taking “the unions out at the knees” has long been a goal of the Koch brothers and their many front groups. In the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Kochs worked with other anti-labor billionaires, corporations and activists to fund conservative candidates and groups across the country. Now after viciously opposing pro-middle class policies for years, Koch Industries is trying to eliminate the only organizations which serve as a counterweight to the well-oiled corporate machine.

Sadly they managed to succeed in that goal today in Michigan. Sourcewatch has more on Americans for Prosperity here and the fact that they are indeed just a front group for the Koch brothers here.

This interview has a bunch of right wing blogs worked up of course, the usual suspects that I'm not going to link to, calling Matthews "unhinged" and claiming he "berated" Hagerstrom because he asked him time and again who funds AFP. If they think this is Matthews coming "unhinged" they must not watch the show much, because this is pretty mild by his standards. There are times that stuff can be annoying out of him. This wasn't one of them.

The AFP chair was on there pretending he's got the interest of those workers in Michigan at heart and that they're just some grass roots organization instead of an AstroTurf front group who only care about a race to the bottom on wages so their rich donors can squeeze some more blood out of the working class.

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As Think Progress noted today, the one thing the Romney campaign has been really good at is projecting their worst attributes onto President Obama, and we got another dose of that this Tuesday on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSNBC, where she let Romney surrogate, John Sununu walk all over her and tell lies about the stimulus money going to companies that did work overseas:

Andrea Mitchell Struggles To Respond To Claim Obama Outsourced Jobs Via Stimulus:

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell struggles in her attempt to respond to a charge by guest John Sununu that President Obama is the job outsourcer, not Mitt Romney.

Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC: Isn't it a winning issue for the White House, fundamentally, granted that the PolitiFact folks and the Washington Post pointing out that the President's campaign ad on that issue had a lot of questions and a lot of questionable attacks?

John Sununu: But they said it was wrong. A lot of questionable tactics is not right, it was wrong.

Mitchell: But the point is, that isn't Mitt Romney more vulnerable than the President on this issue because there still is -- the whole question of private equity of outsourcing. Yo could argue about when he left Bain Capital and whether he was still getting money from Bain Capital and what some of the companies in Bain were doing, companies that did end up working overseas and sending jobs overseas. But isn't it a bigger problem for Republicans than for the White House?

Sununu: No. When you've sent $500 million to Fisker and it goes to Finland immediately. When you send the solar money and it goes to Mexico. When you send the turbine money and it goes to Denmark. And we can go on all day. There is $29 billion worth of purchases that came out of this administration, outsourced jobs to foreign countries.

Mitt Romney outsourced zero --

Mitchell: Zero?

Sununu: Zero. He wasn't there when those issues came up.

Mitchell: Well, first of all the $29 billion are not all outsourced from the administration because ---

Sununu: Sure they are.

Mitchell: A lot of those jobs still remained here. There are jobs -- when you do a grant, governor, there are jobs here as well as overseas.

Sununu: [laughing] You're struggling, Andrea. You're struggling.

Mitchell: First of all, these are competing claims and we will get back to you with all of the numbers.

As the Think Progress post linked above noted, Sununu's claims have already been debunked and surprise, surprise, he was reading off a list from an Americans for Prosperity ad buy: FACT CHECK: Americans For Prosperity Announces $6.1 Million Ad Buy To Push Totally False Green Jobs Claims:

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann briefly paused a foreign policy speech in South Carolina Thursday as protesters from the Occupy movement interrupted.

About 10 minutes into the speech aboard World War II-era aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, about 30 protesters began chanting.

"You capitalize on dividing Americans, claiming that people that disagree with you are unpatriotic and you promote discrimination," they said, according to a statement provided to Mount Pleasant Patch. "You parade as a grassroots candidate but your campaign is funded by Americans for Prosperity, a group that takes advantage of legalized money laundering."

The protesters continued: "You cater to the 1 percent. You oppose paying hardworking Americans a living wage and refuse to promote realistic solutions to economic problems."

After several moments of listening to the demonstrators, a police officer escorted the candidate from the stage until the protest was over. They left the room chanting, "We are the 99 percent."

"Don't you love the First Amendment?" Bachmann asked supporters before resuming her speech.

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Following up on her reporting from last week where Rachel Maddow called Herman Cain a "performance artist and "the practical joke no one is getting", Maddow took us for a little walk down memory lane on the scandal ridden Tim Phillips, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist who all have ties to the Koch brothers and Herman Cain's campaign manager, Mark Block.

Cain's headaches with these charges of sexual harassment or possibly sexual assault after the accusations made today are not the only troubles his campaign is facing by far.

As Rachel reminded us, we recently had Cain the complaints filed against his campaign by CREW, calling himself "the Koch brothers' brother from another mother.":

On Friday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over allegations that Prosperity USA had illegally funneled donations to the Cain's campaign through Americans for Prosperity. At the time, Prosperity USA, the Wisconsin arm of Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, was operated by Cain campaign manager Mark Block.

"It is not sufficient for the Cain campaign to investigate itself," CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said in a media advisory. "Rather, the FEC -- the federal agency charged with enforcing campaign finance laws -- must look into the matter."

Cain first met Block while working as a speaker for Americans for Prosperity in 2005.

The New York Times has more on the allegations against the Cain campaign here -- Cain to Review Links to a Nonprofit.

With the news that convicted lobbyist just got out of prison and is now out there trying to sell his new book as we just saw during the 60 Minutes interview this weekend, it was nice to see all of them called out properly for just how big of crooks they are.

Rachel reported on Tim Phillips and his ties to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed back in March of this year and she did a nice job of going back through some of that material in the segment above.

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For anyone that missed it, GOP presidential candidates Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich had themselves a little as touted, and definitely not my description of what I watched, a "Lincoln-Douglas style debate".

It would more rightfully be described as a little love-fest where the two of them spent an hour and a half discussing their vision for America if the country would be unfortunate enough to actually see either of them elected and telling myths about how conservative economic policies are somehow going to pull us out of the mess they caused in the first place.

You can watch the entire event if you've got the stomach for it at C-SPAN's site here.

If you're not so inclined to give away an hour and a half of your life as I did, there's the short segment above where Gingrich compares Obama to Bernie Madoff with this bit of flame throwing while praising St. Ronnie Ray Gun.

GINGRICH: Compare Reagan's ability to talk to the American people, make sense, and have the American people move the Congress, with the current president. This president is about as candid and accurate as Bernie Madoff in what he tells the American people.

Sorry Newt, but I'll still take at face value anything our current president says to the public as having some basis in truth with some educated skepticism when it's warranted and deserved before anything that comes out of your mouth. And comparing President Obama to Madoff is nothing but flame throwing to satisfy your right-wing base that likes it when you call the "Kenyan usurper" nasty names because that same base still can't quite reconcile that a man who is half black got elected to the White House.

Herman Cain also pulled what amounted to close to another ‘Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan’ moment when asked about his opinion on Medicare and whether we ought to have a defined benefit plan or premium support. Cain punted and said Newt should go first on that question.

I hate to break it to Cain, but saying I pass and let the other guy answer first isn't going to exactly endear the public to the idea that you know what the hell you're talking about when it comes to issues that matter a great deal to seniors in the United States.

FDL's TBogg summed this up better than I ever could -- Adultery Off Limits At Cain-Gingrich Steel Cage Adulterers-Only Deathmatch:

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From Politico -- Herman Cain's economic adviser is not an economist:

Herman Cain says his much-touted 9-9-9 plan is the product of extensive testing and thinking, but the only man he cited as involved with its research — Rich Lowrie of Cleveland, Ohio — is not a trained economist.

Instead, Lowrie — who’s the only economic adviser Cain has been willing to mention by name — is a wealth manager for a division of Wells Fargo and according to his LinkedIn page holds an accountancy degree from Case Western Reserve University. Lowrie also spent three years on the advisory board of the conservative third-party group Americans For Prosperity.

The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO was pressed for his circle of economic advisers at Tuesday’s debate in response to a question from moderator Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post.

“My advisers come from the American people. Now, I will have some experts. One of my experts that helped me to develop this is a gentleman by the name of Rich Lowrie out of Cleveland, Ohio,” Cain said during the debate. “He is an economist, and he has worked in the business of wealth creation most of his career.”

The Daily Show's Blog has more on Lowrie -- Meet Rich Lowrie, Herman Cain's Mystery Economic Adviser:

Who is this "Rich Lowery?" Is he an Economics Nobel Laureate? A former high-ranking Federal Reserve official, like Herman Cain himself? Actually, the crack news team at the Spencer Daily Reporter of Spencer, Iowa reveals him to be Rich Lowrie, a wealth management adviser with an accounting degree.

Lowrie, who has affiliations with the American Conservative Union and Americans for Prosperity, was a donor to Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign efforts, but has since drunk the pizza-sauce-flavored Kool-Aid — excuse me, the "pure rocket fuel" — of Cain's economic policies. Of course, as an employee of a division of Wells Fargo, a firm that received $25 billion in TARP funds, Lowrie may not be the best spokesman for Cain's free-market oriented policies. There's another lesson Cain learned in the chain pizza biz: don't let the diners get a close look at the sous-chefs.

From our friend D.C. Douglas who continues to be a thorn in the side to these "tea partiers".

Tea Party! America Thanks You! (A DC Douglas Tweak):

Actor, voice over artist and Tea Party gadfly, D.C. Douglas, released another video thanking the Tea Party for its contributions to the debt ceiling debate. Immediately upon it's release, his video took on even greater meaning.

Though this video's release occurred at roughly the same time that Standard & Poor's credit downgrade for the US became official - it was mere coincidence. Twitterverse, however, picked up on the video's sentiment and began forwarding it to friends as way of expressing their less-than-warm-n-fuzzy feelings regarding the Tea Party's hand in the credit downgrade.

Apparently this was not without some merit. In S & P's statement, they write "[T]he downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned..."

In essence, Congressman John Boehner chose to move into the far right Tea Party's territory rather than into the Republican mainstream. So, in effect, it seems even more fitting that America should Thank the Tea Party!

Dedicated to FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, Tea Party Nation, Americans For Prosperity, Tea Party Express and National Tea Party Federation!

Written, produced, edited by Lance Kibbe' Baxter

D.C, Douglas:
Film/TV • http://www.DCDouglas.com
Voice Over • http://www.MyVoiceOverGuy.com
Blog • http://www.DCDouglasBlog.com
Gadfly • http://www.dcdouglasgadfly.com/
FaceBook • http://bit.ly/B0LCu

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Every time you think these guys can't possibly stoop just a little bit lower with the tactics they're willing to resort to, they manage to sink to a new low. From the Detroit Free Press -- Conservative group: Fake eviction notices were 'meant to startle people':

The state director of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity offered no apologies today for papering homes in Detroit’s Delray district Monday with fake eviction notices.

Bearing the words “Eviction Notice” in large type, the bogus notices told homeowners their properties could be taken by the Michigan Department of Transportation to make way for the New International Trade Crossing bridge project. The NITC is the subject of debate in Lansing, and Americans for Prosperity is lobbying heavily against it.

“It was meant to startle people,” Scott Hagerstrom, the group’s state director, said today. “We really wanted people to take notice. This is the time that their opinions need to be heard. We wanted people to read it.” Read on...

And from Think Progress -- Americans For Prosperity Places Fake Eviction Notices On Detroit Homeowners’ Doors To Scare Up Support:

The Michigan chapter of the Koch-backed conservative activist group Americans For Prosperity (AFP) has been campaigning against a new bridge project called the New International Trade Crossing (NITC) that the state is considering. While there may be some merit to some of the arguments against the NITC project, the tactics AFP has just been found to be using in campaigning against it are revolting.

Yesterday, numerous residents in the Delray area of Detroit came back to their homes to find eviction notices. The problem was that these notices were not authorized by any sort of local government authorities. Rather, they were mocked up by AFP to look like actual eviction notices. The “notices” sensationally claimed to homeowners that their property may be seized if the NITC is constructed. Some residents, particularly elderly ones, were physically shaken by the tactic [...]

AFP’s tactics are bad enough by themselves, but they are even worse when you consider where the fake eviction notices were delivered. Michigan has the country’s highest foreclosure rate, and Detroit in particular is perhaps the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis.

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Well, it looks like all of the potential Republican presidential contenders came out to kiss the boots of Americans for Prosperity's Tim Phillips tonight. You've got to love what they called this event -- the Summit on Federal Spending & Job Creation. Or in other words, Republicans reciting their conservative wish lists to continue slashing and burning the government and finishing off what's left of the middle class in America.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was the final speaker at the event, which included Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Senator Rick Santorum, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and syndicated columnist, radio talk-show host and Tea Partying presidential candidate Herman Cain.

After telling the audience about her wish list for what the Republicans would like to do if they "win the trifecta" of getting both houses of Congress back and the White House, Bachmann proclaimed that she'd like to see the Republicans "pass a mother of all repeal bills" which in her words, "should take committed Constitutional conservatives about a long weekend to get it done."

Michele Bachmann's lovely list she compiled for America is Tim Phillips and his astroturf Americans for Prosperity and their rich corporate donors' wet dream, but other than in wingnut world, that little wish list of hers doesn't work out so well for the peons.

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As the Koch brothers attempt to counter the protests in Wisconsin with an astroturf bus tour of their own, brought to you by Tim Phillips and Americans for Prosperity, Rachel reminds us of Tim Phillips lovely past before he went to work for the Koch brothers -- working with Ralph Reed helping to rip off Indian casinos and fooling Christian groups along with Ralph Reed to support the exploitation in the Northern Mariana Islands because the Chinese workers there were being converted to Christianity. What a guy.

Here's part of a report on him from Think Progress' The Wonk Room from back in May of 2009 -- Tim Phillips, The Man Behind The ‘Americans For Prosperity’ Corporate Front Group Factory:

As a Virginia-based political consultant, Phillips got his first big break managing the campaign of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). After serving as Goodlatte’s chief of staff for four years, Phillips joined former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in 1997 to create an astroturf lobbying and campaign consulting operation called Century Strategies. The firm promised to mount “grassroots lobbying drives” and explained its strategy as “it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard — and by whom.”

After being recommended by Karl Rove, Century Strategies signed its first major corporate client – Enron. Phillips and Reed were paid $380,000 to mobilize “religious leaders and pro-family groups” to push energy deregulation in Congress and on the state level, a policy shift that led to the energy crisis and economic meltdown of 2001. The Washington Post reported that the pair informed Enron that they had leveraged their relationships with members of Congress and “placed” articles in prominent papers like the New York Times.

Part of Phillip’s role at Century Strategies was to manage the firm’s direct mail subsidiary, Millennium Marketing. In 1998, now disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff hired Phillips’ firm to pressure members of Congress to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws. A federal report “found that Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.” Nonetheless, Phillips sent out mailers claiming Chinese workers “are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ” while on the islands, and many “are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand.” The mailers then encouraged the recipients to contact lawmakers and ask them to oppose the Marianas labor reform legislation.

The Marianas stealth lobbying effort was not the only time Phillips worked with Abramoff. Reed and Phillips conspired to generate conservative Christian outrage towards gambling at Indian casinos in a cynical plot to encourage those same tribes to hire Abramoff to lobby on their behalf. In some cases, Phillips’ anti-gambling crusade would simply be part of an effort to kill off competition to Abramoff’s clients. And while Phillips and Reed postured to be motivated by anti-gambling Christian values, the pair helped launder lobbying money from an Abramoff Internet gambling client called eLottery.

Though Phillips and Reed are best known in the campaign consulting world for engineering the dual victories of Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Republican Gov. Sonnie Perdue in Georgia (by associating images of Osama bin Laden with the incumbent Democratic senator), the pair can also be credited with the most below the belt tactics ever seen in modern Republican primaries. The duo “spearheaded” the telemarketing and direct mail efforts for George Bush against John McCain in the 2000 primaries. It is widely believed that Century Strategies executed the mass mailers and robo-calls which accused McCain of fathering an illegitimate child with a black woman, using the image of McCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh.

Much more there so go read the rest.