Posted on 03/28/2011 5:34:55 PM PDT by NoLibZone
As I have reported, the left has mounted a full-throated attack on David and Charles Koch, the billionaire libertarian brothers who give to pro-free-market causes that the left abhors.
As odd as it may seem, the left imagines that it can discredit the Tea Party movement or dissuade the Kochs from participating in the political process by making them into the newest bogeymen (Limbaugh is apparently so 2009 in the left playbook.)
But you have to wonder whether,aside from the screwy notion that voters care about the left’s conspiracy theories ( how well did the slams on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce work in the 2010 midterms?), the war on the Koch brothers is backfiring.
The latest news cycle was touched off by a cover story on the Kochs, including rare interviews with the brothers in the Weekly Standard. Matt Continetti produced perhaps the most comprehensive piece to date on the Kochs’ background, political and philanthropic giving, business holdings, and opponents. A sample:
The Kochs’ politics didn’t match traditional categories. Republicans, in their view, were just as implicated in big government as Democrats. To this day the Cato Institute calls for a much smaller defense budget, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and liberal positions on social issues. Some of these views have made movement conservatives uneasy. In June 1979 National Review went so far as to publish an essay critical of Cato Institute libertarians by Lawrence V. Cott. The title of the piece was “Cato Institute & the Invisible Finger.” The finger in question belonged to Charles Koch.
The intraconservative friction was evidence that Charles was becoming influential. In 1980 David Koch ran for vice president on the Libertarian party ticket. As a candidate, David could use his fortune to educate the populace about the free market.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Every time I read a lefty attacking the Koch brothers, it makes me laugh.
Those poor simple minded fools!
“To this day the Cato Institute calls for a much smaller defense budget, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and liberal positions on social issues. “
They CATO Institute also calls for government to track (andl toll) all vehicle movements via transponders...so much for their ‘Libertarian’ ideals.
Thanks NoLibZone. G’night all (for real this time).
you must be talking about Randi “ the drunk “ Rhodes. Her panties have been twisted pretty tight over the Koch bros.
Simple minded single issue fool would be her tag line
Wow...some of the most lucid writing I’ve seen in the Compost in years.
The Koch Brothers are like Atlas Shrugged main characters.
They are brilliant, patriotic, honest, strong-willed and unbelievably successful. I wish we had 2000 Koch Brothers in this country.
Link, please. All I could find were discussions of Singapore's experiments and how corporations could track truck movements and other disucssions of technology, not "calls for government to track." Please help. Thanks.
“Link please...”
No prob. CATO is PROUD of forcing everyone to drive with a transponder and having their movements tracked...it allows more efficient use of the highways.
Thank you.
Thanks. The article is a bit old, but I have yet to see Poole (or CATO) renounce the concept.
In an ideal world, where Atlas doesn’t have to shrug, we would use some kind of road pricing system (maybe)...but we would pay the cost of the road.
In the real world, tolling rates are MUCH HIGHER than the cost of the ride, so tolling systems become ‘revenue engines’ (in highway-planner talk), and provide revenue for other ‘mobility projects’. In Houston, that includes side streets, and now our train system.
That’s my big hang-up with toll roads...if they only spent the money on the roads, the tolls would be negligible...and no big deal - but instead they wind up being multiples of the cost of the road (about 5 times here in Houston).
The Koch’s were pretty obscure figures before the lefties decided to mount a crusade against them.
Good points. Indeed, in Orlando, the tolls were supposed to be “temporary.” But they not only remain, but go up regularly — to finance the construction of even more toll roads, and of course, for graft and other politicians’ favorite projects — and advertising costs for them.
Yea, and another HUGE COST for toll roads is the tolling system itself...which usually costs more to operate than it costs to maintain the road itself. I HATE those damn things.
Ping
The left “needs” an Emanuel Goldstein to direct their two minute hate. The Koch brothers have become an easy target. I don’t doubt the brothers are liberal about abortion and homosexuality. But they have committed the unforgiveable sin of employing thousands of people.
It occurs to me that the Koch brothers are taking the place that Richard Mellon Scaife had amongst the libs 10 years or so, ago. They want to latch onto the ‘rich white guy’ argument to beat up the Republicans, ignoring the fact that their own ‘rich white guy’, George Soros, is spending WAY more money on the libs’ behalf.
Find later
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