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Democrats are getting the hang of super-PACs

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sonofghandi
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23 May 2014, 1:32 pm

While many conservative Republicans were thrilled when the SCOTUS made super PACs into a huge political power, they may be surprised as it turns around and bites them in the *ss:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2014/05/22/314938119/billionaire-environmentalist-targets-7-statewide-races


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Jacoby
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23 May 2014, 3:08 pm

Losing issues are still losing issues no matter how much money they throw at them. Global warming is a dead one, people recognize the initiatives behind it as job killers and tax increases. The Democratic base is not united on this issue, poor people and unions care about their jobs and taxes not polar bears, college students don't. All they can do is scare people about rising sea levels and natural disasters, people are sick of it. Bloomberg tried to throw money behind gun control and it actually helped those he targeted.



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23 May 2014, 4:25 pm

Jacoby wrote:
Bloomberg tried to throw money behind gun control and it actually helped those he targeted.


Yup, if Mikey B didn't exist, me might have had to invent him. A meddling New York billionaire who wants to regulate everything from what guns you can own to the size of your soft drink? Did he miss any bases for NRA red meat?


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sonofghandi
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23 May 2014, 5:56 pm

Jacoby wrote:
Losing issues are still losing issues no matter how much money they throw at them. Global warming is a dead one, people recognize the initiatives behind it as job killers and tax increases. The Democratic base is not united on this issue, poor people and unions care about their jobs and taxes not polar bears, college students don't. All they can do is scare people about rising sea levels and natural disasters, people are sick of it. Bloomberg tried to throw money behind gun control and it actually helped those he targeted.


This isn't about actual issues at all. It is about huge sums of cash thrown into smear campaigns. This is just a rich Democrat trying to throw mud at Republicans. I hope no one seriously believes that this guy who made plenty of cash in the fossil fuel game as an investor gives a crap about climate change any more than the Koch brothers give a crap about protecting American freedom.


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Dox47
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23 May 2014, 6:15 pm

sonofghandi wrote:
... any more than the Koch brothers give a crap about protecting American freedom.


Actually, those guys really do get a bad rap, as their activism goes back decades and includes multiple causes that have no bearing on any of their business holdings whatsoever, such as their support for legalizing marijuana and bankrolling opposition to the PATRIOT act. They've recently gone all in for the Republican party because they've spend decades trying to change the system from without, and have decided that highjacking an existing political brand and making it over is more practical.


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Jacoby
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23 May 2014, 6:51 pm

The Koch brothers have supported a lot of good causes and candidates, they've done more good than bad. That doesn't make them perfect and they've supported causes in their own self interest but that's not anything that anybody else with money doesn't do. As mentioned they gave a lot of money to right-wing extremist ACLU to fight the PATRIOT Act.

They get demonized by the nonthinking left but I don't see any of them turning down money from George Soros who actually has blood on his hands or unions who advocate on their own behalves not the American people. I don't know how many fluff pieces I've seen on the cable news networks fellatiating Warren Buffet or Bill Gates. They obviously don't care about rich people using their money and influence on causes and candidates they support, I think they liked the narrative Glenn Beck took up about George Soros in 2009 and ran with their own version.



khaoz
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24 May 2014, 12:32 am

Jacoby wrote:
Losing issues are still losing issues no matter how much money they throw at them. Global warming is a dead one, people recognize the initiatives behind it as job killers and tax increases. The Democratic base is not united on this issue, poor people and unions care about their jobs and taxes not polar bears, college students don't. All they can do is scare people about rising sea levels and natural disasters, people are sick of it. Bloomberg tried to throw money behind gun control and it actually helped those he targeted.


You are totally clueless and out of touch with reality. You actually think people in unions or poor people dont care about environmental issues shows that you have no contact with poor people or union workers.. Climate change is a very live issue and it is going to bite blind people like yourself right in the caboose.



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24 May 2014, 1:12 am

khaoz wrote:
Jacoby wrote:
Losing issues are still losing issues no matter how much money they throw at them. Global warming is a dead one, people recognize the initiatives behind it as job killers and tax increases. The Democratic base is not united on this issue, poor people and unions care about their jobs and taxes not polar bears, college students don't. All they can do is scare people about rising sea levels and natural disasters, people are sick of it. Bloomberg tried to throw money behind gun control and it actually helped those he targeted.


You are totally clueless and out of touch with reality. You actually think people in unions or poor people dont care about environmental issues shows that you have no contact with poor people or union workers.. Climate change is a very live issue and it is going to bite blind people like yourself right in the caboose.


Out of touch with reality? lol okay, good luck winning elections. Try pushing gun control too, real winner with the voters. :lol:



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24 May 2014, 4:43 am

The dems have some of the right issues but they are all the wrong people to get the job done. non of the issues on witch I agree with them do I actually believe they will be able to change anything. A good libertarian has a lot more potential to address some of these issues than Dems do. A superpac wont change any of that.



sonofghandi
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24 May 2014, 12:11 pm

While I despise the PATRIOT Act in so many ways I could spend the next few hours making bullet point lists about it, assuming that the Koch brothers were against it for any reason other than financial interest is quite flawed. One of the key parts of the act made things difficult for US financial institutions to compete globally. As a result, the sectors of the US economy that relied heavily on US banks for their revolving lines of credit suddenly found that they had higher interest rates and their US cash slightly devalued against the Euro. Other than the defense and security sectors, every other part of the US economy took a hit. The hardest hit were the transportation and domestic natural resources sectors. Flint Hills, Koch Fertilizer, and Georgia-Pacific were all faced with higher expenses.

While I am quite fine with them spending cash to fight the PATRIOT Act, I am fully aware that it was not done out of the kindness of their hearts. They care as much about the average American as much as Tom Steyer.


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24 May 2014, 1:24 pm

sonofghandi wrote:
While I despise the PATRIOT Act in so many ways I could spend the next few hours making bullet point lists about it, assuming that the Koch brothers were against it for any reason other than financial interest is quite flawed. One of the key parts of the act made things difficult for US financial institutions to compete globally. As a result, the sectors of the US economy that relied heavily on US banks for their revolving lines of credit suddenly found that they had higher interest rates and their US cash slightly devalued against the Euro. Other than the defense and security sectors, every other part of the US economy took a hit. The hardest hit were the transportation and domestic natural resources sectors. Flint Hills, Koch Fertilizer, and Georgia-Pacific were all faced with higher expenses.

While I am quite fine with them spending cash to fight the PATRIOT Act, I am fully aware that it was not done out of the kindness of their hearts. They care as much about the average American as much as Tom Steyer.


I think they have a genuine interest in liberty, they're supported the cause for longer than either of us have been alive. David Koch was the VP nominee for the Libertarian Party in 1980 and funded the campaign. I don't think everything they do is perfect or pure in its intentions but they're not the evil billionaires trying to steal our democracy like MSNBC would like you to believe.

Someone like Shelden Adelson I find a lot more offensive.



sonofghandi
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24 May 2014, 2:36 pm

Jacoby wrote:
I think they have a genuine interest in liberty


^Their liberty? Yes. Everyone else's? Only if they get their's.

Jacoby wrote:
but they're not the evil billionaires trying to steal our democracy like MSNBC would like you to believe.


^I'll agree with that. They aren't even in the top 50 of super-PAC donors. They just started the most PACs. It's the whole "big oil bad guys" that makes them the most marketable for the Dems.


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RunningFox
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24 May 2014, 7:46 pm

sonofghandi wrote:
While I despise the PATRIOT Act in so many ways I could spend the next few hours making bullet point lists about it, assuming that the Koch brothers were against it for any reason other than financial interest is quite flawed. One of the key parts of the act made things difficult for US financial institutions to compete globally. As a result, the sectors of the US economy that relied heavily on US banks for their revolving lines of credit suddenly found that they had higher interest rates and their US cash slightly devalued against the Euro. Other than the defense and security sectors, every other part of the US economy took a hit. The hardest hit were the transportation and domestic natural resources sectors. Flint Hills, Koch Fertilizer, and Georgia-Pacific were all faced with higher expenses.

While I am quite fine with them spending cash to fight the PATRIOT Act, I am fully aware that it was not done out of the kindness of their hearts. They care as much about the average American as much as Tom Steyer.


And do you believe that the people who passed the PA actually did it to keep americans safe? A lot of people think they passed it to keep the Government safe from its own angry people rather than to keep its people safe.