Friday, January 03, 2014

Koch Brothers Playbook: Religious Right Messing With Our Dumber than Dirt County Commission. By Geniusofdespair

Remember my post yesterday on some our County Commissioners going to Normandy to celebrate D Day's Anniversary in June? Of course not. You didn't read it. Second chance to read it, I implore you to do so. Please read the comments there as well. The Normandy trip sounds benign except being a waste of our tax dollars. Well guess what, it is not.

You might ask yourself why Normandy? Well, a reader had the answer from Politico.com:
On a recent snowy day in the Washington suburb of Tysons Corner in Northern Virginia, some of the religious right’s wealthiest backers and top operatives gathered at the Ritz-Carlton to plot their entry into the conservative civil war.

Their plan: take a page out of the playbooks of Karl Rove and the Koch brothers by raising millions of dollars, coordinating their political spending and assiduously courting megadonors.

Plans in the works range from aggressive super PAC spending in primaries against Republicans deemed squishy on social issues, to holding a donor conference in Normandy, France, tied to the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
And:
Other ideas included the retreats, which are in some ways patterned off the twice-a-year seminars organized by the Kochs, as well as identifying a handful of key 2014 races where they could have a major impact, which would allow them to raise more in 2016 to back a socially conservative presidential candidate to take on presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

The side session was convened by Fischer, who has been meeting with donors and operatives around Washington pitching planned retreats at the Reagan Ranch in California and in Normandy. Fischer has spoken with several high-ranking retired military officers, including an Army general, about helping to draft a campaign spending strategy that borrows from military tactics, according to sources familiar with the plan, which is still in its formative stages.

My question is, why shouldn't the Republican Party pay for this Normandy trip? It is a trip being planned by the religious right. This is certainly a post for the barf meter. Let them go, they are no threat to anyone because they are too dumb to carry out an intelligent plan but WE SHOULD NOT GIVE A DIME FOR THIS RETREAT. THIS IS A POLITICAL TRIP NOT AN ITC TRIP. WHERE IS A GOOD LAWYER WHEN YOU NEED ONE.

THIS TRIP IS SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS: TAX DOLLARS TO ATTEND A REPUBLICAN TEA PARTY/RELIGIOUS RIGHT PLANNED EVENT.



Video of Miami-Dade Economic Development & Port Miami Committee where Souto let the cat out of the bag.

20 comments:

Geniusofdespair said...

Who wants to donate to a fund private detective to follow around the county commissioners in Normandy? We have a button on the right. Just mention it is for the Normandy PI.

Anonymous said...

No way we should pay for it. How dare they use our scarce tax money for political gatherings. The reality is it does not matter how much they plan, or steal our money to plan, Clinton will be our next president if she decides to run and take on the burden of leading the free world.

Anonymous said...

Some Commissioners are saying they will pay for it. If they pay for it OUT OF THEIR OFFICE BUDGET, they are not paying for it, we are.

Watcher said...

Where is the IRS when you need them?

Anonymous said...

Why not celebrate the 50th anniversary of D Day or the 60th? Why are they going to the 70th besides for this Koch Brothers extravaganza.
This is all Pepe Diaz's doing the dumbest of them all.

Grillo said...

Will anyone with some sense and ethics run against them in the next electoral cycle so that we can throw them out of office?

Anonymous said...

Greedy pigs. All these taxpayer paid junkets? Who is looking out for the taxpayers?

Anonymous said...

Too expensive to knock off most conservative incumbents. From what posts here, easiest target is Bell and if the seat goes back to a Katyist progressive the mayor loses his veto proof majority. Could see a lot of diverst interest supporting her opponent.

Anonymous said...

In the video, Port Dir. Johnson suggested further discussion to be "offline" and corrupt co-director Juan Kuryla is in charge of putting it all together. This would normally all occur out of sight. People going, all expenses paid will be commissioners, insiders, top brass, others owed favors, like directors employing friends and family of politicos. Don't expect the IG to look into these travel junkets costing $millions every year, his rep goes on these junkets too. The costs are buried in various department or commission budgets, and worse, there is a big scam where the port funds the World Trade Assoc. (in addition to the ITC, the Beacon Council, etc) which then funds many trips without any oversight of costs because it is a "Private Trade Assoc." Juan Kuryla has been running this racket for years. $Millions get spent on theses junkets every year. When commissioners say they are paying their own way, what they mean is their district budgets fund them, totally paid by taxpayers. Good thing so many are going on the taxpayers' dime to represent Miami-Dade. Who knew there were so many Cubans involved in the Normandy invasion?

Anonymous said...

Who is the chick with the hair, sitting behind Diaz, and playing Angry Birds on her phone? She seems to have an air of "I'm so important and above all this stuff"

Anonymous said...

It's such a shame that voters keep returning them to office.

Chauncy said...

This is hilarious! Nothing puts liberals into a paranoid frenzy more than the mere mention of the Koch brothers.

The referenced article by Politico is about socially conservative groups that OPPOSE the Koch brothers, who are fiscally conservative, and Karl Rove, who is an establishment Republican.

There is no retreat scheduled in Normandy. As the Politico article states, an obscure social conservative who opposes the Koch brothers floated the idea at a side session at a conference. It was just an idea. There is no retreat.

The Koch brothers hold their retreats in Palm Springs, California. If the Miami-Dade County commissioners schedule a junket to Palm Springs when the Koch brothers hold their retreat, I would be suspicious. Until then, I would relax.

I am firmly against these junkets, Pepe Diaz, Juan Kuryla, and wasteful spending in general. But there’s absolutely no need to get paranoid about the Koch brothers becoming involved with Miami-Dade County government politics.

Anonymous said...

have to agree with above anon - just another junket for local politicos, their friends & family on the taxpayer dime- happens all the time

Geniusofdespair said...

Okay it is the religious far right and not the Koch trip. such a big difference. Not.

Anonymous said...

October 12, 2013 sdsen_2014 1 Comment

From the “Politico Playbook” reporting on a Associated Press Story:

GAME CHANGE – “Among social conservatives, a pocketbook message,” by AP’s Ken Thomas : At the three-day Values Voters Summit, which opened yesterday at the Omni Shoreham in D.C., “a new wave of Senate Republicans auditioned before prominent conservative activists and faith leaders, deriding President Obama’s health care law and his steering of the economy and foreign policy.

and…

Before the summit, Cruz and Paul sat down for separate closed-door meetings with a group of evangelical leaders, including Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, which sponsored the event, former presidential candidate Gary Bauer and Robert Fischer, a South Dakota businessman. The senators were joined by their wives during the session and discussed their faith and views on issues.”

Geniusofdespair said...

One thing to keep in mind: I have no editor, proof-reader etc. Donate if you want me to have one.

Anonymous said...

Why are they going D Day? Give me one good reason. These guys have never been AMERICAN patriotic. After all they spurned Nelson Mandela.
Who are they kidding.

Anonymous said...

... and Nelson Mandela is an America Patriot?

Youbetcha' said...

I know a zillion places in Dade you can hold a commemoration. You even can invite veterans. Wow. What a thought.

A True American said...

Only a low information voter would confuse the religious right with the tea party.

To avoid this problem in the future, here is a guide:

Tea Party = Constitutionalists and fiscal conservatives. True Americans

Religious right = Social conservatives. Well meaning, but dumb wing of the party.

Establishment Republicans = No principles. Corrupt. Will do anything to stay in office.

RINOs = Left-wing Democrats who pretend to be Republicans just to get elected. The lowest of the low.