Liars, Tigers and Barons, Oh My...

Remarking on the well-known addage "It's crowded at the top" a famous friend of mine once quipped "They have it wrong. It's the bottom that's crowded. There is lots of room up here." Apparently right, those at the top have so much room in which to play that we poor suckers competing for crumbs at the bottom (regardless of party) never had a chance...

Patron saints of right wing think tanks acquire Georgia Pacific Corp: "The Koch family 'is amongst the most powerful and influential movers and shakers promoting privatization in America,' Silver added. Over the past several decades, 'their money created an extensive infrastructure of Libertarian and Free-Market think tanks from which President Bush has drawn to staff the highest rungs of the land management agencies.'

The acquisition of Georgia-Pacific, which 'does extensive logging on public lands' and 'is a heavily subsidized form of corporate welfare,' could accelerate the trend toward the privatization of our national forests Silver argued. 'Logging companies such as Georgia-Pacific strip lands bare, destroy vast acreages and pay only a small fee to the federal government in proportion to what they take from the public. They do not operate in the Free-Market when they log public forests.'

Over the years, Koch has been 'a major polluter,' SourceWatch reported. 'During the 1990s, its faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a landmark penalty of $35 million from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Minnesota, it was fined an additional $8 million for discharging oil into streams. During the months leading up to the 2000 presidential elections, the company faced even more liability, in the form of a 97-count federal indictment charging it with concealing illegal releases of 91 metric tons of benzene, a known carcinogen, from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.'

After Bush took office in 2000, the 97-count indictment was reduced by 88. The balance was then settled when, 'two days before the trial' then- Attorney General John Ashcroft 'settled for a plea bargain in which Koch pled guilty to falsifying documents. All major charges were dropped, and Koch and Ashcroft settled the lawsuit for a fraction' of the possible $350 million in fines. (According to SourceWatch, Koch had contributed $800,000 to the Bush election campaign and other Republican candidates.)"