Chain mail from a right winger:
We're funding worldwide Mosque development with our tax $$$ - can you believe
it? Watch the video at the link below.
http://www.wsbtv.com/...
I'm not a protectionist or against freedom of religion, however, $770 million
to fund foreign mosques is inexcusable. Contact your elected officials to
complain - I know I will be doing so...
Googling "mosque state department" shows that this meme is making the rounds. FactCheck debunks it handily in an item dated last week.
The video linked to above, from ABC/Cox affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta, is currently the top video on that station's web site, although it originally aired about 4 months ago.
A talking head in the piece, Jared Thomas, is described as a "taxpayer advocate." It would have been more informative to identify him as the Georgia head of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-founded astroturf group. Formerly he was Christian Coalition Ralph Reed's campaign manager.
Pres. Obama said last year at a Democratic function:
"Right now all around this country there are groups with
harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running
millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across
the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for
Prosperity are. You don't know if it’s a foreign-controlled
corporation. You don't know if it’s a big oil company, or a big bank.
You don't know if it’s a insurance company that wants to see some of
the provisions in health reform repealed because it’s good for their
bottom line, even if it’s not good for the American people. A Supreme
Court decision allowed this to happen. And we tried to fix it, just
by saying disclose what’s going on, and making sure that foreign
companies can’t influence our elections. Seemed pretty
straightforward. The other side said no. They don't want you to know
who the Americans for Prosperity are, because they're thinking about
the next election. But we’ve got to think about future generations.
We’ve got to make sure that we’re fighting for reform. We’ve got to
make sure that we don't have a corporate takeover of our democracy."
Remember the DVD “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” that was mailed to 28 million households just before the 2008 election?
Counterpunch had a good expose on that last October:
A secretive libertarian nonprofit with ties to Charles Koch bankrolled what was widely perceived to be a fear mongering effort to throw the Presidential election to Senator John McCain in 2008.
We can only hope that Koch will be as successful in his later efforts (including the union-busting bill in Wisconsin) as he was in electing McCain.