Since Koch Industries, Inc. is mainly run out of Wichita, Kansas by the older, rather secretive wizard brother, Charles G. Koch, I was wondering how come many of the Koch political donations were coming out of Virginia, under the auspices of one Richard H. Fink in Centreville. When it turned out that Dr. Fink is associated with the company's Political Action Committee (KOCHPAC), it made total sense.
Besides, although Koch Industries is a privately owned firm, it's also a conglomerate which has recently acquired some stand-alone enterprises, of which Invista B.V. is one that has a presence in Waynesboro, Va.
"For business to survive and prosper, it must create real long-term value in society through principled behavior."
Charles G. Koch
That must be why the Kochs bought up DuPont and Georgia Pacific plants.
The quote is from the banner on the Invista Environment, Health and Safety page. One suspects these matters are a high priority because, after acquiring Invista from DuPont in 2004, Koch claimed to have discovered some environmental problems and filed a law suit that was recently settled.
One of the DuPont facilities sold to Koch was the 750 acre Seaford Nylon Plant, world’s first nylon-spinning plant, polluting Sussex County, Delaware, since 1938. For instance, the plant burns coal and in 2001 reported discharging into the air 130 pounds of the neurotoxin mercury, more than Indian River or Edge Moor power plants reported (Indian River was under-reporting). Total "Toxic Release Inventory" on-site releases for that year were 469,000 pounds. For 2005, the total was 602,000 pounds. By 2007, the amounts reported had increased to 764,000 pounds. Careless disposal of coal ash on the site has contaminated groundwater with arsenic, carbon tetrachloride, and other toxic chemicals.
Which may also explain why another Koch/Fink enterprise, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which supports the Tea Party Express, has an interest in the Delaware senatorial election. Koch hasn't been getting much respect under the current set up.
According to the 990 form for APF for 2007, information from which is readily available on the internet, the foundation is located in D.C. while the political arm operates out of Arlington. In 2007, the officers were:
David H. Koch ---------------------
c/o AFPF , 1726 M St, NW , 10th Fl. ----------------------
Washinton DC20036 Chairman
Dr. Richard Fink ----------------------
c/o AFPF,1726 M St, NW,10th Fl. ----------------------
Washinton DC20036 Board Member
Art Pope _____________
c/o AFPF, 1726 M St, NW , 10th Fl. ----------------------
Washinton DC 20036 Vice Chairman
Debra_Gai1_H_u_mphreys __-_
c/o AFPF , 1726 M St, NW , 10th Fl. ----------------------
Washinton DC20036 Board Member
Dr. Walter Williams ----------------------
c/o AFPF, 1726 M St, NW , 10th Fl. ----------------------
Washinton DC 20036 Board Member
David H. Koch is the younger celebrity hound brother, operating out of New York City.
Of course, the public policy operation is handled by an underling, in this case one Tim Phillips, who's got a long history in Old Virginny. Think Progress covered the astroturfer in 2009.
As a Virginia-based political consultant, Phillips got his first big break managing the campaign of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). After serving as Goodlatte’s chief of staff for four years, Phillips joined former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in 1997 to create an astroturf lobbying and campaign consulting operation called Century Strategies.....
Part of Phillip’s role at Century Strategies was to manage the firm’s direct mail subsidiary, Millennium Marketing. In 1998, now disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff hired Phillips’ firm to pressure members of Congress to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws. A federal report "found that Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry." Nonetheless, Phillips sent out mailers claiming Chinese workers "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" while on the islands, and many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand."
For evidence that Republicans seem to be plagued by short-term memory problems (accounting perhaps for the fascination with ancient history), the connection between Phillips and Eric Cantor is revealing.
The Richmond Times Dispatch reported that Phillips was hired by State Sen. Stephen Martin to manage his direct mail campaign against State Del. Eric Cantor in the 2000 Republican primary for the Congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA). Phillips used his Family Alliance to blast robo-calls and mass mailers claiming Cantor did not represent "Virginia values" and that his opponent was the "only Christian in the contest."
David Koch has been quoted as saying that AFP never talked to him about money for the Tea Party Express. Which may well be true. Tim Phillips gets paid a goodly sum (pdf) to, as it says on the Invista page, be responsible:
Each INVISTA employee shares in the responsibility for managing operations around the world in a manner that is protective of the health and safety of employees, customers, contractors and the public as well as the environment. INVISTA places safety first, strives to always act with integrity,
We all know that when everyone's responsible, nobody is. And "strives" is just a fancy word for "try," the sequel to "don't succeed."
The point I made about information being readily available on the web is important because it would seem to answer a question raised the other day in the Weekly Standard.
Koch Industries Lawyer to White House: How Did You Get Our Tax Information?
BY John McCormack
September 20, 2010 1:31 PM
The answer is simple. As a private company whose shares are "closely held," Koch Industries can file individual or family tax returns and doesn't have to give any information to the SEC. Charitable and political donations show up in the recipient's reports. See, simple?
But, there's some interesting stuff in the Weekly Standard.
It reports that President Obama said:
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.
Note that adjective "like." It means similar to; it doesn't say "is." Then the Standard goes on to report that, according to a Koch lawyer
the administration may have crossed a line by revealing tax information about Koch Industries. According to Mark Holden, senior vice president and general counsel of Koch Industries, a senior Obama administration official told reporters at an August 27 on-the-record background briefing on corporate taxes:
So in this country we have partnerships, we have S corps, we have LLCs, we have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax. Some of which are really giant firms, you know Koch Industries is a multibillion dollar businesses. So that creates a narrower base because we've literally got something like 50 percent of the business income in the U.S. is going to businesses that don't pay any corporate income tax. They point out [in the report] you could review the boundary between corporate and non-corporate taxation as a way to broaden the base.
The real point of which -- that the "small" businesses which are going to be affected, if their subsidies aren't extended, are in a class that includes "family enterprises" like those Koch and Walton and Cargill run -- wasn't mentioned.
No doubt the corporate counsel for Koch Industries speaks true when he says:
"We are very concerned about why this would be said about us, particularly in this setting. We are concerned where this information would have been obtained from. We also are concerned in light of recent events that we have been singled out by the government and others as a campaign against us because of our political views."
Because, not only are the family fortunes they've amassed under the umbrella of family values being endangered by the estate tax, but the Obama Administration seems to be doubling down by insisting they meet their fair share on a continuing basis. Oh, if only David hadn't pulled back that curtain!
But, they have no prudence and no shame. Proof for the latter can be found in this delicious report, which comes to us from Virginia, probably because that's where the Department of Health and Human Services releases information.
Koch Industries Applies For Federal Funds From Health Care Law It Opposes
....
Ironically, one of those employers is the oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries, which as Lee Fang has reported, has also spent millions of dollars opposing reform:
HHS has approved the following sponsors from Kansas. More applications are being approved each day.
* Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc.
* BAC Local Union 15 Welfare Fund
* Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Inc.
* Boilermakers National Health and Welfare Fund
* Cement Masons & Plasterers Local 518 Health Care Fund
* City of Lawrence
* City of Leawood
* City of Overland Park, Kansas
* Construction Industry Laborers Welfare Fund
* Greater Kansas City Laborers Welfare Fund
* IBEW Local Union No. 226 Open End Health and Welfare Trust Fund
* International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers
* Kansas Building Trades Open End Health and Welfare Fund
* Koch Industries, Inc.
* Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry Health and Welfare Fund
* Sprint Nextel Corporation
* Unified School Dist No 500
* Unified School District No 232
* Waddell & Reed, Inc.
* Water District No. 1 of Johnson County
* Westar Energy, Inc.
* Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation
Maybe when Republicants keep saying "No" they're just being polite and the Democratic response should be "Oh, but we insist." Not only that, maybe we should follow up with "Try it, You'll like it!"