Once again, your intrepid diarist missed the beginning of the segment from moments ago on the Rachel Maddow Show, but I have this much:
Lawyers for the Koch Brothers released a statement saying the Koch Brothers had absolutely NO relation to, or support for a Florida group called the Foundation for Government Accountability. Apparently this organization had a lot to do with the failed attempt to require drug testing for welfare recipients in the State of Florida.
But Rachel has found another group called the Institute for Humane Studies, which offers the "Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program", which generously bankrolls interns' employment at companies or groups of their choosing. And one of the groups they send "Koch Fellows" to is...the Foundation for Government Accountability.
Busted!
Rachel just asked them about this link and their response is so epic fail I can't even believe it:
"Now, rather than admit that you are wrong, you are shifting the focus to a new line of flawed reasoning that isn't relevant to Ms. Maddow's January 2 and 3 segments..."
They're referring of course, to the last time she PWNed them, about 3 weeks ago! I wrote about that here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Way to dodge the question, Koch legal team!
As Rachel said tonight, this is connected to the fact that in 2012, the Koch Brothers spent $400 million on political activity, attempting to sway elections nationally. That nearly rivals what the GOP itself spent, I think she said.
Rachel closed by saying, (paraphrased)
"you Koch Brothers try hard to keep journalists from reporting on your political activity. But I say we keep reporting on you anyway, even if we don't get invited to your billionaire secret January get-togethers in Palm Springs."
Big h/t to
Dallasdoc for transcribing Rachel's actual conclusion to the segment:
The Koch Brothers are spending, and organizing the spending, of more money than almost anyone in history to influence American politics. They also fight vociferously to limit real reporting on how much they spend, how they spend it, and what the impact that spending has in our polity.
They want to influence American politics -- and they are influencing American politics -- but they do not want to be known for what it is that they do.....
This is about how American politics works now, about whether it stays in the light, or whether it is allowed to go underground. Because how they are working their side of politics now, is millions and millions and millions of dollars -- hundreds of millions of dollars -- that are intentionally made difficult to trace, full of the networks that build networks that you can disown when you want to ... if you want to.
Does that intentionally opaque political activity get reported on now, or doesn't it? They have tried to make it as hard as possible for that reporting to get done.
I say we do it anyway. It's our country too, even if we don't get invited to your billionaire's party in Palm Springs every January.
Keep up the incredible work, Rachel! Sooo awesome. Thank you.
(will try to post video as soon as it is available)
Update 1:
The video is now up at MSNBC.com. Here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.com/...