Who's behind the Republican Tea Party? Money and Organizations:

[chill_wind]

Who's behind the Republican Tea Party? Well, gosh. Republicans.

This is information from ThinkProgress almost a year ago, when the Teabaggers were just gearing up, but a lot of DUer's keep asking again recently about the names and money behind the activity.

Spontaneous Uprising? Corporate Lobbyists Helping To Orchestrate Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests
By Lee Fang on Apr 9th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

Despite these attempts to make the “movement” appear organic, the principle organizers of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. The two groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests:

– Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists to give them “sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.”

– Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to “take over” the planning of local events in Florida.

– Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a “clear message” to the public and media.

– Freedom Works has several domain addresses — some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs — to promote the protests.

– Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, and several other states.

This type of corporate ‘astroturfing‘ is nothing new to either organization. While working to promote Social Security privatization, Freedom Works was caught planting one of its operatives as a “single mom” to ask questions to President Bush in a town hall on the subject. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed Freedom Works for similarly building “amateur-looking” websites to promote the lobbying interests of Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader who now leads Freedom Works and is a lobbyist for the firm DLA Piper.


Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed’s former partner in the lobbying firm Century Strategies. The group is funded by Koch family foundations — a family whose wealth is derived from the oil industry. Indeed Americans for Prosperity has coordinated pro-drilling ‘grassroots‘ events around the country.

Update This afternoon, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, leader of the corporate-funded American Solutions for Winning the Futures (ASWF), blasted an e-mail to his supporters with a reminder to attend the protests, along with a "Toolkit" of talking points. Gingrich's ASWF is funded by polluters and helped orchestrate the "Drill Here, Drill Now" campaign last summer. ASWF has been an official "partner" in the tea party effort since at least March.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/lobbyists-planning-teaparties/

Who's funding the Conservative Movement?
(Media Matters)

http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/?recipientID=8806

FOUNDATIONS


Funders

* Walton Family Foundation
* Ave Maria Foundation
* John M. Olin Foundation
* Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation
* Sarah Scaife Foundation
* F.M. Kirby Foundation
* Smith Richardson Foundation
* Gilder Foundation
* Carthage Foundation
* Earhart Foundation
* David H. Koch Charitable Foundation
* Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
* Exxon Mobil Corporation
* Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation
* Allegheny Foundation

Broken down a bit more...

Koch Foundations:

* David H. Koch Charitable Foundation
* Charles G. Koch Foundation
* Claude R. Lambe Foundation

Scaife Foundations:

* Sarah Scaife Foundation
* The Carthage Foundation
* Allegheny Foundation


PEOPLE


* Thomas S. Monaghan
* T. Kenneth Cribb
* James Piereson
* Edwin Ed Meese
* Chester E. Finn
* Charles G. Koch
* Richard H. Fink
* Michael S. Joyce
* Robert P. George
* Paul R. Roney
* Vonda Holliman
* Richard M. Scaife
* Peter M. Flanigan
* Edwin J. Feulner
* Leonard P. Liggio



BIG RECIPIENTS

* The Heritage Foundation
* National Rifle Association
* American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
* US Chamber of Commerce
* Young America's Foundation
* Cato Institute
* The Fund for American Studies
* Leadership Institute
* Washington Legal Foundation
* Intercollegiate Studies Institute
* Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
* Hudson Institute
* Eagle Forum
* Institute for Justice
* Pacific Legal Foundation

Our corp ho media loves to pretend they don't know this.

[mrcheerful]

1. Worse tea baggers don't know this they believe they are a "grass roots movement"

Fighting the system that destroyed the economy.

[zbdent]

2. Anybody who had a non-evil thought about ACORN is corrupt, because of their

ties to a handful of employees who may or may not have tried to tell someone who may or may not have been dressed as a pimp how to avoid paying taxes ...

But all these foundations funding a "grass-roots" movement, and a bunch of those involved in the movement are doing stuff that reminds people of a certain European country in the 1930s ... "Hey, it's just a bunch of individuals, there's no reflection of the movement or its supporters ..."

[mrcheerful]

4. But those evil liberals did worse in the 60's why they burned down an ROTC building

on a college campus oh the horrors, no one was injured or killed but they could have been. McViegh bombing the building was just like what happened at Kent state :sarcasm:. Why is it our side goes in with search warrants and law enforcement, their side goes in with NG and bullets, but we are the evil over lords? Good gravy it amazes me how people that can't tie medicare with government are able to tie events of 40 years ago with what they are doing today without a thought on how controlling the government was 40 years ago when there was a draft that forced all young people to go die for the country illegally.

[chill_wind]

3. DUers- just make a vow to start calling it what it is in every expression of it.

It's the Republican Tea Party. And it's about as independent and "organic" as the vinyl cladding on my 80 year old house.

[fascisthunter]

5. it's the fascist american party... that's what it is

[tom_paine]

6. In fact, as usual the Corporate M$M stresses Teabaggers' independence IN EVERY ARTICLE

That how you tell they are catpulting the Bushiganda. Like when INSTANTLY the entire Corporate M$M began calling the attempted bugging of Landrieu's office a "caper".

When the entire Corporate M$M falls in lockstep instantlylike that, and like with the Teabaggers any good "American Kremilinologist" can see they are performing a Propaganda Op for their Corporate Masters.

[chill_wind]

11. Yes. It's a very distinct and unmistakable media pattern. n't

[dkofos]

7. They should add a spell check service for their protesters signage.

[City Lights]

8. So they're GOPbaggers after all!

How unsurprising!

Thanks for the confirmation. :-)

[chill_wind]

9. Sourcewatch links:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_movement_funding

[Dinger]

10. Shocked I Tells Ya, Shocked!

:sarcasm:

[chill_wind]

12. I know you're not

but we really need this push-back. Every day we are being bombarded with lies and disinfo, and even here and there a few angry DUer's are still asking "but who? names? are behind the buses?"

Naming names-- instead of this faux nebulous "organic" they-- is important.

[pnorman]

13. K & R forl those links!

n/t

[chill_wind]

14. Welcome and keep passing them on. n/t

[zbdent]

15. The (Republican) Tea Party ... a tiny little division of

brain cells ...

[chill_wind]

16. In the interest of accuracy- The Kochs also fund the CATO Libertarians

along with many other Repub/Conservative orgs and foundations

David and Charles Koch, sons of the ultraconservative founder of Koch Industries, Fred Koch, direct the three Koch family foundations: the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. David and Charles control Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company and the largest privately owned energy company in the nation; they have a combined net worth of approximately $4 billion, placing them among the top 50 wealthiest individuals in the country and among the top 100 wealthiest individuals in the world in 2003, according to Forbes.

Following in the footsteps of their father, a member of the John Birch Society, the Kochs clearly have a conservative bent. Charles Koch founded the Cato Institute, while David Koch co-founded Citizens for a Sound Economy (now FreedomWorks), where he serves as chairman of the board of directors. David also serves on the board of the Cato Institute. The Koch foundations make substantial annual contributions to these organizations (more than $12 million to each between 1985 and 2002), as well as to other influential conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, media organizations, academic institutes, and legal organizations, thus participating in every level of the policy process.

*This foundation provided funding for the organization Citizens for a Sound Economy. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two groups: FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. In the Conservative Transparency database, FreedomWorks' financial data includes data from Citizens for a Sound Economy.

http://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/organization/Charles_G_Koch_Charitable_Foundation

AND.... according to Sourcewatch..

The Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation is one of Koch Family Foundations. Several of the organizations in the list below were founded by one of two Koch brothers, Charles G. Koch or David H. Koch to pursue their ideological agenda.

Organizations funded

Below is a list of recipients listing the cumulative amount, unadjusted for inflation, granted by the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation<3>

1) Cato Institute $8,450,000
2) Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation $6,025,375
3) George Mason University $2,311,149
4) George Mason University Foundation, Inc. $2,074,893
6) Heritage Foundation, The $1,004,000
7) Institute for Justice $1,000,000
8) Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment $810,000
9) Reason Foundation, The $642,000
10) Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, The $504,000
12) Institute for Humane Studies $455,000
13) Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy $385,000
14) Washington Legal Foundation $350,000
15) Capital Research Center $340,000
16) Competitive Enterprise Institute $254,460
20) Ethics and Public Policy Center, Inc. $190,000
22) National Center for Policy Analysis $175,000
23) Citizens for Congressional Reform Foundation $175,000
24) Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc. $125,000
25) American Legislative Exchange Council $120,000
26) Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty $115,000
28) Political Economy Research Center, Inc. $80,000
29) Media Institute $60,000
30) National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship $60,000
31) University of Chicago $59,000
32) Defenders of Property Rights $55,000
33) University of Kansas Endowment Assocation $50,000
36) Texas Public Policy Foundation $44,500
37) Center for Individual Rights, The $40,000
38) Heartland Institute $40,000
39) Texas Justice Foundation $40,000
40) Institute for Policy Innovation $35,000
42) Center of the American Experiment $31,500
43) Atlas Economic Research Foundation $28,500
44) Young America's Foundation $25,000
45) Henry Hazlitt Foundation $25,000
47) Atlantic Legal Foundation $20,000
48) National Taxpayers Union Foundation $20,000
49) Families Against Mandatory Minimums $20,000
50) Philanthropy Roundtable $19,200
51) Free Enterprise Institute $15,000
52) John Locke Foundation $15,000
53) Hudson Institute, Inc. $12,650
54) Alexis de Tocqueville Institution $12,500
55) National Environmental Policy Institute $12,500
56) Washington University $11,500
57) Pacific Legal Foundation $10,000
58) American Council for Capital Formation $10,000
60) Institute for Political Economy $8,000
62) State Policy Network $6,500
64) Fraser Institute, The $5,000
65) Mackinac Center, The $5,000
66) Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation $5,000
68) Institute for Objectivist Studies $5,000

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Family_Foundations