Lest she be mistaken for some class warrior, Ms. de Rugy hastens to point out that even though many of the aged are rolling in enough gelt to keep them in poligrip and corrective shoes for the rest of their lives, they differ from the one-percent. The heroic one-percenters, you see, amassed their riches by making contributions to the economy, unlike grandma who fritters away her days watching Matlock reruns and has yet to outsource a single job.

Hey, you know what conservatives really really hate? Conservatives just can’t stand it when rich people and corporations use their vast wealth to game the system! Just don’t ask them to support any kind of public campaign financing or limits on corporate political spending…

Robert Samuelson confuses taxing the rich with slavery. Coincidence? Nipping at the sherry again? You decide.

I encourage readers to purchase two copies of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism – one for themselves and one as a Christmas present for their right wing uncle. That uncle might well stay with Skocpol and Williamson’s highly readable and well-crafted study to the end without throwing it down in anger – something I can’t say with much confidence about my book with DiMaggio.

So let’s assume you’re part of a very-well-funded corporate stooge cabal with the job of making sure nothing stands in between your well-heeled bosses and their desire to squeeze every last bit of profit out of the earth without having to give a rip about the long-term effects this might have, particularly on the masses.

Your problem, lately, is that some of your most valuable operatives — the bought-and-paid-for academics who your bosses pay to trash the scientific evidence showing the grievous bodily harm the bosses have inflicted and are inflicting on the planet — have, for whatever reason (such as growing spines, brains, or consciences), decided they don’t want to be denialists anymore.

While the media remains focused on Herman Cain’s sexual harassment allegations, the more damaging story may be a budding campaign finance scandal. It seems a network of private corporations, possibly linked to the Koch bros, directly paid for many of the campaign’s early events, in violation of federal laws.

While many of us occupied various places around the globe in the name of better government with less influence for people like the Koch Brothers, their chosen candidate spent the weekend making sure his skull was unoccupied.

A provocative new video from Brave New Films exposes what appear to be serious environmental crimes in Crossett, Arkansas, caused by waste product at a Georgia-Pacific plant. Georgia-Pacific is owned by Koch Industries.

For most people — well, non-Republicans for certain — funding a right-wing group with your billions and calling it “grass roots” would be a bit rich, and not just as a pun. But not for the Koch Brothers.

Documents and interviews unearthed in recent months by Brave New Foundation researchers illustrate a $28.4 million Koch business that has manufactured 297 commentaries, 200 reports, 56 studies and six books distorting Social Security’s effectiveness and purpose.

Together, the publications reveal a vast cottage industry comprised of Koch brothers’ spokespeople, front groups, think tanks, academics and elected officials, which have built a self-sustaining echo chamber to transform fringe ideas into popular mainstream public policy arguments.