Friday February 20, 2009, 5:45 pm
The compromise version of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed the House and Senate Friday and is expected to be signed by President Obama tomorrow in Denver. Despite Democratic leaders' efforts to reach out for Republican support by dropping various controversial provisions and beefing up tax cuts, the measure passed with no Republican votes in the House and only three Republican votes in the Senate.

Public opposition to the plan was led by a group called Americans for Prosperity, which delivered 400,000 signatures on a petition to the Senate opposing the measure. As the group says in a statement at its NoStimulus.com website:

We lost. But we put up a heckuva fight!

We turned what was supposed to sail through with 80 votes and no controversy into a bloody knock-down, drag-out fight.

We showed that Americans won't passively sit by while our future is plundered. Just the fact that the bill shrank in conference committee -- they almost always grow -- showed that we had an impact.

Who is Americans for Prosperity? According to SourceWatch.org, the group was founded in 2003 with money from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, which is run by the billionaires behind Kansas-based Koch Industries -- the national's largest privately held oil and gas company. Media Transparency reports that the group gets substantial financial support from the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, another one of the Koch family foundations.

Why would an organization funded by oil and gas interests be hostile to the economic stimulus plan?

Could it be the $50 billion the bill offers for more sustainable energy alternatives?

Among other things, the stimulus bill allocates $5 billion to weatherize more than a million modest-income homes and another $6.3 billion to install energy-saving insulation, windows and furnaces in federally funded housing projects, USA Today reports. It also offers a tax credit of up to $7,500 for families that buy plug-in hybrid cars, and includes $500 million for green jobs training.

Americans for Prosperity has long worked against any government efforts to tackle climate disruption by promoting more sustainable energy. Last year we reported on the group's "Hot Air Tour," which featured a hot-air balloon that traveled around the country with a message challenging what AFP dismisses as "global warming alarmism."

The organization is currently running TV ads in Virginia criticizing state efforts to address climate change. Last week, Gov. Tim Kaine signed a pact with the U.K., agreeing to work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, research renewable energy and raise public awareness about climate change. Kaine has also championed legislation creating renewable energy tax credits and promoting the use of alternative fuels.

Here's the text for one of the Virginia ads titled "Tell Congress Not to Waste Our Money," which makes clear Americans for Prosperity's hostility to government support for more sustainable forms of energy:

MAN: OK, we're in a recession.

Times are tough and jobs are scarce.

Congress talks about economic recovery, but what are they doing?

Spending billions of taxpayer dollars in the name of global warming and green energy.

Who is going to bail us out and pay our bills? Instead, they will:

... Make energy more expensive

... cost us more to heat our homes

... and regulate our local businesses and our jobs out of existence

No thanks. Congress should stop wasting their time and focus on real problems.

ANNONC (VO): Isn't it time Congress listened to the rest of us and got its science and priorities straight.

Paid for by Americans for Prosperity

One of the directors of Americans for Prosperity is North Carolina millionaire businessman and former state legislator Art Pope. He funds a network of pro-business think tanks that was behind an effort to scuttle efforts to address global warming in North Carolina, as we reported in our 2007 Facing South investigation titled "Hostile Climate."

Americans for Prosperity has also been active on labor issues in North Carolina, where it's fighting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers unionize. Today the N.C. NAACP is holding a press conference to highlight the fact that the group is a front for big business.

Interestingly, Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president chose Colorado as the place to sign the stimulus legislation into law "to highlight some of the investments to put people back to work -- particularly clean-energy jobs."

Friday February 20, 2009, 6:55 pm
It's fun watching the Repukes self-destruct - I hope they keep up their crazy talk - ensuring Obama the full 8 years -- provided he wants to deal with all those crazies for 8 years. He should make his life easier and ignore them - usher in the post-Republican era, permanently.

Saturday February 21, 2009, 12:49 pm
ATTN CARE 2 FRIENDS.

Fill in the boiler plate petition and plea ---- that you can copy then paste in word ---- remove my signature add you own then send it along to PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA at info@barackobama.com

Saturday February 21, 2009, 12:59 pm
February 21, 2009
To the Honorable President Barack Obama
Of the Untied States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

OPEN LETTER --- To whom it might concern

Mr. President,

Thanks for all the good work you are doing, and in keeping with your status as our President. We have prayed that you would not back down or cower to anyone not your equal and that is simply not many.

Many of WE THE PEOPLE who are proud to be Americans that have NOT an inane view of political science, equity in justice and with that solicitous vanguards view we do have the strong and strident will in words and deeds to overcome all the many things, people and matters facing our sovereignty today as a free society.

Thus this petition is just one of the ways that our work towards more equity in our communed held wealth as a nation of people must be upheld by you and made steadfast in the long road ahead to help keep our nation purged from those many billionaires that have other agendas than our present Democracy. Mr. KOCH funds those involved in the Libertarian party that have a hideous agenda in turning over parts of our government to the far right wing of Christian beliefs known as DONINION THEOLOGY. Our reference article is http://www.care2.com/news/member/434996229/1055335


Dwight Baker
Co-founder Bondservants of Christ Jesus Ministries
Chairman for Grass Roots Actions WE THE PEOPLES LOBBY WTPL
Contact E-mail dbaker007@stx.rr.com

Sunday February 22, 2009, 1:12 pm
The repugs would rather see this country in flames than work with Obama. Hey -- wake up folks, the repugs want you and me dead -- in dead end jobs, dead end housing, and dead end healthcare -- if you ain't wealthy (and ignorant) you should work to get rid of the Republican party -- it is nothing but poison for the common peeps . . .

Nothing has really changed, not yet -- this country is ALL ABOUT class warfare . . . imho ; /

Sunday February 22, 2009, 1:22 pm
It was 8 years ago that so many RepubliCON$ told those of us who disagreed with them that we should leave the U$A ... they care only about them$elve$.

Sunday February 22, 2009, 3:31 pm
Get 'em Blue. Bet those repugnicans leave fore I do. Especially with Steele at the helm of the GOP. (going' out pissed)

Wednesday February 25, 2009, 12:22 pm
Recovery.Gov Getting 3,000 Hits Per Second