Monday August 22, 2011, 6:43 am
Excellent article: "It is not the role of government to feed these pitiful slobs, or help them find work, or protect them if they get ill. It is up to my own philanthropy, and I shall decide whom to save, and how, and when, or whether to save none at all, and #*#* you all very much if you think otherwise."

Monday August 22, 2011, 6:46 am
He, Charles Koch, "Claims He Contributes More to Society Than Government." Just finished spewing my morning coffee (and losing my breakfast).

Monday August 22, 2011, 6:58 am
My Super Sweet 16 (and you):

"During the 'Gilded Age,' every man was a potential Andrew Carnegie, and Americans who achieved wealth celebrated it as never before. In New York, the opera, the theatre, and lavish parties consumed the ruling class' leisure hours. Sherry's Restaurant hosted formal horseback dinners for the New York Riding Club. Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish once threw a dinner party to honor her dog who arrived sporting a $15,000 diamond collar."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/gildedage.html

Monday August 22, 2011, 8:49 am
There isn't any honor among thieves and they would eat each other as quick as tossing us to the curb. It will take the few rich who begin to listen to their heart inside their body and that no matter the money, one can't take it with them to the other side. How much suffering is allowed so that anyone person gets to live so high on the hog that even the greatest ones in Egypt during the time of Pharoahs would be amazed at the wealth in the hands of these people.

Perhaps some of them are really beginning to feel uncomfortable in the position of knowing children ARE going without food in this Country while they have amassed such fortunes. There will be some, like Koch, that may never be able to touch in on his "feelings from the heart" there are people that are just heartless. So speak out Mr. Buffet and others like you, I know it's no more easy for you to do so than it is for others to take a stand in not so great of financial standing, when one knows their peers will disapprove. But there are always times in life when one must take a stand and let us hope more and more begin to in all econonmic strata.

We have to keep the pressure on them to show them how unacceptable that wealth beyond measure is in a few people's hands. As you state above the dog that has a diamond collar and that was $15,000 in the time in history. The mirror must be placed in their face to understand that people suffer pulling those diamonds out of the ground, that their lives are cut short in order for you to have the dog prance around like that. What kind of a human being are YOU showing the world by doing that? People need to not look in envy at this wealth but to look in disdain at it, if it is being used in such a callous fashion.

Society has a contributing factor too, that if people turn their backs on this horrendous wealth, show up and mock it, show up with starving children and a photo of the dog with diamonds side by side. We need to do it anyways, our resources are finite and one can't eat or drink diamonds when the water and land is ruined.

Monday August 22, 2011, 10:51 am
Windfall taxes. Big Oil. Big Business. WINDFALL TAXES. Restore the money THEY stole, to the US Treasury. For distribution to those of us who are FRIGGIN DYING OUT HERE.

Monday August 22, 2011, 1:31 pm
excellent article and commentary! thanks Wind, noted

Monday August 22, 2011, 4:13 pm
***You cannot currently send a star to Wind because you have done so within the last week.***

Monday August 22, 2011, 4:17 pm
Noted, Wind, and thanks for the article. Charles Koch is full of bull crap, and I'm sure whatever he has to say doesn't bother Warren Buffet in the least. Buffet is way out of Koch'S league!

Monday August 22, 2011, 6:52 pm
Well, if you look at the numbers, Koch probably does spend as much as government on social issues. The problem is Koch's spending is to counter all of the governments efforts to create safety nets for the less fortunate.

Buffet has a sense of honor as defined in the traditional sense, whereas Koch honors money only and nothing else.

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 12:18 am
Thanks Wind.

The poor baggers don't even realize they are sucking Koch.

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 4:23 am
Noted, TY

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 1:44 pm
thanks

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 3:27 pm
America’s Rampant Inequality Impossible to Deny: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/23-11

"The CIA ranks the country 64th, behind Ivory Coast and Uganda—but Fox's banshees still scream 'class warfare' when Warren Buffet wants to tax the rich."

"What defense can be offered when billionaire investor Warren Buffet admits that he pays a 15 percent capital-gains rate on most of his income, while everyone else in his office (including the secretary) pays a considerably higher rate?"

"What can the pundits of the Right say when a corporation like General Electric makes $14.2 billion in profits in 2010 and not only pays no federal income taxes, but collects $3.2 billion in tax credits to lower future tax bills? Well, on Fox at least, they go on the offensive, accusing critics of the wealthy of cruel 'demonizing.'"

(Good article, but Ignore the references in defense of Obama.)

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 3:48 pm
In further relation to any references in defense of Obama:

The truth about tax cuts and outsourcing corporations don't want you to know...
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2011/08/truth-about-tax-cuts-and-outsourcing-corporations-dont-want-you-know

"To make matters worse – the guy heading President Obama’s job creation council – GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt – is one of the biggest job outsourcers around with over half of his workforce made up of foreign workers. The real problem here is that our lawmakers for almost two decades have been drinking the so-called Free Trade kool aid – and it’s destroying our economy."

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 4:34 pm
France's Mega-Rich Sign Petition Saying They Want Higher Taxes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/frances-mega-rich-say-they-want-taxed-more_n_934354.html

"Warren Buffett is playing well in France. A group of 16 of the richest people in France has signed a petition asking the French government to increase their taxes."

(No longer a HuffPost supporter. But, the story is relevant.)

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 5:40 pm
The only way to turn around the country's economic situation is to decrease spending (already done) and INCREASE revenue. The uber-rich never pays it's fair share. They need to. They take advantage of federal programs. In turn, their CEOs take advantage of every loophole and tax shelter imaginable. Corporations pay *negative* tax. It is ridiculous. The Koch Bros. are destructive. Let the tax credits for the rich lapse. The Bush legislation helped start all of this.

Tuesday August 23, 2011, 7:33 pm
I doubt koch could match what the military spends each year for his "charities".

Let us not forget that the military budget has doubled since 2001.

The tax credits for the rich and corporations needs to be closed.

TY,Wind.
.

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 1:12 am
Charles never surprises! His sense of self-importance and value to the world is staggering. But then both he and his brother operate daily in a parallel universe so perverse it is a miracle that oxygen and sunshine exist in it.

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 1:13 pm
Buffet is 10 times BETTER a man then either Koch!!

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 2:01 pm
Neither Koch is close to being in the same league as Buffet. Consider the vile source and then compare with someone that is actually a REAL human being with sense of dignity and caring. The Koch's or their cronies are not good enough to lick Buffet's boots. Slimy snakes and that's even demeaning to the snakes.

Very funny TomCat S. and TRUE.

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 3:08 pm
Good article.

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 3:16 pm
Amazing and yet the repulinazi's think we should be ever so grateful for their benevolence in allowing us to even breath the same air NOT when the time comes retribution will be a bitch

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 8:05 pm
Wow. What an a**hole...

Wednesday August 24, 2011, 10:20 pm
The Birch Jerk Kochroaches, the Banksters & Wall Streeters are all a bunch of treasonous fools. They hate everything about American democracy except its money. They're ruthless greedheads and should all be deported to third world countries where their slave laborers live.

Thursday August 25, 2011, 5:14 am
Thanks for the article.

Thursday August 25, 2011, 5:51 am
As usual, another republiCON making a statement with nothing to back it up. I'd love to have him tell us how he contributes to society in any way.

Thursday August 25, 2011, 8:34 am
noted with thanks

Thursday August 25, 2011, 3:49 pm
And Still, the Usual: Warren Buffett Bails Out BoA
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/655853/the_end_of_the_bank_of_america_death_spiral_warren_buffett_bails_out_boa/#paragraph4

Monday August 29, 2011, 1:06 pm
thanks

Friday September 30, 2011, 2:59 pm
Let them fight it out, its about time that the culprits were doing the fighting directly instead of using the populace.