Uncloak the Kochs – Build Up to The Rally This Sunday

With the Uncloak the Kochs rally approaching, it’s a great time to share many of the articles and images already percolating out there.

First, here are a few images for your edification:

The Greenpeace Airship is already over Palm Springs, getting the word out!

The Other 98% created a clever and enlightening timeline on the Kochs:

Agit-Pop designed this badge for those helping Quarrantine the Kochs!

Already, many publications have run articles about the upcoming rally, here are a selection for your perusal:

The LA Times:

Californians to protest against Koch brothers in Rancho Mirage

Environmentalists, labor union members and liberal activists across Southern California are mounting a protest Sunday in Rancho Mirage against billionaire “tea party” funders Charles and David Koch and their semiannual confab of conservative activists.

The brothers, who own oil refineries across the U.S., helped fund last November’s Proposition 23, the failed ballot initiative to delay California’s landmark global warming law, AB 32. They are major backers of groups that seek to refute scientific evidence of global climate change.

The Kochs’ regular gatherings attract several hundred Republican officials and wealthy business executives to raise money for conservative causes. In the past, the Koch-sponsored conferences have attracted such luminaries as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas along with GOP members of Congress.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/01/koch-brothers-protest-california-rancho-mirage.html

The Guardian:

The billionaires are coming: Obama’s richest enemies to hold summit – Koch brothers to host rightwing politicians and business leaders at California resort to discuss how to influence politics.

But this year’s reception will differ in one important regard: it will have an opposition. For the first time, a coalition of progressive and liberal groups has formed to try to counter the power of the Koch brothers. The anti-Koch gathering will be staged down the road from the Rancho Mirage. It will hold its own – open, as opposed to secretive – panel discussion and a rally designed to highlight what its organisers see as the pernicious impact of the Kochs on the democratic process.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/28/obama-richest-enemies-billionaires-summit

Forbes:

Protesters To Target Koch Brothers’ Secretive ‘Billionaires Caucus’

For four days at the end of this month, Charles and David Koch — America’s richest brothers, and notorious underwriters of the right-wing — will convene a group of influential Republican donors in Palm Springs to develop their plan of attack for the 2012 elections. When the Kochs and their friends arrive at Rancho Mirage, they’ll be greeted by protesters who believe the government has been hijacked by the self-interests of the rich.

http://blogs.forbes.com/clareoconnor/2011/01/18/protesters-to-target-koch-brothers-secretive-billionaires-caucus/

Politico:

The Koch brothers – Charles and David – have come under intense scrutiny recently for their role in helping start and fund some of the deepest-pocketed groups involved in organizing the tea party movement such as Americans for Prosperity, and for steering cash towards efforts to target President Barack Obama, his healthcare overhaul, and congressional Democrats in the run-up to the 2010 election.

Liberal critics have launched a campaign to highlight what they say is the systematic way in which the Kochs use their political giving to advance a conservative economic and regulatory agenda designed to further the interests of their oil, chemical and manufacturing empire.

Common Cause, the liberal watchdog group, is planning a protest called “Uncloaking the Kochs” and what it calls “the billionaires caucus” on Sunday a few miles down the road from the resort in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where this weekend’s conference will be held, and a handful of reporters have made plans to try to cover the Koch’s closed-door gathering.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48277.html

National Review:

Cantor to Attend Koch Conference

This weekend, Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.), the House majority leader, will be attending the Koch conference in Palm Springs, Calif. Sources tell us that Cantor plans to detail his party’s “cut and grow” agenda in sessions with business leaders. It will be the Virginian’s third visit to the retreat, which is hosted semi-annually by brothers Charles and David Koch, who manage Koch Industries, a global manufacturing and investments group.

The Koch brothers, as NRO readers know, have received much attention in recent months due to their financial support of Americans for Prosperity, a leading organizer of the conservative grassroots. So it comes as no surprise that their meeting in the Coachella Valley this week is attracting a slew of left-wing activists to the region. Groups such as Common Cause will be huddling nearby. Van Jones and former labor secretary Robert Reich, among others, will be participating in the festivities.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/258145/cantor-attend-koch-conference-robert-costa

LA Weekly:

Battle in Rancho Mirage: Progressive Activists Aim to ‘Uncloak’ Billionaire Koch Brothers

They were going to chat among themselves about the direction of the United States in relative peace, but that secret wasn’t kept for long and those plans are dashed. Now groups such as the Los Angeles-based Courage Campaign and California Student Sustainability Coalition, among many others, are going to confront Chuck and Dave and protest in the streets.

Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who helped bring you the Tea Party and Proposition 23, are convening with other super wealthy Republicans for what was supposed to be a secretive meeting in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs this weekend.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/01/kochs_billionaire_rancho_mirag.php

The Desert Sun (Palm Springs newspaper):

Secretive ‘billionaire caucus’ in Rancho Mirage drawing scrutiny – Protests planned; Supreme Court justices’ involvement with Koch questioned

The Koch brothers were notable supporters of last fall’s Proposition 23, the statewide ballot measure to suspend California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. A company subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources, in September made a $1 million donation to the “Yes on 23” effort. Californians solidly voted down the measure in the November election.

A private meeting of elite Republican donors in Rancho Mirage is sparking a nationwide discussion about the influence money has on politics and governing. The four-day gathering that starts Jan. 29 is organized by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who are known to back conservative causes.

It marks the eighth time they’ve held an event in the Coachella Valley, but the first time their efforts are being widely publicized. Though organizers have tried to keep their long weekend retreat under wraps, a leaked copy of the invitation says participants will focus on policies to combat “the most critical threats to our free society.”

News of the gathering is also prompting other groups to wage a campaign they say will shed light on the Koch brothers’ venture:

An “Uncloaking the Kochs” panel discussion will be held Jan. 30 followed by a “billionaire caucus” protest at The River. Organizers of the rally — involving Common Cause, Courage Campaign, California Nurses Association and Greenpeace — hope to draw as many as 1,000 people.

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110122/NEWS0301/101220316/Secretive-8216-billionaire-caucus-here-drawing-scrutiny

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And here are the official links for Uncloaking the Kochs:

Website: http://www.commoncause.org/KochRally&msource=EEW1101KOGOW

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139732349420678

Twitter: @kochbusters

I will be live blogging from the event, sharing photos and videos and I should be able to set up live streaming video of the panel discussion in a post, courtesy of Common Cause.

Should be quite a day coming up! If you can’t be there, The Planet will be a great place to be a part of it!