I would like to call attention to "Covert Operations," Jane Mayer's August 30, 2010 New Yorker article on the people who are funding the Tea Party movement.

Charles and David Koch own Koch Industries, a "minor" oil company. Together, they have a net worth of $35 billion, second only to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Their father was a founder of the John Birch Society. They funded the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity, and the Tea Party movement. The Cato Institute (which I had always considered a relatively reasonable conservative group) is a leader in attacking the global warning theory. Their older organization, Citizens for a Sound Environment, worked hard to get Ralph Nader on the ballot in 2004. They founded the Mercatus Center , a hard-nosed right wing think tank, at George Mason University near Washington. Organizations funded by the Kochs can expect to be micro-managed.

Unlike other rich people who attempt to influence politics [such as George Soros] the Kochs are surreptitious, and their influence has been virtually invisible. I see they are mentioned by political junkies in the Forum, but I personally had never heard of them before. They appear to be extremely powerful.

The Koch brothers are big charitable contributors. Bush appointed David Koch to the National Cancer Advisory Board. The Board opposes designation of formaldehyde as a carcinogen. Koch Industries is a major manufacturer of formaldehyde. The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, and the Smithsonian, suggests that global warning is not a real problem--humanity can evolve. They can develop "short, compact bodies" and learn to live underground. The Museum's director sees nothing wrong with this.

Some of you already knew about the Kochs, but this was new to me and I am passing it on. The New Yorker reporting is traditionally the gold standard of journalism in the United States. All facts are checked and re-checked. The news today is that Charles Koch has attacked the suggestion that he promotes his own interests by his various contributions as "slander."