The midweek line is open. Finishing up:
* KOCH INSIDERS REVEALED: Mother Jones came into possession of what amounts to a guest list for one of the secretive gatherings the billionaire Koch brothers hold with other similarly inclined moguls to plot their United States political takeover strategy.
Arkansas angle:
At least half of the one-on-one sessions involved representatives of Americans for Prosperity, the political advocacy group founded by the Koch brothers and their top political adviser and strategist, Richard Fink, a Koch Industries executive vice president and board member. The AFP officials called to duty for these discussions included AFP’s president Tim Phillips, chief operating officer Luke Hilgemann, vice president for state operations Teresa Oelke, and vice president for development Chris Fink (Richard Fink’s son).
Oelke, who lives in Rogers, is a member of the successful family-owned Crossland construction business (Obama stimulus projects, thank you very much). She rose to her nationa Kochl job from head of the Kochs’ AFP operation in Arkansas and is still an active presence here in promoting Republican legislative candidates, fighting Obamacare and the like. Mother Jones notes that, despite disavowals, the Kochs are deeply invovled with AFP and its increasingly aggressive political efforts to retake state and national legislative bodies with Republicans friendly to their causes.
A document on attendees scheduled for one-on-one meetings also includes Ronnie Cameron, e Cameron, a Little Rock poultry magnate (Mountaire). He is a big giver to conservative causes and has turned up in past reporting on Koch allies. The Kochs paid tribute to him at an earlier meeting for giving $1 million to their causes.
Readers might wonder about another Koch insider, Fred Klipsch, head of the headphone and speaker company. He’s not an Arkie, but a second-cousin to sound engineer Paul Klipsch, who founded his fabled speaker company in Hope, Ark. Fred Klipsch, who lives in Indianapolis, bought the company in the 80s and moved operations there.
* SNOW IN FORECAST TOMORROW FOR PULASKI COUNTY: Possibility of fess than an inch the Weather Service is saying.
* THINGS GO BETTER WITH COKE: I’ve already been through the Coca-Cola ad thing today, but I just saw this Tumblr page that has rounded up comments from many offended by “America the Beautiful” sung in a foreign language. Incredible stuff. I mean really. How’d you like it if they translated the Bible into something other than the original English.? Sample: