Koch Brothers Face Backlash, Colbert Reacts to Sister’s Loss, and More
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Posted on May 9, 2013
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Texas Toast: Gov. Rick Perry greeted Barack Obama when the president touched down in Texas on Thursday as part of the first stop of a tour around the U.S. to draw attention to his efforts to boost the economy. The president’s visits are aimed at renewing his focus on such matters after having concentrated in recent months on immigration reform and gun control. “Watching cable TV sometimes, you might get to thinking nothing’s going right. But the truth is there’s a lot of reasons for us to feel optimistic about where we’re headed as a country,” the president told a group of students near Austin. Perry, however, seemed none too enthused about the visit. “Obama should have focused on jobs and opportunity five years ago,” his office tweeted. (Read more)
Bottling the Kochs: A major effort is underway by California lawmakers and a number of public employee unions to stymie the billionaire Koch brothers’ bid to buy the newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, including the Los Angeles Times. Union leaders sent a letter to Bruce Karsh, the president of Oaktree Capital Management–the Tribune’s largest shareholder–excoriating David and Charles Koch as “anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-public education and anti-immigrant.” Their efforts were backed by a couple of influential lawmakers in Sacramento, state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez. “The Los Angeles Times has a long and respected tradition of community leadership and impartiality. The Koch brothers have a long and demonstrated history of a rigid political ideology,” Steinberg said. (Read more)
Armed for NRA Battle: Despite the fact that legislation to expand background checks failed last month in the Senate, the discussion over gun control is far from over. But unlike in years past, the National Rifle Association is no longer the only well-funded group in the weapons debate. Case in point: After the NRA announced it would support Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire with a $25,000 television ad buy in her state, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions,
This article originally appeared on : TruthDig