EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the inauspicious occasion of Wisconsin governor/Koch Brothers puppet Scott Walker declaring his candidacy yesterday, we dipped into our archives to bring the encore edition of our 2011 interview with then-Buffalo Beast editor Ian Murphy, the man who successfully punk’d Walker by calling up his office and pretending to be Tea Party sugar daddy David Koch. The complete audio recording is posted below. This Q&A first posted on March 31st, 2011. BY JONATHAN VALANIA When Buffalo Beast editor Ian Murphy called up the governor of Wisconsin late last month pretending to be David Koch — AKA […]
PLUTOCRACY NOW: A Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
FRESH AIR: Republican legislators picked up 680 seats in state House and Senate chambers in the 2010 elections. “They now hold more state legislative seats than at any time since 1928, the year that Herbert Hoover came to the presidency,” says reporter John Nichols. “They control 25 states [with] both houses of the legislature. There are also 21 states where Republicans control both houses of the legislature and the governorship. And in the backroom of politics, that’s what people really want. If you’ve got governor, state House and state Senate, you can pretty much roll through whatever legislation you want.” […]
THIS IS HOW MARXISTS GET MADE: A Unified Theory Of Everything That Is Wrong With America
JOSEPH STIGLITZ: It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. […]
COMING ATTRACTION: Q&A With The Man Who Punked The Governor Of Wisconsin & The Koch Bros.
Please standby for a Q&A with Ian Murphy, editor of Buffalo’s The Beast, AKA the man who called Wisconsin governor Scott Walker pretending to be David Koch, one half of the infamous Koch Brothers. Coming soon to a Phawker near you! PREVIOUSLY: KOCH SUCKER: Wisconsin Governor Punked By Alt-Weekly Editor Pretending To Be Koch Brother RELATED: The newly elected governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is outspoken. He said that after his election readers could expect to see in their newspapers, “LePage tells Obama to go to hell.” When he refused to attend a Martin Luther King Day event, he said […]