Reply #27: ¡Muchisimas gracias, Turborama!

[Octafish]

Operation COFFEECUP is the parent of today's Astroturf warriors, the Tee-Bekkers.

Financial support

Reports indicate that the Tea Party Movement benefits from millions of dollars from conservative foundations that are derived from wealthy U.S. families and their business interests. Is appears that money to organize and implement the Movement is flowing primarily through two conservative groups: Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

In an April 9, 2009 article on ThinkProgress.org, Lee Fang reports that the principal organizers of the Tea Party movement are Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works, two "lobbyist-run think tanks" that are "well funded" and that provide the logistics and organizing for the Tea Party movement from coast to coast. Media Matters reported that FreedomWorks receives substantial funding from David Koch of Koch Industries, the largest privately-held energy company in the country, and the conservative Koch Family Foundations, which make substantial annual donations to conservative organizations, including FreedomWorks (and its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy) as well as other conservative think tanks advocacy groups, etc. Media Matters reports that the Koch family has given more than $12 million to CSE/FreedomWorks between 1985 and 2002.<1><2>

Media Matters also lists the Sarah Scaife Foundation as having given a total of $2.96 million in funding to FreedomWorks.<3> The Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation is financed by the Mellon industrial, oil, and banking fortune. <4>

The Claude R. Lambe Foundation, also controlled by the Koch family, has donated more than $3 million to Americans for Prosperity. <5>

SOURCE w/LINKS:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_movement_funding

Some serious moneygrubbers and warmongers, there.