Greenpeace in the House - Rancho Mirage

On my morning walks, I generally see the same things and people. The old BMW with the broken window. The two old guys that grunt their way through a couple morning sets of tennis. The really overweight guy with his German shepherd dog. The lady with her half dozen little pushed-in-face dogs that look like string mops minus the handle. The Greenpeace airship across from the Rancho Mirage Library.

Uh - yeah. The Greenpeace airship. Being inflated in an empty lot (which is posted No Trespassing, by the way) across Hwy 111 from the Rancho Mirage Library, just down a couple blocks from the Bentley and Land Rover dealerships. The dirigible is emblazoned with STOP GLOBAL WARMING on one side, and KOCH BROTHERS DIRTY MONEY on the other.

According to Connor, a young man wearing a Greenpeace t-shirt and watching the proceedings, the Koch brothers are visiting the a desert resort to plot political strategies which, for the most part, directly oppose anything that the Obama administration has done or wants to do. For more info on the Koch brothers, check out this fabulous New Yorker article from August. Chilling. But we all know about the liberal press and its agenda. So these two guys who own the second largest privately held company in America (behind Cargill, that humble Minnesota gang) are just being persecuted.

A quick break-down on the bros David and Charles: They own Koch Industries, just outside of Wichita, Kan., which has holdings such as oil refineries, Dixie cups, Brawny paper towels, and Lycra, for cryin' out loud. (Someone actually OWNS Lycra? Of course they do.) They have ingratiated themselves into the NYC philanthropic scene with, well, lots of money. For a lot of different organizations. LOTS of money. And they've also sunk LOTS of money into their political agenda, largely opposing things like health care and environmental regulation and social programs. Bad for profits.

By the way, the photographs of the Greenpeace airship were taken from my patio. The thing literally cast a shadow on me as I was trotting home to grab my camera. They'll be buzzing the valley for the weekend during this meeting of the big money minds. Common Cause will be here, too, staging a rally at The River parking lot (right out my front door!) on Sunday, January 30 from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. to "uncloak the Kochs" and the huge money that they've pumped into the system so far. Hey ... you think these are the guys behind the whole 2010 election thing? (Gee, ya think?)