Protesters Take On Conservative Retreat

LP note: As a part-time university professor, I am often dismayed by the political apathy evident in today's college students. As we see protests unfold in Tunis and Cairo, I constantly ask myself, When will Americans rise up here?

There are two simple reasons: (1) They have, in the activities of the Tea Party movement, though the wrath of those protesters — steered by well financed and highly calculated corporate interests — is woefully misplaced. (2) We are too damn comfortable in this country to get off our collective butts and out of our gas guzzling SUVs to truly look at what's happening to our country....

By IAN LOVETT and ERIC LICHTBLAU
NYT

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — So much for a quiet little weekend getaway.

An invitation-only political retreat for rich conservatives, run out of the spotlight for years by a pair of Kansas billionaires, became a public rallying point for liberal outrage on Sunday, as 11 busloads of protesters converged on a resort in the Southern California desert.

An estimated 800 to 1,000 protesters from a spectrum of liberal groups vented their anger chiefly at Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used many millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita to finance conservative causes. More than two dozen protesters, camera crews swarming around them, were arrested on trespassing charges when they went onto the resort grounds.

Organizers depicted the Koch brothers as symbols of the “unbridled corporate power” that they maintain was loosed by last year’s Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United campaign finance case, which lifted a ban on corporate spending in elections.

“You don’t very often get a chance to be across the street from a bunch of billionaires who are scheming to do things against our democracy,” said Kathy Clearly, 63, a retired schoolteacher who arrived by bus from Los Angeles and brandished a protest sign at the rally.

More here.