"Transparency of Forgien Funding To The Right"!

As you may have heard by now, or maybe you've been under a rock of late, the U.S Chamber of Commerce is accepting foreign bills and lumping it in it's "general accounting" fund, and then dispersing these said funds to "Republican" interest around the country. The USCC is the biggest donor to the Republicans, besides Rupert Murdoch CEO of Fox News.

The biggest attack against the Democrats is being waged by the USCC a trade association organized as a 501(c)(6) that can raise and spend unlimited funds without ever disclosing any of its donors. The Chamber has promised to spend an unprecedented $75 million to defeat candidates like Jack Conway, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jerry Brown, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA). As of Sept. 15th, the Chamber had aired more than 8,000 ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates alone, according to a study from the Wesleyan Media Project. The Chamber’s spending has dwarfed every other issue group and most political party candidate committee spending. A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign. According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.


The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is the world's largest not-for-profit lobbying group, representing many businesses and associations across the United States of America. It is not an agency of the United States government. Very misleading with the name but as you shall see the USCC is a outside the box with their ideology and business protocol.

The Chamber is staffed with policy specialists, lobbyists and lawyers. It is known for spending more money than any other lobbying organization on a yearly basis. Their Mission Statement is to "To advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility."

The Chamber is not without controversy either, since April of 2009 the USCC has had plenty of black eyes. These controversies are;

In April 2009, the Chamber began an ad campaign against the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. Critics such as the National Association of Manufacturers have contended that additional use of card check elections will lead to overt coercion on the part of union organizers. Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act also claim, referring to perceived lack of access to a secret ballot, that the measure would not protect employee privacy. Hence they claim the act will reduce workers' rights. The act is widely supported by organized labor.

In October, 2009, The Yes Men activist group held a fake press conference pretending to represent the Chamber and promising a complete reversal on the already sensitive climate change policy. The Chamber subsequently filed suit against that activist group.

It has been reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has falsely inflated the number of members. The Chamber says this is a "misunderstanding of the U.S. Chamber's structure".

In November 2009, The U. S. Chamber of Commerce was reported to be seeking to spend $50,000 to hire a "respected economist" to produce a study that could be used to portray health-care legislation as a job killer and threat to the nation's economy. James P. Gelfand, the author of the e-mail detailing this project, assumes ahead of time that the study will reach such a conclusion.

In December 2009, activist group Velvet Revolution, under the name StopTheChamber, posted a $200,000 reward for "information leading to the arrest and conviction of Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donahue". When this fact was reported by Fox News, the group reported receiving death threats.

and the big hitter; foreign funding of US political campaigns
In October 2010, it is reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has obtained donations from foreign businesses and foreign governments to advance its political interests. A Think Progress report found that the US Chamber pays for political advertising out of its general account. This is the same account that has accepted at least $300,000 from foreign corporate members of the Chamber based in Bahrain and India, and the Chamber has many more foreign corporate members worldwide. Think Progress warned that foreign funds may be being used by the Chamber to defeat Democratic candidates. The MoveOn.org advocacy organization asked the Department of Justice to investigate the matter. The US Chamber denied the allegations, saying they had a "system in place" to ensure that overseas money is not used illegally. The US Chamber did not provide any explanation of that system. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said, "It's time the Chamber of Commerce answered a very basic question: Since when do they believe that large undisclosed corporate interests and companies in China, Russia and the Middle East should help choose America's leaders?" A White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Chamber’s failure to disclose the companies donating to its political advertising was his concern. “The donors that have gone into contributing to those ads, the identity of those individuals or groups should be known.”

Foot Note: Just this past summer the Republicans struck down a bill that would allow and ensure that "TRANSPARENCY" was invoked to these less than shady " not-for-profit lobbying groups. In essence the bill would require groups like the USCC to disclose whom is giving the funds and where all these funds where distributed, not just say we segregate our "general account".

Congress needs to re-address this issue ASAP and ensure that these books are open for all to see. The tea bagger screams "transparency" often, yet they couldn't pass legislation to babysit the corrupt or the less than ethical. Why, because you don't bite the hand that feeds you. Christine O'Donnell speaks of "back door politics", Glenn Beckistan states today that the U.S. is conforming to "Fabian Socialism" (quickly, Fabian's are a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World War I.)

Is taking monies from China, Middle East, Russia Fabian Socialism, or back door politics?

Glenn Beckistan just had a march on "Restoring Honor". WTF! Maybe the extremist tea bagger has a different definition of what honor is. Honor is defined as is the evaluation of a person's trustworthiness and social status based on that individuals espousal's and actions. Honor is deemed exactly what determines a person's character: whether or not the person reflects honesty, respect, integrity, or fairness.

NFTOS unequivocally states that if the USCC is taking foreign funds and re-distributing them to the Republicans they should be held to highest accountability of the law. A full investigation should ensue immediately, and let the chips fall where they may!



NFTOS