In 2007, Beck, then the host of “Glenn Beck,” on CNN’s Headline News, brought to his show a John Birch Society spokesman named Sam Antonio, who warned of a government plot to abolish U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, “and eventually all throughout the Americas.” Beck told Antonio, “When I was growing up, the John Birch Society—I thought they were a bunch of nuts.” But now, he said, “you guys are starting to make more and more sense to me.”A secret history of Glenn Beck, by way of Robert Welch, Willard Cleon Skousen and the John Birch Society. From the New Yorker.
Foreign-Funded ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Adsposted by ericb at 2:04 PM on October 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
"The largest attack campaign against Democrats this fall is being waged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 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."
Defending Foreign-Funded Chamber, Rand Paul Says It’s ‘More Popular Than Any Politician Running For Office’.posted by ericb at 2:11 PM on October 15, 2010 [5 favorites]
Chamber’s Latest Lie: Our Foreign Fundraising Program Isn’t Part Of The Chamber.
‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Funded By Top Offshoring Companies.
GOP Candidate Bob Gibbs Calls On FEC To Audit The Chamber Of Commerce.
‘Are You Guys Eventually Going To Disclose?’ Chamber Responds Bluntly, ‘No!’
Chamber Receives At Least $885,000 From Over 80 Foreign Companies In Disclosed Donations Alone.
“Worried that $400 billion in secret corporate slush funds is not enough to buy Republicans control of the Congress, Glenn Beck donated, on Oct.14, a check for $10,000 to the American Chamber of Commerce. After announcing his charitable ‘gift’ on radio, he urged his listeners to also chip in for the cause.* -- News Corporation Shareholders Rebel Against Company’s Political Donations.
Beck’s move to launch a charity drive surprised many who remember his wooden-heart reaction to the plight of the unemployed. He has opposed extensions of unemployment benefits and has described the long-term jobless as ‘un-American, anti-capitalist, socialist losers.’
The Chamber, however, is a fitting recipient for Beck's largess.
Investigations show that it is spending $75 million to push candidates who, if elected, will oppose new rules that discourage American firms from outsourcing jobs. Most of the candidates for whom the Chamber is trying to purchase congressional seats also want to repeal minimum wage laws, weaken workplace safety rules and destroy collective bargaining rights.
For those interested in transparency, the very public Beck donation does not add to the huge amounts of money whose source the Chamber is keeping under raps.
The Chamber is not the only purchaser of congressional seats that has drawn the outrage of people supportive of democratic elections.
Rupert Murdoch's media empire, another big player in the mid-terms, is running into some problems from its own shareholders.*
Murdoch's News Corp. gave $1 million each to the Republican Governors Association and to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.” [more]
At this stage, I'm just waiting for Beck's tipping point.Dude's tipped like 20 times, he just tipps right back like one of those punching balloons. Legit advertizers don't even advertize on his show. Rupert Murdoch likes him, and he just doesn't give a fuck.
Curiously, the US Chamber of Commerce was formed at the urging or at least strong encouragement of the federal government, during the early Progressive era, 1907 specifically. It was a corporatist arrangement, not in the current, colloquial use of "corporatism" to mean collusion between business and large and/or global corporations, but in the more healthy or benign European sense.Please, the reality is actuall Progressives -- as opposed to todays "progressives" (liberals who two cowardly to call themselves that) -- were actually pretty bad people. Woodrow Wilson was one of the most racist presidents ever, especially compared to his contemporaries, and it was progressives who got prohibition put in place. They were all about the elites and corporations.
Woodrow Wilson, who put the faeces on the American dime, thus bringing fascism to America or ... something like that.Well, he did inspire the creation of the ACLU... because people were so shocked by his civil liberties abuses.
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posted by bearwife at 12:56 PM on October 15, 2010