Democrats Open Fire Against Traitorous Chamber of Commerce

The U.S. (a misnomer: Chinese, Russian, Indian, Saudi, Bahrani — take your pick) Chamber of Commerce continued to deny and avoid questions it was soliciting and using foreign money to influence and fund our midterm elections in favor of Republican candidates while it was hosting an event for the Bahrain Banks Association, with arrogant disregard even for the appearance of impropriety. Whether what the Chamber is doing is illegal in this brave new (post-Citizens United SCOTUS decision) world  is beside the point; it is unethical to the nth degree, unpatriotic, and un-American.

Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, who is not up for reelection this year, has asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate the matter. White House senior adviser David Axelrod demanded that the Chamber open its books and prove it isn’t using foreign money to fund its campaigns. President Obama has ramped up the criticism of this threat to our democracy following up on his blunt warning in last year's State of the Union address, in which right wing Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito was seen shaking his head and mouthing the words, “not true.” What about now, Joe Wilson ... er, Sam? Traitorous bastards. Working class hero, Ed Schultz, tells it like it is:

“The DNC ad is rubbish,” said Tom Collamore, senior vice president of Communications and Strategy for the U.S. Chamber. “The U.S. Chamber will continue to discuss ways to create jobs and grow the economy no matter how often others may try to change the conversation. We've been working for growth, jobs, and opportunity for 100 years and we won't be deterred now.” In a Freudian slip, Collamore used a Britishism, rubbish, as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it:

(British English, informal) (also used as an adjective) something that you think is of poor quality
I thought the play was rubbish!
Do we have to listen to this rubbish music?
They said I was a rubbish boss.

Before joining the  Chamber, Collamore was a Republican operative, serving as CEO of the Friends for Fred Thompson Committee. Before that, he spent 14 years with international tobacco giant Altria Group, Inc., as vice president of Corporate Public Affairs. He served George H.W. Bush during the Reagan and Bush administrations, and continues to serve the Republican Party, a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate America and its funding arm, the Chamber of Commerce. Collamore belongs to the permanent shadow corporate government that includes among its virtual board of directors, the Bush family as well as the funding nations.  

They pay to play in U.S. elections to subvert our democracy.

The Democratic Party is fighting back with this ad. As Big Ed said, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue; this is about our freedom and democracy. If we don't stop this now, we'll be fighting a rearguard acrtion on our own shores to prevent foreign multinationals from turning our democracy into a globalized fascist state, a third world oligarchy for our billionaire rulers to dump their cheap products, an unregulated marketplace playground, as they hoard their money in overseas tax havens and invest it in more overseas jobs or Chinese speed rail and planet-chocking coal burning plants.

This is our future — the end of history — if we don't take a stand and stop it.