Hidden Rivers

September 15, 2006
 

 

I found the Political Accountability website when I was doing a search on 'Americans for a Republican Majority' (ARM).  ARM is a PAC that was started by Tom Delay to provide money for republican candidates running for state legislatures.    TRMPAC is another Tom Delay PAC that was modeled after his ARM PAC.   Tom Delay is under indictment for the activities of TRMPAC.
 
My search turned up this pdf regarding Union Pacific's contributions to PACs.  What's most interesting about this report is that it gives the name of the PAC and in parentheses it gives the parent PAC.  The following are listed as being PAC's of Americans for a Republican Majority:
 
Americans for Tax Reform (ARM)
Texans for a Republican Majority (ARM)
Traditional Values Coalition (ARM)
Club for Growth (ARM)
Coalition for America’s Families (ARM)

Note also that Union Pacific is a member of the Business Roundtable.  Tom Donohue, chairman and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sits on Union Pacific’s board and chairs its compensation committee.  Footnote 5 says the following:
 
“Union Pacific, 2005 Proxy Statement, www.sec.gov, Glass Lewis & Co., an independent research firm, recommended that shareholders withhold their votes from Donohue when he stood for re-election to Union Pacific’s board in 2004 due to his sanctioning of excessive executive compensation. (“ Tom Donohue: U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Oversees Renegade Corporations While Pushing for Limits to Corporate Accountability,”  Public Citizen, Congress Watch February 2005.
Because Tom Donohue has used the full force of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - and apparently the powerful corporations behind them to buy votes in Congress to participate in the gutting of our economy via WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.  I've been following Donohue for a while.  I recorded his speech on the Chamber's agenda for 2006.

 
  Tom Donohue - U.S. Chamber of Commerce - 2006 Agenda

Lastly, 2006 is an important election year.  You can expect to see the Chamber devoting tremendous assets to defending those members of congress of both parties in tough races who have cast difficult votes on behalf of business and economic growth.  And you can expect us to work to defeat those who have perpetually behaved otherwise."

"And a brass knuckles political battle for the control of the U.S. Congress is already underway which could affect our ability to get things done - in one way or the other.  With the problems we have seen in recent days,   many of those in the Congress and Senate are going to be very busy about real activity and real achievement that they can go home and report their progress during the upcoming election." 

 Additional Info on Donohue

 
Donohue's Bio

Free Trade Area of the Americas Takes Shape
 
United Nations, United States Chamber of Commerce Co-Host Forum on Roll of Private Sector in International Aid, Development
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/dev2573.doc.htm
 

Under Tom Donohue's leadership, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become a subversive organization.  He uses Chamber money for lobbying to undermine the economic status of the United States as a nation.  He uses Chamber money to promote the agenda of the 'North American Union' which is treason because it undermines the sovereignty of the United States and Constitutional government.  By funding the wholesale purchase of members of the U.S. Congress to ensure his agenda, he is undermining the Republic and representative government OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE.  


The UN Agenda is a corporate agenda hiding being positivist labels of "ending poverty, ending aids, saving the environment".    The "ending poverty" scam is the justification for the 'free trade' agreements that are in reality creating poverty all over the world as it set free the multinational corporations to fully exploit cheap, virtually slave labor in third world countries and bankrupting the developed nations by only selling into them - but producing in the third world with exploited cheap labor - equal poverty for all except the oligarchs of the multinational corporations.  

Congress has the power to control the content of trade agreements but they have given it up by agreeing to trade promotion authority for the president - and then not reading the agreements before they vote on them.  

 
Congress has been bought by the organizations that Tom Donohue and other corporate and trade association leaders have started.  The 527's ARE those organizations.  The 527's are spun off like rabbits have babies.  The 527 scheme provides an infinite source of outlets to provide funding for the candidates they buy.
  

Essentially, what we have is a RICO conspiracy of corporations - what I call the Republican mafia network to buy government - spinning off PAC's that spin off PAC's that spin off PAC's.  They use the money to manipulate perception.  They masquerade as public interest groups to lobby for them.  And they buy puppet politicians who will vote their agenda without regard for the consequences to our country and future generations of Americans.  
 
  
  The following is an email I sent out regarding Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform and the myriad of other clone organizations and their attempts to buy members of Congress to vote for their agenda.  

Here is an email that I just wrote that will be sent out in Idaho on the subject -

Today Club for Growth is proudly announcing that they bought another candidate. The candidate is Bill Sali from Idaho. And, as Bill Sali said in the Idahoptv debate, he will happily represent them. "You dance with the folks what brung ya".

http://www.clubforgrowth.org/

http://www.clubforgrowth.org/blog/index.php#039107

"Club for Growth members donated over $350,000 to his campaign and the Club's PAC ran a $133,000 independent expenditure TV ad during the closing days of the campaign."

"As the state primaries march on toward November, we are seeing unprecedented signs that voters want change and are willing to elect those who will support pro-growth, free-market principles", Toomey continued.

Of course 'free trade' isn't really 'free trade'. 'Free trade' is the positivist label [1] put on what can only be described as a scam to gut our economy and put our domestic businesses out of business.  That's why the good old American corporations are now in China, Mexico and India. Produce there - sell here. That's why the current account deficit is skyrocketing (trade deficit is going to hit $800 BILLION this year).

Take a good hard look at the picture. The United States is RED because more money is flowing OUT than is flow in. The RED is hemorrhaging of the wealth of this nation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_payments 

Club for Growth members are supporting tax cuts for the investor class. Those tax cuts are going for investments in China, India and Mexico. They are accelerating the demise of the United States as a first world country.

Race to the Bottom

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2003/03-10-2003/vo19no05_bottom.htm

And Bill Sali has been selected to do all he can to push us down the slope.

1] Positivist label refers to Auguste Comte philosophy of using positive messages to essentially trick people into accepting things that are negative. Example - the 'Clear Skies Act' actually relaxed the standards for air polluting emissions. The people who engage in this kind of deception count on the fact that the majority of people will believe the plain meaning of the slogan and not research the actual legislation.

 

  

http://www.politicalaccountability.net/
 

Hidden Rivers: How Trade Associations Conceal Corporate Political Spending, Its Threat to Companies, and What Shareholders Can Do

 

"In a new report entitled Hidden Rivers, the Center for Political Accountability (CPA) calls trade associations “the Swiss bank accounts of American politics” for their role in helping companies conceal and spend over $100 million in corporate funds. This spending, the report notes, poses serious risks to company economic interests and reputations and to shareholder value. The report is the first in-depth examination of how the nation’s trade associations have become conduits for unlimited corporate political spending. Trade associations are subject to even less disclosure than the much criticized spending of independent political committees ("527s"). Hidden Rivers looks at judicial races in seven states in 2004 to develop a picture of the secret flow of corporate money through trade associations and related groups. 
 
It identifies 18 public companies whose trade association payments and political contributions underwrote, directly or indirectly, political activity in 2004 on behalf of a group of judicial candidates with strong stands on controversial social issues that companies traditionally have avoided. In one case, $300,000 from a trade association funded ads on behalf of a Mississippi supreme court candidate accused of running a racist campaign. Click here for the report."  

 

In case you missed it - here is the research I did on Grover Norquist and 'Movement Politics'.  It describes the scam of the front groups who promote the agenda of the republican mafia.
 
I'd already done some research on Americans for Tax Reform quite by accident I found that CREA - the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy - the group made infamous by Italia Federici and her connections to Jack Abramoff during the McCain hearings on Abramoff cheating the Indian tribes,  was actually co-founded by Gail Norton and Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform (ARM).  Federici took over for Norton when Norton became the Secretary of the Interior. 
 

 
 
After I sent the above email out I received this comment (excerpt):
 
 
I cut and pasted a couple bullet points about UP that shows them supporting the same values as most of us have---anti abortion, anti gay rights, pro homeschooling, less regulations, etc. I can’t see those as evil goals.
 
·  Union Pacific’s political contributions helped fund the Traditional Values
Coalition (TVC). The TVC is led by the Rev. Louis Sheldon and bills itself
as the largest church-lobby in the United States . It opposes gay rights, a
woman’s right to choose, and the teaching of evolution in public schools. It
also lobbies for conservative judicial nominations.10
 
·  Union Pacific’s political contributions also helped fund Texans for a
Republican Majority (TRM). TRM was a major contributor to Texas House
of Representatives contests in 2002, giving $558,000 to 24 candidates
who supported “right to work” laws, home schooling and keeping state
health and safety standards to a “minimum,” and opposed gay rights and
abortion. Fifteen of the state representatives who received TRM money
are listed as “current and active members” of the Texas Conservative
Coalition. Formed in 1985, TCC is an influential caucus in the Texas
House of Representatives.11
 
Texans for a GOP majority is a DeLay organization.  I personally know Tom DeLay and know how hard he worked in Congress to promote conservative values. He also walked the talk and opened his home to many unwanted children. I saw firsthand how he and his wife treated those children and no one could fault his care and concern to provide a stable and loving environment.

 

  
If you can afford to fund 100's of PAC's with especially big funding to some of them, you don't need any one PAC to promote the entire agenda of the republican mafia.  All you need is for each PAC to promote a set of issues to draw followers with your real purpose being one in particular.  As in the case of the Traditional Values Coalition.   They draw the very religious right wing on social issues that lead right into the 'conservative judges' goal.  Case in point:  
 
Shiavo Circus on right wing religious values 'coincidently' during the same time that Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts is up for confirmation.  He was nominated on July 19, 2005 and took his seat on the court September 29, 2005
 
 
 
RightMarch was behind that whole circus with Terri Schiavo.

Shiavo Circus - March 2005 

 
Notice also that the Traditional Values Coalition was one of the groups.   They are the group that was funded by Union Pacific Railroad and they are part of the 'Americans for a Republican Majority'. 
 
The scam is to get Christians all stirred up so that when the debate comes around for judges, they get their judges installed on the basis of family values - but in reality they are judges to serve the interests of big business.

Sideshows for the 'folks'

NARAL Falsely Accuses Supreme Court Nominee Roberts   August 9, 2005

The whole media circus regarding Roberts nomination centered around abortion - ignoring his record on real issues most important of which for the current resident of the White House is presidential powers.

 
 
If we are to ever return to Constitutional government with representatives who work in the interests of the United States and the American people, we have to break up this criminal network funded by corporate and trade association money.

"A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay." -- Amos Bronson Alcott

Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power:
Benito Mussolini

Fascism is capitalism in decay ~~ Vladimir Lenin