"Grassroots" Fraud Suits Corporations to a Tea

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-baker/35343/grassroots-fraud-suits-corporations-to-a-tea

It's time for a much more concerted look at the growing role of corporations--domestic and foreign--in subverting American democracy. A good warning shot comes from a New York Times piece on ties between Tea Party affiliated outfits and corporations, including foreign ones.

... Tea Party group in the United States, the Institute for Liberty, has vigorously defended the freedom of a giant Indonesian paper company to sell its wares to Americans without paying tariffs. The institute set up Web sites, published reports and organized a petition drive attacking American businesses, unions and environmentalists critical of the company, Asia Pulp & Paper.

... Tariff-free Asian paper may seem an unlikely cause for a nonprofit Tea Party group. But it is in keeping with a succession of pro-business campaigns -- promoting commercial space flight, palm oil imports and genetically modified alfalfa -- that have occupied the Institute for Liberty's recent agenda.

The Tea Party movement is as deeply skeptical of big business as it is of big government. Yet an examination of the Institute for Liberty shows how Washington's influence industry has adapted itself to the Tea Party era. In a quietly arranged marriage of seemingly disparate interests, the institute and kindred groups are increasingly the bearers of corporate messages wrapped in populist Tea Party themes.

More at the link --

[FormerDittoHead]

1. "The Tea Party movement is as deeply skeptical of big business as it is of big government. " REALLY?

They don't even mind big government, if you're talking about a military the size of all others combined whose budget dwarfs the combined amounts of all of the tiny social and arts programs like NPR...

The only controversy tea party "skeptics" show is if we should actively subsidize big business or simply not tax it at all while we strip any and all regulations that might cut into the profits which will go to the 1% who own the vast majority of them.