Foreign Corporations Buying American Politicians and Sponsoring Tea Party Movement

"In Western Europe, Moscow has operated by making lucrative arrangements with foreign energy companies that become de facto lobbyists for the Kremlin within their own countries."---"Why The Russia Spy Story Really Matters" (RFE/RL, 7-9-10)

“Lucrative arrangement” means the Russians pay their partners more than a deal is worth because the Russians want their foreign business partners to do double duty as Kremlin lobbyists.

I have been trying to find out if Virginia's Attorney General Cucinelli is receiving money from European and perhaps even Russian fossil fuel companies because Cuccinelli's father, whose company donates to his son's political campaign, is a gas marketing expert who boasts of his "European" clients. The people who sell natural gas in Europe are mainly the Russians.

Cuccinelli's deputy, W. Russell, never responds to my requests for more information about the elder Cuccinelli's clients, even though the father's company donated over 96,000 dollars to Cuccinelli's campaign. I wonder if the elder Cuccinelli's clients are really paying for the services of our Attorney General, who persecutes the climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann. What I found out is here.

Since Cuccinelli's office won't be transparent about who the elder Cucccinelli's clients are and what services they are being provided, I will be voting for Democrats this fall. I am no longer going to vote for a party that is getting foreign money to persecute our great scientists.

In 1776, we fought a revolution because foreign tyrants were oppressing our people. Now Americans can vote, so we should not be voting for politicians who accept money from foreign corporations who are oppressing our people. I am a capitalist, but big businesses have to be responsible, patriotic citizens and work with scientists who are trying to stop global warming.

Some Republican demogogues like Virginia's Attorney General Cuccinelli compare President Obama to the tyrant King George and try to incite a revolution in the name of "states' rights." This is pretty hypocritical, since Republican denialists are taking money from powerful foreign interests who want to subvert our federal government. These Republicans just want power and money; they don't care about the public interest at all. I was a Republican for 40 years, but I want nothing to do with them any more.

Now, the U.K. Guardian (10-24-10) has published an article which reveals that European, not just American, companies are funding the Tea Party Movement and global warming denialist Senators:

Tea Party climate change deniers funded by BP and other major polluters

Midterm election campaigns of Tea Party favourites DeMint and Inhofe have received over $240,000

Pdf: Read the full Climate Action Network report

BP and several other big European companies are funding the midterm election campaigns of Tea Party favourites who deny the existence of global warming or oppose Barack Obama's energy agenda, the Guardian has learned.

An analysis of campaign finance by Climate Action Network Europe (Cane) found nearly 80% of campaign donations from a number of major European firms were directed towards senators who blocked action on climate change. These included incumbents who have been embraced by the Tea Party such as Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, and the notorious climate change denier James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma.

The report, released tomorrow, used information on the Open Secrets.org database to track what it called a co-ordinated attempt by some of Europe's biggest polluters to influence the US midterms. It said: "The European companies are funding almost exclusively Senate candidates who have been outspoken in their opposition to comprehensive climate policy in the US and candidates who actively deny the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is caused by people."

Obama and Democrats have accused corporate interests and anonymous donors of trying to hijack the midterms by funnelling money to the Chamber of Commerce and to conservative Tea Party groups. The Chamber of Commerce reportedly has raised $75m (£47m) for pro-business, mainly Republican candidates.

"Oil companies and the other special interests are spending millions on a campaign to gut clean-air standards and clean-energy standards, jeopardising the health and prosperity of this state," Obama told a rally in California on Friday night....

The Cane report said the companies, including BP, BASF, Bayer and Solvay, which are some of Europe's biggest emitters, had collectively donated $240,200 to senators who blocked action on global warming – more even than the $217,000 the oil billionaires and Tea Party bankrollers, David and Charles Koch, have donated to Senate campaigns.

The biggest single donor was the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, which gave $108,100 to senators. BP made $25,000 in campaign donations, of which $18,000 went to senators who opposed action on climate change. Recipients of the European campaign donations included some of the biggest climate deniers in the Senate, such as Inhofe of Oklahoma, who has called global warming a hoax.

The foreign corporate interest in America's midterms is not restricted to Europe. A report by ThinkProgress, operated by the Centre for American Progress, tracked donations to the Chamber of Commerce from a number of Indian and Middle Eastern oil coal and electricity companies.

Foreign interest does not stop with the elections. The Guardian reported earlier this year that a Belgian-based chemical company, Solvay, was behind a front group that is suing to strip the Obama administration of its powers to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. [See full text.]