STOP THE CHAMBER.COM

 www.StopTheChamber.com

A VelvetRevolution.us Campaign

Stop The Chamber

UPDATE: $100,000 Reward For Information Leading To The Arrest And Conviction Of Chamber CEO Tom Donahue. Click Here For Reward Poster.

The Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Tom Donahue, has gone from a well respected trade organization to an extremist political organization dedicated to corrupting American democracy by elevating the profits of big corporations over the well being of the citizens they serve. The most recent example of this corrupt behavior is the Chamber’s announcement that it is spending more than $100 million to defeat initiatives to protect the environment and provide affordable health care to everyone.

The Chamber is the biggest lobbying operation in the United States, spending billions of dollars on behalf of big business over the past decade to corrupt the political system. Polluters like Big Coal, Big Asbestos, and Big Oil only need call the Chamber to stop any accountability for their toxic destruction. Wall Street banks and CEOs need only make sure that they have paid their Chamber dues to ensure that they can continue to rip off the taxpayers. And killers like Big Tobacco need only form a partnership with the Chamber to ensure that they will be given immunity from lawsuits that seek accountability for the death and sickness of millions of Americans.

Tom Donahue has turned the once respected and even-handed Chamber into an extremist organization, bragging that the Chamber gutted the Clinton tobacco settlement, killed the Clinton health care plan, and scuttled previous oversight of Wall Street and the banking system. Now the Chamber is spending tens of millions on ads and lobbyists to stop health care for all, protect polluters from accountability, and shield the financial industry from government regulation.

Not only is the Chamber lobbying and advertising against the interests of Americans, it is also committing fraud and violating campaign finance laws by creating fake astroturfing front groups, with patriotic names like Citizens for a Strong Ohio, and then illegally funneling millions of anonymous dollars into those groups to attack candidates and judges who won’t do their bidding. While this corrupts the electoral system, the Chamber persists, even when it is caught, fined and required to disclose its “anonymous” donors.

We have had enough and it is time to Stop The Chamber. Therefore, we demand the following:

Fire Tom Donohue. Mr. Donohue is the Chamber’s corrupter in chief who single handedly turned the Chamber into a pay-to-play vehicle for right-wing causes and corporate dishonesty. As Eliot Spitzer put it, “Tom Donohue has never once found a crime that he couldn’t justify, as long as it was committed by one of his dues-paying members.”

Drop Corporate Support for the Chamber. Over the past month, several large companies have abandoned the Chamber because of its anti-science stance on global warming. These include, Apple, Exelon Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric, Nike, and Public Service Company of New Mexico. As Nike put it, “We fundamentally disagree with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change, and their recent action challenging the E.P.A. is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action.” We will target companies with exposure and boycotts if they remain with the Chamber.

Launch A Criminal Investigation Against The Chamber For Fraud, False Tax Filings And Campaign Finance Violations. The Chamber was found to have committed fraud and campaign finance violations in Ohio by creating a front group called Citizens for a Strong Ohio and funneling millions of dollars through it to defeat Supreme Court Justice Alice Resnick because she could not be bought. This Chamber practice is widespread and was also used against Karl Rove targeted Mississippi Justice Oliver Diaz, and in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Michigan, West Virginia, and Arkansas. http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2062 We are asking the Department of Justice to investigate these illegal practices under RICO and to review whether the Chamber is actually a political action committee rather than a trade association. See our letter to DOJ here.

Ask Congress To Investigate The Chamber. In addition to a criminal investigation, we want Congress to investigate the activities of the Chamber to include astroturfing and election manipulation as outlined by Public Citizen. http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2305 Send a letter to Congress here.

Reorganize The Chamber. The Board of the Chamber should shut down the Chamber’s lobbying arm and legal reform arm, and return to being a respected trade organization rather than a partisan PAC.

Speak Out Against The Chamber. We ask companies, politicians and others that do not agree with the flat earth, anti science, partisan, anti people approach of the Chamber to speak out publicly against the Chamber.

Click here to Send A Letter Asking Congress To Investigate The Chamber

Companies That Have Quit The Chamber

Apple
Nike
Exelon Energy
Pacific Gas & Electric
Public Service Co. of New Mexico
Public Service Enterprise Group
Levi Stauss
San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
Mohawk Paper

Political Action Committee – NAA – files Amicus Brief in mold case (two infant deaths in mold filled apt – Wasatch Prop Mgmt) citing US Chamber/ACOEM ‘litigation defense report’ to disclaim health effects of indoor mold & limit financial risk for industry

“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.” Sharon Noonan Kramer

Information on Riverstone Residential knowingly exposing tenants to extreme amounts of mold toxins at Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments managed by Riverstone Residential

Riverstone Residential Litigation

Mold Inspection Reports

Photos of Mold in Apartment

Attorney Malpractice

Two women in same OSU office ill with a fungal disease that attacks the lungs – histoplasmosis

November 8, 2009
Doug Caruso
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Two women who work in the same office at Ohio State University became ill with a fungal disease that attacks the lungs.

The university is relocating College of Engineering employees who work in a suite on the first floor of Hitchcock Hall, said Amy Murray, an OSU spokeswoman. And the university is bringing in a contractor that specializes in testing for the disease, called histoplasmosis.

Whether the women became ill at work remains a medical mystery that the university intends to solve, she said.

But one of the women who got sick said it’s no mystery.

Olga Stavridis, 42, the college’s associate director for career services, said she recently paid to have a ceiling tile from her office tested for the fungus that causes histoplasmosis. “It was detected,” she said.

She said she gave Ohio State the results on Oct. 13.

Stavridis said she contracted the disease after her office and adjacent offices flooded on March 13. University maintenance workers and a cleaning contractor opened up the ceiling tiles and ran box fans for the next several weeks to make sure everything dried.

Stavridis worked beneath the fans.

“I posed the question,” she said. “I wanted to make sure there were no carcinogens blowing around. I had never heard of histoplasmosis.”

Ohio State’s office of environmental health and safety checked the suite for mold and inspected the ceiling, Murray said. They found no mold problems and no signs of animal infestation.

Because the fungus that causes histoplasmosis grows in bat and bird droppings, finding those would have triggered more testing, she said.

In late May, Stavridis said, she began waking up with sharp pains in her right lung. She had fevers, chills and night sweats.

Doctors at Riverside Methodist Hospital tested her for lung cancer. Though the tests were inconclusive, she said, they removed part of her right lung in June as her condition worsened. A hospital spokeswoman declined to comment.

Meanwhile, concerned about Stavridis’ illness, Ohio State paid for mold tests in the office suite, Murray said. The tests found no problems, but they didn’t look for the fungus that causes histoplasmosis.

Stavridis continued to get sicker. In late June, her husband, John, drove her 14 hours to Minnesota for a consultation with a lung specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

“When we walked in that morning, he immediately thought and suspected it was histoplasmosis,” Stavridis said. “I had the classic symptoms.”

A blood test confirmed the diagnosis, and she was given anti-fungal medications that she continues to take today.

“I let (Ohio State) know immediately what I had,” said Stavridis, who has since returned to work.

In October, four months after Stavridis was diagnosed with histoplasmosis, a second employee, Amy Franklin, became ill. She declined to comment.

“That’s very concerning that two employees became ill with the same condition,” Murray said.

Greg Washington, the dean of the engineering school, met with staff on Tuesday to explain the situation, Murray said.

“Five people during that meeting asked to be moved,” she said.

Still, Murray said it’s too early to say that Stavridis and Franklin contracted histoplasmosis at work.

“It’s a mystery, but we certainly want to make sure that the workplace didn’t play a role in this,” she said.

“Our understanding is that histoplasmosis is a pretty common fungus in Ohio. You find it in the soil.”

columbusdispatch

Political Action Committee – NAA – files Amicus Brief in mold case (two infant deaths in mold filled apt – Wasatch Prop Mgmt) citing US Chamber/ACOEM ‘litigation defense report’ to disclaim health effects of indoor mold & limit financial risk for industry

“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.” Sharon Noonan Kramer

Information on Riverstone Residential knowingly exposing tenants to extreme amounts of mold toxins at Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments managed by Riverstone Residential

Riverstone Residential Litigation

Mold Inspection Reports

Photos of Mold in Apartment

Attorney Malpractice

Federal District Court filings – Foley v. CAS Partners & Riverstone Operating Company, Inc. (a/k/a Riverstone Residential NE, LLC & Riverstone Residential Group, LLC – Diversity – Personal Injury

Foley v. CAS Partners et al – pdf

Political Action Committee – NAA – files Amicus Brief in mold case (two infant deaths in mold filled apt – Wasatch Prop Mgmt) citing US Chamber/ACOEM ‘litigation defense report’ to disclaim health effects of indoor mold & limit financial risk for industry

“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.” Sharon Noonan Kramer

Information on Riverstone Residential knowingly exposing tenants to extreme amounts of mold toxins at Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments managed by Riverstone Residential

Riverstone Residential Litigation

Mold Inspection Reports

Photos of Mold in Apartment

Attorney Malpractice