A recent poll found shocking levels of support(!) among business executives for progressive policies like raising the minimum wage and giving all employees steady, predictable schedules. Why does the Chamber of Commerce hate these policies, then?
Remember how Congressional Republicans went to the shut-down World War II Memorial to protest the fact that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives had just shut down the government? In a spectacular meta-expansion of that story line, today's New York Times checks in with the right-wing organizations that spent millions on millions of dollars to elect and entrench a Republican majority in the House. They're upset.
Hackers in China have reportedly gained total access to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's computer systems, including six weeks of emails relating to the lobbying group's Asia policy. After the FBI alerted the Chamber to the breach, the pro-business group hired private computer investigators to fix the problem. But the free market has been utterly helpless to stop this communist menace.
Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh simply had to resign from Congress last year, as our polarized politics were preventing him from singlehandedly saving the world in his role as a mere public servant. "At this time," as he said in his powerful resignation speech, "I simply believe I can best contribute to society in another way: creating jobs by helping grow a business, helping guide an institution of higher learning, or helping run a worthy charitable endeavor." Got it? He would sacrifice his sizable political power to help America, by creating jobs, giving to charity, and advancing higher education.
Would there be any other kind of Yes Men stunt if there wasn't Youtube video? Even by the standards of the group's anti-consumerism pranks — portraying themselves as spokespeople for McDonalds, Dow Chemical, and organizations such as Housing and Urban Development and the World Trade Organization — this stunt was something of a cerebral sommersault. The idea was to turn the word of authority from these figures on its head and in the process reveal an inconvenient truth.
