At first I thought it was one of those commercials for sleep aids, because the woman at the start of the commercial wakes up in her dark bedroom, looking all consternated. I was expecting to see a yellow butterfly come into her bedroom, but as the commercial went on, it became clear that it was a political ad against President Obama, and urging Members of Congress not to vote on raising the debt ceiling.
This is the video below from CrossRoads GPS.
They supposedly have "cites" for the claims made in the video, which you can see
here. But once you do, you see that there's absolutely no mention of how we GOT into this mess to begin with in the first place. Nothing about how the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is a major contributor to our economic problem, and how the Bush administration along with their policy of lax deregulation was complicit in the housing collapse and the mortgage fraud going on among banks.
I decided to google Crossroads GPS, the name of the organization that made this political ad. And surprise, it's Karl Rove's group!
This is the sort of SuperPAC that doesn't disclose its donors, thus their donations are hidden in secret. However, we do have an idea who's donated, given that the partner organization to Crossroads GPS is American Crossroads, the group run by Karl Rove.
New FEC filings show that American Crossroads, the Karl Rove-backed group that is pouring money into attack ads targeting Democrats around the country, continues to be funded virtually entirely by billionaires.
In August, American Crossroads raised $2,639,052. Fully $2.4 million of that -- or 91 percent -- came in the form of gifts from just three billionaires.
We've previously reported that the group is getting a staggering amount of support from billionaires, several of whom made their fortune in the energy industry and live in Texas. Last month Trevor Rees-Jones, president of Dallas-based Chief Oil and Gas, contributed another $1 million to American Crossroads, on top of the $1 million he gave earlier this year. Fellow billionaire Robert Rowling, CEO of the company TRT Holdings, also gave Crossroads his second $1 million donation in August.
The only new name on the list is American Financial Group, a Cincinnati-based firm owned by nonagenerian Carl Linder. Forbes put Linder's net worth at $1.7 billion this year, a fortune built up through the growth of United Dairy Farmers. He previously owned Chiquita and currently owns a stake in the Cincinnati Reds. American Financial Group gave American Crossroads $400,000 last month.
So that's the kind of ad that was playing on CNN tonight. Are you seeing it anywhere else?