The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fighting back. The organization has filed a civil lawsuit against the Yes Men, an activist group that announced that the chamber had changed its position on climate change.

The Yes Men told the National Press Club on October 19, 2009 that the Chamber of Commerce would give up lobbying against the Senate's 800-page climate change bill. Reuters, CNBC and Fox Business Network all reported on the story, with the anchors correcting themselves midstream, when they learned that it was false.

An investor recently wrote to Kimberly Lankford over at Kiplinger's with a question about a topic that's rarely discussed: corporate governance at mutual funds.

The reader was reluctant to vote for directors at the fund because she knew nothing about them, and even inquired about serving on the board because "I probably know the average investor better than they do". Ms. Lankford explained that getting elected to a board is difficult for an outsider, and one industry insider said that he had never had someone ask to be on the board -- the appointments are handed out to friends and associates.

Lankford ended her response by saying that "As an investor, you can still influence your fund's business operations by attending shareholder meetings or voting for board members by proxy."

That may be true, but it's probably a waste of time. If you have concerns about your mutual fund's operations and/or governance structure, your best bet is to sell your shares. It isn't like activist investing in public companies, where corporate governance and managerial problems can depress a stock price creating an opportunity for an investor who has the cajones to shake things up. In mutual funds, your investment simply buys shares of the companies the fund owns. There's just no reason to take an activist stance, no value to be unlocked. There are plenty of well-run, ethical mutual fund companies out there to choose from. My personal favorite is Vanguard.

After learning that Warren Buffett, the value investor's equivalent of A-Rod, was putting his money into U.S. Railroad firm, Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI), railroad stocks suddenly became trendy. Driven by increasing consumption for commodities and transportation services, railroads have been targets for value investors for a long time. Buffett's investment put the industry back on the investment map.

So, it wouldn't be surprising to see that hedge funds are playing the same hand. CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX), a large integrated transportation company servicing everything from ports, trucks and rails, has been in the news lately as the target of an activist hedge fund based out of London, named the Children's Investment Fund.

The fund, started in 2003 by Chris Hohn, has been very active and successful in extracting shareholder value from a variety of situations. It forced the resignation of the Deutsche Borse CEO after he refused to abandon his plan to take over the London Stock Exchange.

It seems like the CIF hit a snag with CSX, though.

In response to the Fund's demands, CSX accepted none of them. In a great response sent by the CSX Board to TCI, management makes a strong case. You can read the letter here.