tagged w/ alec
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"General Counsel Michelle Wilson announced at a shareholder meeting in Seattle this morning that Amazon has decided not to renew its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) this year. Dave Johnson, a Fellow at Campaign for America's Future, is reporting from the shareholder meeting and confirmed to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that he heard the announcement.
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See, letting them hear you is helping. Worth noting, there are other groups joining legislators to corporations too closely, and we need to pay attention. I love it when people here at Current post information so we can all get involved where needed. It really is worth working at."General Counsel Michelle Wilson announced at a shareholder meeting in Seattle... more
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Those dropping out are a mix of Republican and “Democrats” – we put them in quotations because our guess is they’re more of a “Blue Dog” type of Democrat, but nevertheless, this is a major development against ALEC from just one state.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=35890Those dropping out are a mix of Republican and “Democrats” – we put... more
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11dim
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links to stories about corporate takeovers of our state and local government process from this inside - been doing it for yearslinks to stories about corporate takeovers of our state and local government process... more
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The reach of ALEC: They’re not just behind “stand your ground” laws, but every area of law known to man. Don't believe us? Check this out...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=34605The reach of ALEC: They’re not just behind “stand your ground” laws,... more
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ALEC's 'stealth lobbying' does not deserve non-profit status - The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur Current TV
I've added overtones of an old-time SCARY MOVIE to this video
to emphasize how frightening a closed door oganization such as
ALEC, is to a democracy.
It is hard to understand how human beings can be so callous;
conjuring up ways to turn a profit off the extreme suffering of others.
Yet it appears that is exactly what the Republican Party along with its
affiliates, are all about. If they are not exposed and stopped, our
nation will cease to be a Democratic Republic and we-the-people
will anguish at the hands of The Slave Masters.
Hmmmm, where have I heard that before?
thethinkingblue youtube channel.ALEC's 'stealth lobbying' does not deserve non-profit status - The... more
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ALEC enjoys Tax-Exempt Charitable Status? -- To term ALEC as a “non-profit organization” or a charitable organization, is idiocy in the extreme. They are funded by the biggest corporations spanning the planet, first and foremost the Koch Brothers, and the profit they rake in is then turned to lobby state legislatures across the country to pass corporate-friendly laws that dehumanize the greater population for the benefit of greater corporate profit.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=34327ALEC enjoys Tax-Exempt Charitable Status? -- To term ALEC as a “non-profit... more
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EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC) but was (afraid) oops I mean (too outside the loop to know WTF was going on ) to ask! Lot's of great stuff in here. thinkingblue
http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
WHAT IS ALEC?
ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. We agree. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. (SCARY STUFF HERE!)
(MORE SCARY STUFF)
What goes on behind closed doors?
The organization boasts 2,000 legislative members and 300 or more corporate members. The unelected corporate representatives (often registered lobbyists) sit as equals with elected representatives on nine task forces where they have a “voice and a vote” on model legislation. Corporations on ALEC task forces VOTE on the "model" bills and resolutions, and sit as equals with legislators voting on the ALEC task forces and various working groups.
SCARY ISN'T THE RIGHT WORD... IT'S MORE LIKE BLOODCURDLING!
How do corporations benefit?
Although ALEC claims to take an ideological stance (of supposedly "Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty"), many of the model bills benefit the corporations whose agents write them, shape them, and/or vote to approve them. These are just a few such measures:
• Altria/Philip Morris USA benefits from ALEC’s newest tobacco legislation -- an extremely narrow tax break for moist tobacco that would make fruit flavored tobacco products cheaper and more attractive to youngsters.
• Health insurance companies such as Humana and Golden Rule Insurance (United Healthcare), benefit directly from ALEC model bills, such as the Health Savings Account bill that just passed in Wisconsin.
• Tobacco firms such as Reynolds and pharmaceutical firms such as Bayer benefit directly from ALEC tort reform measures that make it harder for Americans to sue when injured by dangerous products.
• Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) benefits directly from the anti-immigrant legislation introduced in Arizona and other states that requires expanded incarceration and housing of immigrants, along with other bills from ALEC’s crime task force. (While CCA has stated that it left ALEC in late 2010 after years of membership on the Criminal Justice Task Force and even co-chairing it, its prison privatization bills remain ALEC "models.")
• Connections Academy, a large online education corporation and co-chair of the Education Task Force, benefits from ALEC measures to privatize public education and promote private on-line schools.
Coke Quits ALEC on Threat of Color of Change Boycott
http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/04/coke-quits-alec-on-threat-of-color-of-change-boycott/EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC) but... more
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An Update on ALEC from Stew Blogger Beth:
The Koch Brothers front group, Americans for Prosperity, along with their Tea Party drones, are trying to counter the rising backlash against the billionaire's efforts to hijack our Democracy. They're holding training sessions for Right-wing bloggers on how to lie to the public.
Imagine that...the Koch Brothers are using their other front groups to defend/spin another of their front groups...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=34192An Update on ALEC from Stew Blogger Beth:
The Koch Brothers front group, Americans... more
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As the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) works to distance itself from the NRA-bill it backed as a “model” adopted in dozens of states, it may be hoping that people will not continue to dig into the damage done by its long love affair with gun groups, like the gun-industry funded NRA and fringe groups with ties to white supremacists like Gun Owners of America (GOA).
GOA’s Executive Director is Larry Pratt. In the early 1980s, Pratt and the GOA were outspoken supporters of the white rulers in South Africa during apartheid, calling a press conference in 1984 to present “evidence” that allegedly tied Bishop Desmond Tutu to an effort to violently overthrow the white minority regime in the country. In 1990, Pratt wrote a book titled “Armed People Victorious” based on his study of death squads in Guatemala and the Philippines, and advocated for similar “citizen defense patrols” in the United States. The idea reportedly caught on in 1992, when Pratt addressed a three-day meeting of neo-Nazis and Christian Adherents organized by white supremacist Pete Peters. He shared the stage with a former Ku Klux Klan leader and an Aryan Nation official.
Pratt also held leadership roles in ALEC for many years. His relationship with ALEC began in 1978, when ALEC began an effort to oppose a constitutional amendment giving the District of Columbia full voting rights in Congress. When Pratt was elected to the Virginia State Legislature in 1981, he took a leadership position in ALEC. He sat on ALEC’s board even after he left the legislature, serving as its treasurer into the 1990s.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/20/468146/fringe-gun-rights-advocate-with-ties-to-white-supremacists-helped-build-up-alec/As the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) works to distance itself from the... more
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CALL ON RIGHT NOW.
From and email today from Progressive Change Campaign Committe of BoldProgressive.org...
Tomorrow, we're pulling together progressive state legislators from across the country (and reporters) on a national conference call to demand that several dozen Democratic legislators drop their membership in ALEC, the voter-suppression and union-busting organization.
The box notes: WHEN: Friday, April 20, NOON Eastern
WHAT: Listen online or by phone as progressive state legislators call on
bad Democrats to drop their membership in ALEC.
http://tinyurl.com/76hrvfjCALL ON RIGHT NOW.
From and email today from Progressive Change Campaign Committe of... more
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LOrion
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[Click link at bottom of that page for PDF info on corporations that support ALEC while dodging supporting states]
"ALEC Supporters Dodging State Taxes
Last month Citizens for Tax Justice released a report, “Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States, 2008 – 2010.” The report identified sixty-eight large corporations that paid no state income taxes in at least one of those three years despite booking billions in profits in those years. Of those sixty-eight corporations, thirty-three have a history of supporting ALEC either as members or financial contributors.
Over the last four years state governments have had to close budget gaps totaling more than a half trillion dollars, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More than 600,000 jobs have been cut in the public sector as a result, and programs that keep our economy moving and ensure a better future like transportation, public safety, education and environmental protection have been cut. During that time, these corporations have made profits and rather than pay taxes have put their money to work in an organization dedicated to advancing their own power. ALEC advocacy in state capitols is dedicated to protecting corporate interests, including lower taxation, fewer protections for consumers and the environment, and privatizing public services.
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They name companies. Handy info to bookmark when dealing with your state pols[Click link at bottom of that page for PDF info on corporations that support ALEC... more
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Armed with 61 Senate cosponsors—yes, enough to beat a filibuster with a vote to spare—the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is set to be considered as early as this week, for a vote next week.
Will Boehner let House vote on the Violence Against Women Act? ONLY if ALEC lets him! 112th works for ALEC .... See List of ALEC Politicians here: http://tinyurl.com/6fxx73a
http://tinyurl.com/7eowygsArmed with 61 Senate cosponsors—yes, enough to beat a filibuster with a vote to... more
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LOrion
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Ya' see folks? All we have to do is being organized and motivate. If what they were doing was so right, they wouldn't stop doing it. But now the light's been turned on and people are looking, they're ashamed of what people see.Ya' see folks? All we have to do is being organized and motivate. If what they... more
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Controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin shooting, along with ALEC’s involvement in pushing Voter ID laws in several states, led to the organization, Color of Change calling on corporations like Coca Cola to drop their contributions to ALEC because of ALEC’s involvement in pushing “Stand Your Ground” laws across the country, along with Voter ID laws. After Coca Cola pulled their support, other major corporations followed.Controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin shooting, along with ALEC’s... more
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http://www.thethinkingblue.com/kos/overkill.html
After Zimmerman arrest, questions about ‘stand your ground’
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/y-big-story-zimmerman-arrest-questions-stand-ground-043707411.html
{{{If self-defense is sufficient, they argue, "stand your ground" may, literally, be legislative overkill.}}}
Do you ever feel like you are the only one, oh just hanging around, with at minimal, A HALF A BRAIN?
Good grief, from the get-go this nasty Florida (along with many other states) law was OVERKILL, “literally”!
The NRA is an organization made up mainly (it appears anyway) of very frightened human beings. They fear every unknown in their life, which is of course most everything. No one can count on the next minute, hour, day, month or year to be without danger or mishap; most of us carry this thought way, way back in our minds, deeply tucked away, safely hidden within the brain, so we can behave normally and act unafraid most of the time. But with the card carrying people of the NRA, this dark thought is up front, right beneath their forehead, at the tip of their frontal lobes. In actuality, they're like frighten little children and cannot feel grown-up unless they carry a gun around and have an arsenal of weapons "LEGALLY" within their homes.
The NRA, along with its lobbies and members, get outrageous and dangerous laws passed like the STAND YOUR GROUND or SHOOT FIRST LAW, because they can, they're a large institution with many big bucks (ALEC) which enables them to buy our legislative leaders and turn them into puppets that they can play with...
(That is, when they’re not playing with their guns!)
I’m not sure the whole reason why they want to push laws that force us to live in a menacing environment but one thing for sure it involves
BIG GREEDY BUCKS!
because they have these oversized greedy pockets to fill, and they do not give a RAT'S ASS who gets hurt while they fill them.
It's SAD !
thinkingblue
ALEC Exposed Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU? MORE HERE http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
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Accountability and responsibility for the guns everywhere mentality
In the last few weeks, an awakening has occurred. We have always known that public opinion comes down on the side of reasonable measures concerning gun control in America. (Here and here)We have also always known that too many of our elected leaders have chosen to ignore the support for reasonable gun control measures in deference to an organization called the NRA whose uber power and influence in America has led to the passage of gun laws which have made us all less safe instead of safer as is the job of our leaders.
Who is accountable for the culture in America where guns have become more important than people? This article makes it clear:
"How many students have to be shot to death in their schools before this country has a serious discussion about guns? Are the 10 who have been gunned down just since Feb. 27 enough?
The question of the constitutional right to own guns is irrelevant here—even if you believe that the Constitution gives every last American the right to own a firearm (which The Times editorial board does not, but many other reasonable people do).
There is simply no defending the many states that allow people not just to keep guns in their homes, but to buy an unlimited number of weapons each month, and to carry guns, concealed or visible, into public areas, including schools and churches and libraries. The culture of permissiveness is now so out of control that the city attorney in Tampa has said he cannot stop people from carrying guns into the security perimeter that will be established around the site of the Republican convention in August."
There is no defense for what is going on in our country. But yet, the NRA, its' bought and paid for politicians, the entire gun lobby, those involved in ALEC, and the public (who have been lulled into complacency by the onslaught of laws they did not want but got anyway) are all responsible. But Congress and our legislators are the ones who pass the laws and make the rules. They should be making the rules, not the NRA. The guys with the guns should not be making the rules: MORE: http://www.commongunsense.com/2012/04/accountability-and-responsibility-for.html
To join the Brady campaign on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bradycampaignhttp://www.thethinkingblue.com/kos/overkill.html
After Zimmerman arrest, questions... more
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A worthy read, and possibly not the view you would be expecting. Former state prosecutor and a police detective Brian Austin of Madison, Wisconsin concludes ALEC's cookie cutter 'stand your ground' legislation is just one more insidious arm of the 1% that wants to keep the 99% at each other's throats while they keep taking all the goodies for themselves. He suggests it is part of the conditioning to keep us from thinking about, and caring for each other. It's all part of the Divide and Conquer agenda.
Austin makes a good argument against the notion that it is legislation to sell guns and ammo, as it has little impact on those who favor gun ownership or those who do not. It's about conditioning us to treat each other badly without thinking about our humanity and obligations to one another.
Like I mentioned, a worthy readA worthy read, and possibly not the view you would be expecting. Former state... more
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There is an unholy alliance that has helped the Stand Your Ground Laws spread to 24 states: Corporate America (including the Koch Brothers), the NRA, and ALEC. Now there's a movement to repeal those laws nationwide.There is an unholy alliance that has helped the Stand Your Ground Laws spread to 24... more
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In the wake of the Trayvon Martin murder, the Koch Brothers sought to distance themselves from the ensuing controversy by releasing a statement saying that they had nothing to do with it. This is an utter lie. Michael Morgan of Koch Industries has sat on ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board for 10 years, is the Kansas State Corporate Co-Chair, and was the ‘Vice Chairman’ level sponsor of the 2011 ALEC Annual Conference.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=33313In the wake of the Trayvon Martin murder, the Koch Brothers sought to distance... more
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