More ALEC Stealth Legislation: The Fun Never Stops

Just when you think ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) couldn't possibly have any more hidden corporate agendas to push, they find yet another one.  Their M.O. is to circumvent the legislative process by mass-mailing jillions of already-written bills (or “model legislation” as they like to call it) to rightwing state legislators all over the country.  These targeted legislators — hereafter referred to as ALEC prostitutes — will then “introduce” these bills to the legislature, as written; as ordered by their ALEC johns.  In red states, and some swing states, these bills are voted into law en masse.  And the ALEC cancer continues to spread throughout the country.

Stand Your Ground laws, voter suppression laws, laws requiring laid-off workers to pass a drug test before they can qualify for unemployment insurance, Ag Gag laws which shield factory farms from any kind of outside scrutiny, laws that are designed to sabotage renewable energy development — these are just a few of the state laws that have been mass-produced through the above-mentioned ALEC M.O.

And now the latest corporate giveaway from the ALEC stealthbags:  state laws that prohibit municipalities from providing broadband Internet access.  We wouldn't want Comcast and Verizon to suffer from any sort of competition now, would we?

The linked article includes a petition asking the FCC to preempt these ALEC-funded state laws so that cities will be allowed to provide their residents with Internet access.  Please sign.

ALEC: legislative “fiat by email forward”

I've heard ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) described as a “bill mill,” but I like John Oliver's description even better:  “fiat by email forward.”

While Congress is paralyzed, “laws are being passed at a breakneck rate at the state level; for every piece of federal legislation that gets passed, more than a hundred state laws go on the books....What's more, how is it that these venues for hyper-local arguments from various fiefdoms so often seem to tread the same pieces of legislation?"  [from the linked article]

That's exactly what I've always wondered, or more specifically, wondered why the public isn't more alarmed by this.  It's bad enough when congressional Republicans march in lockstep.  But when dozens of seemingly disparate states — “fifty individual experiments in democracy” — are passing the same boilerplate legislation in unison, it should be a red flag for anyone who's paying attention.

John Oliver describes ALEC as: 

“...a sort of shadow government for state legislatures, pushing the same agenda in state capitols across the country...the group is a coalition of conservative politicians and corporate interests that shares drafts of state legislation, in a system that should probably be dubbed 'fiat by email forward,' to advance the same laws across the country.”

Come on voters, pay attention damn it.

If We REALLY had a Liberal Media...

This article lists fifteen facts that everyone would know if there were a liberal media.

Among other things:

ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) would be a household name — as common as “Democrat,” “Republican” or “labor union” — if we had a liberal media.  We don't, so it isn't.  If the media were liberal, you couldn't turn on the evening news or open a newspaper without learning and relearning that a shadowy group of corporate lobbyists (ALEC) sends out hundreds of “sample” bills to Republican legislatures, and these sample/model bills are dutifully enacted by ALEC's legislator/prostitutes.  Stand Your Ground laws, voter suppression laws, Ag Gag laws making it a crime to report animal abuse at factory farms, and most union-busting legislation — you can thank ALEC for all of these laws.  These laws themselves are pretty much under the public radar (which they wouldn't be if we had a liberal media), let alone the fact that these laws all rolled off the ALEC assembly line and were quietly rushed through dozens of state legislatures.

Which country has the world's largest prison population?  China?  Russia?  You won't hear this from the liberal media, but the United States of America has 25% of the world's prisoners.  We have not only the largest percentage of the world's prisoners, but the largest number as well.  Think about it.  China — that evil Communist police state we've been scared shitless of for decades — has five times America's population but fewer prisoners.

In a related (censored) story, also forgotten by the liberal media:  African-Americans make up 13.6% of the U.S. population; but they make up 39.4% of the U.S. prison/jail population.

If there were a liberal media, everyone would know about the mass honeybee die-off, caused by colony collapse disorder.  25% of our food supply depends on pollination by bees.  The most likely causes of colony collapse disorder are certain chemicals manufactured and marketed by the Chemical/Agribusiness Syndicate.  This might have something to do with why the corporate-owned “liberal” media isn't reporting this.

And speaking of corporate media:  90% of all the information we see and hear is controlled by six corporations.  These would be Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Viacom, Comcast, and CBS.  These liberal corporations haven't bothered to tell us about the wave of  media consolidation that's engulfed the country in the last ten years.

Anyway, check out the article.  All fifteen items are things everyone would know if we had a liberal media.

ALEC's Newest Target: Freeloading Homeowners Who Install Solar Panels

ALEC, as you know, is the corporate-funded bill mill that bombards state legislatures with “suggested” model legislation pushing various corporate agendas.  More often than not, these “model” bills are dutifully passed by ALEC's prostitutes (formerly known as state legislators).

What's the common ground between Voter Suppression laws, Stand Your Ground laws and farm states' Ag Gag laws?  ALEC is the man behind the curtain.

ALEC has already tried to sabotage renewable energy development by overturning state laws that require a certain percentage of a state's energy to come from renewable sources.  But now ALEC is stepping up the viciousness by pushing for a stealth tax on homeowners who install solar energy panels.  (Conservatives have nothing against taxes; they just don't think corporations and wealthy individuals should pay them.)

In some states, homeowners are compensated by the local utility company when they install solar panels.  The homeowner gets paid a small fee for excess solar power that he/she sells back to the utility.  If you're affiliated with the fossil fuel industry, this is NOT acceptable.  ALEC wants utility companies to reduce the amount they pay to solar homeowners, or — ideally — to charge these freeloading homeowners for having installed solar panels in the first place.  ALEC spokesman John Eick said — with a straight face:

“As it stands now, those direct generation customers are essentially freeriders on the system.” 

The director of the Energy and Policy Institute pointed out the obvious:

“They [ALEC] are trying to eliminate pro-solar policies in the states to protect utility industry profits.” 

An Insider’s View of ALEC

Or maybe that should be “I was a teenage ALEC mutant.”

Wisconsin state representative Chris Taylor attended ALEC’s annual conference in Chicago.  (As you know, ALEC stands for American Legislative Exchange Council.)

Describing her experiences inside the “ALEC universe,” she wrote:

“ALEC members have been quietly working out of the public eye to develop their agenda so that when given the opportunity, they are ready to start creating an ALEC nation. That time has come. And they are ready.”

Please take the time to check out Chris Taylor’s interview with Theresa Riley in the linked article.  As one of the commenters at the end of the article said, “If this article doesn't give you chills of abject dread…you’re not breathing.”

Here are just a few excerpts from the interview:

“I think it’s so incredibly important for people to understand where these model bills are coming from and try to understand the rationale. I was quite blown away by the extent of where Wisconsin policy is coming from, because so much of it is coming from this group.”

During the conference, an ALEC member complained to her about Obama’s excessive regulations, and said there needs to be a constitutional amendment requiring congressional approval of ALL regulations.  She told him “I don’t think that ignites people. Maybe it does on the far right, but most people don’t really care about that.”  And the ALECbot said:  “Oh, well, you really don’t need people to do this. You just need control over the legislature and you need money, and we have both.”

Referring to ALECfuck’s answer, Chris Taylor said:

“That sentiment was underscored so many times to me, that they don’t want people involved in the political process, or in the policy process. And that seems to be the intent in a lot of ways: You have a think tank in every state and all they do is come up with these very, very regressive policies, you have corporations who are going to benefit so they fund it all, and then you have the legislators as your foot soldiers to carry out the tasks.”

Theresa Riley asked “What were you impressed by?”

Chris Taylor:

“I was really impressed by their infrastructure. I mean, we would never duplicate something like this on the left because, first of all, we would never take instructions from corporations, but the coordination that they have between these policy think tanks, the money and the legislators, in terms of just driving an agenda, it’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it…

It is a well-oiled machine. They’re really organized, they’re really coordinated and they have the resources. And they’re not afraid to push it when they have the opportunities. Now they have 24 state legislatures that are Republican controlled and they have Republican governors. So they’ve had incredible success. They’ve had 71 bills introduced just this year that make it harder for most people who are injured to access the courts. We’ve certainly seen that here in Wisconsin. That was one of the first things that Walker did when he came in was push this tort reform through…

They have been waiting for 40 years to do some of the things they’re doing right now. They’ve been developing these model policies, making these connections and building these relationships, and when they had an opportunity, like right here in Wisconsin, they pushed it.”

Be Very Afraid.

ALEC behind Farm States’ “Ag Gag” Laws

It figures.  This should have been obvious all along.

When one state legislature after another starts passing identical laws to push a certain corporate agenda, the man behind the curtain is usually the American Legislative Exchange Council  (ALEC).  ALEC is basically a bill mill; a corporate front group that pushes various rightwing agendas at the state level.

“Stand Your Ground” laws, voter suppression laws, laws designed to cripple unions — all of these laws were passed in lockstep by red state legislatures.  And each one of these laws was the result of ALEC lobbyists dictating their instructions to their secretaries (formerly known as state legislators).

And now it turns out ALEC has been the driving force behind the epidemic of “Ag Gag” laws rolling down the legislative assembly line in state after state.  It was obvious these Ag state legislator/prostitutes were getting down on their knees and sucking somebody off; we just didn’t know ALEC was the suckee.  Or “suck-off-ee” or whatever you’d call it.  Or:  whose jism was smeared all over these Ag state legislators’ mouths?  ALEC’s jism.

Ag Gag laws are the result of numerous undercover videos taken inside factory farms.  These videos have revealed horrifying shocking treatment of livestock, including living conditions that are filthy and unsanitary beyond belief.  (And this is what you’re eating?!?!?!?)  As a result of these sickening exposés, factory farm owners have responded by?

a) Providing better treatment and living conditions for their farm animals; or

b) Ordering their state legislator/hookers to pass laws making it a crime to take pictures inside a factory farm and/or to distribute said pictures.

b) is of course the correct answer.

Last spring ALEC got a lot of publicity after they were revealed to be the source of so many voter suppression and union-busting laws.  And publicity is the exact thing ALEC does NOT want.  When you turn on the kitchen light at 2 a.m. and see cockroaches scattering and running to the nearest crack, that’s ALEC when they get any sort of media exposure.  In April 2012 some of the country’s most powerful corporations dropped their association with ALEC after too much media scrutiny.

The media should start another round of exposing ALEC, their slippery tactics and who their members are.

And the skank-ass “legislators” who keep passing these Ag Gag laws need to be dressed up in mini-skirts, heavy makeup and fishnet stockings and paraded in front of their constituents, so everyone will see them for the prostitutes they are.

The National Center for Public Policy Research — the New ALEC

Cut off the ALEC head of the Hydra monster and a new head pops up.  The National Center for Public Policy Research will be carrying on with ALEC’s tireless crusade of making sure low income people, swarthy minorities and the elderly will NOT be allowed to vote.

Just as a cockroach will scamper away when the lights are turned on, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has discontinued its ongoing campaign to disenfranchise millions of voters.  After too much publicity and scrutiny, ALEC has scurried back into the woodwork.  For now.

But not to fear.  The ultra-rightwing National Center for Public Policy Research has formed a Voter Identification Task Force to continue ALEC’s dedicated efforts toward “promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.”

Again, that’s “promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.”  And that takes care of our Euphemism of the Week contest.  No more calls, we have a winner!

The Grand Wizard of the National Center for Public Policy Research, David Almasi, said:

“The fact that ALEC is no longer going to be offering the services it did got us interested in doing something.  We obviously can’t do everything ALEC did, but we can do something to make sure the issue doesn’t go away.”

Vice Grand Wizard Amy Ridenour said:

“We’re putting the left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one area, we’ll kick it up a notch somewhere else.  You will not win. We outnumber you and we outthink you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory.  Corporate CEOs who cower in the face of liberal boycott threats need to understand that the left never gives up.  If these corporations do not reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do, conservatives may as well consider them part of the organized left. It doesn’t matter if corporate executives have free-market sentiments hidden deep inside them if they continually surrender to the left’s Trotskyite strategy of making relentless demand after demand in public.”

All righty then.  For what it’s worth, the National Center for Public Policy Research was closely tied to the Jack Abramoff / Tom DeLay scandals.  So according to these nimrods’ “reasoning,” it’s perfectly OK when our government is for sale to the highest bidder — as long as we can keep them Nigras and po’ people out of the voting booth.

The Draining of the ALEC abscess

There’s still a lot of filth and disease festering in there, but the boil has been lanced and the pus is starting to ooze out.   The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is being drained from several directions.

Some of ALEC’s largest contributors are leaving in droves.  Wendy’s is the latest company to withdraw from ALEC, following in the footsteps of Pepsi, Coca Cola, Intuit, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s and the Gates Foundation.

And now ALEC is lashing out at the “Coordinated Intimidation Campaign” by liberals against ALEC’s members.  An ALEC spokesman issued a public tantrum that basically said “I’m melting!”

A lot of these rats have deserted the sinking ALEC ship because of Color of Change.  This group has been targeting ALEC’s contributors because of the voter suppression laws and “stand your ground” laws which have been written by ALEC and dutifully transcribed by dimwitted state legislators.

And that’s not all:  ALEC is also catching it from the shareholders of some of their largest companies.  More and more shareholders are demanding that their companies disclose all contributions to ALEC and other tax-exempt lobbying organizations.

It’s a start.  But there’s still a whole lot of draining and lancing and cleansing to be done.

Who is Funding ALEC

As more and more people are learning, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a corporate front group which has been bribing dozens of state legislatures into legislating the corporate/Far Right agenda.  Basically, corporations are dictating to their secretaries — formerly known as “legislators” — which laws to pass.

Voter suppression laws, union-busting legislation, state governments’ “demands” that all federally-owned public lands be returned to the states — these assembly-line state laws were all bought and paid for by ALEC.

Pepsi and Coca Cola have canceled their affiliation with ALEC.  But they were just the tip of the iceberg.  You probably thought (as I did) that ALEC got its funding from just a few corporate monoliths — Exxon, Koch Industries, etc.

WRONG.

Check out the list at the end of this article.  You won’t believe how many companies are donating to ALEC.  It’s like all those science fiction movies were it’s not just a few people who have become drones — it’s everybody.  Or think of John Prine’s famous line, “and all your friends turn out to be insurance salesmen.”

BP (of course), several health insurance companies, telecom conglomerates, Amazon.com, FedEx and UPS, Kraft Foods, some of the largest drug manufacturers — the list is huge.

I’m not necessarily suggesting a boycott (then again…), but keep in mind that every time you purchase the products/services of one of these companies, you’re helping to pay for the Rightwng Agenda.

And a Hat Tip to the source from Think Progress who obtained this list.

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Rears Its Head Again

The mainstream “media” never mentions the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  But if you check out the non-mainstream news sites at all, you’re probably familiar with ALEC, a corporate front group funded by the Koch Brothers, Exxon Mobil and BP, among others.

You didn’t really think state lawmakers were actually designing their own legislation, did you?  Riiight.  That’s sooo last century.

Whenever a bunch of new cookie-cutter state laws are passed in lockstep, you can be pretty certain that these laws have been dictated by ALEC.  ALEC is the boss; the man behind the curtain.  Your state “legislator” is basically just a stenographer taking dictation.

Who dictated the wave of Voter ID laws rolling off the assembly line?  ALEC.

The numerous Stand Your Ground laws that are suddenly being scrutinized because of George Zimmerman’s murder of Trayvon Martin?  ALEC.

Union-busting legislation?  Ditto.

And now the latest instruction memo from ALEC:  the wave of new state laws “demanding” that the federal government return all federally-owned public lands back to the states.

So far Utah is the only state to pass this law.  But Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana will soon get with the program and jump on the bandwagon, as ordered.

Makes you wonder what these state “legislators” are getting paid for.  Secretaries don’t usually get a 7-figure salary, do they?

Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin: “Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!!!”

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is basically a “bill mill” that grinds out jillions of boilerplate “suggestions” for state legislators to pass into law.  ALEC is funded by some of America’s largest corporations, and the laws they dictate to their stenographers, er, state legislators, are pushing the Corporate/Rightwing agenda.  Voter suppression laws, union busting, gutting the safety net — if you like these laws that are being passed in lockstep throughout the red states, thank ALEC.

When state legislators receive their ALEC instructions for a new bill to pass, they’re usually discreet enough to change the wording just slightly.  They don’t want it to be too blatant that they’re nothing more than a secretary taking dictation, or a prostitute following her john’s instructions right down to the kinkiest detail.

But now Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin has let the cat out of the bag.  Yer Busted!

Last November she introduced a resolution calling for lower corporate taxes.  It was another written command from ALEC (needless to say).  The “resolution” she introduced was nothing more than a copy of the written ALEC instruction, and her Xeroxed “resolution” even included ALEC’s mission statement at the top of the page.  DUUUHHH!!!

Open cookie jar, insert hand.

She realized her error and quickly withdrew the bill; and then reintroduced it with a new bill number (HM 717) and without that pesky ALEC mission statement.

Her little coverup-of-the-coverup managed to stay covered up until a week ago.  Nice try.

South Carolina: “The South’s Inbreds Will Rise Again!”

Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalism has already spread beyond the blogosphere and into the mainstream media.  It’s part of the national conversation.  And now the same thing is about to happen to the red states’ voter suppression laws — also known as Jim Crow 2.0.

Dozens of red states have marched in lockstep to pass these so-called “Voter ID” laws.  These laws are supposedly necessary to fight the non-existent problem of “voter fraud.”  Millions of qualified voters will be prevented from voting by these new Jim Crow laws — mostly the elderly, people of low income, minorities and the young.  Be sheer coincidence, the people in those groups tend to vote Democratic.  How conveeenient.

This interstate march-in-unison voter suppression drive has been financed by Koch Industries (among others) and choreographed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Until recently, this issue was confined to liberal blogs and a few non-mainstream news sites.

But now, with the South Carolina primary in full swing, South Carolina’s voter suppression law has burst into the mainstream media and the public consciousness.  The Justice Department has already started cracking down on South Carolina’s Jim Crow 2.0 law.  Republican candidates are dredging up the same tired “states’ rights” rhetoric they’ve been spouting since the Civil War.  This guarantees that Obama won’t carry South Carolina next November; then again he didn’t have a chance in South Carolina anyway.

But what about the rest of the country?  South Carolina voters will be perfectly happy to keep on keepin' the nigras down, as they’ve been doing since the 1800s.  But most of the country isn’t South Carolina.  When voter suppression laws are discussed over backyard fences and in coffee shops all across the country, how will the issue play out?  Or as the old saying goes, “will it play in Peoria?”

Meanwhile, back in South Carolina, the local rednecks are having a ‘bacca-spittin’ hissy-fit over the National Guard forcing public schools to allow colored children inside.  Er, I mean, the Justice Department cracking down on voter suppression laws.  Rick Perry — yesterday he was a raging leftwing populist; today he’s back to his old redneck self — said:

“Each of our states are under assault right now by this administration.  We may be under assault — South Carolina, they're actually at war with you.”

Yee Haw!  Let’s get them inbreds all fired up.

And last week Rick Santorum said the 2012 election will be the most important election since 1860.  He’s since revised that date to 1980.  Too late, Frothy — you can't un-ring a bell; you can't push the toothpaste back into the tube.

Newest Target for Job Layoffs: State Legislators

Who needs ‘em? None of them have been downsized or outsourced yet. But it’s just a matter of time. They serve no purpose whatsoever.

Passing “legislation?” Once upon a time, maybe. Lately our “legislators” have turned into secretaries taking dictation from their corporate donors. There’s nothing new about this, but the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the most blatant example yet. (Here’s another link.)

ALEC has been around since the 1970s. It was founded by the same oligarchs who brought us the Heritage Foundation. In the organization’s own words, ALEC is “a policy making program that unites members of the public and private sectors in a dynamic partnership.”

Moving past the bland corporate-speak, what these thugs are actually doing is writing boilerplate legislation on behalf of the country’s most powerful industries. And then they, uh, “suggest” to state legislators that it would be really nice if these laws could be passed and nobody gets hurt.

In the past few months, red states have been simultaneously cranking out jillions of new cookie-cutter laws cracking down on unions, immigrants, “voter fraud,” and attempting to privatize education (as well as every other public service that actually benefits real people). The same assembly line is also spitting out legislative end runs around “Obamacare,” renewable energy and environmental protections.

As the two linked articles indicate, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the source of most (if not all) of these laws. So again, what do we need these cardboard cutout “legislators” for? Why don’t we just cut to the chase, eliminate all of these overpaid, over-perked and taxpayer-financed typists and file clerks, and ALEC could simply announce their newest edicts.

Like every other powerful and secretive organization, the American Legislative Exchange Council can get a little, uh, testy when members of the lowly public start coming around and asking questions.

Wisconsin state rep. Mark Pocan was kicked out of an ALEC conference in New Orleans, even though he’s a dues-paying member of ALEC and had received an invitation.

And two Think Progress reporters were forcibly removed from the same ALEC conference by ALEC security guards.