Necroing:
Journalists were kicked out of ALEC and threatened with arrest.
And many politicians and businesses are looking to ALEC for policy decisions.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryI guess... free assembly is legal.
But, does the ALEC send money into politician hands? I would make that illegal but the supreme court is likely to disagree.
Both politicians and corporations pay into the council in order to be there.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FrySo actually politicians are losing money to see what ALEC has to say.
I'm guessing that politicians are looking for financial connections for personal gain then?
edited 13th Aug '11 11:45:18 AM by breadloaf
there are some politicians who have received funding from ALEC members, which has gotten them into power.
Infamously, Scott Walker, WI governor, was prank-called by someone pretending to be one of the Koch brothers, owners of Koch industries, who are a part of the Council. They discussed campaign financing during the call.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryNecroing again, hoping for a better turn out as this is a very important subject, as it affects national as well as state policy. The voter ID laws, the Union-busting laws, both come from ALEC.
Here, you can find the list of 800 "model" ALEC bills, as well as tracking politicians, corporations, and bills from ALEC.
And Florida State Rep. Rachel Burgin (R) introduced a bill from ALEC while forgetting to remove the stuff they put at the beginning of each bill.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryThey have the right to do this, but it pisses me off that no one in the mainstream media says a word about this junk.
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.What pisses me off is that it shuts out the population who isn't involved in upper-management at any of those 300 companies.
Furthermore, when state congressmen give the public a "chance" to speak out, they can ignore them. Like Albert Darling, during the time that the 14 Wisconsin senators had fled.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryALEC is one of the shadiest, most villainous groups I have ever read about.
Shutting the public out of the equation in favor of big business cannot end well.
Sign on for this After The End Fantasy RP.Here's a link with some info: http://www.alecexposed.org/w/images/9/9d/8B17-The_Balanced_Budget_Amendment_Resolution_exposed.pdf
Here is one of their products: http://www.alec.org/wp-content/uploads/Budget_toolkit.pdf
I'm part of an Occupy group that is basically ripping off one of ALEC's handbooks to provide legislators with material to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and limit the effect of money on political campaigns. Recycling is good!
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."Bumping again, new information from the 2012 elections thread has become relevant.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryIndeed. Paul Krugman stumbled across ALEC while researching the origins of Florida's Stand Your Ground law and was so frightened that he devoted an entire column to the topic.
The greatest threat to democracy in the 21st century is not robber barons, Nazis, Communists, or Islamic terrorists, but rather these shady coalitions of corporate interests who make it their business to suborn the legislative process.
edited 26th Mar '12 12:08:01 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Actually, I can't differentiate the coalition of corporate interests from robber barons. They're still working towards one goal, and that is make as much damn money as possible, and this is just a super expedient way to do that. It's basically highly concentrated lobbying, made more efficient and profitable by the multitudinous people being lobbied at once, saving time and money.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryThey're at least trying to be a bit more subtle about it. The Robber Baron era was about rich capitalists flaunting their wealth and daring government to do anything about it. This era is about us suddenly discovering that they've been writing our laws for the past ten years.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I've basically figured that out pretty quickly. Living in Wisconsin, you hear a lot of the test bills.
If you look at post #7, you can see more.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen FryWe're going to need a constitutional amendment to eliminate this kind of stuff...
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."Donors Trust allows wealthy contributors who want to donate millions to the most important causes on the right to do so anonymously, essentially scrubbing the identity of those underwriting conservative and libertarian organizations.
Wisconsin's 2011 assault on collective bargaining rights? Donors Trust helped fund that. ALEC, the conservative bill mill? Donors Trust supports it. The climate deniers at the Heartland Institute? They get Donors Trust money, too.
So basically it's a legal way to launder money politically.
This is a topic about ALEC, which is a coalition of legislators and corporations/special interests who get together to draft pro business legislation. Many of the policies being implemented in the state legislatures can be traced back to ALEC.
A few things about ALEC:
Membership per year for corporations is $100,000. For legislators, $100.
A representative from a corporation has a veto for any legislation he deems to be not what his company or group wants.
It was founded in 1973, to be a conservative group to plan legislation.
Now, is this a good idea? Have you heard of ALEC before? Do you know of any legislation made by ALEC which has come up in your state?
For my opinion: I think its a bad idea, due to its dangerously close ties to corporations.
Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen Fry