This isn't something I normally write about. I don't know as much about it as I should. But I saw it today in a mainstream news publication. It is my hope that the Kossacks who know more will take this story and run with it.
MSNBC
CPI: ALEC the power behind the legislation faces tax complaint from Clergy Group.
The story covers a progressive Ohio clergy group that filed the complaint, but also mentions another legal complaint against ALEC by Common Cause.
In its complaint, Clergy VOICE says ALEC has “deliberately and repeatedly failed to comply with some of the most fundamental federal tax requirements applicable to public charities” and that evidence “quite strongly” suggests that the group is violating civil and criminal tax laws.
The clergy’s complaint goes beyond allegations of improper lobbying, claiming that ALEC exists for the “private benefit” of its members rather than for charitable, educational or other exempt purposes that serve the public interest and deserve special tax treatment. MSNBC
What caught my eye:
ALEC was formed in Chicago by a group of state legislators and the late Paul Weyrich, a pioneering conservative activist and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation. Based in Washington, D.C., the group says its mission is to advance “free-market enterprise, limited government and federalism at the state level through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector and the general public.”
Ick!
Paul Weyrich. I remember him as a pusher of Dominionist theology, offensive to the extreme, and so I am not surprised that *he would be involved with something as slimy as this.
Old news to many of you, I am sure.
Go read the whole story, not that many of you don't know these things already, it's just nice to see it splashed across a high traffic area of the internet.