There a lot of buzz lately about ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the conservative group behind a lot of the legislation moving through Republican Statehouses. Prof. William Cronon of the University of Wisconsin got the ball rolling with a post on his personal blog about the group, but it was probably the Republican Party's hysterical reaction to his rather tame blog post that raised the profile exponentially.
Prof. Cronon notes:
I’m hoping you’ll agree with me that it may be time to start paying more attention to ALEC and the bills its seeks to promote. You can start by studying ALEC’s own website. Begin with its home page at
http://www.alec.org
First visit the “About” menu to get a sense of the organization’s history and its current members and funders. But the meat of the site is the “model legislation” page, which is the gateway to the hundreds of bills that ALEC has drafted for the benefit of its conservative members.
http://www.alec.org/...
You’ll of course be eager to look these over…but you won’t be able to, because you’re not a member.
It's true you can't find out much about ALEC without a login, but I thought I'd mention that the Internet Wayback Machine at archive.org allows people to look at how the site has evolved over the years and gather a little information on the group, for example, the ALEC 2001 Annual Report (PDF) is at:
http://replay.waybackmachine.org/...
This is on the masthead:
The report mentions their "alumni program":
In addition, nine sitting governors, including
Frank Keating (Okla.), John Engler (Mich.) and Bill
Owens (Colo.) as well as more than 80 Members of
the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are
former ALEC members, and these numbers are
steadily growing. In the last year alone, three ALEC
members were elected to the U.S. Congress, and
many more are campaigning in the 2002 election
year. Distinguished alumni include Assistant
Minority Leader Don Nickles (R-Okla.), Speaker of
the House Dennis Hastert (Ill.), Majority Whip Tom
DeLay (Tex.), Deputy Majority Whip Mark Foley
(Fl.), and Education and the Workforce Committee
Chairman John Boehner (Oh.).
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson and White House Chief of Staff Andrew
Card are ALEC alumni who were active members
when they were state legislators.
That's from 2001 but there are versions of the page going back to 1998:
There are a lot of broken links, so not everything is available. For example, there's a 2005 page with links to "model legislation" but the links return errors. Here's some of the link text:
Employment Policy and Regulatory Reforms
Model Language
At-Will Employment Act
Civil Rights Act
Employment Reference Immunity Act
Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act
Prevailing Wage Repeal Act
Starting Wage Repeal Act
Resolutions
Opposing Any Increase in the Starting Wage
Opposing Comparable Worth Legislation
Opposing Employer-Paid Health Care Mandates
Opposing Ergonomic Regulations Based on Unsound Science
Opposing Federal Health Insurance Legislation
Opposing Federal Regulation to Extend Unemployment Insurance Benefits to New Parents
Opposing OSHA’s Proposed Ergonomics Plan
Here's a nice lunchtime talk on how global warming isn't real:
Friday Luncheon
December 13, 2002
DR. SALLY BALIUNAS:
Thank you so much. I want to tell you today the facts on climate change, why you should not have nightmares, and why there’s good news after America has invested $20 billion in researching this issue in the last 10 years. We’ll also talk a little bit about what the discussions of limiting carbon dioxide emissions mean in terms of energy policy, and why there’s no rush to have to cut carbon dioxide emissions. ...
http://replay.waybackmachine.org/...
The real threat it seems is from ecoterrorism, beginning with Charles Darwin:
Environmental Extremism
The political movement for environmental and animal rights has been undergoing a phenomenal expansion and quest for legitimacy in the past decade. It has migrated from the personal quarters and inquisitive considerations of collegiate academia into the hearts and minds of a dedicated few. They are hell-bent on revolutionizing a system of perceived abuse into one that abides by deeply rooted philosophies of fundamental animal equity and environmental preservation. Change has been slow to take root, both politically and within the psyche of the American public. Yet the movement has
brought the nation from an understanding of the ethics of animal/ecological welfare to a presumption of fundamentally protected rights. Outlined below is a timeline of this historic and sustained struggle for animal rights organizations:
1859 – Philosophical roots bud as a result of Darwin’s publication of The Descent of Man where he claims, “There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties.”
1873 – Enactment of the “28-hour law” requiring all animals be well rested, watered, and fed in interstate transportation.
1958 – Enactment of the Humane Slaughter Act requiring the use of anesthetics on animals designated to be slaughtered.
1963 – Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) is created to distract fox hunters and is credited by some as initiating the trend toward “direct action.”
1966 – Enactment of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act, although it was widely criticized by many blooming environmental activists as being “too little, too late.”
1969 – Enactment of the Endangered Species Act
1970 – Enactment of the Animal Welfare Act
1970s – General academic and scholarly debates for animal-man equality in a public and intellectual forum (often comparing the treatment of animals in labs to the holocaust), particularly in response to biomedical research requiring vivisection.
1972 – Bifurcation in HSA resulting in the creation of the Band of Mercy, a group dedicated to taking more violent action on HSA principles against hunters.
1975 – Animal Liberation Front (ALF) connected to firebombing animal research center in England (first documented attack by ALF).
1977 – ALF's first documented action in the United States. Two dolphins from the University of Hawaii were released.
1982 – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) established. Today it has over 350,000 members.
Early 1980s – ALF expands activity in the U.S. as support begins to accumulate.
1991 – Publication of “Screaming Wolf,” a pseudonym for “A Declaration of War: Killing People to Save Animals and the Environment,” which effectively acted as a “call to arms.”
1992 – Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is founded in Brighton, England, by Earth First! extremists looking to further their goals through unlawful means.
1994 – ELF spreads to the United States, although no specific link can be found to show a direct connection between the English and U.S. branches.
1996 to present – ALF and ELF have become increasingly more aggressive with about 600 attributed attacks at a cost of over $50 million.
1999 – 80 threatening letters were sent to animal researchers; the envelopes concealed razor blades coated in rat poison, designed to harm the person who opened the mail.
Circa 2000 – The Ruckus Society is created to train environmental protestors in “enviro-boot
camps.”
2001 – ELF claimed responsibility for arsons at the University of Washington Center for Urban
Horticulture in Seattle and Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, Oregon, for an estimated total
of $3.5 - $5.6 million in damages.
2002 – ELF claimed responsibility for arsons committed by Jacob Sherman and Michael Scarpitti in Portland, Oregon.
2003 – ARISSA is started by Craig Rosebraugh and Leslie James Pickering, two former ELF spokesmen, with the intent to revolutionize the eco-terror movement (and feared to soon be more violent than all preceding groups).
March 2003 – ELF reported arsons in Chico, California, and Washington, Michigan.
Summer 2003 – ELF claimed responsibility for SUV dealerships vandalized and torched in Virginia and California.
August 2003 – ELF claims responsibility for arson at a 206-condominium project under construction in San Diego, California. Approximate damage cost is $20 million.
August 2003 – ALF claims responsibility for release of 10,000 minks in Sultan, Washington. Damage estimated at $500,00
Threats of domestic terrorism in the name of animal and/or environmental rights are largely attributed to two domestic terror organizations: the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Considered by the FBI to be the most dangerous of domestic terror threats, these organizations facilitate ideologically driven vandalism, property damage, theft, and general terrorism against individuals, groups, and governmental agencies that do not fit their vision of environmental equity.
That's just a sampling.
There's of course nothing illegal or nefarious about such a policy group, although their reaction to a little publicity is intriguing, and their world outlook perverse. Given the evident importance of their efforts in current Republican initiatives, it's good to know more about the group, its alumni & backers. Kudos to the Wayback Machine.
