So much information now coming out about ALEC that it's hard to stay on top of all of it. News articles have begun popping up nationwide since the Cincy Rally in April, all with ALEC now being cautiously identified and mentioned in context to Conservative legislative efforts.
Of course ALEC hasn't been hiding in their dark den while this is happening...no, they have been busy little Kochroaches developing their Publicopoly Act!! What is that you might ask? Well it's ALEC's form of Monopoly. You pick the "game square" and ALEC will help you privatize one of seven government sectors: government operations, education, transportation and infrastructure, public safety, environment, health, or telecommunications.
In a recent diary I mentioned this Publicopolyand provided a link to it at ALEC's site.
Maybe Dylan Radigan picked up on that in preparation for his new 3 part segment with Huff Post on "America For Sale" that is planned. The announcement was made this morning on Huffington Post.
When you visit Publicopoly at the ALEC site, click on Public Safety and have an "oops there it is moment!" They recommend the Conditional Early Release Bond "Initiative". Well it just so happens that Model legislation is written and pushed by ALEC's American Bail Coalition member. Enactment in the various states would provide the ABC with a windfall of income - in exchange for the freedom of inmates. ALEC has already been successful in implementing this "Act" in Michigan and Mississippi but through administrative action rather than legislation that they suggest is too timely and difficult.
The "Oops moment" comes when you realize that the same ABC and ALEC have been busy of late - in Wisconsin, of course - on similar issues. Again, as usual they have used their "sneak it in under the radar" approach, by getting Rep. Robin Vos (R) to "slip" legislation legalizing a return to private bail bondsmen and bounty hunters in that state into the budget in a last minute action. Seems that Republicans all over the country - and especially in Wisconsin and Florida - are using state budgets as a ways to slip in legislation that they can't get passed through normal legislative activities. In Florida they used it to authorize $100 million in funding for a Geo private prison (Blackwater) being built in the Florida panhandle.
The fact that bail bonding usually results in corruption by those seeking more profits through friendly judges setting high bonds to increase the fees a defendant would have to pay for a bond (according to the article linked to above) doesn't surprise me one bit. Not after the fiasco in PA. this year where two judges were indicted and convicted of setting up a system to ship juveniles off to privately run facilities in exchange for kickbacks from the owners of those facilities.
ALEC, Labor and Prison Labor in the news - National: "The Attacks Were All Coordinated’ Communication Workers of America President Larry Cohen on how the labor movement must respond to anti-union attacks."
"Larry Cohen: It’s the connection of their economic agenda and their political agenda. So on the economic side they’re very hot on this notion that all you need is markets, and that will take care of everything. You can strip away government services, even public education.
Number two, they—including the Chamber of Commerce as well as all the lesser known groups like ALEC [American Legislative Exchange Council]—see organizations of working-class people as political obstacles to getting that agenda.
So the attacks were all coordinated. A lot of these bills were developed and written by ALEC and funded by some of the largest companies and wealthiest people in America."
Georgia: "Inmates as firefighters?"
"The department of corrections' Inmates to Firefighters program has been deployed in other counties in the state," Gailey said. "The areas that are using the program are very happy with the results."
The proposal would increase the number of firefighters at each of the county's outlying stations, alleviating the need to build new substations to maintain the current ISO rating of four. Lower ISO rates mean lower homeowners insurance premiums for residents, while higher rates -- between five and 10 -- mean residents will pay more for insurance.
"The estimated cost to build the eight necessary substations could be as high as $4 million. The annual cost to add the minimum number of 39 firefighters required to meet the ISO requirements is close to $1.6 million dollars.
Adding inmates instead of full-time firefighters would help alleviate those costs, according to Gailey."
Sigh, another 39 civilian public sector jobs to be lost to inmate labor - labor performed for free. Since the article says that this program is already in place in other Georgia counties, one can only guess at the total number of public sector jobs lost to prisoners.
Florida: "Inmate work crew in the works"
"Sheriff Grover Smith said Monday that he has been able to secure a work truck to help transport a work crew of up to 10 inmates. The program would only be open to select inmates, he said.
“If they are willing to work that will get a reduction in sentence,” Smith said. “We’re hoping to teach people who have never had a job how to work.”
"Smith said the crew would be overseen by sheriff’s department personnel and would never be out of sight of supervisors. He said the crew could do work such as road or cemetery cleanup or other county tasks."
Boston: "Inmate work program saves towns money"
"Inmates at the Middlesex House of Correction in Billerica saved the town of Belmont more than $7,000 on Wednesday by spending the day cleaning and repainting the town pool in exchange for some time away from their cells.
In the Community Work Program, groups of six or seven inmates who are ending their nonviolent sentences work on projects such as snow shoveling and graffiti removal, and since January they have saved municipalities in Middlesex County roughly half a million dollars, Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian said."
Wisconsin: "Randall Schumann: Pull back the curtain to expose the ‘wizard’ behind Walker"
"Paralleling the role of the wizard in the “Wizard of Oz,” there is a little-known but powerful, big-business/corporate interest, national organization that has been at work behind the scenes of state government legislative proposals for the last several decades.
"It’s an organization that not only develops legislative proposals benefiting big business, but also has been successful in getting them introduced and pushed through the legislatures in every state, including Wisconsin.
"The American Legislative Exchange Council was founded in the early 1970s and, like the wizard, operates “behind the curtain” and can boast of both drafting and helping pass hundreds of state laws. Its highest priorities are tax cuts for corporations, loosened environmental regulations, restrictions on union collective bargaining, and privatizing state-owned assets."
Wisconsin: "Make It Your Right-Wing, Corporate Agenda"
"An open records request by Badger Democracy reveals further links, first exposed here on FightingBob.com, between the national right-wing movement and the Greater Milwaukee Committee’s Make it Your Milwaukee County initiative. Indeed, the documents uncovered reveal that Make It Your Milwaukee County was written by Smart Government, Inc., a group with direct ties to Koch Industries and the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council."
More Wisconsin: "Bob Menamin: Roots of Walker’s ideology go way back"
"To have a better understanding of Scott Walker’s coup d’etat in Wisconsin, it is helpful to understand his ideological underpinnings. It is best to start with another Wisconsinite, Paul Weyrich, born in 1942 in Racine.
"Weyrich, along with Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal Reserve, was a devoted acolyte to Ayn Rand. It should also be noted that Wisconsin congressman and GOP House budget chairman Paul Ryan is also an intense advocate of Rand and demands that his staff are familiar with her writings and philosophy. Rand philosophized about “the concept of man as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” She believed that greed and self-interest, if followed by all, would result in the best outcome for society. Rand’s political philosophy emphasized individual rights (including property rights) and she considered laissez-faire capitalism the only moral social system. Rand abhorred government regulation and supported the privatization of what are traditionally government functions.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, along with the Koch brothers, has become the current-day planning and organizing entity for the ideas and philosophies of Paul Weyrich and Ayn Rand. There are close connections between Wisconsin and ALEC. Mike Huebsch, current head of Gov. Scott Walker’s staff, was chair of ALEC Wisconsin until he resigned from the Legislature. Assemblyman Robin Vos, chair of the Assembly Finance Committee, is the current chair of ALEC Wisconsin.
Walker; Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, leader of the state Senate; and brother Jeff Fitzgerald, the speaker of the state Assembly, have attended and participated in many programs around the country that are sponsored by ALEC. It is clear that they have plans for the state of Wisconsin that they did not speak of or campaign on in their recent runs for office."
Missouri: "Brian Nieves and his connection to ALEC"
"I've never met Sen. Brian Nieves, but I've been following the insulting remarks made to some retired teachers who tried to visit his office to discuss education legislation. It seems what started Nieves' angry mood was the letter in the Missourian saying that Nieves was going to attend a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
It might be good for his constituents to know what ALEC is and how successful it has been over the past few decades at chipping away the core elements of the American public education system. The end game for people who agree with ALEC's principles is to privatize all public services in order to open up investment opportunities for upper income individuals and corporations. The remarkable shift of wealth to the top 1% of Americans in the past few years has been accomplished by eroding the economic strength and power of the middle class."
Michigan: "Michigan teachers rally against school cuts"
"They are pushing people [teachers] out of the schools,” stated Borg. “They are cutting all of the wages and benefits.” Walter Rakovsky, a Spanish language teacher who has been teaching for 39 years, was outraged at the cuts.
“I think the attack on education is an organized, coordinated attack by the right-wing,” stated Rakovsky. “The state legislature is tied up with ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is tied up with the Koch brothers. They have an agenda that is the same in each state, which is basically to eliminate public education. They call for smaller governments. They also are opposed to decent paying jobs for minorities.
“This government is like Reagan on steroids. Everything is cut.”
AFSCME: "The Extreme Corporate Agenda"
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is just one portion of an entire network of anti-union, anti-worker organizations that want to cut public service workers’ pensions and health care benefits, and dismantle collective bargaining rights.
Big Business and small-government ideologues are waging a coordinated, well-financed war against the middle class, and public service workers are on the frontlines.
From ALEC: "11th Circuit Court of Appeals Begins Hearing Oral Arguments on the Constitutionality of ObamaCare"
"WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 8, 2011) – Today the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will begin hearing oral arguments in the case State of Florida and National Federation of Independent Business v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the only state legislative organization to file an amicus curiae (or “friend of the court”) brief and is hopeful the 11th Circuit Court will affirm the decision of the lower court.
“ALEC's brief outlines the legal arguments against Obamacare, relying strongly on constitutional logic and case precedents,” said Christie Herrera, director of ALEC’s Health and Human Services Task Force. “We are looking forward to the court’s ruling on this decision.”
From TRUTHOUT: "
Sneaking the Plutocratic Agenda Into State Law"
"These secretive front groups are modern-day Trojan horses, allowing a few corporate billionaires to weasel their way into state government and seize control of public policy -- perhaps even in your state.
For example, do you know Alec? You probably do, even though you never heard of it by name.
Yes, "it." ALEC is not a person, but the acronym for a secretive, corporate-funded, state policy front group: American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC's "exchange" is very straightforward -- it takes about $6 million a year from corporate powers in exchange for linking them directly to hundreds of right-wing state legislators.
Like a speed-dating service, ALEC convenes two dozen to three dozen private confabs each year, putting corporate executives face to face with lawmakers. In these closed-door sessions, the special needs of corporations are matched with eager-to-please legislators, who then go back to their states to pass the corporate wish list."
All of this has led me to a new description about ALEC and their corporate masters: they operate as a national (now international) organized criminal syndicate. What they do for corporations ought to be illegal here and elsewhere. The exploitation of citizens, state, local and national governments and their agencies, departments and programs ought to be illegal. In fact not too many years ago all of what ALEC does would have been seen as illegal - not just in principle but in fact.
I know that sounds far-fetched, but bear with me for a moment and follow my line of thought on this. Al Capone and other gangsters back in the 20 and 30's used prohibition and gambling laws as a means of raking in millions in illegal funds from illegal activities. What if Capone and his cohorts back then, didn't stop with just buying a local judge or two...what if they went higher and bought most of the Illinois, New York and Florida legislators and many U.S. lawmakers? Prohibition would never have ended because it was profitable to the mob. They could have legalized prostitution, the numbers racket and gambling in general, with provisions they run all of it. They would have turned their millions into billions and kept control of both the state and federal government through payoffs, campaign contributions and personal "bonuses" discreetly delivered in white envelopes.
I am having difficulty discerning the differences between the "Mobsters" of that era and the corporate "Gangsters" of this era and when I compare the activities of then to those ongoing now, I find that in both instances our government authorities and agencies have been similarly used by both groups to amass power, influence and huge amounts of money. Through ALEC, laws are written and enacted without input from the citizens or constituents of those lawmakers proposing new legislation. Rather using the ALEC organization, corporations and their lobbyists and attorneys, have found the ability to simply "buy" legislation (and thus laws) that benefit them through the acquisition of more: money, power, influence or all three combined. These laws are used to keep us under control - though we have no voice or choice in the proposal or application of them. Through ALEC the corporate elite have also been able to push through laws that deregulate everything they're involved in. Laws put in place years ago to protect us and the environment; labor, criminal justice, education, Medicare, Social Security, Environmental protections, clean air legislation - all of it has come under attack from these corporations through ALEC and their 2,400 Conservative state lawmakers.
They have made it so nearly anything they do - no matter how nefarious, destructive or harmful to society or the environment - has now been legalized in one form or another. The freedoms we have and hold so dear, have slowly been eroded as they have gained power and influence within our state and federal governments and agencies. They have made it legal to pay us less, work us longer, reduce our guaranteed benefits from that labor - and more personally and importantly, found a way to incarcerate millions of us as a way of further increasing their profits through privatization of prison facilities and use of hundreds of state and federal prison industries where they work those millions for next to nothing. I say "they" work those millions because they have also expanded ALEC's Prison Industries Act (see footnote # 63) under PIECP allowing private corporations and companies to use those prisoners to garner even more profits for themselves and less jobs for those of us that remain free.
Today there are no discreet white envelopes handed off surreptitiously to lawmakers. No, companies like Koch Industries, AT&T, CitiBank, Bank Of America, big oil and pharmaceuticals like Eli Lilly and PhaRma simply write the laws, hand them to ALEC's legislative members and then funnel payoffs to those lawmakers by making "campaign contributions" to them - and to other lawmakers their stooges manage to convince to vote favorably for the legislation being pushed by the corporations and ALEC. In this way they get precisely what they want and we end up paying the bill for it.
I believe that over the years much of the illegally gained money made from the prohibition and subsequent "mobster" eras have been laundered, cleaned and used to fund many of the companies and businesses in operation today. In the 60's and 70's there were many articles informing us that the Mob had gone legit, moving their assets into legitimate operations. I think they did just that, and amended their business plans so that through these new "legal" business entities, they could define the laws to make what they do legal and acceptable. The culmination of the dreams and desires of these progeny of gangsters is to have an organization that is made up of a sizable number of lawmakers in the U.S. that are easily manipulated and agreeable to anything proposed to them....they have it in ALEC. The Summits and Annual conferences of ALEC are nothing more than what used to be termed "Council meetings" held by Mafia Capos from various crime "families" who met to discuss illegal activities, resolve differences and issue marching orders that all members of the participating syndicates were told to follow.
With ALEC, everything is still secretive; membership is cloaked as are the actual activities and initiatives. They meet behind closed doors to formulate their plans and issue marching orders to their cabal with the end result always turning out to be something else oppressive to our society. I simply don't see the difference between the ALEC organized syndicate and the organized crime syndicates throughout our history. The intentions are the same, the outcomes the same and only the names have changed (or hidden upon a secret membership listing)...possibly to protect the guilty...just sayin'...
Read more about ALEC here: http://www.dailykos.com/... and help us by passing along information provided to help us in Exposing ALEC! and try and make plans to attend the ALEC Protest and Rally in New Orleans in August from the 3rd to 6th.
