Sometimes a picture is the only way to express your true meaning. I created a Muckety Map showing just 10% of the entire relationship(s) of ALEC to those such as Koch, major benefactors, Alumni and current members - public and private. I have asked Muckety why they have absolutely no listing of ALEC on their site. I mean they've been around for more than 30 years and the relationship map to their connections WOULD BE THE LARGEST ON Muckety. Haven't heard back yet...but here is what I've come up with. As I say, I could only list 100 connections, and we know they have over 2,000 lawmaker members and more than 350 corporate members - and that doesn't count their affiliated think tanks, scholars, etc.
The map is interactive. Click on the boxes with the (x) in the corner to expand and see why I say the complete map - including all the links to Koch, Heritage, etc. would be huge. Today ALEC represents the interests of the corporate elite - not just the ones here in the U.S., but also multinational corporate interests - in their search for more profits and "Dominion" over world business and population. Sounds pretty far-fetched, I know, but if you read this "Essay" (actually a treatise) written by Eric Heubeck and based upon the teachings and writings of Paul Weyrich, co-founder of ALEC and the Heritage Foundation, President of the Free Congress Foundation and Director of the Council For National Policy, you will begin to grasp just how realistic this claim of Dominion is.
Here is another Muckety map showing the basic relationship between Weyrich and the named organizations above:
Again the map is found hereand is interactive and by clicking on the boxes marked with the (x) you can expand those relationships to show the interconnections flowing from Weyrich. As this map
(I know it is too difficult to read here that's why you must follow the above links and see it full page to actually see all the names - and I didn't fully expand all of the available links because it is illegible when inserted here)
indicates, many of the same organizations and individuals involved today in pursuing voter disenfranchisement, prison labor, ending collective bargaining, installing Emergency Managers to replace elected officials, repealing healthcare...and the list goes on...are found connected to ALEC, Weyrich and these organizations, groups, associations and foundations.
Included in the connections are links to Edwin Meese and the U.S. DOJ through him to various federal agencies and programs. Also it links to Hannity, Fox News and of more concern, to Blackwater (now XE) corporation, former VP Cheney and Haliburton. Here is a map of those individuals, corporations and foundations linked together (Click on map tools to the left and click full screen for easier reading):
Commonality throughout all of these maps and relationships are family names; Koch, Scaife, DeVos, Cheney, Bush, Dunlop - and their many Foundations, directorships, managements, contributions and activities all involving Conservative initiatives. Together they represent the top 1/2 of 1% of the wealthiest and most influential organizations and individuals in America. Under other circumstances they could be termed the "cream of the crop" but due to their actions, I have dubbed them "Cream of America's Most Corrupt."
When we look to current events in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, Maine, Arizona, Texas and many more, these names, organizations, foundations and associations all pop up in media articles. As I said above, dominion over us and all things profitable is their agenda. They are all liberals who have joined with and use the Ultra-Conservative agenda to advance their own - profits and power. They are able to do this because through ALEC they are able to employ the services and voice of weak state lawmakers to do their bidding.
These families and their organizations ghostwrite legislation favorable to their interests and bring those desires to ALEC's conferences, summits, Task Force meetings and at those events they hand off that legislation to ALEC's conservative state lawmakers. The various "Task Forces" develop "Model Legislation" covering the wants of these corporate elite, assign the legislation with names that sound in-offensive and would sound good to the general public and then approve these "Acts" and give them to the state actors along with their marching orders.
These "legislative demands" are then tweaked, the legislators writing the proposed "Bills" into the proper legalese (cut and paste) appropriate for "their" state and carry them back to their states where they present those "Bills" as proposed state law(s). 20% of those "Bills" later become law in the various states - and we are made to live by them.
This is what is happening now across our nation as ALEC and their corporate elite hurry to take advantage of their successes in the 2010 election cycle, while the rest of us are distracted by our economy, lack of jobs, low wages and just simply trying to feed our families. Through the Voter I.D. legislation ALEC has circulated to every state now, they hope to further reduce those who can vote against them in the future, knowing that passage of their Model Legislative Act will result in disenfranchising more than 20 million students, elderly and low income voters that normally vote Democratic.
I could go on and list all of the model legislation that has been thrown in all our faces over the past year (not to mention those that from 1980 have been disseminated and now are in place across the U.S.) but by now we're all familiar with them. What we need to put our efforts in is abolishing ALEC altogether. Many of us have come together to do just that through our Protest Alec initiative. Please consider joining us in our efforts of exposing and eliminating ALEC from our legislative landscape. In the meantime something else we can do, is to inform others that in the upcoming election cycle (2012) there are currently two Presidential Candidates who are clearly ALEC representatives: Newt Gingrich (ALEC Alumni) and Herman Cain (ALEC affiliate). Here are videos of both representing the interests of ALEC:
As we continue to battle against the Republicans over the Debt Ceiling and other important issues - keep this in mind also: Speaker Boehner and House Majority Leader, Cantor are also former ALEC members:
and Boehner mentions ALEC every chance he gets in reference to policy (at 1:05 of video):
In this way, ALEC's agenda are advanced openly as part of important ongoing government discussions. These attempt by Boehner and Cantor are nothing more than an effort to legitimize ALEC in the eyes of the voting public. Let's not be taken in by this false legitimacy.
Today all of us are clearly in a war. The weapons used in this war aren't guns, knives and smart bombs - instead it is legislation to imprison us and use our labor for their profits, to steal our remaining freedoms, limit our ability to vote and demolish the voice of labor in America. The the enemy is not in some distant land, rather they're right here in our cities, towns, communities and the U.S. Congress. They tell us over and over again they represent our interests, but this claim is utterly false. These ALEC members serve the needs and desires of the corporate elite alone. They are elected by us but once in office switch their alliances from the public to those who fatten their bank and campaign accounts, treat them to lavish "Summits" and Annual Conferences where they are wined, dined and given new marching orders. All of this paid for by the corporate members of ALEC. It is sick, insidious and is ruining us as a country and a society.
We have to understand, ALEC members - corporate and legislative - do not represent the interests of their constituents, their state or even our U.S. Government. They represent the interests of American and Multinational companies and corporations. When we listen to pundits speaking about the Republican actions and activities, we have to keep in mind that they are speaking as if the Republican agenda is one that addresses those views and interests of the Republican party in general, and the Conservative right in particular. This is not the case - ALEC and their Alumni in Congress, no longer represent their party, constituents or the U.S. government - they now represent the interests of the corporate elite. Any analysis of Republican party activities or attempts to determine their purpose, has to take this fact into consideration. If we examine their behavior based upon the agenda of corporatists, the determinations we come up with are entirely different than those fed to us by the pundits. We only have to look backward over the past couple of years to see that in many instances it has appeared that Republicans have deliberately shot themselves in the foot on issues. They have adopted positions, only to abandon them when their demands have been met by the Dems or the President. They have taken up positions that just simply did not make sense from a political perspective and often times were in direct conflict with accepted Republican ideology. So when analyzing their behavior, we should do so with the knowledge that quite possibly their position(s) have more to do with the wishers of corporations, rather than the party or most of the membership.
For example: with ALEC's expansion on the international stage, it is in the corporate membership's best interest to work toward collapsing the world economy, and that's possibly what is currently on their agenda as they fight against raising the U.S. debt ceiling. If governments collapse and become bankrupt - the multi-national corporations and their owners expect to be the last man standing...the only source of accumulated wealth left in the world. They will be in a position use that wealth to recreate governments in a manner consistent with their vision. Is this possible? Yes. Would collapsing the world economy, help billionaire coproratists? Yes - if you control the only ball in the game, you also control the game. Is this the agenda the corporations are pushing for? Possibly - and I hope I'm wrong in my assessment.
If you think this is not possible...or not realistic, continue to watch as the world fight over economy escalates and becomes more intense as the August deadline approaches...
