ALEC

Seattle City Councilmember Blows Whistle On ALEC (&ACCE)

July 31, 2015 Nick Licata, www.prwatch.org Resist! ALEC, City, Politics, Urban

By Nick Licata in PR Watch - There was one problem in finding out—ALEC is open only to state legislators or private-interest parties, i.e. corporations or business associations. Being neither, I wouldn’t be able to get into their conference. A break came last year when ALEC formed ACCE (the American City County Exchange) for city and county public officials. It was to take ALEC’s organizational approach of helping these elected representatives pass laws that could cut taxes, limit government and promote free markets (i.e. turn over government services and functions to businesses). I had assumed that this was a closed association, and that I would be required to take an oath or be screened and approved for admission. There have been Democratic state legislators who experienced difficulty in getting admitted into ALEC meetings. But in the end, they were admitted. Why?

ALEC Confidential: Tales From The Supply-Side

July 29, 2015 Bill Raden, www.capitalandmain.com Educate! ALEC, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Bill Raden in Capital and Main - “The biggest scam of the last 100 years is global warming!” thundered Stephen Moore to ALEC’s plenary breakfast club this morning. “It’s no surprise that when you give these professors $10 billion, they’re going to find a problem.” Moore then singled out North Dakota for its regulatory-free attitudes toward the fracking industry: “I just have one message for you — drill, baby, drill!” The annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council began wrapping up business in San Diego Friday on this defiant note from Moore, a former Wall Street Journal writer. This newly hired Heritage Foundation economist is an apostle of completely eliminating state income taxes and has been in a running feud with liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, over Moore’s casual regard for accurate reporting.

San Diego Activists Go All In For Anti-Alec Protests

July 21, 2015 Doug Porter, www.sandiegofreepress.org Resist! ALEC, California, Conservative, Protest, San Diego

By Doug Porter in San Diego Free Press - A wide range of organizations, some of whom rarely get involved in non-electoral politics, are calling upon San Diegans to put on their protesting shoes during the upcoming annual meeting of the American Legislative Council (ALEC). Protests, press conferences, teach-ins, rallies and guerrilla theater will be happening throughout the coming week commencing on Tuesday, July 21st as ALEC delegates are checking in. Buses will coming in from the Los Angeles/Long Beach areas on Wednesday for what organizers expect will be the largest events of the week. Today’s column will focus on the already-announced activities (there are more coming, I’m told). On Friday, I focused on the line up of speakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Scott Walker and former Gov.Mike Huckabee, along with San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

Act Out! – Greeks, Congressional Cliff Notes & A Jack Ass Named ALEC

July 16, 2015 Occupy, www.youtube.com Resistance Report ALEC, Congress, Greece, Media

By Eleanor Goldfield - This week, we're talking repurposed consumerism and Greece's future with artist Lane Collage and how “Austerity” is Greek for “Could happen to you too, America!” Next up, Anthony Freda drops some knowledge for political artists. And isn’t it about time we started paying attention to Congress? Here are your cliff's notes. Finally, it's a bummer that Ben and Jennifer broke up but we really need to be focusing on ALEC. Nick Bernabe of the Anti-Media shows you how. But first, let's take a train ride through the progress of our time.

Moral Mondays Comes To Indiana

September 23, 2014 Harry Targ, www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com Organize! ALEC, Moral Mondays

Rev. Barber spoke about his vision in Indianapolis at a two-day mass meeting of the newly created Indiana Moral Mondays on September 19-20. On September 19, he briefed Hoosier activists who had been meeting for months to plan for Rev. Barber’s visit as the “kick-off” to a new Indiana Moral Mondays movement. On Saturday, workshops were held on the Moral Mondays issues at Crispus Attucks High School. After the workshops hundreds marched from the high school to the State House. There Rev. Barber spoke passionately about the need for an Indiana Moral Mondays. The assembled supporters also heard supportive words from National Organization for Women (NOW) president Terry O’Neill and Indiana NAACP State President Barbara Bolling Williams. Hoosier activists commented on the specific needs of fast food workers, African-American youth, and health care workers.

Enviro Groups Challenge Dominion Energy Over ALEC Connections

September 11, 2014 John Zangas, www.facebook.com Resist! ALEC, Energy, Environment, Law

Almost a hundred people rallied at the Arlington, Virginia headquarters of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on September 4 to protest Dominion Resources’ relationship with the shady group. By law, Dominion holds a monopoly for power production in Virginia. ALEC partners member corporations such as Dominion with state legislators to further a pro-business agenda by producing “model” bills. Elected officials who attend ALEC’s conferences (often on the taxpayer’s dime) frequently propose bills identical to the “model” ones drafted by ALEC. ALEC has gained negative attention recently for its role in creating Stand Your Ground and voter suppression laws and getting them passed in several states. Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, Greenpeace and other groups organized Thursday’s protest to call out Dominion’s business relationship with ALEC. The groups claim that ALEC plays a behind-the-scenes role to sabotage renewable energy goals. It has also lobbied to undermine EPA efforts to promote regulations designed to curb carbon emissions from coal-fired energy plants. “Here we are in Virginia where Dominion is the biggest carbon polluter and ALEC is headquartered,” said Joe Romm, who writes about global warming at Climate Progress. “What Dominion is doing through support of ALEC is immoral, and it’s time for them to stop,” he said.

First Hand Experience: Exposing ALEC In Dallas

August 11, 2014 Kit O'Connell, www.mintpressnews.com Resist! ALEC, Corruption, Protest, Texas

We’d gathered at Eddie Deen’s Ranch to interrupt the American Legislative Exchange Council at dinner. I was wearing a pink cowboy hat, temporarily inducted into the CODEPINK Posse, an effort organized by the local branch of the well-known national rabble rousers for peace. About 30 of us stood along the sidewalk outside the Ranch, watched by a half-dozen police officers looking bored, a chatty police detective and a pair of startled horses held by two men dressed as cowboys. Overhead, an airplane circled, towing a warning about corporate corruption. Powerful people in suits laughed at us and snapped smartphone photos as they disembarked from the chartered buses they rode to the Western-themed restaurant. It was July 31 and ALEC was in town for its 41st meeting. After the first of several days of corporate backroom deals at the Hilton Anatole, ALEC’s members wanted to pretend they were cowboys while they ate. The buses kept coming and out poured some of the world’s most powerful: corporate executives, rich investors, state legislators and their families. Though they’d normally disdain public transportation — when they aren’t orchestrating cuts against it in the name of austerity — I imagined the atmosphere on the bus was jovial, as if the “1%” was on a field trip.

Corporate Victory Will ‘Screw’ Local Farmers As Amendment Passes In Missouri

August 7, 2014 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Educate! ALEC, Animal Rights, Corporatism, Food and Agriculture, Law, Missouri

Agribusiness giants scored a victory in Missouri on Tuesday when voters narrowly approved a corporate-backed state constitutional amendment that critics say will threaten animal rights, remove checks and balances around food safety, and make it more difficult to regulate industrial farming practices. The ballot question, which was supported by big-ag players like Monsanto and Cargill, asked: "Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure that the right of Missouri citizens to engage in agricultural and ranching practices shall not be infringed?" With all precincts reporting, the measure passed 498,751 to 496,223 — a margin of just 2,528 votes, or less than one percentage point. This makes Missouri the second state in the nation, after North Dakota, to adopt such a provision. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been promoting similar legislation in state capitols for almost two decades. While supporters of the so-called "Right to Farm" amendment described it as "a way for us to push back a little bit" against environmental groups and animal welfare organizations, opponents said it would open the door for foreign-owned factory farming in Missouri and "strip most local governments of their ability to stop foreign companies from polluting and contaminating our land."

Protests As New Arm Of ALEC Is Announced

August 6, 2014 Candice Bernd, www.truth-out.org Resist! ALEC, Journalism, Politics, Privatization, Texas

Two grassroots activists from North Texas locked themselves inside the lobby of the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Thursday morning, as another two dropped a banner from the upper stories of the hotel to greet lawmakers and corporate officials gathered for the 41st annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Protesters Whytney Blythe and Joshua Carmona were removed by hotel security, within about an hour after they chained themselves inside, and released without charges. State legislators and corporate lobbyist members from across the country will sit on task forces designed to review and vote on conservative "model" legislation that will likely travel from the Dallas Hilton Anatole's luxury conference rooms to official state house chambers, as lawmakers often pass off ALEC model bills as their own. ALEC has generated legislation that advances the interests of its corporate members throughout state legislatures in the United States, as has been well documented, by organizations such as the Center for Media and Democracy. More than 98 percent of the organization's funding comes from corporations and corporate foundations, with the infamous petrochemical billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, serving as some of the organization's largest donors.

Officer Decides Not To Arrest Protester After Conversation With Her

August 2, 2014 Blackland Prairie Rising Tide, www.popularresistance.org Resist! ALEC, Blockade, Criminal Justice and Prisons

We were told by an insider who had talked with the officer in charge of yesterday's action that he was moved by a conversation he'd had with one of the people locked down that he decided not to arrest them. Whytney gave us the run down of the conversation that she had with the officer that moved him so much that he decided not to arrest her at the action: [The officer] said, "I think you wanted to get arrested today," I said, "It's not that I want to get arrested, it's that when I decide to take an action I accept that that's a possible consequence, but I decide it's worth the risk." He said, "Have you been to jail for this kind of thing before?" I said, "Yes," so he asked me, "What else do you protest?" And I said "Police brutality." And he said, "Where?" And I said "Everywhere. My father was murdered by a cop when I was 14. I don't want what happened to us to happen to anyone else, anywhere." And he said, "I have a 16 year old daughter. If she lost me, she'd be devastated. I'd be devastated if I lost her. If something like that happened to me, she probably would be in there chaining herself up too."

ALEC Serves As A ‘Dating Service’ For Politicians And Corporations

July 1, 2014 NPR, www.npr.org Educate! ALEC, Corporatism, Money As Speech, Politics

A batch of recently leaked to The Guardian has revealed new insights into the goals and finances of the secretive group called ALEC. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations. Together, they develop model bills that lawmakers introduce and try to pass in their state legislatures. Through these model bills, ALEC has worked to privatize public education, cut taxes, reduce public employee compensation, oppose Obamacare and resist state regulations to reduce global warming gas emissions. "ALEC is like an incubator of predominantly conservative legislation," Guardian correspondent Ed Pilkington tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "The vast majority of the model bills are conservative in their inception and those bills then spread right across America." ALEC is sort of almost a dating service between politicians at the state level, local elected politicians, and many of America's biggest companies. It brings them together much as a dating service would do. It sits them in rooms behind closed doors where three times a year they come together to think about what should be the next wave of state-based legislation and they have presentations from the companies that say what they would like to see done legislatively in states right across America.

ALEC Trains Sights on City and Local Government

March 10, 2014 Ed Pilkington, www.theguardian.com Educate! ALEC

The rightwing group Alec is preparing to launch a new nationwide network that will seek to replicate its current influence within state legislatures in city councils and municipalities. The American Legislative Exchange Council, founded in 1973, has become one of the most pervasive advocacy operations in the nation. It brings elected officials together with representatives of major corporations, giving those companies a direct channel into legislation in the form of Alec “model bills”. Critics have decried the network as a “corporate bill mill” that has spread uniformly-drafted rightwing legislation from state to state.

Leaked Report: What Percent Of State Legisatures ‘Owned’ By ALEC

January 27, 2014 Eric Zuesse, www.truth-out.org Educate! ALEC, Corporatism, Democracy

Recently leaked documents from the "ALEC Board Meeting, August 6, 2013, Chicago, Illinois," list the number and percentage of each state's legislature that have signed onto ALEC; and, under "# of Legislators," and "# of ALEC Members," Iowa has 150 in each column, and South Dakota has 105 in each column. The third column, for both states, shows the "% of ALEC Membership in Legislature" as being "100%." At the opposite end, the lowest percentage is 1%, in New York. The second-lowest is New Jersey, 2%. The third and fourth-lowest, tied, are just 4%, shown in both Maine and Vermont. The fifth-lowest is New Hampshire, 6%. The text of the oath of office that the leading ALEC member in each state must swear to in order to win or retain his position: "I will act with care and loyalty and put the interests of the organization [ALEC] first."

Video: Legalize Democracy – Full Documentary

January 27, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Activism, ALEC, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Finance and Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Video

Legalize Democracy is a documentary film by Dennis Trainor, Jr. (American Autumn: an Occudoc) about the movement to amend — why it is needed, and how you can get involved, placing the response to corporate coup of our government in the context of the growing Democracy movement emerging right here and right now. Combining interviews with Move To Amend’s national leadership team, with archival footage, and dynamic animated time lines that tell the stories of the Supreme Court cases that shaped the doctrine of “corporate personhood”, the rights guaranteed by amendments fought for by people’s movements, and the intersection of law and culture that codified and created discrimination based on race.

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