Friday, March 25, 2011
Politics Payback in Wisconsin
Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 3:03 PM
Thanks to Norma for a Salon link that rounds up just about everything pertinent simmering from blowback for a University of Wisconsin professor William Cronon who made the mistake of writing critically about Gov. Scott Walker's attack on public employees' unions and, more specifically, mentioning the right wing-funded think tank, the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is a key player in Wisconsin and other states for right-wing ideology.
For his critical writing, historian Cronon has had his U. of Wisconsin e-mail account FOI'ed by Republicans hoping to find something embarrassing. That's become a whole issue to itself (academic freedom, intimidation, press law, etc.). This, to me, is the bigger picture and, for the Salon writer, something of a bright spot:
In that [Cronon] post, as part of his effort to understand the historical roots of the nationally coordinated state-level legislative attack on unions, Cronon focused his spotlight on a relatively under-the-radar group called The American Legislative Exchange Council.The most important group, I'm pretty sure, is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which was founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and (surprise, surprise) Paul Weyrich. Its goal for the past forty years has been to draft "model bills" that conservative legislators can introduce in the 50 states. Its website claims that in each legislative cycle, its members introduce 1000 pieces of legislation based on its work, and claims that roughly 18 percent of these bills are enacted into law. (Among them was the controversial 2010 anti-immigrant law in Arizona.)Cronon surmises that his efforts to highlight the role of ALEC precipitated the Republican open records response. I have no way to judge whether that is true. But what I do know is that the Republican effort to gain access to Cronon's university emails has resulted in bringing far more attention to Cronon and to ALEC than would otherwise have been the case.
ARKANSAS ANGLE ALERT: ALEC is under the radar no more. Arkansas Republican legislators are not only filing the lobby's cookie-cutter bills. They are bringing ALEC staff people in to do the testifying for them, as when Sen. Missy Irvin brought an ALEC mouthpiece in for her states rights anti-healthcare bill. There is a vast right-wing conspiracy. It is well-funded. Forewarned is forearmed. And, if you have a public e-mail account, you should always write with the understanding that your secrets might not be safe there.
Speaking of...
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Common Cause against ALEC, filibuster rule
May 15, 2012Dan Froomkin at Huffington Post reports on an unearthed memo in which ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) handlers brief state legislative stooges on talking points to invoke should someone ask embarrassing questions about the corporate subsidies and dominance of the corporate legislation factory so beloved by Republican legislators. /more/
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Common Cause asks state probes of ALEC
May 11, 2012With the American Legislative Exchange Council currently meeting in Charlotte with legislative stooges on plotting new corporate-agenda state legislation, Common Cause has called on state attorney generals to investigate ALEC for its compliance with tax and lobbying laws. /more/
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ALEC revealed
May 6, 2012The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporately funded legislation factory for compliant conservative state legislators, continues to draw overdue scrutiny. /more/
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TGIF open line
April 27, 2012An open line, including details on ALEC lobbying activities, a sex-for-drugs arrest, a vote on a judicial vacancy and more. /more/
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Common Cause files complaint on ALEC lobbying
April 23, 2012As promised, Common Cause has filed a formal complaint about lobbying activities by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate funded lobby for a conservative and anti-tax and anti-regulatory causes. /more/
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Inside ALEC: Corporate puppeteer of state legislators UPDATE
April 22, 2012More today from the New York Times on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate lobby that masquerades as an educational group. /more/
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Another corporation ends support of ALEC
April 19, 2012The Color of Change, a political group activated by legislation to suppress minority votes through ID laws, says another corporate sponsor has forsaken the American Legislative Exchange Council, supplier of corporate and other rightwing legislation to state stooges. /more/
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More unflattering attention for ALEC
April 17, 2012The American Legislative Exchange Council is at last getting some of the unflattering attention it deserves. /more/
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More supporters flee ALEC
April 13, 2012More corporate backers are forsaking the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate funded conservative lobby that is the go-to source of cookie cutter legislation for right-wingers in the Arkansas Republican legislative caucus. /more/
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Gates Foundation drops support of ALEC
April 10, 2012The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has joined Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft and Intuit in dropping financial support of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). /more/
- More »
Comments (2)
Showing 1-2 of 2
I have told you and told you.
Majority America has made ignorance a virtue.
It will get worse.
Makes me proud to have had the foresight to remain childless.
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In addition to this evening's All Christian All The Time theme on several threads, add this.
The ALEC supported right-wing ideology onslaught in Wisconsin and around the nation is not only anti-union, anti-collective bargaining, it's anti-civil rights.
Walker has fired the lawyers defending Wisconsin's domestic partnership law that gives gay and lesbian Wisconsin citizens limited "equality" in a challenge to that law by the religious right.
"Everything that Gov. Walker is doing is ideological. I don't see that his administration has any particular respect for the law per se."
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/on-t…
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