The US of ALEC

Back in December 1958, retired candy manufacturer Robert Welch, Jr. invited a small group of well-heeled, politically reactionary associates to join him in Indianapolis for a couple of days. Welch's gathering wound up creating the John Birch Society, which would quickly become a byword for hard-right "Communists-under-every-bed" hysteria. It was the Birch Society that first advanced the theory that water fluoridation was in fact, a Communist plot, and that both President Dwight Eisenhower and then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles were "knowing and active agents" of the Soviet Union. The Birch Society also stood for limited government, mass privatization, a Constitutional Republic, and personal freedom.

One of Welch's chief financial backers was a man by the name of Fred Koch (pronounced "Coke"), founder of Koch Industries, which today is the second largest privately held corporation (after Cargill) in the United States. Fred Koch (1900-1967) who, despite being an unswerving anti-Communist earned his initial millions building the Soviet oil industry, firmly believed that the National Educational Association was a communist group and that public-school books were filled with "communist propaganda." His paranoia extended to all unions, Dwight Eisenhower and what he called the "pro-Communist" Supreme Court.

Although Fred Koch died 45 years ago, his ideas live on in his sons Charles and David; they frequently refer to President Barack Obama as a "hard-core Socialist" who is "scary." And, like their father before them, they are firmly convinced that schools and prisons should be privatized; that all labor unions should be put out of business; that taxes should be somewhere between very, very low and non-existent; that government at any level has no business enacting regulations of any kind; that left to its own unfettered devices, the free market can solve virtually any problem; and that the Federal Government's only role is national defense -- underwritten by a robust private-sector, federally-subsidized defense industry.

Where Fred Koch merely attempted to actualize his paranoiac political Weltanschuung by underwriting the John Birch Society (which has experienced a bit of a renaissance in the past few years), his sons have found their vehicle in something called "ALEC" -- which stands for the American Legislative Exchange Council." ALEC's self-description is as innocent and innocuous as the Grange or Rotary International: "ALEC is the nation's largest, non-partisan, individual public-private membership organization of state legislators." However, lurking just a millimicron beneath the surface, ALEC is far, far more; it is likely the most formidable threat to Democracy and the vox populi in our nation's history. Now, before this last statement is dismissed as the paranoiac rantings of some far-left loony (which I can assure you I am not), please know that proof of this assertion comes from . . . ALEC itself.

Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, who also founded the Heritage Foundation, ALECs members include more than 2,000 conservative state legislators from all 50 states. At its most recent "States and Nation Policy Summit," held shortly after the November 2010 elections, speakers included Texas Governor Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Far more important than the 2,000 legislators who claim membership, ALEC has a host of "elite task forces" made up lawmakers and corporate representatives whose job it is to create legislative templates for the various state legislatures. Theses "legislative templates" cover issues ranging from education to health policy, and from the environment to union affairs. According the The Nation's John Nichols, "ALEC's model legislation reflects long-term goals: down-sizing government, removing regulations on corporations and making it harder to hold the economically and politically powerful to account."

Without realizing it, most readers of this blog are already cognizant of some of ALEC's most egregious legislative proposals. Ever wonder where so many state senators and representatives got the idea that in order to address their state's economic doldrums they had to legislate against unions? Why is it that in every Republican-controlled legislature (which obviously includes the U.S. House of Representatives) that faced with shortfalls in revenues, these legislative bodies almost universally choose cuts to public employment or services over progressive tax increases as a solution? Or how about all the legislatures that enacted measures to privatize everything from the Department of Motor Vehicles and prisons to schools and environmental services? Or institute so-called "tort reform?" How about the hundreds of bills -- most with identical wording -- meant to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? Then too, where did so many state legislatures come up with the idea to enact measures making it harder for college students, seniors and low-income citizens to vote?

The answer to all of these -- and many more -- questions is the same: ALEC. In the worldview of ALEC's corporate directors and benefactors, Government's single contribution to the public is security. Outside of this function, it should be demonized, starved or privatized. According to University of Wisconsin professor Joel Rogers, who is an expert on ALEC, "Any force in civil society, especially labor, that contests the right of business to grab all social surplus for itself, and to treat people like roadkill and the earth like a sewer, should be crushed."

For years, ALEC had been operating behind a vast curtain of anonymity. Consider that one of the first measuresthat then-Texas Governor George W. Bush signed was an ALEC model bill giving corporations immunity for penalties "if they tell regulators about their own violation of environmental rules." (This bill was specifically pushed by the Koch brothers, who make billions from oil, coal and gas.) The link between ALEC and the Koch brothers goes well beyond money: Koch Industry's top lobbyist was once ALEC's chairman. As noted by Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy (and publisher of "ALEC Exposed"), "ALEC and the Kochs often pursue parallel tracks. Just as ALEC 'educates' legislators, Koch funding has helped 'tutor' hundreds of judges with all-expenses-paid junkets at fancy resorts, where they learn about the 'free market' impact of their rulings. . . . Koch Industries sits as an 'equal' board member with state legislators, influencing bills that serve as a wish list for its financial or ideological interests."

Up until very recently, the details of ALEC's model bills have been available only to the group's 2,000 legislative and approximately 300 corporate members. However, thanks to a leak emanating from ALEC's Spring Task Force meeting in Cincinnati, more than 800 documents "representing decades of model legislation" are now available online at alecexposed.org. These documents provide, in the haunting words of Bob Edgar of Common Cause, ". . . proof positive of the depth and scope of the corporate reach into our democratic processes. [Of how] dozens of corporations are investing millions of dollars a year to write business-friendly legislation that is being made into law in statehouses coast to coast, with no regard for the public interest."

I urge you to look at the Center for Media and Democracy website which contains proof of the shocking reality that is ALEC. The documents paint a picture, tell a story, that will hopefully make your blood boil, cause you to get off the couch, and take this country back from the Kochs, Weyrichs, and so-called "smart-ALECs" of the world.

For the last time I checked, this was still the United States of America, not the United States of ALEC.

Obama's Campaign of Assassination

In Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill takes us inside America’s new covert wars.

  

Jack Goldsmith, former Bush administration lawyer,asserted that "perhaps the most remarkable surprise of his presidency" was that "Obama continued almost all of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies".

Obama and his team created a system "where people are being killed, you don't know what the evidence is, and you have no way to redress the situation" said former CIA case officer Phil Giraldi. "It's not that there are not terrorists out there, and every once in a while one is going to have to be killed for one good reason or another, but I want to see the good reason. I don't want someone in the White House telling me, 'You'll have to trust me.' We've had too much of that."

On September 30, 2011, Anwar Awlaki and Samir Khan, both American citizens, were assassinated by drone strike in northern Yemen. On October 14, 2011, Abdulrahman Awlaki, also an American citizen and 16 years old, was assassinated by drone strike in southern Yemen. No evidence or reasons for these killings of American citizens were ever given. They were never indicted or charged with any crime.

TSA Does Not Keep You Safe. It Never Has. It Never Will

Go see the article at: foodforthethinkers.com/

I had a terrible weekend.

Just one day after we celebrated our nation's principles of independence and freedom, Scott Walker signed a bill that restricts the ability of women and their doctors to make private medical decisions. 

 

And you know, I have to say, this is déjà vu all over again: Walker thought he could sneak this signing through on a holiday weekend -- just like he did when he signed a bill that repealed pay equity protections for women.

 

It’s clearer than ever that Scott Walker doesn't value women as equal partners. 

 

Luckily organizers and volunteers all across the state are already talking with Wisconsinites about Walker’s terrible budget and doing the kind of targeted one-on-one voter contact that will hold him accountable for his shameless attack on women's rights.  

 

Can you commit to help funding our field program for the rest of the year by chipping in $6 or whatever you can for the next six months?

 

Scott Walker is marching full speed ahead with his radical War on Women, but we're not waiting until the next election to fight back. We've had boots on the ground in critical regions across the state for months, because we can't afford an off day when it comes to unseating this Governor, much less an "off year." 

 

As part of our 72 County Strategy to win in 2014, we've invested more resources than ever before at this point on the calendar. And because of the work of Democrats like you, we're already seeing the returns on our investment. Impressive wins by progressive candidates in the spring elections have rolled into ongoing canvasses and voter outreach to make sure the voters who will decide the direction of our state next year hear about the consequences of Governor Walker's agenda on their family's lives not just at election time -- but on an ongoing basis. 

 

Chip in $6 or whatever you can for the next six months and bring the fight to Scott Walker for the rest of the year:

 

http://secure.wisdems.org/Bring-The-Fight

 

With your continued support, I know we'll defeat Scott Walker and restore women's rights in Wisconsin.

A New Education Debate By Isaiah J. Poole

You may have seen stories about the poor quality of Washington, D.C.’s public schools. You probably have also heard about how Michelle Rhee was brought from near-obscurity to take over the city’s schools, overnight becoming a national symbol of dramatic education “reform.”

What you may not have heard is that after years of high-stakes testing and mass teacher firings along with school closings and reorganizations by Rhee and her successor and protégé, Kaya Henderson, many D.C. public schools are no better. In some cases, they’re worse.

That should give us all pause as we jump to change local and national education policies based on catchphrases that mask decisions that will do lasting harm to our children.

The Washington Post reported in June that test scores declined at 10 of the 18 schools that were reorganized under Rhee and Henderson between 2008 and 2010. Test scores are up in only six of those schools — two others have since closed. That’s a pretty poor record. As even Henderson conceded: “We have not always done reconstitution well.”

Track records like this one are fueling rising anger around the country over so-called reforms that offer lofty promises to justify the disruption of neighborhood schools, upended curriculums driven by standardized tests, widespread privatization, reduced budgets, and personnel policies that leave teachers feeling under siege, demoralized, and devalued.

The Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” initiative, intended to encourage a “common core” curriculum buttressed by testing and teacher “accountability” measures, is galvanizing opposition from both the right and the left.

“An Education Declaration to Rebuild America,” backed by a group of about 50 largely progressive education experts and academics, is the latest effort to bring some common sense to an often-fraught debate. It was released by the Education Opportunity Network, a new organization created through a partnership between the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign and the Institute for America’s Future, where I work. It has garnered support from more than 20,000 citizen endorsers.

The so-called education reform agenda, the declaration says, “imposes top-down standards and punitive high-stakes testing while ignoring the supports students need to thrive and achieve.”

The alternative, the declaration suggests, would — among other things — declare that public education is and always should be a public good, with both adequate public support and public accountability.

A child’s access to a good public education shouldn’t be determined by which side of the tracks the child lives on or the parent’s ability to work the system. Teachers should be treated as valued professionals, not as disposable widgets in a soulless machine. And the profession should be designed to attract our best and brightest.

National responsibility should complement local control. And reform should be “supports-based” rather than “standards-based,” focused on providing “every student with the opportunities and resources needed to achieve high standards.”

One of the successfully reconstituted D.C. schools might offer a partial glimpse at what this education declaration has in mind.

According to the The Washington Post, Scott Cartland was brought in to be the principal of a “chaotic and broken” Wheatley Education Campus in a low-income section of the city in 2008. Among other things, he poured resources into mental health and social workers and connected troubled youth with a community health organization. Teachers worked more closely with parents. One result: Reading and math proficiency scores at the school doubled.

A series of protests and grassroots organizing drives in Florida, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington state — just to name a few — amount to a demand for a new debate over education policy.

Consider the Education Declaration to Rebuild America a reset button that calls on our leaders to stop swinging the wrecking ball at public schools. It’s time to focus on what the children who attend public schools really need to succeed.

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/new-education-debate-1371996355. All rights are reserved.

Decline to Sign Petition

Anti-choice extremist groups in Michigan through a coordinated effort will soon start circulating petitions with the goal of banning private insurance providers from supplying health insurance plans that cover abortion. Women who decide to have abortion coverage would be required to purchase a separate abortion rider.

This radical initiative would provide no exceptions for rape, incest, or women's health. Less than 3 percent of Michigan's citizens could become the architects of this law by providing 258,088 signatures gathered over 180 days. Once the Michigan Legislature receives the completed petitions, this body will have 40 days to approve them and then the initiative becomes law.

Recently, the Republican-dominated Legislature and Right to Life of Michigan failed to bring this legislation to fruition. However, this alternative strategy makes their objective much more achievable. This extreme, anti-women's health initiative needs to be defeated. Michiganders have it within their power to defeat this invasive and outrageous proposal by simply declining to sign the petitions. A victory for anti-choice extremist groups and legislators will strike another blow to women's self-determination.

Jill Farber-Bramson
West Bloomfield

The Effects of the Sequester

Painful cuts. When it became evident that the sequester would commence on March 1, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner asserted, “I got 98 percent of what I want.” Although Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives offered several sequester replacement bills, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed that he couldn't think of anything that Republicans would be willing to do in order to reach a deal to prevent sequestration from taking effect. Republican lawmakers at that time appeared to be downright giddy about the sequester. One GOP legislator referred to sequestration as “the first significant tea party victory” in D.C. Another indicated that the cuts are “a home run for America.” Because of the Republican Party's mischaracterization of the sequester, many Americans have opted to simply ignore it. But now the reality of the sequester's effects are becoming too painful to ignore. Numerous states are experiencing federal budget cuts, including a $22 million decrease in funding for primary and secondary education, as well as a $20.3 million reduction in educational services for children with disabilities. Many jobs for teachers and aides are at risk. Some 70,000 fewer children across the country will be served by Head Start which responds to the early educational, developmental and nutritional needs of primarily poor children. A number of senior citizens will find it more difficult to meet their nutritional requirements because Meals on Wheels is on the chopping block. Individuals seeking domestic violence services will find a dramatic decrease in assistance. In addition, tuition aid for students in the military has stopped. As if these cuts aren't painful enough, on April 1, cancer clinics nationwide started turning away thousands of Medicare patients because chemotherapy medicine is so costly and makes it impossible for these clinics to remain financially solvent. Now Republican legislators are trying to blame the president for sequestration's cuts to the airline industry which have resulted in a reduction in air traffic controllers. Furthermore, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, recently reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the sequester's cuts hinder the intelligence community's capacity to thoroughly investigate plots against the U.S. Once again, the Republicans have chosen party over country, resulting in suffering for millions of Americans. Jill Farber-Bramson West Bloomfield