Josh Keefe — The Koch Brothers Want To Rewrite The Constitution. They May Succeed.

Explanation of the push to revise the US Constitution.

International Business Times
The Koch Brothers Want To Rewrite The Constitution. They May Succeed.

Josh Keefe

Brian Murphy — Meet ALEC's (Hoped For) Man in Washington: Scott Walker

It’s a mistake, therefore, to think of ALEC primarily in terms of its documented association with Charles and David Koch. Rather, it’s an organization that facilitates intimate and discreet lobbying opportunities where donors have access to a self-selecting set of willing accomplices drawn from the nation’s fifty state legislatures. Those lawmakers are often pampered on donors’ dimes at the organization’s gatherings. And all of it is tax deductible for the companies because ALEC turns what would ordinarily be lobbying expenses into ‘scholarships’ for state lawmakers to further their educations. So if you’ve ever wondered why voter ID laws, so-called ‘right to work’ laws, attacks on private and public sector unions, attacks on clean air standards and sustainable energy, pro-charter school bills, attacks on college accreditation and teacher certification, laws proposing to centralize rulemaking on energy, pollution, power plants, state pension investments, tort reform, or food labeling seem to pop up in different state capitals seemingly simultaneously, with the identical legalese backed by the same talking points and even the same expert witnesses, ALEC is often the reason.

And now, heading into 2016, one of the group’s most high profile alumni is Scott Walker. It’s possible that no American politician who holds office today has worked harder to successfully advance ALEC’s agenda than Walker. And no previous candidate for the White House has ever owed so much to ALEC at the outset of his campaign.….

If Walker is elected, it won't be Scott Walker that's really POTUS, but rather Alec Walker.

TPM
Meet ALEC's (Hoped For) Man in Washington: Scott Walker

Brian Murphy

Zap — ALEC #fail

It appears that a high score on the “ALEC/Laffer Competitiveness Scale” is a reliable indicator on where *not* to invest your money, look for a job, or live.…

Political Reality
ALEC #fail

Zap

ALEC Steals The Current Cake, And Tries To Eat It Too

(commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

ALEC calls for penalties on 'freerider' homeowners in assault on clean energy

Why not?

It worked in California, so they have a precedent to tout. Hey, if you manage to intercept the democracy ball, who's gonna blame you for trying to run off with it? Everyone? Or fail?

They do have deep precedents to refer to. Like the bankster mob on Wall Street.

What's next? Penalties on non-corporations receiving "welfare" or Social Security?

If that's not Free Riding, what is? ALEC?

Free-Riders In Free-Rider-Vigilante Disguise?

It's difficult to see any group reason in that maladaptive rhyme. Just a free-ride for looters.

Wow! Is that the perfect disguise, or what? They're so far ahead in their behindedness that we're finding their horse-poop all over our public policy OODA Loop.

Too bad that's not yet having enough effect on the way most citizens think.

If we don't giddyup our rate of thinking, and start preventing some of this shit from hitting our cultural fan, we'll be cleaning up ALEC Poop forever. The stains are visible all over Congress already, and reacting with the hot air. Please learn from others. Don't wait 'til the stench is already noticeable on your street.

Surely we can indict ALEC for impersonating an upstanding citizen? Fight mire with mire?

If we don't, they may next divert the SinglePayer Public Health Maintenance campaign to "Ironycare" :(

Theresa Riley, Bill Moyers & Company — Wisconsin Democrat who infiltrated ALEC: ‘They don’t want people involved in the political process’

I'd be shocked it this were not already so well documented. But here is a first hand report by an "infiltrator" on the neoliberal mind in action.

Here's an illustration of their idea of representative democracy."

One guy I was talking to, who was from one of these right wing think tanks was saying we need to curb Obama’s reckless power with these administrative regulations, and he wanted a federal constitutional amendment saying Congress has to approve federal regulations. I said, I don’t think most people are going to want to amend the Constitution for that. I don’t think that ignites people. Maybe it does on the far right, but most people don’t really care about that. And he said, “Oh, well, you really don’t need people to do this. You just need control over the legislature and you need money, and we have both.”

That sentiment was underscored so many times to me, that they don’t want people involved in the political process, or in the policy process. And that seems to be the intent in a lot of ways: You have a think tank in every state and all they do is come up with these very, very regressive policies, you have corporations who are going to benefit so they fund it all, and then you have the legislators as your foot soldiers to carry out the tasks.

The best government that money can buy. And the best equipped security force to enforce it. The difference between fascism and communism is that fascism is corporate statism, and communism is corporate statism. Just a matter of emphasis. A neo-feudal elite are in control in both.

 I was really impressed by their infrastructure. I mean, we would never duplicate something like this on the left because, first of all, we would never take instructions from corporations, but the coordination that they have between these policy think tanks, the money and the legislators, in terms of just driving an agenda, it’s incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m fascinated by it because I’ve never seen anything like it from the left. I was the public policy director at Planned Parenthood, so I’m very familiar with building infrastructure. We did a lot of that in the state of Wisconsin. But we have nothing that I know of on the national front that connects all these things.

It is a well-oiled machine. They’re really organized, they’re really coordinated and they have the resources. And they’re not afraid to push it when they have the opportunities. Now they have 24 state legislatures that are Republican controlled and they have Republican governors. So they’ve had incredible success. They’ve had 71 bills introduced just this year that make it harder for most people who are injured to access the courts. We’ve certainly seen that here in Wisconsin. That was one of the first things that Walker did when he came in was push this tort reform through.

The Raw Story
Wisconsin Democrat who infiltrated ALEC: ‘They don’t want people involved in the political process’
Theresa Riley, Bill Moyers & Company

Mary Bottari And Rebekah Wilce — The Force Behind Bills To Lower Wages and Suppress Workers’ Rights? You Guessed It: ALEC

The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council has modeled legislation to strip workers of their rights nationwide.

According to a new analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of ALECexposed.org, at least 117 bills introduced in 2013 fuel a “race to the bottom” in wages, benefits and worker rights—and resemble “model” bills from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

As working Americans speak out for higher wages, better benefits and respect in the workplace, a coordinated, nationwide campaign to silence them is mounting—and ALEC is at the heart of it. ALEC corporations, right-wing tink tanks, and monied interests like the Koch brothers are pushing legislation throughout the country designed to drive down wages; limit health care, pensions, and other benefits; and cripple working families' participation in the political and legislative process....

While ALEC and its supporters frame their actions as fiscally responsible and pro-worker, it is clear that this is a deeply political agenda. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that, on the whole, these types of bills don't create new rights for employees but “significantly tilt the political playing field by enabling unlimited corporate political spending while restricting political spending of organized workers.” Fox News reporter Shepard Smith put it even more bluntly. He noted that of the top 10 political donors in the United States, only three donated to Democrats—all unions. “Bust the unions, and it's over” for the Democrats, he said.... 

Harold Schaitberger, General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, put it best when he told CMD, “The sole purpose of ALEC has been to develop the most anti-middle class, pro-corporation policies, legislation, and agenda in history. They've been waiting for just the right moment to reverse the progress of the American middle class and drive everyone to the bottom, to the lowest wages, the weakest benefits, no job security, and no retirement to speak of. We may not have the billions of dollars of the Koch brothers. But we have each other and we must stick together and fight ALEC's cynical and un-American agenda.” 

In These Times
The Force Behind Bills To Lower Wages and Suppress Workers’ Rights? You Guessed It: ALEC
Mary Bottari And Rebekah Wilce