Forum Post: Keeping an Eye on ALEC, a How To.
Posted 12 years ago on April 27, 2012, 1:04 p.m. EST by shoozTroll
(17632)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
How do you pressure such a well funded corporate front group?
There are ways, including asking why any representative would back such a notorious entity.
Remember folks, these guys do most of their "work" in the States.
ProPublica is one of my favorite places to read news. Good post.
Questioning any representative is a must. A must.
I have a feeling they are going to be very active in the coming election cycle.
I hope the Common Cause IRS suit takes wing against their "charity" status, as it's an insult to all non profits.
I do too.
Meanwhile, the venerable Washington Post proves to have ties to ALEC through it's for profit education division.
Why can't they just report the news?
http://truth-out.org/news/item/8766-washington-posts-kaplan-and-other-for-profit-colleges-joined-alec
Excellent link, Shooz. Thank you very much.
Happy to help.......:)
The need to STOP and repeal all laws based on this "charity", is what we need to do until corporations are no longer citizens.
By the way. If a corporate citizen can't produce a birth certificate, should they still be allowed a "vote" by money?
Although ALEC just lost Pepsi, Coke, Kraft , and others -
they are too big to fail
And even if the lost 90% of their companies, koch can sneeze up the balance
BUT
Thanks to OWS and the flood of recent PR and zimmerman -
the stench of alec is becoming much more conspicuous
If you think you know America’s biggest threat,
..Koch ?
….Norquist ?
……Iran ?
………Boehner ?
………...McConnell ?
……………Murdoch ?
you are wrong –
……spend ten minutes with each of these
American Legislative Exchange Council
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
http://www.alecwatch.org/
http://www.thenation.com/article/161973/alec-exposed-koch-connection
http://www.americablog.com/2012/03/whos-behind-nras-stand-your-ground.html
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120411/OPINION03/204110317/1008/opinion01/Public-right-skeptical-ALEC
ALEC Corporate member list may not be up to date
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations
2000 ALEC politicians by state
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Politicians
.............................................BE AFRAID – VERY AFRAID
And FYI –
Pepsi, Coke and Kraft, will just find roundabout ways to get their money to ALEC and keep it farther from the public eye.
It's what they've been doing all along.
Before any such convention, these kinds of influences must be negated.
terminating corporate personhood is the only way
a constitutional amendment
NOT a convention
Thanks for the link. I am using it in my quest to inform myself about my local races this year: http://occupywallst.org/forum/lets-take-things-to-a-local-level-discussing-polit/
Keep this thread high and let us know what you find out.....:)
It doesnt appear that they flood too much money into the candidates directly: http://projects.propublica.org/alec-contributions/contributors/41
Im guessing that if we paid attention to our elected servants, then we wouldnt have to worry about these bullshit pieces that they put up, right?
You are going to have to go further, much further. It is going to be necessary to engage and pay attention to state issues. Education, poverty, criminal justice, faux privatization, real estate, fracking, the Farm Bill as well as little water treaties.
Don't forget gun nuttery laws and anti-womens rights legislation.
In Michigan they are even usurping elected officials. Just like real fascists.
Yeah, I gotta say that just remove elected officials hand the town over to corporate control is a real beaut.
I agree with all of that. So how do we increase public engagement?
Follow the money. You have to follow the money. You also have to follow the lawsuits. Let's say that Florida wants to privatize veterans homes and mental health facilities. You can easily find data on the cost consequences of privatization and show where your taxes pay more. More importantly they need to know how that impacts the people that need this. They need to know who is lobbying for it. They need to know who is supporting it. If there are elections that are coming up then there are questions that people need to ask or request information from those that are currently elected.
Always such good council - I knew there was a reason I like you. ( many more than just this one too ) {:-])
Thanks, DKA!
I calls em as I sees em. Thank you.
So we need to develop a website with all of this information handily available?
No and yes. Yes, websites that focus on local issues and problems are needed. That said, there are people that aren't going to see them. They just will not find the information.
One thing that I have learned is that many of the things that we discuss consistently on line may not be known by the people that we encounter on a daily basis. So, a collection of information on paper with the least headline shpiel is going to be necessary as well.
So I few things I would think are either a newspaper, that is charged for use, or a flyer with monthly information on it, delivered for free, and funded through fundraising events.
If you had to choose one or the other run, which one do you think would be the best bet to alert the public?
Before I answer that. Is there any reason why a newspaper could not be funded through fund raising events as well? I am not talking about a full newspaper, but rather one that can offer information more so than a flyer can.
Either way, it has to be as material that does not come off with the ZOMG with little fact.
I suppose it could, but I think due to the amount of pages involved and printing costs, fundraising would be much tougher. Im not sure.
Maybe we say Fuck it, and just do both?
That depends on how concise that it is and how much information that you are presenting.
So if you had to choose one or the other, to start from scratch, which one would you like?
Scratch that.
I have been thinking. Do neither for the moment. You are putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.
I would start a blog with a couple of other people. I think you should tell people up front what your business is and say that it is a separate endeavor This is important. You will always be suspect but if you come out with it first then someone cannot throw it in your face down the road.
Then be what you say you are there for on the blog. You are looking for a conversation which in turn may lead to further information or turn you on to something that you may not have considered which could alter the dialogue.
Have one person pay attention to those meetings that are open to the public. Look at who is contracted for what.
That's interesting. I have to think though, that the blog would only get the attention of those who are currently searching politics online. It would ignore the majority of the 99%, and I think that is why grassroots campaigning so impressive, it gets in the face of those who are not currently searching.
Well, it does this: It allows the exchange of information in an anonymous and non threatening manner. Which allows you to build in a different way and find information that you might not have gained otherwise.
Thank goodness for Tommy Mitchell. The one man who didn't listen to the bureaucrats in the EPA.
It'll take more than that to stop ALEC.
Such as?
Posting informed commentary in the plethora of ALEC threads would be a start for you.
Admitting that ALEC works almost exclusively through the (R)epelican't party would be another.
Although that would be in direct opposition to your premiss that they are "all the same".
They aren't and ALEC proves it. So I'm not sure you can do that.
You have limited yourself in that way.
I have no problem admitting that ALEC works primarily through the Republican party, I dont think thats a big secret.
Its as obvious as Soros/Koch funding of either of them.
Each one has their own ways of doing it.
Posting threads on this Forum is not going to do a damn thing. Im looking for real solutions here, at the much deeper problems. ALEC is a symptom of the stuff further down the line.
Such as?
ALEC is the disease, not the symptom.
ALEC is an infection created by the Neolibe(R)tarians.
The ones that have been pushing neoliberal economics down our throats for decades.
It's the Neolibe(R)tarians that ARE the problem and have created the illusion of "they are all the same".
Sorry, the neo whatevers are usually pretty divisive in their commentary. Obviously, they do the same establishment tricks as every other government has done for centuries.
Groups like ALEC dont just magically appear and rise to power in an intelligent, engaged public.
So do we have any real solutions on this?
In your case?
I've already asked you to stop thinking of the 99% as asses.
You have to understand that ALEC and it's related entities are who disengage the public in the first place.
Learn that multi-pronged marketing/PR is very real and used against us every single day.
I coined the term Neolibertarian, out of respect for those that believe in the social tenet of the political sect.
Not in "my" case, Shooz, in the entire nation's case.
If " ALEC and it's related entities are who disengage the public in the first place", and I agree with that to a certain extent, then what do we do to reverse it?
It starts with the individual and in this case that individual is you.
There is no certain extent. It's the full extent.
Learn about multi-pronged marketing/PR.
Instead of thing of the uninformed as asses, inform them.
"Learn about multi-pronged marketing/PR."....you realize what I do, right? :>)
So how, in your opinion, is the best way to inform the individual?
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ALEC rules!