Forum Post: This Earth Day Celebrate the Occupy Movement Nation-Wide Against RW ALEC and the Republicon Powell Memo

This Earth Day Celebrate the Occupy Movement Nation-Wide Against RW ALEC and the Republicon Powell Memo that Declared Corporate War on Environmentalism and the 99%.

Behold the rancid Republicon ~ 1% history:

Lewis F. Powell(R) was twice selected by Richard Nixon(R) to be on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1971 Lewis F. Powell wrote the infamous ‘Powell Memo’ to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Powell Memo was a confidential memorandum that described a strategy for the corporate takeover of the dominant public institutions of American society.

Not coincidentally, a now-important legal organization was formed in 1971 as well. Nixon’s Chief Judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, Warren Burger, formed the National Center for State Courts [NCSC]. Their self-described mission is to improve judicial administration in American courts. Soon, the National Center for State Courts became the sanctioning body for everything from how the poor are treated in court to how much the next judge’s raise shall be.

AND ALONG CAME ALEC IN 1973

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was formed in 1973 by a group of conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty. Thus, the 1% cornered the judiciary and congress.

A marriage managed in heaven: {NCSC and ALEC -- They control both ends of the bet; legislation and the courts.}

In quick succession the 1% formed the following groups to ensure that the legislative and judicial branches of government served the correct portion of society:

• National Center for State Courts -- Formed in 1971 by Richard Nixon and Chief Justice Warren Burger. Its mission is to improve judicial administration in the courts of the U.S.
In November 2011, Oregon Chief Justice De Muniz was inducted into the National Center for State Courts' Warren E. Burger Society. • The Federalist Society -- Formed in 1982, its mission is to reform the current legal order. U.S. Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas attended the November 9, 2011 Federalist Society Fundraising dinner. There is an active branch at every law school near you.
• American Inns of Court -- Formed in 1983 by Chief Justice Warren Burger. Its mission is to foster excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility and legal skills. They give out three awards named after Republicans: The Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Award for Professionalism, the Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Professional Service and the Warren E. Burger Prize. There are no awards at the Inns of Court named after Democrats. This is where ‘Wally” got his 2006 award.
• State Justice Institute -- Formed in 1984, its mission is to ensure access to a fair and effective justice system. It serves to finance the activities of the National Center for State Courts. The State Justice Institute has a Koch Brother’s (R & Bircher) employee on the governing board.
• The State Justice Institute came out with a manual for Judges to handle and silence the unsuspecting public in 1999. It is called the Anti-Government Guidebook. It does away with due process. CONTINUED: http://www.bulletinsfromaloha.org/weekly/2012/2/15/lewis-f-powells-memo.html

Right-Wing ALEC Retreats on Most Controversial Issues ALEC disbands task force responsible for Stand Your Ground, voter ID, prison privatization, AZ's anti-immigrant law SB 1070.

April 17, 2012 |

Under growing public pressure and the departure of multiple corporate members, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has announced it is disbanding the Task Force that has been responsible for some of the organization's most controversial pieces of legislation. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker introduced several bills approved by that Task Force when he was a legislator in the 1990s and early 2000s. For at least three decades, the corporations, special interest groups, and legislators on the ALEC Public Safety & Elections Task Force (known as the Criminal Justice Task Force until 2009) have approved model bills that promote for-profit prisons and lengthen prison sentences, criminalize immigrants, expand the "war on drugs," thwart evidence-based pre-trial release programs in favor of for-profit bail-bonding, and many other policies. CONTINUED: http://www.alternet.org/story/155036/right-wing_alec_retreats_on_most_controversial_issues/

The Lewis Powell Memo - Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy [Push Back on Environmentalism]

This Earth Day Has Even Greater Relevance Than Recent Earth Days Because of the Occupy Movement and its Cause for the 99% Against the Tyranny of the Plutocrats in the 1%.

As a Reaction to Environmentalism and the First Earth Day, Corporate Elitists Declared War! And their Corporate Declaration of Insanity was the Powell Memo. From Powell’s impetus came the Business Roundtable, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy (precursor to what we now know as Americans for Prosperity) and other organizations united in pushing back against political equality and shared prosperity. They triggered an economic transformation that would in time touch every aspect of our lives.

Forty years ago today, on August 23, 1971, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., an attorney from Richmond, Virginia, drafted a confidential memorandum for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that describes a strategy for the corporate takeover of the dominant public institutions of American society.

Environmental awareness and pressure on corporate polluters had reached a new peak in the months before the Powell memo was written. In January 1970, President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, which formally recognized the environment’s importance by establishing the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Massive Earth Day events took place all over the country just a few months later and by early July, Nixon signed an executive order that created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tough new amendments to the Clean Air Act followed in December 1970 and by April 1971, EPA announced the first air pollution standards. Lead paint was soon regulated for the first time, and the awareness of the impacts of pesticides and other pollutants-- made famous by Rachel Carson in her 1962 book, Silent Spring – was recognized when DDT was finally banned for agricultural use in 1972. (CONTINUED: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/the-lewis-powell-memo-corporate-blueprint-to-/blog/36466/)

THE POWELL MEMO BEGAN THE 1% TAKEOVER OF AMERICA —Bill Moyers

Why New York’s Zuccotti Park is filled with people is no mystery. Reporters keep scratching their heads and asking, “Why are you here?” But it’s clear they are occupying Wall Street because Wall Street has occupied the country. And that’s why in public places across the nation workaday Americans are standing up in solidarity. Did you see the sign a woman was carrying at a fraternal march in Iowa the other day? It read, I Can’t Afford to Buy a Politician So I Bought This Sign. Americans have learned the hard way that when rich organizations and wealthy individuals shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they get what they want. …

It’s heartbreaking to see what has become of that bargain [the American Social Contract]. Nowadays it’s every man for himself. How did this happen? The rise of the money power in our time goes back forty years. We can pinpoint the date. On August 23, 1971, a corporate lawyer named Lewis Powell—a board member of the death-dealing tobacco giant Philip Morris and a future justice of the Supreme Court—released a confidential memorandum for his friends at the US Chamber of Commerce. We look back on it now as a call to arms for class war waged from the top down.

Recall the context of Powell’s memo. Big business was being forced to clean up its act. Even Republicans had signed on. In 1970 President Nixon put his signature on the National Environmental Policy Act and named a White House Council to promote environmental quality. A few months later millions of Americans turned out for Earth Day. Nixon then agreed to create the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress acted swiftly to pass tough amendments to the Clean Air Act, and the EPA announced the first air pollution standards. There were new regulations directed at lead paint and pesticides. Corporations were no longer getting away with murder. (CONTINUED: http://viciousneutral.net/post/12784940593/the-powell-memo-began-the-1-takeover-of-america) Right-Wing Rollback: The Powell Memo By Chip Berlet If the attacks on the legislative agenda of the Obama administration seem to be coming from all directions, that's the desired outcome of 40 years of strategic funding by right-wing elites seeking to roll back the New Deal and restore "free market" government policies. (CONTINUED: http://www.zcommunications.org/right-wing-rollback-the-powell-memo-by-chip-berlet)

Hope or Despair on Earth Day?

(AUDIO: http://www.prx.org/pieces/62033-hope-or-despair-on-earth-day) Reflections on the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the Chernobyl 25th anniversary, the one year anniversary of the BP blowout, and signs of hope from across the country with Brent Blackwelder and Antonia Juhasz.++ Kert Davies mentions the Powell Memo, a document written by Supreme Court Justice Lewis S. Powell before he joined the US Supreme Court that outlines how corporations should fight back against negative public opinion (Environmentalism) – and the American Petroleum Institute’s work to undermine climate science. Also discussed is the book, Merchants of Doubt.

Occupy Earth Day and Get Out the VOTE!! Make a DIFFERENCE!!