Here’s some reading material for anyone interested in The Nation‘s exposé on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). They have obtained 800 pages of documents from this right-wing organization that has been writing one-size-fits-all corporate-sponsored legislation for Republican legislatures all around the country.
“Business Domination Inc.,” by Joel Rogers and Laura Dresser
“Sabotaging Healthcare,” by Wendell Potter
“The Koch Connection,” by Lisa Graves
“Starving Public Schools,” by Julie Underwood
“Rigging Elections,” by John Nichols
You might want to send these links to your Tea Party friends and relatives so they can understand how these things work.
I’m going to have nightmares after reading these, aren’t I.
::
quite possibly, although it’s more like a waking nightmare that we’re all living through.
Do you have access to the articles? I can’t see them without subscribing…
OOo! That would be like subscribing to Sewer & Stream.
shit. well, that’s a problem, isn’t it?
Subscription is free. It entitles you to add a number to their statistics for online ads. And I believe that by checking or not checking the right boxes, you won’t get deluged with emails. Or use the email address that you’ve set up for that purpose.
It’s a pain in the butt, but even Nature.com is going to this model.
Everyone’s trying to get in on the social media bandwagon. Create their communities within communities.
Of course, if the Nation will ruin your security classification with an employer, I understand your point. Little is private anymore.
Recently Randi Rhodes did a show focusing on this group. They shop around pre-written corporate sponsored legislation.
One example they focused on was the Arizona S1070 anti-immigration bill. It was written and sponsored by the corporate prison industry to expand thier businesses in what they saw as a big growth area: building prison camps for whole families of undocumented persons being held at the expense of the state until the feds determine if they will take them into the federal immigration detention system system or decide to deport them, as the state has no right to deport someone.
Since then, several more state legislatures have taken up the same bill with minor customizations. But for the the Republicans, it’s win-win. First, it sells well to the rabble because it’s feel-good, old-fashioned racist legislation, while it’s really designed to loot the state treasury.
It sells well to the rabble because it’s been focus-tested.