A L E C - The American Legislative Exchange Council.

[occupied]

Conservatives say that they are not the party of the rich and corporate socialism while defending the actions and the very existence of ALEC. Which is it? Party of real Americans or puppet mouthpiece of aristocratic billionaires?

 

[Darkwind]

Conservatives say that they are not the party of the rich and corporate socialism while defending the actions and the very existence of ALEC. Which is it? Party of real Americans or puppet mouthpiece of aristocratic billionaires?

No corporate socialism exists.

However, I'll take corporatism over governmentism any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I can walk away from any corporation.

Where to I go to get rid of corrupt government? Because right now, government is a hundred times more corrupt than business; and they have guns. Businesses do not.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

ALEC is nothing like ACORN. ACORN was interested in housing poor people and getting them involved in the political process. Giving the poor a "buy in" to society generally helps them out of poverty.

ACORN was interested in money, power and control over government. No different than this organization.

You people are something else. Its okay when its for things you support, but heaven forbid that businesses band together to protect themselves from predatory egalitarianism.

ACORN wasn't writing laws that were taken verbatim..and enacted on state and federal levels.

Keep believing that.

 

[occupied]

Conservatives say that they are not the party of the rich and corporate socialism while defending the actions and the very existence of ALEC. Which is it? Party of real Americans or puppet mouthpiece of aristocratic billionaires?

No corporate socialism exists.

However, I'll take corporatism over governmentism any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I can walk away from any corporation.

Where to I go to get rid of corrupt government? Because right now, government is a hundred times more corrupt than business; and they have guns. Businesses do not.

You like running the country for their benefit alone even though it is more a threat to liberty than the government could ever be? Wannabe dirt poor serf is what you are.

 

[Dot Com]

thangod their chicanery w/ our rw Reps was brought to light after the "Florida "incident"

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, my goodness, this isn't fair.

I thought "ALEC" was gonna be about Alec Baldwin's diet and great new look on the Christmas commercial this year.

<giggle>

 

[Darkwind]

Conservatives say that they are not the party of the rich and corporate socialism while defending the actions and the very existence of ALEC. Which is it? Party of real Americans or puppet mouthpiece of aristocratic billionaires?

No corporate socialism exists.

However, I'll take corporatism over governmentism any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I can walk away from any corporation.

Where to I go to get rid of corrupt government? Because right now, government is a hundred times more corrupt than business; and they have guns. Businesses do not.

You like running the country for their benefit alone even though it is more a threat to liberty than the government could ever be? Wannabe dirt poor serf is what you are.

No corporation is a threat to liberty. Governments are threats to liberty. No corporation can write a law that can be upheld with deadly force. A government can.

Our government is not to be run for the benefit of anyone the way you mean it. It exits to settle disputes between the State, and to protect the people from the world outside our borders.

It does NOT exit to provide us with sustenance, money, benefits, housing, or jobs.

It does not exist to help the poor, the rich, or the middle class.. It does not exist to help people specifically at all..

This is the great failure of public education.

Our children are taught that government exists to provide things for the people.

I have yet to see a corporation write a law and enforce that law on the people in any manner at all.

To complain about corporations influencing government and ignoring other groups influencing government simply because you agree with THEIR influence is the height of hypocrisy.

 

[occupied]

No corporate socialism exists.

However, I'll take corporatism over governmentism any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I can walk away from any corporation.

Where to I go to get rid of corrupt government? Because right now, government is a hundred times more corrupt than business; and they have guns. Businesses do not.

You like running the country for their benefit alone even though it is more a threat to liberty than the government could ever be? Wannabe dirt poor serf is what you are.

No corporation is a threat to liberty. Governments are threats to liberty. No corporation can write a law that can be upheld with deadly force. A government can.

Our government is not to be run for the benefit of anyone the way you mean it. It exits to settle disputes between the State, and to protect the people from the world outside our borders.

It does NOT exit to provide us with sustenance, money, benefits, housing, or jobs.

It does not exist to help the poor, the rich, or the middle class.. It does not exist to help people specifically at all..

This is the great failure of public education.

Our children are taught that government exists to provide things for the people.

I have yet to see a corporation write a law and enforce that law on the people in any manner at all.

To complain about corporations influencing government and ignoring other groups influencing government simply because you agree with THEIR influence is the height of hypocrisy.

You have yet to see a corporation write a law? Take another look at the organization called ALEC, do you live in a red state? Chances are they wrote most of the laws enacted in the last few years, enforcing the laws is the government's job but what the hell does it matter? The laws they are upholding came right from the desks of corporate paid lobbyists and if you break them chances are you will end up in a privatized, for-profit prison, another product of ALEC.

Do you think you are free with corporate control? Try doing anything or going anywhere without money. Freedom costs money in America and they want to make it more expensive every day.

 

[Darkwind]

You like running the country for their benefit alone even though it is more a threat to liberty than the government could ever be? Wannabe dirt poor serf is what you are.

No corporation is a threat to liberty. Governments are threats to liberty. No corporation can write a law that can be upheld with deadly force. A government can.

Our government is not to be run for the benefit of anyone the way you mean it. It exits to settle disputes between the State, and to protect the people from the world outside our borders.

It does NOT exit to provide us with sustenance, money, benefits, housing, or jobs.

It does not exist to help the poor, the rich, or the middle class.. It does not exist to help people specifically at all..

This is the great failure of public education.

Our children are taught that government exists to provide things for the people.

I have yet to see a corporation write a law and enforce that law on the people in any manner at all.

To complain about corporations influencing government and ignoring other groups influencing government simply because you agree with THEIR influence is the height of hypocrisy.

You have yet to see a corporation write a law? Take another look at the organization called ALEC, do you live in a red state? Chances are they wrote most of the laws enacted in the last few years, enforcing the laws is the government's job but what the hell does it matter? The laws they are upholding came right from the desks of corporate paid lobbyists and if you break them chances are you will end up in a privatized, for-profit prison, another product of ALEC.

Do you think you are free with corporate control? Try doing anything or going anywhere without money. Freedom costs money in America and they want to make it more expensive every day.

Name one corporation that has been elected to sit in the house of representative, or the senate.

Name one bill they wrote, voted on, and enacted.

Oh, and in case you missed it. Money exited before the corporation did.

 

[whitehall]

The stealth leftie fascism makes you want to scream. Corporations ain't your enemy and neither are banks. Why give the federal government the power to patch up bad legislation with more red tape? I guess the union based education system has finally paid off with a generation of ignorant fools.

 

[AVG-JOE]

The left is degenerating into a fantasy world of paranoia. What the hell is "legal corruption" and how does "mercenary lobbying" work? The strange part of liberal paranoia is that they want to give more power to big government who created the alleged loopholes they whine about. The left whines about something they call "mercenary lobbying" while their own party runs 2/3 of the government. If the degenerate paranoid left worried more about real concerns of the next four years instead of some mythical committee we might have a chance of surviving Hussein's 2nd term.

"Mythical"?

 

[Dot Com]

Comprised mostly of Republican State Legislators, Governors and Corporate Sponsors, ALEC is a clearinghouse for legal corruption, diverting millions in state tax dollars to corporate members through tax favoritism and no-bid privatization of government services. This group brings corporate cronyism, corruption and mercenary lobbying to a whole new level.

In essence corporations writing Federal and state laws regulating corporations.

Republican members of Congress and in other legislative venues should simply turn over their seats to the CEOs, and cut out the middleman altogether.

This also exhibits the idiocy of the right’s whining about America becoming ‘socialist.’

No corporation is a threat to liberty. Governments are threats to liberty. No corporation can write a law that can be upheld with deadly force. A government can.

Our government is not to be run for the benefit of anyone the way you mean it. It exits to settle disputes between the State, and to protect the people from the world outside our borders.

It does NOT exit to provide us with sustenance, money, benefits, housing, or jobs.

It does not exist to help the poor, the rich, or the middle class.. It does not exist to help people specifically at all..

This is the great failure of public education.

Our children are taught that government exists to provide things for the people.

I have yet to see a corporation write a law and enforce that law on the people in any manner at all.

To complain about corporations influencing government and ignoring other groups influencing government simply because you agree with THEIR influence is the height of hypocrisy.

You have yet to see a corporation write a law? Take another look at the organization called ALEC, do you live in a red state? Chances are they wrote most of the laws enacted in the last few years, enforcing the laws is the government's job but what the hell does it matter? The laws they are upholding came right from the desks of corporate paid lobbyists and if you break them chances are you will end up in a privatized, for-profit prison, another product of ALEC.

Do you think you are free with corporate control? Try doing anything or going anywhere without money. Freedom costs money in America and they want to make it more expensive every day.

Name one corporation that has been elected to sit in the house of representative, or the senate.

Name one bill they wrote, voted on, and enacted.

Oh, and in case you missed it. Money exited before the corporation did.

ummm..... the Bush national energy policy?
Cheney Energy Task Force - SourceWatch

 

[occupied]

No corporation is a threat to liberty. Governments are threats to liberty. No corporation can write a law that can be upheld with deadly force. A government can.

Our government is not to be run for the benefit of anyone the way you mean it. It exits to settle disputes between the State, and to protect the people from the world outside our borders.

It does NOT exit to provide us with sustenance, money, benefits, housing, or jobs.

It does not exist to help the poor, the rich, or the middle class.. It does not exist to help people specifically at all..

This is the great failure of public education.

Our children are taught that government exists to provide things for the people.

I have yet to see a corporation write a law and enforce that law on the people in any manner at all.

To complain about corporations influencing government and ignoring other groups influencing government simply because you agree with THEIR influence is the height of hypocrisy.

You have yet to see a corporation write a law? Take another look at the organization called ALEC, do you live in a red state? Chances are they wrote most of the laws enacted in the last few years, enforcing the laws is the government's job but what the hell does it matter? The laws they are upholding came right from the desks of corporate paid lobbyists and if you break them chances are you will end up in a privatized, for-profit prison, another product of ALEC.

Do you think you are free with corporate control? Try doing anything or going anywhere without money. Freedom costs money in America and they want to make it more expensive every day.

Name one corporation that has been elected to sit in the house of representative, or the senate.

Name one bill they wrote, voted on, and enacted.

Oh, and in case you missed it. Money exited before the corporation did.

OK, you are ideologically ruined if you do not even see a problem other than the government in this cycle of corruption. Corporations cannot be congressmen as you well know, but they can buy congressmen to do their bidding as you should know. Typical you would gloss over the fact that through ALEC they can and do write laws, lobby and bribe to have them enacted and lock you up in jails they own and profit from if you break them.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Yup, these bad boys were behind the Stand Your Ground legislation, the Voter ID laws and are fighting pollution laws like crazy among other issues.
ALEC is a Koch Brothers tool and it's up to no good. It's the far right's very own ACORN is a sense except much more powerful because of all the corporate money flowing into it. It certainly represents Plutocracy which threatens our Democratic process by drowning out the people's voices with Big Money..

ALEC is nothing like ACORN. ACORN was interested in housing poor people and getting them involved in the political process. Giving the poor a "buy in" to society generally helps them out of poverty.

ACORN was interested in money, power and control over government. No different than this organization.

You people are something else. Its okay when its for things you support, but heaven forbid that businesses band together to protect themselves from predatory egalitarianism.

Not at all. Businesses have EVERY right to lobby the government for both rules and for contracts.

It's the closed doors, the "non-profit" status, the secrecy, the lobbying that's not called lobbying and the deception that must be removed from the process.

When Glaxo Smith Pharmaceuticals pays for the undivided attention of a legislator, we deserve to know who got paid, how much, and what legislation was on the table.

 

[AVG-JOE]

I'll be glad when they're gone. For we now know that demoncraps are devoid of corruption and are pure at heart in all things in heaven and earth. Yep we knows it fo sho.

Sarcasm not withstanding Willow, you're wrong.

It's up to us, We, The People, to INSIST on transparency in the legislative process from all sides. The Democrats have proven that they are just as susceptible to graft and corruption as anyone, and ALICE needs to be watched and kept in the front row just like ALEC should have been all these years.

The base problem is not a Republican one, it's a willingness to sell legislation to the highest bidder, and a system that promotes that behavior.

Transparency for the Right...

Transparency for the Left...​

Transparency for all of Government.​

Wait, what is a sensible post doing in this thread?

Sometimes I'm mistaken for a Democrat because I'm lazy and the Republicans are making it so fucking easy right now.

Transparency in ALL things politics. Right, Left, & Everything in Between.

 

[AVG-JOE]

You lefty's should probably look up the Tide's Foundation and the Apollo Alliance.

You righties should do some research, find some links and start a thread to discuss what drives your passions.

For me, Transparency is a major issue.

 

[occupied]

You lefty's should probably look up the Tide's Foundation and the Apollo Alliance.

You righties should do some research, find some links and start a thread to discuss what drives your passions.

Saying those organizations are like ALEC is like saying motor-scooters and motor-coaches are same. Both go down the road I suppose but the motor-coach gets a lot more fuel, range and momentum.

 

[AVG-JOE]

Comprised mostly of Republican State Legislators, Governors and Corporate Sponsors, ALEC is a clearinghouse for legal corruption, diverting millions in state tax dollars to corporate members through tax favoritism and no-bid privatization of government services. This group brings corporate cronyism, corruption and mercenary lobbying to a whole new level.

Preview: United States of ALEC | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

This week, Moyers & Company reports on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of America has never heard of — ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

ALEC Is a Lobby, Not a Charity - WSJ.com - The evidence is overwhelming: This nonprofit is not entitled to tax-exempt status.

A lot of ALEC legislation appears to have been drafted by companies that are members of the organization to enhance their profits. It's understandable, and not necessarily bad, that companies support legislation that benefits them. But the way ALEC hides its initiatives—wining and dining state legislators behind closed doors at resort hotels and then stepping into the background as those legislators introduce the bills under their own names—is deceptive.

More...

ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures | People For the American Way

What is ALEC? - Alec Exposed

ALEC Gets a Break From State Lobbying Laws | Mother Jones



Fair and simple taxes...

Public budgets that are balanced by law...​

Transparency in all things politics.​

Then, build an economy that your kids can drive to the stars.

It ain't rocket science, y'all.

Gee, I wonder why the left doesn't have anything like this.

Wait, they do, you just don't talk about them.

I'd like to keep this thread all about ALEC, but start a thread and bring it up - I appreciate any light that's shed on corruption and favoritism, especially when it's done in secret.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

You like running the country for their benefit alone even though it is more a threat to liberty than the government could ever be? Wannabe dirt poor serf is what you are.

No corporation is a threat to liberty. Governments are threats to liberty. No corporation can write a law that can be upheld with deadly force. A government can.

Our government is not to be run for the benefit of anyone the way you mean it. It exits to settle disputes between the State, and to protect the people from the world outside our borders.

It does NOT exit to provide us with sustenance, money, benefits, housing, or jobs.

It does not exist to help the poor, the rich, or the middle class.. It does not exist to help people specifically at all..

This is the great failure of public education.

Our children are taught that government exists to provide things for the people.

I have yet to see a corporation write a law and enforce that law on the people in any manner at all.

To complain about corporations influencing government and ignoring other groups influencing government simply because you agree with THEIR influence is the height of hypocrisy.

You have yet to see a corporation write a law? Take another look at the organization called ALEC, do you live in a red state? Chances are they wrote most of the laws enacted in the last few years, enforcing the laws is the government's job but what the hell does it matter? The laws they are upholding came right from the desks of corporate paid lobbyists and if you break them chances are you will end up in a privatized, for-profit prison, another product of ALEC.

Do you think you are free with corporate control? Try doing anything or going anywhere without money. Freedom costs money in America and they want to make it more expensive every day.

Ever here of the UCC?

 

[dblack]

Sounds like ALEC is just what we need. Republicans need to cut the democrat controlled government loose and start seeing up alternative bodies. A shadow government specifically designed to interfere with the obama regime.

That's not what it is. It's about corporations actively, and alarmingly successfully, manipulating state and federal policy to their favor. This is not corporations fighting regulation; this is them using regulation to suppress competition and garner themselves advantage. It's corporatism through and through and nothing conservatives should cheer for.