Tag: ALEC
Group That Promotes ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Reportedly Funded by Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, AT&T, Dozens More
It has rightly become the subject of outrage nationwide that George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., was not arrested last month after he allegedly stalked and killed a teenager, Trayvon Martin, whom Zimmerman apparently believed to be a neighborhood prowler.
Zimmerman is free because of a “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida that grants anyone who feels threatened with the right to hurt or kill anyone whom they perceive to be dangerous, regardless of whether the purportedly threatening person is armed. Trayvon Martin, for example, was carrying a package of Skittles and an iced tea.
USA Today reports that “Stand Your Ground” laws have been passed in 21 states:
Wisconsin Dems Seek Accountability for ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council – and its Corporatist Agenda
Earlier this week on Current TV’s “The War Room,” host Jennifer Granholm interviewed a Wisconsin legislator who is sponsoring legislation that would hold the American Legislative Exchange Council accountable to voters for the first time:
Florida Republican Legislators Give Themselves “Absolute Shield”
If you noticed an avalanche of lawsuits over your decisions, would you:
a) Take a moment to consider objectively what you’ve been doing and adjust your actions going forward, or
b) Pass legislation that says you can no longer be sued.
If you’re a Florida lawmaker, you will pick option B in a heartbeat. And so, Florida’s super-majority Republican legislature, facing court challenges to ALEC-written laws, is now shielding its members from giving testimony or depositions explaining their intentions.
Republicans on the panel [committee] said the move was necessary because more and more groups – teachers, unions, and others – are filing lawsuits against the Legislature and attempting to compel lawmakers and their staff to testify about the “legislative intent” behind what they’ve passed…
NBC’s David Gregory’s “Grand Wizard” Freudian Slip
David Gregory is walking back an analogous term he used during a Today Show interview, in which he said there is no “grand wizard” at the GOP calling the shots on the Herman Cain scandal. Gregory later tweeted, “”Wizard” remark this morning was a very poor choice of words. Did not mean to make that connection at all. Was not thinking. I apologize”.
In fact, Gregory’s comment was perfect. While he might have been visualizing the wizard in Oz, the term “grand wizard” is normally associated with the Ku Klux Klan.
Considering the Republican and tea party embrace of the Koch Brothers-funded ALEC legislative goals of drug testing welfare recipients; making it harder for the poor and young people to vote, in violation the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and imprisoning people who came here illegally and denying an education to their children who are native-born Americans, it’s not a real reach to wonder if there aren’t Klan sympathizers in the Grand Old Party.
If You Don’t Know About ALEC, You Don’t Know What’s Really Going On
Whether you live where “Koch brothers schemes get turned into the bat-$#*@ crazy legislation that just happens to pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, in virtually identical form, in 15 states at once,” you’ll want to know about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. This corporate-funded shadow group is transforming our country, and not in a good way. Watch the video for just one example: privatizing prisons. And remember, although it’s not pointed out in the video, private prisons only want the low-risk, high-profit population. As with health care and Social Security, they want to skim the profitable folks off the top and leave the sickest, the oldest, and, in case of private prisons, the baddest-assed to the government.
