Bill Moyers writes—
The American Legislative Exchange Council Is Hard at Work Privatizing America, One Statehouse at a Time:
A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — 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.
In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers — each accomplished without the public ever knowing who’s behind it. Using interviews, documents, and field reporting, “United States of ALEC — A Follow-Up” explores ALEC’s self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as “a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests.”
Former health care industry executive Wendell Potter says, “Even though I’d known of [ALEC] for a long time, I was astonished. Just about everything that I knew that the health insurance industry wanted out of any state lawmaker was included in that package of bills.”
Following up on a 2012 report, this update includes new examples of corporate influence on state legislation and lawmakers, the growing public protest against ALEC’s big business-serving agenda, and internal tactics ALEC is instituting to further shroud its actions and intentions. [...]
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Rove Plays The New McCarthy, GOP Lies About It:
The GOP is flopping around trying to play the denial game on Rove's New McCarthyism. Rove didn't mention Democrats they say. Oh really?
"Moderation and restraint is not what I felt -- and moderation and restraint is not what was called for. It was a moment to summon our national will -- and to brandish steel. MoveOn.org, Michael Moore and Howard Dean may not have agreed with this, but the American people did."
So the DNC Chair is not a Democrat? Fucking liars. But wait it gets better.
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Tweet of the Day:
The US is appalled (!) that Snowden would use Cuban soil to avoid US courts. Where could he have ever gotten such an idea??
— @ryangrim
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