Image via WikipediaPublished on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by The Nation
ALEC Exposed: A Nationwide Blueprint for the Rightwing Takeover
by John Nichols
ALEC is a critical arm of the right-wing network of policy shops that, with infusions of corporate cash, has evolved to shape American politics. Inspired by Milton Friedman’s call for conservatives to “develop alternatives to existing policies [and] keep them alive and available,” ALEC’s model legislation reflects long-term goals: downsizing government, removing regulations on corporations and making it harder to hold the economically and politically powerful to account. Corporate donors retain veto power over the language, which is developed by the secretive task forces. The task forces cover issues from education to health policy. ALEC’s priorities for the 2011 session included bills to privatize education, break unions, deregulate major industries, pass voter ID laws and more. In states across the country they succeeded, with stacks of new laws signed by GOP governors like Ohio’s John Kasich and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, both ALEC alums.
The details of ALEC’s model bills have been available only to the group’s 2,000 legislative and 300 corporate members. But thanks to a leak to Aliya Rahman, an Ohio-based activist who helped organize protests at ALEC’s Spring Task Force meeting in Cincinnati, The Nation has obtained more than 800 documents representing decades of model legislation. Teaming up with the Center for Media and Democracy, The Nation asked policy experts to analyze this never-before-seen archive.The articles included below are the first products of that examination. They provide an inside view of the priorities of ALEC’s corporate board and billionaire benefactors (including Tea Party funders Charles and David Koch). “Dozens of corporations are investing millions of dollars a year to write business-friendly legislation that is being made into law in statehouses coast to coast, with no regard for the public interest,” says Bob Edgar of Common Cause. “This is proof positive of the depth and scope of the corporate reach into our democratic processes.” The full archive of ALEC documents is available at a new website, alecexposed.org, thanks to the Center for Media and Democracy, which has provided powerful tools for progressives to turn this knowledge into power. The data tell us that the time has come to refocus on the battle to loosen the grip of corporate America and renew democracy in the states.
In coordination with the Center for Media and Democracy and The Nation, Common Dreams will be re-posting many of the articles examining the leaked ALEC files. To see what's already available go here and here. Updates to Common Dreams will be added here.
Published on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Open Secrets Blog when it comes to the government lobbying efforts of most religious institutions, their activities are notably shrouded in darkness, even as representatives of numerous faiths routinely pressure federal lawmakers on issues ranging from health care to international relations, poverty to abortion rights. This is largely by government design. In 1995, when Congress passed the Lobbying Disclosure Act in 1995, it provided for a few exceptions, including lobbying communications made by a “church, its integrated auxiliary or a convention or association of churches that is exempt from filing a federal income tax return," as well as a "religious order."
The only instances in which a church must disclose their lobbying is if spends a “substantial” amount of money on lobbying, if more than 20 percent of its lobbyist’s income is from direct lobbying on behalf of the church or if it hires an outside lobbying firm. Then, the hired firm is required to disclose that it has lobbied on behalf of a religious institution. The “substantial” test is a murky one, with little enforcement of it, and as is the 20 percent rule, unless attention is drawn to the organization.
People of faith are divided on whether this lobbying disclosure exception is appropriate.
Enter religious organizations that aren't themselves churches.
One such group that knows how to lobby is the National Association of Evangelicals. As an association of churches, it is also exempt from lobbying disclosure rules. An association publication, For the Health of the Nation, implicitly refers to lobbying.
"Evangelical Christians in America face a historic opportunity," the preamble begins. "We make up fully one quarter of all voters in the most powerful nation in history. Never before has God given American evangelicals such an awesome opportunity to shape public policy."
"The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause is directed only at government and restrains its power," it continues. "Thus, for example, the clause was never intended to shield individuals from exposure to the religious views of nongovernmental speakers. Exemptions from regulations or tax burdens do not violate the Establishment Clause, for government does not establish religion by leaving it alone."
In other words, the National Association of Evangelicals believes that lobbying disclosure exemptions is not a violation of the First Amendment.
Some groups view church lobbying disclosure exemptions as unfair, unnecessary or even unconstitutional.
These exemptions "would shock Thomas Jefferson and James Madison," Sean Fairchild, the executive director of the Secular Coalition of America, told OpenSecrets Blog.
"Any privileging of religion in law is of great concern to our organization, and I would hope it would be of great concern to any American," Fairchild continued.
He condemned the special exemption granted to churches in lobbying disclosure.
"We should absolutely have disclosure," he said. "There should be sunshine just like for any other organizations."
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, equated these special exemption rules with the notorious Jonestown Massacre and Pastor Jim Jones incident.
"He was not beholden to the government to report anything," she told OpenSecrets Blog. "This is the perfect cover."
"The whole thing stinks," she continued.
By far the largest religious organization that discloses its lobbying is the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit founded by members of the Society of Friends, or Quaker church.
In 2010, it spent more than $1.8 million on federal lobbying efforts, an increase of $1.2 million from 2009, according to Center for Responsive Politics' research. During 2008, the group posted a record high of more than $2 million.
“Quakers value integrity and truth-telling highly, so we willingly disclose our lobbying activities,” Jessica Halperin, FCNL's communications program assistant, wrote to OpenSecrets Blog in an email.
“Churches should disclose their lobbying efforts in order to be accountable to their members and their communities, particularly if they are a 501(c)(3) organization and their lobbying is being subsidized by taxpayers,” she continued. “If churches are lobbying, they should follow the rules and disclose their lobbying activities. If they enter the public discourse, they should be subject to the public debate.”
The Friends Committee has lobbied on dozens of bills and involves itself in contentious legislation.
Among the issues it has lobbied in favor of during the past include prohibitions on increasing the number of American forces in Afghanistan. Indeed, the organization claims to be "the largest team of registered peace lobbyists in Washington, D.C.," according to its website.
It has also lobbied on the health care reform bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, better known as the cap-and-trade bill and the Uniting American Families Act of 2009, which would prohibit an immigration judge from deporting an illegal immigrant parent of a child who is a U.S. citizen. During the legislative debate on climate change last year, it also lobbied on the "cap-and-trade" bill sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.
The Church of Scientology and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, are the only organized denominations to disclose any of their lobbying in 2010, according to the Center's research, likely because they hired outside lobbyists.
In 2010, the Church of Scientology spent $110,000, in part lobbying in favor of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, which would create a blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission of experts tasked with reviewing the nation’s criminal justice system and offering recommendations for reform.
Published on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Inter Press Service
The only instances in which a church must disclose their lobbying is if spends a “substantial” amount of money on lobbying, if more than 20 percent of its lobbyist’s income is from direct lobbying on behalf of the church or if it hires an outside lobbying firm. Then, the hired firm is required to disclose that it has lobbied on behalf of a religious institution. The “substantial” test is a murky one, with little enforcement of it, and as is the 20 percent rule, unless attention is drawn to the organization.
People of faith are divided on whether this lobbying disclosure exception is appropriate.
Enter religious organizations that aren't themselves churches.
One such group that knows how to lobby is the National Association of Evangelicals. As an association of churches, it is also exempt from lobbying disclosure rules. An association publication, For the Health of the Nation, implicitly refers to lobbying.
"Evangelical Christians in America face a historic opportunity," the preamble begins. "We make up fully one quarter of all voters in the most powerful nation in history. Never before has God given American evangelicals such an awesome opportunity to shape public policy."
"The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause is directed only at government and restrains its power," it continues. "Thus, for example, the clause was never intended to shield individuals from exposure to the religious views of nongovernmental speakers. Exemptions from regulations or tax burdens do not violate the Establishment Clause, for government does not establish religion by leaving it alone."
In other words, the National Association of Evangelicals believes that lobbying disclosure exemptions is not a violation of the First Amendment.
Some groups view church lobbying disclosure exemptions as unfair, unnecessary or even unconstitutional.
These exemptions "would shock Thomas Jefferson and James Madison," Sean Fairchild, the executive director of the Secular Coalition of America, told OpenSecrets Blog.
"Any privileging of religion in law is of great concern to our organization, and I would hope it would be of great concern to any American," Fairchild continued.
He condemned the special exemption granted to churches in lobbying disclosure.
"We should absolutely have disclosure," he said. "There should be sunshine just like for any other organizations."
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, equated these special exemption rules with the notorious Jonestown Massacre and Pastor Jim Jones incident.
"He was not beholden to the government to report anything," she told OpenSecrets Blog. "This is the perfect cover."
"The whole thing stinks," she continued.
By far the largest religious organization that discloses its lobbying is the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit founded by members of the Society of Friends, or Quaker church.
In 2010, it spent more than $1.8 million on federal lobbying efforts, an increase of $1.2 million from 2009, according to Center for Responsive Politics' research. During 2008, the group posted a record high of more than $2 million.
“Quakers value integrity and truth-telling highly, so we willingly disclose our lobbying activities,” Jessica Halperin, FCNL's communications program assistant, wrote to OpenSecrets Blog in an email.
“Churches should disclose their lobbying efforts in order to be accountable to their members and their communities, particularly if they are a 501(c)(3) organization and their lobbying is being subsidized by taxpayers,” she continued. “If churches are lobbying, they should follow the rules and disclose their lobbying activities. If they enter the public discourse, they should be subject to the public debate.”
The Friends Committee has lobbied on dozens of bills and involves itself in contentious legislation.
Among the issues it has lobbied in favor of during the past include prohibitions on increasing the number of American forces in Afghanistan. Indeed, the organization claims to be "the largest team of registered peace lobbyists in Washington, D.C.," according to its website.
It has also lobbied on the health care reform bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, better known as the cap-and-trade bill and the Uniting American Families Act of 2009, which would prohibit an immigration judge from deporting an illegal immigrant parent of a child who is a U.S. citizen. During the legislative debate on climate change last year, it also lobbied on the "cap-and-trade" bill sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.
The Church of Scientology and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, are the only organized denominations to disclose any of their lobbying in 2010, according to the Center's research, likely because they hired outside lobbyists.
In 2010, the Church of Scientology spent $110,000, in part lobbying in favor of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, which would create a blue-ribbon, bipartisan commission of experts tasked with reviewing the nation’s criminal justice system and offering recommendations for reform.
Published on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Inter Press Service
FIND the "Model Bills" HERE
Down with Tyranny!
Joseph Stiglitz Should Be Heading Obama's Economic Team-- Instead Of Warning Us About Another, Perhaps Worse, Recession
Obama has surrounded himself with a coterie of Wall Street hacks as an economic team. None of them are especially "better" than Republicans. All of them are free-market ideologues who follow the fascistic line pushed as American religion by the DuPonts starting in the 1920s and '30s. Credible economists, like Nobel winners Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, were excluded from the administration. And now Obama's only chance to win reelection is predicated on the GOP's tendency to nominate someone beyond the pale. Stiglitz wrote about what looks like a coming disaster in Slate earlier today.
Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology-- the belief in free and unfettered markets-- brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its heyday, from the early 1980s until 2007, American-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest of the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology's 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate.
Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of U.S. national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt.
I was among those who hoped that, somehow, the financial crisis would teach Americans (and others) a lesson about the need for greater equality, stronger regulation, and a better balance between the market and government. Alas, that has not been the case. On the contrary, a resurgence of right-wing economics, driven by ideology and special interests, once again threatens the global economy-- or at least the economies of Europe and North America, where these ideas continue to flourish.
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END GAME - THE COLLAPSE OF ECOSYSTEM & HUMAN CIVILIZATION
Expontential population growth, overconsumption, and an economy based on greed and growth, creates a human-induced ecocide, ushering in the earth's Sixth Extinction. At the end, humans will inflict their own demise as a species. The urgency is now to reduce human population growth, make drastic change in serious conservation, transit to a moral economy in mitigating the forthcoming catastrophic impact, the collapse of the ecosystem and human civilization.
References: Overpopulation Overviewhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overpopulation
The Sixth Extinctionhttp://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html
How Will the Sixth Extinction Affect Evolution of Specieshttp://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/myers_knoll.html
Easter Island, a lesson for us all http://www.care2.com/news/member/181228268/1772558U.N. report: Eco-systems at 'tipping point' http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/05/10/biodiversity.loss.report/
The State of Consumption Todayhttp://www.worldwatch.org/node/810
Nature's Bottom Linehttp://www.care2.com/news/member/181228268/1792881
Do We Fit On The Planet?http://www.urbanecology.org.au/articles/dowefit.html
Waltzing at the Doomsday Ballhttp://www.care2.com/news/member/181228268/1814273
Calling All Future-Eatershttp://www.care2.com/news/member/181228268/1814738
Human race ‘will be extinct within 100 years’, claims leading scientisthttp://www.care2.com/news/member/181228268/1859171Peak Food?
http://www.care2.com/news/member/181228268/1894247
Sustainability John Gossop, farmer and author of Famine in the West, explains why food prices are rising and why there will soon be food shortages even in developed countries. Peak Food, oil and gas shortages, climate change, increasing world population with millions in Asia eating more meat so needing more land per person when there is less, water shortages, competition from ethenol and biomass, falling fish stocks and crop land losses are all threats to food security. By Peakfood1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3lHcEVYP0g&feature=related
World Food & Human Population Growthhttp://www.panearth.org/world%20food%20&%20human%20population%20growth/player.html
We found no evidence to support the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis of a non-linear relationship between impact and per capita wealth, although there was a weak reduction in environmental impact as per capita wealth increases. Using structural equation models to account for cross-correlation, we found that increasing wealth was the most important driver of environmental impact.
Shttp://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0010440Load of info on complex issues http://www.dieoff.org/
How to Reduce Global Population
http://www.zimbio.com/Family+Policy/articles/15/Overpopulation+how+Reduce+Global+PopulationSmall is Beautiful - Economics as if People Matteredhttp://www.ecobooks.com/books/smbeaut.htm
Towards Permaculture Centres Worldwide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7nRoT142Y
Sustainability Education Network: http://sen4earth.org/articles/why-urgency/ More Ref.: http://www.vhemt.org/links.htm
Man Grew Marijuana For Wife With Cancer; Could Get 8 Years
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Big surprise! The DOJ said the scheduling remains the same. "Not so fast, partner, nothing changing as far as we're concerned." Marijuana is to remain classified as a Schedule I drug because of its "lack of medicinal benefits."... - Marijuana Lab Touts Free Website Development For Dispensaries...
BudGenius.com, which is both a social networking website and medical marijuana testing laboratory, announced on Wednesday it is introducing a $250,000 program for the development of 25 websites to be built for qualifying medical marijuana dispensaries.... - San Diego's Marijuana Dispensary Ban Blocked; Signatures OK'd...
Good news! San Diego's land use ordinance that activists say amounted to a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries has been effectively blocked, according to the group Citizens for Patients' Rights (CPR).... - 'No Toking' Signs To Be Banned In Amsterdam...
Only in the Netherlands! Amsterdam said it will likely have to ban the "No Toking" signs it introduced in an attempt to discourage youths from using marijuana. The government's adviser ruled that the city had no right to establish zones where smoking cannabis isn't allowed....
Rain Making Experience, Stunning Revelations
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