Prison-population-graph. Parks Chief Blocked Plan for Grand Canyon Bottle Ban. Update: ALEC States & Nation Policy Summit Nov. 30 - Dec. 2 in Scottsdale. The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch. Services The Salsa Client Services team handles all new client set-ups as well as custom projects such as data clean-up, large-scale content and campaign migration, webpage customization and custom reporting.
For more services including everything from strategic consulting to development, we have a community of partners ready to help too. Support The folks in support help you be successful in Salsa in a friendly, clear and efficient manner. You can count on the support specialists to ask you questions to target the specific problem and determine how to best address your concerns. Training We provide weekly online training, certification courses and strategic best practices webinars and resources at a variety of levels so you can customize your education the way you need it. Private Prisons in a Wider Context (part 1 of 2) Report: Natural Gas Industry Spent Millions to Avoid Fracking Regulations. According to a new report by the nonpartisan group Common Cause, the natural gas industry has pumped millions into Congress to avoid regulation of hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking. " According to a new report by the nonpartisan group Common Cause, the natural gas industry has pumped millions into Congress to avoid regulation of hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking.
" (photo: Kara Newhouse) Fracking is a controversial method of obtaining natural gas involving injecting a mix of sand, chemicals, and water into a well at high pressure. Questions have been raised about the possibility of polluting groundwater near fracking sites, and was documented in a 1987 EPA study. The new report details that $747 million has been spent during a successful 10-year campaign.
“Players in this industry have pumped cash into Congress in the same way they pump toxic chemicals into underground rock formations to free trapped gas,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. Private school charity rules scrapped after legal challenge. Koch Brothers Poised to Raise Influence With Massive Conservative Database - The ITT List. David and Charles Koch—billionaire brothers and infamous figureheads of libertarian activism—are set to further certify their status as lynchpins of the Republican electoral machine.
As the Guardian reports, the two oil moguls are creating a database that unites far-flung conservative think tanks, activist groups, tea party organizations, fundraising gurus and free market ideologues into a comprehensive list likely to make GOP campaign managers salivate in advance of next year’s elections. Named Themis—after the Greek goddess who imposed divine order on humanity—the database will include valuable information for conservative organizers and fundraisers. Email lists, phone numbers and other contact information from disperse sources will merge into a comprehensive and streamlined political weapon. Purportedly, the database will also include extensive information relating to occupation and income levels, useful details for targeted fundraising initiatives.
The Truth about ALEC and its role in Michigan « We Are The People. The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor | Truthout. The breaded chicken patty your child bites into at school may have been made by a worker earning twenty cents an hour, not in a faraway country, but by a member of an invisible American workforce: prisoners. At the Union Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Florida, inmates from a nearby lower-security prison manufacture tons of processed beef, chicken and pork for Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE), a privately held non-profit corporationthat operates the state’s forty-one work programs.
In addition to processed food, PRIDE’s website reveals an array of products for sale through contracts with private companies, from eyeglasses to office furniture, to be shipped from a distribution center in Florida to businesses across the US. PRIDE boasts that its work programs are “designed to provide vocational training, to improve prison security, to reduce the cost of state government, and to promote the rehabilitation of the state inmates.” Meet the Three ALEC Supporting Corporate Giants Who Dare You to Boycott Them.
As the ALEC boycott continues to grow some corporations are not getting the message. Executives from Pfizer, Reynolds American, and Procter & Gamble are daring you to boycott them. Beneath the good news that Kraft and Pepsi have joined Coca-Cola in deciding to stop supporting ALEC, there are some companies who just don’t get it. According to Reuters, Pfizer, Reynolds American, and Procter & Gamble have all came out in support of ALEC. Tobacco maker Reynolds American said, “ALEC provides a valuable forum for sharing of ideas and fostering better understanding of a broad range of both legislative and business issues.” Of the three companies who are standing with ALEC, one is a tobacco company and the other is a drug maker.
Both of these companies smugly believe that consumers are stuck using their products either due to addiction (Reynolds) or medical need (Pfizer). I would argue that politically inclined Americans who smoke can always change brands, so Reynolds shouldn’t get too comfy. Naked ALEC and the Right Wing Conspiracy. Graphics from the Center for Media and Democracy. ALEC Naked: More news from the 'vast right wing conspiracy' By Paul Beckett / The Rag Blog / November 10, 2011 MADISON, Wisconsin -- It’s all we needed!
Another dimension of the “vast right-wing conspiracy” comes to light, like a horror movie monster emerging from primeval slime. What’s its name? ALEC brings together state legislators (overwhelmingly, conservative Republicans) and corporate leaders in annual meetings to propose, review, and approve the legislation that they would LIKE to see passed at the state level. Corporations’ business interests (profits, reduction of taxes, regulation, environmental protections, etc.) are melded with the ideological content of the right-wing politicians (guns, privatizing schools, anti-abortion, Voter ID, etc.).
ALEC staff assist adaptations in language and strategy to the circumstances of different states. Is ALEC new? Then came January 2011 and the inauguration of Governor Scott Walker. ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) Awareness Event. OCCUPY ALEC! Meet ALEC, The Big Bus Driver. Have you met ALEC? The American Legislative Exchange Council? You should meet 'em. ALEC is a little-known but extremely influential organization funded by big business, for its own benefit. In theory, ALEC is a joint operation, where business and state lawmakers "exchange" ideas on legislation. If you sense a national pattern, you're right. Some of the companies on ALEC's Board: AT&T, Coca-Cola, Exxon Mobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Industries, Kraft, Pfizer, State Farm, UPS, Wal-Mart.
Other corporate involvement: AEP, BP American, Chevron, ComCast, Conoco Phillips, Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, G.M., McDonald's, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Nevada Energy, RJ Reynolds, Shell Oil, Time Warner, United Healthcare, Verizon, VISA, Wellpoint Healthcare. Some ALEC "Award Winners": Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Some ALEC "Featured Speakers": George W. Some ALEC-affiliated "Alumni" in U.S. Additional ALEC members include trade groups, lobbyists, and law firms out the ass. Kinda one-sided, eh? ALEC Politicians. Kids Eating Rat Poison is an "Acceptable Risk" for ALEC. An American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member is defying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose dangers to children and the ecosystem. ALEC representatives say that kids eating rat poison is an "acceptable risk" that does not justify government intervention in the market.
For decades, tens of thousands of young children have become ill after touching or ingesting rat poison applied "loose," in pellet form. And a variety of wild animals, from bald eagles to bobcats to owls, have been found dead with lethal levels of a super-toxic rodenticide in their systems. EPA Rules Limit Some Rodenticides After thirteen years of studies, hearings, reports and legal battles, the EPA announced in 2008 rodenticide manufacturers would have three years to adopt limits on the sale of the products. Bait Station (Robert McClure/InvestigateWest) ALEC itself and other allies have jumped to the defense of the global corporation. Poisoned Children, EPA Delays. NAACP targets tougher voter qualifications.
The NAACP launched a campaign Monday against new state laws that tighten voter qualifications. The NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, two separate organizations, were set to release a report that finds that such laws tend to suppress minority voting — a trend the document says emerged after unprecedented minority turnout in the 2008 election and Census figures that show people of color gaining a larger share of the population. The groups will send the document to congressional leaders, state attorneys general, secretaries of state and the Department of Justice in hopes of prompting legislation to roll back laws requiring government-issued identification at the polls and reducing the number of early-voting days and other measures they say could disenfranchise as many as 5 million voters. The NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, will lead a march to United Nations headquarters in New York on Saturday to draw attention to the issue.
American Legislative Exchange Council. The Alec Republican States and Governors. STATE BY STATE CORP TAKE OVER. Gates Foundation Grants ALEC A Hefty Sum For 'Education Reform' Map. Charter Schools Strategists: Heritage, FOTF, NBR. Charter Schools, Character Education & the Eugenics InternationaleBehind the Conservative Curtain: Pseudo Grassroots Organizations Front for Corporate/Government Takeover By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. Proverbs 8:15 & 16 Strategists for School Choice / Charter Schools Pseudo-conservative and nominally Christian organizations are leading their unsuspecting supporters to rally behind charter school legislation and the creation of charter schools. A network of private foundations also collaborate around this goal: Through a number of venues the Heritage Foundation accomplishes its agenda: Ø American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] ALEC [Sam Brunelli CNP] is a spin-off organization of the Heritage Foundation. ALEC has been a recipient of grants totaling: $2,053,000 between the years 1985 to 1999: Castle Rock Foundation [Coors, CNP], Allegheny Foundation [Scaife], Charles G. 2000 Private Enterprise Board U.S. Our Step-By-Step Guide to Understanding ALEC’s Influence on Your State Laws.
ALEC and its members favor “federalism and conservative public policy solutions,” and ALEC representatives tell reporters that its mission is fundamentally “educational.” [10] ALEC spokeswoman Raegan Weber told the Los Angeles Times [11], “Legislators should hear from those the government intends to regulate.” Founded in the mid-1970s, ALEC has no real counterpart on the left. Its closest equivalent, the Progressive States Network [12], was founded in 2005, has about a quarter of ALEC’s funding and produces only a small amount of model legislation. Thanks to a critical mass of resources now available on the Internet, you, too, can trace which of ALEC’s model bills made it to statehouses, which legislators sponsored them and which industries may have had an interest in the success of the bill.
You can find 800 of ALEC’s model bills [13] on the Center for Media and Democracy’s “ALEC Exposed” site. Step one: Focus on a particular legislator or issue Confused? BlueLiquid Times. PowerLine Steps Forward to Defend Poor Ol' ALEC. Yesterday afternoon there was an interesting entry on the PowerlIne blog by John Hinderaker, coming to the rescue of poor ol' ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) down in Scottsdale. For those of you not familiar with Powerline or HInderaker – I will give you a little history. PowerLine (my emphasis) “Power Line is an American political blog, providing news and commentary from a conservative point-of-view.” (wiki) “A 2007 memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee described Power Line as one of the five best-read national conservative blogs.”
(wiki) “It was originally written by three lawyers who attended Dartmouth College together: John H. Hinderaker, Scott W. Johnson, and Paul Mirengoff.” Some Interesting History About Powerline Then there is some interesting history about John Hinderaker Hinderaker is an attorney for the law firm Faegre and Benson. And then there is this excerpt from Hinderaker’s blog entry from 12/01/11 Second Third Fourth And finally Poor babies. BREAKING NEWS: Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters « AZ resists ALEC. 12:13 PM - Cops pushing everyone back to sidewalk, snatched a few people from crowd 12:00 PM – Atleast 12 arrests at SRP occupation, 5 still locked down – Stand by for jail support! 10:30 AM – 5 Locked Down while 70 support in Salt River Project Headquarters SHUT DOWN ALEC MEMBERS! Friday, December 2, 2011 Media Contact: Email: AZresistsmedia@gmail.com Websites: www.azresistsalec.wordpress.com www.ShutDownALEC.org www.BlackMesais.org BREAKING NEWS: Indigenous Elders & Supporters Occupy ALEC Member Salt River Project Headquarters TEMPE, AZ — Indigenous Dine’ (Navajo) and O’odham elders and supporters are taking direct action by occupying Salt River Project (SRP) headquarters today at 10am.
Louise Benally, a resident of Black Mesa impacted by SRP’s operations, is delivering a letter to SRP that outlines critical concerns of her community. Ofelia Rivas, founder of O’odham VOICE against the Wall, was protesting SRP. Big Mountain Sovereign Dine’ Nation P.O. Flagstaff, AZ 86001 Salt River Project. ALEC-IN-ARIZONA. Broadcast Yourself. Broadcast Yourself. Broadcast Yourself. Lisa Graves at Phoenix Community forum. OccupyALEC November 30th 2011. Phoenix protesters pepper-sprayed at Westin Kierland Resort. By Bob Ortega, Alia Rau and Lisa Kennell - Nov. 30, 2011 08:15 PM The Arizona Republic Phoenix police dressed in riot gear made seven arrests and twice used pepper spray against knots of people among about 200 protesters Wednesday at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in northeast Phoenix.
The protesters, many loosely affiliated with the "Occupy" movement, said they want to call public attention to the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization meeting at the resort that brings together large corporations and conservative state lawmakers to draft model bills. PHOTOS: Occupy Phoenix protest at Westin Kierland "These people are writing laws that are rubber-stamped and passed in state legislatures all around the country," said one protester, Rob Smith, 36, of Phoenix, adding that laws "should not be written behind closed doors, particularly by corporations. " Protesters and police for the most part were orderly. Gov. Indigenous elders leading the march to shut down #ALEC - as it needs to be. #ALECexposed #occupyALEC #occupyphoenix” ALEC Politicians.
Wis GOP @RepVos outed at annual ALEC meeting in Scottsdale, AZ today. PHOTO: #WIunion #ALECexposed. When you talk too much for Twitter. Immigrant Detainees Languish in Notorious Etowah County Detention Center. By Jennifer Podkul, Program Officer, Detention & Asylum, posted: September 22, 2011 The Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama, houses immigration detainees along with county inmates. The facility, which on any given day houses over 300 immigrants, is notorious for poor conditions. It is hours away from any immigration court or international airport , despite only housing people who have final orders of removal from the United States. Many of the detainees have been held here for months, if not years. Etowah should be closed for two reasons. First, the facility is inappropriate for civil detention. How We Got Here: In 2010, after years of controversy around Etowah’s dreadful conditions, the Obama administration promised to move toward a more civil form of detention by building newer, better facilities located closer to detainees’ homes and families, to legal service providers and to good medical care.
The jail has three units dedicated to housing civil detainees. Spiritualution on USTREAM. The Shocking Ways the Corporate Prison Industry Games the System. When you talk too much for Twitter. For those of you. Schedule « AZ resists ALEC. The UpTake 2. ALEC in Arizona, Voters in the Dark. When you talk too much for Twitter. Governor Jan Brewer to Speak on First Day of ALEC Convention - Phoenix News. Privatization of Punishment. MONEYPOWERANDALEC. ALEC EXPOSED / STOP ALEC BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!! ALEC to convene in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Third Man. The Goldman Sachs Project to take over the world. ALEC scandal goes international - UK Knighthood, Thatcher and 3M involved.
ABOLISH ALEC - Buy Locally for the Holidays (w/poll) OCCUPY ALEC! The Pioneer | Whitman news, delivered. » Whitman community concerned about Koch-funded lecture. Publicopoly Exposed. For Only $850,000, These Lobbyists Will Take Down Occupy Wall Street. 091411-federalpledgesigners(1)