Today's popular content
- Wisconsin’s System Increasingly Rigged Against the Unemployed (46)
- The Health Care Industry vs. Health Reform (25)
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food" (20)
- About ALEC Exposed (18)
- More Corporations Drop Off ALEC's Conference Brochure (14)
- Harold Camping's Global Apocalypse PR Campaign (12)
- Resources for Investigating ALEC/NRA Gun Bills (11)
- Why Do We Need Health Care Reform? Don't Ask George Will (11)
- PBS Killed Wisconsin Uprising Documentary "Citizen Koch" To Appease Koch Brothers (11)
- This Is Going to Hurt: What Your Doctor Doesn't Say Can Cost You (10)
Readers' Comments
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Submitted by: Anonymous
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Submitted by: AndrewG
Mr. Lakely,
I challenge you to divulge the names of Heartland's donors and the amounts they donated. I have no qualms about making my donations to CMD and similar organizations public. I would have to check my records, but I believe I've given them about $250 over the past few years and intend to keep doing so. A little transparency might buy you some of the credibility you seem to be looking for.
It stands to reason that a Bush woud be associated with an orginization as crooked as ALEC, all Bush family members should belong to it, and> you want us to allow him to be a candidate for Pres,, didnt we get far more than we wanted with daddy and the drunk??? NO THANK YOU
After AT&T refused to even acknowledge criticism of its ALEC membership, I did the only conscionable thing: I stopped doing business with them. US Cellular, whose parent company has supported Russ Feingold and Tammy Baldwin in the past, got my business.
Perhaps the Koch Bros. should be forcibly kept out of negotiations entirely.
Their agenda, along with that of ALEC, is BAD for WORLD POLICY.
After all, we world citizens outnumber them -- they should be paying attention to what WE want and NEED.
The Friday after the election, I turned on the radio (KPOJ) to find two lunkheads babbling about sports and no sign of Carl in the Morning, my normal intellectual & political pick-me-up about local and national events.
If this were only about profits, I think the station owners would have given some warning and offered listeners some means of keeping the show going as well. But I think the real story is that right-wing-nut media moguls recognize the role of such programs in defeating their candidates and bills. This is a violation of FCC rules: the airwaves are on loan from We the People to media companies as long as they serve us. But increasingly the airwaves are being used to dumb us down, obfuscate and distract.
We're not standing for it here and our state senators have actually gotten involved. I urge you to demand the same.
Although I am not a Wisconsin resident, I have tried to be informed and involved with the ongoing issues that your Governor(?) has inflicted on your state and on union members. Reading this article infuriated me. Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns the press. I am happy to stand with your citizens to see that the voice of the people is not muffled. Good luck in getting Sly back.on the air. I intend to pass this article around to friends and family.
Hey, ALEC ... here's how I spell relief; You're toast. The word is out, adn so are you. You are seeing it - feeling it - and it's time for you to get it. You're done. We didn't elect you to run our show - and maybe it's time we did a little "crushing" of our own.
We've been there, done that ... adn we know what it's like when you rich folks run herd over us "little people".
We've had enough. S T O P - I T - N O W !!!
Hey, I don't want the 1% or 2% calling the shots for the rest of us. In fact, I am getting really tired of it. I don't want a bunch of old has beens running the show.
I want my - A m e r i c a - back, and I want it - N O W ! ! !
Oh, you didn't do it by yourself ... understand !!!
Bush, regardless if connect to H.W., "W", of Jeb, has become a name to be feared and held in contempt. This article pretty well points in the directions needed to both sustain and substantiate my point.
They say that to kill a snake you hav eto cut its head off. Well, while I like the symbolism of that act, starving it is also very functional. ALEC would not exist were it not for the profound greed and less than "American" intentions of its food source ... those who pay to belong to this deadly creature.
ALEC is worse than the most profound cancer know ... eating away as the very fabric of our land.
Kill the snake.
UncleReggie: Wisconsin voted Tammy Baldwin into the US Senate, and for Obama by a similar comfortable margin. In voting for our state legislature, Democrats beat Republicans statewide by a substantial number of votes. So, how did the Republicans retain control of the Assembly and take back the Senate? Here’s your word to look up for today: gerrymandering.
You see, BofA may have withdrawn from ALEC, but their character hasn't changed. You see, people are flocking to Credit unions ... everything banks once were, and more. AND, they are local. Locally owned and operated ... the profits from these Credit Unions are funneled back to th emembership.
Think about it ... a wolf in sheeps clothing is still a wolf, and I can hear B o fA howling from here.
Still "anking" with banks? Why? They aren't what they used to be, and they are getting worse. You see, what were once large investment houses are now banks. They are buying up and taking over all of we once knew as banks. Those "banks" you see around town ... those ones that used to be "local" ... well, they aren't.
Fact is, local banking is gone - over - done with. Those building are simply BINO's ... Banks In Name Only, and they have only one goal - to take and drain as much money out of your local area as they can, and line their pockets with it.
Y o u r - a l t e r n a t i v e . . . CREDIT UNIONS. They, for the most part, are what local banks once were.
I agree completely. I used to look forward to Monday mornings after a Sly-less weekend. Now I rely on public radio, which is also thoughtful and interesting but doesn't touch on local issues the way Sly did. I want to call him up and ask for his take on Tim Russell's plea deal, and Fitzgerald's rant on the GAB. In addition, Sly provided a forum for local candidates and was very helpful to me and other progressives when we ran for office. The frosting on Sly's cake was 30 minutes of John Nichols every day. Come back, Sly. We miss you.
Isn't it strange that we, as a society, allow politicians to shape our points of view and so many positions on many matters? Fact is, they only say things that suit them adn theirs, and we aren't included in that mix. Wealth and politics have mingled - they pay huge PR firms tell them what to tell us ... I call it puppet food.
So - politicians - why don't you guys just do your jobs for a change, or find new ones.
Norman Goldman, of the Norman Goldman Show,talked about this very thing just last week on his nightly program. His theory is that terrestrial (land-based) radio is going under anyway, as younger listeners tend to get their news and music on the Internet. Station owners are now appealing to the one or two demographics that they think will be supported by advertising. As a result, real local news is being jettisoned.
I have just informed, via a message, that I will drop my State Farm insurance if they are not out of ALEC in six months.
Is there an easy way to obtain a list of the corporations and legislators who remain tied to ALEC? I have seen the legislator list and took down the name of CA ones. Where can I find the businesses associated with this un-American activities group? I want to openly boycott as many of them as possible.
Thanks for your work and support
I agree with you that Congress should not receive a lifetime income. They should play by the same rules as every other employee (government or private sector). As for their insurance, let them pay for Cobra just like the rest of America.
However, anyone paying attention knows "getting rid of Obama" IS exactly what is best for our country.
Paul Ryan is not a communist. Our country would be better off if we had him in a higher position in government. I am still shocked that Romney and Ryan did not win the election. The blind adherence to our two-party system really worked against us. Did you even watch the debates, or just vote straight Democrat? Things are changing, Americans need to pay attention!
America voted to give Barack Hussein Obama a second term; that is a huge mistake. Obama is trying to destroy our great nation and some idiots gave him 4 more years to finish what he already started. The people who voted for Obama are responsible for the demise of the greatest country in the world. Idiots!!
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
"we wanted to send a message to kids" a message that the "law" is above itself?
sounds like those students were kidnapped for a period of time.
I have no sympathy for Wisconsin voters. They were warned about what would happen. They had the chance to keep sanity in their state government with elections, both regular and recall. They not only chose to give complete control back to the people who make screwy laws, but they returned the governor to his post when they could have sent him packing.
So now Wisconsin voters wanted it and they have it.
They now own their own legislature, and they are owned by it as well. It's all their own fault. Whatever happens in Wisconsin, voters in record numbers turned out and gave control of the state to the Right Wing Nut Jobs.
They wanted it, they have it. And it's all theirs.
Dear Sir or Madam:
What you describe are voter registration rules in many states *before* they were made more difficult in an effort to reduce likely Democratic voting populations.
In many states, a person could present their Driver's License or state-issued student ID along with a utility bill or lease to show her identity and residency and be able to vote, but what many of the ALEC-inspired laws do is say that you can no longer do that. You have to present a driver's license with an address in the precinct, not a bill or lease showing you live there but have not yet changed your driver's license (or in the case of students that you have your permanent address at your parents' place though you reside and vote many hours away, where you live). States have required that the ID have an expiration date, even though your identity does not expire and so a Medicare card or federally issued social security card or state issued college ID (which often requires greater verification and tuition money than a Driver's License) does not count. Other states require a birth certificate to get a driver's license but a driver's license to get a birth certificate (a Catch-22).
So, you see, these efforts are about manipulating the rules to make it harder for your fellow citizens to vote and it is about doing so to try to gain a partisan political advantage. And, that's something every citizen ought to be concerned about, as Americans.