Guest Contributor

America's Mad Cow Crisis

by John Stauber — April 27, 2012 - 10:31am

Topics: Mad Cow Disease, Food Rights Network

Americans might remember that when the first mad cow was confirmed in the United States in December, 2003, it was major news. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had been petitioned for years by lawyers from farm and consumer groups I worked with to stop the cannibal feeding practices that transmit this horrible, always fatal, human and animal dementia. When the first cow was found in Washington state, the government said it would stop such feeding, and the media went away. But once the cameras were off and the reporters were gone nothing substantial changed.

Guest Contributor

ALEC Leader Admits Last Week's Announcement Was a PR Stunt

by PRW Staff — April 25, 2012 - 8:40am

Topics: ALEC Exposed

-- by Campaign Staff at ColorOfChange.org

Last week, ALEC acknowledged that it was reeling after its corporate sponsors -- some of which pay hundreds of thousands of dollars at times for membership in the right-wing group -- started dropping like flies. In a statement that sidestepped any admission of wrongdoing for pushing voter suppression and Stand Your Ground/Shoot First bills nationwide, ALEC announced, "We are eliminating the ALEC Public Safety and Elections task force that dealt with non-economic issues, and reinvesting these resources in the task forces that focus on the economy."

Guest Contributor

If the Other Shoe Drops, I Want Medicare

by PRW Staff — April 13, 2012 - 10:06am

-- by Donna Smith of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, originally posted on MichaelMoore.com. Donna's battle with medical bills and bankruptcy was documented in the 2007 Michael Moore film Sicko.

There has never been any doubt in my mind that if I face another cancer diagnosis that requires prolonged treatments and has an uncertain outcome, I would rather die than fight it. As an insured American who knows first-hand how quickly a cancer in my body turns to full out trauma in my career and in my finances, I just cannot do it again nor can I ask my husband to risk his own life and security either. It wouldn't be fair.

Guest Contributor

A Police Officer Speaks on ALEC and "Stand Your Ground"

by PRW Staff — April 12, 2012 - 3:08pm

Topics: ALEC Exposed, Democracy

-- by Brian Austin, originally posted on Badger Blue, Times Two.

"The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away."

-- William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Question of the day: What interest would a corporate lobbyist group have in expanding the rights of citizens to shoot and kill each other?

A great deal has been written about the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin and Bo Morrison over the past several weeks. I don't need to rehash that conversation, as there is little I can offer regarding specific facts of those cases. What I would like to do instead is examine why these Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground Laws have been promoted with such enthusiasm by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

I have written about ALEC in several prior posts, including Enemy at the Gates and Contempt, thy name is Fitzgerald. In short, ALEC is a corporate lobbyist group that writes model legislation favorable to its corporate members and presents this legislation for passage in statehouses across the nation. The conduit for this legislation are the legislators who are also members of ALEC. This partnership between corporate lobbyists and politicians has been very fruitful for the corporations hawking their legislation. This is fact, not conspiracy theory, as evidenced when ALEC legislation was recently introduced in Florida still bearing the ALEC mission statement.

Guest Contributor

A Silver Bullet That Would End Secret Tax-Exempt Money In Elections

by PRW Staff — April 11, 2012 - 2:24pm

Topics: Election 2012, Corporations, Democracy, Politics

A guest post by Greg Colvin, a partner at the firm Adler & Colvin, originally published at OurFuture.org.

No doubt about it, large unlimited donations are flowing into SuperPACs from rich individuals and corporations aimed at influencing who is elected at all levels of government in 2012. With the SuperPACs and other forms of political committees regulated by the federal and state election agencies, or by the IRS under section 527, at least we know who the donors are.

Guest Contributor

Unpacking the Shale Gas LNG Export Boom

by Steve Horn — April 3, 2012 - 8:24am

Topics: Corporations, Environment, Health

This post was originally published at Nation of Change.

While the North American shale gas boom continues full-steam ahead, so too does another boom receiving less of the spotlight: the LNG export boom.

LNG, shorthand for liquefied natural gas, is gas that's been condensed into a liquid form by chilling it to approximately −162 °C (−260 °F). That gas is placed in LNG tankers, also known as "trains," then shipped off to lucrative global markets.

Guest Contributor

Only People Can Vote—Only People Should Finance Campaigns, within Limits

by PRW Staff — March 28, 2012 - 9:47am

Topics: Election 2012, Corporations, Democracy, Politics

-- By Greg Colvin, originally published on OurFuture.org

Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Citizens United case two years ago, saying that the Constitution gives corporations the right to spend without limit to influence American elections, people have been asking "how can we amend the Constitution to put this right?"

Guest Contributor

Breaking Up with the Sierra Club

by PRW Staff — March 26, 2012 - 10:20am

Topics: Energy, Environment

-- by Sandra Steingraber; this intro and open letter were originally posted on the Orion magazine blog.

Orion's search for a more truthful relationship between humans and the natural world occasionally calls for the expression of outrage. The more we learn about a gas-drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing—or "fracking"—the more we see it as a zenith of violence and disconnect, impulses that seem to be gathering on the horizon like thunder clouds.

Long-time friend and Orion columnist Sandra Steingraber has been particularly vocal about the dangers of fracking. Her columns in recent issues of the magazine have frequently been dedicated to the issue; and last year, after receiving a Heinz Award for her work, Steingraber donated the cash prize to the fight against fracking in her home state of New York.

Guest Contributor

Cantor Quietly Acknowledges Failing to Report ALEC Gift

by PRW Staff — March 23, 2012 - 10:05am

Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Ethics

--by Nick Surgey of Common Cause; originally posted on CommonBlog.

In February, Common Cause wrote to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, asking for an explanation about an apparently unreported $1,350 gift from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 2009. Cantor's office immediately responded, claiming our inquiry was without foundation, but last week his office quietly amended his financial disclosures to include the gift from ALEC.

At that time, I wrote about Cantor's failure to disclose:

ALEC, the so-called "free market, small government" lobby group underwritten by some of the nation's largest corporations, reported in its tax filings for 2008 and 2009, making "cash grants" to the recipients of several annual awards. Common Cause has identified 22 legislators who received ALEC awards in those two years, including Rep. Cantor, who ALEC records indicate received $1,350 in 2009 as part of their Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award.

Guest Contributor

ALEC Model Bill Behind Push To Require Climate Denial Instruction In Schools

by Steve Horn — January 26, 2012 - 12:09pm

Topics: ALEC Exposed, Global Warming, Children, Education

On January 16, the Los Angeles Times revealed that anti-science bills have been popping up over the past several years in statehouses across the U.S., mandating the teaching of climate change denial or "skepticism" as a credible "theoretical alternative" to human caused climate change came.