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Wisconsin GOP Uses Parliamentary Trick to Protect Secret Corporate Spending

by Brendan Fischer — September 14, 2011 - 1:52pm
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Election 2012, BanksterUSA, Corporations, Democracy, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • Wisconsin Republicans, without going on-the-record with a vote, have used a legislative trick to block an election board rule that would have shed light on the corporate interests laundering election spending through front groups. The move echoes the American Legislative Exchange Council agenda and will likely ensure a flood of secret ads and robo-calls for Wisconsin's 2012 elections.

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    CMD and The Nation Magazine Win the Sidney Award for Investigative Journalism

    by PRW Staff — September 14, 2011 - 11:31am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Right Wing, Front Groups, Corporations, Democracy, Labor, Lobbying

    • The Sidney Hillman Foundation selected the Center for Media and Democracy and The Nation magazine for its prestigious "Sidney Award" this month.  The award recognizes our investigative journalism exposing the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which the Foundation called "an obscure but powerful conservative group that brings state legislators and corporations together to write laws."

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    Wisconsin Students Rally at Debate On Affirmative Action

    by Brendan Fischer — September 13, 2011 - 11:39pm
  • Topics: Activism, BanksterUSA, Democracy, Education, Election Protection, Race / Ethnic Issues, Social Justice, Wisconsin Protests

    • MADISON -- The president of the group alleging the University of Wisconsin discriminates against whites debated a law professor Tuesday night on the merits of race-based university admissions policies. Hundreds of students rallied and attended the debate.

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    Group Alleges University of Wisconsin's Diversity Policies are "Discriminatory;" Protesters Take Over Press Conference

    by Brendan Fischer — September 13, 2011 - 3:28pm
  • Topics: Activism, Human Rights, Labor, Race / Ethnic Issues, Wisconsin Protests

    • MADISON -- The University of Wisconsin-Madison's race-conscious admissions policies amount to "severe racial discrimination," announced Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) president Roger Clegg at a press conference Tuesday. As the event concluded, supporters of the university's diversity policies took over the conference room, and beneficiaries of the diversity policies Clegg attacked shared their experiences.

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    Wisconsin Legislators Support Corporate Right to Secret Spending

    by Brendan Fischer — September 13, 2011 - 9:01am
  • Topics: Corporations, Democracy, Election Protection, Politics, Wisconsin Protests

    • Wisconsin Republicans are pushing a bill to prohibit the state elections board from passing any rules regulating corporations, as part of an effort to thwart rules that would show how corporate interests are laundering election spending through front groups. Lawmakers only meet one day this month (Tuesday, September 13) and plan to take up the bill during that brief window.*

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    CNN Sustains Tea Party Myth

    by Brendan Fischer — September 12, 2011 - 9:20am
  • Topics: Astroturf, Activism, Corporations, Election Protection, Politics

    • CNN Online has published a story titled an "angry electorate helps sustain tea party," ignoring the clear evidence the "movement" is only sustained by thinly-veiled religious zeal and wealthy funders like the Koch brothers.

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    Wisconsin Worker Fired for Email on Free Voter IDs

    by Mary Bottari — September 9, 2011 - 8:00am
  • Topics: Activism, ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy

    • A Wisconsin worker was fired Thursday for reminding fellow workers that photo IDs required for voting are free under Wisconsin law.

    A man identifying himself as Chris Larson called into "Sly in the Morning," a popular Madison radio program on WTDY-AM, and said he had been fired and escorted out of his workplace earlier in the day for sending out an email to remind employees to tell the public that they can obtain a state license for free. Larson said he worked for the Department of Safety and Professional Services, which is under Secretary Dave Ross.

    The man was reacting to recent news stories that the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles may be hiding the fact that the IDs, which are newly required for voting in Wisconsin, are free. Hours after his dismissal, a small crowd gathered in front of his place of employment to protest his firing.

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    Cantor Introduces ALEC's Agenda to the House

    by Rebekah Wilce — September 8, 2011 - 7:40pm
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Environment

    • House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), an alumnus of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which the Center for Media and Democracy has been investigating through ALECexposed.org, recently highlighted a memo on his "Upcoming Jobs Agenda." He described his agenda as "pursuing a steady repeal of job-destroying regulations ... that have tied the hands of small business people and prevented job growth."

    His wish list was sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which announced on September 6th that Obama's forthcoming jobs plan should scrap its "aggressive and voluntary regulatory agenda and adopt an immediate moratorium on any regulation that will harm job growth." The committee has already approved the "Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation" (TRAIN) Act.

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    A Deficit in Democracy Draws More Than One Thousand to Convention

    by Sara Jerving — September 8, 2011 - 4:49pm
  • Topics: Democracy

    • More than a thousand Americans descended on Wisconsin's state capitol last month to toss around ideas on how to achieve genuine democracy in the U.S. This discussion was part of the first-ever Democracy Convention, bringing together over 200 speakers in more than 150 sessions.

    The panels covered a wide range of topics, including disenfranchisement caused by voter suppression laws (often called "Voter ID Laws" by their proponents), the corporate push to privatize public services, and achieving eco-climate justice, among others.

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    Local Ordinances and Land Grabs: Democracy Convention Panels Discuss Food Sovereignty

    by Rebekah Wilce — September 8, 2011 - 12:50pm
  • Topics: Agriculture, Democracy, Social Justice

    • Attendees of the Democracy Convention in Madison in late August were treated to panels on a host of different issues, from democratic media to racial inequality. The Center for Media and Democracy was one of the sponsors of the convention, and our own Lisa Graves and Brendan Fischer addressed democracy activists. At panels on food sovereignty, we heard from a range of experts, including local Wisconsin dairy farmer Jim Goodman, Massachusetts food and farming activist Barbara Clancy and Jim Tarbell of the Alliance for Democracy (publishers of Justice Rising), and Ronnie Cummins, leader of the Organic Consumers Association.

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