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Nonpartisan “Truthtelling” at ALEC

by Brendan Fischer — August 11, 2011 - 8:32am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, BanksterUSA, Corporations, Democracy, Media, Politics

    • A "radical, possibly deranged, truthteller" will be the 2012 GOP presidential candidate, said political commentator Tucker Carlson at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in New Orleans. Speaking between workshops on the benefits of carbon emissions and task force meetings where corporations and politicians vote on "model bills," Carlson joined right-wing leaders who sang the praises of the Tea Party and "sticking to your guns," cursed Obama and other "big government liberals," and praised the same "cut, cap, and balance" agenda manifest in the ALEC bills and pushed by national politicians in Washington D.C.

    Diageo to Hispanics: Drink More Hard Liquor!

    by Anne Landman — August 10, 2011 - 2:21pm

    American Legislative Exchange Council corporate member Diageo, PLC, which owns Smirnoff, Ketel One, Captain Morgan, Cuervo, Crown Royal, Johnnie Walker and other hard liquore brands, will ramp up its spending on TV ads targeting Hispanics by 3,000 percent to convince them to drink more hard liquor instead of beer. In the past, hard liquor ads on Hispanic TV have been rare. Diageo spent $147.7 million on advertising last year, none of which was spent on Spanish-language network TV. But now Diageo has announced it will start pouring money into ads on the Univision network, which owns 36 Spanish-language TV stations covering 60 percent of the country. Diageo is basing its new Hispanic targeting on U.S. Census data that showed a 43 percent increase in the Hispanic population over the past decade, and statistics showing Hispanics tend to buy more beer than hard liquor compared to other groups.

    Main Source: 
    Advertising Age, July 25, 2011
    News

    ‘The Day When $$$$ Equals Speech' Online Day of Action

    by Brendan Fischer — August 10, 2011 - 8:22am
  • Topics: Corporations, Democracy, Election Protection, Politics

    • The Center for Media and Democracy has joined a diverse coalition of groups in an online protest of the made-up notion that "money is speech" and that corporations have a "free speech right" to distort democracy with unlimited spending.

    News

    Top Companies Claim To Fight Global Warming, But Sponsor ALEC’s Climate Denial

    by Anonymous — August 9, 2011 - 1:41pm
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Environment, Ethics

    • (By Brad Johnson, reposted from ThinkProgress, August 8, 2011)

    The fight against global warming pollution requires the investment of everyone, including the world's multinational corporate giants. Many companies have taken official stances on climate pollution, pledging to reduce their greenhouse footprint in order to reduce the threat of a destabilized climate.

    However, a number of these same companies are sponsoring toxic, far-right denial of climate science. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) pushes an extremist denier agenda throughout the United States, funded in secret by corporations. ThinkProgress has acquired a list of the sponsors of ALEC's 2011 annual meeting, held last week in New Orleans, Louisiana.

    News

    Protesters Spotlight Corporate Influence in State Politics at ALEC Annual Meeting

    by Eric Carlson — August 7, 2011 - 1:48pm
  • Topics: Activism, ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Democracy, Ethics, Labor, Politics, Secrecy

    • As they sometimes say in the South, it's all about taking care of bid'ness.

    But don't tell that to the group of 100 or so protesters, who on Friday afternoon marched on the Marriott hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), where corporate lobbyists were voting with state lawmakers on "model" legislation at the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) 38th Annual Meeting.

    The protest, organized in part by Louisiana State University's Student Labor Action Project, the Defend Ohio Campaign, and activists from across the country, began at the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown NOLA. That same day, members of the local community also gathered to celebrate the conviction of five police officers on charges stemming from the notorious Danziger Bridge case. A federal jury found the officers guilty of civil rights violations in the shootings of unarmed citizens.

    News

    Journalist Kicked out of ALEC Conference, Threatened With Arrest

    by Eric Carlson — August 5, 2011 - 7:32am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Journalism, Corporations, Ethics, Lobbying, Secrecy

    • In late July, shortly after the launch of ALECexposed.org, Lousiana State Rep.Noble Ellington, a Republican from the state's 20th district and the national chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council, spoke to NPR about the recent spate of criticism leveled at his organization. When discussing the behind-closed-doors process used to craft ALEC model legislation, Ellington dismissed concerns raised by NPR, assuring interviewer Terry Gross that the public "have an opportunity to talk to their legislators about the legislation -- so I don't see how you can get more transparent than that."

    News

    Common Cause Releases Study of ALEC Corporations' Power

    by Anne Landman — August 5, 2011 - 12:56am
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Democracy

    • On August 3, the national Common Cause office released a study of the American Legislative Exchange Council's political clout titled, "Legislating Under the Influence: Money, Power, and the American Legislative Exchange Council" (pdf). The study examines the campaign contributions from corporations, political action committees, executives and employees associated with the 22 companies represented on ALEC's "Private Enterprise Board." Common Cause found that through the efforts and largesse of global firms like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Koch Industries, AT&T, Altria (the parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris) and Exxon Mobil, ALEC has quietly managed to turn itself into a powerful force in all 50 state capitols.

    News

    FreedomWorks Announces AstroTurf Roadshow

    by PRW Staff — August 4, 2011 - 5:35pm
  • Topics: Astroturf, Right Wing, Front Groups, Corporations, Democracy

    • FreedomWorks, Inc., a non-profit organization heavily involved with the Tea Party movement, announced on August 3rd a new round of Tea Party rallies throughout Wisconsin. The first rally is in Hudson, Wisconsin, on Friday, August 5th, and other rallies are scheduled for LaCrosse, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, New London, Merrill, Rhinelander and DePere through Monday, August 8th. See schedule here.

    Op-Ed

    Do We Really Need Insurers in Primary Care?

    by Wendell Potter — August 4, 2011 - 12:38pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Economy, Health

    • For health insurance executives, there is no scarier word than disintermediation. It's a fancy word that means eliminating the middleman, and those executives know that to many folks, they are the middlemen who all too often stand between patients and their doctors.

    Now a small but growing number of doctors are figuring out that they and their patients can do quite well without the middleman. If this nascent trend catches on, insurance executives might soon discover that they have been disintermediated, at least as far as the delivery of primary care is concerned.

    News

    ALEC Model Bills Create Hardship for Average Americans

    by Eric Carlson — August 4, 2011 - 8:33am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Ethics, Labor, Lobbying, Politics, Secrecy

    • On Wednesday morning, a group of Americans from across the political spectrum, and the country, held a press conference in New Orleans to highlight the devastating impact of the "model" legislation voted on by corporations through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

    The event, hosted by People for the American Way and moderated by Center for Media and Democracy Executive Director Lisa Graves, was held directly across the street from ALEC's 38th annual meeting, where corporate lobbyists and state legislators gathered to attend Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindall's PhRMA-sponsored keynote address.

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