We are off to see the BIG BIZ WIZES: The Wonderful World of A.L.E.C.

The Mackinac Center has announced the following Michigan A.L.E.C. Legislative members will be attending the Koch sponsored A.L.E.C. Annual Convention and shindig in New Orleans this coming week:

1. Senator Bruce Caswell-R Hillsdale
2. Rep. Kenneth Kurtz R-Coldwater.
3. Rep. Matthew Lori , R-Constantine

'WE are the People' asks: "Why would our legislators help global firms located outside of their district?

'WE are the People' further informs in their piece "The Truth About ALEC":

"ALEC's appeal rests largely on the fact that legislators receive an all-expenses-paid trip that provides many part-time legislators with vacations that they could not afford on their own, along with the opportunity to rub shoulders with wealthy captains of industry (major prospective out-of-state donors to their political cam­paigns). For a few hours of work on a task force and a couple of indoctrination sessions by ALEC experts, part-time legislators can bring the whole family to ALEC's annual convention, work for a few hours, then stay in swank hotels, attend cool par­ties - even strip clubs" and raise funds for the campaign coffer, all heavily subsidized by the corporate till. In 2009, ALEC spent $251,873 on child­care so mom and dad could have fun."

Questions to ask state legislators before the next session:

"Did you attend the August 2011 ALEC conference in New Orleans, and if so, what model legislation did you bring back?

What bills do you plan to introduce or co-sponsor this session?

Have any corporations weighed in on the drafting of this legislation or helped draft it, and if so, in what ways do they benefit?"

All across North America people in Canada, Mexico and the United States have become acutely aware that something very incidious and corrupting has been going on right under our noses. "Who us?" is the low key apology coming from official A.L.E.C.. It is their signature PR and propaganda defense to say, we have been hard at this kind of "corporatist favoring," plug-&-play" scheme making the "harmful" to your health, personal bottomlines, and environment look and appear to be "ordinary," "acceptable" and "just-plain-how-things are."

So don't become alarmed, we know best how to govern and so lay off and let us get on with our objectives. What a mistake that would be!!!

The Koch Brothers have given America a special chill. They wield more power and influence by the SCOPE of their business interests, including, petroleum, building products (Georgia Pacific) and even Angel Soft toilet tissue. With a reported combined net worth of over $40 Billion, that is BILLION WITH A "B." 

The Billionaire Brothers Koch have infiltrated many areas of radical right and the ideology of their pet project the "CATO Institute" is invasive and corrupting of good government. Just as OLD JOE KENNEDY SR. told a family friend, the thrill of mega-money is NOT the money, which is pleasant and facilitates just about anything, it's the POWER AND INFLUENCE that comes with money that is the highest addiction and obsession.


Original Post.

Smart A.L.E.C. in the Michigan: The secret is There is No Secret… But Oh Yes, There Is!

Smart A.L.E.C. - Current AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL NATIONAL CHAIRMAN (one Noble Ellington - a Louisiana Bourbon Republican) POURED SNAKE OIL ON THE SCANDAL THAT IS BREWING NATIONALLY OVER CORPORATIONS DICATATIONG AND WRITING LAW/RESOLUTIONS.

See Original INTERVIEWS in "National Chairman Of ALEC Responds To Report" in PART 2, also See PART 1 "Who's Really Writing States' Legislation?".

Beyond evasive and condescending, Noble Ellington misrepresented and dissimulated the clever lies A.L.E.C. uses as a blanket defense: There's nothing to hide, There is no secret, everything is ordinary and out-in-the-open, there nothing to raise concerns about A.L.E.C.'s operations.

Compliant ALEC MEMBERS (IN PLACES LIKE MICHIGAN) THEN SIMPLY XEROX ALEC's "MODELS" IN TO STATE LAW WITH LITTLE OR NO SUBSTANTIVE CHANGES - in some cases exact word-for-word verbiage.

Investigative writer Beau Hodai, DBA Press, outlines the A.L.E.C. method of operation and details on its rise to a bill writing factory-for the far-nutters who bow and scrape to serve the Corporatocracy now attempting a coup in America's heartland.

Reports Hodai:

"The group (A.L.E.C.) also claims more than 250 "private sector" member corporations and special interest groups. Though ALEC refuses to make its private (or public) sector membership lists available, known members include: ExxonMobil, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Corrections Corporation of America, AT&T, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, TimeWarner Cable, Wal-Mart, Phillip Morris International, the National Rifle Association and the Heritage Foundation (co-founded by ALEC founder Paul Weyrich)-to name a few.

"The functions of ALEC (a national organization, incorporated in Illinois and headquartered in Washington, D.C.) are subdivided into state leadership teams; in each state one lawmaker serves as ALEC's "public sector chairman," and one corporate representative serves as the "private sector chairman."

How does A.L.E.C. get its tentacles around Michigan Law?
In Michigan, a genteel young woman from an unsuspecting, bucolic southwest rural hamlet, Senator Tonya Schuitmaker-R, was the A.L.E.C. point person a year ago. And before Schuitmaker, a turn or two ago, it was former Rep. Mary Ann Middaugh-R long-time Lansing insider and legislator, also from this rural area, who also had a turn heading up the A.L.E.C. subversion of the state's legislative process. Others like another former legislator, Jason Allen, Traverse City was the state chair. (Allen and Schuitmaker in turn took political contributions from ATT & T - a major ALEC corporate member.)

JUST HOW DOES THE MASSIVE CORPORATE AGENDA & SPECIAL TREATMENT MAKE IT INTO LAW IN MICHIGAN?

Beau Hodai explains:

"ALEC is comprised of nine "task forces" on which both private and public sector members serve: 1.) Public Safety and Elections; 2.) Civil Justice; 3.) Education; 4.) Energy, Environment and Agriculture; 5.) Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development; 6.) Telecommunications and Information Technology; 7.) Health and Human Services; 8.) Tax and Fiscal Policy; and 9.) International Relations.

"These task forces form the core of ALEC's legislative operations. Each task force generates "model legislation" that is then passed on to ALEC member lawmakers for introduction in their respective state legislatures."

"ALEC does not make its model legislation available for public inspection."

"According to ALEC promotional material, every year member lawmakers typically introduce 1,000 pieces of task force-crafted legislation. About 17 percent of which become law. In 2009, for example, ALEC claimed a total of 826 pieces of introduced legislation nationwide, 115 of which were passed into law-slightly below the average at 14 percent."

A.L.E.C: A Corporatist Pipeline With Access & Control of Public Lawmaking
How important is this pipeline of bill preparation, direct presentation and passage to those hundreds of corporate CEO's who belong and support ALEC? From the best information we have, they calculate it is worth spending tens of millions to get a prescriptive or proscriptive bill passed into codified state law.

Investigator Lisa Graves, adds in:

"According to ALEC's IRS filings, over the past three years it has raised $21,615,465 from corporations, foundations, and other sources, and just over $250,000 in dues paid by state legislators, amounting to slightly more than 1 percent of its income."

Writer Hodai expands this number, over a "10-year period, ALEC REPORTED $54,504,702 IN 'GIFTS,' 'GRANTS' AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ITS CORPORATE AND SPECIAL INTEREST MEMBERS."

FOLKS WE ARE TALKING SERIOUS MONEY HERE

For one of the largest contributors and solid backers, THE INFAMOUS KOCH BROTHERS, this kind of ready and obedient bill writing and passage is an invaluable asset. Of course seen in light of their reported net worth of around $40 billion, this entire effort is chump change.

Hodai again:

"David Koch also currently chairs the AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION (AFPF), formerly known as the Citizens for a Sound Economy Educational Foundation (another prominent ALEC-contributor), largely funded by CKF and Koch Industries. Joining him on that board is Koch Industries Executive Vice President Richard Fink, who is also the former executive vice president of the Mercatus Center, yet another Koch-funded, right-wing ALEC public policy member."

"In 2003, AFPF incarnated two more foundations: AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY AND FREEDOMWORKS. As noted in AFPF's 2003 tax records, the group paid U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) $429,583, via FreedomWorks, as a "consultant"--his first year salary as chairman of FreedomWorks."

"As Kate Zernike noted in our October 2010 cover story, "Tea Party Confidential," Armey and the group's president Matt Kibbe wrote an op-ed article in 2007 proposing the Boston Tea Party as a model for putting grassroots pressure on a central government. She writes, 'Presaging Tea Party tactics in the summer of 2009, they described how Samuel Adams packed town hall meetings with his supporters to drown out Tory voices and used each new British policy or tax as 'an excuse to rally new recruits to the cause of American independence.' They wrote, 'Adams was the first American to recognize that 'it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather, an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.' "

Beginning in 2009, FreedomWorks was instrumental in creating THE FAUX-POPULIST TEA PARTY. The mainstream media uncritically hyped the scores of Tea Party tax day protests orchestrated by FreedomWorks and the National Taxpayers Union (another Koch-funded ALEC group headed by former ALEC executive director Duane Parde), thus HELPING ENABLE UNPRECEDENTED REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE MAJORITIES IN STATES ACROSS THE NATION.

Bribe-like "gifts," junkets, western fishing trips, meet and greets, golf and other recreational outings, as well as a peck of "perks" are judiciously labeled as legislator's "scholarships" and festoon A.L.E.C.'s saprophytic methodology; all this using their tax-sheltered 501 (c) (3) as a cover for this kind of inspirational bonding. A.L.E.C.'S Senior Director of Public Affairs Raegan Weber firmly asserts that just as ALEC claims "scholarship funds" disbursed to lawmakers are not "gifts"" as 501(c)(3)s cannot give gifts to politicians" so too does the group deny any involvement in the formation of legislation or in lobbying activities.

On October 29, 2010 (following a wave of critical coverage spurred by 'In  These Times' reporting on the organization's role in disseminating model legislation closely resembling Arizona's SB 1070), in a memo addressed to its public sector chairmen, ALEC offered this explanation of how its role in creating "model legislation" does not violate the group's not-for-profit status reports Beau Hodai of DBA Press:

"Laws are not passed, debated or adopted during this process and therefore no lobbying takes place. That process is done at the state legislatures. ... Just like teachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens and other groups, businesses have the right to representation and to inform legislators about their industry." 

SAY WHAT?
A.L.E.C. spends tens of millions on "scholarships" for legislators and judges. Lavish entertainments and other entertainment"perks," but this (according to A.L.E.C. spokespeople) is not extraordinary. But, wait, it is very extraordinary; "(T)eachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens and other groups" do not have this great, decades-long inside track, slick mechanism to "meet and greet" in the extravagant, lavish manner A.L.E.C. (a taxpayer assisted, tax exempt 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, "not-for-profit" organization does and can.) The American Legislative Exchange Council has this clever, quiet system to subvert the stateside legislative process in many states, including Michigan.

No way do "teachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens and other groups" have the equal "privilege" of having favorable legislation funneled directly into bill language (fill-in-the-blanks models pre-crafted by A.L.E.C. lawyers and corporate wordsmiths), new law language and content introduced in the various legislatures with a friendly wink & nod, no (traditional) lobbying involved. And as of late in Wisconsin and Michigan, the A.L.E.C. generated "off the shelf" bill "drops" get fast-tracked into law when the moment is right.

A.L.E.C. CUTS THE CORNERS VERY CAREFULLY AS TO THE FEDERAL GUIDELINES FOR 501(C)(3)'s.

Again, Hodai, DBA Press:

"It is important to note, however, that these scholarship fund awards are not supposed to be used as campaign contributions, per ALEC's 501 (c) (3) status-even though, according to data compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, this did not stop ALEC member lawmakers in Wisconsin, Kansas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa, Mississippi, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri and Georgia from reporting ALEC funds as campaign contributions during the 2008 election cycle. These funds, distributed over 15 lawmakers in these 10 states totaled $17,113 in contributions ranging from $400 to $3,097."

SO WHAT GIVES?
According to election records for the most current cycles where they are available the following Michigan Legislators/representatives who got direct campaign funding from corporations members of and backing A.L.E.C.

For example - Let's look at who got money from A.L.E.C.'s member AT&T in Michigan:

1. Tonya Schuitmaker

2. Bill Huizenga

3. Jason Allen

4. Mike Rogers

As researchers continue to discover other recipients of A.L.E.C. largess, more money and influence connections in Michigan will come to light.

More on ALEC in Michigan can be found here and here.
Original Post.

Exclusion versus Egalitarianism: Big Money, Corporations, and an 'arcane' system of 'citizen' legislatures.

Is there room left for 'Mr. Smith' who goes to Lansing?

"Suppose that there is someone out there with the soul of Abraham Lincoln reincarnated, but as poor as Lincoln was at the outset of his career. Suppose some wealthy patron saw his own convictions better advanced by this younger man. Something very like this launched the careers of Calvin Coolidge, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. Surely, we do not want to exclude the very rich from presidential politics, but neither do we want them to constitute a unique political class." 

-- Conservative Harry V. Jaffa in Why Special Interests (And the Constitution) Are Good For You

Jaffa goes on to line out the class warfare such as is now infecting Michigan politics:

"What about those infamous 'special interests'?

"Do not those who invest in candidates and parties expect a return on their investments? (We know Betsy Prince DeVos does. She bluntly told us so).

"Do not lobbyists spend untold millions shaping the laws in their own private interests? (These questions are perfectly appropriate).

"What is amazing is that today no one seems aware that they were the subject of the most profound consideration by those who framed, and those who ratified, the Constitution. The Constitution is indeed, in large part an answer to these questions, an answer of which our present politicians seem largely ignorant."

"In the famous 10th Federalist, James Madison framed the problem of dealing with 'FACTIONS,' a word which was a virtual synonym for what we call 'SPECIAL INTERESTS."
 {Parenthesized notes added}

This well-know conservative scholar goes on to point out that "factions" are a natural result of liberty and equality-in light of the constitution. Professor Harry Jaffa explains:

"According to James Madison, however, faction is an inevitable by product of liberty, and to try to cure the evils of faction by abolishing liberty would be a 'remedy' 'worse than the disease'

"Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire. But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, than it "would be to wish the annihilation of air.' 'The latent causes of faction,' writes Madison, 'are sown in the nature of man.'"

"But the most common and durable source of factions, has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold, and those who are without property, have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a monied interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests form the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of government."

Jaffa would be loud proud of Michigan. Here we have honed the "spirit of party and faction" to a blazing, tempered, razor's edge.

The beguiled TeaPublicans have sought to give themselves and their very well-heeled and influential elites, both in-state (and even more pointedly, outstate), great advantage by attempting to take down any opposing organization via crude legislation and unbending obstructionism. Unions and other citizen groups are a distinct and dangerous impediment to this KOCH BROTHERS kind of corporatist free reign, intent upon shaping all aspects of government to serve and enrich themselves and their first love, business.

The Faux Populist Tea Party: Koch Industry/Corporate Sockpuppets
Crying "freedom, freedom, freedom" the Corporatocracy, pushing its secretly developed and BIG money-backed A.L.E.C/ prepackaged legislation (via the Koch Brothers/Karl Rove's militant hayseed foot soldiers) has co-opted many citizens for corporate benefiting purposes . "

Replete with sharp pitch forks-loud disruptive voices and vicious signs this raw element is on a jag. Honest compromise and/or cooperation are anathema in this rowdy crowd.

The Teapartisans have hijacked the Michigan GOP and the state legislature. TP'ers have put Michigan in a choke hold which is detrimental to the very survivability of a middle class and the state's workers. 

LAZY-BRAINLESS LAWMAKING
We now have a NO-BRAIN SUPER LEGISLATIVE MAJORITY which simply funnels corporate-designed, corporate-benefiting legislation right from the CEO's into law. No need for lobbyists, the A.L.E.C. members are the LOBBYISTS facilitating directly the introduction (some cases feature word-by-word copy from an A.L.EC. prepared "Model") and fast-track passage of legislation produced by and designed to directly benefit a long list of SUPER SPECIAL CORPORATE dominate members of the AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL via the A.L.E.C. direct pipeline from the board room to the citizens' living room and pocketbook.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson revealed how he moved A.L.E.C. models he got at A.L.E.C. conclaves as "models" directly into Wisconsin law:

"I always found new ideas and then I'd take them back to Wisconsin, disguise them a little bit, and declare that it's mine."

Likewise Koch Bros and A.L.E.C "models" are CONTINUOUSLY being inserted into Michigan Law by willing members. No straightforward place is left for Mr. Smith who goes to Lansing!


More on ALEC in Michigan can be found here and here.

Original Post.

No Brainer Legislation & No Brain Legislators who slavishly deliver for the Corporatocracy (via ALEC) inside Michigan’s Legislature

Meet the BIG BOYS (National & International Corporatists) who write legisative bills and offer them no-brainer - Plug & Play - (introduced by ALEC members) directly into our state's lawsmaking process. (SEE an eclectic list of ALEC corporate members, drawn from over 300 Corporations in its membership):

American Express Company, American Stores-Jewel/OSCO, Amoco Corp, Amway Corp., AT&T, Bank of America, Bayer Corp., Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Boeing Corporation, Cargill, Inc., Caterpillar, Inc., BP America, Inc., Chevron Corporation, Chrysler Corporation, Corrections Corporation of America, Coca-Cola Company, Coors Brewing Company, DuPont, ExxonMobil Corporation, FedEx, General Motors Corporation, GTE Corporation (Verizon), Johnson and Johnson, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc., Koch Industries, Kraft Food, Inc., McDonalds Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Miller Brewing Company, Motorola, Inc, Parke-Davis, Peabody Energy (coal), Phillips Petroleum Company, Pfizer Inc, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Sara Lee Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Sprint, State Farm Insurance Co., Texaco Inc., Union Pacific Corporation, United Airlines , United Parcel Service, UST Public Affairs Inc. (now United States Smokeless Tobacco Company), Wackenhut Corrections (now G4S), Wal-Mart Stores, Washington Times, Wausau Insurance Companies, Wendy's International Inc. ( the Wendy's/Arby's Group).

These are the folks who cook your fast-food hamburgers, insure your assets, invest your savings, deliver your packages, explore and refine your gas and oil, ship your goods by rail, ask you to recruit your neighbors in a MLM scheme, privately house your criminals, handle your calls and deliver your cable media, produce your drugs, and operate your community crushing discount giants. The American Legislative Exchange Council - A.L.E.C.'s big money, big influence is all over your life like super glue.

Don't you love the fact that these mega corporations have a special, direct and effective inside track to pre-packaged legislation directly into law, bills that favor them and exclude you and community?

What happened to a citizen legislature? What happened to your right to voice your opinion and effect change in law and regulations? It's all a far, far second to the power of Amway, Walmart, BP, Coca Cola, or Koch Brothers Industry who have a club with your state legislator as a "wine and dine" fellow member.

What you didn't know about A.L.E.C.'s simple disclaimer-for forty years its just been business as usual-corporate business as usual has accumulatively hurt you.

Now, A.L.E.C.'s post-election 2010 national blitz includes anti-public schools and anti-union, anti-poor legislation. A rugged agenda has come to a critical and direct confrontation with all you hold dear. You are no longer your own, you've been bought and sold for a price. How does it feel to be Kocholded?

MICHIGAN State Legislators--"Known ALEC Members Past & Present":

1. Justin Amash (ALEC Civil Justice Task Force) Now US Representative-Michigan
2. Patty Birkholz Appointed by Gov Snyder "Director of Great Lakes"
3. Bill Bullard, Jr.
4. Fulton Sheen
5. Mat. J. Dunaskiss (1996 ALEC Legislator of the Year Award)
6. Joanne Emmons
7. Beverly S. Hammerstrom
8. Dave Hildenbrand
9. Phillip E. Hoffman (ALEC Board of Directors; 1999-2000 ALEC Secretary; Treasurer 2000-2001; "1992 ALEC Outstanding Legislative Member Award")
10. Rick V.Johnson
11. Wayne Kuipers (has used ALEC models to benefit target corporations)
12. Mike Kowall
13. Tom McMillin (Active Introducing ALEC Legislation)
14. Mary Ann Middaugh (ALEC State Chairmen for Michigan 2004)
15. Margaret O'Connor (Wrote a number of reports for ALEC)
16. David Palsrock (ALEC State Chairmen for Michigan)
17. Bruce Patterson
18. Tom Pearce (ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force)
19. Randy Richardville (Current GOP Senate Majority Leader)
20. Tonya Schuitmaker (ALEC State Chairmen for Mich 2009-10)
21. John Schwartz
22. Susan L. Tabor
23. Jason E. Allen
24. David Camp
25. Craig M DeRoche
26. Beverly S. Hammerstrom
27. Rick V.Johnson
28. Jerry O. Kooiman
29. Mike Kowall
30. Aric Nesbitt
31. Tom Pearce
32. Ken Sikkema
33. Christopher C. Ward

MICHIGAN US Congress/Judges--"Known ALEC Members Past & Present":

1. Justin Amash
2. Judge Richard A. Bandstra (Named ALEC Legislator of Year for work on Civil Justice Task Force)
3. Dave Camp (ALEC Agriculture Task Force)
4. Mike Rogers
5. Nick H. Smith (ALEC Agriculture Task Force)
6. Tim Walberg

MICHIGAN FORMER LAW MAKERS/VIP's/MEGA DONORS-- "Known ALEC Members Past/Present":

1. John Engler (Governor) Member of ALEC since 1973 when it was founded. 1993 Received the ALEC "Thomas Jefferson Award"
2. Dick Postumus (Rick Snyder's Lt. Governor) ALEC Member since 1991. Now Appointed "Special Legislative Advisor" to Governor Rick Snyder.
3. Andrew Card ALEC Member; White House Chief of Staff to President GW Bush, US Secretary of Transportation for President G.H. Bush, Reagan Administration: Special Asst to President for Internal Affairs and Deputy Assistant to President & Director of INTERGOVERNMENTAL Affairs. Member of Massachusetts House of Representative (District 7 & 8) 1975-1983; From 1993-1998 Card was President and CEO of American Automobile Maufacturers Association. In 1999 he was General Motors Vice President of Government Relations.
4. Richard M. DeVos Sr.: ALEC Member; 1993 Received ALEC "Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award"; Co-Founder of Amway; Owner of Orlando Magic; 2011 Forbes Magazine listed DeVos as 79th Wealthiest American and 257th Wealthiest in the World; Member/Past President of "Council for National Policy", Board of Trustee Member for Northwood University and the National Constitution Center, Member Heritage Foundation. DeVos is considered a "mega-donor" to Republican Party Candidates
5. Jay Van Andel (deceased) ALEC Member; 1993 Received ALEC "Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award"; Co-Founder of Amway. Member of Heritage Foundation, Board of Trustee for Hillsdale College, Director of Gerald R. Ford Foundation; Van Andel was a mega-donor to the Republican Party. 2004 he donated $475,000 to Michigan Republican Party and $2Million for the re-election of President G.W. Bush.....

 There are many more....

List Sources: Democracy Watchdog Action Network and PFAW Reports


Watch Video on ALEC HERE or for more reading on ALEC HERE and HERE and HERE and in Michigan HERE.

Original Post.

Positively Insane: Nerd Rick Snyder Doesn’t See or Comprehend His Role in the Systematic Decimation of Michigan

Snyder is one sad soul with a painted-on clown's happy face. He's so "into" his "nerdship" that he's unable to see how trapped and controlled he is. Rick Snyder came to the governorship with positive expectations, he was going to be "always positive." By putting a faux positive spin on every tough question or politically motivated legislative move, the Nerd was going to "Polly Anna" the state out of its one state depression. "Nerd" Snyder doesn't see or comprehend his key role in THE SYSTEMATIC DECIMATION OF MICHIGAN

Snyder did not understand or know the history of those "crony" operatives he embraced as advisers and staff- hold-over Englerites, American Legislative Exchange Council - A.L.E.C. bill delivery boys, and Mackinac Center types. The Nerd did not rightly comprehend or appreciate the fact THAT IDEOLOGUES ARE NOT TRIFLED WITH FACTS OR PUBLIC PROTEST-ROAD BLOCKS TO THEIR GOALS.

Swept Along by Corporatocracy
Snyder is unable to deal with the Far-Winger American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.'s) ability to dominate much of the nation with pro-corporate "Plug & Play", fill-in-the-blank bill generation that amounts to a national coup by the Radical Right.

Now Michigan's "nerd" governor is neutralized and neutered in a very profound way. If "just one" of the some two dozen recall efforts succeed, there will be a huge political sea change says political soothsayer, Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan.

We all are on our way to pay BIG the price for Snyder's advanced "nerd" affliction.

Rick Snyder slip-streamed the voters with his brazen method of avoiding the revelation of what he would do to "reinvent Michigan," even refusing to fully present or debate his radical proposals in public.

Most crossovers and independents had high hopes, as did former Gov. William Milliken, that Snyder would move Michigan forward in a truly communal and common sense way-that's why they voted for him. Snyder was to be a breath of fresh air. The voters had no idea that Snyder would become the handy dandy "tool" of the Tea Party faction-backed and funded by conniving Corporatists such as the Brothers Koch, "Rotten" Murdock, and spinmeister Karl Rove.

Reinvention-A Catch Word/Canard
Do we need to re-invent the wheel? No, we have the wheel and it works. Did we need to so savage the governmental infrastructure and the legislation underlying our state-giving a huge, unprecedented TAXPAYER FUNDED BAILOUT TO BUSINESS AND CORPORATIONS?...NO.

A temporary Michigan income tax hike of less than one-half a percent would have covered the state deficit and prevented the coming economic and educational carnage.

As the details unfold; as they are being published now across the state,  we find that taxpayers are taking a very uneven and egregious hit with new taxes.

The Michigan House Fiscal Agency analysis reports:

• A couple with 3 children making $110,000 annually will take a tax hit of $190 while a couple making $55,000 will take a hit of $549 in NEW TAXES.
• A couple with 2 children earning $250,000 will pay $989 MORE IN TAXES because they will lose personal exemptions for joint filers earning over $200,000.
• A couple married with 2 children and making $34,000, less the removal of earned income credit, will pay MORE IN TAXES to the tune of $396.
• A Michigan retired couple, born after 1952 with $53,000 in income and property taxes of $4,000, will lose their entire homestead credit and pay Michigan Income Taxes on all of their pension(s) which will mean a whopping $3,130 TAX INCREASE. That's enough to make the couple decide to move outstate and take their remaining assets with them.

Take these TAX HITS watchdog TeaPublican Nut-Wingers. This is A MONUMENTAL VIOLATION OF T.P. BASIC PRINCIPLES. It's the dreaded Snyder/Chamber of Commerce taxpayer funded Business BAIL-OUT. Are TP'ers (Tea Party followers) going to simply roll over and take this duplicity? Or will they fight back?

Nerd "Positive" claims his gargantuan tax increase is not a tax increase. The way he sees things, in his rose colored world, shifting nearly two billion dollars away from businesses and corporations and on to elders, the middle class, and the poor is "not a net tax increase." Thus, in Nerd Speak, those who are being hit with paying a whopping new state income tax increase are delusional. Go figure!

The Nerd is being classically the "nerd" we all are familiar with: A quirky personality with a one track mindset, one who relentlessly and "positively" pursues his own version and vision of things, to the utter exclusion of all true facts or reality.

Rick Snyder, in self-labeling himself as a "Nerd," sent a signal that was clearly misread by the public. This nerd is out of control, as is his legislative Super Majority of tax hating wing-nuts. Theirs is a world of unreality and economic disaster for all of Michigan.

Michigan voters have THE RIGHT OF RECALL.

The recall paperwork is filed and approved.

O.K. LET'S ROLL....


Original Post.

Who needs the Koch Brothers? We’ve Got Rick Snyder, ALEC and his “Buffo” Team of Privatizers!

Michissippi is rife with the American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.) inspired profit-takers who are stripping communities and workers in our state for profit and power. Snyder's reinvention is a simple copy-cat operation of a very disturbing national right-wing coup.

Get the lowdown on "ALEC Exposed" at @ http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed ("...a Trove of Over 800 'Model' Bills-Secretly Voted on by Corporations to Rewrite Your Rights").

Revelations about the American Legislative Exchange Council Are Sweeping the Blogosphere & Media
Stories are breaking daily across the nation detailing and revealing the deep inroads that profit-taking corporations have accomplished right- in-the-open. The huge number of "model" bills that a combine of aggressive corporations has pushed into law throughout the nation the AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL. It's leadership laughs off the ungoing and expanding exposé, saying its functions are simply business-as-usual. The standard defense raised by A.L.E.C. is: We are just an ordinary think tank group, we don't lobby for corporations.

Surpirse, Surprise...A.L.E.C. doesn't need to "lobby," ITS LEGISLATIVE MEMBERS, 2,000 COUNTRY-WIDE, ARE THE UNDERLYING CORPORATIONS'OWN SPECIALIZED "LOBBY" THEMSELVES. The A.L.E.C. wolf lives comfortably, quitely RIGHT INSIDE in the legislative henhouse!

Corporate-Controlled Democracy is No Democracy At All
And so it is. The subversive Radical-Right front group, A.L.E.C., has been chipping away at the civil structure of America for over 40 years. Determined to bring down government and communities as we have known them; only to replace democracy with "CORPORATE CONTROLLED DEMOCRACY"- KNOW AS Corporatocracy,(Explained in " social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business. Where corporations, conglomerates, and/or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country (or state), including carrying out economic planning notwithstanding the 'free market' label. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy )

Learn This Term
You are going to be in a fight-to-the-finish with corporatists, for every aspect of community and local control. CORPORATOCRACY designated every public function as a convertible source of Private Gain and Enhanced Wealth and Power.

Looting the Commons
This "looting"-via- legislation that has transpired in Michissippi under the Nerd Snyder and his hoard of privatizers. Ours is just one state's example of a wave of DISASTER CAPITALISM sweeping the country. The Bush Recession/Depression has brought the nation low-politically vulnerable. For the THE DISASTER CAPITALISTS in Lansing this is as Milton Freidman so bluntly put it: A great "opportunity."

Corporatocracy Thrives On Volatility, & This Is A Time of Great Volatility.

Michissippi's TeaPublican Super Majority Is Riddled with A.L.E.C. Gophers & Fellow Travelers
Many of Michissippi's legislators are A.L.E.C. Members or affliated, many ex-legislators are A.L.E.C. alumni, many others are simply willing "tools" of A.L.E.C.- as is Rick Snyder himself. They have been "channeling" specific A.L.E.C. MODEL BILLS WORD-FOR-WORD OR WITH SLIGHT MODIFICATIONS into Michissippi codified law. It's the Koch Bros.' et. al. means of getting things done via legislators who are simple conduits for PROFIT-MAKING CORPORATE LEGISLATION-the process of profitization.


Lazy Legislators Love A.L.E.C.'s Plug & Play Bill Mill
It's been "plug and play" "model" bill time in Lansing. Outside forces have all the say. Communities and the general public are blocked and locked out of the entire process other than to protest or to mount recalls against the crippling and dangerous outcomes these proposed A.L.E.C. bills pose to our future and economic survivability.
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Under Rick Snyder corporate usurpations have been greatly expanded; especially with the Snyder/Dillon enhanced EFM, (Emergency Finance Manager Act) which gives "firms"- corporations and corporatists-dictatorial powers; abilities which confront public officials-who are summarily stripped of elected powers and constitutional control, and other actions trampling upon people's basic rights. All-the-while, Michissippi corporatist legal firms and others are set up to mop up profits and create monopolies.

It's Time to Stand Up to Michissippi's Corporatocracy & Its Usurpation & Power Grab, via A.L.E.C.

"(The 1st Amendment) does not intend to guarantee men freedom to say what some private interest pays them to say for its own advantage. It intends only to make men free to say what, as citizens, they think."
-- Alexander Meiklejohn, Philosopher & Educator (1872-1964)

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Tweetal Dee & Tweetal Dumb: Jacques & Olson - Putting a Strangle Hold on Michigan's Legislative Agenda

Ingrid Jacques & Kyle Olson, Dee and Dumb, are squawking about organized teachers. And what do they know? They're paid hacks for the anti-public school aggressors and the TeaPublican faction now with a stranglehold on the Michissippi legislative agenda.

In "Union Backlash" in the Michigan View on July 6, 2011, Ingrid references EAG ( Kyle Olson’s Education Action Group).Just a few mouths ago, Kyle Olson, kid brother to Dr. Ryan Olson, who headed up Mackinac Center's education division, came out of nowhere and helped form a "front group, EAG"; a not so clever shell operation for the raging ideological and Profitization forces in opposition to local schooling.

The EAG incorporator is closely associated with Betsy Prince DeVos, anti-public schools maven (SEE: EAGTruth.com) :

"EAG is a front group for the Michigan Republican groups that seek to expand the use of publicly funded vouchers for private and religious schools. A closer look reveals broad GOP leadership connections:

Eric Doster, EAG incorporator
"Eric Doster, a Lansing lawyer, has been General Counsel to the Michigan Republican Party for 15 years. Doster served on the advisory board for the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP) PAC and his home address is listed as that of the group's treasurer. The GLEP PAC is a creation of Dick DeVos that advocates vouchers and charter schools."

"Doster represented U. S. Rep. Tim Walberg in his recall fight, represented Citizens for the Protection of Marriage in 2004, and was appointed to the Judges' Retirement Board in 1996 by former Governor John Engler. He is a member of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society."

Kyle Olson, EAG sole staff member
"Kyle Olson, a former Lansing lobbyist, was district director and campaign manager for Republican Gerald Van Woerkom's campaign for state Senate in 2002. He is also a member of the Republican State Committee. In September 2007, he joined other prominent Michigan Republican activists at a Grand Rapids airport during a visit with Vice President Dick Cheney.

Olson's brother Ryan is (was) the Director of Education Policy for the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Far from being a group of "citizens and school board leaders," Doster and Olson's passion is working to elect Republicans. That's okay, but don't try to hide behind a "nonpartisan" label."

Provocateur Betsy Prince DeVos apparently has developed an apparent need to show that the anti-public effort was more widespread and active than several others, produced by hundreds of millions spent with such efforts as Capitol Confidential, Ken Bruan, the Education Report, a "faux pro-public schools rag" that is sent to teachers (free of charge ala the MEA Voice-a house publication) in order to communicate a "false and misformation" messages directly to teachers; in hopes of breaking some of the teachers off from their preferred professional organizations-the effort's ultimate goal.

Kyle OIson was recently pictured in the far background at the of the AFP (Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity) rally at the Capitol in Lansing, lonesome and alone, largely unknown. None-the-less Olson was a presenter and a participant a the podium, he also added in with his showing of Kids Aren't Cars video in a nearby meeting room. Kyle is a eager understudy to the nefarious, sex fedish addict-turned big moralizer and trash talker, the Koch' Bros. operative, Dick Morris of FOX fame.

Olson's group (essentially made up of just Olson and a Michigan GOP attorney) made it from secret formation of EAG (Olson's Education Action Group) out of nowhere, to the front pages of Booth papers; The EAG materials were published with Olson's facilitation to "shock" the public with an exhausting listing of salaries for teachers and for their association's staffs derived by efforts of the Mackinac Center, but attributed to EAG for expanded effect.

Undercover Olson: Misrepresenting Himself, as a Student, to Trap a Professor
Kyle Olson was also given to delusion that he could make the national news scene with his "gottcha interview" and video which he procured by going to NY city; falsifying his identity and purpose to a well-known, elderly professor, from whom he hoped to derive "shocking" revelations in the pursuit of his desperate need to rise to fame: utilizing the identical MO of the Acorn video gottcha deceptions and brouhaha of the year before.

EAG lacks transparency and openness according to EAGTruth.com:

"EAG's Thug Watch' is a launching pad for personal attacks against anyone who disagrees with its agenda."

"The EAG's Articles of Incorporation filed by Republican Party General Counsel Eric Doster give only vague details of the EAG's funding sources: 'The corporation is to be financed under the following general plan:CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CORPORATE FOUNDATIONS AND PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS."
(emphasis added)

More recently, Kyle Olson has been a frequent anti-public school "guest" commentator on Andrew Breitbart's "chop shop" website.

One wonders who really prompts these two, Kyle Olson & Ingrid Jacques. Are the ideas they espouse all their own or are they the convenient, underpaid, younger faces for older muck?

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The Michissippi Nerd (Michigan Governor Rick Snyder) on Parade

The Snyder led 4th of July parade features a famous icon, not Uncle Sam, but Little Bo Peep. The Nerd and his napoleonic army of TeaPublicans are marching to the tune of independence, NOT with the old guy in bright patriotic colors of Ol' Glory leading the way, but the ideological stooges are towing along behind Little Bo Peep-who has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them.

The real Grand Marshals of Snyder's 4th of July Parade are: Milton Friedman (Freedom to choose/act independently of all others), Ayn Rand (selfishness is a virtue), Grover Norquist (Never raise taxes, Kill government), Newt (Tiffany) Gingrich (the states can go around the Federal Government with extreme measures and should), and Richard D. McLellan (Have I got a 'godfather plan' for Michigan!).

These powerful influences heading up Snyder's Parade are so "with" the Nerd that he's not able to act or think in the real world where the rest of us live are struggling to survive the Great Bush Depression II.


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Déjà vu All Over Again

Great teachers pack up and go somewhere else for the duration of a noxious "silly season"-the era of "teacher bashing," obstructing, and de-funding of public education. It's a radical rightist, pro-profitization agenda that hangs over Michigan like a black cloud of doom.

Hopefully you'll be able to return at a later time, but it will be years before Michigan will be once again ideologically hospitable to "great public school teachers."

Posted earlier in "Great Teachers: Pack-up & Go":

"Great teachers are intelligent, they are caring, and they are insightful. They know that a state legislature such as the TeaPublican radical rabble now in control of Michigan's education funding and legislation (made brazen by a complete majority in all 4 branches of State government) is no friend of theirs. TeaPublicans are highly primed to do harm to public education armed, early on, by the Engler Revolution which seized and destroyed local school control and funding. Militantly marching onward, TeaPublicans have now shown they are bitter and implacable enemies of the mission and goals of a true mentor-teacher of children."

The reality is such that smart college graduates will find a professional life in a more cultured and less-antagonistic and anti-government locale, far away from the provincial taunts hurled in the hostile manner of these Know Nothings of Michigan.

The civic sins of our past are heavy now. The way out and back to what Snyder mocks as the previous "status quo," the healthy normal, is nowhere in sight.

Like Engler, Snyder proudly touts his snide attack on what he derides as the current "status quo"- the peaceful and productive civic order we all depend on.

Now the lesson. What is meant by an attack on the Status Quo? It is an effort to cause trouble, challenge the status quo, disturb the balance, make a stink, upset the apple cart. Further, it is A CONTRIVED EXCUSE TO DO HARM to vital parts of our civic structure and tradition, all for short-term political and ideological gain.

Are these the types of disruptive social attitudes we really need in Michigan at this very critical time? Whatever happened to consensus, co-operation and collaboration between the powers that be and those who teach our children.

Great teachers teach, but perhaps not near so many (will choose to teach) in Michigan, currently under such virulent disrespect and dishonor as displayed by the TeaPublicans now in power in Lansing.

Follow Up: On the program, Hardball, Chris Matthews asked former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, a while back, the all important question. What should school teachers earn? BENNETT REPLIED GOOD TEACHERS SHOULD BE PAID $80-85,000.

Final Note: Excerpt from our Previous Posting (11/21/10) "Coming Michigan Teacher Shortages":

"It will not be long and Michigan will again be desperately seeking new teachers to fill jobs that were passed over by bright and cautious graduates who will take up their careers in other states more teacher friendly and more progressive than the retro-Michigan dominated by muckrakers at the Mackinac Center and those who back their political mud runs."

Meanwhile In Meltdown Michissippi
As the reams of news articles begin to come in, reflect on the terrible social and civic sins of this vengeful Governor and his subservient super-majority of wingnuts, the public will be rightfully repulsed and very angry; ready to back recall various efforts.

What a terrible mistake the TeaPublicans have made! They set out to kill public education to please vicious vixens Michelle Rhee and Betsy DeVos-hyper-critics and nascent profit-takers, intent on harvesting millions of dollars from the implosion of public schools-as we, the public, have loved and supported our cherished neighborhood schools for generations.

As Nietzsche warned: "Beware of those whose urge to punish is strong." The nation is beginning to see the deconstructive dirty work of DeVos/Rhee and understand it is top-loaded with "punishment."

Cry too for our communities that surround and depend on the wonderful public school for local economic and social survival.

Alas, it will be too late for an entire generation of school children, just now being thrown to these selfish wolves. Kids are being unpardonably neglected by those TeaPublican ideologues (led about like sheep by powerful national partisan and corporate forces, such as the Brothers Koch), Neo-antichrists, and tax-haters. The Snyder led TeaPublican Super-Majority have become A.L.E.C. cyborgs who would not, could not, collaborate and work cooperatively with educators to make Michigan whole and good again.

This outrage is unacceptable to informed citizens and local business leaders who care about hometowns and historic institutions in a genuinely conservative, Christian manner.


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Great Teachers: Pack Up & Go, Snyder Hates You

Starting today the devastating, hate-inspired impact of harsh anti-teacher measures ramrodded through by TeaPublicans takes over.

Witness soon the growing, aggressive, and vengeful aftermath of the TeaPartisan fury and purge of teacher rights and privileges in Michigan-completed in a blitz/spade of Reprisal Lawmaking finalized on the last day of June 2011. Cringe as these negativist measures go into full effect. Watch helplessly as entire systems and achievements are destroyed.

There is all that talk about "reform" of education: John Engler was a big "revolutionary" who thought he knew how to reform education. Rick Snyder, the "always project positive" corporate educational hit man has done his snide share, as a result Snyder now makes John Engler, the former satan for public educators look like St. Francis-viewing the metrics of The 30th of June outcomes; lawmaking in deconstructive, vicious, and morale-destroying legislation, aimed directly at individual teachers, NOT their professional association-as is so often reported.

What will Snyder's hits on Michigan Public Education produce? Here is a prime example. The "best and the brightest" are always the mantra of Snyderesque reformers. The best and the brightest are smart enough and thorough enough to look at the long haul (career view), the real world impact of the devastation and damage Snyder has inflicted on the teaching profession in Michigan. They're packing their bags, Good-bye to Michigan. How so? Follow this news story:

WASHINGTON: Debbie Johnson got her teaching degree from Michigan State University (MSU), but recruiters persuaded the 23-year-old to start her career in Georgia, where the weather is warm, the cost of living is lower and the schools offer more resources, such as projectors and interactive wireless pads.

"I like technology," Johnson said. "There are a lot of [classroom] resources here I hadn't seen in Michigan. There's an amazing opportunity."

Michigan is one of 31 states facing a multimillion-dollar budget gap this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That makes its teachers prime poaching targets of out-of-state recruiters from states such as Texas, Georgia, Nevada and Wyoming, where school-age populations are growing.

Even if teachers aren't yet being laid off, a tough economic climate is often enough to drive them away, said Kelly Herndon, director of recruitment and retention for Gwinnett County, Ga.

"I watch the markets," Herndon said. "I'll admit, if the economy is in bad shape or the state legislature isn't managing funds, I focus on those states."

In some states, teachers are being let go because of shrinking budgets and shrinking school populations, including Michigan, Florida and California, which is facing a projected $11.2 billion deficit in 2009.

-- Excerpted from: "Recruiters zero in on teachers in ailing states", Nathaniel Weixel, Stateline.org, The Seattle Times, 12/14/08

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