Halloween Danger Comes Early: Smart A.L.E.C.’s Concept of a Nasty Trick or Treat

A.L.E.C. Cheating children with disabilities: How cheap and tawdry can it get?

We are all wary of tainted treats unwittingly collected by children at Halloween. Too often there are the cruel and dangerous concoctions hidden in what appears to be candy or other treats given out at Halloween by certain evil and deprived individuals who are criminally intent upon harming children.

The public has found amongst the "model" legislation and tricky lawmaking of the Koch Brothers backed AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC) a terrible example of harm inflicted upon children. In the case in point, children with special needs.

How low and how dishonest/deceptive will the Corporatocracy behind A.L.E.C. go?

This summary comes from Ruth Conniff: "ALEC Exposed--How Corporations Are Taking Over Our Democracy":

"Republican lawmakers and corporations have a new target: kids in special ed. It sounds like a sick joke, but it's true."

Like cartoon schoolyard bullies, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-the powerful coalition of corporations and rightwing legislators-has worked out plans to trick special ed students and their families into giving up their federally protected educational benefits, in exchange for cheap vouchers that can be used in unregulated, fly-by-night academies.

Working off ALEC's proposed legislation--recently leaked by a whistleblower to the Center for Media and Democracy, and viewable on the web site ALEC Exposed--Republicans are pushing private-school voucher bills for kids with disabilities in states across the country."

The secretive pro-corporatist work of A.L.E.C. legislative members across the nation (and also in Michigan where over six dozen past or present members of the Michigan Legislature are A.L.E.C. lackeys (Toyna Schuitmaker-R, Lawton, Tom McMillin "R, Rochester) and/or active surrogates) MOVES THE REGRESSIVE AGENDA of the Koch Brothers/Betsy DeVos/the Mackinac Center.

In its most hideous form, it comes down to stark examples like this. Tricking parents of special needs children into surrendering their rights and access to federal support for the betterment and training of their precious children.

Take any issue that involves public education and twist it in a manner that extracts the best possible outcome for the for-profit predators in the rad-right's cabal of large corporations (A.L.E.C. sponsors) and make it work for their profitization, while exploiting the destruction of local community and the real lives of children. These predators and greed masters have no soul. They have no god, but profit. They thrive on power and skilled trickery.

Now after nearly 40 years of hiding in the open, the ugly side of A.L.E.C. is exposed, just in time to coincide with the American Legislative Exchange Council's attempt to accomplish a harsh and mind-boggling coup in America using their super majorities at the individual state legislative levels for their own ends.

It's an all out war on the middle class, community and local survival.

Wisconsin's became the symbol of this coup's agenda, but it's only one of many states, including Michigan, that has succumb to the power of A.L.E.C. REGRESSIVE LAWMAKING.

For special education children the "hidden poison pins" in the "gifted" apple have become a serious threat far earlier than Halloween.

A.L.E.C.: Cheating children with disabilities, how cheap and tawdry can it get?!

Beware the pernicious predators in the current TeaPublican putsch.

Hide It Under a Bushel NO, Let It SHINE: Dr. Wolfram’s Tiny Point of Light

It is surprising what a tiny shard of light can do in a darkened environment like the mind of Gary Wolfram. Now Professor Gary wants to talk about "community."

This is a Response to Gary Wolfram in "A Return to Community" posted in the Detroit/Mackinac News on August 25, 2011.

The dear doctor professor spends all his time as an apologist for the "market" and a being a relentless critic of public matters as they stray from his economic bible. He is majorly bent upon "a need to point out something that is going wrong and offer a solution to the problem" to use Wolfram's own words.

Dr. Wolfram is a market fundamentalist. Like Dr. Ron Paul, he is also a fringe dweller with a devoted audience, including what Hugh Hewitt has labeled "whack jobs". That being said, a moment of revelation has come to the good doctor: Community is central, critical.

So much of what this greenpea, self-serving, Chamber of Commerce servicing TeaPublican Super Majority in the Michigan Legislature has been devoted to is the destroying community in the name of business protection and promotion.

Community has been the preferred target for the attacks. The community and public service are being attacked and trampled with every session of this ill-fated, depression promoting, jobless jihad used by the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Chamber of Commerce to get its own agenda passed.

Bringing down a proud and productive state is a nasty, hard job, however these Karl Rovian, Koch Bros. servants are becoming infamous for their tenacity and cold-hearted, heartless behaviors. Reason and collaboration toward lasting solutions is out.

Wolfram is part of the Jindal crowd of public policy:

"Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, an ALEC alum and the 2011 recipient of ALEC's highest honor, the 'Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award,' repeatedly praised the power of obstinance, proclaiming to ALEC members that when legislating, 'it pays to be stubborn.' 'He added, 'I don't care what china we break in the process.'"

If McLellan/Mackinac Center, the Club for Growth, Grover Norquist crowd get their way, the Michigan march to the establishment of Michissippi as s dirt poor, impotent state is sure to succeed.

While watching a performance of the Hillsdale College Players Wolfram, the professorial curmudgeon and political critic, had an epiphany. Sometime in the evening, amid the tasseled fields of ear corn, smothered in the sweltering Hillsdale summer miasma, Prof. Gary thought about what he was experiencing: community. Looking about the theater and scanning the program our professor discovered that this wonderful, electrifying performance he was experiencing was truly revelatory of how people in one location can and do work together for a common purpose. Hitherto, with so much of Wolfram's efforts directed toward slicing and dicing the public sector and attacking the way people thrive on art and performance-the culture of a community-this was a truly insightful moment in the doctor's maturing experience.

Dr. Wolfram turned quickly to his favorite Rolodex of philosophers and pundits for personal insight and meaning during this his one moment of revelation. Quoth the good professor, "I was reminded of De Tocqueville's observation that voluntary associations were the characteristic institutions of American life." 

In an instant the darkness of "market fundamentalism" gobbled up Dr. Gary's enlightenment. What if we, as a state and nation, could accomplish "good things" via voluntarism, take the "burden" of taxes off the businesses and achieve idealistic "community" where things are done at the expense of personal time and effort, gratis; freed from the necessity of raising taxes.

As the tarry night-of-the-soul oozes over Prof. Gary's tiny moment of light, we are reminded of what has been brought on by his ardent work to make the Market King of America. From the New York Times:

"At least 23 states have made huge cuts to public education spending this year, and school districts are scrambling to find ways to cope. School foundations, parent-teacher organizations and local education funds supported by business groups and residents contribute at least $4 billion per year to help public schools throughout the country."

This kind of reliance on the good will of community to take up the slack (on a purely volunteer basis) is becoming the unrelenting new Michigan reality: the product of Wolfram's unflappable work to make profits more important than people, commerce more vital to everyday life than human community, brotherly love.

Prof. Wolfram has us pointed along the sad, sure path to a failed state called Michissippi.


Original.

Greenhills: WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T HAVE YOUR ELITIST EDUCATION DREAM CAKE AND EAT IT TOO? (Part 3 of 3)

How satisfying and helpful it would be to Snyder's school of choice, Greenhills, Ann Arbor, to receive a sizable state voucher for each select student's expenses as Betsy DeVos' (AFC) American Federation for Children is pressing forward nationwide with the help of A.L.E.C (The Koch Bros. /American Legislative Exchange Council) championed by Tom McMillin"R, Rochester, and other A.L.E.C. members in the Michigan TeaPublican Super Majority.

Rick Snyder has two realities:
1.) His commitment to elitist education for his own child at Greenhills, and 2.) Snyder's serious and devastating legislative cuts for the children of all parents, those outside Snyder's tight circle of care.

Flint's WCRZ.com media commentator, George McIntyre, adds color to this summary of Greenhills School:

"Governor Snyder's daughter attends a private school, Greenhills School, in Ann Arbor. The annual tuition? $20,000. However, that's apparently not enough. The school has posted a video on YouTube appealing for funds.

"Ironic, don't you think, when you consider the fact that Governor Snyder just signed legislation which will cut per-pupil funding for Michigan public school students by $370, bringing the yearly allowance down to $6,846. That's quite the comparison."

McIntyre wraps up with this thought:

"It's amazing to me that $20,000 per pupil isn't enough to make ends meet for the Governor's daughter's school, yet public schools are afforded just over one third of that amount. IT'S NO WONDER ITHACA PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT NATHAN BOOTZ WROTE A SARCASTIC LETTER, ASKING SNYDER TO TURN HIS SCHOOL INTO A PRISON." (emphasis added)

THE RICH ELITES HAVE, BY FAR, THE GREATER SHARE OF RESOURCES TO EDUCATE THEIR OFF-SPRING, THE POOR AND THE WORKING ARE FORCED TO SHARE THE DIMINISHING REMNANTS ON THEIR CHILDREN AND HAVE A DESPERATE FIGHT WITH TEA-PUBLICANS TO MAINTAIN PROGRAMS AND QUALITY.

How sad that we have allowed the TeaPublicans to plunge Michigan to this historically embarrassing low, dangerous point!

It's a sure sign that the usurping, profitization, in Snyder-led cultural and educational apartheid is designed to overpower local communities and neighborhood schools. Greed and privatization/profit-taking are indeed alive and metastasizing in Michigan. How shameful!

Original and Part 1 and Part 2.

Greenhills: Snyder, Greenhills, Betsy DeVos & THE GOAL: Universal Vouchers (Part 2 of 3)

If Nerd Snyder and his Tea-partisan crowd in legislative the super majority comply with the American Legislative Exchange Councils' Model Legislation, the anti-public schools Mackinac Center, and the heavy, heavy pressure from Betsy Prince DeVos' AFC, there will be a push to put vouchers in place for private and religious education in Michigan in the very near future as well as a plethora of other damaging legislation/profitization. See the VIDEO with an UW expert here.

Rick Snyder's private academy, Greenhills, would be the perfect private voucher venue. How much easier it would be to fund a student at Greenhills with a hefty taxpayer coupon/voucher to underwrite their high costs.

Elsewhere the voucher push is well under way as part of the GOP State-by-State Legislative (American Legislative Exchange Council - ALEC) coup; this legislative blitzkrieg is characterized in the manner that is being carried out in Utah and many other states-under Republican control. Previously, Betsy's high-buck voucher efforts with a Utah statewide voucher ballot proposal were soundly defeated 2-to-1, and now, using the TeaPublican majority in the Utah legislature, the DeVos backed vouchers are being pushed again in Utah this time in the legislature and in other state legislatures are involved in a massive and coordinated effort cross the nation with Betsy's backing.

Read how Betsy is involved in such brash and damaging acts against public schools as the Sen. Alberta Darling (Wisconsin Recall Election target) backed $800 million dollar cut in state support is hurting kids!

Betsy's front group "The American Federation for Children (AFC) has reportedly spent more than $500,000 in television ads to support Darling and other Republicans facing recall elections because of their support for Walker's anti-labor legislation."

Continues...

Original and Part 1 and Part 3.

Greenhills: Let's Pay A Visit to Rick Snyder's Personal School of Choice (Part 1 of 3)

Here's what Snyder's school has to say about its operations and outcomes.

Greenhills description:

"Diversity at Greenhills: 31 percent of Greenhills students self-identify as persons of color: 9 percent multiracial, 6 percent African American, 12 percent Asian AmericaN, 1 percent Hispanic American, 2 percent Middle Eastern, 1 percent of the student body are international students."

From Greenhills materials:

"(Greenhills) has earned for itself A REPUTATION AS A HUMANE AND CARING SCHOOL (emphasis added) that offers an excellent education to a wide range of students."

GREENHILLS IS A UNIQUE SCHOOL IN A MYRIAD OF FABULOUS WAYS, TAKE A LOOK AT THE ACCOUTERMENTS IN ITS OWN EXHAUSTIVE REPORT.

GREENHILLS FACTS:

1. MHSAA - Greenhills School is a member of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) and offers the following sports: BOYS-cross country, golf, soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, lacrosse, and track and field. GIRLS-basketball, cross country, field hockey, tennis, volleyball, soccer, softball, golf, and track and field. COED-swimming and equestrian." Greenhills is considered the "Number 1-ranked athletic program in Class C two out of the past three years, as ranked by The Ann Arbor News."
2. Tuition - The Greenhills YouTube video promotion pegs the costs at "$20,000 '.
3. Financial Aid - "Nearly $954,000 in need-based financial aid was awarded to 19 percent of the student body. The average award was $9,628."
4. Contributions to the Greenhills - "Since 1993, more than $18,500,000 has been contributed to Greenhills' Annual Fund, Auction, Endowment and Capital Campaigns to support the school." 
5. Fine & Performing Arts - "The Fine & Performing Arts Department offers concerts, theatrical productions and art gallery showings throughout the year. Fine and Performing Arts events include: A fall play, spring musical, annual senior Shakespeare performance, Middle School spring play, VooDoo Theatre Company (student-run troupe) Middle and upper school band concerts, Middle and upper school orchestra concerts, Jazz band and combo performances, Middle and upper school choir concerts, Middle and upper school forensics tournaments, Fine Arts Showcase and more."
6. Activities and student organizations - These include, but are not limited to the following; Evergreen (literary magazine), The Alcove (student newspaper), Forward (yearbook), Amnesty International, Peer Counselors, Student Council, African American Focus, Multicultural Focus, Science Olympiad, Gryphon Club, Chess and Go Club, DDR Club, Debate Club, Ski Club, Student Mentors, Honor Committee, The Discourse, Gay-Straight Alliance, Service Learning Board, and Improv Club"
7. Academic & Athletic Facilities - Smartboard technology in every classroom, Schmidt-Cassegrain 14" telescope, Ten dedicated physics computers, Wireless computer cart, Two computer labs, State-of-the-art microscopes, including a Phase-Contrast/Dark Phase research microscope."
8. Greenhills' "Campbell Center for the Performing Arts" - State-of-the-art theatre, scene shop, dressing room, green room, mirrored dance studio, two instrumental rehearsal rooms, choral rehearsal room, The Harry Anderson Library, Borders Athletic Center: Two full gyms, four locker rooms, weight room with mirrors, indoor batting cage, climbing wall, Eight Court Tennis Complex, Softball Field, Soccer and Field Hockey/Lacrosse Fields, All-Weather Track, Amphitheater, Weather Station,( and a) Wind Turbine."
9. Details on Instruction and Class Size: "AVERAGE CLASS SIZE-15 STUDENTS, STUDENT: TEACHER RATIO-7:1," (emphasis added)
10. There's a rigorous Matriculation/Admissions Policy at Greehhills - "Admission to Greenhills is competitive. Applicants in the 9th through the 12th grades are required to take the Secondary School Admission Test" and applicants are also "REQUIRED TO SPEND A DAY AT THE SCHOOL TO ENSURE THAT GREENHILLS WILL BE A PROPER FIT."(emphasis added) Applicants also have to have three recommendations, send their transcript, and complete short answer questions and essays."
11. Notable alumni by accomplishments - "A.F.W.K. - rock musician, E. K. - Special Assistant to President Barack Obama, P. T. - Photographer, Los Angeles, CA, E. Q. - Producer, New York, NY, B. L.- screenwriter, J. C. - frequent New York Times contributor, author, N.P. - opera singer, played lead role of Macbeth with BBC Scottish Symphony, E. M.-playwright and screenwriter" 12.)"Graduates Attending College:100%"

Contributions to Greenhills School (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization) are tax deductable.

A FINAL NOTE
When the additional solicited contributions are added into the cost, when the spending from the endowment and other private sources are factored in, the cost of education for one student at Greenhills may reach into the mid-$20,000 range. This year's tuition is up $1,500 from 2 years ago.

Continues...

Original and Part 2 and Part 3.

Round One: The People’s Grassroots Recall Crusade versus Boatloads of BLOATED BIZ BUCKS

A disquieting thrill/chill is running up and down the Citizens United cabal's spine. Imagine the single most expensive single state legislator race/ election in the nation's entire history-over$ 9 million spent just to attempt to retain/unseat a single TeaPublican in Wisconsin!

With the dirty work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) just breaking on the national consciousness, with the $40 billions' Brothers Koch schemes and "walk-all-over-you" hobnail boot prints smearing the hallways and in-and-out of legislators offices in Madison, the "We are One" people's crusade winning 2 of 6 recalls against Republicans - in solid, rock-ribbed Republican districts - is an electrifying near miss. It's a shot across the bow of the TeaPublican's pirate frigates chartered to make confiscatory runs on: local control, public service and collective bargaining.

Spending a reported total approaching $40 million dollars in last night's Wisconsin Recall Races to save TeaPubicans ensconced in their HISTORICALLY BULLET PROOF/ GOP STATE LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS (backed by mindboggling outside influences and juice) is utter insanity. Who says that money isn't the lubricant of all politics? Who can say that there isn't a MAJOR, MAJOR EFFORT AFOOT IN THE COUNTRY - A VERY DANGEROUS, AGGRESSIVE CORPORATACY/CONSERVATIVE COUP-which fuels such citizen recall efforts?

As such, THIS COUP D'ETAT IS DESIGNED AND INTENDED TO GO FAR BEYOND THE FABLED REAGAN REVOLUTION. It 's designed and determined to remake the entire economic and political landscape of America-one state legislature at a time. It intends to become-the new order. Wisconsin is but the beginning. We are seeing their MARCH OF MADNESS sweep other states.

Whatever you thought you knew about America; it's supremacy, it's stability, it's sustainability, its promise and dream, is entirely on the line. Not one aspect of public life is exempt from these profit-takers, the privatizers, the rampant profitization of government via the rancorous and Corporatist networks. Democracy be damned.

BIG BIZ has spoken. We have the BIG BUCKS to do whatever it needs to do to forward their agenda. STEP ASIDE... BUSINESS-CONTORLED DEMOCRACY IS PROPOGANDIZED AS THE NEW NORMAL!

One man, one vote has been the pervious standard. Now elections are most like stockholder meetings; the more one holds in terms of money, economic, and corporate control, the more votes one gets to cast to achieve the desired outcome.

Incumbent Wisconsin State Senator Alberta Darling won in her contested recall race. She was forced to defend her close relationship and support for Gov. Scott Walker's radical putsch. However this anecdote from the Wisconsin source (The Whitefish Bay Patch) yields an important swing voter insight:

"At the Cahill Park polling center in Whitefish Bay, Jane Collins said she voted for Darling in the past election, but on Tuesday, she voted for Pasch.

"'When Darling seemed to fall in lock step with Walker's agenda, I just decided that she no longer is looking out for the individuals. She is looking out for the party. It's very disappointing'," she said. 'You can go to the parade and wave and shake hands all you want, but it doesn't mean you are listening to the people.'"

On the larger stage the underlying "lie" festering in Walker's Wisconsin is exposed thus:

"Whatever happens tonight in Wisconsin, it has been a constant of this fight that Republicans have consistently falsified the reason labor and Dems have waged this battle so bitterly. They have steadily downplayed the most extreme union-busting aspect of Scott Walker's proposals, and have falsely asserted throughout that Dems and labor only made this stand because Walker asked public employees to cough up health and pension benefits."

So it's fitting that as the recall elections hit their climax, THE LEADER OF THE NATIONAL GOP REPEATED THIS LIE IN THE MOST HILARIOUSLY BLATANT WAY yet.

Here's RNC chair Reince Priebus on CNN this afternoon:

"ANCHOR: Is there buyers' remorse in your home state of Wisconsin with Republican/Tea Party policy making?

"PRIEBUS: No. I don't think there's any buyers' remorse at all. You have a leader in Scott Walker who asked state employees to pay just a little bit more in pension and healthcare benefits, which was about half of what the rest of the state pays in those benefits. And that's all he did. Now, in reaction to that, the public employee unions took $25 million, they put together a petition drive, and now they're dumping millions of dollars on television trying to recall the senators for trying to balance a state budget. It's the same type of tough choice that is were made in Wisconsin that the Republicans are trying to present to Americans in Washington.

"This is a completely false rendering of what actually happened. In reality, THE PROTESTS FROM DEMOCRATS WERE PROMPTED BY SCOTT WALKER'S PROPOSAL TO STRIP PUBLIC EMPLOYEES OF THEIR BARGAINING RIGHTS, protests that were later sustained by the deep cuts in his budget, leading to the recall drive. Priebus doesn't even mention the collective bargaining piece of the story, only citing the demand for pension and health concessions as the reason for the entire standoff. In the real world, of course, labor unions actually agreed to those concessions, yet WALKER PRESSED AHEAD WITH HIS UNION-BUSTING PROPOSAL ANYWAY, WHICH IS WHAT PROMPTED THE WHOLE BATTLE." 

(emphasis added) 

Source: "Wisconsin recall fight ends where it began: With a Big Lie", Greg Sargent in the Washington Post.

The recall movement is not out of the larger political/coup game. If, according to the senior seer, Bill Ballenger, just one successful recall in Michigan could stall and obfuscate the Snyder schemes; Just think what these two successful recalls in Wisconsin mean to those who are ardently working to save community and democracy from the Koch/A.L.E.C/ corporate usurpers!

There's much more Recall Action on tap!


Original Post.

Michissippi’s Shock & Awe: Business Managed Democracy Hangs by a Slender Thread

Snyder's re-invention of Michigan into a northern version of Mississippi is being met with anger and recall activism. Citizens are having a hard time getting real news about what the Business Managed Democracy coming out of Lansing, heavy-handed and top-down, means for them and their children/grandchildren.

Look out! Soon the penetrating light of National Media will be turned, focused on Michigan's large number of recall efforts.

Citizens are increasingly agitated and are vowing not to take it anymore. What they see on the economic horizon, thanks to Nerd Snyder and the Run-Away Train/ Super-Majority of nasty TeaPublicans is totally unacceptable. The loss of over 38,000 jobs will have a thunderous impact on the state.

Snyder has let job creation go by the wayside, while he aids and cheers on the radical agenda of the Koch Bros. et al American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C.) and its over 600 corporate/BIG BIZ handlers. Putting off job creation until next year is a dumb and disastrous Nerdcentric policy. If the desperate plight of over 400,000 workers unemployed in Michigan does not motivate the Nerd to action, what ever could?

Snyder knows how to inflict pain, but does he know how to comprehend and share in the terrible pain he has created? Perhaps the recall efforts will be a turning point in this regard.

Think about what is underway. Over two dozen recall petitions are filed or in the works. Subjects of the Recall Efforts are: The governor and a wide range of members of the state house and the State Senate.

An active and rapidly expanding effort to put the nefarious and dangerously out-of-control Super-Majority of uber-radicals out of office is well under way.

What happens in tomorrow's Wisconsin recall elections will be a giant signal to voters in Michigan. Success there will sweep over Michigan like a wind-driven grass fire.

Early on we have heard EFM manager Michael Flanagan say just "stay calm" and Mackinac Center's Godfather, Attorney Richard D. McLellan say "don't worry about the recalls, they'll not succeed."

Now, longtime observer, and astute analyst, Bill Ballenger has put out a new, very revealing and disturbing word (If you are a Rad-Teapublican or Rick Snyder): IF JUST ONE RECALL IN MICHIGAN SUCCEEDS IT WILL SPELL THE END TO THE SNYDER "JUGGERNAUT"!

Business Managed Democracy is anathema to community and to Michigan. We can deal with it now, finally and directly. We have seen what the TeaPublican agenda entails and it is totally unacceptable to average Michigan citizen

We have seen what a willful and ill-advised TeaPublican faction can do to the national economy. Today's precipitous fall in the stock market (worst since 2008) wiped out well over a trillion dollars of invested wealth, touching a wide range of people who are trying to stay afloat, while the little dictator, Grover Norquist, and Tea Party radicals continue to call for no new taxes and no compromise - hamstringing government.

The Wisconsin Recall results will spell a real revelation of the will of the ordinary citizens, if there is recall success there, LOOK OUT Snyder and TP'ers the broom will be probing deep in your dark corners.

Original Post.

Michigan ALEC State Chair Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker: A CHEERY FACE & A FAKE DEFENSE, promoting corporatist direct access to Michigan lawmaking

Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker doesn't seem to know her facts on A.L.E.C., but she knows how to use A.L.E.C. boilerplate defense of its secret corporatist, state by state "model" Plug-and-Play legislation that is undercutting Middle America.

Sez Sen. Tonya, as reported by MIRS:

"(W)hile the business community is involved, it's only at the task force level when they're 'around the table.' "'It's just a time for legislators to gather to see what's working in other states in terms of model policy,' said Schuitmaker. 'I really think the attacks are unfounded.'"

Using the stock A.L.E.C defense State Chair Schuitmaker wants the public to believe that everything's out in the open, "the business community is involved, it's only at the task force level when they're 'around the table.'"

Ignorance concerning a powerful/secretive organization that is part and parcel of the Corporatist/ TeaPublican agenda (now labeled GOP State Solutions) is no excuse to defend its, corrupting influence, trouble making, usurpation of individual rights and/or and federal government's powers to promote health and well-being throughout our nation.

Either SCHUITMAKER IS VERY NAIVE OR SHE IS SHILLING FOR A.L.E.C. and attempting to give it much needed cover. Around the nation the public is focused now on the extreme measures the long-term, Rad-Right Council is pushing on the various states in a blitz of legislation undercutting rules and regs not favored by the Corporatocracy and attempting to hitchhike legislation into law during this time of extreme economic crisis in the states.

"'Our members join for the purpose of having a seat at the table,' said Dennis Bartlett of ALEC in 1997. 'That's just what we do, that's the service we offer. The organization is supported by money from the corporate sector, and, by paying to be members, corporations are allowed the opportunity to sit down at the table and discuss the issues that they have an interest in.'

"This is the heart of the Trojan horse. Power in ALEC does not come from political acumen, IT COMES FROM BRUTE FINANCIAL FORCE. CORPORATIONS BUY THEIR WAY ONTO ONE OF ALEC'S SPECIALIZED TASK FORCES. There, 'legislators welcome their private-sector counterparts to the table as equals,' according to one ALEC publication. ACTUALLY, THE CORPORATE COUNTERPARTS ARE MORE THAN EQUAL. THEY HAVE VETO POWER. NO BILL IS RELEASED FROM A TASK FORCE WITHOUT THEIR APPROVAL. THE RESULTS OF SUCH AN ARRANGEMENT ARE PREDICTABLE. The task force on criminal justice, for example, has been co-chaired by a representative of Corrections Corporation of America, the nation's largest operator of private prisons. In 1996, ALEC issued model legislation to deregulate utility markets: the legislation was pushed by Koch Industries and Enron.

"After corporate members use ALEC to draft dream legislation, the "model" bills go home with state legislators. The ALEC bills are introduced, debated and voted on by other lawmakers who think the proposals are democratic creations." 

(Emphasis added)

-- Source: WILL POTTER , ALEC Documents Reveal How Corporations Secretly Create New Law.

So what does Schuitmaker's group sitting "around the table" promote or accomplish?

The Michigan group 'WE ARE the People' has formed a partial list:

"The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a vehicle through which global corporations and state politicians collaborate and vote behind closed doors to design legislation to benefit the huge corporations funding ALEC. These so-called 'model bills' reach into almost every area of American life and include things like imposing voting restrictions, undermining environmental protections, scapegoating immigrants to profit the private prison industry and defunding public education." 

And this is only the tip of a nasty iceberg which is threatening the balance and sustainability of state governments.

Sen. Schuitmaker says that A.L.E.C. is bi-partisan. As in most cases, the group reaches that level by sticky via tokenism. The vast number of members are Republicans and now Koch/Rove style Tea Party members. The "work" it does is down and dirty:

"ALEC is a force. By the organization's own account, about 180 of its model bills are enacted in at least one state every year. ALEC scored some of its highest-profile victories during 2011 in Wisconsin and Ohio, where newly-elected Republican governors and legislators attacked budget shortfalls with legislation that sharply restricts the bargaining power of public worker unions. The bills were passed just a few months after companies in ALEC's leadership put more than $304,000 into the campaigns of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Wisconsin state legislators, and spent more than $563,000 on Ohio Gov. John Kasich and lawmakers in the Buckeye State. Both Walker and Kasich are ALEC alumni."

snip

"In Wisconsin, the $304,607 leading ALEC companies put into 2010 campaigns was felt far beyond Gov. Walker's anti-union budget initiatives. State legislators also agreed this year to cap " along lines suggested by ALEC - the 'punitive' damages that can be assessed in personal injury lawsuits. The caps could save millions of dollars for ALEC's corporate members. And despite pleas from consumer groups, Wisconsin lawmakers voted to deregulate the telecommunications industry, also along lines promoted by ALEC.

"In Arizona, where firms on ALEC's private enterprise board have put nearly $16.6 million into state campaigns since 2001, the legislature attracted national attention and sparked a bitter partisan debate when it passed ALEC-backed legislation that gives state and local police new authority to detain suspected illegal immigrants. An investigation by National Public Radio found that one ALEC-member firm, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was a key player in the ALEC task force that drafted the model bill that spawned Arizona's law. CCA, which builds or runs prisons in 21 states and reported 2010 revenues of $1.7 billion, has identified immigrant detention as an emerging market." 

-- These accounts are provided by Common Cause HERE.

The people of Minnesota are finding out about the work of Schiutmaker's A.L.E.C. which she describes: IT'S JUST A COFFEE KLATCH, we are just discussing our own state's problems and solutions amongst ourselves brushing aside. It's her feeble attempt to mitigate her misrepresentation of the heavy and controlling interest A.L.E.C.'s over 300 corporatist members have in their DIRECT PIPELINE lawmaking and resolution factories, set up over time in many states, and active for decades with LITTLE OR NO PUBLIC SCRUTINY OR KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT THEY ARE AND DO.THAT ERA IS OVER.

Here's what Minnesota Common Cause found in their state: "(A.L.E.C.) bills were revealed as Common Cause released a report on the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is financially supported by corporations like Koch Industries and WalMart. At regular conferences, including one going on in New Orleans right now, these corporations draft corporate-friendly legislation that is approved by state legislators on legislative task forces and then introduced at state capitols across the country without disclosure that the business interests wrote them.

"'The work of ALEC shows how the Minnesota capitol is governed by corporate lobbyists instead of main street voters,' said Mike Dean, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota. 'Dozens of corporations are investing millions of dollars to write business-friendly legislation that is being passed into law without public knowledge and often at the expense of the public interest.'

"Common Cause Minnesota found a number of recent Minnesota bills that mirrored ALEC counterparts:

- Voter Restrictions: (HF 89, SF 479) Bill that critics say would suppress voter turnout. ALEC legislation.

- Taxation of Moist Snuff Tobacco: (HF 1079) This bill, created by tobacco companies, would create a tax break for moist tobacco. ALEC legislation.

- Cheeseburger Bill: (HF 264, SF 160) This bill partially shields large food companies from consumer lawsuits. ALEC connection from Inside ALEC magazine.

- End Greenhouse Gas Emission Goals (HF 509) This bill opposes efforts to restrict the emission of greenhouse gases. ALEC legislation.

"The ALEC conference in New Orleans this week includes workshops about pension reform, privatization of Medicaid and the benefits of C02 (in a global warming context)."
--Accounts from The Minnesota Independent & Minnesota Common Cause, Minnesota bills traced to controversial corporate group ALEC

What Tonya Schuitmaker wants you to never know is the true extent of the influenced and effectiveness of A.L.E.C.'s achievements and its many "gifts" delivered by state legislators, such as herself, to enhancing and abetting those contributing and controlling corporations in A.L.E.C.'s secret network:

Ms. Schuitmaker may give her time and loyalty to the American Legislative Exchange Council, enjoy its perks and privileges, go on its junkets, but back home she represents a very financially depressed district and many, many folks who live near "hand to mouth" - they deserve more and better from her than what her service to a corporatist front group is attempting to take from them and others in Michigan with Schuitmaker's facilitating- insider help-as a leading A.L.E.C. lawmaker.


Original Post.

Off to See the BIG BIZ WIZES: Mackinac Center-Backed Legislators take the “Gold Brickers Road” to ALEC’s Corporatist Shindig

Michigan legislators Caswell, Kurtz, & Lori - all backed by the Mackinac Center travel the "gold brickers' road;" go out of state to New Orleans this week to act, as shills; to do the heavy-lifting for Koch Bros & Amway, as well as over 300 Corporatist CEO's-Fellow Travelers who want INSIDE ACCESS to lawmaking and law abatement/revisions that favor their business operations and bottomlines. Caswell, and Kurtz, & Lori are being set-up to deliver.

The Koch Brothers & Amway et. al. Corrupting BIG MONEY seek a direct pipeline to Michigan Lawmaking and Passage via the American Legislative Exchange Council or A.L.E.C.

In Michigan, no family or elite or uber-wealthy group more clearly illustrate the corrupting power of mega-money and the over-extended, exaggerated POWER AND INFLUENCE IN PUBLIC LIFE than Amway.

A.L.E.C. and the conscious effort of the Amway founders to be "national players" means their use of wealth amassed as the plundering princes of other-people's ambitions and dreams has given them too much "say & sway" in local, state, and national politics. And via the close connection with infamous Blackwater (funded from the same family fortune as that of Betsy Prince DeVos) is deeply enmeshed in dangerous mercenary international conflicts and private spying capers. Erik Prince and family have moved to the Persian Gulf area to avoid legal problems in the U.S..

The towering pyramid of Amway cash from neo-recruits in Asia, (especially China where they work hand in glove with the Red Chinese Government-monitors of their China enterprises) continues to give the DeVos and Van Andel families near limitless cash to blow out and buy-out regional business competition in this "one state depression"; they are rapidly assembling a growing stable of business enterprises that are looking more and more like regional monopolies in select business categories. Grand Rapids is beginning to look more and more like an Amway Company Town.

Knowing this, it is no surprise that Amway's control and influence in and over the Mackinac Center, the Acton Institute, the National Heritage Foundation, Citizens for Traditional Values, the American Federation for Children (AFC), and many more groups and proto-political organizations (all of which) feed into their joint participation with the Koch Brothers in THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL. The Amway goal: furthering undo corporate control over lawmaking and state regulations intended to protect the citizens and consumers and stuffing their swelling coffers. The Middle Class said Betsy Prince DeVos are overpaid. Hence so-called "Right-to-Work" for less is now on the radical agenda of Michigan's TeaPublican super majority for this fall's sessions.

A.L.E.C. is where the clogs that turn law and statutes on the individual state levels (the new battleground of the Rad-Right) allow Amway and Koch Industries et al to possess a megaphonic influence over our lives and those of our children.

Carrying the Poisonous Pollution Bucket for Industry " a pet A.L.E.C. goal: Destroy the federal EPA.

Ranging from fighting the EPA, to protecting the cancer causing asbestos industry from paying damages to victims, to destroying the nation's public schools via prioritization and privatization, to the viral union-busting (that is currently sweeping the country), BIG MONEY/BIG BIZ/BIG IDEOLOGY via "harmless Jeffersonian," principles Not! Big money and heavy influence pressures, are using state legislatures as "laboratories" to undermine and hamstring the federal/national government.

A.L.E.C. IS MOUNTING A SUCCESSFUL "COUP AGAINST MIDDLE AMERICA" and this nation's quality of life. No one family or Michigan entity has done more in this regard than the Amway DeVos'.

It behooves and motivates those who TRULY CARE about the American Commons, to strongly and actively END THIS TAKE-DOWN OF LOCAL COMMUNITY AND OUR MIDDLE CLASS WAY OF LIFE.

So as these three Michigan Legislators start down the "gold brick" road with their corporate handlers and get a new portfolio of CUT & PASTE /CORPORATE SERVING SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE MODELS we wonder:

- Will the Tin Man, Bruce Caswell grow a heart for disadvantaged kids?

"Caswell says he wants to make sure that state money set aside to buy clothes for foster children and kids of the working poor is actually used for that purpose. ... 'I never had anything new,' Caswell says. 'I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was - and quite frankly it's true - once you're out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you , nobody knows where you bought your clothes." -- Wrote Michigan Radio. Caswell took a heavy hit in his role as Ol' Scrooge, he recanted in part. However, Bruce, the Pinch Penny Scrooge ( has acquired a harsh label that will stick with Caswell for the rest of his political life).

- Will Kenneth Kurtz, legislative businessman, get a brain transplant and realize that the reduction of unemployment benefits he voted in (the harshest cuts-to that time-in the U.S.) are reflective of a senseless corporatist ideology that hurts over 400,000 fellow Michigan unemployed?

The current Michigan unemployed are not "day workers" by any stretch of the imagination; many had six-figure jobs with years of advanced degrees and successful vocation...Now, Michigan's hardnose TeaPublicans have cut them lose prematurely-with prejudice.

- Will Matthew Lori, the timorous Lion, muster the courage to rectify the A.L.E.C. sponsored damage his votes to undermine and destroy public service and teachers have created?

Can Rep. Lori even honestly represent his fellow neighbors in struggling rural Constantine displaying such timid compliance to outside influences?

Such questions, while appropriate, will pale in light of the pressure the Mackinac Center and its sister organization, the American Legislative Council, can and do put on such state legislators as this hapless threesome off to cozy up to the Koch Brothers and over 350 other A.L.E.C. corporatist members led by CEO's and their high-powered attorneys; serious men who demand these Michigan Legislators tow-the-line for international/multi-national Corporatocracy; no matter the cost to America's greater good, our commons, and local communities throughout Michigan.

The "educational" A.L.E.C. junkets as the party in New Orleans typically cost $3-$4,000 for each invited legislator? Last year the A.L.E.C. sponsors spent over $300,000 on tag-along-children of attendees (expenses for child care and entertainment services). Who pays the freight?

Perhaps A.L.E.C. errand boys Caswell, Kurtz & Lori will tell all when they return? But don't bet on it!

On the other hand, Michigan Legislators won't be the only ones there, and some of those folks do tell all.


Original Post and Reformatted Post.