The American Legislation Exchange Council (ALEC) Exposed

I suggest you visit the following website set up by the Center for Media and Democracy if you are at all concerned about the influence of moneyed and corporate interests in our state and federal legislatures. If you aren't quite concerned about the corporate threat, I implore you to visit the following website.

http://alecexposed.org/

The American Legislation Exchange Council, or ALEC, is an organization funded by and made up of some the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world, such as Koch Industries and Exxon, and numerous legislators. One of its primary purposes is to create "model bills" composed by its board and approved by its nine task forces, which are subsequently brought forth by involved legislators to their respective state legislatures as new public policy proposals. Public policy proposals which, of course, already have tacit approval by the corporate world, since it is the entity which literally wrote them, though there is no disclosure of such involvement.

Some of ALEC's accomplishments which benefit corporations at the expense of citizens (taken from the Center for Media and Democracy's website):

# Altria/Philip Morris USA benefits from ALEC’s newest tobacco legislation -- an extremely narrow tax break for moist tobacco that would make fruit flavored tobacco products cheaper and more attractive to youngsters.

# Health insurance companies such as Humana and Golden Rule Insurance (United Healthcare), benefit directly from ALEC model bills, such as the Health Savings Account bill that just passed in Wisconsin.

# Tobacco firms such as Reynolds and pharmaceutical firms such as Bayer benefit directly from ALEC tort reform measures that make it harder for Americans to sue when injured by dangerous products.

# Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) benefits directly from the anti-immigrant legislation introduced in Arizona and other states that requires expanded incarceration and housing of immigrants, along with other bills from ALEC’s crime task force.

# Connections Academy, a large online education corporation and co-chair of the Education Task Force, benefits from ALEC measures to privatize public education and promote private on-line school


Become aware. ALEC represents interests that reach far in the corporate world, from the health insurance industry to the prison industrial complex, and is in organically adversarial position to the working people of America. They are a symbol of the exploitative trend that the American right wing has been perpetuating since at least as early as the 1970's. Perhaps Reagan would be proud. Certainly Governor Rick Scott is. The sad irony is that organizations such as ALEC and their puppet-public-officials have a tight grip on substantial support of many working people who are unintentionally voting against their own interests and well-being. But with a reliance on an all-corporate media to inform us, what can you expect?

Revolutions at home and abroad.

We have hit a sort of critical mass regarding the status quo in recent weeks; the obvious ones are the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt which are direct attacks on the former regional status quo, enforced by the USA and its junior partner, Europe (and particularly France in the case of Tunisia). Indeed, the unrest has been spreading and people are inspired and frustrated, and it is a beautiful sight.

There is nothing more beautiful than to see the downtrodden and oppressed declare victory over tyranny. Unfortunately for us here in the US, we are on the wrong side of history, no matter which way you try to view it. Mubarak was part of vast system of subservience (or, as it is known in American discourse, "stability") in the Middle East, indeed he was one of our pillars. He supported him throughout all of his atrocities, and do not be fooled, there were many. We have supported the atrocities of Ben Ali all the same, though Tunisia was never as much of a priority. Indeed, it can be seen, without much effort at all, that these revolutions are, at heart, direct attacks against our foreign policy. This should come to no surprise to anyone who knows anything of our foreign policy in the Middle East, which is a policy that depends on the oppression of native peoples of resource (oil) rich countries; it is a policy that has supported repressive and violent regimes for the reason that they are just that, because one needs a brutal dictator to suppress and incapacitate its people if the exploitation of resources and labor is to be handled without issue. Democracy would ultimately mean that all of the vast benefits of the vast resources and strategic advantages of these countries would justly go to the people: Nationalizations of oil companies. Precedence of of the natives over foreign investors. Labor rights. These are things that run directly contrary with US interests, thus democracy runs contrary to US interests.

Of course, it easy to support Democracy in countries that are already enemies. Yes, the people of Iran and Libya have suffered far more than enough and deserve to be free and deserve to be supported in their noble endeavors. However, so do the people of Bahrain, Yemen, and Jordon, and whilst our State Department makes condemning statements aimed at Ghaddafi, and it should, they are much less clear on their position regarding the suffering people of Bahrain. Let's be absolutely clear: the people in Bahrain and Yemen are just as oppressed, if not more, as the people in Iran. And the same went for Egypt. The hesitance of our government to make statements calling for democracy in Jordon, Bahrain, Yemen and previously in Egypt from the get-go I'm sure send a very clear signal to the protesters in each and every one of these countries. They send the signal that Obama is not any different from Bush on the foreign policy front. They send the signal that he is part of the enemy. And he is. But it isn't too late to change, it's never too late to stop perpetrating oppression and violence against innocent peoples. If for no other reason than to save one more life, one more family. Where in the hell is the hope and change?

Obama has shown his true colors regarding the Middle East in the last few weeks; first by not immediately calling for the ouster of Mubarak, and just recently by vetoing the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. The latter is especially ridiculous, since it is official US policy to oppose settlement building in the Palestinian territories. But apparently it is not real US policy. As if the hypocrisy is not frustrating enough, the excuse given by Obama's UN ambassador Susan Rice was colossally stupid, saying that first the Security Council is not the right forum for this issue(just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard) and that this resolution would block future peace talks(there is absolutely no evidence for this statement). The resolution was vetoed, and obviously the US was the only member to vote against the resolution (14-1). This vote illustrated not only the hypocrisy of US policy regarding Israel but also the utter isolation of the US and Israel against the entire world on this issue and that Israel can no longer try to argue that a moratorium of settlements is an illegitimate precondition to peace talks. Of course, the following day there was a proclaimed "Day of Rage" in the West Bank, just another one of many protests in the Middle East by those sick of the satus quo. And just another instance where we were on the wrong side of history, very deliberately.

The instability is not just evident abroad however, as recent events in Wisconsin of have shown. And once again, Obama has not come out strongly for the people. Not in Bahrain, not in Wisconsin. And it doesn't even make any sense whatsoever, considering unions are really the last stronghold of the Democratic Party, the last advantage in terms of campaign finance over the Republicans. So, politically, Obama's passivity seems completely ridiculous, especially when you take into account that this attack on labor is really a political assault on the Democratic Party as a whole by Republicans. I never thought I would see the day that a Democrat President would be completely passive whilst there are threats to collective bargaining rights. It is more than disheartening, it is frustrating. You don't want to stand up for the workers in Egypt? What about in Wisconsin for God's sake? Is there anyone you will stand up for besides Wall Street CEO's?

We are not only seeing Obama's true colors. We are also seeing the left finally fight back against the anti-labor right wing and showing the tea baggers that the real salt of the Earth are not Reaganites. Finally we are seeing those who are fed up with the economic policies of the last 30 years, the policies of Reagan. The anti-working class policies. So where are you Obama? Where's this hope and change? It's certainly not in the Middle East, and apparently not in the picket lines in Wisconsin.

We are seeing revolutions abroad, and it is beautiful. Perhaps what we are seeing in Wisconsin is the start of a new revolution, a revolution of the workers who are sick of being screwed. A revolution pushing back against the economic policy trend and the corporatism of the last 30 years. Obama, I'm really beginning to question what your real intentions are, whether the weak, hole-filled reforms you've put forth are really just compromises or are they what you really believe. Whether you have been trying to be careful politically or just not really all that much of a reformer.

Now the world is changing, from the state workers in Wisconsin to the students in Cairo. You promised change, but you haven't delivered. Let's just hope you can keep up with what changes we've been making.

Free Speech Under Fire

I've already expressed what I think about the whole Wikileaks issue when the War in Afghanistan leaks were made public. However, I feel with the advent of the last information load exposed regarding the diplomatic wires, there has been a much more intensive and larger attack by certain "experts," politicians, and media figures on the principle of free speech. This, obviously, is no secret; everybody in the media has been discussing this for weeks.

It is quite apparent that those who are on the side against Wikileaks don't take the principle of free speech seriously, or at least don't understand why we have free speech and just what it is supposed to protect; indeed, what Joe Lieberman either doesn't understand, or more likely does understand but doesn't care because he is Joe Lieberman, is the concept that free speech is specifically existing to protect speech that unpopular or disliked. And when we take on the issue of Wikileaks, which has a lot of support, it isn't even a clear-cut issue of unpopularity since the public is divided on the issue; there isn't a universal dislike for Wikileaks unlike, say, the pedophilia handbook of which the author was arrested recently for, or Holocaust denial. Even in such cases, free speech should be protected, because no matter how vile, disgusting, distasteful, or disturbing it is, this is exactly what free speech is supposed to protect.

So it is clear that we are seeing an attack on free speech, led by the likes of Senator Lieberman and Mike Huckabee, who has done a lot to persecute Wikileaks. The laws on such matters on clear, as Wikileaks is a publisher and Julian Assange considers himself a journalist, there should be no reason why they should be charged with any crime, especially when we are seeing such establishment publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post publishing the same material and are surely not going to be charged anything. And that's not even just because they are establishment, its because the laws are clear: you cannot charge a publisher or journalist for publishing leaked classified information, you can only charge the leaker, whom allegedly in this case is PFC Bradley Manning.

This is the same classic story of hypocrisy in politics we've come to know and hate, over and over again: Praise the Constitution and free speech when it is convenient and it is supportive of whatever point of view you are endorsing, and ignore or even slam the constitution when it is actually doing its job and becoming a pain in your neck. To call Wikileaks a terrorist organization is ridiculous on so many levels and shows this hypocrisy so clearly, since such calls are coming fro so-called constitutional conservatives. It is disgusting, to say the least, and it is even more disgusting that our President and our Attorney General are supporting this type of behavior. It has been clear for a while now, anyhow, that President Obama is deeply bothered by whistle-blowers due to his actions in the past couple years. Let's all hope that this isn't the start of a Woodrow Wilson-like persecution of free speech.

However, thus far, things are not going so well and we may as well be heading in that direction. The new attack of free speech by the world's political and economic elites reach almost a fever pitch just a couple weeks ago at the United Nations climate gathering in Cancun, Mexico, where several environmental activists were denied participation and subsequently silenced for involvement in peaceful protests and/or promoting worthy, but unpopular amongst elite, causes. Legitimate activists who were allowed to participate in such events in the past, and in some cases earlier in even the same event, were being denied access for giving voice to legitimate and relevant causes such as indigenous peoples' rights. However, officially they were being denied access for almost no legitimate reason whatsoever. All of this silencing and persecution, all of these attacks on free speech, all so certain political, economic, and corporate elites could discuss matters by themselves without any "distractions" from real people with real concerns; so they can construct whatever exploitative model they want in order to move forward with their profit margins and economic power.

There is, undoubtedly, a war with free speech happening as we speak. However, the main problem with this war is that only those against free speech are fighting in it; similar to the current class war in which only the rich are fighting it. This war may have huge negative implications for the general public. This country was founded upon the principle of free speech, it is the pillar on which the people of America stand above the rest of the world in the realm of freedom and opportunity, and if it gets slipped out from under us, we will collapse. Not the elite, not corporations or the political establishments, but us, the people, will collapse. All to the benefit of those who are fighting this war right now. It is time to stand up for Wikileaks, for all activists all around the world, for everybody; it is time to stand up and fight back.

War vs. Democracy

Perhaps the most significant revelation in the new leaked documents on the war in Iraq by Wikileaks is the realization that after the controversies regarding Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, and torture, the war was not cleaned up like it was perceived to be after Petraeus took over. Torture was still widespread, though if not carried out directly by our troops on the ground, then indirectly by allied Iraqi forces; the question boils down to whether letting torture take place by turning a blind eye to it, when you have the power prevent it and clearly know that is taking place, is the same as carrying out the torture directly. I think we all know the answer to that, and it is disturbing.

Possibly more significant is the revealed death count of 109,032, with over 60% of those being civilian casualties. And that count is only the deaths that our troops were involved with or came across; I fear that the number is definitely far more when factoring in sectarian violence that our soldiers did not directly encounter, as they obviously can't be everywhere at once. But make no mistake, those casualties are should weigh on our conscience, as well; if we had not come into Iraq, or at least had been better prepared and had realistic expectations, then this country would not become unstable and would not have transformed into a breeding ground for sectarian violence. Iraq would not have broken out into civil war without our invasion.

No, this war has not been a "clean" war. There is no such thing. War is legalized murder of civilians, of children, of mothers. Although these leaks did not break any ground or give us any grand revelations that we perhaps could not have already assumed (as many of us did), they do shine some light and give some clarity to the conflict, as did Wikileaks' Afghan leak. The public needs this clarity, apparently. If we knew the truth, I'm sure none of us would support war. The truth is just so obvious in all cases of war, we all know what war is, but there is this sentiment in America, cleverly crafted by a relentless propaganda campaign by our government and those propaganda machines who support it, that war is different when we wage it. A war for freedom, for peace. But it never is. We all know the truth about war, the horrors are right in front of us to see, but we are completely blind. We should be saying "Never again;" instead we are talking about bombing Iran and taunting North Korea and Venezuela. Do we learn nothing?

The American people need to wake up. We are the only people who can stop these atrocities, and you can bet there will be many and always will be many if we don't. We are amongst the most powerful people in the world. We literally have the power to make or break it. In many countries, people get killed or imprisoned by their government for even suggesting to raise the minimum wage from 30 cents a day to a dollar a day; our freedoms are a true blessing, and also a great source of power to change the status quo. But we never use it. It is true that our voice is relatively small compared to the voice of the corporate world, but our voice is relatively huge compared to the voices of all other peoples of this world. And we are in a position to change things: so many conflicts and so much of the injustice in this world stems from our government. From supporting brutal puppet regimes to crippling any nation who does not subordinate to our interests, indeed you can trace back too many atrocities back to our government. And the very sad fact is that our government claims to represent us and our interests.

Let's show them that we are not going to accept this. This is a democracy, and we need to not only expand our democratic rights domestically, but we need to start being more democratic in our foreign affairs. Whether or not we invade a country should not be up a bunch of corporate sponsored jokers. Whether or not we back a military coup in a country to overthrow a democratically elected leader should not be up to the CIA. These decisions should be up to us: after all, the actions are done in our name.

I think my fellow Americans also need to realize that this culture of secrecy in our foreign affairs is not always ethical or even productive. Yes, journalists should not leak information that they know could possibly negatively impact national security, but we have learned over a very long period time, over and over again, that our intelligence agencies are very likely to classify things for the reason of covering up something embarrassing, something criminal, or most often, something embarrassingly criminal. They are not be trusted at their word, we really have no good reason to. They haven't provided us with a good reason to.

The intelligence agencies have been exposed repeatedly for hiding things from us, the American people, for the sole reason of keeping us uninformed, thus crippling our decision making process. If the American people were informed about the facts leading up to the Iraq war, would we have supported it? Hell no. It wouldn't have even been an issue. I believe, as strong as propaganda is, the facts, if known, will always prevail. That notion may be naive, but we have never had an opportunity to explore it. They have always intentionally kept us in the dark for unsavory reasons.

It has become very obvious that the war making bodies of our government, the intelligence agencies and presidency, view the American public as the enemy. The secrecy and the propaganda seem very much like Reagan's actions in Nicaragua, when the US took over the Nicaraguan airwaves and aired pro-Contra propaganda endlessly and kept Nicaraguan people in the dark as to the reality of the war, which was US state-sponsored terrorism. This should tell us two very important things: the immoral and unethical nature of our policy makers, particularly ones involved with foreign policy, and just how powerful our voice is.

If the CIA is so afraid of our voice as to intentionally mislead us and keep us in the dark in order to work, that should tell us that we are a force to be reckoned with, a force that can transform the staus quo.

That is, if we are to be awakened.

Demand the truth. Demand peace.

There is no such thing as a "clean" war.





Side Note: I had made a post about the Iranian Hikers in September, and I just wanted to say that my views on the topic have changed due to new information leaked in the Wikileaks documents regarding the fact the the Hikers were actually in Iraq and captured by Iranian forces in Iraq; that changes things greatly.