ALEC = corporations write legislation

The American Legislative exchange Coalition or ALEC is a group of corporate businessmen from the private sector who draft model legislation which they then encourage their republican members to enact. They claim to propose 1000 pieces of legislation a year, and that 18% of that becomes law.
This group is made up of corporate businessmen who pay $1000/year for membership, and then another $2,500 to $5,000 to be a part of one of their specialized bill-drafting groups. The membership is pretty secretive, though the public members can sometimes be tracked through other methods.
This is much more dangerous than a typical lobbying group because in this case private business and corporations are actually drafting legislation, and then this stuff is sold to gullible American public as something that is in the best interest of the public.
Large portions of Scott Walker's Budget repair bill come directly from the 'budget repair tool kit'. Some of the budget repair proposed might be in the public interest, but I know for sure that 100% of it is in the best interest of the big business corporations that drafted the original legislation with the ALEC.
The ALEC is very concerned with fighting "Obamacare" and I am sure that many Americans feel this way as well, but are we all comfortable with a fight against Obamacare that is headed up and written out by pharmacuetical companies?! How can their fight be in the best interest of the American people when they are paying so much money to ensure that it is in their own interest.

I think that this argument is valid for everything that is proposed on the ALEC website. The Arizona 1070 immigration bill came from this group. Why are private companies so concerned with illegal immigration? This bill was probably co-written by companies that operate private prisons, that stand to benefit from the criminalization of illegal immigration. I am sure that the union busting agenda of the Walker administration has nothing to do with the public interest.

It is particularly ironic that Walker has demonized teachers, nurses, prison guards, and other public employees by calling them lazy and selfish for protesting the drastic changes his administration has brought in reducing funds and stripping them of their right to collectively bargain for benefits and workplace conditions. In addition to the many lies that Mr. Walker has perpetrated, perhaps the worst is that he claims to be motivated by concern for the public good, when in fact he is concerned for the good of the companies and corporations that have drafted the extreme ALEC legislation that his sham administration is rubber-stamping.

Doyle budget repair VS Walker budget repair

Doyle's Budget repair vs. Walker's Budget repair

There is an idea that Walker's budget repair bill is roughly equivalent to Doyle's 2009 budget repair bill.

There are similarities; both were passed or attempted to be passed in a short amount of time with no public testimony.

The differences are many. Doyle's budget repair was not nearly as divisive as Walker's BRB. It did not prompt a Filibuster from the opposing party, and no Republicans fled the state. Is this because the Repubs all firmly believed that the governor and majority party should be blindly followed in every situation? Perhaps. It also could be because Doyle's BRB was not abhorrent to the Republicans. The main complaints about the Doyle BRB is that it increased taxes. It did raise taxes by 360 million, as well as a retroactive hospital tax. The hospital tax raised the total taxes raised to 1.2 billion, however the hospital tax would bring in federal funds, so the hospitals wanted to be taxed. The unwanted taxes were also raised, and plenty of Republicans were unhappy.

I believe that raising taxes in this manner is not equivalent to stripping effective collective bargaining rights from public employees, selling state power plants in no-bid contracts, restructuring badger care so that an appointee makes all eligibility decisions instead of the legislature, allowing companies to pollute wetlands, expanding the Milwaukee voucher program without requiring equivalent testing, and all of the other inflammatory craziness that the Walker bill contains.

Unlike Walker's BRB, all of the representatives were allowed to vote when approving the Doyle budget repair. The Democrats did not try to vote before the Republicans arrived, and I can't seem to find this specific data, but I don't think that their microphones were turned off. furthermore, I believe that Doyle had many influences for his budget repair bill, but there is no Democratic equivalent to the ALEC which is a collaborative effort between owners of large corporations and republican lawmakers to draft "model legislation" which is then promoted by the republican lawmakers around the country. Walker's Budget repair Bill is full of Alec-inspired legislation.

The Doyle BRB, though far from perfect, was not nearly as divisive or far reaching as the Walker BRB. Raising taxes on capitol gains by 60% as well as increasing income taxes for the wealth(over 225K) to 7.75% was not as far-reaching as stripping effective collective bargaining from public employees.

Finally, at some point this debate becomes a "my value" versus "your values" situation. I believe that people are sincere when they say that such-and-such legislation reflects their culture, beliefs, and core values.
I do not believe in moral relativism. I believe that people can be manipulated and that there are and have been a lot of really bad ideas in the world that have been excused as culture and heritage. I believe that promoting the interests of the powerful and wealthy at the expense of the poor and colored is wrong.

Walker's school 'reform'

Walker is reforming schools.
Some, like the Tea party are happy about it.

Others are worried that it will ruin the education system here in Wisconsin.

Walker's plan from his Campaign site, mentions retaining, rewarding and training qualified teachers. Though the "non fiscal" budget repair bill AB11 effectively strips teachers of their collective bargaining rights, which many felt was disrespectful, certainly not rewarding, and will be a factor in many of them not being retained, as they seek better opportunities in states where they are valued as professionals, not just the latest punching bag of the far-right.

I am also very concerned about expanding the voucher program in Milwaukee public schools.
The vouchers will be available to more students than ever before.
vouchers need not pay the full tuition (parents will chip in for the rest)
private schools need not do the same testing as the public schools.

This is all done in the interest of creating "competition" but many believe that this program will result in funneling money away from public schools into private religious schools, and that the private schools may be subpar as they are not required to ahve certified teachers,
also, many of the problems of Milwaukee public schools are due to the low socio-economic status of the MPS students. nearly 20% of MPS kids are qualified for special education, and these kids need extra attention and have problems.

I found one comment especially poignant;

Lianne Schroeder - Feb 27, 2011 9:08 PM

10

I would be very interested to know who Walker is getting advice from
on these reforms and what research supports these decisions. As a
student in Learning Sciences, I have gained an understanding of just
how difficult it is to define "good" teaching and how poorly standardized
tests correlate with what we students to know and how we want
teachers to teach!

Teacher and school evaluation is not easy to understand or change and I
am highly skeptical of Walker's ability to be able to make informed
decision or to even understand the advice he might be presented with.

Walker claims that he needs to get rid of collective bargaining to give
local administration the tools they need to deal with the upcoming
budget cuts but then he is going to come in with sweeping reforms of
his own, taking control away from local administration.
***********************************************

Well said. I am absolutely sure that expanding the voucher program statewide is next on the list of Walker's crazy tea party agenda. This will create institutional racism, it will not 'solve' the education system, because the private schools will not have some special silver bullet that the public schools do not, on the contrary, the private schools will have less- qualified teachers, less oversight, and as a result a sub-par education. Perhaps their tuition fees will limit their students to only the most economically advantaged, so the inequalities in education will be hidden. Perhaps the parents that subscribe to the Tea party ideology will be dazzled by the vanilla pudding classmates, they may not understand or value education in general, and if they are like Walker, they will not understand math, so they will believe Walker when he says that the private schools have improved learning by 7.5 million, or 350,oo0 or some other significant amount that he will have to get back to you about.

Since the attack on my dear state of Wisconsin, I have decided to take down the TEA party, I know there are a few divisions, but specifically the Americans for Prosperity, the group here is WI that has been funding pro-walker ads, sponsored the "stand with walker" bus tour, and the nearly 2,ooo strong pro-walker rally on the square, which Sarah Palin decided to skip last minute because of the poor turn out, and perhaps the 66,ooo peaceful pro-union protesters.

SO, here are some links, these are sort of fun, but the message is very real, and very troubling.

I can't watch this and laugh. It is all too close to home. Glenn Beck is a Mormon! We share a religion; I hope that his spiritual journey will eventually lead him to more self-awareness and rejection of these beliefs, but for now his actions are a force for evil.

protesting update

Protesting is really hard. It is not just some self-serving self-righteous cake walk, yes there is sometimes free pizza, but it is also really cold. My arms are getting stronger from holding up signs, and recently I have been trying to fit my running back into my life by running "laps of shame" for the shameful actions of the government. Friday I did 5 laps with my jogging stroller. There was also an Elder March- senior citizens with picket signs, power wheelchairs, guitars, and banners. One lady had a walker with a sign that said "at least this walker is useful".


I love the diversity of the crowd, but when the crowd is thin, or when I talk to pro-walker supporters and hear them criticize public employees as selfish, lazy, useless, etc. It gets difficult. I mean this budget bill as it is written will mean the end of our public schools as we know them. It severely limits programs like food assistance and badger care. I hate learning that there exist people in the world who actually think that eliminating the social safety net is a good idea. I still believe strongly in what I am doing, but it gets difficult when I have to act alone.


I will go to hell and back for my assembly democrats. These people are my heroes. I also have great respect for the fabulous 14 and their flight to Illinois to delay the passage of this bill, and there is plenty of work ahead for them; there is a lot of crazy legislation being proposed, and I plan on showing up often and speaking my opposition to this radical agenda.

I now believe that the success of the protest will require exposing the TEA party and the Americans For Prosperity PAC for what they really are; racist, frightened, selfish and classist. I think that it is sad that it has come to this, but the radical right is attacking my state, so I am fighting back.

boycott flier

Picket WIBA ** Sunday Mar 6^th 3-5pm ** 2651 South Fish Hatchery rd

Rightwing talk radio station WIBA is home to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Vicki McKenna. This station vilifies public workers and is fanning the flames of the war on the middle class. Stand up to these hotheads with a picket sign! Bring your friends for a peaceful protest to show WIBA that Madison doesn’t like liars.

boycottwalker.blogspot.com

Picket WiBa ** Sunday Mar 6^th 3-5pm ** 2651 South Fish Hatchery rd

Rightwing talk radio station Wiba is home to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Vicki McKenna. This station has been vilifying public workers and fanning the flames of the war on the middle class. Stand up to these hotheads with a picket sign! Bring your friends for a peaceful protest to show Wiba that Madison doesn’t like liars.

boycottwalker.blogspot.com

protest- outdoors!!

The capitol is effectively closed. It was opened by a court order Monday, but that only lasted for a short time. There are a lot of different excuses circulating;
the protesters inside are not cooperating,
they are cleaning the building and will not be allowed in until it is clean, etc.


Scott Walker gave a budget address Tuesday, and he got his supporters in via an underground tunnel from the Risser justice center. I am sure that he felt all persecuted. He puts on a good show of pretending to be threatened by the protest, but he is such a liar.
He kicks the people out of the capitol now, the people kick him out Jan 4 2012.

And what would appease the demonstration? What is so unreasonable that we are sleeping outdoors in 15 degree weather? Negotiate with the Democratic representatives, and do not restrict collective bargaining by public employees. This budget has a lot of issues, it is painful, etc. But those two issues are the main problem.

There was another court decision that determined that the capitol could in fact remained closed and restricted because the protest caused loud noises and the chanting was threatening to gov. Walker. Of course, if he wants to infuriate his citizens, I think that he should at least have to hear us be angry about it. The weasel refused to talk to the assembly democrats, he is ignoring them, and now he is trying to ignore the rest of the people in his state that don't agree with him. I understand that a massive community sleepover is inconvenient, but so is removing our collective bargaining rights. As one lovely sign so eloquently expressed;
"did you expect to take away our rights without a WILD RUMPUS?"

This person posed as the statue of liberty on Saturday. pretty great costume!

At the doors of the capitol you can leave a note with your feelings on it. The Dane COunty sherriff removed their supporting officers from the capitol saying that they are not "palace guards" they are still helping to patrol, but refuse to do any of the semi-legal dirty work.

And the protests haven't stopped. perhaps fewer people are camping out overnight, but I actually prefer to be outdoors, I slept way better than I ever did inside, and I get to make a pretty powerful statement just by sleeping. The low was 15 this morning, and I was okay. I can do this for a long time. If it rains I will just come back the next day.

This sign is on a memorial to union soldiers. I though it was incredibly clever.
I also saw a sign that said "out out damn Scott". We are so creative.
You really shouldn't mess with Wisconsin!

protest

even dogs know that this bill is bad news...

reform prisons to save money! Don't attack collective bargaining!

atleast voldemort was NOT elected.... so sad, so sad.

Knitters for negotiation!!



This is a pretty good crowd. THere is also a real diversity of ages and types of people. The protestors who are occupying the capitol are mostly students, but those outside are largely


invoking the spirit of fighting Bob...The pro-labor 4-time presidential cabinet and Wisconsin native. His statue in the capitol has flowers on it.


FOx news has reported all sorts of lies about this protest over teh last two weeks. They are not just biased, they are telling lies. So, when a fox news camera man came into the crowd, we all shouted "fox news lies!" loud and constantly until he left. FOX really shouldn't make enemies in WIsconsin. We are tough people- we fish through ice.

This is a non violence protest, not non-violinist.
Violinists are welcome, especially violinists for labor.