truth will out

Truth will out. Documents from the American Legislative Exchange Council and Mackinac institute have been leaked. No one knows exactly what is in this mess, but If its anything like the rest of their agenda, it is pretty disgusting.

Apparently Anonymous got these from the Chamber of Commerce; I am not above suspecting that this release is a ploy-- The ALEC 'accidently' forgot to block some legislation this week- it looked incredibly extreme and may have been meant to lead people off the more threatening mainstream agenda of voter suppression and unlimited political funding.

I am not sure exactly what is going on, but I trust the Daily Kos- they are fairly accurate, and willingly admit it when they make mistakes. I do not trust the ALEC; so I will be reading through their dirty laundry.

Fascism in America

THe Protests as the Capitol have been wodely criticized for comparing Hitler to Walker. Perhaps this is warranted, as Walker is not killing people. We should not dilute the horror of the Holocaust by comparing it to the current Power grab in this country.

However, The Walker Administration has a lot of fascist elements. Henry Wallace wrote about the dangers of Fascism, back in the 1940's. It seems like this list was written for today. Before I knew that it was written 70 years ago, I thought that it was specifically about the current right wing power grab. I can not stress how disturbing this is.

The Tea Party is Racist, They are; they support racist policies like voter suppression. Their paranoia is being twisted around by big business to garner public support for regressive causes. This is following a pattern, and its not a good one. The supporters of Walker, the AFP, McIver Institute, Bradley institute, Koch Industries, etc. They are all on the wrong side of history. But by the time there is irrefutable evidence of this, it will be too late. The regressive pro-business anti-regulation policy of the Walker/Koch/ALEC may be enough to trigger a depression.

Remember, When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

ending the Tea party

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Sinclair Lewis, 1935 --Talk of foresight--


My new mission in life is to expose and bring down the Americans for Prosperity and their associated groups. I don't usually seek to destroy entire political parties, but AFP is especially dangerous and they have shown their willingness to support evil in Michigan and Wisconsin.
They are in support of lies. They advocate against scientific knowledge, via creationism and the false global warming 'debate'. They lobby for less education and to reduce the assistance given to the poor, even while reducing revenue from other sources. This is wrong; they are wrong and I am going to make sure that everyone knows this.
The Tea party is over.
I am committed to peaceful methods.

campaign contributors

Check out this awesome map of campaign contributors!

Alberta Darling's Contributors include Foley & Lardner, a law firm that is also helping to draft the Emergency Fiscal Management law for Milwaukee county and the state of Wisconsin. There are no campaing contribution limits for persons subject to a recall, so Darling can get all the money she wants from who ever she wants.

Recently The Americans for Prosperity has formed numerous small groups. The Citizens for america were one such group that was registered at a po box in Beaver dam, though one of its top people was also an employee of Americans for prosperity. Such groups do not have to dislcose their donors, but it was very obvious that their money came directly from Koch industries and AFP. I bet that Foley and Lardner also have some pretty strong Koch Connections.

hate speech

The Supreme Court has been very reluctant to prosecute hate speech.

We have a huge freedom of speech right in this country. Unfortunately, Citizens United lifted some restrictions on speech that allow employers to directly market politics to their employees. Unions, btw, have never had this amount of power. Koch Industries has been taking advantage of the Citizens United ruling by marketing their version of reality to their employees. Of course, I believe that the Kochs arranged the Citizens United case and its outcome, so this is to be expected.

There are also some hate groups in this country. Places that promote racism and hate under the guise of patriotism and religion. I just spent some time on the John Birch Society website, and these guys are so disgusting. They have thier fake history that is then used to justify their agenda. They profess to be religious- promoting christian values- but then also have a stated mission to reverse civil rights. I am not sure if I feel sick from seeing their misinformation, or from the fact that I know so many people that believe their lies.

The Americans for Prosperity is the literal second generation of JOhn Birch SOciety. They have removed the obvious racism, and it looks like they are trying to tone down the religiosity and anti-semitism. They are also much more active in promoting the politics of big business. The AFP and John Birch still share one important element; misinformation. There are a lot of scare tactics and paranoia about socialism (Yikes! why would anyone want to be like Canada?). It is disgusting.

What do I do?
I have been thinking about this for a bit, and I am in a unique situation. I know a lot of Americans for Prosperity. I know that their rhetoric is false and full of lies. I know a lot about campaign finance and the ALEC. I need to associate with the AFP, and try in a non threatening way to point out fallacies in the AFP propoganda. This is a battle of hearts and minds.

Benton Harbor, MI

In Benton Harbor, MI the State Government has used the city's fiscal instability to remove power from democratically elected city officials. This is the first community to have local government dissolved under Michigan's new Emergency Fiscal management law. Coincidently the representative who sponsored the law was on the board of a golf course development that had a difficult time taking over a major city park in Benton Harbor last year. Using a financial crisis to grab power is always wrong, as we well know here in Wisconsin.
I am supporting the people of Benton Harbor in their right to govern themselves and resist this blatant power grab. I hope that Walker sees the wave of resistance to this undemocratic action and rethinks the EFM bill that he has been preparing for Wisconsin.

ALEC update

ALEC is trying desperately to save its public image. It has just released a list of donors, and though it will not reveal as much as we would like, it is telling. Even republicans do not want corporations writing their legislation. As this organization is being exposed, they know that their behavior is reprehensible, and that the public will not support them. The misinformation campaign might work- but I hope that it won't.
This vast far right power grab needs to go down.

Repubs cut the sound system.......again.

April 11th, the Joint Finance Budget hearing was cut off at the scheduled closing time, despite people being in line to speak. The Republicans got up and left, but the Democrats, including State Senator Lena Taylor stayed to listen to the remainder of the speakers. Of Course, Lena Taylor had to tell this to the crowd with a bullhorn because Representative Robin Vos Turned off the sound system. Yes, he cut the microphones.

Eerily similar to the Move by Jeff Fitzgerald to cut the microphones of the Assembly Democrats during the 1:30 am roll call vote that was closed before several of the Dems were able to even register their votes.

Here we have a pattern- cutting off microphones (Vos & Fitzgerald)- also, not meeting with or returning phone calls from Union Leaders (Scott Walker) -Restricting the ability of the public to vote (SB 6) This adds insult to injury. The Walker administration got a lot of criticism for refusing to meet with the Assembly Democrats, so Walker set up some meetings. According to Rep Brett Hulsey, they were purely for show- but there is at least a semblance of the correct democratic process.
Some Republican Senators have felt public pressure from the recalls, and have since backpedaled on their support for Walker's Budget and the rest of the far-right Agenda. Lets not trust these people any further than we can throw them; but they need to at least act like they are being accountable to their constituents.

At least we have the show of democracy here. Michigan is actually getting rid of democratic rule for its poorest residents.

the tangled web

Just in case you are not yet convinced that all the powers on the far-right are combining together to destroy the State of Wisconsin, here is an article outlining some of the connections.

And if that is not enough, Leaders of the TEA Party movement have also been linked to white supremacists groups. This is really not news, as the Koch Bro.s' father was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose expressed mission was to reverse civil rights. The latest incarnation shies away from the anti-civil rights message- often citing their minority members as evidence that they are "not racist" of course, anyone familiar with the civil rights movement knows that it was a movement of the lower middle class and poor. The Wealthy blacks did not participate nearly as much, and indeed some were opposed.

The fact that the AFP, Tea Party, and Koch industries have close connections with lots of racist groups does not mean that they themnselves must be racist; but they also openly support policies and legislation that hurt the poor more than the rich or middle class. Perhaps they are not truly racist, but rather classist, as their ideas and goals- which are pedaled to them by big businesses like Koch industries under the guise of being 'pro-industry' -support policies that will make the poor poorer, limit education, reduce wages, and limit aid for those who are least able to help themselves.

Mark Pocan infiltrated ALEC

State Representative Mark Pocan attended an actual ALEC meeting a few years ago,-undercover of course- and reported on it. In light of the recent scrutiny the group had been under, he has reposted it on his site.

I was especially intrigued by the report that there were no socially conservative causes on the board. They were exhibitors outside, but were not a part of the actual law making groups. This seems to confirm the idea that the ALEC legislation is written and lobbied to benefit big business, and it is then wrapped in conservative Christianity so that it will appeal to the masses.

I don't know if this will be exposed right now- so many people are willing to believe the big lies told by the big money. Eventually the truth will come out, and I have to work as hard as I can to expose these lies.

sing -a -long

I have been attending the Solidarity Sing A Long in the Capitol Rotunda several days a week. This is my new mode of protesting. I feel that it is visible, and makes a nice statement. I can also bring my kids, and it is also sustainable. I can literally go every week day, and still live my normal life.

Plus, I have learned a lot of new songs!

Waukesha, Waukesha.

The Daily Kos has an interesting article that suggests election fraud in Waukesha in 2004. I have also been very surprised by the glaring bias in the media lately. The evening news is spinning this situation in favor of the governor. I know they have sponsors, and they have to be conservative - can't jump to conclusions,etc. But I am very disturbed by their glaring inaccuracies. I won't trust them again.

Channel 27 did a story on the Joint Finance Committee hearings. They then presented a survey with the question
Should JFC hearings be conducted differently?
here are the responses as listed and announced;
1. YES -with extended hours 49%
2. NO- 30%
3. YES- 20%

SO, if you aren't paying attention, it looks like 49% of the people think that the JCF committee should do things differently, when in reality this survey was written this way to split the "yes vote" so it looks like the people surveyed are more divided on the question.
In reality, the survey results should have read

1. Yes- 69%
2. No- 30%

This is more accurate because it conveys the meaning of the question. This wasn't some mistake. The 'News' team put this in to mislead the public.
I hate it when numbers are used to misrepresent data.

The bias and lies in the media are not too surprising, They have to be careful not to cry foul too early. They have advertisers and need to keep on the side of pro-business whenever possible. It is unfortunate that so many get information from the evening news and think of it as an unbiased source. I will not make that mistake again.

All beliefs are not equal.

Michigan is having its own round of freedom of information requests used as intimidation for professors doing labor-related research.

The fairness doctrine is difficult to argue against. Giving the 'other side' a chance to have a say seems valid as a rule, but when the 'other side' has ulterior motives - like they produce fossil fuels, then their opinion on such issues as global warming is really not valid. Unfortunately through ALEC oil companies get to draft their own laws, which are then rubber stamped by their GOP counterparts.

The 'fairness' idea breaks down when we bring science and research into the picture. When they are proven incorrect, the Koch agenda cites "beliefs" and cries "biased research". OFcourse they want researchers who do not believe in global warming, but these are rare because everyone who is qualified to be an expert learns enough about the environment that to deny global warming (though there is plenty debate on how to fix it) would be an outright lie. A few experts will lie- there are quacks in every field- but this is a case of knowledge, not some biased conspiracy.

All beliefs are not equal. The story of Nehor in the Book of Mormon is a good example of this.

I find it interesting in the end of the story, Nehor finally admits his lie, but his followers do not renounce their beliefs, so damage is still done. He must have had a very compelling argument, perhaps something to gratify pride. I wonder how similar Nehor's arguments were to the marketing of lies that we hear today.

Harry Reid is my hero

Harry Reid is standing for what is right. He is pressing the GOP on their budget bill, and the GOP is holding it up because they want to strip funding from Planned Parenthood and cultural programs like NPR- now this could be 100% fiscally motivated- except that it isn't. Plenty of bigwig Republicans are encouraging the GOP to cut a deal- the GOP already got the cuts that it originally wanted.

Planned parenthood provides reproductive health services to women for low or no cost. It is a favorite topic for the GOP because it involves the twin evils of sex and helping the poor. Harry Reid is standing firm, asking the GOP point blank if they are willing to shut down the government just to show that they are against birth control and privately funded abortions.

The GOP is dodging the question, because they are ashamed of their agenda and know that it is wrong. I am so proud of my fellow Mormon. Through his example I have a way to be a member of this church and still stand up for social justice. Thank you Harry Reid, for giving me a role model in being politically active.

I hate the authoritarian nature of so much of LDS culture. Harry Reid is sort of my one and only example of integrity. Mitt Romney might have started out fine, but as he is now a republican he has started the inevitable GOP radicalization to the far-right in order to win Tea Party and Koch Brothers' Support. He is a sell-out, and I find that especially disgusting.

Greatest fraud is not just in Waukesha.

If I were going to rig an election, I would pick Waukesha County. I would use a former employee who had already been involved in a few scandals, and I would use an election official who openly mocked experts who suggest that her secretive go-at-it along vote tallying methods where a bad idea. In short, I would choose Kathy Nikolaus.

The recount will tell us if there was actual fraud involved. I suspect massive incompetence.

Another theory is that this vote delay is a sort of trick in itself, as it drags out the Prosser victory and the recount may distract from the much more important recall efforts across the state.

I am sure that the Walker administration along with the Koch brothers and other corporate interests are very capable of fraud. I am not sure if they would do it in such a blatant, trackable way. This is a serious issue, but other injustices are happening in this state right now.

Republican legislators are following the lead of Walker with little or no question. Walker's agenda will defund and then privatize schools and prisons. There is a proposal to impose a stringent 'voter id' at the polling place. This would make it more difficult for some to vote, and would not prevent in-person voter fraud as it is virtually non-existent.

The ALEC is a group of corporations that write legislation that is then given to gop lawmakers. The ALEC is pretty successful, and many of their bills are being proposed as laws here in Wisconsin. But this group does not work for the best interest of the people- it works for the companies that it represents.
The GOP is allowing drug companies to write Badgercare reform, they are allowing private school corporations to write Public school reform, they are rubber-stamping environmental regulations authored by the very polluters that they are supposed to be regulating. Walker says that this is about debt, and that his reforms benefit our grandchildren, but this is an outright lie. These laws benefit those that wrote them; they are not for the good of the people of Wisconsin.

This is the fraud in the state of Wisconsin.

alec's private enterprise board

This list has been removed from the public portion of the ALEC website- someone is ashamed- but I think that it is important to see who exactly is writing this legislation that our GOP is rubber stamping into existence.

The private enterprise board is just one arm of ALEC.

For a better explanation and analysis of ALEC, please see alternet or scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net

ALEC Private Enterprise Board Chairman

--------------------------------------------------------

Mr. W. Preston Baldwin, Centerpoint360 (2011 Chairman)

Private Enterprise Board Members (as of December 1, 2010)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ms. Sano Blocker, Energy Future Holdings

Mr. Don Bohn, Johnson & Johnson

Mr. Jeff Bond, PhRMA

Mr. Bill Carmichael, American Bail Coalition

Mr. Derek Crawford, Kraft Foods, Inc.

Mr. John Del Giorno, GlaxoSmithKline

Mr. Matt Echols, Coca-Cola Company

Mr. Jim Epperson, Jr., AT&T Services, Inc.

Mr. Michael Hubert, Pfizer Inc

Ms. Teresa Jennings, Reed Elsevier, Inc.

Mr. Ken Lane, DIAGEO

Mr. Kelly Mader, Peabody Energy

Mr. Bernie McKay, Intuit, Inc.

Mr. Mike Morgan, Koch Industries, Inc.

Mr. Kevin Murphy, ExxonMobil Corp.

Mrs. Sandra Oliver, Bayer Corporation

Mr. David Powers, Reynolds American Inc.

Ms. Maggie Sans, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Mr. Russell Smoldon, Salt River Project

Mr. Toby Spangler, Altria Client Services, Inc.

Mr. Roland Spies, State Farm Insurance Co.

Mr. Pat Thomas, United Parcel Service

Mr. Jerry Watson, Chairman Emeritus

prosser's 'victory' fund

Justice Prosser's home website is soliciting unlimited private donations for a 'victory' fund to ensure that the recount is done in such a way that 'Prosser's victory is preserved' I do not doubt that a recount could change the results, in 2004 a recount in the Washington state gubernatorial race yielded 723 uncounted ballots. However, Kloppenburg is the winner of the election. Prosser's campaign is requesting the recount, which means that he actually did come in with 209 fewer voted than Kloppenburg.

The Koch Brothers were able to inject a lot of money into this election by setting up a non profit dumbie non-profit. Cognitive Dissidence has a pretty good analysis of the situation. Prosser's interests outspent Kloppenburg's outside supporters 3:2. They still could not buy the election, so now it appears that there is an attempt to buy the recount.

In Wisconsin recounts are funded by the state if the margin of victory is within .5%. In this election 1.4 million votes were cast, with record turnout for a spring election. The recount will be long, and is generally conducted by the poll workers, with the majority of the cost being shouldered by local governments.

I guess that local government officials might be a bit biased against the Walker agenda, as his 'budget repair' takes a lot of state funding away from local governments, and limits the ability of local governments to raise money through property taxes. All this while giving tax breaks to corporations, increasing funding for highways, and reducing government oversight.

People involved in government know that Walker's agenda is bad news. Perhaps this is why Prosser and (let's not kid ourselves) the Koch Brothers are setting up a fund to 'oversee' the recount. I would not put any sort of fraud past the Walker administration, I have confidence that the Elections Board will conduct itself appropriately.

I am afraid that the Republicans will trump up charges of voter fraud and use their ready masses of angry tea partiers to get support for "Voter ID" which will disenfranchise the poor and young, and which are two groups of people that the Walker Agenda hopes to disenfranchise. It is an article of faith among Tea Partiers (Koch Brothers, ALEC) that people who oppose them aren't a part of the 'real america' which is part of their justification for Voter ID and removing same-day voter registration. Senate Bill 6 is a travesty.

klopp

Kloppenburg won the supreme court election by a scant 209 votes. There will be a recount, so it is not quite official. This is a really big deal because a sitting supreme court justice is very difficult to unseat. Prosser proclaimed his support for Walker early on, he then spent a lot of time denying that early support and pleading his impartiality. I was very concerned about his opinion that judges need not recuse themselves form cases involving their campaign contributors.

Kloppenburg is qualified, she is capable, but most importantly she is not Prosser, and has never expressed her commitment to his agenda (or against it). I see her as the only hope for a balanced court. I do not expect her to outlaw all of Walker's laws, but I do expect her to act in accordance with the law. Unfortunately our GOP lawmakers have been subverting court orders, and then claiming "Judicial activism" when the court does not uphold their shady ways.

This election is a sort of referendum on the Walker agenda. Walker claims in this statement, that the state is divided between the big cities Madison and Milwaukee (where he used to live) and the rest of the state where the "true citizens" live. I hear this from conservatives all the time; the whole 'us and them' mentality. I also believe that in this case it does not apply. Plenty of rural conservative places voted Kloppenburg (janesville), while Lacrosse voted Prosser.

I think that a lot of people voted for Prosser who will also recall Walker. I do not think that the reverse is true.

it will be a long fight.

Paul Ryan is the latest TEA party candidate to propose massive cuts and government privatization under the banner of saving money. His Plan is very closely related to that of Gov Walker for Wisconsin. It sounds reasonable to cut spending when there is a shortfall, but Paul Ryan and Gov. Walker did not come up with these ideas on their own. Their budget repairs are a cut and paste job taken from the 'budget repair toolkit' of the ALEC.
ALEC is made up of private corporate interests that pay lots of money to write model legislation. That is then introduced by the GOP lawmaker side of the business. This is different from what we think of as normal lobbying because it is highly organized, very successful, and secretive. The official ALEC membership is secret, as are the corporations that sit on each committee, and the amount of Money that is paid to belong to each committee.
William Cronon wrote about this shady organization, on his blog (scroll down a bit) the post prompted a Freedom in Information request from the DOA, which was meant to intimidate and embarrass him.
The ALEC, Fox News, The John Birch society, The Americans for Prosperity, and increasingly corrupt GOP politicians on the State and National level are all a part of this big-business takeover of government. I am fighting it here in Wisconsin, but the movement is larger than us. We are just now recounting our latest Supreme court election. Outside interest groups outspent Joanne Kloppenburg 3:2. The main 'nonprofit' funding the Prosser campaign was connected to and funded by the Koch Brothers- who also fund the Americans for Prosperity and very likely bribed national supreme court justices to get the Citizens United decision.
We need all non-profits' membership/contributors to be public record. We also need Citizens United to be overturned. We need to get the word out and expose the corporate greed machine that is the ALEC. We need to recall as many Republican Senators as possible here in Wisconsin. I believe that if people know about what is going on, then they will revolt.

Civil rights is an interesting analogy for the current protest. All minorities suffered under jim crow in the south. But the middle class black population did not participate much in the civil rights movement. As Condoleeza Rice said "if we had waited for the middle class, we would still be waiting". There was a lot of opposition to civil rights; plenty of ant-civil rights groups pointed out that Jim Crow was legal, that it wasn't perhaps a constitutional right to drink from every drinking fountain, and that plenty of places have it worse. I imagine that there was a sneer and an eyeroll when anti-civil rights people derisively said that slavery was wrong, but that there was no relation between that great evil and eating in a segregated restaurant.

I find it very interesting that the John Birch Society, which was well known for their anti-civil rights campaign also vehemently denied that they were a racist organization. The Americans for Prosperity are also funded by the Koch family, albeit a new generation. The AFP also embraces a less explicit anti-civil rights mission, mostly clothed as being pro-american by cutting entitlements and the social safety net, as well as busting unions- which benefit all workers, but benefit minorities most by mandating equal pay for equal work. They also advocate policies like Voter ID which will disenfranchise the poor. Because of these and other claims, the AFP is constantly denying allegations that its policies are classist and racially motivated. They like to point out that they have a few black members. This is true. There are black people in the AFP, and they are very popular, because practically every member of the AFP has a black friend that they love to talk about.
Far from excusing the AFP from any racist tendencies, this just proves that caucasians do not have a monopoly on gullible people.

This is going to be a long fight. It is starting to pick up some steam here in Wisconsin, but it is far from over. Civil rights took over a decade, and there are still battles to fight on that front. Exposing the GOP corporate law machine, and reforming our national campaign finance laws may take just as long. There are plenty of skeptics, plenty of detractors, and a whole lot of misinformation. I am in this for the long haul, and I have never appreciated the words of Dr. Martin Luther King more than I do now when I read;

"We shall overcome because Carlisle is right. "No lie can live forever." We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right. "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right. "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." Yet that scaffold sways the future. We shall overcome because the Bible is right. "You shall reap what you sow." With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's children all over this nation - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, "Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free At Last."
-MLK

ALEC links

The actual ALEC website tells us a lot about its intentions, everything from the "workfare" to the "parents rights amendment" but as we can not read many of its documents, or find its membership, we need other sources to find out the truth behind this shady group. Here is a nice article on the workings of ALEC.

ALEC is run by private corporations who pay money to join, and then pay even more money to actually write 'model legislation'. Since the bills are written by corporations paying top dollar, the bills are all very pro-business. Many of these bills are then lobbied to the republican lawmakers who are also ALEC members, they pay only $100/yr, and they are lobbied and treated to conventions by the ALEC who then get them to enact the 'model legislation'.

In effect, Private business interests are writing legislation. The legislation, like Arizona's recently overturned 1070 immigration law is sold to the public as the work of conservative legislators doing their best to serve the interest of the people, but in reality that law was written by private prison companies that hope to profit from the incarceration of illegal aliens.

Much of the Current budget strife here in Wisconsin doesn't make a lot of sense- why does our budget eliminate an early-out program for prisoners? Why does the 'budget repair' actually call for LESS regulation for roads projects? A lot of these can be answered by the simple fact that the 'Budget repair' proposed by Walker and the GOP legislators is written by, and in the best interest of, private companies.

The healthcare changes alone have been drastic; It seems that the cuts could have been made without appointing Dennis Miller to make all change of eligibility decisions instead of congress. But this change was not made for the benefit of the public, it is made in the name of 'fiscal responsibility' which when spoken by Scott Walker and his cronies means 'they are responsible for fiscally benefiting the ALEC".

There is even more to this movement; Business interests are first and foremost, but Paul Weyrich (prominent member of ALEC) has even more of his agenda written up in his 2001 book The Integration of Theory and Practice.

SHAME!