It’s not a conspiracy theory people…it is a real concerted effort to disenfranchise voters and boost the revenues of corporations and cut the taxes of the wealthy even more.

While I am not one of those that see a conspiracy lurking in the shadows behind anything and everything; I was doing some research on the odious, repugnant lobbyist Grover Norquist who is responsible for a lot of the dysfunction in our government today and I ran across this name that I had only heard of once before: ALEC but that evidently Norquist and a whole shitload of Republican-Teahadists, radical right wing politicians are immerse up to their necks in it.

I didn’t give it much thought at first as I am sure most of you haven’t and thought that this ALEC crap was just that…another one of those extremist right-wing organizations like Americans for Prosperity or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Why is ALEC so significant, you might ask? Because a lot of what has been happening with all these Governors and State Legislatures rewriting the laws, disenfranchising voters, crushing labor unions and destroying all safety nets have either some tie or origin with ALEC or individuals in its midst.

Grover Norquist seems to be one of its principal protagonists but we also find the likes of human phlegm like the Koch brothers and many multi-national corporations that would just as well allow our government and our country to crash and burn than to pay their fair share of taxes.

Through ALEC, Global Corporations Are Scheming to Rewrite YOUR Rights and Boost THEIR Revenue

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. Through ALEC, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?

SOURCE: http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

Franklin Center: Right-Wing Funds State News Source

Submitted by Sara Jerving on October 27, 2011 - 7:00am

As newsrooms across the country shave off staff due in part to slipping ad revenue and corporate media conglomeration, the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, is rushing to fill the gap. The group has 43 state news websites, with writers in over 40 states. Its reporters have been given state house press credentials and its news articles are starting to appear in mainstream print newspapers in each state. Who funds Franklin and what is its agenda?

The Funding Trail Leads to Bradley, Koch, and Other Right-Wing Groups

The websites started sprouting up in 2009. Some of these new sites go by the moniker "Reporter" as with the Franklin Center's Wisconsin Reporter that was launched in January as a website and wire-like service. Others have taken the shared name of "Watchdog.org," or "Statehouse News." The websites all offer their content free to local press -- many of the news bureaus send out their articles to state editors every day. The sites also offer free national stories that media can receive daily by subscribing.

The websites are coordinated and funded by a new non-profit group that calls itself the "Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity." The Franklin Center told the Center for Media and Democracy that it does not disclose its funders, but some of its funding can been uncovered from foundation reports. Franklin acts as a hub that distributes funding that it receives from right-wing institutions such as the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance. The North Dakota and DC-based center works with reporters embedded in conservative think tanks and others who have their own news bureaus.

According to Media Transparency, a media watchdog group that was acquired by Media Matters Action Network in 2008, the Bradley Foundation's clear political agenda and network has allowed it to have extensive influence on public policy. The media group notes that while the Foundation's "targets range from affirmative action to social security, it has seen its greatest successes in the area of welfare 'reform' and attempts to privatize public education through the promotion of school vouchers." The Bradley Foundation gave the Franklin Center $190,500 last year.

The Franklin Center was launched with the help of Sam Adams Alliance, which calls itself "SAM." The CEO of SAM, Eric O'Keefe, has been featured at events funded by David Koch's right-wing group called "Americans for Prosperity" (AFP). As the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch.org has previously noted, O'Keefe frequently and positively profiles the Tea Party and attacks health care reform and other progressive ideas. He also helped launch the "American Majority" group which trains conservatives to run for office. He sits on the Board of Directors of the Club for Growth Wisconsin, which ran divisive ads in support of Scott Walker's radical overhaul of collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin workers. He previously worked for David Koch's AFP predecessor group named "Citizens for a Sound Economy," among other roles.

O'Keefe's latest enterprise, SAM, gets part of its funding from the State Policy Network (SPN), which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation. Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, and his wife and children, along with long-time Koch employee Richard Fink, comprise the board of this foundation. SAM is named after Founding Father Sam Adams, one of the leaders in the Boston Tea Party tax protests.

In its first year, the Franklin Center had a budget of $2.9 million, much of it from O'Keefe's SAM.

"Franklin Center" Staffed by Right-Wing Activists

Many Franklin staffers have ties to conservative activist groups and the GOP. The Franklin Center's president, Jason Stverak, is the former Regional Field Director for SAM, and former Executive Director of the North Dakota Republican Party.

In late July, Erik Telford, the Director of Membership Online Strategy for Koch's AFP, announced that he would take on the position of Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Outreach for the Franklin Center. He had worked at AFP for four and a half years. In his farewell letter, he minced no words in explaining the activist role he will play in his new position, "As I move on to a new challenge, I look forward to staying involved with AFP, but now in an even more important capacity: that of a member and grassroots activist."

The Franklin Center's Director of Donor Relations, Matt Hauck, is a former Associate at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. The center's Chief of Staff, Gwen Beattie, is the former Director of Development and Operations at America's Future Foundation, an organization committed to "identify and develop the next generation of conservative and libertarian leaders." The Franklin Center's 2009 IRS 990 form lists Rudie Martinson as director and secretary. He formerly worked as the assistant state director for North Dakota's chapter of Koch's Americans for Prosperity.

The Franklin Center was one of the sponsors of the Western Republican presidential candidate debate in Las Vegas this month, along with Americans for Prosperity and other right-wing groups.

Interestingly, unlike traditional journalistic outlets, the screening process for writing for websites like the Wisconsin Reporter asks applicants ideological questions. As the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based school and resource for journalists, has reported, Wisconsin Reporter applicants must answer questions like: "How do free markets help the poor?" and "Do higher taxes lead to balanced budgets?" Such queries likely have optimal answers to a group like the Wisconsin Reporter, just as some of its stories have been criticized for being results-oriented in ways that are consistent with its funders' world view.

The address listed on the Franklin Center's 2011 nonprofit disclosure form is a UPS Store Post Office box, as reported by a North Dakota political blog. The North Dakota phone line on the Franklin Center contact page is re-routed to the DC office.

"The Franklin Center" Supports the American Legislative Exchange Council

At the 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual conference in New Orleans, The Franklin Center was listed as a "Vice-Chairman" level sponsor of the ALEC conference. In 2010, this equated to a gift of at least $25,000. It was also one of about 60 companies and institutions represented in the conference exhibition hall. ALEC brings corporations, such as Koch Industries, and state legislators together in task forces to vote on so-called "model legislation" that benefits the corporate bottom line or ALEC's ideological agenda. These bills are then introduced by legislators in state houses across the country, without any mention that corporations previously approved such legislation behind closed doors, as the Center for Media and Democracy has reported.

ALEC Voter ID Has Swept the Nation

In the wake of the highest general election turnout in nearly 60 years in the 2008 presidential election (particularly among university students and African-Americans), ALEC's "Voter ID" legislation has been rapidly moving in state legislatures. Shortly after the election of the nation's first black president, "Preventing Election Fraud" was the cover story on the Inside ALEC magazine, and ALEC corporations and politicians voted for "model" voter legislation in 2009.

Wisconsin is one of fourteen states that passed a voter ID law based on the ALEC template in the past year. All were justified on the specter of voter fraud, which belies the statistical reality that such fraud in the U.S. is exceedingly rare. Voter ID legislation, though, will have a statistically significant effect of depriving many American citizens of their right to vote. According to a recent report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, around five million eligible voters around the country will be affected by the new laws.

The idea of limiting the number of people who vote is closely associated with ALEC's founder, Paul Weyrich. Among many of Weyrich's statements over the years tailored to advance the white fundamentalist agenda, in 1980 he told a group of religious conservatives: "I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

FIND the "Model Bills" HERE

Click here for a list of Worker and Consumer Rights bills (plus Trade, Pensions, Privatization, Banking, Housing, Property Insurance, Transportation, Telecomm & IT). Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Tort Reform and Injured Americans bills. Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Privatizing Schools and Higher Education bills. Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Health, Big Pharma, and Social Welfare bills. Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Environment, Energy, and Agriculture bills. Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Democracy, Voting, and Federal Relations bills. Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Tax & Budget bills. Click here for a zip file of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

Click here for a list of Guns, Prisons, Crime and Immigration bills. Click here for a list of the bills. Click here for our analysis.

For more ALEC model legislation available at other sites and not included in these zip files, click here.

Who Is Behind ALEC?

ALEC Corporations

ALEC Politicians

ALEC State Chairs

ALEC "Scholars"

ALEC Boards & Task Forces

ALEC FAQ

ALEC & NCSL

WHAT IS COKE DOING WITH KOCH?

What is Coca-Cola doing behind closed doors with Koch Industries? CMD has uncovered that smoke-filled back room where Fortune 500 firms and right-wing politicians craft the bills that undermine our wages, our legal rights, our voting rights, and our democracy -- and it is called ALEC. Coca-Cola serves on the corporate governing board of ALEC, along with Koch Industries.

Click here to tell Coca-Cola to DUMP ALEC!

Note from raulito: If a person like me is aware of this ALEC existence but didn’t know the amount of power and influence it had, then the average American who is not as involved in politics doesn’t know either. But we are seeing a surge of grassroots protests and these people are on the move…learning, analyzing and putting pressure on government and financial institutions to level the playing field; to regain the American dream and to strengthen the democratic process.

Perhaps we will come out a better country, a more perfect union and even a true democracy after all these groups and right-wing nuts are put out of business. I would be very afraid if I were any of them because as we have seen in Wisconsin and now with the Occupy Wall Street phenomena the effort is real and will have positive consequences for decades to come.

Plutocracy and theocracy will no longer represent a threat to America.