ALEC* in CHICAGO ROSTER: CAN YOU SPOT A CELEBRITY SPEAKER?
ALEC is coming to
Chicago to celebrate its 40th birthday. Let’s help them out:
RALLY: At noon on Thursday, August 8, a coalition of groups,
spearheaded by the Chicago Federation of Labor, is calling on people to gather
outside the ALEC conference at the Palmer House Hotel, located at 17 East
Monroe Street for a march and rally.August 8th.
Roster of ALEC Speakers:
Governor Jeb Bush:
According to Sourcewatch, the brother to Dubya was instrumental as Governor of
Florida in founding reform groups in education such as Chiefs for Change and
the Foundation for Education Excellence, “which both promote the business
interests of their corporate for-profit funders” (Sourcewatch – Jeb Bush). Not everyone is happy about the former Governor's educational initiatives. One editorial claimed the following: "Former Governor Jeb Bush has an undeserved reputation as an education reformer. Florida's recent educational progress has come not from implementing Mr. Bush's policies but from cleaning up after them" (VerSteeg. Palm Beach Post).
Governor Mary Fallin: Republican Governor of Oklahoma and previous
Republican member of U.S. House of Representatives. “Mary Fallin has voted in favor of big oil companies 83% of the time
on important oil-related bills. Among these bills, she voted for Iraq War Funding,
against ending oil subsidies, against the 2007 clean energy bill, against a
Climate Change Committee, and against a Clean Energy Tax” (Sourceatch.org).
Art Laffer, Economist: A previous speaker at the 2011 ALEC
gathering, Laffer is famous for his dogged determination promoting supply side
economics and slashing state income taxes.
His infamous “Laffer” curve was a cornerstone in the economic theories
that fueled the Reagan administration’s business policies.
Governor Terry
Branstad: Iowa Governor Terry
Branstad abhors the sight of animal cruelty on farms or in slaughterhouses so
much that he, in fact, has signed legislation to prevent your ever having to
suffer visuals from some misguided whistleblower. Such laws are nicknamed Ag-Gag laws in Iowa
and other states, and in Branstad’s state they “prohibit anyone from producing, possessing, or distributing a record
of a “visual or audio experience occurring at [an] animal facility”
(Sourcewatch - Terry Branstad). Governor
Branstad signed the bill into law in March of 2012.
Susan Combs, Texas
Comptroller: In a state awash in oil
money, Susan Combs has planned the annual “no sales tax” holidays for Aug 9 –
11 while she’s speaking in Chicago. Of
course, the state and local villages will lose nearly $74.1 million in income,
but Ms. Combs is famous for underplaying the amounts of oil money expected to
arrive in her office at the end of each fiscal year. In addition, when asked by Texas U.S.
Congressman Gallego to update information from the State to assist in the
development of a federal immigration bill, one regarding the income benefits of
immigrants to the state, Ms. Combs refused to do so.
Joe Bastardi,
Meteorologist and FOX News Contributor:
The headline of a recent Forbes article tells us all about Joe, and why
he’s a scheduled guest speaker for the ALEC gathering: “Meteorologist Joe
Bastardi: Blaming Turbulent Weather on Global Warming Is Extreme
Nonsense.” The article, which hands Joe
accolades of scientific importance for being on the O’Reilly Factor, of all
places, adds “many companies across
a multitude of industries use his analytical services which correlate
similarities between current and historical weather patterns to predict likely
developments” (www.forbes.com - see Joe
Bastardi). ALEC companies?
Connor Burns, MP UK: Member of Parliament Connor Burns is a Gay
legislator from Ulster who, and ALEC will love him for this, has come out
against same sex ceremonies in England. In
fact, his chief concern remained what legalizing such acceptance might have
upon churches which could be forced to endure the shame of such rituals. A close friend and idol of Lady T., gin & tonic, and Dubya; MP Burns
should find a very receptive audience in the Palmer House.
Stephen Moore, Wall
Street Journal and FOX News: If you’re looking for an economist who will
decry the Romney 48%, you couldn’t do better than Stephen Moore. Moore believes that the current Democratic
administration is doing to the country what the same liberal, economic policies
did to Detroit. Moore is anathema to
“Obamacare”: “It’s
really a question of do you want the individual to make these kinds of
healthcare decision or do you want someone else to make it. A government board,
or a group of doctors, or an insurance company,” noted Moore. “And I come down
on the side of the individual.” Sure…
Lt. Governor Tate
Reeves: Wave hello to Tate Reeves,
but don’t rush up for an autograph: he will likely be packing. The Mississippi Lt. Governor is a darling of
the National Rifle Association, applauded on NRA sites in Mississippi for his
help in passing legislation which allows concealed carrying and the use of
primitive weapons for the physically challenged. That’s what I said… Reeves receives an A rating from the NRA and
an obvious place at the lectern in Chicago. Stand your ground, Tate.
*“ALEC is
not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors,
corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that
directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have
membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with
legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing
board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that
corporations do not vote on the board.) Corporations fund almost all of
ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative
Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses
across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy
innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the
bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by
legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into
law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched”
organization. We agree. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted,
yet corporations had pushed the people out the door” (http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F)
.
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