[net-gold] UNITED STATES: POLITICS: POLITICAL PARTIES: REPUBLICAN PARTY, TEA PARTY : INDUSTRIES: PETROLEUM INDUSTRY : POLITICS : POLITICS: PRESSURE GROUPS: ALEC: Paid Laws, American Style
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Net-Gold -- Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Net-Gold <Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K-12ADMINLIFE <K12ADMIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K12AdminLIFE <K12AdminLIFE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, MediaMentor <mediamentor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Platinum <net-platinum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sean Grigsby <myarchives1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <NetGold_general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple Gold Discussion Group <TEMPLE-GOLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple University Net-Gold Archive <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Health Lists -- Health Diet Fitness Recreation Sports Tourism <healthrecsport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Health Diet Fitness Recreation Sports <healthrecsport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, HEALTH-RECREATION-SPORTS-TOURISM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 16:58:11 -0400 (EDT)
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UNITED STATES: POLITICS: POLITICAL PARTIES: REPUBLICAN PARTY, TEA PARTY :
INDUSTRIES: PETROLEUM INDUSTRY :
POLITICS : POLITICS: PRESSURE GROUPS:
ALEC: Paid Laws, American Style
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ALEC: Paid Laws, American Style
Powerful U.S. corporations have been writing bills themselves and giving
them to state assemblies to rubber-stamp
Arvind Sivaramakrishnan
May 28, 2012
The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3462837.ece
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The scandal of paid news in India, whereby politicians, private
businesses, and perhaps others, buy space in newspapers to publish
material which appears to have been written by the papers, has rightly
attracted much critical comment, but the United States appears to be well
ahead of India, with nothing less than a form of paid law. Powerful U.S.
corporations have been writing bills themselves and giving them to state
legislators whose election campaigns they often fund as well to
rubber-stamp and pass on to governors for signature into law.
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Main lobbying body
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The main lobbying body behind this is the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), which has existed for over 40 years. It numbers about 300
corporations, including oil majors Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil, the Koch
energy conglomerate, IT firms Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Dell,
carmakers General Motors, pharmaceuticals producers Eli Lilly,
GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer, the cigarette firm Philip Morris, the drinks
giant Diageo, and the mammoth retailer Wal-Mart. Nearly 2,000 state
legislators are also members.
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snip
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As Ari Berman points out in Rolling Stone, ALEC's agenda is highly
systematic and covers several key areas, starting with an orchestrated
campaign to disrupt voting rights'; in 2011, no fewer than 38 states
introduced ALEC-inspired legislation which will impede voting. The
restrictions include the need to prove citizenship before registering to
vote, obstacles for campaigning groups which help people register, the
abolition of election-day registration, reductions in early voting, the
disenfranchisement of convicts who have served their sentence, and the
requirement for government-issued identification at the polling booth.
More than 10 per cent of U.S. citizens have no such ID, but the figures
rise to 25 per cent among African-Americans and 18 per cent among young
voters respectively; university students will also be excluded by
residence conditions such as those in new Wisconsin law. African-Americans
and younger voters tend to vote Democrat. Claims that the restrictive
measures prevent voter fraud are absurdly exaggerated; U.S. voter fraud is
almost zero, and strenuous Republican attempts to prove that it is
widespread have all failed.
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A second front is the attack on renewable energy sources, or renewable
portfolio standards (RPS).
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snip
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Environmental issues
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Needless to say, environmental issues pose ALEC some of its toughest
challenges. Exxon Mobil has helped design state laws that enable energy
companies not to name chemicals used in fracking for access to oil,
claiming that the chemicals are trade secrets; keeping such secrets,
however, makes a nonsense of ALEC's own ideology, which is that consumers
are free to make their own informed decisions in a market system.
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This evasion of accountability extends to shielding firms which receive
substantial public monies despite overwhelming evidence of failure. Zaid
Jilani and David Halperin, writing separately in Republic Report, detail
how the for-profit education company Kaplan International, which is owned
by the Washington Post Company and was an ALEC member for a year until
August 2011, has a 68 per cent dropout rate the worst among the top 10
recipients of post 9/11 education funding for military veterans but its
former CEO received a golden handshake worth $76 million when he left.
Bridgepoint Education spent $2000 per student on recruitment in 2009 but
only $700 on instruction, and Corinthian College has the worst default
rate, 36 per cent within three years, on student loans.
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Such private colleges can get 90 per cent of their money, totalling over
$30 billion a year, from federal funds, and also charge students very high
fees. Only 11 per cent of eligible students attend such institutions, but
they account for 44 per cent of all student loan defaults; the colleges
concerned have also been exposed for deceptive and predatory recruiting
practices, but have used expensive lobbyists and consultants to escape
being called to account. Even the Chair of the Virginia Democratic Party,
Brian Moran, lobbies for them.
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The complete article may be read at the URL above.
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Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxx
http://workface.com/e/daviddillard
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