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ALEC Exposed

ALEC Exposed
Progressive Policies Win at the Ballot Box Ballot measures across the country passed on November 8th highlighting the fact that progressive values still resonate with the U.S. electorate. Gains were made even in the face of industry deception and big dollar ad campaigns. In a victory for climate activists and solar energy, Floridians voted down Amendment 1, a constitutional amendment which would have made it hard for people with solar panels to sell energy back to the grid. Read the rest of this item here. Kochs Battle Dark Money Disclosure in South Dakota The Koch network mobilized in South Dakota to defeat the "South Dakota Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act," a state-wide initiative on the ballot November 8. The anti-corruption measure, Initiated Measure 22 or IM-22, was launched by a bipartisan group called the South Dakotans for Integrity and put on the ballot with signatures from over 20,000 state residents. Related:  corruption | governmentKoch Brothers Manipulating Policy for Profit

Judge Asks for More Information About NSA Spying Evidence Destruction After Emergency Hearing San Francisco - A federal judge asked for more briefing today after an emergency court hearing over destruction in a case challenging NSA spying from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Andrew Crocker, Rick Wiebe, and Cindy Cohn "We are pleased the court is receptive to our arguments – that this is the information that court ordered the government to retain, and is an important element of our litigation," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "It's unfortunate that the court's order today allows the government to continue destroying evidence that the government itself insists we need, but we are looking forward to giving the judge all the information he needs to come to a final decision." U.S. EFF has been litigating against illegal NSA surveillance for more than eight years. For more on Jewel v. Contact: Rebecca Jeschke Media Relations Director Electronic Frontier Foundation press@eff.org

United States of ALEC BILL MOYERS: Welcome, to a story that's been unfolding for more than 30 years but has gone largely untold. That's the way the central characters wanted it. They were smart and understood something very important: that they might more easily get what they wanted from state capitals than from Washington, DC. Politicians and lobbyists at the core of this clever enterprise figured out how to pull it off in an organized, camouflaged way -- covering their tracks while they put one over on an unsuspecting public. ARIZONA DEM. JOHN NICHOLS: If you really want to influence the politics of this country you don’t just give money to presidential campaigns, you don’t just give money to congressional campaign committees. FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: ALEC has forged a unique partnership between state legislators and leaders from the corporate and business community. HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: ALEC, has been I think a wonderful organization. BILL MOYERS: But ALEC is partisan. WISCONSIN DEM.

Who Rules America? Power, Politics, & Social Change by G. William Domhoff Welcome to WhoRulesAmerica.net, a site about how power is distributed and wielded in the United States. It both builds upon and greatly supplements the book Who Rules America?, now in its 7th edition. The book's new subtitle, "The Triumph of the Corporate Rich," reflects the success of the wealthy few in defeating all of their rivals (e.g., organized labor, liberals, environmentalists) over the course of the past 35 years. Among the many things you'll find here: supplementary information and updates for readers of WRA; an overview of the American power structure at the national level and an in-depth look at power at the local level; a look at the wealth and income distribution in the U.S.; and an overview of the Four Networks theory of power, which provides the best general theory of power and social change within which to situate the class-domination theory we've developed specifically for the United States. Questions and Answers Q: So, who does rule America?

IMF The “War on Terror” is a Criminal Fraud TEHRAN (FNA)- Canadian scholar Prof. Michael Keefer believes that the US-engineered project of War on Terror is a “criminal fraud” that has virtually extinguished the American democracy and the civil liberties of the American people. “The so-called War on Terror is a criminal fraud, designed to frighten Americans and the citizens of its allies into supporting systematic violations of international law. On the US special relationship with Israel and Washington’s unconditional support for the Tel Aviv regime, Prof. “The powerful and well-funded Israel lobby supports these policies—though there is evidence of a growing alienation among young Jews both from this lobby and from the state of Israel,” he added. Michael Keefer is a professor emeritus at the University of Guelph’s School of English and Theater Studies. He has published widely on English Renaissance literature and early modern philosophy, and has also written widely on issues of contemporary politics and cultural politics.

'Dark Cloud' of ALEC Converges at Annual Corporate-Political Lovefest This post was first published Common Dreams. We’re reprinting it here as part of our continuing coverage of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. In 2012, Moyers & Company produced a documentary that revealed how corporations and state legislators are colluding to write laws and remake America, one statehouse at a time. Protesters carried signs and chanted “ALEC, go home” during an afternoon demonstration outside the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel on Wednesday. (Photo: Chris Stone/Times of San Diego) Fighting to protect dark money. These are just some of the “hot topics” on the agenda this week as conservative lawmakers, corporate lobbyists, and top GOP candidates from around the country gather in San Diego for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)’s annual meeting. ALEC, Busby explained, “is a ‘bill mill’ funded by corporations and billionaires. “This is a no ALEC zone. The United States of ALEC Deirdre Fulton is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Foreign Assistance Data Skip to main content. You are here: U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants > Foreign Assistance Data Foreign Assistance Data Privacy Statement The Trend Toward Part-Time Employment Let's take a close look at Friday's employment report numbers on Full and Part-Time Employment. Buried near the bottom of Table A-9 of the government's Employment Situation Summary are the numbers for Full- and Part-Time Workers, with 35-or-more hours as the arbitrary divide between the two categories. The Labor Department has been collecting this since 1968, a time when only 13.5% of US employees were part-timers. Here is a visualization of the trend in the 21st century, with the percentage of full-time employed on the left axis and the part-time employed on the right. The Impact of the Great Recession Here is a closer look since 2007. The two charts above are seasonally adjusted and include the entire workforce, which the CPS defines as age 16 and over. The Core Workforce: Ages 25-54 The next chart reduces the summertime volatility problem by focusing on the 25-54 workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly employment report is a hodgepodge of data.

​China v America’s cyber-hegemony — RT Op-Edge Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com. Published time: May 23, 2014 09:26 Reuters / Pichi Chuang This week’s indictment by a US grand jury of five Chinese military officials on charges of cyber espionage is both revealing and hypocritical. Moreover, these latest charges should be understood against the broader backdrop of Washington’s ‘pivot to Asia’, including the much-touted corporate monopoly ‘free trade’ of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Seen in this context, the charges brought against Chinese military officials are more about protecting corporate interests and US hegemony than about protecting national security. Emperor has no clothes The indictment against the Chinese military officials is particularly noteworthy for the fact that it is the first time hacking and ‘cyber espionage’ charges have been brought against a state in this manner. National Security Agency. Making war in cyberspace

Koch's Dark Money and what it funds How Gov't Measures Unemployment How the Government Measures Unemployment (PDF) Why does the Government collect statistics on the unemployed? When workers are unemployed, they, their families, and the country as a whole lose. To know about unemployment—the extent and nature of the problem—requires information. Where do the statistics come from? Early each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the Government uses the number of persons filing claims for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under State or Federal Government programs. Other people think that the Government counts every unemployed person each month. Because unemployment insurance records relate only to persons who have applied for such benefits, and since it is impractical to actually count every unemployed person each month, the Government conducts a monthly sample survey called the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the country.

Newly Released Documents Show Outgrowth of ‘Homeland Security’ Is Corrupted Federal and Local Law Enforcement By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 27, 2014 Washington, DC Police Pose Next to High Tech Equipment Provided by the U.S. Navy's Naval Research Laboratory to Monitor Protestors on September 27, 2002. Last week, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) released a trove of some 4,000 documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that the movements of the mostly peaceful participants in the Occupy Wall Street protests were subjected to an “enormous spying and monitoring apparatus” that included coordination between the Pentagon, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, local police, private security contractors and corporate interests. Increasingly, Americans’ time-honored First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and dissent are playing out as open-season on protesters and mass arrests, followed by years of evidence destruction or tampering in court cases. As Wall Street On Parade perused the new documents from PCJF, one in particular raised red flags.

Money Men Say, Voters Move Over, It's Not Your Election! - BillMoyers.com David Koch gives a thumbs-up to Republican presidential candidate and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain during the Defending the American Dream Summit at the Washington Convention Center November 4, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) David Brooks is a worried man. Like many establishment Republicans, the conservative columnist for The New York Times sees the barbarians pouring through the gates and fears for both his party and the republic. There was Brooks on a recent edition of the PBS NewsHour, his angst spilling out across the airwaves like fog from a nightmare: “I wish we had gray men in suits,” he told Judy Woodruff, conjuring in some nostalgia-minded the courtly cabal of well-heeled businessmen who drafted war hero Dwight D. “We don’t have that,” Brooks continued. Ah, yes. How best to do this? Game’s over, voters: The oligarchs will decide this election. Count billionaire Charles Koch among them. Especially tax policy.

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