Can You Trust What an ALEC Member Says? - Not so Much!

If you haven’t read this article about the Phoenix protest against the American Legislative Exchange Council  (ALEC), you should! 

It has amazing insight and information written by a Canadian journalist that would not be found in the US MSM on ALEC.

America’s secret political power

Read it >>>>>HERE<<<<<

I went back and reread the article cause the whole incident reported about what happened to Beau Hodai really bothers me and I keep re-reading it thinking, “This is just so wrong.” 

As I re-read the article I ran into this statement that I thought was funny and needed to be addressed.

I really hate it when ALEC members tell half truths – which they are famous for and the press just go ahead and print it - but, never questions ALEC members on what they said. 

 “There’s a big disconnect between what (the protesters) think happens here and what’s outlined in our publications,” maintains Jonathan Williams, one of ALEC’s senior strategists. “They think we’re a secretive organization — but how do they know that? How do they know we’re here?

“We have it on our website, very clearly, where our meetings are, what our publications are. I write op-eds in the national press that are open to everybody.”

As activists we have to spend hours finding ALEC information - it is not just published for the general public to find.

That quote made me think back to their current webpage:
So I went back to take a look at the plethora of ALEC information that is published on ALEC's webpages about their meetings.

If you go to their meetings page

And click on  “Spring Task Force Summit 2012” or “39^th Annual Meeting"

You get this.

So - If I were to believe Williams (Not so Much) - This "page not found" is an error that has persisted on their webpage for about 63 days now - oops someone needs to be fired!  Because - per Williams - their webpage CLEARLY STATES where the meetings are.

By the way - the information you may want is this (which didn't take me long to find):

ALEC 39th Annual Meeting

July 25 - 28, 2012

Salt Palace Convention Center

100 Southwest Temple

Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Hotels:

Marriott Downtown

Hilton Salt Lake City Center

Grand America Hotel

BUT if you are looking for the info on the Summit - you are stuck with Charlote NC - somewhere in Charlotte North Carolina. 

How am I suppose to make hotel reservations?  I'm probably more active in ALEC than some of their members - but I would probably get the "Hodai treatment" if I reserved a room AT THEIR HOTEL.

Evidently to ALEC - City and State only is considered "CLEARLY STATING WHERE THEIR MEETINGS ARE" - I wonder if their members would agree if this was the only information they were given.

UPDATE 2/3/2012:
Charlotte is on their webpage now

The Westin Charlotte

601 South College Street

Charlotte, NC 28226

And then back to Williams statement there is this:
“We have it on our website,   …  what our publications are."

Today – this is their main webpage –  

On July 24, 2011 this was their main webpage

Notice what is missing in the dropdowns on ALEC's new webpage? – Yep, Model Legislation. 

Evidently the ALEC "crap model legislation" is no longer one of their publications. (A very subtle lie to the viewer - just leave it out and it doesn't really exist)

ALEC must have decided since the general public can’t look at the “model legislation” (historically, it was password protected for members only) they may as well remove it and
  ...maybe, just maybe
         if the legislation is not mentioned on the front page of the ALEC webpage
  ...maybe, just maybe -
         people will forget about the fact that
         ALEC writes pro-business legislation 
             - Corporations and legislators sitting as equals at the table
             - Corporations and legislators voting as equals at the table.

 “We have it on our website, very clearly, where our meetings are,”

NOT so much!

“We have it on our website,   …  what our publications are."

NOT so much!

Can you trust what an ALEC members Says?
Not So Much.

–—–—

ALEC members and those affiliated with ALEC in any manner

MUST NOT BE RE-ELECTED or receive our support in any means or manner!

Without state and federal legislators ALEC will cease to exist and it will implode.

For more information on ALEC –

Please read this or this or this

or this series of six articles.

This is what ALEC is About  - An Interview with Mark Pocan about the ALEC Annual Meeting.

And watch this news video  from North Carolina on how other ALEC "model legislation" is going to screw the citizens of North Carolina - legislation introduced by ALEC legislators.

Do your own act of education!
Send the links shown above to friends and family and educate them about ALEC.

#Alec